Slayer

Twilight looked back and forth between Celestia and The Slayer. "You... turned him into a statue?"

Celestia nodded. "It seemed to be the correct choice at the time. We still had the Elements ready to use, and the spell we cast before to banish the rest of the demons left him unaffected."

Twilight kept staring at him, slowly trotting forward to get a better look. "Wait, wasn't he with the demons?"

When Celestia didn't answer, Twilight turned around to find her looking away, her expression unreadable.

Twilight had a feeling she knew the answer, but asked anyway. "Was The Slayer... really a demon?"

"We're still not entirely sure," Aegis answered in Celestia's stead. "We've been unable to do any proper digging into his mind, even with Princess Luna's help. To put it bluntly, there is... well, a lot of demonic corruption surrounding his soul. Even our best mages were unable to dig too deeply before it became too much to bear."

Twilight looked to the weapon in The Slayer's grasp. "So, what was he doing when you... captured him?"

"Twilight, you are aware of the Church of Discord, correct?"

She tilted her head at Celestia's unexpected question. "Aren't those the ponies that stayed loyal to Discord, even after you defeated him?"

"That is right." Celestia looked into a corner of the room, as if lost in the memory. "At the time, Luna suspected the Church was responsible for causing the invasion from Tartarus, in some misguided attempt to 'resurrect' Discord. When we got to their largest camp..."

She looked straight at the statue. "He was already there."

Twilight gulped. "Was he...?"

"Twilight, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. The Slayer was completely brutalizing the remnants of the Church, and no matter how much they fought, they were unable to land a single blow. Not only that, but the damage he was able to deal out in return..."

Celestia shook her head, obviously trying to forget the details. "There were several dead demons scattered around, as well, but their bodies were whisked away once we cast the spell to banish all of the demons."

"But he wasn't affected?"

Celestia looked away. "In retrospect, that may have been a dead giveaway that something was different about him, but we were too concerned at the time. By the time we directly approached him, all of the ponies in the camp were either dead or ran away. It was just myself, Luna, and The Slayer."

Twilight felt her blood running cold just thinking about it. "Did... you fight?"

"We didn't give him the chance. Before anything else could happen, we used the Elements to seal him on the spot. We saw the devastation that he could cause, so we didn't want to take any chances."

When Twilight stewed over this information in silence, Aegis took the time to speak again. "Since then, some of the original scholars here tried to get as much info from scanning his mind as they could. Of course, like I already told you, that didn't go so well. Still, we were able to pull out at least a few common themes surrounding his past."

That got Twilight's attention. "Really?"

"Yeah, from what we could dig up," Aegis started, simultaneously bringing over a nearby clipboard with her magic, "ol' Slayer here is definitely related to Tartarus in some way. Just about everypony that took a look reported visions of suffering, incredible heat, all the usual stuff. Lot of blood spilling, too, but for some reason they've never been able to figure out what the blood is from."

Twilight circled around the statue, taking in the intricacies of what was no doubt some form of armor. Her head only barely reached his chest, she noted. "Have you ever tried... freeing him? To see if he could tell you himself?"

Aegis went wide-eyed, as if Twilight suggested something uncharacteristically lewd, while Celestia simply shook her head. "I have considered it in the past, but Luna ultimately talked me out of it. However, to be quite honest, now..."

She shuddered as her gaze met the statue's.

"...even if he is not a demon, I fear what he would do to us all if he got out."

For a moment, no one said anything as the weight of Celestia's statement hung in the air. It was soon broken by a newcomer, however.

"Sister, are you in here?"

Celestia instantly perked up, and turned around. "Ah, Luna. I hope you slept well?"

Princess Luna looked rather groggy, but still returned a genuine smile. "Twas a rather good sleep, until I had to wake up."

Everyone present gave small chuckles at the joke, Luna took the time to look at everyone in the room. "Ah, finally showing Twilight our pet project?"

Celestia gave a small, proud smile. "She started to investigate the same things we were, so I decided it was time to fill her in."

Luna looked past them. "I assume she was curious about The Slayer?"

"Yes, apparently she saw him mentioned in a history book."

Luna frowned. "Hmph. Didn't think it was relevant enough to be mentioned anymore." Suddenly, she seemed to notice the other pony in the room. "Oh, hello, Aegis, apologies for missing you entirely."

"No problem, Princess Luna," Aegis replied, nonchalantly waving a hoof. "I know you aren't a morning pony."

While they made small talk, Twilight couldn't help but keep looking at The Slayer. She wasn't sure why, but for some reason, she found herself endlessly curious about his true nature.

As she got closer to the statue, she absentmindedly brought up a hoof to touch it and inspect further.

"...and that's when Celestia and Twilight here came- WAIT, TWILIGHT, DON'T-"

The rest of the warning went unheard. As soon as her hoof made contact with the statue, Twilight's entire vision went red.

It was dark. All around her, Twilight could see absolutely nothing but the sheer blackness. She couldn't even see her own body, although she could still tell that everything was present and accounted for.

Worryingly, even lighting up her horn appeared to have no affect, and the darkness stubbornly stayed put on herself and her surroundings.

She also noticed that, despite the scenery, it wasn't quite silent. She could hear what sounded like distant wind blowing, as well as various unintelligible whispers.

"Hello?" she called out, her voice echoing throughout the void.

She got no answer.

Seeing no other options, she began walking in a random direction. While she was still able to walk, the floor here didn't entirely feel tangible. Even cloudwalking offered some sort of feedback, but this truly felt like she was walking on nothing at all.

As she moved, the whispers slowly grew in frequency and volume, although they remained just as incomprehensible as before.

"C- Celestia? Luna? Aegis?"

Her calls went unanswered.

Eventually, the scenery changed, ever so slightly, and she saw something finally take form in the distance, roughly the size of a pony.

"Hey!" she called out to the form, but still got no answer.

Now with a destination, Twilight broke into a gallop, trying to see who it was. Frustratingly, whoever it was, they seemed to be constantly out of focus, no matter how close she got. The most she could make out was the color green.

All the while, the whispering steadily grew more frenzied, but she paid it no mind.

Once she fully closed the distance, she brought up a hoof to try and get their attention.

The moment she made contact, she yelped and jumped back, the small touch practically burning her. At the same time, the figure suddenly came into focus, and she could almost feel her heart stop.

As she looked on, the figure rose to its full height, and no matter how much she wanted to run, her legs refused to cooperate.

The moment the figure turned around, Twilight knew who it was. At the same time, her head felt like it was splitting open, and she fell to the ground in pain.

One after another, various visions forced their way into the back of her mind, each one causing another blast of pain to wrack her body. All the while, The Slayer slowly walked towards her.

She didn't notice. Instead, all her focus was on the pain, and the visions that caused them.

An endless, desolate landscape, filled with dozens of fresh corpses.

The constant sounds of violent battle, along with the tearing of all sorts of viscera.

Incredible heat, followed swiftly with even more piercing pain, again and again.

Sometimes, she could fully make out the form of various monstrosities, followed quickly by their destruction.

All the while, the pain just kept getting worse, just kept growing, just wouldn't stop

"Twilight!"

And just like that, she was back in the facility under Canterlot castle. She remembered being shown The Slayer's room, talking with Luna, and then touching the statue, but then...

She shook her head as she slowly got to her hooves. Past that, everything was a huge blur. It felt like, somehow, it lasted both an eternity and no time at all.

As soon as she was on her hooves, she noticed that everyone was closely gathered around her. Luna looked even more tired than when she first walked in, and all of them looked incredibly worried.

"Okay, I should've told you about that," Aegis said quickly, "simply touching the statue triggers the visions in unicorns, I am so, so sorry about that."

"Are you feeling okay, Twilight?" Celestia asked.

"Y-yeah, I'm... fine." She looked back at the statue. "How long was I out?"

"Only two minutes, at most," Luna said. "Normally, ponies stay out for a bit longer, but I was able to pull you back to the waking world much more quickly."

"And, uh, don't worry about side effects," Aegis hastily added. "As long as you didn't go too deep, you'll be perfectly fine. And trust me, we'd know if you went too deep."

"In any case, you should rest for a bit," Celestia said. "We have a break room where you can lay down for a bit."

"Yeah, I'll... I'll do that..."

Celestia nodded, and led the group out of The Slayer's chamber. Before the door shut behind them, Twilight gave one last look back at the statue.

Was he really a demon? Or something else entirely?