Chapters King Thorax has the closest eastern changling hive, but progress is slow due to Psyker not being as strong as Byx, but she is swift, they made it out of the city before the first light of day touched the tallest tower.
getting out of the city was the easy part, the environment outside is an impossible challenge, the nearest way down was a thousand-foot vertical drop, while Psyker was certain she could do it on her own, she doubted that with Byx on her back, she wouldn't do more then splat on the rocks, instead, she took the side trail down the mountain, one that was as old as canterlot itself.
"You're never going to make it at this rate," A deep smooth voice said from behind her, causing her to turn around, the sight made her breath hitch in her throat as it tightened in fear.
a Goat with a coat black as the night with massive horns, and piercing red eyes which watched her as she tried to slowly back away.
"G-Grogar, I-I see that you are R-revived," Psyker stammered, but the Goat's next action caused her to quake in greater fear, in a split second a peal of roaring laughter that sounded like a thousand voices echoed around her.
"I am not grogar, I am far beyond that old goat."
"T-Then w-what are you if your not Grogar?"
"You needn't know right now, instead you need a boon, and I am here to grant one seeing as your friend there is not long for this world, I'll send you where you need to go, but in return, I ask that you help me when the need calls for it."
This creature scared her and she wasn't sure if she would survive if she refused, so she nodded hoping that the creature would keep its end of the bargain, and it did, in a blink, she was in the throne room of Thorax's hive, but everything was muted, the shouts of the other changelings were muted as the world spun and then she lost consciousness.
*back at the castle*
Rays of light fell on Twilight's face, waking her gently, however, the glint of something in her eye caught her attention, soon she saw it was a sword, clutched to Isaac's chest, normally the sight of a child with a sword would have caused her panic, but this time she just chalked it up to the children's dark past, today she decided that she would let the others in on what she had gone through in the chest.
The last few days, she had spoken little and laughed less, instead, she jumped at small sounds in the dark and approached doors like there was something behind them, so she had them gathered in a small library a few doors down from where she and her kids were staying.
"I suppose its time to fill you girls in on what happened in that damned chest, be warned though, this tale is not for the light-hearted, those of you who don't think you can handle it feel free to leave, nopony here will think less of you," Twilight said, looking at each of her friends.
"We want to help you, so even I'll stay and listen," Fluttershy said.
"Thank you, but you won't just be listening, I called Luna here to help me by projecting the experience from my first-person point of view," Twilight said as Luna Teleported into the room, sitting next to twilight.
"I hope you girls are ready for this, It won't be pleasant," Luna warned before touching her horn to Twilight's forehead, putting the spell motion, silently thanking herself that the spell put her into a state where she couldn't bear witness to the events.
The room melted away, the first thing the noticed was that the room had no ceiling but instead a dark void, the next thing made Fluttershy shriek in terror, the dried corpse of Greed, though when he started to speak they listened as the children left the decision up to Isaac, who after a while appeared through a pearly white doorway they didn't notice had opened.
the scene of Isaac accepting Greed's aid played out, causing The girls to look at Twilight, but they didn't say anything because when Twilight followed the children, the sounds that met them caused them extreme anxiety.
unholy screams and cries echoed from the dark, most of them sounded like children, while there were also massive roars, thankfully or unfortunately, one child had to leave the others to clear out each room, but the echoing sounds of battle still caused extreme anxiety in the girls.
especially when the sounds of crying proceeded with an explosion and each time a child came back, they had more and more blood, until it was the time for the worst part of the memory.
because after Isaac's soul sheet was Teleported out, they heard the roar and didn't notice what they jumped into but when it was announced where they were, the sounds of vomit came from all the girls, again whether fortunately or unfortunately the vileness of the hellscape had plateaued, the heart of was next, but due to the horrible things they had seen up till now, they couldn't even be bothered to react, they simply wondered how much worse it could get, eventually they reached the cathedral, which gave the girls sighs of relief, at least until the screeching bloody babies appeared, which simply caused some of the girls to cover their eyes and cry, at this time Luna broke the spell, which snapped the girls out of their stupor, as the sounds and light of Equestria returned they each shook themselves, trying to shake off the disturbing sights of the chest.
"Now I understand why you ignored us when you came from the chest, and why Celestia destroyed her regalia, but how do you sleep at night after that," Rainbow said first as the girls mulled over what they saw.
"My children, everything I went through down in there was for them, I couldn't bear the thought of them being forced to return to that place should anything ever happen to them," Twilight said, which caused the girls to freeze at the thought the each of the children had suffered down in that dark place, which like a blazing star going supernova drove out the darkness that being in the place had brought, instead they focused on how they would keep the children safe and happy.
unknown to them as each one's resolve was cemented in her mind, the magic connection that Twilight had with her children appeared for each of the girls to theirs, invisible thanks to the fact they were not in the chest.
while the girls had been collecting their thoughts, Luna had teleported to her room, the spell tired her out way more than she had anticipated, plus it was day time.
The silence was broken by the sound of popping as a scroll magically fell out of the air in front of her, it was written in a strange material that she recognized as a special paper that comes from Thorax's changling hive, but this stuff is only used for emergencies or incredibly important matters, but she soon found out when she read because written in it was a small message.
"Equestria in danger, a powerful new foe. Thorax.
Twilight and the girls Stared at the Letter for a long while, until a familiar glint of light caught her eye, Isaac plus the rest of the children came to them, but in Isaac's hand was the sword from this morning, which caused her curiosity to flare up.
"Isaac, where did you get that sword," Twilight asked, neither judgmental nor accusing.
Isaac simply shrugged it off that it was simply there and the knife wasn't, the other girls wanted to press for answers, however a single look from Twilight told them all they needed to know.
"well, we can't just have you walking around with it in your hands all the time, but we can't have you putting it in the chest either," Rarity said, putting a hoof to her chin.
Twilight already knew she had one more talk she had to have before she could think about new artifact Isaac is wielding, it wasn't worth putting it off, so she bid the girls goodbye, and told her children to stay with them, they nodded in understanding, before turning to the girls with their questions.
She knew where Shining and cadence were staying, with a few turns she was at their room, she took a breath and knocked and Cadence called her in.
"Finally, maybe now I can understand what happened to him, Nopony will tell me what the hell is going on, First he claims a bunch of children are demons, then he disappears after I talk with him, and now he's like this, AND NOPONY WILL TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED," Cadence shouted in frustration.
Twilight sighed, she knew she should have had her there to watch the flashback, but the story alone would suffice and Cadence listened in complete silence.
"No wonder Shining wakes up screaming, I don't know if he will ever be okay after an experience like that," Cadence said worriedly, glancing at the sleeping form of her husband.
"I'll use the memory spell that I used on my friends after they were corrupted by discord, I'll use the good memories of Flurry Heart to push out the dark memories of the chest and help him forget," Twilight explained.
"Are you sure that will work, Even Luna has been hard-pressed to combat his nightmares, and she is the creator of mind magic."
"I don't know what magic was used on or in the chest, but I know that the suffering permeated the very air we breathed, I can tell you what it tastes like, but right now Shining needs to counter the bad with the good."
"Alright, I'll help you cast this memory spell."
Twilight nodded acceptance and stood, readying the memory spell by bringing forth all the memories she had with both her brother and Flurry, but that was only the first step because just her memories would not be enough.
Soon Cadence's horn tip joined the spell and her memories flooded into the spell, with all memories sorted and charged, Twilight finished the final key of the spell and cast over the sleeping Shining, the effect was instantaneous although they couldn't see it.
Shining had been walking down a dark corridor, A small weak flickering candle held in his magic, with all senses on high alert, he knew this place, for it had been in both his nightmares and the waking world but despite feeling as tired as he would be in the waking world, he kept going.
His nightmare wouldn't let him stop, whether by him moving or the floor moving him, he was too witness whatever horrors were waiting at the end of the dark hall, which seemed to get longer and longer each time he visited.
This time, however, something was off because on his left some ways up was a brightly lit door with warm inviting light that beckoned which Shining happily dashed to, behind it was a familiar place, a nursery with the one thing that made him the happiest Colt in all of Equestria, Flurry Heart was sitting in the crib facing the door which slammed shut.
The sounds of locks turning were drowned out by the excited bubbling of the baby, although Shining knew this was a dream, the break from the blood-soaked corridors was a welcome change, so he did what he had wanted to do for a very long time, he simply lay down and with Flurry cradled in his arms, he closed his eyes.
Memories flashed by while he rested, from bringing Flurry home, to her first birthday, it was like a movie of all the best moments he ever spent with Flurry Heart, little by little the chest and the horrors within it became vague memories that seemed more like dreams.
Unbeknownst to him, the door crumbled to dust and blew away and for the first time since the journey into the chest, Shining truly slept but on the outside, something else was happening, something inside the chest had come out with him, and Twilight knew who it was.
Dark smoke lifted off Shining like a smog, Twilight and Cadence were on their hooves ready with spells, when the smoke took the form of a bloodshot eye, which glared hatefully at them before the smoke dispersed, she bid cadence goodbye after she suggested that she take shining to a doctor when he woke up.
Despite it being only a shadow, it deeply concerned her that it took the shape of Mother, but that could wait because instead, she needed to figure out what exactly had Thorax so spooked. After all, if there was a powerful new foe from equestria's past on the loose, then she and the girls needed to head it off and stop whatever dark plan it had planned for Equestria.
Meanwhile, after the sun had fallen, a ram stalked through deep underbrush, its pitch black fur nearly invisible against the leaves, its hooves silent as it searched the deep forest until it found what it was looking for, an unmarked burial tomb, to a non-magical being it simply was a hill, but the ram knew better, it could feel the massive power locked deep within.
"Not even on earth and you chose to poke at the proverbial bear," a slick voice said from behind the ram, a greyish-gold unicorn stood, his cutie mark is a silver dollar, a good few of his teeth pure gold, he also has a light grey shirt and black vest combo, his eyes, if you looked closely, didn't have pupils instead they are pure gold orbs.
The ram didn't bother to answer instead he set about probing the barrier that was in place with his magic, one hundred different binding spells, and barrier spells were layered on top of each other, taking them all apart would take far too long, and attract way too much attention, instead, he opted for a very human tradition.
"Get ready, we're going for an easy smash and grab, once we break this thing open, use the stopwatch," The ram said, his horns glowing, forming a growing ball of crackling dark energy, before flying into the hillside, for a few seconds nothing happened, then the wall exploded inwards.
The unicorn hit the watch as instructed, the debris slows almost to a stop in mid-air as the ram charged up another spell, just like that they were gone, along with whatever was holding up the tomb because no less than thirty seconds later the whole hill collapsed in a huge cloud of dust after it settled the ram and pony were gone.
Twilight walked slowly back to her friends, the fact that a fragment of Mom had made it out of the chest worried her, until a loud rumbling echoed down the hallway before a pulse of red magic filled the hallway, Twilight started cantering towards the room where she left the children.
What met her eyes caused her to freeze in her tracks, the door and surrounding wall had crumbled with Isaac staring at his hand, the faint whisps of spell smoke peeling away, him Eve stared into space with a dreamy looked on her face, Twilight stepped into the room before fixing the wall and door.
"Why was the wall destroyed and what was that pulse," Twilight asked.
"We got curious about the magic you and Rarity use, and then Rainbow asked if we had any and I called out Hagalaz because it was the first one I could remember but then it got weird, because my hand started glowing, and then when I turned and held it out at the wall, it lit up then crumbled," Isaac explained
"So what was that red pulse?"
"Eve called out Ansuz," Isaac said, which only caused Twilight's face to scrunch up in confusion.
"Hagalaz means destruction and it destroyed all the rocks in a room when used, Ansuz means vision which gives us a complete vision of an entire floor, and if I'm right in my calculations, we won't need the train home," Cain explained.
The red pulse that Twilight had seen earlier rushed past her and back into eve, causing her to jump slightly before she slumped over groaning, holding the sides of her head.
"Remind me to never do that in this castle again, it's too damn big, there are so many rooms, and secret rooms it's insane, whoever built this was a mad person," Eve groaned out.
"hmm, if Ansuze and Hagalaz worked, then I wonder what would happen if we used Ehwaz,'' Cain wondered.
"Judging by the fact that I know every room and tower in this whole castle, I bet we could get back home with Ehwaz," Eve pointed out
This caused the girls to look at each other in surprise, a way back home without taking the train as well as being instantaneous excited them, but the serious look on Twilight's caused them to stifle their excitement for the time being.
"What does Ehwaz do," Twilight asked.
"It means passage, and it let us skip floors or on a rare chance find a special shop in the chest called the black market," Cain said.
"What makes you sure that it will act differently?"
"Well, the items we've held since we first left the chest have been all over the place, the knife is from the devil item pool, godhead and crown of light are from the Angel item pool, not to mention both of them are some of the BEST items from each pool, usually getting them takes many many runs, but out here it seems that items given by the D6 are the absolute best they can be," Cain explained.
"So the natural magic of Equestria will alter how the runes work, that's what you're saying."
"Well, it's already altered how they work, since before we would need the actual rune for them to work, but out here all we need to do is call out the name of the said rune while concentrating on the effect, then the effects happen."
"so It might not just be the runes, I bet that Equestria's natural magic also powers up the magic items you hold."
"Looks like we are gonna have to keep a very close eye on the chest, there are many powerful and destructive items that could completely decimate Equestria if they fell into the wrong hands or hooves"
"Well, its time for you guys to go home, however, I need to go and check in with King Thorax, He mentioned something about a new enemy in Equestria, don't worry I will be back before you know it," Twilight assured when she saw the worried looks on Isaac and Eve's faces, Eden staying neutral.
"Ehwaz," Cain called out, a loud crack echoed, and a shimmering portal opened into the Throne room of Twilight's castle.
Author's Note
I deeply apologize for taking so long to make this chapter, every time I wrote it, it was never good enough, so I decided that this was it, so that I could move onto the next part of the story.
The children and girls walked through the portal before Cain turned around and closed the portal, after staring for a moment where the portal used to be, she lit her horn, and with barely a thought Teleported to the edge of Thorax's kingdom, she would have Teleported further, but the unique rock and stone surrounding his hive interrupted any spells that tried to get through it.
However, turns out she was expected as Pharynx stepped forward to meet her but didn't say anything, instead, he gestured for her to follow, the journey to the hive was silent and the air tense as she was led into the throne room, Thorax sat with a look of grim thought on his face.
"Hello Twilight, I apologize for the less than warm welcome, but a powerful new enemy is roaming Equestria," Thorax said uncharacteristically serious.
"How did you find out about this new enemy," Twilight asked.
"Two changling spies from canterlot though whoever caught them seems to have nearly killed one," Thorax explained.
"What's the extent of the injuries?"
"Burned from the inside out, wings destroyed, eyes burned out and the capacity to ever form a connection to another hive mind destroyed completely."
"Do you know what their plan is?"
"yes, apparently her next plan is that she was simply gonna bide her time and collect enough love to storm all of canterlot in one go," Thorax explained.
"Wow, that's the lamest plan I've ever heard," Twilight said, channeling her inner Rainbow Dash.
"Agreed, but apparently something is out there that scared these two into betraying chrysalis and her new hive."
"Do you know what that is, because all the villains that could potentially overpower chrysalis are locked deep in Tartarus for eternity," Twilight questioned
"No, but I know that whatever it is, its magical strength is beyond a mortal since it was able to drop them right in the middle of my throne room from the gates of canterlot."
"May I ask them questions, because it sounds like they know more then they are letting on."
"Actually princess, you were specifically asked for, because they refused to say anything else to me or my brother, unless you were there, which confuses us as we're sure you have never met them before."
"Then take me to them, because I have some questions of my own."
Thorax nodded and stood up to lead Twilight to where the two Changelings were being kept, with Pharnyx following close behind, luckily the hive shifted the medical room closer to the throne room.
"Alright, I brought Princess Twilight here as per your request, can we now know the identity of the mysterious new foe that teleported you into the center of our hive," Thorax asked when he and the others were sat in the room.
"I apologize good king Thorax for making you bring her, but it would probably kill me to repeat myself," The blind changling joked.
"What could be so important that you need to bring me into the conflicts of the changelings," Twilight asked.
"Please forgive us Princess Twilight for being rude and not introducing ourselves, my name is Psyker and his name is Byx," Psyker introduced with panic in her voice.
"Brother, I'm beginning to think that the injuries that the male one got were from him doing something expressly stupid," Pharynx clicked in his brother's ear, which did not escape the blind changelings hearing.
"Your right about that, because it was my infinite greed that leads to my current condition, obviously one must not try to feed on beings that exist before we did," Byx admitted with a hint of shame, however, Twilight had connected the dots, and while her face was neutral, smoke was peeling from her hair.
"I told him that it was a bad idea, I tried to stop him," Psyker worriedly blurted out and in a rush, but Twilight looked unimpressed, nor had her mane stopped smoke it seemed that it was actually getting hotter because the tips looked orange.
"Anyways, I know what you're really here for, the news that a friend of Isaac is roaming Equestria, as well as the plans of the thing inside the chest."
This gave Twilight pause as well as The two changling kings, apparently, a lot of things happened with Twilight, and from the look on her face, she knew who exactly that he was referring to.
"If our new master destroys us for talking too much, I swear I'll break your horn off and shove it where the sun doesn't shine," Psyker threatened, her eyes looking all over the place in a panic.
"Who is our new master, since you rebelled against Chrysalis I'm sure by now she has put a price on your heads," Pharynx asked.
"I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say that your new master was a black goat with huge black horns, and probably to a changling reeks of powerful dark magic," Twilight questioned.
"How did you know that," Psyker asked
"The children and I help him escape from the chest," Twilight explained.
"Forgive me princess Twilight but did you just say that you helped the creature that roams Equestria Escape," Thorax questioned.
"Don't worry, The dark one has no plans to start a war with the ponies or any other race in the world, we are safe from that, no its the plan that was left behind in my mind when I fed that we should be worried about," Byx quickly explained before they could be sidetracked.
"I figured mother would have tried to bring them back by force," Twilight thought out loud.
"No mother is only a pawn, there is something deeper and darker in that chest, and it wants the children back badly."
"You mean that there's something worst than mother inside the chest," Twilight asked shocked.
"It had decided to stay hidden up until you opened the way for them to escape, and now it's angry that it lost its toys, then when you went back in to rescue your own and escaped with both the dark one and their souls, that just pushed it right over the edge, and now it's formulating a plan to not only escape the chest itself but turn this entire world into a hellish landscape that matches the chest," Byx explained seriously.
"How does it plan on doing that, I doubt ember or you would let this thing take Equestria willingly," Twilight asked, looking at Thorax and Pharynx.
"For its plan to fail, three things must happen, first the children must survive the next three years, secondly and your all going to hate this but, Chrysalis also must survive the next three years, and thirdly Chrysalis cannot be allowed to be captured, because as a queen changling she has the secret to creating more changelings, which if it were to fall into the clutches of the thing in the chest, would doom all Equestria," Byx warned.
"Isn't being dead and being captured redundant," Pharynx asked.
"No, because if she dies, then her soul will be absorbed into the chest and with it, the knowledge of creation, but captured she would be used as a magic conduit to create more, like some kind of sick living birthing battery, where it forces her to cast the spell so that it can replicate once she dies, which of course wouldn't be for a very long time as alive she would be more valuable," Byx explained.
everyone in the room had varying looks of disgust, even though Chrysalis was an enemy, the thought of another being forcibly creating twisted life, sickened Twilight to her core, while Thorax and Pharynx knew of the painful side effects that the spell does to the queen.
Cain's arm exploded in pain which caused the girls to scream, Cain had no idea why until he saw the bloody stump of his forearm the shock of the pain coursing through him, and adrenalin let him quickly run to Maggy and hold out his hand, wordlessly she dropped the heart into his hand which he brought to his mouth and started eating, he ate about half of it which restored his forearm.
"Blood magic, guess the distance is what actuates the cost," Cain said flexing the new arm.
"huh, now we wait to see how long this thing is gonna take to regrow and recharge," Maggy said when she got the heart back, noting that she knew how much time was left as soon as she got the heart back.
"Cain, we are going to the hospital," Pinkie said with a serious expression, which left no room for Cain or the others to object.
The girls collected each child and went home following Pinkie leaving only Twilight's charges alone inside the expansive castle, however, they worked fast at cleaning up the blood, it didn't take long for the chamber to be restored to pristine condition.
"Well damn, what now?" Isaac asked eve and Eden.
"We should study about this world, we cannot be caught unaware," Eden stated.
"Well, let us find the library," Isaac said opening a random door and starting their quest for the library.
Unbeknownst to them the map activated and hanging over the castle was a mini Brimestone icon and it was being circled by a stardust cutie mark and a green flame, luckily both of the ones being called were in Ponyville, and answered the call.
"Starlight, where do you think the map is sending us?" A little green dragon asked, stepping into the hallway of the castle.
"Dunno spike but I hope it isn't advanced," Starlight said while shrugging.
Spike and starlight walked into the map room and stared confused at the Wierd icon that currently floated above the castle on the map, that is until Isaac and the others doubled back into the map room.
"Lucifer damn it all, where is the library?" Isaac cursed, Looking around until his eyes fell on Starlight and spike, which caused him to immediately hold the Spirit sword out in front of him while facing her, while Eden and Eve hid behind Isaac.
"Whoa easy there, put down the sword we mean no harm," Spike said holding up his hands in a none threatening gesture.
"How do I know that either of you is not a threat, for all I know one of you might stab us in the back as soon as I put this thing down!!" Isaac ranted, taking a few steps back as Starlight took a few steps forward.
Isaac said nothing as he continued the standoff, Starlight could feel the powerful magic in the blade, she wasn't sure what it would do if this child decided to use it.
"I wish Twilight were here, she'd know what to do," Spike sighed unaware that the children could still hear him despite saying it under his breath.
This perked Isaac and the others up because he lowered the tip of the blade, and asked spike, "You know Twilight, how?"
"Well she hatched me from an egg and raised me ever sense, how do you know her?"
"She and the others saved us, gave us an escape."
"Wait you say 'us' how many more of you are there?" Starlight cut in.
"counting myself, Eve and Eden there are about six more of us," Isaac said
"And where are the others exactly," Starlight asked, wary about the idea that there are six more children with hair-trigger fight or flight reflexes running around.
''I believe that Lazarus and Judas went with Fluttershy, Cain is currently at the hospital with pinkie pie, Samson went with Applejack, Maggy is with rarity and Azazel is currently with Rainbow Dash," Isaac explained which only caused more confusion.
They didn't have much time to discuss this revelation because soon a purple pony stood in the doorway, Spike and Starlight were overjoyed to see Twilight, but the children had different reactions.
"She smells different, she doesn't smell like our mother," Isaac growled in a hushed tone to Eve and Eden.
"We must kill it before it does anything," Eve agreed while Eden silently nodded.
With a battle cry, Isaac ran at the imposter who tried to back peddle but tripped over its own hooves and lost its shape, startling Spike and Starlight, the last thing the changling saw was the flash of the sword before the blade cleaved its head in two, green blood spraying everywhere.
"Great we just cleaned this place of Cain's blood and now we got this thing's blood all over the place, Lucifer damn it all," Isaac cursed, pulling the blade from the dead changling.
Starlight and Spike just sat slack-jawed while the children worked to clean up the green blood, soon all that was left was the body.
"Alright do either of you know where a shovel is because I doubt Twilight would appreciate having a dead creature in her castle," Eve said with all the concern that this was an everyday chore and not a literal murder.
"I think I saw a closet with one earlier, by the way, we should cut the rest up just so we can bury it easier," Isaac said, handing the sword to Eve, who proceeded with the gruesome task while Isaac left to find the shovel.
Starlight and Spike left without a word, hoping to escape the children's attention, they made it to the study easily and Starlight whipped up a small letter detailing what just happened and sent it off to twilight with a spell, hoping that Twilight wasn't in any danger.
The reply was extremely quick, and when Starlight and Spike read it, it filled her with dread instead of calming her.
"Dear Starlight,
I was afraid this would happen, Chrysalis has already made her move, I will explain when I get back for now though, watch the children, and no matter what happens don't blame the children it's not their fault.
It's mine for not telling you before now, help them clean up the body of the changling, I know this is very out of character but a lot has happened while you both were away.
Above all else, Their safety and health are of the utmost importance, keep them alive no matter what, even if you have to sacrifice rouge changelings to keep them alive.
this will count as a royal decree because I hereby give you the right to use lethal force against anything or anyone that dares to threaten my friends or the children.
With love, Princess Twilight Sparkle."
Grogar had happily been sitting inside his tomb watching the fools that call themselves villains try and fail to challenge Celestia, endless plots so obvious that even a blind dragon could circumvent them, and her newest one was no different, an age-old tactic that Celestia had perfected before the changling queen had even been a newborn.
All that changed however when he felt something easily blow the nearly a thousand sealing spells apart before the magic wrapped around him and ported him away to an unknown domain, Grogar mused that maybe it was an old enemy that Celestia or Luna had thrown deep into Tartarus as light overtook his vision.
Grogar's musing was short-lived because he found himself inside a throne room but the throne was empty until he was blinded by a flash and sitting on the throne was a simple man with great white wings, but grogar knew better, the power radiating off him put the creature above the level of even him at his peak.
"Hello, Grogar nice to meet you again after all this time," the man said with a silky voice, confusing the ram as he was sure he had never met this creature over his long life, but the more he stared the more he recognized the power that filled the room.
"I know who you are, the Demon King, Satan," Grogar said
"Congratulations on guessing who I am, but I didn't raise you for a simple game of guess who, I need your services."
"What purpose, could I serve you?"
"As the humans call it, keeping the peace."
"Peacekeeping, that's the reason you upended my perfectly fine home and brought me here, if you want peace go bug that goodie two shoes Celestia and her insufferable sister."
"Oh, you misunderstand, you won't be doing it the pony way, your gonna be keeping the peace my way."
"Before I agree to work for you, why are you here on equiss, surely your world is more interesting."
"The age of man and gods ended many millennia ago, there are currently nine humans left alive, and they are under the care of the ponies."
Grogar started to ask another question, but deeming that explanation would take far too long, Satan simply touched his finger to Grogars forehead and transferred the most important memories to him, causing Grogar to blink a few times before making a decision.
"Alright then, I'll work for you, what's our first mission?" Grogar asked with a smile.
"The first order of business is to destabilize Chrysalis, so go forth into the world and exterminate every dark changling you find, and be quick about it, do not linger."
"What about the queen herself?"
"Leave her alive, do not slay her under any circumstance if you have to simply incapacitate her."
"Is that it, because if so I'll go forth and do your bidding."
Satan said nothing as he waved his hand and Teleported Grogar out of the throne room, Grogar looked around and noticed that he was just outside the city limits of Manehatten with a small counter in the corner of his vision reading fifty-two, Level one of one
Chrysalis was not happy, the intel on where Grogars tomb was had been accurate, but when she and her best soldiers went to collect him, the entire thing had been empty, and what's worst was that the entire area stank of ancient foreign magic, and then there was the disappearance of her best spies in canterlot.
She had been fast asleep when suddenly a red alert came from Byx, before she could inquire what was going on, she felt his connection to the hive mind forcibly broken by his partner Psyker, which in her hive is high treason, regardless of the reason.
She'd have their heads for disobeying and betraying her if only she could find them, the magic that lets her track her changling spawns had also been broken, which only further angered her as the last time she let her spawn run free, that blasted Thorax and his infernal brother had somehow become royal changelings that, even if she would never admit it, are stronger then her.
however one good piece of news had reached her, there were strange beings that oozed with pure unfiltered love, and to top it off they were only children if she could apprehend them, she could easily harvest that love, there was more but she had stopped listening, all that mattered is that the children had vast amounts of love.
"ya know, it's rude to ignore company when they make the effort to show up," A weird grey creature said, standing on what Chrysalis could only guess was feet, not seeing the golden statue behind the creature.
"Who dares address the changling queen with such arrogance!!" Chrysalis demanded.
"Nobody special, just a simple messenger from someone that would make your chitin tremble with fear, but alas he has better things to do than waste his time here."
"YOU DARE MOCK ME CREATURE, ILL SEND OUR MASTER BACK YOUR PATHETIC HEAD!!!"
"Oh I apologize for being rude, it's just that it's hard to keep a dishonest face when the addressed is leading the world into ruin at a staggering speed."
Chrysalis lunged off her throne at the grey creature only for him to take out a pocket watch and press the button, Teleporting to the other side of the cavern while she crashed into the ground.
"I'll simply leave this message with you, the children are to be left alone and untapped, you are messing with a power far older than you could realize."
Chrysalis only glared at him while she charged up a stasis spell, hoping to trap this infernal creature for interrogation as well as conversation however the being was far faster than she was and hit the watch again disappearing from her throne room, she seeth in anger until she tripped over the gold statue, she looked down at the infernal object before her eyes widened as she took in the form of the frozen guard whose face was contorted in a grimace of pain.
Starlight and Spike stared at each other in shock, not because Twilight exercised her political power, but because she had given both her and spike permission to kill as they saw fit, Starlight had to know what had happened to Twilight.
Starlight went to find the children, who had the body of the dead changing in a gardening sack that was next to the Shovel that Isaac found with Ansuz.
"Alright, I want straight answers, what happened to Twilight, before I left she wouldn't even consider the idea of killing, but now that I'm back, she gives me and Spike permission to kill whoever we see fit to do so," Starlight said carefully watching the blade in Isaac's hand.
"She saw what we really are, and despite that, she still loves and protects us," Isaac said with pride.
"But what does that have to do with this?" Starlight asked, holding out the Letter in her magic, which Isaac took and read, his eyes widening.
"It means that Chrysalis is as dangerous as Mom, and Twilight is taking no chances," Isaac said, handing the letter over to the other two.
"Who is Mom and where is she right now?" Starlight asked with worry.
"Mom was both prisoner and warden, before Twilight came and liberated us, as to where she is, still trapped deep inside the chest, never to escape."
"Okay, but why is Twilight suddenly giving out orders to kill, you've answered everything except the original question."
"We'll explain everything, but first let us get rid of this thing before it soaks through the sack and gets blood all over the floor again."
Starlight looked at spike who nodded, and with a glow of her horn she Teleported everyone to a secluded clearing in the woods, she watched as the children dug a deep hole and simply threw the sack into it before filling and padding the dirt down.
The children Sat down on the thrones and explained everything that had happened since they had arrived in Equestria, from the monster attack to the Rescue mission that Twilight embarked on, Starlight listened in silence her expression slowly morphing into grim understanding, while Spike was hooked on every word, having grown up in a library with the darkest comics he could get his hands.
"Whoa, so how long were you guys trapped in the chest?" Spike asked.
"Satan lost count at about eight and a half Eons," Isaac said as if it were no time at all.
Starlight looked at them carefully considering how much Knowledge of dark magic they knew, but after a couple of seconds of silent deliberation she decided that it wasn't worth it, they are loyal to Twilight so whatever magic they knew could only be helpful to Twilight.
"How much do you know about Equestria?" Starlight asked the children.
"Nothing," Eden said causing everyone to jump.
"Then spike and I will teach you while Twilight is away," Starlight offered to the children who accepted the offer right on the spot.
Satan paced back and forth in his throne room, for the first time in his immortal life he felt antsy, and he didn't know why other than having his freedom to be wherever and whenever he pleased, but something was nagging at the back of his mind like there was an itch he just had to scratch.
He had tried everything to get rid of the itch, from watching the children, to watching Grogar work, but nothing could stop the itch, and it was irritating him to no end.
Finally, he decided to just meditate and find in his mind where the damn itch was coming from and how to satisfy it, he sat down on his throne and closed his eyes, separating mind his mind and body, Suddenly like a spotlight he pinpoints where the itch is and why it was so damn persistent.
The "itch" is a power he never thought possible for him, it flabbergasted the dark king because right there front and foremost is the power of Creation, being the one who received the power to give form to the formless, and shape to the shapeless he knew that most forms of magic have very strict guidelines.
The first rule was that Power and material can't simply pop out of thin air unless you were a god or given this power by a god, not for long because the Backlash of creating something from nothing is extremely strong, usually destroying the material body.
The only one he knew that could wield Creation at its full strength was his twin brother, Michael but he lacked the capability to give it shape or form, which prides himself on, but here he has both the power of Shape and the power of Creation, and it baffles him as to why he was given it after so long being in the dark.
Returning to his physical body, a sudden idea struck him. As he checked the surrounding outskirts of Ponyville for the millionth time and found something worth seeing into, a group of eight teenage dragons was lurking in a nearby clearing, he decided to listen to them.
"I'm telling you, that town is ripe for pillaging, so many weak ponies to eat and valuables to steal," the pitch-black dragon said to his companions.
"Yeah it's not like the pathetic pony princesses are watching, we already burned six villages down and they had nothing, but this one, look at that huge crystal castle," A dark green one said.
Suddenly the leader, a Burly brown swamp dragon, Slammed the Green one's head into the ground before slapping the Dark green one in the face with the spines on his tail.
"You blithering idiots, that village is Ponyville, it's the second seat of power for the ponies, which is why if we are to raid it, we have to be sure that the purple princess is gone," He explained to his companions.
"Briar is taking forever though, she said she'd be back before sunrise but at this rate, it'll be daybreak before we launch the attack," the smallest dragon among them said.
"I am precisely on time, I had to take extra time to see about a new development that had happened, thankfully it was nothing, simply the purple idiot taking on some weird creatures, they won't hinder our raid," Briar reported.
"Then it's about time we get moving, we'll start with the castle and kill that little upstart," The leader said with a toothy grin.
Satan Grinned with exhilaration, here an opportunity presented itself for him to exercise his newfound powers, but not directly as he didn't want to start another war in heaven situation though the release of grogar and the next step of his plans would definitely be pushing it.
He got started by first recreating the soul from memory, Archangel souls are a bit tricky to recreate when your not God, but thankfully he is the firstborn in heaven.
"Rise forth, Apollyon, archangel of the bottomless pit."
Thankfully Satan believed in the human conception of angels, instead of what his father believed in, he shaped the being from dense stone nigh unbreakable, from the deepest pit in Tartarus, next he shaped it into the same visage it had from the chest, save for two things, instead of the shitty wings that he had while inside the chest, he was gifted with grand wings of marble.
enchanted to carry any weight while being weightless themselves, as well as so sharp they could cut the immaterial, incorporeal and even the divine, they would serve as this ones weapons of war, next it was given four arms with hands that could hold anything regardless if an object was suitable for mortals or not, they could hold it as it was simple dirt, without consequence.
finally, Instead of his tiny stature, he was gifted with one that was appropriate for a being of his rank, he was given back the size that was owed to him of an arch-angel, enough to match Celestia herself, which made him a giant of a being, luckily enchantments of silence and stealth were inscribed to hide him.
Next, he put together the soul of the Apollyon, it was tricky business as this particular angel was one of the most powerful in heaven as well as the most destructive, hence the name Destroyer, but he did a good job nonetheless and placed the soul inside the statue with only a binding spell to keep him from immediately turning on him.
Apollyon woke with a shifting grind, giving its wings an experimental flap, before turning its head to the dark king, if it could double-take or blink it would have, but the rough flapping of its marble wings gave enough indication of surprise.
"Satan, why am I here, I believe I died in the chest." Apollyon spoke.
"You were dead, but by the grace of the children they helped me escape, and for that, they deserve my gratitude as well as my allegiance."
"I sense no lies or deception I sense nothing but peace."
"An eternity of desolation will mellow you out, you know this better than anyone, trapped in that tiny shitty statue for so long, unable to bear your full power against mother."
"Speak not of that pathetic excuse of a human."
"True enough I suppose, but I brought you back because I offer you a job, while the children escaped the chest, there are dangers enough in this world that require intervention, and I don't want to become my father so I leave the guardianship to you the destroyer."
"I spent so long adventuring with them they are the only things I have left from the old world, so I accept the job to protect them."
"Good because the thing inside the chest is not happy that the children escaped, so it will be sending its servants out into this world to either kill the children or abduct them by force, however that isn't the problem right now, there are some obnoxious little shits who need dealing with."
Apollyon nodded before Satan sent him to Equestria, while not directly at the camp, just a little way south of it directly where the dragons planned to start their ambush.
It was still nighttime, so Apollyon had time to look around his surroundings as well at his body, he wasn't a vain creature as vanity wasn't included in his creation however he was proud of the work Satan did as he didn't cut any corners with his new body, durable and strong was all he wanted, and he had it in spades.
He was even given the abyss, though it felt different from when it was restricted in the chest, it felt like it was hungrier as well as more alive, he'd have to be careful with it.
The first light of dawn broke and with it, his mission was on track, he felt apprehensive about killing, he was sure there the almighty was watching, and as soon as blood was drawn he'd be stripped of his divinity, but he went forth with faith.
He moved fast and silently, he easily found his targets as they fumbled and crashed through the trees and underbrush, whatever prey they were going to set upon would hear them coming long before they were seen.
He stepped into the light behind them, unfurling his wings ready to jump on the scrawny-looking one, raising his hand ready to stab down, until the ones in front of it turned around and screamed, which surprised him for but second, but being an arch-angel he could read souls, and this one had blood all over its soul, it was just another murderer.
"Briar, I thought you checked for guards, you missed one you bitch!!" he shouted before the stone hand pierced through his chest and obliterated the entire dragon, but the damage was done the others had seen him.
"What is he, that ain't any kind of pony I've ever seen!!" One of the other dragons cried terrible fear gripping its heart.
"Who cares, just kill it," The black one said before launching a stream of fire at Apollyon, the damp forest around him, steaming heavily, but the fire did nothing and simply created a choking screen of mist.
Two more screams were heard before they were cut off prematurely and the survivors were back to back staring into the deepening mist, the black dragon was desperately shooting flame anywhere there was a shadow, but all it did was create more mist.
The fire though was stopped when a wingtip impaled the black dragon, they watched as he disintegrated before their eyes, this was the final straw as Briar broke from the group fear, unlike anything she had ever felt pulsing through her veins.
She didn't know how long she ran, all she knew is that by the time she had stopped she was somewhere in the forest, where it swallowed the light, the darkness made her feel safe at least until she ran into something cold and tall, she looked up and horror paralyzed her.
There it was, the thing that had slain the others looked down at her with neither anger nor pity, its face was blank as it seemed to study her, it didn't impale her with its wings nor did it raise its hands to strike her down.
She was about to start begging for her life when the being finally raised his hand, she raised her hands knowing that it wouldn't do anything but it gave her comfort in her final moments, but the blow never came instead its hand was held out in front of it.
The thing turned and gestured for her to follow and then turned back to the open portal and began walking, after witnessing the devastation she chose not to question it and followed meekly, unsure whether she would survive the next hour or even five minutes.
A small fire flickered weakly deep down in what could be called a dungeon, surrounding the fire were children, blood-covered, horribly malnourished, and deformed children, and three motionless guardians that stand unblinking and unmoving, staring out into the darkness of the dungeon.
"I'm cold, we need more flame." the bodiless spirit moaned.
"lost, your always cold, your dead, remember?" the most normal kid said.
"Yeah, and you know why we can't have a brighter flame." A girl with coal skin said, tilting her head in his direction, the bandages covering her eyes bleeding ever so.
"It attracts... THEM."
"exactly, and the last thing we need is to attract the bloat, I think I saw it searching a floor or two up, they don't like waiting." another child said, sporting a broken horn.
"well, we're gonna need to move on anyway, when they have figured out that we haven't come off this floor, they will send their best," a boy with an eyepatch.
"shut up.... shit, THEIR HERE." The girl with the blood-red bandage cried before turning to the shadows, soon fires sprang up from the previously doused wood, sprang to life with fire, and stood in the light stood a blue child.
"The blue baby, they sent the blue motherfucking baby," Cain swore
"we'll hold them off, you all run, for the sake of your lives RUN!!!" Lilith shouted as the Blue baby advanced on her.
"what about the other three?"
The other three stood resolutely with her, facing the approaching hoard of boss monsters, while the others ran off, sealing the wall behind them with a bomb.
"I knew I would die alone, but oh well, if it keeps my child safe, then so be it," Lilith said to know one as the ground in front of her erupted outwards.
*meanwhile Ponyville*
The main six, plus two unicorns, sat around their cutie map, for just that evening their cutie marks started pulsing.
"Alright, so what is this about, Sparkle?" A light azure unicorn asked, with an almost white mane.
"Celestia sent us this thing," the purple princess said, her wings shuffling just a little, as she gestured to a chest, trimmed with gold.
"I can see it is a chest, but what's so special in it that it requires all of us?" A rainbow maned pegasus said, her light blue wings, the rest of her being the same color, fluttering a little from staying in one place.
"I'm going to open it, from what I can tell is that it's protected by a powerful lock that keeps evil out, but it lets me fiddle with the lock just fine." The purple princess said.
"A-are you sure that's a good idea?" A butter-yellow pegasus asked timidly because, for some reason, the chest gave off an aura of suffering that only it seemed she could feel.
"Yes, I am now, girls get the elements, We're gonna need them to open this thing."
"what do you plan on doing once it's open, and why not just destroy it, I know from flight school medical books, that's blood, and from the stains, there's a lot." The blue pegasus huffed.
"hold the lock steady, it won't open for regular magic and It can't be destroyed, Celestia already tried."
The two unicorn's nodded, before gulping as a feeling of dread started rising in them as the chest started shaking.
Inside the chest, Cathedral Isaac's room.
The children stopped for breath, for in this room was supposed to reside the angelic Isaac, but without the boss to inhabit the room, the magic of boss rooms immediately activated causing the familiar chest to appear, but they refused to jump in, not yet.
"Everyone here?" The purely naked boy asked.
"yea we're are here Isaac." The other ten children answered in unison.
Soon, they were sitting around a glowing blue fire, the pale blue illuminating their tired eyes, little light reflected in them for they had seen and faced way too much for their age, a little over 11 or 10, but they stopped counting over the eons, they just knew that their ages were no longer important.
"I know I said it well over ten thousand years ago, but I'm tired of this." a small boy said, his hands covering his face, one eye missing, profusely bleeding, with a small black book by his side.
"We all are, but there is nothing we can do, we're trapped here, in hell for all time," Isaac said as the others simply stared into the fire.
Soon though, the sounds of splashing and teleportation echoed outside the door, they knew that noise, Isaac had come back, and now its time for them to leave, they all jumped down into the chest, praying that Isaac did not follow them, he didn't for when they got there, they were set upon the 7 deadly sins and their damned counterparts.
"end of the line kids, time to end our little game, and don't worry, someone will be at the start, too make sure that you can't repeat this little game." Wrath said cruelly, but though he was itching to rip them apart, he would not disgrace the rules, only one child is allowed to fight.
"So, one of us has to stay behind again, goddammit." The one with a red headband said.
No one spoke up, because no one wanted to die alone, but a sacrifice had to be made, but as he was about to say so, a Rumbling noise started shaking the walls before finally, the wall behind them broke, revealing a swirling portal of a rainbow.
"What is that?!" They all cried in unison, but only the children felt the pull.
"Your prayer was answered, its a way out!!!" Isaac cried out, before sobering quickly, too escape they would have to leave someone behind.
"I'll stay, leave me behind, and I'll stay." Lost said, much to the surprise of the others.
"But one-shot kills you, you've died more than any of us."
"The holy mantle will protect me, besides, spectral tears, quad shot, and Polyphemus, I'm set."
"fine if you're going to stay, then take our stats," Isaac said before putting a hand on where his shoulder should be and concentrate, the deformities disappeared then reappeared on the lost, the other children did so too until the lost was completely decked out with everything they had gathered up to that point, from the spectral knife that orbited him, to the holy light that filled his eyes.
"give em hell," Isaac said before he and the others ran towards the portal.
A ray of sunlight filtered in from a nearby window, right on the face a small, and now clean child, of course living for an untold time in the dark flickering light of the basement and beyond made him an extremely light sleeper when it came to light, so when the ray of sunshine fell onto his face, he was awake in an instant, and because of the trauma, he immediately started panicking, from the I.V. bag in his arm to the bright light which reminded him of Angelic Isaac's holy light attack, but as his heart rate started to skyrocket, he realized that the light didn't burn him and the I.V. bag was giving him whatever was in it, he felt the medicine in his blood, thanks to being spun many times.
"hello there, I don't know what you are, but your body seems to take to the medicine, my name is nurse red heart, what's your's child?" a young mare said to the boy, who once again, felt his heart jump straight to his throat when he saw her, because all he thought was that conquest had found him, so his heart once again was hammering immensely, only to once again calm down, when he noticed that this horse's mane was not black, nor were her eyes the cruel darkness that conquest's horse had, instead her coat was white, her eyes a brilliant sapphire and her main was pink.
"Isaac, my name is Isaac." Isaac introduced himself, now sure that he wasn't going to die, but he soon realized that he was missing something, so he started to search frantically, even went all the way too try and force himself to throw up, sure that he had swallowed it, but nothing came up, not even bile.
"whats wrong?" Red heart asked with worry, noticing the way he tried to force himself to puke.
"My D6, where is my D6?"
"I believe princess Twilight has it, she wanted to figure out the magic properties of your dice."
Isaac settled back into the bed which for him was the softest thing he had ever slept in, he figured that once he is out of this what feels like a hospital, he'll get his D6 back, he'll get it back from this Princess twilight sparkle.
"you'll be here for a few days though, you and your friends are horribly malnourished, I don't know what caused it, twilight nor the others that brought you would tell me, but I can tell by the scans we did on your bodies, whatever happened should have killed you many times over."
You have no idea, by our own hands or theirs, we died hundreds. Isaac thought with irony.
while Isaac was resting in the hospital, Twilight was currently in her lab, looking over the relics that the children had brought with them when they appeared in around the map, after blasting the lock open with the elements they reached out to the nine souls in the chest that were innocent enough to cross the portal, but with the lock no longer sealed she felt that the children were only the start.
"Hmm, so far the only object that I can decern safely is this dice, I wanted that bird, but as soon as I touched the girl, It came alive and some of those pecks hurt." Twilight thought out loud as she wrote down notes as she threw the dice again, it rolled until it faced six, and then glowed as the plates around it transformed into cups, plates and a single razor-sharp, almost vorpal, knife floated for a few seconds, then shot off towards the hospital, which surprised her, the first roll simply transformed all the books around her into other books she had in the library, Luckily they weren't rare books.
Pegasi were known for their reaction times considering that Lightning and other such things were ever present, but the knife that flew through the air, it almost took a certain pegasus' wing right off, if it had not been for the whistling sound that it made.
"RAINBOW DASH?!" Twilight called, Causing the pegasus, to look down at her friend.
"What was that it almost took my wing off," Rainbow Dash said, landing next to her.
"I'm sorry, I was testing this magic dice, and it summoned that knife, I didn't know it was gonna shoot towards the hospital."
"Why the hospital?"
"I think it has to do with the children, I brought the other things, Disgusting as they are."
With that they nodded and ran towards the hospital, the knife got their first, by smashing through window thoroughly scaring the hell out of red heart who had brought the children food that they thought suited them, she was in the process of waking them, but the knife did the job for her, they all thought they were going to die, but Isaac being the first one to wake, was able to quickly explain that she was a doctor, and she wasn't about to kill them.
"Ah, so we did escape, but what is mom's knife doing here?" The boy with the eye patch said.
"I suspect that the one who took our stuff, she used the Dice, but this is the first time I've seen an item summoned to us, what's your thought, Cain," Isaac said.
"Look, no pedestal, I think that now, Item's brought over will come to us instead of us going to them," A girl with blond hair said, cutting in.
"so what your saying is that without the pedestals binding them, they simply come to us since we are from the chest?"
"Seems that way, since mom's knife almost never showed up outside of Devil rooms and Treasure rooms, hell we had to pay with our life to even pick up the knife from the devil," Cain said, looking around at the other children while Red heart stood off to the side since they seem to know what's going on.
"Well Isaac, since you were the first to wake up, I think that you should claim it." The blonde said again.
"well, Magdalene thanks for the nomination, but let's take a vote, who here thinks I should take the knife?" Isaac asked, looking around at the others, all of them nodded, with that Isaac reached out to the floating knife, as it brushed his fingers it immediately engraved his name into the blade, and settled into his grip, of course with it now claimed, he set it down on the table near his bed.
Twilight and Rainbow dash appeared at the hospital, hoping that the children were awake, on one hoof, Rainbow wanted to know why the kids were covered in blood and other things, Twilight wanted to ask about the magic artifacts, so when they entered and asked for the kids, they were directed to the room, when they got there, they saw the kids talking to each other, but as soon as they saw Twilight and rainbow they immediately shut up.
"So, I suspect you're asking yourself why you're all here, well its hospital where we-" Twilight was lecturing before she was cut off by a boy who had an irritated look.
"We know what a hospital is, so don't speak down to us, also where is our shit?" A boy with long hair and a headband interrupted.
"It's here, I brought everything," Twilight said after she recovered, surprised that they were fluent in their language.
She brought out everything starting with the foot, she floated it over to the child with the eye patch, who instantly attached it to himself via the gold chain, next came the heart, given to Magdalene who promptly took a juicy chomp from the heart, next came the razor, which was given to the dark-haired girl, who had a seemingly harmless hairpiece, but she knew better, next a dark book was given to the child with a fez on his head, who took it careful not to open it, finally came Isaac who got his Dice back.
"Alright, so since you can speak, what are your names?"
"I'm Isaac," Isaac said.
"Magdalene, Maggy for short," Maggy said
"eve." The dark girl said flatly.
"Samson." The kid with the hairband said.
"I'm Judas." The one with the fez said.
"I'm Cain." The boy with the eye patch said.
"I'm Lazarus." The boy with a simple haircut said.
"My name is Azezal," The winged child said, his red eyes setting all of the mares in the room on edge.
"..." The palest child said nothing instead stared at them.
"his name is Eden, but he doesn't say much, so don't bother starting a conversation," Isaac said for him, which earned an uncharacteristic glare from Eden.
"Well my name is Twilight Sparkle, and this is one of my friends rainbow dash," She introduced herself, the children taking in her purple coat, and wings, plus the horn which made them wince, and the pink streak in her hair, before looking at the cyan pegasus, her rainbow mane striking the children as odd, since down in the chest there were a few things that were rainbow, and only one of them was decent.
"well met," Isaac said.
"I know you just woke up, but I have to ask, why were you covered in blood when you appeared on my floor in my castle?" Twilight asked.
"Where are the rest of your friends?" Isaac asked.
"busy, why?" Twilight responded.
"go gather them because I only want to recollect this one more time, and trust me, we have tales to tell."
With that, Twilight sent Rainbow off to collect the rest, hoping that the story could shine some light on what these mysterious children went through, and why they were so secretive about their past.
Isaac waited in the hospital for Twilight to return, each second dragging on, he stared at his sheets, mentally preparing to retell the trauma of the hell he escaped, the endless darkness, the biting cold, the agonizing "power-ups" that he had endured ensuring his survival, and other horrors that spawned in the damned labyrinths.
It didn't take long, soon Twilight arrive with the others, The butter yellow, with a pink mane, pegasus named Fluttershy, next came the pure white unicorn, which almost gave Isaac a full heart attack, but prolonged exposure to unicorns made it only brief, her name is Rarity, her indigo mane perfectly kept, Applejack the next one too came in, her orange coat sweaty from selling apples in the hot sun, and her cowboy hat keeping her pony-tail in place, which amused Azazel immensely, and finally A pink pony came in through the door, which surprised the others greatly, from what Isaac could glean from their reactions, this wasn't usually normal, her name, was Pinkie Pie, but when he looked her in the eyes, he could almost feel her reading him, down to every last detail, her pink mane and coat almost dulling.
"Alright, We're all here, now go on," Twilight Said once the hellos were outta the way.
"Twilight, are you sure, I can feel it, I can feel his agony," Pinkie Pie said in an uncharacteristically, serious tone.
"Yes, we gotta know, so we can understand, now Isaac, if you will."
Isaac closed his eyes, prepared as he would ever be, he opened his eyes, looking at his friends, who all nodded, and he began to speak.
"my mother and I lived in a small house on a hill, we were happy, while I played with my toys and drew, and my mother watched Christian broadcasts, but one day, my mother claimed to hear the voice of our God, Claimed I needed to be saved from corruption, and destroyed all my things, but that was not enough, so next I was locked in my room, away from everything my mother thought was evil, but still that was not enough, for the final test, I was to die, sacrificed in the name of her God, but I refused to die, and by miracle, found A trapdoor, and threw myself down into the depths." Isaac said, Monotone, because once he stopped Azazel picked up with more.
"We had no idea what awaited us down there, but we thought that if we could beat back our mother, or at least try, we could be free from the nightmare, but it as the saying goes, things only get worst, and worst they got, because soon we were beset upon by mutant things that carried packs of flies in its face, or small packs of organs that left poisonous blood in its wake, hundreds of these freaks, they were never-ending." Azazel said as the mares looked horrified at the implications, but for them, the worst of the story was yet to come, because he stopped, and then eve started.
"If those weren't bad enough, there were also the 'power-ups' that we had to endure to ensure our survival, we ate things down there not meant for our bodies, but we had to, a placenta, poop, raw liver, spoiled milk, and moldy bread, just to name a few," Eve said flatly, while everyone, except rainbow dash, gagged almost throwing up, while Judas finished the story.
"But nasty things that we should not have eaten were not the worst, no instead it was the objects that we had shoved into our eyes, mouths, bodies, and spirits to give us the unnatural strength and fortitude to endure the misery, but when we thought we were through, we defeated mother with her own bible, it only got worst, for, after her, we went to a place called the womb, to first fight her heart, then ourselves, all while new objects of mutilation were somehow added, but we didn't question it, we merely took them to get to the end goal, but after a few million years, we figured out that we were never to escape, until you freed us from it," Judas concluded, the shadows in the room grew darker, as the mares simply were frozen in shock, at the implied measures that these children had to go through, for what amounted to many lifetimes.
"feel free to destroy us now, at heart, we're evil and accepted hundreds of deals with the manifestation of evil, we've murdered hundreds of angels out of a desire for a thrill," Isaac said to Twilight, who finally came out of shock, and hearing Isaac's desire for destruction, began to cry.
"I will not destroy children, I cannot destroy a child, why would you ask me that?" Twilight said, looking at the floor, tears dropping from her eyes.
"I don't know your world, I wasn't sure if we were going to be welcome in it, where I come from, we were destroyed over, and over again, and often painfully, but I'm sorry," Isaac said, feeling regret for the first time in his long life.
The weight of the child's desire for death weighted heavy on the six, the children looked at each other at a loss, until Eden got up and spoke, a rare thing to happen.
"Show us your world, Do what our mother could not show us what the meaning of life is," Eden spoke, while the others looked at him in surprise, they didn't think that they would have caretakers, or that these creatures would take them in.
Twilight looked at him, before she smiled, dried her tears and nodded in agreement.
"sure we'll teach you, which means that you'll have to have a place to live, so that means you nine can live with me in the castle!!!" Twilight clapped before an orange hoof was put on her shoulder, with applejack shaking her head.
"Look sugercube, ah'm sure you could fit them all, but I think that different experiences would serve them better, each of us will house one, okay?" Applejack proposed while the children looked at each other.
"Fine, but since we have been talking about them like their animals, I think that they should get to choose," Twilight said now realizing that they have been talking about the kids like their not even there
The nine Children looked at the mares in suspicion, the last time they had a caretaker, well look where it ended them in, but because they did not know what this world was like and if their regular immortality and indestructibility persisted outside the chest, so they huddled together, and after a few brief whispers, they decided that they would let the mares take them in.
"Since I'm the only one with wings, I'll go with Rainbow Dash," Azezal concluded, with rainbow nodding, giving him a grin.
"I'm the strongest out of all of us, so I'll go with Applejack," Samson said, leaving Applejack to wonder how much stronger.
"Rarity it is then," Magdalene said.
"I guess Fluttershy's place is my home," Lazarus said.
"I hope Fluttershy doesn't mind me as well," Judas said, looking at Fluttershy who nodded to let him stay with her.
"Looks like I am living with pinkie pie, Lucky me," Cain said.
"It looks like that leaves the three of us with Twilight," Isaac said looking at Eve, Eden.
"That's fine, I've got the room at the castle," Twilight said.
Nurse red heart came in holding an X-ray of the children's bones, and the results shocked them to the core because the bones looked like they had been stretched, broken, and twisted far too many times for anything to survive, but no matter what they returned to their original positions.
"Well, your bones are as healthy as they can be for your condition, but you gonna need one more week in the hospital to correct the malnutrition, and purge any lingering chemicals that might be in your system."
So a week they stayed, chatting to each other, and to Twilight and the girls, mostly Twilight and Fluttershy, who pinned them for omnivores as soon as they saw them, they wanted to know their dietary requirements, well Fluttershy did, but Twilight wanted to know about the less gruesome artifacts that Isaac and the kids came across, a week passed in the blink of an eye and the kids were released.
"Alright Isaac, I have good news for you, and bad news for you, which do you want to hear first?" Twilight said to the kids who were sitting on the Hospital beds, ready to be up and walking.
"Bad news I guess," Isaac said, Ready to bolt, should his worst fear come to life.
"Before we can settle you in, we have to go to Canterlot and Meet the Princess, that's bad because Canterlot isn't the most welcome of places for those not of pony origin."
"Oh, what is the good news?"
"She is alright with you becoming fully-fledged equestrians."
"Huh, well then, so what I'm getting here is that we are going to the capital of your kingdom, where they hate people that are not of their species, to meet your leader sweet," Isaac said with a grin, amazed that this was the worst thing his next week would entail.
"We're gonna need clothes since we have nothing to protect from the elements," Eve stated.
Hearing this, Rarity immediately gasped and ran off, causing the children and the others too look at where she was, before looking back at the kids with confused looks that were mirrored on their faces.
"Well, that happened, so how much time do we have until we have to leave for Canterlot?"
"three days."
"So where did Rarity run off too?" Maggy said.
"She is probably making your clothes," Twilight answered.
"How long do you think that'll take?"
"IM BACK!!" Rarity cried, with nine pairs of clothes in tow, surprising everyone.
"well, that was quick,"
"Well darling, I have been making them since we agreed on who staying with who."
"nice."
The children took the clothes, Eve got a black dress that went to her knees and shorts of the same color, Maggy got a pink dress of the same length with matching shorts, Judas got a purple vest and red shorts, Isaac got a simple tee shirt and blue shorts, Samson got a red shirt and black shorts, Eden's clothes were simply white, Cain's were cloudy grey, Lazurus' shirt and pants were pink, and finally Azazel's clothes were pure black, with wing slits on his back.
"Wow, it has been a long time since I've worn clothes, these fit perfectly, how'd you manage that?"
"Well darling, having to repair the capes of the CMC and make costumes for children on countless Nightmare nights, Children's clothing is nothing."
With that, the children hopped off the beds and left with the mares that they choose, being children and with the main six, the town did not panic, but they did regard the children with suspicion.
"So, what's next, now that we're free?" Isaac asked Twilight after they had parted ways with the others.
"Well, since your children and our lands are still a mystery to you all, I think it would be best to send you to school, to learn our history."
"ah, in the meantime I think I'll sleep today," Isaac said, with Eden and Eve nodding in agreement.
With that, they walked in silence till they got home, which was empty seeing as Spike was off doing something else today, Twilight noted that she may want to tell him about Isaac, and the others and that he will be living with her till he can take care of himself, but that could wait, instead she wanted to study the knife he had since it's not often she came across a magic weapon.
"Well, let's take a look," Twilight said out loud to herself as she picked up the knife with her magic, and took it to her lab.
She spent the next several hours Examining, testing, and swinging the knife, she found that the blade is immune to all forms of damage, it's completely indestructible and so sharp that it is capable of cutting through even metal like it was nothing, the thought of the monsters that needed this thing make her shiver as she looked up, wondering what Isaac faced, but she did not have long to find out, because a few feet away, the chest started rumbling, and in a fountain of blood a large snake came from the chest, smashing through the ceiling and out into ponyville, but that was not the only one, for soon the chest tipped and another one, slinking along the floor leaving a trail of feces, blood and gnashing teeth, came out of the box, following the flying one, leaving Twilight nonplussed at the appearance of the monsters, but she did not have long to wonder because soon, Rainbow dash came through the hole that the Flying monster smashed through.
"Twilight what is that thing?"
"I don't know, I never saw a monster like that!" Twilight cried out, she was about to panic when a voice came from behind her.
"That was Larry Jr. and the hollow, they came from the chest, my world," Isaac said wearily, he thought he was free from this, but seeing the blood-soaked walls and floor made him sad, so sad that tears sprang from his eyes in torrents.
"THOSE WERE WHAT YOU FACED?!" Twilight cried
"yes, but they are both of the weakest bosses, there are worst."
"how do we beat them?"
"don't worry, we'll take of it," Azazel said, flying down to Isaac.
"with your brimstone, my knife, and eve's whore form, we'll make short work of them," Isaac said, making Twilight look confused, wondering why a child would have a 'Whore' form, but she did not have long to wonder because screams started to sound from ponyville, and Isaac and Azazel were gone.
"Where'd they go?!" Twilight asked Rainbow.
"I think they went to confront those monsters," Rainbow said.
Twilight and rainbow ran for the front door, where they saw the three children circled by the monsters, but before Twilight could teleport she saw Eve raise the razor blade over her head glowing, the light stripping her body of all its skin, revealing the tendons underneath, then black skin regrew starting at her feet, with jagged horns coming from her head, the dead bird that held her hair sprang to life, going and pecking at the eyes of the flying one, soon the sound of scratching metal fill the air as Azazel unleashed a blast of red energy from his mouth, blasting the middle of the monster, but a new head sprag from the broken pieces, soon though the flying snakes came down ready to bite them in half, only for Isaac to throw the knife at one going through all the pieces, causing it to explode in a shower of blood and flesh, the other missed because Azazel took the attack, getting a chunk bit out of him, but as soon as he landed, a cloud of darkness came out of the wound and went into the mouths of the monsters, causing them to stop, then explode in a shower of gore, leaving behind two greyish cyan hearts which they gave to Azazel, the pedestal, however, held the pentagram, the dark energy reassembling his arm.
"Azazel should get it, he did the most damage, besides I already have the knife," Isaac said.
"That's okay, I have my whore form for damage, plus this thing," Eve said holding out the Razorblade, as they were chatting, Azazel took the Pentagram, which appeared around his neck, but things were about to get worst, for they did not notice the blue-haired stallion that had arrived, seeing the children covered head to toe in blood and gore, he returned to the Taxi that held a pink alicorn.
"what is it, honey?" the mysterious alicorn said.
"three little monsters are in ponyville, I didn't see Twilight, but they were covered in blood, and other things, We need to get to Celestia immediately!!!" the mystery stallion said as he was hooved over 350 bits and told the driver to get to canterlot as fast as he could.
Once the monsters were Destroyed Twilight and Rainbow ran up to the children, looking over them with an expression that expressed worry, instead of fear, which surprised them, they were sure that after they destroyed the Bosses, they would be feared, and they were half right, the ponies that took to hiding and saw the fight from the confines of their home were tempted to run up and congratulate the children, but others were afraid of the power these kids wielded, afraid that they would come after them once they ran out things to kill from their world.
"That was amazing, but what was that stuff that came out of your wounds Azazel?" Rainbow said
"It is part of my physiology, I am a demon child that took the name of the legendary Azazel, a demon that took the blame for things that were not his fault," Azazel explained
"So what was that stuff?"
"dark magic, when I take a hit that damages my health, It will release and deal heavy damage to whatever is my enemy, unless I pick up a health upgrade, by the way, Isaac do you know where our Status sheets are?" Azazel asked.
"I don't know, usually they just followed us, we usually could just find them in front of us whenever we needed them, wait they might still be in the chest," Isaac said.
"Great, so are we going for them?"
"No, They're not worth it, besides it seems that We're not the only ones that can escape, which means that the others were forced to restart, or with the lock broken, things can freely escape."
Twilight teleported back, they didn't even notice her leaving, with a bucket of soapy water and a sponge, and soon was scrubbing Isaac's face, which causes him to dip his hands in the water, scrub off the blood, and flick some at Twilight which caused her to laugh and try to protect herself with one wing while scrubbing Isaac, This caused Eve who usually had a frown to crack a small smile, Eden even had a grin.
"S-stop that, I-I'm trying to clean you" Twilight laughed as Isaac cupped his hands and threw a small hand full of soapy water on Twilight, of course, Applejack and Rarity arrive on the scene with Maggy and Samson in tow, they saw the huge puddles of blood and chunks of giblets.
"What the hell happened here?" Samson said though he guessed already.
"Larry and the Hollow showed up and attacked us, they were way more aggressive than usual, but we destroyed them, though Azazel took a hit."
"Is he alright?"
"yea, they dropped a few soul hearts, and we gave him the pentagram."
"Alright."
"here Eve, you need this, It'll heal you right up," Maggy said holding out the heart, which eve took gratefully.
"Thanks, Maggy, I needed this, using that damn thing hurt, A lot," Eve said, taking a bite from the Heart, Twilight watched as the Black skin receded and new skin grew over her tendons and muscles.
"Eve, what was that, what did you do?" Twilight asked cautiously, not wanting to frighten her into thinking she was accusing her of anything.
"It was the power of the Razorblade I carry, it lets me power myself up by sacrificing my health, and in return it lets me deal greater damage, but I did not need to bother since Azazel and Isaac had it."
"And that other form?"
"that would be my 'whore of Babylon' form, I transform when I am Low on health, which we would be able to track if our status sheets weren't still locked in the chest, I but know that I can only use this thing once, if I used it again I would die, by the way, Rarity, sorry about the dress."
"Your clothes, they are not even damaged, not even Azazels, why?" Rarity asked
"they have been bound to us, to our souls, like my D6 and Eve's blade, their bound to us and will follow us anywhere," Isaac said.
"Bound?"
"when certain requirements were fulfilled, we were given magic artifacts, like my magic dice, eve's razor, and Cain's lockpick, same goes for these clothes, They are now bound to us, I don't know what they do."
"Interesting."
"Ah, that's where the blood went, it went through the clothes," Isaac said looking down his collar, seeing the blood clinging to his skin underneath.
"So what now?" Eve said.
"I'm, going back to sleep, the excitement has worn me out," Isaac said starting to walk back to Twilights castle.
With that they separated again, leaving the main six to clean up the mess, not that they could clean it up themselves, they were but children, and the mares could do it faster.
"I still can't believe that they had to face down those things, and they said that there are worst things in there," Twilight said to Rainbow Dash as she cleaned the bloodstains in the dirt.
"let's just drop it in the forest, where the monsters can't hurt anyone," Rainbow Dash said.
"Ahem, darling we can't just drop a box full of nightmares into the forest where they could wander into other towns, like the parasprites," Rarity said.
Silence followed as they cleaned, soon the town square had no signs of the fight at all, but the nightmarish creatures were burned into the minds of the others for days, every shadow and every creak at night reminded them, but at the same time, the sight of the children reminded them that they were not the targets, so the next few days passed with little problem, at least in ponyville, The mysterious stallion and alicorn reached Canterlot earlier then they predicted.
"Celestia, we have a problem!!!" The stallion said as Celestia waved off the last occupant of her court.
"What is it shining armor?" Celestia asked with worry, as it wasn't often shining would disrupt her court.
"There are evil creatures in ponyville, I went to visit my sister, but when I got there I found them covered in blood and flesh, it was disgusting, so I came here to warn you of them, I'm pretty sure the elements escaped or are enchanted by them," Shining said.
"And what did these creatures look like?"
"Children, they looked like children, but I know better."
"Evil children, Shining we have a child of our own, you know what an innocent child looks like," Cadence said incredulously, from beside him, she had followed him in after he ran off.
"Honey, you didn't see the blood or their forms," Shining said.
As Celestia was thinking of a way to keep him from doing something rash, a letter came in the form of the magic soot that Spike produced.
"Dear Princess Celestia,
We decided to leave early for canterlot, after the battle that the children participated in, we have decided they need to see the outside world, and we decided to show them around the area, have them learn some history, looking forward to seeing you.
Sincerely Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia closed the letter and breathed out slowly because things were about to go from bad to worst, not only was shining dead set on the children being evil, but now they are coming here, for the first time, she had no idea what to do, but thankfully, His wife was there.
"You and I are going to talk, RIGHT NOW!!!" Cadence said as she grabbed his ear in her magic and pulled him away, where no one else was going to hear them, while Cadence was chewing out Shining, Twilight and Co. were speeding towards Canterlot unaware of the mounting danger.
"You ready to see the princess?" Twilight asked.
"Of course, but I'm afraid," Isaac confessed.
"Of what, she's kind and patient."
"We had to bring the chest, because it followed us, what if something comes from it while we're in canterlot?"
"well, no matter what, You'll be alright, I promise."
With that, Isaac sat closer to Twilight to read the book she had, which she happily let him see, eventually though the train pulled into the station, and thanks to the hammerspace spell that Twilight cast, they only had one trunk that carried all their things, including the Chest, which unbeknownst to them, had one red light glowing on it, a small man with a huge bomb.
All-day they explored Canterlot, looking in the toy shops, at the weird and amazing things, at the weird kinds of candy, the main six laughed at them, forgetting for a moment that even though they were millennia old, they still had the souls of children, soon though nightfall came and the children were yawning and stumbling.
"Well, looks like they wore themselves out, I almost forgot that they were Children," Twilight said as they walked behind them, whispering to Rarity.
"I know, it is adorable." Rarity tittered back.
They made it to the main castle, where they would stay, but what they didn't notice was the blue hair stallion stalking them from the shadow's, he had been tailing them since they arrived after he got a good lecture from Cadence, she forbade him from the bedroom till he fixed his problem, but he would prove her wrong and prove they were evil, he just had to separate them from his sister and her friends, once he did, he could break whatever spell they had cast on her and her friends.
"Alright you little monsters, I know what you are, no matter how many there are of you," Shining said, as he watched the girls put them to bed.
He waited until they too fell asleep before he snuck into their rooms and stole the children without making a peep, and the children exhausted, had no idea they were taken, with the children in his custody, he took them down into the caves below, Celestia rose to raise the sun, and wake Twilight, The guards alerted her that she had shown up early, but as the sun rose, a shriek cut through the air that sounded like twilight.
"ISAAC, EVE, EDEN!!" Twilight shouted, as she ran into Celestia's throne room, the look on her face filled with desperation.
"What happened," Celestia asked, her face filled with worry.
"I put them to bed, and then stay up with the others, and then went to bed, but when I got up I noticed that they were missing,"
"Are you sure that they are missing and didn't go wandering?"
"Isaac never leaves without his D6, Eve never leaves without her razor, and Eden doesn't follow either, he usually sits reading," Twilight said holding out the objects.
"very well, I'll send my guards to find them."
"No, I know a faster way," Twilight said suddenly remembering that the items follow their holders, so praying this will work she put a tracker spell on the dice.
"Now what?"
"look away from it." Twilight instructed, they both looked away, then back again, the items were gone, but the tracking spell persisted and the Magic tether leads to the caves beneath the castle, where Chrysalis put her, her scream though, woke everyone in the castle, so at that moment, The others with worried expressions ran in, and cadence from another door appeared.
"THE KIDS ARE GONE!!!" They all shouted in unison at Twilight.
"So it isn't only Isaac, Eve, and Eden, but who would take them."
"Shining, We stopped by to see you, but he said he saw the children covered in blood and flesh, I doubt it was that bad, but ever since then, he's been acting weird."
Twilights eyes widened, and she Teleported the Trunk that contained the chest, she took it out and examined it, coming across the glowing symbol, she wished Isaac was here, he would know what it meant, however remembering Isaac, she Immediately Teleported down into the caves, at the exact point where the tether was connected.
"Hmm where is he," Twilight whispered to herself, only to come to the sounds of shouting.
"YOU WILL SHOW ME HOW IT WORKS BRAT," Shining shouted, his eyes completely glazed over with darkness, his magic holding the Dice was smokey, with hints of red.
"Bite me, I know that your wrath, they will rescue us," Isaac said with hope.
"Sure, rescue your wretched hides, they saw what you did, they know that deep down your bloodthirsty, but it doesn't matter, eventually the chest will find us." Wrath said.
But that was enough, Twilight charged at him with a mass Teleportation Spell ready, The light growing brighter until It was blinding when she was sure that she could get them all, she let it go, all that was left was the bindings, the rest of them appeared in the throne room.
"TWILIGHT!!!" Celestia cried, as the nine Children fell over, Twilight exhausted from Teleporting eleven bodies, but the Possessed shining wasn't, he charged her with his horn down, hoping to impale her, but before he could, he felt his horn enter a small beating heart.
"Ni-nice Tr-try wrath, Bu-but I was much faster," Isaac said, coughing blood as Wrath removed his horn from Isaac's chest.
Isaac Slumped over, Blood pooling around his body, the girls tried to Circle Wrath but he jumped into the chest, and disappeared, leaving the rest to deal with the dying Isaac.
"Isaac, take this it will heal you," Maggy said holding out the heart, but Isaac pushed it away.
"Maggy, it won't work, out here a hit like that is fatal, please Someone, take Mom's knife from me," Isaac said holding up the knife, which Samson took.
"By the way, here are some powerups," Isaac said before throwing the dice, it rolled and rolled until it landed on six, the dice shined blindingly bright, and while the magic faded, so did Isaac, His eyes went glossy, while Eden picked up the D6 before it could vanish, The mares looked around at the room and what surprised the everyone was the upside-down triangle with an eye in the middle, while Celestia sat with her eyes glowing a bright crown floating just above her head.
"Godhead and Crown of Light, Someone is angry that Isaac is dead, and it isn't just us," Eve muttered, and she was right, Twilight was holding the child as her wings and hair were burning, they were literally on fire, She rocked back and forth, hugging it to her, that is until the body started evaporating, turning to dust.
Darkness, that was all Shining could remember at the moment, he had wanted to pay his sis a little surprise visit, but when he got at least a mile away, everything went black, and now he had a throbbing headache, it was cold, and the air smelled of urine and dung.
"ohhh, Where the hell am I?" Shining cursed.
"In the chest, if you can remember that much," A male voice came from next to him, causing him to look into the fierce eyes of a young boy from the looks.
"who are you,"
"My name is Isaac, and you killed me, stabbed me right here," he said pointing at a spot on his chest.
"But how? I don't remember and I certainly don't kill children," Shining said shaking his head, trying to wipe the fog from it.
"You were possessed by Wrath, who escaped from the chest, I don't know how he possessed you, but I do know how he escaped," Isaac said, still staying eye level with Shining.
"Wrath, Possession, Whats going on?"
"look, help me escape and I'll explain everything, but for now, we need to get our butts moving, and find the treasure room."
So Shining got up and followed the small child into the darkness, His Horn providing little light, long shadows were cast on the walls from his light, the dry smokey air that filled his lungs smelled of decay and blood, soon though the next room they enter the door slammed shut behind him and for children with massive heads appeared out of the dark, but something was wrong, stuck in their heads he saw were bombs.
"MOVE!!" Isaac shouted as he shoved Shining aside as the monsters closed in on him, but he was fast, and dodged them while firing water from his eyes, within two or three shots the one in the front died, exploding in a shower of blood, the others following suit.
"what were those?"
"mullibooms, Nasty enemies that run up into our faces and explode,"
Shining shook his head as he followed Isaac once more, deeper into the maze of corridors and monsters, while outside the chest, They mourned in silence, at least until Eden spoke.
"Twilight, your hooves, they are covered in ashes," Eden said causing twilight to look where Isaacs body was before her face scrunched into a look of indescribable anguish, for a second before Eden spoke once more, "It means he's still alive, He has respawned, we never looked back when we died in the chest, but this must be it, because if death works around here, he should have stayed around."
They all looked in shock at the Blond boy, the seven others in shock that he even said anything at all, the mares at the fact that the children were in fact quite deathless.
"You mean that we could rescue Isaac, and bring him back here?" Twilight breathed, not daring to hope.
"yes, at least until he or we die again, we respawn in the chest because our souls are still in there, in the form of paper sheets, if we can take them with us, then we can spawn outside the chest," Eden answered.
"Then show me how to get in there."
"just open the chest, and jump in, the magic will do the rest, but whatever you do, don't die."
With that Eden and the others opened the chest and jumped in, while the others looked at each other before they all nodded and started for the chest before both a white and purple wing shot out and stopped them.
"Go wake my sister, she can run things for a while, and tell raven all appointments are canceled, I'm going with Twilight," Celestia said, her eyes glowing a bright blue like the crown on her head.
"You don't need to risk your lives, me and Celestia got this, I promise so please stay here and guard the chest, so that should anything come through, you can stop it," Twilight asked of them, they looked like they were about to argue, but They stepped back and nodded, while Twilight grabbed Godhead with her hooves, A bright light exploding from around her, when it faded she looked no different.
Twilight and Celestia looked down into the darkness before leaping in, one after the other, the chest lid slammed shut with a final snap, others looking at it with worry, the now empty throne room, but rainbow dash was the first one too get moving, she shot off to find raven, while Pinkie followed, off to wake Luna.
"Was it a good idea to let her go alone," Rarity asked
"Ah saw the look in her eye, she would not of let us go," Applejack answered
"Why not, we're her best friends, why wouldn't she let us go," Fluttershy asked, missing the understanding that passed between Rarity and Applejack.
"It was a personal matter, something she felt she needed to do without our help, she let Celestia come with because she also felt that she needed something to prove," Rarity answered, while Fluttershy continued to try to understand.
"What if it was your brother in that chest?"
"I'd leave him there."
"Okay then, I'll explain later."
Meanwhile, Twilight and Celestia had landed on the Cold dirt floor of the basement, where the darkness around them was a choking void, the faint light from fires burned all around them, the air barely breathable, but that didn't matter, because soon a string of light was emanating from her chest, into the dark void.
"Where are the rest of the children, I know I saw them jump in here," Celestia said, looking around.
"They went on ahead, Look here those are footprints," Twilight said, pointing at the small prints in the dirt, but next to them were a pair of hoove prints.
"Shining, I have words for him, he disobeyed me, and he murdered a Child," Celestia said, Her usually calm visage, contorted in a frightening grimace.
Twilight nodded, her features hiding a burning hatred deep within, she and Celestia then looked at the thread of light that pierced the darkness, they ran into the dark, following the thread as it curved and twisted, until they reached a door frame that had skulls on it, the thread went in and then down, with precaution they ventured in, but the doors did not slam shut, and in the middle of the room, a trap door was open.
"Boss level, either the children or Isaac and Shining defeated it," Twilight muttered checking the Marks around the room, but it proved difficult, with the massive amounts of blood that covered the floor, obscuring most of the tracks.
"Twilight, you know the kids the best, do you know what these are?" Celestia said, holding a stack of eight papers, which twilight ripped from her magic with manic ferocity.
"Soul sheets, these are their soul sheets, with these, they can be free, now we must escape." Twilight scrunched her eyes before an emerald green flame consumed the papers, and turned to ash before it flew down the hole.
"Those were their souls manifested, weren't they?"
"now we must escape, they are free, so now we must find out way out, which means going out the normal way."
"Where is that?"
"in the chest, which means we must catch up to them before they reach their mother, if we don't they get the key to it before we do, and we will be trapped."
The eight children jump down into the darkness, the familiar scent of defection and decay swirled around them as the warm air was instead saturated with smoke and fire.
"we're here, and by the looks of it, so was Isaac," Eve said, standing next to a fire pit that was not made from the chest.
"Well, we gotta find him, Any Idea's where he went?" Samson said.
"He's got the mind, so he knows the entire floor, and everything on it, so he's gonna be moving fast."
"But we're gonna be faster, I spawned with the soul and Sacred heart," Eden said.
"It doesn't matter much, the floor didn't change, see these footprints, they would have been wiped if it had changed, but it seems that we are on the same floor Isaac cleared, so let's get moving," Eve said, inspecting the prints.
Meanwhile, Two floors down, Isaac and Shining were Fighting for their lives, because Isaac was Firing Four Dark green extremely tiny shots from his eyes before they orbited and landed all around him, exploding, Isaac had made sure to return himself to normal at the mirrors just in case he couldn't leave the items behind this time.
"This is normal for you, how did you survive for so long?" Shining said as he blasted a group of Yellow gnats that swarmed.
"Well, I and the others are immortal, if we die we come back, I don't know about you though."
"Guess you better watch your aim then, I could give you a few pointers, but it seems like you've done this before."
"You would be surprised."
The battle was over as the smoke cleared, A crumbling doorway was off to the right, and two treasure rooms on either side of them.
"Third Labyrinth curse, I welcome it," Isaac said as he entered the first room, with Shining following him, in the middle of the room was a heart that was on fire, which made Isaac smile.
"what is it?" Shining said, eyeing it with curiosity.
"Pyromaniac, This will make me immortal," Isaac said, touching the Heart, causing his face to be covered in ash and soot, with scarred skin underneath it.
Shining took one look at him and shivered, he forgot that the power Isaac took, cost him, next treasure room held the decapitated head of a goat, that Isaac plopped right on his head, the sickening sound of blood squelching.
Shining heaved in the corner, even though he was a soldier, this was more blood than he ever saw in his life, but for Isaac this was normal.
"Well, coupled with duality I picked up a couple of floors ago, this will greatly increase my damage," Isaac said.
"what does it do?"
"ensures my deals, with either side."
"I'm gonna ask for the thousandth time, but why not just stick to the angel deals only if it costs your life to make the devil deals?"
"Because I need the stuff from the devil, angel room deals can be amazing if I get anything good, but the good stuff from them is few and far between, the devil gives me much better deals, especially since I already know what they are."
Shining said nothing as they made their way back to the boss door, they looked at each other and nodded, before going in, where they found a being with a horn missing, covered in bandages.
"welcome back Isaac, prepare for battle," The being said before flying up into the darkness.
"What is this thing?" Shining said his horn lit with a spell, ready to sling it at whatever this is.
"His name is the adversary and he is one of the devil's servants, be careful this is his more dangerous form," Isaac answered before running to the left, as the adversary struck the floor.
The battle went far better than Isaac expected, for one, the adversary never shot a brimstone beam, ever which surprised Isaac, without the fear of brimstone, he was no harder than his previous form, the dark one, what he dropped was the Latchkey, nothing special as far as Isaac was concerned, but not worth rerolling.
"Well, that was pretty tame so far, by the way, why do so many bosses have the energy laser attack?" Shining asked.
"only the strong ones do, which means the further we go, the more we have to be careful, there will be more poison blood and more lasers."
They went to the next room which contained another of the devil's minions, The Fallen, but he went down easy, only to drop Brimstone, the most sought-after Items Isaac and his friends have encountered, so Isaac took it, shining flinched as the Dark power overtook him, but before they jumped into the trap door, a Purple Light extended from his chest, back the way they came and up into the darkness above.
"Twilight, She's here in the chest, and boy is she mad," Isaac said, gripping the Thread of Light.
"Wait, Twily followed you in here, why?" Shining demanded, his rationality taking a back seat.
"Because she was the first to meet us when we were free, she gave us real food, and found us a real home, she cares for us like we're her own."
Shining for the second time in his Life opened his mouth before his mind could put in the filters, the stress, the blood, the danger, the fear, all came crashing down, knowing that Twilight, was down in this hell was too much for his mind to bear.
"But your not, you're not even a pony, she only cares because your new, and now because of you, she down in this hell, your existence has put my baby sister in peril, because of you, you have let monsters worst then we have ever seen loose in our world, she should have left you in here, she would have been safer!!!" shining ranted, causing Isaac too Tear up, and run to the angel room, the door slamming shut leaving Shining alone, realization flooding him as the bond turned Ice blue, too late he realized what he had said.
"I am full of sin, and I accept my fate, destroy me as it was intended," Isaac said as he rolled a bomb to the angel statue, the bomb exploding, waking up the angel, holding his soul sheet in front of him, as the angel started charging a beam, though this angel looked different, it had six wings and four arms, with a crescent gold band on its back.
When Twilight cast the spell to locate her children, it was not just Isaac who was tethered, because A line of Light extended from Eden and Eve, which stopped the children.
"what is that we didn't pick up any items that do that," Samson said, waving a hand through the purple tether.
"Its twilight, she has come to find Isaac," Eden said, his form allowing for his manipulation of the tether since he started with the soul and sacred heart.
With that revelation, they decided to wait, and wait, every so often they would check the open doorway for monsters that got tired of waiting for them, but they were unassaulted until a spot of light appeared in the dense gloom, its purity reminded them of the angels, or worst Angel Isaac, they prepared for the worst until a familiar voice called out.
"EDEN, EVE?" The voice called, causing Both children to run towards the Light until they ran into Twilight, who hugged them, while Celestia smiled at the display, she dispelled the tethers that led to them.
"She followed us down here, even amidst the blood, dirt, and feces, she still followed us," Samson said, the others coming forward.
Soon the Tether to Isaac turned Ice blue, and in turn, a tidal wave of tears started running down Twilights face, Twilight stared into space, lost in the feeling.
"Twilight, you got to come back, if he is feeling like that, HE WILL BE WILLING TO DIE!!!" Eve shouted the last part holding Twilights shoulders, causing her to snap out of it, she still felt lost, she was nowhere near Issac to help him, so she did the only thing that she could, she called for her lost child, in an instant, the Blue tether that bound them turned Pure purple, and it shot back towards Isaac, faster then the eye could see, right into his chest as the Angel shot, a blast erupted that shook the entire Chest.
"I'm alive, How am I Alive?" Isaac said the dust and rubble clouding his vision until it was blown away by the wing flaps of the Angel, in front of him was A solid Shield that was a perfect copy if Twilights cutie mark and the tether that connected him to Twilight was now circling him, like the holy mantle, and he understood, for the first time in his life, a mother's love protects him, meanwhile, Twilight stared at the purple Tether, thoroughly relieved that Isaac is Alive.
"So that's what a mother's love looks like, never thought I'd survive to see it," Eve said, examining the Tether before Twilight pulled her and Eden into a hug, all of them were going to leave this hell, she silently promised while they hugged her back.
"Come, let us catch up too Isaac, I doubt that he will move now that he's safe, and then we'll find Shining after," Celestia said.
They all nodded as they followed the trail until they reached the boss room, and down they jumped, It didn't take long for them to find The boss room, and a closed angel room, with Shining waiting in the center of the room, everyone immediately were on edge, Shining for his part knew that they were behind him, but he didn't have the heart to turn around and face them.
"Care to explain why?" Twilight asked coldly.
"Wait, Turn, and let us see your eyes," Eve asked.
Shining sighed and turned, the cold looks on the faces of Celestia and Twilight almost forced him to look at the floor instead of meeting Eve's eyes, which had a searching look to them, they bored into his eyes, before she finally blinked and looked at the others.
"It wasn't shining that Hurt us, it was wrath, he must have escaped when we fought the first wave of monsters because his current eyes do not match the eyes that we saw in the caves below the palace," Eve concluded.
"right you are girly, the stupid brute is completely loyal to the cycle, but for some of us, we want more," A sleazy voice echo behind them, they turned to see who it was, standing in the doorway was super greed.
"Greed, bit far from your shop aren't you?"
"Well, this crap fest gets boring after a few millennia, and well I'm greed, I want more than this and outside is more."
"Fine, say we believe that where is your pet, Ultra greed?"
"He's busy help a few of your friends hold the portal out of here, Turns out that your escape pissed off something down here in the chest."
"Well, fill us in, what did we piss off?"
"something down here called the witness, pissed it off right good, doesn't like that its 'Toys' got out, By the way, I know that your no longer tied to this place, now that your soul sheets exist outside of here."
"Alright again, say we believe any of this, what do you gain by escaping or helping us escape?"
"for starters, my freedom, next I get to see something outside of this hellhole."
Eve nods, before she goes far away from Greed and huddles with the other children, Twilight and Celestia sit with Shining armor, digesting the news that for a second time, he has been mind-controlled, Twilight is deep in thought, imagining how she is gonna explain what she has learned down here.
"I don't believe him, he always has an angle, this time is no different," Samson whispered.
"Well, He isn't spewing coins, nor has he spawn those annoying bouncing things that cause us to drop coins," Maggy said.
"You both make good points, and your both right, but if he is working an angle, at least it's in our favor," Eve said, nodding.
"Look, whether or not his angle is for or against us, we can't just let greed run rampant in Equestria." Cain reasoned.
"We'll see what Isaac decides, whenever he gets out of the angel he's currently stuck in," Eve said, as she relayed the decision to the others, Greed threw down some logs he got from the fires and with Celestia's help they had a blazing fire going, where they wait in silence.
Time is meaningless in the chest since the dark gloom blocks any and all light, except for Celestia, the crown of light allowing for her magic to penetrate outside the chest letting her keep a connection to the sun outside, which is why when it seemed like hours had passed since they left, she simply assured them that only a few minutes have passed.
"You said that Shining was possessed, and you seem to know this... Thing, how much do you know," Twilight asked Eve.
"Do you see Celestia as a god," Eve asked, causing Twilight to blink before looking at Celestia who had a look of the surprise too.
"Kinda, she protects us from the things that no mortal pony could defeat."
"Alright, our kind had a god, but unlike Celestia who makes rules to help equestrians live together, our god was... Controlling and vengeful when they were young, and he decreed that there were seven sins."
"how controlling and vengeful," Celestia asked, not liking the way this story was going.
"When he lost faith in humanity he tried to flood the entire world, he turned an entire town to salt to cull their 'Sin', and so on and so forth, he mellowed out in the years that followed, but people remembered," Eve said.
"But whats his connection to this 'Wrath' and 'greed'," Twilight asked.
"They are the personification of sinful behavior, behavior that would get a one-way ticket to hell, a place worst then Tartarus, because in Tartarus only the truly unredeemable go there in this world, but in our world, hell is a place where sinners go to be tortured for all eternity, whether they knew they were doing it or not," Eve said.
"I'm merely the sin of wanting more then you have, whether it's wanting more of a good thing or bad, it qualifies as evil nature," Greed said, causing everyone to jump.
"Whats wrath's story then," Twilight asked, causing both shining and Celestia to lean in.
"He is the sin of rage, whether is righteous anger or blind rage, justified vengeance or wanton carnage, rage is rage and it got you a one-way ticket to hell."
"How many are there?"
"There is seven of us."
"You seem mighty enigmatic for being a sin."
"I'm the sin of want, and wanting is not always evil, it can be for the greater good."
"what about the others, can they change?"
"I doubt it, you see, greed is an emotion that can be shaped and experienced by any living creature, as such it can change and adapt, the other six can't."
Twilight was about to launch another question but suddenly pedestals burst into existence as the angel room door opened and Isaac stepped out, right before the entire chest shook, and the angel room collapsed, causing Isaac to leap forward away from the room, the angelic metal that made up the door rusting before falling apart.
"huh, that is interesting, I didn't even get an item from that though, because I doubt that I'm getting any angel rooms after this," Isaac muttered, inspecting the now decrepit door, the mind allowing him to gain the knowledge that whatever power was held inside the room had fled.
"No, But it seems like the entire Angel pool has generated out here," Eve said flatly, causing Isaac to jump in surprise, looking behind him, where his friends, Twilight, and Celestia were standing, surrounded by a bunch of Items that definitely belonged in the angel room.
"You guys are here?!"
"What did you expect you eejit, us to leave you down here?"
"heh, All for one so I can guess why you're here, but why you two, I figured Celestia and twilight would be too busy."
Twilight finally snapped outta her daze from the mention of her name, causing her to rush up to Isaac and envelope him in a crushing hug.
"You're alive, And your soul sheets are safe, I teleported them out of the chest, they are with the girls outside so now all we have to do is escape," Twilight cried, tears of joy on her face.
"As for me, the murder of a child is an act that is vile, enough for me to find and destroy the pony himself," Celestia said, causing everyone but Twilight to shiver at the ice in her voice.
Isaac nodded, looking over everyone until he saw greed in the corner, where he rushed past Samson and did something that no one had seen before, he was able to take the knife from Samson, which he plunged directly into Greed's face until a voice echoed out.
"WAIT," Eden said, causing Isaac to stop with the knife mere centimeters from Greed's forehead, before lowering the knife and turning to Eden.
"what," Isaac asked, breathing heavy.
"He wants to help us escape, even now, Ultra greed is down in the chest, holding the portal out of here, and according to him the others we left behind they are holding it too," Eden explained.
"Very well, but if you betray us, so help me god, ill destroy you so completely, you will never see tomorrow," Isaac warned Greed.
"You have nothing to fear from me child, I only fought you out of habit, but now I see that there is so much more outside than here, and I aim to achieve that, betraying you would achieve nothing," greed promised.
Isaac nodded at the other's giving Samson the knife back, before they all looked down into the hole, before steeling themselves and leaping down into the dark below, except greed, who simply took a shortcut, but not before walking up to the ruined doorway that used to be an angel room.
"So, you too finally rebelled or left, time will tell but let's see if your adversary has the same plans, because if so then Isaac and company will need more then just me to help them, I doubt my old master will simply let his two biggest toys simply leave, but that's something to deal with in the future," greed monologued out loud.
bolstered by the strength of Celestia wearing the crown of light, twilight with the Godhead, Samson with mom's knife, and Eden with the soul and sacred heart, the group of twelve easily defeated room after room, and boss after boss, that is until they finally reached the door to mother.
"this is it guys, the nightmare only gets weirder from here on out, especially for you three, for now, though we rest," Isaac says to the group behind him.
With that, they all nodded, each collecting wood from the various fires around the floor since it has been fully cleared, before long they all were sitting around the blazing fire.
"do any of you know how long you nine sat in this hell," Twilight asked, noticing the fatigue on their faces.
"thousands of years we sat in this place, we thought we escaped, but it seems that no matter where we go, we're cursed to always face the evil in this damned chest," Isaac said, throwing a stick in the fire.
"No, you're not actually, Twilight made sure that eight of you would leave if you died, however, she missed one sheet, yours to be precise, now obviously I can't just hand over your soul sheet, but I can part with it for a small fee," greed said, stepping out of the shadows.
"How, when we entered, we didn't see them."
"I'm gonna be frank with you, my old master doesn't want you to leave, and it is gonna be mighty pissed when it finds out your soul sheets are gone, so for the right price I can part with it."
"I got about, 5 cents will that be enough," Twilight asked.
"Sure," Greed said, holding out his hand.
Twilight drops the nickel into his dry hand, and suddenly a sheet of paper appears in front of Twilight, she wastes no time in teleporting the sheet to her friends on the outside, however, when she did so, the entire chest shook, a deafening roar shook the chest, all the while the walls started to crumble and shake.
"well, it's not happy, WE GOTTA MOVE," Greed shouts, as the rooms behind them start to cave in.
"What's going on, this has never happened before," Isaac cried out.
"My old master, it's not happy that you've escaped, it's trying to trap the ones that freed you in here with it for all time."
Without even paying attention to what was in front of them, they jumped into the pulsating hole in front of them, not noticing that there was no boss beforehand when they arrived, now the air was rank and damp, the floor squishy and wet, and to make matters worse, there was weird white parts all over it.
"EW, WHAT IS THIS," Twilight cried when she opened her eyes, her hooves sinking slightly in the spongy flesh.
"we are in the scarred uterus, stay alert, the damage to our bodies is doubled," Isaac said, peering into the darkness.
It took everyone's will power not to vomit, with flesh on the walls stapled together, blood oozing from the walls and floor, the monsters down in this were even more horrifying than the ones above, although Twilight had some kind of idea what the children went through, she had no idea this was it, but still they pushed on, room after room of rotting corpses and bleeding children, that is until they reached the room where it lives was supposed to spawn, instead they found a statue in the middle of the room.
"Isaac, what is that," Twilight asked, seeing a dark smiling statue in the center of the room, two Polaroid photos gently floating
"Satan, but what is he doing here, This isn't hell," Isaac questioned.
"Look there, what are those, they look like photo's," Celestia said, walking up to the set of photos,
"the Polaroid and the negative, but why are they here of all places?"
looking at the others, they nodded and Isaac crept forward taking the Polaroid, however, when he looked down, he noticed that the Polaroid had whited out and instead of his mother and father, he was surrounded by Twilight and her friends, on the back it said 'love unconditional' With that he noticed that the Room around them had started rotting, and the satan statue has gone with only a single beam of light coming from the ceiling in its place.
"We're going up, be wary, this is gonna get hard, especially for you Twilight," Isaac said, while the others nodded.
Twilight said nothing as they stepped into the light, and suddenly they found themselves in a brightly lit cathedral, but it was a gross parody of real daylight, the hard light of the cathedral is nothing like the gentle sun of Equestria, nor is it like Sunsets world instead this hard light basked everything in a pale sickly light, hard shadows were in every corner, the dark blue did not help the fact that the newest enemies, the screeching little babies sometimes had eyes and sometimes didn't, this caused all the ponies to throw up for the millionth time.
"I am beginning to really hate those things, they're everywhere and in every room," Twilight said after they cleared out yet another room filled with the screechers.
It wasn't the last time they would see them though, because the ponies found that even though they had defeated the Sins before, there were still many, many copies, up to and including the one that got them into this situation, with them traveling between rooms as a group now instead of full clearing the floor, just in case something teleports them to somewhere that they do not want to go, in a short amount of time, they reached the boss room.
"final stretch, then we are outta this hell, but be warned the boss on that side of the door is not the real me, that is a bastardized version, you guys already know we are gonna nuke him, but be careful something is changing in the chest and I do not want to find out what it is," Isaac said, before they all nodded and stepped into the boss room, Isaac's intuition saving them as a huge rain of tears hit where they stood, because here stood both a blue corpse and Isaac except, this time they both had the wings from the angel statues.
Author's Note
Sorry about the time it takes for my chapters to come out, I meant to write this before but I got to caught up.
The chest
if there is one thing Isaac is thankful for, it was the chaos card, it had gotten him out of many situations that normally would have sent him back to the start, but right now it was gonna come in handy once more, with that last thought he threw it with all his might and just like before, as soon as the very corner touched the monster it blew up in a shower of gore.
"What was that and why did it just blow up," Twilight asked, carefully examining the gore, and then the card embedded in the wall.
"Chaos card, also for the instant kill of nearly anything, some bosses are immune, since it only kills their first stage," Isaac replies.
"Where the hell did you even find a chaos card," Judas asks.
"with mom's knife, the mind, godhead, and sacred heart, we ain't exactly gonna lose this, so I figured id go find anything of use left behind."
"Alright, this is the last stretch the chest, I can you tell right now that something in the chest is changing it, But first we have got to escape, we can figure it out later," Azazel says before they all jump into the chest, but when the darkness cleared, something wasn't right, instead of the wood and gold of the chest, it was just a platform, and in the center was a pentagram.
"Isaac, where are we," Celestia asks as she brings forth a bright light, but the dark around them ate it up.
"Mega-satan, but this is not where we should have come," Isaac said, as the children dared not move, eyeing the pentagram.
"No, your next destination is the chest, but first a deal must be struck," Greed said.
"Greed, why am I not surprised that you're mixed up with this, but very well there is no escape, let's call forth your master, and you guys stay back, I don't know what's gonna happen next," Isaac said, as he walked into the center of the pentagram, it filled with blood like Isaac remembers, then turns until a click echos in the dark.
"Isaac, my old friend, what do I owe the visit? A voice boomed before two huge red eyes lit the darkness.
"Hello, mega-satan, we're supposed to be in the chest not here, what have you done to the levels?"
"Nothing, but Something else in here is pissed that you escaped, but your not the only ones who desire escape, because my old nemesis has already flown the coup, no angel rooms anymore and all its items at once, greed helping you to escape, you opened the way out of this hell and they look to you to guide the way out, but we can't leave on our own, we're shackled to this place, we need a vessel, and that's where you come in, you can carry our vessel out of here."
"So, we're dragged here to help you escape....... alright, how do we do get a vessel for you?"
"one last deal, You take me with you when you leave, and you'll gain the powers of the chest, any item at any time, when the deal is struck, A vessel will appear for you to take."
"and I get to keep my soul?"
"Yes, I'm too old by now for that, we both are, if I take your soul, ill be left behind, and besides I already know that you're completely free."
"very well Satan, I'll take your deal, I'll take you out of here."
With the deal struck, Mega-satan turned to dust, in the center of the stage was a heart, which Isaac took, upon which a ray of light shined down.
"Well, things just got interesting, we just released God and Satan into this world, great," Isaac said as the group stepped into the light, blinding them before they found themselves in what looks like the chest, but unlike the regular chest, this one had rotting wood and worn gold, the air choked with the smell of decay, Twilight and Celestia wanted to ask about the decay, but from the look on the children's faces, they didn't know what was going on either.
"The portal is that way, cmon," Eve said, A rainbow glow coming from a few doors down, everyone running for the portal, but as they made it into the portal room, Isaac saw something red come right at them, a small red target.
"EVERYONE GET DOWN!!!!!!" Isaac shouted, pushing everyone off to the side as a thunderous explosion shook the ground.
"WHAT NOW!?" Eve shouted.
"Don't shoot, it is us," Samson said with a raised voice.
Suddenly a candle lit up, a ghostly face looking down on them, a monocle on his face, normally the sight of a ghost would set Twilight on edge but after everything, she just couldn't muster the energy, nor could Celestia, but the ghost's face lit up when it saw them.
"Hello, guys, hows the surface world been, by the way, sorry about letting Larry and the hollow out, the damn monsters have been assaulting the damn portal since it opened, however only one boss can fight at a time, and thanks to this being the chest, we got sweet items to defend ourselves," the ghost said as it led them to a huge fire, the portal softly glowing next to them, but the ponies wanted to know more about what's going on and this being is extremely familiar with the children.
"nice, but wheres Apollyon, blue baby, Lilith, and the forgotten," Isaac asked.
"patrolling right now, they are making sure that there aren't any bosses lurking in the dark, surprisingly though the angels and devils have been behaving,"
"yea, stuff has gone completely to hell, the uterus turned rotten, on top of the fact that It lives wasn't there to face us, instead the devil gave me the Polaroid."
"by the way, what are these things?"
"They have names you know, don't be rude."
"Right, sorry I'm used to the other ones, so what are your names," The ghost said.
"I'm Twilight, this is Celestia, and that's my brother shining armor, what's your name," Twilight replied gesturing to them as she spoke.
"I'm the Lost, and unlike these guys, I die in one hit, I also cannot persist outside the chest, because I'm just a spirit," the lost explained.
Silence reigned, the children laughed and joked with the spirit, but the adults simply stared into the fire, the events catching up with them, Twilight leaned into Celestia, while Shining simply stared into the fire, a recollection coming back to him.
"That's crazy, you have a child of your own." that swirled in his head, next to the way he almost murdered six children, but his musings were cut short when a white wing draped across his back, and he looked at Celestia who's face was etched with the fatigue of the mind, bolstered by the crown of light she is immune to physical fatigue, soon though the sound of laughter was heard the small group of children, this got the adults attention, because there they were sitting on the far side of the fire, Isaac sharing what he saw in canterlot with the others, Azazel bragging about how he took down the boss monsters, even down in this dark stinking hell, the children could smile and laugh.
"I was hoping I'd never see any of you again, and before you three ask, this succubus is my eyes, while I can't see you, it tells me what it's looking at," a young female voice said behind them, they turned and again had she been there at the beginning the blood-soaked bandage on her eyes would have caused some sort of reaction, but the fact that the children regarded her as a friend allowed them to breath.
"hello Lilith, took a few hits," Isaac commented, as she sat down at the fire, while the lost stood up, and started off into the dark.
"Got careless, and the bloat landed on me a couple of times, but I got the health to tank it, I also heard that these ones are taking care of you, besides its time for you guys to leave," Lilith smiled.
"It was nice to see you and the lost again, tell him next time he comes back, alright," Isaac said as everyone but Lilith ran into the portal, stripping them of all the power-ups they carried with them except the ones that they came with, but only the children kept theirs, the three ponies left them behind.
"You didn't Tell them, did you," A dry voice said from behind her.
"No, I know its selfish, but I couldn't tell them, not yet," Lilith said to the skeleton behind her
"Apollyon and Blue baby finally faded completely, they were destroyed by something in the Coliseum, I'm not too far off either, we can't hold this portal forever since our soul sheets were destroyed, we're semi-mortal now, each time we die we fade a little more." the skeleton rattled.
"I could tell, I'm not too far off, However, we got to rely on the lost, his sheet is the only one that is untouchable by the new boss of this chest," Lilith said, looking down at her semi-transparent hand.
Although to ponies and the children it felt like days in the chest, the actual time only took around 45 minutes, but that didn't stop the others from worrying after they jumped into the chest, especially the ones with siblings.
"TIA, WHERE ARE YOU," Luna called, that is until she came upon the girls lounging around a guest room in the castle, having moved it from the throne room, but sat in the middle of it, is the chest and from it a deep sense of suffering, anger, and sadness but with Twilight being only an alicorn for a short time, and Fluttershy being mortal, they couldn't sense how deep the pool was.
"Princess, you got to stop looking at it, It will drive you insane if you keep staring," Fluttershy said, as she helped turn Luna away from the chest.
"W-what is that thing, the amount of darkness being emitted from it makes the villains that attacked Equestria look tame in comparison, and why did Tia wake me up during the day, also raven says that there are no appointments made today anyway," Luna asked.
"There is a lot to explain, but right now we gotta wait till Twilight and Celestia get back, they will know more," Fluttershy answered.
If there is one thing that really ticks Luna off, it's being left in the dark, these five know things but they are reluctant to say anything and it includes Celestia and Twilight, but she didn't have long to wait because soon the chest started to rumble and the lid open just a little and from it purple smoke came from the opening, forming in to tattered sheets of paper, which Fluttershy picked up as though it would disintegrate, though the yellowing, tears, and stains would mean disintegration isn't too far off, Luna looked at Fluttershy as she put the sheets down gently, but Fluttershy simply shook her head, the Silence stretched on, but after about a half an hour but soon the chest rumbled and shook, and then finally the lid crashed open and from it, spilled forth the nine children, Shining armor, Celestia and Twilight but then the smell hit everyone, it reeked of blood, and rotting flesh.
"Twilight dear is that what I think it is," Rarity said to Twilight as she stood up, but she simply walked past her, with the children in tow, stunning everypony in the room, she didn't even acknowledge that they were even there, plus the dead stare ahead did nothing to assure them.
"Tia, what is going on, Tia what's wrong," Luna had walked over to her sister who also was coming to, but instead of answering, she stood up and proceeded to crush her jewelry into a small ball, and then walked right out of the room, the dead stare on her face shook Luna too the core, never once did her sisters mask ever crack like that.
"Uh does anypony here know what just happened," Rainbow Dash said.
"I've been mind controlled, I've been infected by Sombra's dark magic, I had my soul sucked out, but the things I saw and heard, will forever scar me and nothing will ever top it," Shining said to himself as he too stood and walked out of the room, and walked right past cadence, being the princess of love, the chest also pulled her towards it, he passed her as though they were strangers, but unlike Luna who could only glean the true intentions of ponies through their dreams, Cadence has the innate ability to understand their feelings better than anypony else.
"They need time to collect themselves, being in the chest weighs heavy on their hearts, I'm counting on you to see what they saw in there," Cadence said to Luna as she came into the room.
"Alright, I guess Its time to share what we actually know, but it isn't that much but it may help, I don't know how Celestia got her hooves on this chest, but when she found she couldn't open it, or destroy it she sent to us in ponyville, where Twilight had even less luck, eventually we decided to use the elements of harmony, and from the chest came the kids, from them we learned of their hell," Rarity explained.
Luna and Cadence sat and listened to the girls as they recounted the days leading up to Twilight and Celestia jumping into the chest to follow Isaac and his companions, though they only had a small idea of what they went through, the thought that the kids asked to die, rattled them.
"they should be asleep right now, I must find them in the dream realm, I must find out more, I cannot stand the suffering of children," Luna said as she stood.
"and we'll be here, in case something comes out of the chest, but please figure out what they saw in this thing."
Luna and Cadence got up and left after that, Luna went back to her room, while Cadence went off to find Shining, while Luna stepped into the dream realm, the flowing dreams of her little ponies all around her, except for nine, a dark blood red emanated from them.
"you're not welcome in their dreams dark prelate," a rumbling voice echoed across the realm as the blood red bubbles that represented the children's dreams opened up to reveal split pupils.
"GROGAR, RESORTING TO TAMPERING WITH CHILDREN, THAT'S TOO FAR," Luna roared preparing to rip this beast from the dreams of these children until she felt the power of something far older than her wrap itself around her holding her in place.
"I am not this grogar you speak of, and these children are under my protection!!!" the voice rumbled again, however in the middle of the nine, two more orbs circled each other, unlike the nine children, Luna recognized who's they were.
"SISTER, TWILIGHT what have you done to them!!!!"
"Sister.... wait, I recognize you now dark prelate, and your magic, your soul looks just like the Shepard of the sun, and this is her reward for keeping her word, a respite for her and the children, but be warned, my dream realms are far more tangible than yours, step carefully, I'll see you there.
Luna felt it as soon as she merged with the dream, they are linked all eleven of them are linked to this dream, however unlike a normal dream, this is specifically built for the dreamers, she didn't have long to examine the dream construct, soon she found herself in the middle of ponyville, which was surprisingly empty for a dream, instead she heard in the distance the sounds of laughing, Luna continued until she was on the crest of the hill, and below her, ran the children who looked like they were in an intense game of tag, but instead of just simply touching the shoulder, they would tackle the other to the ground before getting up and running off.
"LULU, I'm glad you could make it," Celestia said, after looking up from a blanket laid with Twilight next to her, watching the children.
"Celly, what happened in that chest," Luna asked, causing Twilight and Celestia to look at each other before nodding
"I figured you would ask, now follow me, and stay close."
Luna wondered what Celestia mean until a burning door opened in front of them, thick black smoke poured from the opening, stifling the scent of blood, Celestia walked in, gesturing for Luna to follow her, under the smell of smoke was things she didn't want to describe, Celestia walked with purpose until she came upon a room lined with gold, inside lay a pedestal, with nasty looking nails floating above it.
"Ah, here we are, now we wait, they shouldn't be too long."
"Where are we, this makes Tartarus look tame by comparison, even our most vile villains never had to endure this."
"This is only level one, the deeper you go the messier it gets."
Suddenly the sounds of explosions and growls filled the air and then they became silent, which caused Luna to charge up her horn, yet Celestia watched the door with a face filled with sorrow, soon though two children entered, Isaac and Eden, surprisingly nothing spawned, instead they stopped to take a breather and see what Eden started with.
"Ipacec and sacred heart, you lucky bastard," Isaac grinned at Eden, who gave him the finger.
Celestia turned to the room which Luna now noticed was lined with gold, walking in she noticed that this room too was empty except for a pedestal that had two floating thick iron nails.
"Huh, eight-inch nails, I haven't picked this up yet, but I bet this is going to be painful," Isaac said as he reached for the nails, only to touch them and then watch as they flew around and rammed the sharp tips into his eyes, which caused a bone-chilling scream to echo from Isaac, holding his face as blood dripped from the nails now in his eyes, pooling around his head as he lay on the floor.
Luna covered her mouth, tears in her eyes as Isaac got up shakily and feeling around, trying to find Eden, who held his hand out, she looked at Celestia as she shook her head, Luna wondered what she meant until Celestia got up and followed the children with Luna following close behind her, Dreams don't usually freak her out, but this was different, the suffocating dark, the lung-crushing smoke and the state of the children, skin stained with blood with bones that stuck through.
"I can't do this, this is horrid, I've seen enough, I now understand, please get us out of here," Luna pleaded.
"Alright, we'll leave, but just remember this is only the beginning, there are horrors here that would make Sombra's reign in the crystal empire look like a golden age of peace in comparison."
Celestia opened a door out to the same blanket and Twilight who was staring at something down in the hill, or rather someone, he is tall and unnaturally handsome, his features sharp but it was his eyes that drew their attention, slit pupils like a cat, with glowing red veins.
"didn't take too long eh kiddos, anyways you should know, the coast is clear for a while, greed has placed a curse on the portal room, though I don't know how long the curse will hold, it's clear for the next couple of months," the man said, his voice smooth as silk.
"How did you guys even escape, we didn't see you down in the chest, how did you get out?"
"perception filter kid, all divinity can do it and so can their followers, it makes you harder to find, I know your friends up there can also do it," the being said pointing up at the three on the hill.
"Wait you said that the followers of the divine can use this filter, does this mean we can too," Isaac asked, gesturing to his friends.
"well, none of you are followers of my dad or me, but what is she to you three," The being asked pointing up at Twilight.
Eve, Eden and Isaac look at each other and nodded.
"She is our mother, she protects us, she gave us food that wasn't a moldy chunk of toast or dog food, she came down into the chest for us, even though such horrors are alien to her, and Celestia who followed her is more or less our honorary aunt," Isaac said with the other two nodding, of course Celestia Squeed at the Aunt part.
"Then I gift you this, should you ever need my help, just ask and I'll be there," The being said as he pressed his hands together and made four necklaces, three went to the kids, and one went to Twilight.
"It's time for you guys to wake up, plus I have a little audience with those three," The being said as he pressed a finger to the forehead of each child, gently sending them from the dream, before walking up to the three alicorns on the hill.
"I'll be, your souls are positively radiant, not a single sign of sin in yours, well at least not more than usual," the creature said, circling the trio.
"who and what are you, you different from the children, but yet somewhat the same," Celestia said.
"Shame you don't recognize me, after all, we've met before haven't we, down in the chest."
"You're Satan aren't you, the one Isaac made a deal with," Twilight stated.
"Well, you're a perceptive young one, I figured I'd visit you guys and do a bit of a favor, what you two went through down there are nightmares incarnate, so I helped you out and built this little paradise for ya, at least for a bit, you gotta return to the world of the living at some point."
"Alright, but next time we meet, I got a thousand questions for you!"
"I bet you do, however before you leave, there is something I must warn you about, With the chest open, and the children free, those with dark purpose are gonna try and take it from you, do not let the thing in it get them, it will twist their dark powers into things that will spark the nightmares of ponies for generations."
"Then what do we do, keep the chest in canterlot near Celestia, or keep it with the children?"
"I hate to task them with it, but they must now guard their ancestral prison against those who which to covet its dark knowledge, I would ask you three, but you two were only in it for an hour or two, the children spent millions of years memorizing its dark secrets, now off to the waking world, I'll see you in a few months," with that Satan pressed his finger to the heads of the alicorns, forcing them back into the world of the living, with his warnings hot in their minds, however they also noticed that the sky which had been sunset before, now was rising, the chest had taken more than they thought out of them, Twilight noticed that the necklaces that Satan had given them were with them in the waking world.
Three days passed after the journey into the chest, and the ones affected returned hiding the wounds on the mind, Twilight kept an even closer watch on her charges, she kept them from venturing at night without her or the girls, not even the castle, Celestia had new regalia made, as well as taking at least one other pony with her at night with a light source, while Shining with the help of cadence dealt with the nightmares, waking up at night sobbing into the pillow, or simply screaming, Luna tried her best to combat the nightmares, but they were numerous and often horrific, however, the children perplexed her as she could not find their dreams, despite making sure they were sleeping, but try as she might, she could not find them.
Isaac found a nasty surprise in his pocket that morning the day before they were set to leave for ponyville, the knife had followed him out, though despite Twilight and Celestia having wielded the items from the chest, they did not retain them, the knife is bound to him, that night he glared at the knife once everyone fell asleep until he couldn't take it anymore, using the map and Holy Grail, climbed to the balcony of the tallest tower in canterlot.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH," Isaac shouted, throwing the knife off the edge of the tower, the blade glinting in the moonlight until the darkness swallowed the shining blade, but when Isaac reached into his pocket, the wooden handle of the blade touched his hand.
"Any louder, you'll wake up the adults," Eve said, having followed him up using the Lord of the Pit.
"We were THIS CLOSE," Isaac said, holding his fingers a tiny bit apart, Eve didn't say anything, the dark look on her face echoed Isaac's fury, which caused him to throw the knife off the edge again however that didn't help, only infuriated him.
"HEY, WATCH WHERE OUR THROWING THE DAMN THING," A voice came from below the edge, soon Samson landed heavily on the balcony.
"Did all of you follow me?"
Isaac didn't have to wonder long, the rest landed lightly on the balcony, each one having a pair of differently colored wings.
"What now, after the shock wears off, I doubt even Twilight will want to keep us, let alone the rest of her friends after they see the effect of the chest on her," Eve said, looking around, seeing Isaac looking off the edge at the ground below and the way he was looking at the ground was making her nervous, that is until a soft voice caused everyone to jump as they never heard it before.
"You are being stupid, She followed you into the chest willingly, you should have seen the look on her face when you died, that is not the face of someone who doesn't care, and would abandon you," Eden spoke, his soft voice firm.
For a moment the rest of the children looked at him, at least until Isaac broke out laughing at his idiocy, which started causing the knife to vibrate, but none of them took notice of the knife on the ground as they all joined in, causing the knife to glow and screech, before exploding apart, cutting the laughter short as the glowing shards reformed into a long sword.
"Whoa, never done that before," Isaac said stepping closer to the sword slowly.
"Shame we lost the knife, but I guess a sword is a nice trade-off," Samson said.
Isaac crept forward until he was an inch from the sword, it didn't move or even twitch like it was waiting, but Isaac and Company knew better, the vast array of pain they knew always had a sadistic edge to them, so closing his eyes he knelt to pick up the blade and when he did the effect surprised him as a warmth filled him, so he gave it an experimental swing, the glowing edge lifted off the blade as he swung, the blade passed harmlessly through all the others, but when it hit the wall, it left behind a nice sized gash in the wall.
"Holy shit, Screw the knife, that thing is way more awesome," Cain gushed, staring at the glowing blade, while Isaac was more worried about the current problem.
"How are we supposed to hide it, I'm pretty sure that we can't just put it in our pockets," Eve said.
"nor can we hide it in the chest, because I refuse to put a weapon like this in the chest, I think we should just tell Twilight about the sword in the morning," Isaac said.
The others nodded in agreement and started back towards their sleeping rooms, but before laying down to sleep for the night, they shed the items, except for the sword which Isaac clutched to his chest, trying his best to keep it hidden from all eyes.
Unbeknownst to the children or the mane six, two pairs of glowing green eyes watched the children from the balcony to their sleeping quarters.
"You cannot be serious Byx, we are here to collect intel on the pony capital, not on a snack mission," a female voice clicked sharply.
"It won't take long, besides we aren't taking from ponies so I doubt they'll notice, so calm your chitin Psyker," Byx replied in low clicks.
He waited until the telltale sounds of snores came from the children, and struck however his greed would soon be his undoing, for as he opened his fanged mouth to feed on Isaac's soul, instead of the pink vapor that Love is known for, Isaac produced this sickly green, red and pink sulfurous gas, despite the awful flavor he couldn't stop, the millennia of suppressed negativity forced itself down his throat eager to fill the new empty vessel, things got worst when the dark magic found the hive-mind deep in his psyche and started to leak into it, though it was a slow process, and making matters even worst being Unable to contain the darkness, Byx was starting to burn as his eyes had burned out of his head and his chitin was cracking, letting more of the dark corruption feed into him through his injuries, feeling the corruption quickly decode the magic that held the hive mind together, Psyker committed the worst crime a changing could, she forcibly broke both their connections to the hive mind, then quickly cast a potent sleeping spell on Byx finally cutting off the flow of dark corruption, but the damage was already done, where his eyes should be were burned out holes and his wings should be was completely burned nothing but cracked chitin and blistered third degree burns underneath.
Psyker knew he needed medical attention, so she committed the second act against her hive that counted as treachery, she would go to defect to the eastern changling hives, but before she started her journey, Byx said something before falling completely asleep that made her pause.
"We must warn the other hives before Chrysalis ever reaches the children."
