Slayer

Twilight got a few odd looks from guards and maids as she sprinted through the halls of Canterlot castle, but they didn't make any move to stop or question her.

This suited her just fine. She wanted to get to The Slayer as fast as she could.

Apparently, Celestia already saw fit to give her access to the labs under the castle, because she was able to get onto the elevator without any issue. As soon as it reached its destination, she started briskly walking down the path she remembered taking the day before. She briefly noticed that a few scientist and guards gave her small bows as she passed, but she paid them no mind.

Once she was outside The Slayer's chamber, Twilight heard a voice behind her. "Princess Twilight?"

She turned to see Aegis, caught in the middle of heading to another section of the labs, judging by the clipboard being held in her magic. "What's the occasion? Didn't think you'd come back so early."

Twilight couldn't bring herself to match Aegis's upbeat mood, and she instead got close to her to whisper, "I think we should release The Slayer."

Aegis's eyes went wide, and she briefly dropped the clipboard, but was barely able to catch it in time. "What?!" she whispered back. "Are you crazy?!"

"I came across some new information," Twilight explained, her voice slowly rising above a whisper without her noticing. "He's an enemy of Tartarus."

Aegis gave her a confused look. "How could you be so sure of that?"

Twilight faltered. "W- Well, uh-"

"Look, it doesn't matter right now," Aegis cut her off. "Either way, we need to clear it with the other princesses, first. We can't release anything we have here without a unanimous decision from you three."

"Well, alright then. Let's go get Celestia and Luna, then we can-"

"Then we can what, Twilight?"

Both ponies jumped at the arrival of Celestia, Aegis whirling around and backing up slightly so both princesses were in view.

"Celestia!" Twilight blurted out. "When did you get here?"

"I overheard some guards talking about you running through the halls. I was curious as to what the problem was."

Even though she already told Aegis, Twilight was much more hesitant to bring up the subject with her former mentor. "Well, uh..."

Aegis, meanwhile, was much more direct. "She thinks we should free The Slayer."

Celestia didn't visibly react, which made Twilight feel even worse. "And why is this?"

"I, uh... found some new information?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Really? We've been researching him for countless years with no substantial results, and you found enough of a breakthrough after just a day of knowing about him to make a decision such as this?"

Twilight's wings started to droop. "I..."

"Twilight, I understand you're intrigued by The Slayer, but you must calm down. Assuming whatever you found was enough for you to make a decision, then we shall discuss matters with Luna."

Twilight still remained gloomy, but she felt a small glimmer of hope when she realized that Celestia hadn't outright denied the possibility. "I understand, Celestia."

"Well, I gotta attend to other business for now," Aegis said, starting to walk away. "If you three do decide to... well, let him loose, let me know, alright? I can whip the guards into shape for defensive plans."

"Thank you, Aegis." Celestia started walking in the opposite direction, and Twilight hesitantly followed, stealing a single glance back at the door hiding The Slayer.

"So what exactly did you find out?" Celestia asked after a while.

Twilight did her best to think up an answer that wouldn't hint at her methods. "I, uh, did some digging, and, well, I think The Slayer is... well, he's against Tartarus. Er, the demons of Tartarus."

Celestia seemed genuinely interested. "Oh? And how did you find this out?"

"It was... after I spoke with Discord about it," Twilight said, fabricating a lie for herself. "Something he said stuck out to me, and after doing some searching, I was able to track down some writings from one of the members of the Church of Discord."

Celestia looked like she wanted to object, but reconsidered. "Hmm, then I suppose that one survivor made it out okay," she muttered to herself.

Twilight was very much thankful that Celestia didn't spot her eyes nervously shifting about. "Yeah, w-well, it was a short anonymous account, only discussed in a collection of 'disproven' legends, but the facts line up. According to them, The Slayer was only fighting the demons at first, and he only attacked the Church themselves after they pledged their loyalty to them and then attacked him." Twilight noticed how detailed she was getting, and tried to cover her tracks. "Uh, or so it seems."

"Is that so?" Celestia asked, her voice stuck halfway between suspicion and earnest curiosity. "And where did they write it from?"

"Uh, northeast Equestria?"

"Really?" Celestia asked. "Because we had searched all around the area that would become Manehattan, and we found nothing."

"Oh, not in Manehattan, it was from the Baltimare area."

"Ah, I see." Celestia nodded. "You'll have to show us that passage then, Twilight. To think we've overlooked it for all these years..."

Before Twilight could internally panic about how to keep her lie going, the overhead intercom system crackled to life, followed by a stallion speaking over it.

"Um, could Princess Celestia please report to the Delta-Four lab? We're getting strange magical readings, here."

Twilight tilted her head. "Delta-Four lab?"

"Supposedly, it's an ancient, long-range teleporter," Celestia explained as she started walking down a branching hall. "Go ahead and find Luna, I'll be with you both shortly."

Twilight nodded, then watched as Celestia disappeared around a corner. She stayed put for a while, though, doing her best to think up a way out of the web of lies she found herself crafting.

Suddenly, there were red lights and alarms going off all over the labs, every single pony around her dropping what they were doing in response.

Rising above the sounds of the sirens, the intercom came to life again, this time with Aegis's voice.

"Attention, all personnel, report to the nearest shelter room! We have confirmation of invading forces, this is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill!"

All at once, everypony started panicking, running down one of the halls that evidently led to one of those shelters. The guards appeared to be much more cool-headed about things, taking the time to more efficiently funnel the scientists the right way.

The intercom turned on once more. "This is Alpha-Two lab, we already have heavy losses! They're dem-"

The intercom abruptly cut off, but Twilight heard enough. A few guards called out to her as she galloped away from where they were herding the scientists, but she ignored them. The whole time, the intercom kept going, with other labs reporting similar things, some of them simply panicking and rambling for dear life.

Twilight had to hurry.

The door to The Slayer was now unguarded, but still tightly shut. Rather than try to figure out how to operate the door mechanisms, Twilight opted to simply teleport inside.

The room was bathed in red thanks to the emergency lights, making The Slayer's form all the more threatening. As she approached it, Twilight realized that she didn't really know how to get him out. They needed the Elements to free Discord, and she didn't have those anymore.

Then again, Discord was also able to break free on his own after a thousand years or so, and since The Slayer was imprisoned for just as long, the same could be done for him?

Aegis's voice cut into the intercom again. "We have confirmation that the invasion is demonic in nature. All guards, maintain posts near shelter rooms and kill on sight."

That announcement spurred Twilight on, and she reached out and touched The Slayer.

Once again, she found herself in the void, but it was more unsettling this time around. The voices were much louder, being incomprehensible screams. On the whole, even though nothing looked different, Twilight was heavily unsettled.

Galloping forward, she eventually came to the standing form of The Slayer. He was looking away, but as soon as Twilight got close enough, he turned around. The visions were starting again, but Twilight was able to look past them, albeit with much difficulty.

Once again, Twilight found herself unable to act under his vicious gaze, and the memories of what he did to those demons kept eating at her mind, pairing with the visions to almost petrify her to the spot.

Still, it was her only idea for freeing him...

Taking a few deep breaths and summoning every drop of her courage, Twilight forced herself to walk closer to The Slayer, the wails around them growing in frequency. She folded her ears down in an attempt to block some of it out, but it didn't help.

The Slayer walked forward to close the distance, and then reached for her. Twilight could barely see it, thanks to the visions, but she still managed to force herself to raise a hoof to meet his hand.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then The Slayer forcefully grabbed her hoof, his grip burning to the touch.

Twilight screamed out of surprise and pain, doing her best to pull away, but his grip was unbreakable. The longer he held on, the hotter it got, and it even felt like the screams around her got louder.

Twilight could feel her own voice joining them as the burning sensation continued, no matter how much she struggled to pull back. However, it didn't feel like The Slayer was pulling her close, per se...

In fact, it was almost as if he was pulling himself to her.

Twilight made one last desperate jerk back, and for an instant, her entire vision was filled with the symbol on his helmet.

There was a crack, and everything went white.

Jolting awake, Twilight got back to her hooves and looked around. She was still in The Slayer's chamber, still bathed in that unsettling red light as occasional intercom announcements told her that, while the shelter areas were holding, the labs had already taken heavy losses, and the demons refused to stop.

Suddenly, there was a massive crack, and Twilight faced The Slayer. Slowly, his stone surface was cracking apart.

Despite the situation, Twilight couldn't help but feel slightly proud. Whatever she did, it seemed to have worked!

That pride was quickly overwritten by horror, however. She still had no idea how he'd react to finally being free.

Suddenly, The Slayer's outstretched arm broke free, sending bits of rock all over the room. Soon after, the rest of him followed suit, and he ended up falling forwards onto the ground, barely catching himself with his arms. Slowly, he stood to his full height, popping and cracking his joints as he did so.

His gaze locked onto Twilight, and she felt as if she had been frozen in place. No matter how much she willed her body to move, to say something, to do anything at all, it refused to cooperate.

As the intercom announcements continued, The Slayer took a few steps forward. Apparently, he had put away his weapon at some point, but after seeing him in action, that made Twilight even more afraid.

Once he was close enough that Twilight had to look up to meet what should be his face, she closed her eyes. This was it, she was about to die. All because she had to get involved in all of this.

She felt a grip on her back, and in a single moment her life flashed before her eyes.

There was a push, and then the grip was gone.

Shaking like a leaf, Twilight slowly opened her eyes. The Slayer was walking next to her, where she had previously been standing. It was as if she was simply in the way...

This revelation seemed to inspire her body to obey her commands again, and she turned to face towards him fully. "Is... it true, then?"

The Slayer stopped walking, and turned slightly. It was a minor movement, but it still made Twilight's blood run cold.

When he didn't say anything, Twilight continued. "You... you're their enemy, aren't you?"

He simply looked at her for a bit, until he gave the first actual form of communication she had witnessed from him.

He gave a small nod, then started walking to the door again.

Twilight was relieved that he seemed to harbor no ill will (to her, at least), so she nervously got closer to him. "Uh, give me a second, I can teleport back outside and open it from-"

The Slayer ignored her, opting instead to grab the spot where the two sliding halves of the door met. After a couple seconds of effort, the doors were torn apart, the metal screeching loud enough to make Twilight wince violently.

Thankfully, he stopped as soon as it was open enough to walk through, and she hesitantly followed. "I guess that works, too... But now we should-"

Twilight cut herself off as she saw the state that the rest of the labs were in. There was a thin layer of smoke starting to gather at the ceiling, but more alarming was the scattered blood splatters, occasionally paired with what was undoubtedly pony corpses. At least, the ones that didn't have just a stray limb. At the same time, she could overhear the sounds of screaming and fighting echoing down the halls.

Watching the carnage in the past was one thing, but being this close to such brutality, and done to ponies that she had most likely seen just yesterday, was enough to make her sick.

As she sat, dry heaving into a corner, she noticed that The Slayer was looking back at her. Not only that, but his body language seemed to imply... pity?

Once she managed to recover, Twilight started to shakily walk ahead of The Slayer. "The... the others should be in... a shelter nearby. You'll help us, right?"

As was becoming the norm, he gave no verbal answer, nor did he make any sort of noise. All he did was follow her, although he was scanning every hallway they passed, as well as a few vents that were in the ceiling.

By now, Twilight had adjusted to the violence enough to not shut down at the sight of it, so she tried to figure out the best way to find where exactly the nearest shelter was. At some point, they also came across demon corpses, alongside the ponies, although they were far fewer in number. Interestingly, The Slayer paused slightly upon seeing them, before continuing on.

She also noticed that he had pulled his weapon out again, although it was still pointed at the floor. It was almost identical to the way he walked out of that forest when Twilight first saw him.

In the meantime, she was trying to figure out the best way to find out how to get to the nearest shelter. As unsavory as it was, following the bodies was probably a safe bet, as was following the sounds of combat. They had gotten slightly louder since they started moving, but it was still impossible to pinpoint which halls they came from.

Suddenly, there was a crash behind them, and both Twilight and The Slayer whirled around to see a demon falling out of a ceiling vent, gracefully landing on its feet before assuming a combat stance.

However, once its eyes fell on The Slayer, Twilight noticed a minor change in its stance. As the demon let out a bone-chilling shriek, she noticed that it was starting to put more balance on its back leg, while subtly bringing its arms closer to its center.

It was... afraid?

She didn't get the chance to fully observe its behavior, as there was a blur of motion beside her, and the next thing she knew, The Slayer was right in the demon's face, before he grabbed hold of its head and swiftly brought it down onto his knee, completely obliterating it and leaving its headless body to crumple to the floor, creating a puddle of blood.

As she watched the spectacle, The Slayer simply turned around, and kept walking. His weapon was still present in his hands, so why didn't he use it?

After a moment of Twilight staring agape at the scene, trying to process everything, The Slayer nudged her, causing her to almost jump into the air, yelling.

"Aah! Oh, uh, sorry, I just..." She shook her head. "Moving on."

She started moving faster this time, with The Slayer falling into step, weapon now constantly aimed as he scanned the area around them.

By now, the intercom announcements had stopped entirely, and Twilight tried not to think about the implications. She could still hear fighting happening somewhere, so they weren't too late, right?

"This place really needs some signs," she muttered to herself, taking the two of them through different hallways to try and find the right path. Both the amount of corpses and the volume of the fight were growing, however, so it seemed like they were on the right track.

At some point, they also began to hear snarling and hissing, no doubt coming from the demons. The Slayer drummed his hands along the underside of his weapon, as if he was itching to find them so he could use it.

Above them, the intercom crackled to life again. "To all surviving guards, we have confirmation that the Delta-Four lab is the main source of the invasion. Make sure shield spells are in place around the shelters, and then move to neutralize the threat."

Twilight let out a small sigh of relief. "At least Aegis is safe..." And then she gasped. "Wait, Princess Celestia was going to that lab!"

The Slayer gave her a brief look, and then continued watching their perimeter.

Twilight started to speed up, going into a full trot, but he was able to keep pace with her perfectly. She just hoped that they'd be in time to help...

The demon sounds grew louder and louder, until they turned a corner to see a glowing blue shield covering a particular door. As expected, demons were clawing and beating at the shield, but she also noticed that there were a few bloody, shambling ponies beating at it, too. Twilight remembered the possessions she saw in the past, and shuddered. She imagined the process was likely much more horrific when the target was unwilling.

The Slayer didn't wait for the demons to notice them, and instead pulled out his rocket launcher. Before Twilight knew it, he had already fired one off, and she could only hope that the shield would be able to withstand it.

Once the rocket hit home, the horde was blown apart, body parts scattering the floor, with a few even hitting the ceiling. The shield flickered heavily upon detonation, but it managed to hold strong.

One of the possessed ponies managed to avoid being killed by the blast, so The Slayer bounded over to deliver a stomp to its head. Evidently, going that far forward exposed him to other demons that were around the corner, as he looked up just in time to sidestep an incoming fireball, which hit the shield instead.

Worryingly, it flickered a bit harder at that impact.

Twilight could only watch helplessly as another horde of demons descended upon The Slayer, who once again started to enact his deadly dance. However, Twilight was unable to observe most of the fight, as he would often run around the corner during the fight, leaving her to simply react to the battle based on the sounds of weapons exploding as they fired, skulls and rib-cages being shattered, and the myriad cries of the demonic forces.

All the while, stray attacks were colliding with the shield, causing it to flicker more and more every time.

Thinking quickly, Twilight closed the distance slightly, just enough to get in range. She then fired up her horn and cast another shield spell of her own, just behind the blue one. It was likely much weaker, but hopefully it would be enough to buy the ponies inside more time should their own shield break.

As she was doing this, she kept getting glimpses of the battle as The Slayer sometimes ran from one end of the hall to the other, demons either hopping backwards from him or chasing after him.

A few times, the fight transferred into the corridor that Twilight was still in, but she was able to take cover behind a support beam on the wall. It still didn't stop her from seeing the occasional flying limb, though.

After about a solid two minutes of fighting, she could no longer hear any demons, so she peeked out to see for herself.

And as she expected, The Slayer was the last one standing, looking at a shield spell that appeared to be on the brink of shattering on its own.

Twilight went ahead and dropped her own shield, just as the blue shield faded out entirely. She took the opportunity to gallop up to the shelter door, The Slayer walking up behind her.

Just as they were both in front of it, the blue shield started up again behind them, trapping them in a small bubble between the door and the rest of the hallway. The Slayer seemed slightly on edge about this new development, but he didn't do anything just yet.

Twilight knocked on the door. "Hello? It's me, Twilight Sparkle!"

At first, no one answered, but after a moment a voice spoke up from the other side. "How do we know this is the real Twilight Sparkle, and not some demon trick?"

She rolled her eyes. "Just open the door, please? The shield is up and everything."

There was some muffled debate behind the door, before it slowly slid open, just enough for a guard to start walking through. "Alright, come on, you... should..."

His statement died out as he caught sight of The Slayer, who simply gave him an unreadable look. Twilight didn't wait, and simply walked into the shelter. The Slayer followed, with the guard slowly returning inside and closing the door.

The shelter looked quite similar to military barracks, with ponies laying on all the beds, and a few in the floor. Medical personnel were scurrying about, tending to as many wounded as they could.

All eyes were on them upon their entry, and most of them froze on the spot when they saw The Slayer.

Further in the shelter, just out of view, Twilight heard Aegis talking to somepony else. "...situation is dire, but we need hooves on the ground right now."

The Slayer seemed to recognize the voice, and started walking through the crowd. They gave him a wide berth, eyes still wide, leaving Twilight to awkwardly follow.

"B- But ma'am, you've seen what those things can do! We don't stand a chance!"

"You're the best we got, and you stand a much better chance than anypony else here. Besides, Princess Celestia herself needs your help down there!"

They turned around a corner to find a makeshift command center, with a blueprint of the labs spread out on a table. Aegis was talking to a group of guards, who nervously looked between each other as she spoke. As soon as The Slayer was in view, however, they froze in place.

Aegis was facing away from them, so she continued. "We've already lost enough lives today, but I'll be bucked if I'm going to just sit here and hope they quit sometime soon. Now, I'll say it again: You will all go to the Delta Four labs to assist in combat operations, understood?"

The guards gave no answer, still frozen solid by the armored warrior that was walking up behind her.

Twilight took this time to speak up. "Aegis?"

Instantly, her stone cold demeanor was replaced with a far more friendly one. "Oh, thank goodness, Twilight, you made it... out..."

The Slayer was now in arm's reach of Aegis, and she just stared at him, her smile slowly melting into a horrified expression.

"T- Twilight...?"

"Uh, surprise?" she said sheepishly. "I, well, managed to get him out?"

Aegis just stared at him, wide-eyed. When he started to walk forward, she quickly shuffled out of the way. The guards also noticeably took a couple steps back.

While The Slayer seemed engrossed in the lab blueprint, Aegis turned to Twilight. "Are you insane?!" she whispered. "Do you know how dangerous he actually is?!"

"I'm fully aware, thank you," Twilight whispered back. "And he kept the demons from breaking through the shield."

Aegis glanced at his back, and the guards still keeping their distance. Suddenly, The Slayer looked directly at them, and they backed up even further, to the point where they collided with the wall and simply started cowering. He paid this no mind, and continued studying the blueprint.

"Think about the collateral damage, Twilight!" Aegis argued. "Even if he's not hostile to ponies, who's to say he won't end up killing everypony down here anyway?! We should-"

She was cut off when The Slayer suddenly reached back and grabbed her, and she screamed like a filly as she was quickly pulled to the side of the table. A few guards tried to step forward in response, but another look from The Slayer kept them in place.

Once it was clear that she wasn't being brutally murdered, Aegis stopped screaming and looked at him. His only response was to point at the blueprint, specifically at a room that was circled.

It took a bit for her to figure out what he meant. "U- Uh, that's where the d- demons are coming in, Mr. Slayer."

He seemed satisfied with the answer, but then he picked up the blueprint and held it right in front of her face, before pointing at the ground.

Aegis picked up the meaning, and pointed at one of the rooms that was marked with a dot. "W- We're here right now."

That was all he needed to know, evidently, as he simply nodded, tossed the blueprint back on the table, and then started walking back out of the room.

Twilight had simply watched events unfold with bated breath, but was shaken into action when The Slayer brushed past her. "Hey, wait!"

He did not wait, and he made his way back to the entrance of the shelter, where a guard was busy keeping up the shield spell. The Slayer tapped him on the shoulder, making the guard jump almost a full foot away while dropping the spell. When The Slayer pointed at the door, he seemed to understand, and pulled a nearby lever to open it.

By now, Twilight had caught up to him. "Hold on, wait for-"

Continuing to ignore her, The Slayer ran back into the rest of the labs, the guard quickly closing the door behind him and firing up the shield spell again.

"...me..."

Aegis trotted up beside her, as they started to hear the faint sounds of combat and explosions outside. "Twilight Sparkle, you have released probably the most dangerous creature to ever step foot in Equestria, and now it's loose in our labs, in the midst of a demonic invasion."

Twilight winced at her tone. "We were being invaded, and..." She sighed. "I knew that, if nothing else, he could handle the demons."

Aegis paused before continuing. "I'll ask how the hay you knew that later. For now, we should see about securing an evacuation plan for the ponies here."

They could just barely hear the sounds of a muffled chainsaw from outside, and everyone present winced.

"Is that a chainsaw?!" a nearby guard asked, before muttering to himself. "Sweet Celestia, we're gonna die..."

Despite the situation, Aegis let out a dark chuckle. "Honestly, I think she's in a lot more danger than we are, now."

Walking over to the nearby intercom system, she pushed the button and spoke into the microphone.

"All personnel, be advised, The Slayer is now free within the facility."