Cult Founding for Dummies

Chapters

Ch 1: Buyer Beware!
ch 2: Getting your feet wet.
Ch 3: Networking

Ch 1: Buyer Beware!

Despite damages to the castle from Tirek’s attack, morale remained high. All of Canterlot, nobles and commoners alike, cheered and celebrated the defeat of an enemy that seemed certain to end their way of life. Everypony was celebrating. Everypony, that is, except for the two at the center of it all. Celestia and Luna sat poised in the throne room using centuries of political training to hide their grinding teeth as they either stressed over keeping the cheerful cacophony from spiraling out of control or enduring periods of tedium as some nobles took a break from celebrating to revisit the old traditions of inane whining or complaining about how things could have been better handled.

“And what is taking those cleanup crews so long!?” A well-dressed mare at the base of the dais ranted. Luna couldn’t recall her name. Or care for that matter. “Frankly, the scenery looks better without those lowborn apartments. More importantly, what about my skylight?! While I’m waiting for repairs, lady Shining Jewel is blah blah networking blah blah I’m petty blah blah blah I look like a blimp in anything I wear blah blah…”

Luna closed her eyes and took a breath to keep her mind on track as the blithering noble polluted the air with her petty whining. When images tossing said noble out of the castle window, no need to worry about damages as it hadn’t been replaced yet, became more pervasive she decided to move her mind onto other matters before she was tempted to make that daydream a reality. Matters like her fellow princesses.

Luna dearly longed to be with Twilight and the bearers at their new castle. She also couldn’t help but feel a bit envious to the newest princess for gaining a castle that had the grandiose of Canterlot Castle but lacked the overdressed parasites due to being near a small town. Then again, Canterlot used to be a small town. Luna took a bit of perverse pleasure knowing Twilight would share the sisters’ pain in a century or two. Then there was Cadence to consider. Poor thing. It might seem she was getting off easy having to leave for the Crystal Empire but the matter of introducing the citizens to modern life was…well…

“Princess, please! You must help us! My family lives in constant fear of this unnatural light and-”

“DEAR FAUST!! Just how many times do I have to say this!?! Elevators don’t link to Tartarus, hero sandwiches aren’t made of heroes, and THE LIGHTBULBS AREN’T TRYING TO STEAL YOUR SOUL!!!”

…it was a work in progress.

Thoughts of colleagues and superstitious supplicants were dashed as a unicorn maid came from behind and whispered to Celestia, “Your Majesty, word has come from the guard scouts in the country side. We are code obsidian.”

Luna gave no indication of her worry aside from a sight widening of her eyes, but she actually had to fight the urge to charge from the throne room. Unless things have changed in emergency protocol then a code obsidian would be…

Celestia frowned in thought before giving a nod and replying, “Very well, Marigold. Tell the chef that ‘my pizza has rotten eggs.’” The maid nodded in answer and teleported away. Before Luna could ask about the odd passphrase, Celestia stood and announced in an apologetic voice, “While I realize this may be abrupt, I’m afraid an emergency has arisen, which means day court will be closed for the rest of the day.”

“Wait, your majesty! What about my skylight!?”

Celestia smiled pleasantly at the obnoxious mare. If the idiot noble actually knew Celestia that well, she’d know that particular smile meant running would be a good idea at the moment. “Well, if you insist, there is actually something else I’ve been meaning to talk to you about, Lady Flint. If you like, I can ignore the emergency in favor of listening to your grievance until one of the royal accountants arrive to take a closer look at your tax records-”

“Well, you’re obviously busy, Princess, so I’ll just leave you to it, bye!” Flint babbled before bolting from the throne room at speeds that might have impressed Rainbow Dash.

“A pity other problems couldn’t be resolved so easily,” Celestia sighed tiredly before lighting her horn to teleport Luna and herself away.

Luna looked around and recognized one of the hidden sanctums in the castle where equipment and supplies for various emergencies were kept. From the various runes and wardings carved into the wall, it seemed that her earlier suspicions were confirmed. “So, despite time that’s passed, I take it code obsidian still means…?” Luna trailed off expectantly.

“Yes, I’m afraid so, Luna,” Celestia answered grimly before strolling down the hall with a determined frown, “we have a demon incursion.”

Luna sighed as she walked alongside her sister. “I wish I could say I was surprised. Between Cerberus’s absence and Tirek ripping a tear in reality long enough to toss us into his old cell, I would be more surprised if one of the other prisoners didn’t notice and take advantage of one of those holes in security.” They continued down the hall in silence aside from the sound of their hoof falls on marble before Luna spoke up again. “So, what are we facing?”

“Good news? Nothing as severe as, say, Grogar or Arabus. More likely some self-serving subordinates and a few loners. Bad news. They are cautious enough that we didn’t know they were gone until after I sent some scouts to check the prison in the wake of Tirek’s escape.”

Luna grimaced. In some ways, this proved worse than news of some greater evil escaping. At least with fiends like Tirek there were usually signs and trails left resulting from hubris or rampages. These lessor ones tended to wait in the shadows and work through third parties until they were ready. By that point there were usually quite a few casualties. Sometimes they even set events in motion to release greater evils as a distraction. Still… “If nothing else, you seem to at least have a plan in place. Tell me,” she looked back to Celestia curiously, “what sort of safeguard comes with such an odd passphrase?”

Celestia stopped in the middle of the hallway and closed her eyes. Luna couldn’t be sure, but she seemed…hesitant. In her experience, that never promised good things. “Well…it involves bringing in an advisor.”

Luna blinked in confusion before her eyes narrowed. “Tia,” she said sternly, “there are only so many possibilities for advisors that could claim to be an authority on demons.”

“And in this case, it would be a demon. More specifically, a demon lord,” Celestia said nervously.

The admission was met with a tense silence. The two sisters sat in the hallway, the older fidgeting nervously while the younger simply stared. Eventually, Luna broke the silence. “Tia. In my studies, my career as a guardian of the night, and my own unfortunate experience, I’ve learned enough to recognize signs of demonic influence. The fact you have shown none since my return is enough to keep me from blasting you through a wall and immobilizing you as a precaution.” Her eyes narrowed further before she continued, “That said, I expect a very good explanation.”

“Well, for one thing, he is sorcery born rather than pureblood de-”

“THAT JUST MAKES IT WORSE!” Luna shouted in outrage. It wasn’t quite Canterlot Voice level, but certainly loud enough to make Celestia flatten her ears and wince in these cramped quarters. “At least purebloods are merely acting on the nature they were born with. But a sorcery born?!? Some perverted upstart that would willingly discard their soul for demon ascension!?! The acts of sheer cruelty and malice they commit for their rituals and quest for power is enough to-”

“It was by accident.”

Silence once again took the hall as Luna stared. “By accident,” she repeated flatly. “You say he…accidently a demon ascension? What, did he glance a sorcerer’s masterwork spell at a flea market, trip through a portal to an abyssal plane, then take a nap in the throne of the ruling demon lord who picked then to take stroll?”

“Actually, that’s not too far from what he told me,” Celestia answered with a sardonic grin. “You see, what happed was…”

Long, looong ago in another world.
“I don’t know, Bill. This seems like a pretty stupid idea. Even compared to your other ideas, and that’s saying something.”

“Oh come on, Fred! This is a once in a life time opportunity!” The two youths were sitting in a darkened room lit only by candles surrounding a chalk pentagram. Bill leaned in toward his friend and whispered conspiringly as he held up a leather-bound book in front, “Are you going to say you aren’t curious? That you wouldn’t want to get a glimpse into the mind of one of the ancestors seeking answers to the universe, even to the point of dealing with mysterious powers beyond their ken?”

“No,” Fred flatly said as he gazed at the book with lidded eyes and then back to Bill, “and that’s before the fact I know you got this from the homeless guy on the street corner who wears tinfoil to protect his thoughts from government-bred brain slugs.”

Tip:
No matter what your reasons for starting the business, always confirm the authenticity, or lack there of, of any book, artifact, or symbol before proceeding with rituals. Failing to do so, at best, could see you turned inside out and deep-fried. At worst, you may forfeit all chance for respect and intercourse for the rest of your lifetime (or lifetimes depending on the ritual used).

“…Alright fine!” Bill snapped as he tossed the book into Fred’s hands. “What matters is that it’s real enough for those hot Goth chicks from the café and you’re the only one of us that can read enough Latin to sound legit. I’m including you in a sweet deal, dude, so the least you can do is cut the flak and get familiar with the thing before they get here and get familiar with us. Which should be in about,” Bill glanced impatiently at his watch, “fifteen minutes.”

“Okay, okay,” Fred said exasperatedly, rolling his eyes as he opened the book at a random page. He alternated between irritated sighs and muttering as he shifted through lines for something legible. “Okay, let’s see. Hmmm. locatorem c…ccasus incidunt, sit maior vires in…unum? Geeze, it reads as though some five -year-old found google translate and banged random phrases on the keyboard he thought sounded cool. That or, if the book really is that old, the author spent too many months snorting incense and lamp oil.” Before he could comment further, the runes in the page blazed alight. He wisely decided now would be a good time to toss this thing out the window, but the idea came too late as he was consumed by a bright light. Fred’s pained and terrified scream filled the apartment before ultimately being overwhelmed and silenced by a concussive blast that shook the apartment.

The apartment room remained silent aside from the occasional spark of exposed wire and creak of straining wood. Bill groaned, shoved aside the broken furniture pieces and blearily opened his eyes which widened in shock at the sight around him. The place looked like someone set a bomb off. The only thing that seemed untouched was the book lying in the center of the room. Ground zero was marked nearby in the form of a large scorch mark where Fred used to be. Bill numbly stood and made his way to the center of the room and picked up the book. For a time, he simply stood there staring in shock at the book, the scorch mark, and back to the book.

….

“Nope.” The declaration was punctuated by a dull thunk as the tossed book landed in what remained of the trash bin. “Guess it’s plan B then. Now,” Bill glanced around until he spotted the familiar pile of scrap that was the dresser and started digging, “maybe that photo-shopped picture me and Ozzie Osborn survived?”

“So he didn’t plot for demon ascension. He was…pushed into it?”

“Yes.”

“By his sex-starved friend.”

“Yes.”

“For the quest of coitus with random, attractive females?”

“….Y-yes.”

“And you believe he is our best chance of survival against a demon invasion.”

“……Yes?”

“…”

“…Tia. The wall to your left seems the least reinforced and, as such, least likely to cause severe bodily harm to a pony flying through it. I’ll give you five seconds to get comfortable in front of it.”

“Wait, wait, WAIT! Sister, there is more to this. Just hear me out!”

Luna stared blankly at her now very nervous older sister before sighing, “Fine. I’ll simply keep the spell charged until you are finished and then I’ll decide whether or not to use it.”

“T-thank you, Luna,” Celestia said with before swallowing nervously. The thanks were very much sincere. Despite popular belief and a thousand years head start in growth, Celestia knew who would win in a fight. While Celestia possessed a bit more in terms of experience and raw power, she was, at heart, a diplomat and political strategist. Luna, on the other hoof, proved to have the sharper reflexes, intuition and skill when it came to combat.

Also, she really, really liked to hit things as a stress reliever. Something that a griffin ambassador learned the hard way when he got too forward during a meeting over a thousand years ago. Poor, gelded buzzard.

“Anyway, without having the knowledge and experience with such things, the Abyssal plane that provided him power also acted as a prison or limbo. His next interaction with his home wouldn’t be until long after civilization fell apart and gave rise to savage groups. One in particular managed to stumble over remains of the manuscript, discovering the power its rituals offered. They hoped to gain more by contacting the demon who ruled the plane it linked to,” at this point, Celestia smiled, almost sadistically. “However, since they only had remains of the manuscript to go by, they had no idea of the…change in management.”

Yes! Finally! I’m comin’ back, baby! The demon thought giddily. He couldn’t remember how much time had passed since he made the mistake of reading that book for his horn dog friend, but he knew it was too fricking long for anyone to be alone. The Abyssal plane gave him some amazing abilities: shape shifting, far sight, complete control over the landscape. It also helped that the last guy seemed to have left behind memories, not books but actual memories, that I could draw on as sort of an ultimate readme directly connected to my brain. When he recovered from his panic attack at arriving in the then formless void, he spent nearly a century having as much fun as anyone might after discovering godlike power. At least, he did until he realized the drawback. He was alone.

The closest he came to having company was using his power to create artificial beings and likenesses of people based on his memory. Yes, it seemed pretty cool to hang out with super models and rock stars, but…Honestly? It basically equated to making a sock puppet to talk to because you didn’t have real friends. They were really cool and life-like puppets, sure, but still just puppets.

From the moment he made his grim discovery, he began tearing through his predecessor’s memories for answers and ways to get out. Sadly, the news he found turned out to be anything but good. Firstly, he couldn’t actually leave until summoned. That meant the only chance he would get at breathing fresh air and seeing sunlight would be waiting for a summons by some random psychopath to drag him across the void. Assuming they even found his summon name. That led to a new issue. Despite being a new ruler, he was stuck with his predecessor’s name until the next time he was summoned. He determined that he would change it to his own name at the first opportunity…and realized with horror that he couldn’t remember it. He remembered culture, concepts, and general events from that time but anything involving personal experience escaped him. Even the time his name was used on the night he used the spell book came up blank. He still remembered Bill at least…the dumbass. Did his predecessor’s memories crowd out some of his own? Or maybe they were lost as part of a price for the spell that brought him here? Either way, he basically had to make do with what he had.

Still, there were a few bright spots. Being in the odd status of human turned demon rather than a pureblood seemed to offer a few loopholes and exceptions to certain rules though. For one thing, the memories suggested the possibility of detecting and hijacking a summon spell in order to appear in place of the intended demon. He thought it seemed strange it never occurred to the last guy to try it. Nothing hinted at it being some taboo or presenting danger worse than anything else in this business. Unfortunately, like with the issue of name changing, he couldn’t do anything until he was formally summoned at least once. It seems changing anything in this ‘default setting’ required an active summons to access whatever mechanism and spell work managed the summoning. As luck would have it, though, someone seems to have found the ritual.

He quickly braced himself before accepting the summons and completing ritual. First came the feeling of vertigo as the spell grabbed him and pulled him through the void. Next came the disorientation from the change of scenery as he went from the quiet solitude of his sanctuary to being surrounded by thunderous echoes of hundreds of chanting voices. He opened his eyes to take stock of his new surroundings and found much what he expected.

The ritual had taken place in a massive underground room lit by wall mounted torches. The demon stood on an elevated platform in the center surrounded by stadium-style earthen benches filled to capacity by robed figures whose chanting had started to fade in favor of awed silence. Directly in front of the platform stood a wizened old man wearing his robe with the hood down and facing toward the summon circle with arms out stretched. If his positioning wasn’t enough to guess this guy called the shots, then the superior quality of his robes and bold posture would have. At seeing the demon, the leader actually hesitated. Understandable. While demons could shapeshift, they tended to have a default form in summonings. Much like the name, this was stuck until the summons provided a chance to make changes. Whatever you might say about the last demon lord, he knew how to ‘dress to impress.’ The form stood twelve feet tall, sixteen when not hunched over, had a prehensile tail as thick as a man’s arm ending in a serrated barb, and had massive black wings that currently hung over the shoulders like a cloak. It was lean, but sported corded muscle with chiseled definition. Leathery crimson skin with occasional patches of scales covered it from the top of the head to bottom of its clawed feet. Massive, curled goat horns framed the head from both sides and a crest of horns jutted from the top of the skull arranged in such a way that a bone crown seemed to rest between the goat horns. The face was something only a mother could love. Actually, scratch that. Even a mother would have looked at that face and yelled ‘Kill it with fire!’ at the top of her lungs. Crimson flesh stretched gauntly over the skull, an empty space occupied the area of the nose, and a lipless mouth treated the world to the sight of a permanent grin filled with razor-sharp teeth. Yellow, slitted eyes reflected torch light much as a cat’s would.

The man’s hesitation lasted only a moment before resuming his confident posture. Oh yeah, the demon thought sarcastically as he stared into those hungry eyes and mad grin, This guy is definitely your stereotype, power hungry cult leader. He glanced briefly at three kneeling figures between him and the cult leader. He couldn’t tell much about them as they were covered in tattered cloaks, though he had a sneaking suspicion about why they were here. Welp, might as well see what this nutjob wants. A sound like crunching stone filled the air as the demon cleared his throat before speaking in an unholy bass voice that even made zealots in the crowd shiver. “Speak, mortal. Why do you call me?”

“Great Agor, Lord of the pit!” -Man I hate that name, the Demon thought glumly- “I, your humble servant” –Pfft. Yeah sure, pull the other one – “lead the great clan, Black Heart! We seek only to aid your spread your influence in this wasteland that we may bask in your glory and…blah blah-butcher the unworthy-blah blah- lost glory-blah.”

‘Agor’ quickly tuned out most of what the guy’s rant in order to focus on what was said in between the lines of bootlicking and pandering to the audience of mad dogs. Evidently, it wasn’t long after his book escapade that the world leaders seemed to have collectively said ‘fuck it’ and pushed their little red buttons for instant apocalypse. Between the nuclear fallout and preexisting damage from pollution and releases of then unknown black magic, the world was pretty much wasted leaving only a few pockets of livable space for the surviving scraps of humanity. ‘Livable’ being a relative term. This particular pocket housed four clans of various lunatics and a smattering of small villages doing their best to eke out a living while hiding from the clans. Somehow, the leader of clan Black Heart got his crazy mitts on what remained of the spell book and got the bright idea to bring in a demon lord to help wipe out the other clans and enslave the remaining villages. Agor couldn’t say he was all that surprised that this would be how humanity went out, he suspected much of his mortal life was spent as a cynic, but it would have been nice to see a little bit of dignity in the end.

He focused back on the cult leader as he seemed to finally be winding down. “And to mark the beginning of your glorious reign, my followers and I have seen fit to bring you appropriate tribute.” At the snap of his fingers, cultist stepped forward long enough to rip the cloaks off the three figures revealing nubile, mostly naked girls ranging from their early to mid-twenties. Agor realized that some part of his humanity clearly remained as he stared at the beauties before him.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have felt his heart breaking at what he saw.

The center pale skinned girl had long auburn hair that twisted into a braid hanging over her shoulder. Her slender body had ample curves that didn’t detract from her grace. Grey eyes stared at him from an emotionless, sharp angled face with something resembling a cold professionalism. There was no weeping, zealotry, or raging at what was happening. This is simply how things were, so she accepted and obeyed. The only thing slightly more disturbing than the attitude was the uncanny facial features shared with the cult leader. The one to the left seemed to have a slighter build compared to the other two. Perhaps she had some Asian ancestry? He couldn’t tell for sure as her silky black hair hung about her face and she kept her head down. She refused to make a sound, almost as if making noise would somehow make things worse, but Agor could tell she was sobbing her heart out from the frequent drops of tears in front of her and her constant shuddering. Lastly, there was the girl on the right. She was the more buxom of the three and had a heart shaped face framed by mahogany colored hair that cascaded down her shoulders. This one’s state hit him the hardest as hazel eyes stared at him with no emotion whatsoever. This wasn’t the obedience and indifference of the first girl. This gaze showed someone who had something broken deep within her soul leaving her an empty husk.

Agor looked back at the cult leader and it took all of his willpower not to step over the circle and tear off the perverted grin he saw on the guy’s face before slaughtering every mad dog in that hole. Demons, even demon lords, were bound by any circle they were summoned to until business was concluded, or the summoner was dumb enough to slip up, but Agor could break it at his discretion. It would have hurt like a bitch, but at that moment it would have been worth it. Another idea came to him, however.

He looked to the leader and spoke “Very well. For this offering and your loyalty, I will fill this land with blood and clan Black Heart will be established as the greatest of the four clans.”

The cult leader grinned, “Excellent! We have an accord, Great Lord.” With that acknowledgement, the circle faded.

Agor looked around and nodded approvingly, “So be it. We shall begin plans for our conquest. Just as soon as the Feast of Conquers is concluded.”

“Indeed! Excellent Great Lord I-” the cult leader blinked, and his grin slipped a little. “The…what, Great Lord?”

“The Feast of Conquers. The ceremonial meal that is always held to mark the occasion of a successful bargain and toast the coming death of our enemies.” Agor raised an eyebrow and looked down on the leader from his considerable height. “You did remember to prepare such a vital ceremony before dragging me all the way from my throne in the void…Yes?”

“I, I’m afraid I remember no such feast mentioned in the rituals, Great Lord.”

Silence hung in the air as Agor stood regarding the robed man before him. The silence stretched, and members of the audience began to fidget nervously. After a full minute, he slowly leaned down until his hellish face hovered inches from the Cult leader’s now sweating one. “Do you question…me?” he rumbled softly as distant thunder. Considering his heated feelings at the sight of the girls, it didn’t take much effort to add menace to the tone of his voice.

“Never!” the leader squeaked before clearing his throat and trying again. “That is, uh, I would never question you, Great Lord. It’s just that, um,” he pulled out the tattered book from his robes and quickly thumbed through it. “We seem to, uhh, be missing that page. But worry not!” he quickly assured. “The feast will be prepared quickly. Just as soon as we can prepare the…the…” He blinked and asked meekly, “G-great Lord. Uh, what exactly is furnished at such a feast?”

Tip:
You can learn a lot about a summoner from their set up. Some forms of magic practically rewrite the rules of the cosmos providing virtually any result you could want. The downside is doing so exponentially increases the risk and danger as doing so removes many safeties inherent in those rules which leaves the spell crafter to consider every possible disaster and compensate in the spell design. Therefore, a real professional will meticulously memorize every lore, warning, and rule behind a spell to the point of obsession. They may study and theorize for years or decades before actually casting said spell to insure they succeed the first time as they understand the cost of failure. Even with the promise of ultimate power, a pro wouldn't spare a second glance at a book with so much as a tear in one of its pages. Use extreme caution in dealing with such summoners. Amateurs? Assuming they don't die instantly from the first reading, they can provide a thousand and one uses to an entrepreneurial fiend. Just remember: Prep is for pros, assumptions for demon hos.

The demon lord stood straight spoke grandly, “Why, only the grandest of dishes. The most versatile, decadent, and tempting of meals. A meal truly fit for the palate of conquerors…Pizza!”

The leader’s fear was momentarily forgotten in a haze of confusion and his face blanked, “The hell’s a Pizza?”

A great sigh filled the hall. Of course, that would be one of the great losses from the apocalypse. Well, that just provides a few more delays. He snapped his claws and a list appeared in the air before floating down to the cult leader’s waiting hands. The robed man frowned as looked, “Some of these ingredients will not be easy to come by.” An irritated growl quickly changed the man’s tone, “But not to worry! It will make it all the more rewarding!”

“Good. Now take your followers and leave this place until tomorrow night. I will use this time to become more,” Agor glanced at the girls pointedly, “acquainted with my offerings.” He had to hide a wince as the line managed to elicit a soft whimper from the weeping girl.

Then he had to keep from taking the man’s head off for the perverted look of understanding that crossed his face. “Ah, yes. Of course, Great Lord. We shall leave you to your pleasures.” At a gesture, the audience rose and took their leave from the chamber.

It took roughly half an hour, but the chamber was finally cleared leaving only Agor and the kneeling females before him. Eventually, Agor began waving his hand over the ground and a square patch began glowing and reshaping itself. As he worked he spoke, “There are many ways one may take a measure of another’s soul. Some do so through combat. Others choose careful study. Some even fall on magic to do all of the work.” As he spoke, the three girls observed the patch that now started shaping into a plate with various markings. “Myself? I favor a particular contest. One that harnesses vices such as greed, envy, and lust for power to strip away the layers revealing the soul beneath. It is a contest that requires skill, cunning, and more than a little luck. It is called-” the plate solidified into a board enclosed by multi-colored squares and holding a number of tiny figures “-monopoly.

“But let’s make one thing clear!” he barked making the girls jump. “I am, and always will be, the car.”

All three girls had various reactions.

The middle girl stared at the board with quirked eyebrow, “What is monopoly?”

The weeping girl from the left looked up through her hair for the first time showing stunning, if currently confused, almond-shaped green eyes. “What’s a car?”

The last, bless her heart, finally showed some emotion as a spark of longing showed in her eyes gazing toward the figurines. “Can…can I be the bunny?” she whispered softly.

Author's Note

A little something I started writing to get the creative juices flowing and remove writers' block from other projects. Constructive critisim welcome and hope you enjoy :pinkiehappy: .

Also, tip segements were done to keep to spirit of how to guides. Does it work as is or is it too disruptive and better left at superscripts1 connected to author notes?

ch 2: Getting your feet wet.

The game went on through much of the night, as monopoly often does, and much was learned by all parties. They learned he wasn’t the monster they expected to be fed to and he learned more about the girls and the world around them. Agor continued with his odd brand of crazy ranging from bizarre comments to conjuring items such as snacks, toys, and clothing unlike anything the girls had seen before. This often threw the girls off balance which resulted in the dual effects of relaxing them and letting new information slip.

Tip:

Just like any business, it's important to get the lay of the land. Remember two things when getting info. One: Don't rely on one source. Followers, loyal or not, have the tendency to tell you what they think you want to hear and any outside source can be mixed based on if they know you and what reputation, likely well deserved, you have. Best to go for a combination of sources and compare for the big picture. Two: Vary your approach. There is a reason Demons are often associated with shape shifters. Being the 'Big Bad Demon Lord' all the time will get you nowhere fast. Look at your target and ask 'what image will they respond to?' One day you may be a terrifying harbinger of the infernal. The next, you may be a friendly talking animal offering advice and a sympathetic ear. Particularly creative and cunning minds have been known to combine both approaches to astonishing effect. For an example, consider one of our bestseller documentaries: The Red wolf of Sesame St.

The braided girl, named Cassandra, quickly threw herself into the game for the new challenge it presented. She revealed the cult leader was, as Agor suspected earlier, her father by blood. She didn’t know his name though. Nobody knew him as anything than ‘Leader’ as not just anyone was allowed the privilege of knowing his name. Certainly, not some random girl who happened to be birthed by one of the many women he bedded none too gently when celebrating a successful pillaging. She didn’t remember much of him during her early years until he took a sudden personal interest in her on her twelfth birthday. While he remained cold to her, he began teaching her everything from math and arithmetic to art and language using books scavenged and stolen by his followers. When she overheard his plans to shape her as a suitable offering for the being from the ritual book he found she attempted to escape. She was foiled and…corrected. Each attempt thereafter was ‘corrected’ with increasing brutality until she eventually resigned herself to obedience until her final fate.

The Asian girl, Mai, took several turns of play before she finally accepted that she wasn’t falling for a ruse or cruel joke. By then, she learned to relish the chance at actually playing a game where she could compete with and rag others a bit without fear of violent reprisals. She even tried trash talking. Childish and basic trash talk, but it was a decent start. Her story didn’t include the cult until fairly recently. She grew up in her village and enjoyed as normal a childhood as any could hope for in a dying world. That is, until the Black Heart clan paid a visit. They planned on burning the place down until they noticed Mai and decided she fit whatever criteria Leader had listed for potential offerings. In desperation, the village allowed her to be taken as ‘tribute’ in exchange for being spared. Not that it did them that much good later.

And finally, there was Shay. She took the longest to open up, in the beginning she stuck with fidgeting with her bunny token in between turns and rarely responding to anyone, but when she did open up it was all out. The change really became noticeable when she was introduced to hot chocolate and cupcakes. Now every move of her bunny token was accompanied quirky little voices and bounces. Her time in between turns was spent fliting from new toys to snacks and somehow coming back to the board wearing a different set of clothes from the pile Agor brought in. It actually got kind of awkward and confusing when she plopped down beside the game board wearing a size-too-small schoolgirl outfit. He didn’t even remember conjuring one of those. Shay was never able to completely open up about her past, but a few reactions from her and some subtle hints from the other girls painted a basic and painful picture. She was brought in as a child along with the loot left over from burning down one of the villages in the countryside. It didn’t take a shrink or a detective to realize she saw way more that day than any child should have.

Agor glanced up at the three girls as they played and joked as they likely never had before. After consideration, he gave them an ultimatum. “I’m going to wipe out the clans, Black Heart included, and I would like your help.”

Mai and Cassandra quickly looked up from the board to regard Agor with shocked expressions before turning to each other and then to Shay. Shay seemed too preoccupied with a mock battle between the bunny and battleship tokens, though closer inspection showed the playing had become considerably less animated and her face sported a thoughtful frown.

Cassandra spoke first. “I…bear no love the clan or fa-Leader,” she said with a bitter twist to her mouth. She looked into Agor’s eyes curiously. “Even so, why would you wish to see your own followers laid low? For that matter, why would you need us to do it? And how?”

Agor closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then let it all out before he answered. “I wasn’t born a demon, nor did I claim this power by choice. While I won’t pretend our situations began the same way, I will say that we are the same in that we were forced into a dark path not of our choosing. I want your help because I hope to help you and others have a chance at justice or something close. Maybe then, I’ll find my own peace.” He opened his eyes and looked back to the three girls who now offered their full attention, eyes burning with hope for the first time in a long time. “As for how? You tell me everything you can about the world above which will be followed by planning. Lots and lots of planning.”

“But it would take days before we could come up with something feasible!” Cassandra protested. “We’ve spent most of the night playing your game and we only have until the next night to have something ready!”

“That’s why I intend to do our planning in my abyssal plane. In it I control everything, time included. We could have days, weeks, even months to prepare.”

“I-I’m not sure about this,” Mai spoke this time. She wrung her hands nervously as she switched her gaze between Agor and the other girls. “I mean, you’ve been kind. Far kinder than I could’ve hoped,” she said with an apologetic nod to Agor, “but the abyss? Would that even be safe for us?” She continued in a whisper, “Wouldn’t it hurt us?”

“Pffft.” Everyone’s attention drew to Shay’s scoffing answer as she continued to play battle between her tokens. “Don’t be silly. We’ve been here since the middle of the game and you haven’t noticed anything yet.” She punctuated her observation with a pshew noise as the battleship fell to the, apparently super powered, bunny.

Mai and Cassandra eyes shot open in surprise and they quickly gazed around to see that Shay had indeed been right. Instead of the subterranean chamber their night began in, they were surrounded by a sandy, wide open space dotted with assorted furniture. Both girls looked back to Agor with renewed wariness.

Agor took in the looks and sighed, “I won’t make you do this. If you like, I can let you stay here in safety while I finish this, or you could even request to name a place you think you could wait things out safely and I’ll send you there with magic. I could probably explain your absence with some crock story like ‘I thought they looked tasty, so I ate them,’ and the clan would probably believe it.” He looked each girl in the eye, “Yes, technically, I could use our present arrangement to make you obey, but there wouldn’t be any real point. I don’t need your help and forcing you would kind of defeat the point of my offer. The bottom line is this: you have to make the decision on what you want here.”

The girls turned to one another with unsure glance until something they saw in each other seemed to harden their resolve. After some silent consideration, they nodded and looked back to Asgor. They were all in.

And so, they planned.

The following ‘night,’ Leader and his clansman entered the cavern to a sight that left them staring in confusion. Instead of the expected broken-spirited toys, or even just a pile of gore, the three young women stood before the demon dressed in fine robes with heads held high and steel in their eyes. Asgor explained that he decided to put them to use by reshaping them into useful tools to root out and bring the villages to heel while he focused on helping Leader and the Black Heart members stamp out the other clans. Leader would obviously hold a favored place in the coming order but, capable as he was, there were many tasks that needed doing and he could only be in so many places at once. The followers accepted the explanation without question, but Leader seemed a bit uneasy at the possibility that he would be sharing any power. The results from the following months, however, proved more than enough to put his doubts to rest.

The girls, soon known as ‘the Speakers of Agor,’ quickly brought reports of numerous villages under their sway. Tribute in the form of new followers, material goods, and food was flowing from dozens of villages. Even Leader hadn’t realized just how many villages had escaped the clan’s notice. As the girls continued to cultivate this new source of riches, Agor made good on his promise as he led Black Heart against the other clans and treated them to sights of blood and death even their twisted minds couldn’t have imagined. Even the most skilled and vicious of warriors from the other clans fell as wheat to the harvester before the demon lord’s might and power.

At the year’s end, the chamber was once again filled to capacity. Instead of solemn chanting, however, the air was filled with raucous cheers of drunken revelry as they celebrated the slaughter of the last rival clan. The Speakers of Agor and their handpicked attendants were the only ones not joining the ‘fun,’ choosing, instead, to watch the celebration from the back of the chamber. From the center platform, Agor raised his claws for a command of silence which was quickly obeyed by the revelers. “Faithful followers. Have I not kept my promise?” His question was answered by a loud affirmative. “Have I not soaked the land in blood? Have I not brought riches beyond your dreams? Have I not secured Black Heart’s place as the mightiest?” Each question was answered with enthused cheers from the crowd.

By the last question, Leader had drunkenly stumbled his way to take a place beside Agor at the platform. “I’m p-pretty shure we’re the-hic-only clan, Gr-hic-eat lord.” The observation was met with drunken laughter. “But, yesh, Great –hic- Lord. Shurely, your greatness has promished that none can –hic-doubt the greatness of our, uh, GREATNESS! –hic- G-great Lord.”

The demon lord nodded slightly and turned to the rest of the room. “Then let us end this with a toast.” While he had no drink, he raised his imposing, clawed hand in a motion to toast which was quickly answered by those around him. “To life! May it always grant you what you deserve.”

Tip:

The time may come when you need to...dissolve a partnership. In such times always, always, confirm in one way or another that you have fulfilled your end of an agreement. Even if you manage to find immunities or loopholes to certain rules, contracts are one of the main bindings that can't be broken without serious repercussions for those that fail to uphold their obligations. It's the fastest way for mortals to lose their souls and infernals to lose their freedom (essentially becoming what is traditionally known as genies).

Leader laughed drunkenly, clearly missing the ominous undertones of the soft declaration he would have noticed while a bit more sober, before nodding and raising his own glass. “Yesh, Great Lord! To what we deserve!” He brought his mug to his face…and barely touched it to his lips before everything from the waist up disappeared in a red mist and a sickening crunch. It happened so suddenly that his lower half actually stood a few seconds before falling over with a wet splat.

Agor, his left claw soaked in blood being the only indication as to what happened, slowly turned to regard the crowd. Silence dominated the chamber as the once elated now stared at the scene in a mixture of confusion, shock, and more than a little fear. He stared at the crowd, his grin seemingly widening, and spoke in a soft rumble, “Indeed. To what you all deserve.”

Pandemonium followed. Screams of pain, fear, and begging permeated the air. Some vainly tried to make for the exits only to find they had been locked by the Speakers and their attendants when no one was looking. Not that it would have mattered if they did escape. At the start of the celebration, secret messages had been sent to every enclave, outpost, and dwelling Black Heart controlled to be received by followers personally recruited by the Speakers. Even as Leader finished agreeing to the doomed toast, similar massacres were being carried out across Black Heart territory through poison, misdirection, blade, or a mixture of the three. Black Heart had become the prevailing clan within a year. It was reduced to a bad memory within a day.

All too quickly, the ‘brave and mighty conquerors’ were now reduced to piles of ground chuck and red smears along the wall. Agor looked up to the girls and their attendants and nodded. They nodded back with a grim satisfaction. It didn’t restore what was lost. It didn’t heal their wounded spirits. But it gave them justice, or the closest this world had. And that would be enough.

The girls gasped in surprise as Agor’s form seemed to flicker in and out of existence. They started to run forward before he signaled them to halt with a wave of his hand. He stared at them with his signature fearsome smile and spoke softly, “It’s alright, girls. This was always coming. The cult’s will is what anchored me to this world. This just means that we succeeded.” He looked to attendants who watched the scene with uncertainty. “Go home. Go spread word to the other villages. Black Heart is dead. The clans are dead. Use this to join and work together as family. Share each other’s burdens and make sure no one else can take your time of peace away. That is my last command to you.” The attendants stared with admiration before bowing low in gratitude. Agor turned back to the girls and was both touched and saddened to see them crying their eyes out. “Now, don’t be like that. We shared good times, comforted one another, and made some good memories. But before I go, let me leave you with something to help make the most of this new life of yours. Make a wish. Make any wish at all and, if it’s in my power, it’s yours.” He grimaced as he flickered again and had to increase concentration just to stabilize his presence. “Try to make it quick, though. I don’t have much time left.”

The girls stared at the demon lord with tears streaming down their cheeks. They looked to each other, steeled their gazes, and nodded in agreement before turning back to Agor. Without a word or indication of their plans, they tore across the chamber and grabbed on to any part of Agor they could, causing him to grunt in surprise. Before he could even ask what they were thinking or toss them aside, they looked up with tearful smiles and softly spoke together, “We wish to be yours.”

Before the four disappeared and slipped back to the void, the attendants were treated to one last sight to share with their fellow villagers. They learned a demon lord could cry.
Between all of the disasters and threats, dangers born from the apocalypse and short-sighted warmongers afterward, the human race only had enough members left to continue as a species for a dozen or so generations. The survivors did not mourn though. Instead, they lived their time to the fullest and fondly remembered the fierce creature that brought them the hope needed to do so. A demon lord who was summoned to this world by Black Heart under the name Agor and left with a new name remembered in stories passed down till the passing of the last human. The demon lord Vindicta.

Author's Note

Fairly earlier than I planned, I intend on doing updates at roughly a week at a time, but this had some material for that last ch that mainly helps add a little development and setup for the main characters intro. Next update might come a tad bit later, but only a few days at most.

As always, feel free with the constructive crit. and I hope you enjoy :raritywink: !

Ch 3: Networking

The hallway remained tensely quiet, lit only by the soft glow of Luna’s spell as she and her sister regarded each other. Finally, Luna spoke, “Quite the bittersweet and admirable tale…if true.” After a moment’s more hesitation, the light from Luna’s horn faded as she released her spell which prompted a relieved sigh from Celestia. “Don’t get too relaxed, sister,” Luna warned. “You’ve yet to reveal how this being links to you.”

“Yes, of course,” Celestia agreed. She closed her eyes a moment and breathed in and out a couple of times. She was not looking forward to this part of the conversation. She opened her eyes and looked to Luna. “This may seem off topic, but what do you think of when you consider Nightmare Night?”

Luna snorted, “Well, I certainly wasn’t pleased at first hearing of a holiday dedicated to accusations of my supposed cannibalism and extortion of small foals. However, I’ve come to see it for the blessing in disguise that it is.” She cocked an eyebrow at Celestia. “Why? What does that have to do with anything?”

“Luna, it took at least a couple of centuries of damage control to reduce that festival from the hateful ceremony it used to be when it took root as tradition. But tell me, Luna,” Celestia tilted her head as she regarded her little sister with a sad smile, “do you think I would have ever allowed such a dreadful thing to start…were I in my right mind?”

The question caused Luna to blink her eyes in surprise before they widened in alarm. She did not like where this was going.

“History paints me as some all-knowing leader and foundation of the kingdom, keeping order after a major crisis. Truthfully, though?” Celestia closed her eyes and sobbed once. When she opened them again, the haunted look in those violet eyes made Luna gasp as she felt her heart seize as if in a vice. “I broke, Luna,” she whimpered pitifully. Her voice gained a bit more strength back as she continued. “I broke and it took everything I had to keep up the façade. I went into seclusion and, aside from raising the sun and moon, I conducted most of my duties through intermediaries. When I returned a century later to find that...that-” Celestia’s eyes blazed and her mouth twisted into a snarl that made Luna back up in shock, “-that farce! I wanted to yell. I wanted to scream! I lost my little sister to those ingrates and they celebrate?! Call her a monster!?! I wanted to turn around and give them something to tell horror stories about! I wanted to…to…,” Celestia stopped herself, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath to calm herself. When she opened her eyes, the anger had faded but the haunted look remained. “I started switching between anger and despair throughout the days and it became harder to keep in check. I became a desperate soul. And as all desperate souls are wont, I resorted to desperate measures.”

It was midnight in the Canterlot Royal Archives and darkness covered the facility, save for one spot of illumination in the vaults. Had anypony been awake to see the sight of the pony revealed by the lantern light, they would have been shocked beyond belief.

Princess Celestia, Ruler of Equestria, Guardian of Pony Kind, Steward of the Sun…and Vanquisher of Nightmare Moon…was completely wrecked. Her wings were in desperate need of preening. Bags sat beneath her eyes, her cheeks seemed to be permanently tearstained, and her coat was stained and reeked of one who hadn’t bathed in weeks. She used illusion magic to cover everything during the day, but that only hid the fact that she was standing on her last leg.

None of that mattered. She only needed to last until the end of the night.

An animal carcass lay nearby that she had used to provide blood to draw a summoning circle. Her delirious, frenzied eyes darted across the circle to be sure every detail matched the books she smuggled out. Satisfied, she ran through the incantation and activated the circle which now blazed with an angry, red light. She thought something flickered for a moment, but quickly dismissed it. She would succeed or her misery would just end. Her last rational thought ran through her mind before the telltale flash of the summoning spell blazed across her vision. I’m sorry, Luna, I’m so sorry.

“Why do you summon me?” a deep, gravelly voice intoned.

Celestia looked up to an ugly sight. A large, crimson-skin, bipedal monster with large wings and a nest of horns on its head stared back at her with a hideous grin. At any other time, the sight might have churned her stomach. At this point, however, she had become too numb to care. She stoically listed the pathetic tale that occurred between her and her sister leading to now.

The demon considered her a moment before nodding, “So then. You wish the return of your sister?”

“Yes.”

“Whatever the cost?”

The bitter alicorn gritted her teeth and answered, “Yes.”

“Even your soul?”

“YES! YES DAMN YOU, DEMON!! I’ve been ready to pay! Just give me my sister!”

The demon sat silently in contemplation before nodding, “Very well, Princess Celestia. To that offer, I say,” faster than even an alicorn could track, the demon leapt from the circle leaned down with his snarling face an inch from the startled mare’s, “You. Dun. Goofed.”

For her part, Celestia could only stare with wild, panicked eyes as her mind desperately tried to understand. What happened? How could it leave the circle? The deal had yet to be finalized. Despite these questions, the only feeling that really took root as she watched that clawed hand raise above her was regret. She closed her eyes and bowed her head in resignation. I’m sorry for everything, Luna. I’m so, so sorr-

SMACK!

Celestia blinked rapidly and lifted a hoof to her stinging cheek in confusion. She looked up to see that the demon had struck her, not with its razor-sharp claw, but with a…a…

…a fish?!

Before she could begin to guess the reasons behind this she felt stinging pain in her other cheek. “YOU. DO. NOT. SUMMON. DEMONS. TO. SOLVE. YOUR. PROBLEMS. IT. NEVER. WORKS. OUT!” he punctuated each word with a slap from the fish.

Celestia looked up, her cheeks stinging and her fur smelling heavily of mackerel, and tried to demand an explanation. “I…um…wha..? I…”

“You’re lucky it was me and not the demon you wanted that answered that summons and even more so that it was a guy who got his power through accident rather than the traditional method.” The creature sighed and shook its head tiredly before fixing the mare with a disappointed look. “Even if a demon could bring her back, doubtful since it sounds like it was a sacred artifact that exiled her, they tend to be sadistic bastards who fulfil the bargain in the most painful way possible for all involved.” He looked down at her with narrowed eyes and he spoke slowly as if to a child, “Even if, by some miracle, the demon did grant your wish as intended…did you even think of how your sister would react to your methods? Do you think she would be happy coming back to find out what price her sister paid for it?”

The tirade was met with wide-eyed shock from Celestia. However, they narrowed soon enough and she snorted in anger. How dare he? How dare this…this thing lecture her!?! “S-SHUT UP!” she screeched and charged forward to strike with all of her might…which, not surprising given her state, did not so much as budge the crimson creature. Nevertheless, she continued striking and yelling in impotent rage. “Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!! I don’t care, just do what I say and give her back!” She struck again, “GIVE HER BACK! GIVE HER BACK! GIVE HER BACK!” She wailed and cursed until her throat felt like it was going to give out and she collapsed onto the monster’s chest where she deteriorated into sobbing and whimpering, “Please. Please give her back. I just want my sister back, please. It’s not fair! It…it..it’s not…” She would have fell to the floor had the demon not caught her and gently held her in its claws that could have, should have, ripped her to shreds.

He continued to gently hold and rock her back and forth as she continued mumbling ‘It’s not fair’ over and over again. Before exhaustion took her, she heard the demon whisper softly, “Yeah. Yeah, I know. Life can be a real bitch sometimes.”

Several hours later

Awareness came slowly to Celestia as she groaned and blinked her eyes. Groggily, she looked around in confusion as she failed to recognize her surroundings. The room she observed from the four-poster bed she lay in seemed to be a combination bedroom and study like her own quarters in the castle. That, however, is where the similarities ended. Rather than one uniform décor theme, it looked as if several individuals wanted it a certain way and decided in the end to toss a little of everything in: a pile of stuffed animals here, some calligraphy materials there, a display of swords and daggers of here. She felt herself getting dizzy simply trying to tell where one style ended and another began.

“Oh, good. You’re awake. And here I was thinking I might have to kiss you awake like prince charming. Not likely something my girls would approve of.”

Celestia jerked and turned toward the direction of that warm, baritone voice. Beside a bookshelf near the corner of the room sat a brown earth pony stallion with a brown coat and ember orange mane and tail. His cutie mark featured a spell circle girded by a curled whip and wings in the background. He wore spectacled glasses and seemed to be more focused on the book in his fore leg than Celestia herself. For some reason she felt…uneasy about him. She cleared her throat before speaking, hoping that she didn’t squeak and give away how startled she was, “Excuse me but…who are you? And where am I?”

The stallion snorted. “Yes, I suppose it shouldn’t be surprising that you wouldn’t remember everything immediately. Considering the shape I found you in, it’s probably only thanks to your, hmm, unique anatomy that you aren’t dead.” He set his book down and picked up another from a pile beside him before speaking again, “As to your questions? I don’t often give my name out, but you may call me Vin. As for where you are? You were in a bad enough way that you needed some immediate bed rest, but there wouldn’t be enough time before your workday started. So, I brought you to a section of my abyssal plane where I could simply stretch out enough time for you to get some proper rest.”

At hearing ‘abyssal plane’ Celestia reached for her magic and realized in horror that she couldn’t feel her connection to the sun. She couldn’t even dredge up enough power to do more than cause her horn to spark. She quickly leapt from the bed, landed in a combat stance, and turned to face the stallion she now realized was the demon. “What do you want?!” she yelled. She didn’t even wait for an answer as she leveled more panicked questions at her captor, “What are you going to do to me?! Are you planning to kill me?”

Oddly, the creature did little more than sigh and set aside the book, one she quickly recognized belonged to the castle archives, and turned to her with an annoyed glare. Her skin crawled as she finally spotted the yellow slitted eyes she remembered from before. “Really?” he asked dryly. “Really!? I could understand that sort of shortsightedness in your condition before, but now you’ve been given a chance to rest.” He crossed his hooves and continued snidely, “How about you think about what happened so far, your position now, then ask yourself that same question? Maybe then, you can offer a more intelligent question for me, yes?”

Celestia glared angrily at Vin and pointed an accusing hoof. “Y-you! You!..?” she failed to come up with anything and lowered her hoof as she did as he suggested. He broke free of his circle and cornered her at her weakest, yet all he did was slap her, with a fish for some reason, and scold her as if she were some errant foal. He brought her to his domain only to put her in bed and wait for her to wake and proceeded to calmly chat with her while reading. If he planned on killing or hurting her, surely he would have done so during any of these easy opportunities. She glanced over at the pile of archive books nearby before quickly dismissing them as a motive. As with killing her, he had plenty of opportunity to take them and make a clean getaway but chose not to. As he pointed out earlier, he was not the demon linked to the circle she used so any attempt at tracing would have led to a dead end. Now thoroughly confused, she looked up and opened and closed her mouth before finally managing to speak, “You…you…You hit me with a fish!”

Vin raised an eyebrow and quirked his lips in bemusement. “Well, that’s…technically not a question. It is an understandable reaction, though.”

“Why?”

“Well, you were clearly in a craze that required some sort of shock to snap you out and I couldn’t very well risk using my hand for fear of claw or strength hurting you.” He tilted his head in thought and shrugged, “Although, I freely admit I just picked the fish because I thought it would be hilarious.”

“I meant why help me!” She growled out in frustration. “You told me you wouldn’t solve my problems!”

“No. I said ‘You shouldn’t summon demons to solve your problems’ and reminded you of the consequences. I also pointed out and demonstrated that I’m not your typical demon. I may not plan to step in and solve everything for you, but I’m not averse to lending a hand,” he paused to look down at his left appendage before looking back and amending, “hoof.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Celestia accused quietly.

“No, I suppose I didn’t,” he admitted before looking down in thought. After seemingly gathering his thoughts, he sighed as he looked back up, “Princess, you are not the first to experience great loss and you won’t be the last. I didn’t choose to be in this place and I have no way of regaining what was lost. The best I can do roll with the punches,” he paused long enough to glance at the mismatched décor and smile briefly, “and learn to appreciate the good things that come my way.” He turned back to Celestia and spoke bluntly, “When all is said and done, I help others like you because it somewhat alleviates my own grief over the personal losses that I can’t change. Maybe that’s not the saint’s answer, but then, I’ve never claimed to be a saint. Before or after my little,” Vin paused and looked up in consideration of the appropriate phrasing, “change in lifestyle.”

Celestia sat there as she tried to gauge for any deception from the demon pony who simply stared back with a bored expression. No matter hard she stared or how many times she went over what was said…she could find no lies. Eventually, she took a deep breath, sighed, and made a decision that left her feeling as if she were jumping from a cliff, without wings, and hoping for the best. “Let’s say…I do accept your help. What could you do?”

Vin stared for a few moments before as small smile appeared on his face. Celestia felt…oddly comforted by this. He started off, “Well, first, let’s consider the available facts. Fact 1: Sacred artifacts, especially those geared toward maintaining any balance, tend to dispose of anything that threatens the balance of things…permanently. Despite attempting to bring eternal night, the elements settled for sticking your sister on the moon. That tells me it must have spotted something in her worth saving, so she can’t be beyond all help, yet.” He paused as he noticed Celestia give a shuddering sigh as if some weight had been lifted, “Let’s not break out smiles and hugs yet, Princess. That still leaves plenty of work ahead. Fact 2: You and your sister could potentially live forever. As long you don’t do something silly, you should have more than enough time to work on a solution; both for getting her back and snapping her out of her Nightmare Moon state. And lastly, fact 3: All of this is going to be a moot point if the kingdom falls apart before she can get back, so you need to find some way of balancing your attention between research and keeping yourself healthy enough to run things.

“So, here is what I plan on doing. I have just enough juice to give you a break here, then send you back before anyone learns you are gone. Since I don’t have anything permanently anchoring me to your world, though, I’ll only be able to show up a few hours one night a week. While that’s not enough time or power for me to actually do anything over there, we can use that time to travel back and forth. We’ll continue to do any planning or sharing knowledge here as well as give you a place to take a break and then take you back home before anyone has a chance to notice your absence. I’ll continue helping this way for as long as I can; basically, until my own reserves get too low and summoning me requires a price you can’t or won’t pay. Unless you have a better idea of course.” Celestia struggled to come up with something or find some flaw in his suggestions but failed and shrugged helplessly. “Good. Then for the time being, I suggest you head back to bed for some more rest and enjoy these lovely muffins Shay made for you.” He finished by passing a tray full of, admittedly delicious looking, muffins.

Celestia looked the baked goods carefully before taking one in hoof and hesitantly trying one. She hummed in surprise at how good it tasted and continued nibbling on it before a question came to her. “Who is Shay? For that matter, who are these ‘girls’ you mentioned earlier?”

“Right, sorry. I probably should have mentioned them earlier. Shay, Mai, and Cassandra are three mortal girls I crossed paths with some time ago and found common ground in with life giving us some poor lots.” He paused and Celestia blinked in surprise at the warm, genuine smile that stretched across his face. “You could say they are the ‘good things come my way’ that I’ve learned to appreciate. Long story short: We met in a cave, fell in love, and they joined me here as my mistresses and their exposure to my plane altered them just enough that they could spend eternity with me. I would introduce you, but Mai and Cassandra are busy preventing Shay from getting to you.”

Celestia sat with her mouth open in confusion as she tried to make sense of his ‘short story’ before speaking up, “I’m…not sure I understand. Why would this Shay make muffins for me if your other two…mistresses…are having to hold her back from harming me?”

“Oh, don’t misunderstand. She doesn’t hold any ill will toward you,” Vin said assuredly. “Quite the reverse, in fact. She adores anything and anyone cute, beautiful, and/or colorful. I’m positive being a pretty pony princess would put you right at the top of that list.”
“Then what is the problem?” Celestia asked curiously with a tilt of her head.

“Between your current state and her biological quirks developed from her time here, she could literally hug you to death,” He answered dryly. “And considering all the work I’ve put into helping you and trying to work out an understanding? I’d really rather not see it wasted because you suffered death by cuddling.”

“O…kaaay?” Celestia answered slowly, unsure of whether the demon pony was being serious or not. “Then…maybe we could spend this first night with you giving me the long story while I rest here?” She added a muttered, “And possibly try to make sense of all of this.”

Vin chuckled, “Well, I’m not sure anyone could make sense of what’s happened. Still, I don’t see any harm in a bedtime story for the little princess,” he chuckled as Celestia pouted, either at his hearing her muttered comment or the bedtime jab. “Alright. It all starts on a night with a couple of young morons doing what males of any species seem to be obsessed with: attempting to impress some females.”

The two alicorns regarded one another silently at the end of the bizarre tale. Luna had attempted to maintain her stoic countenance but couldn’t help her softening features as she saw Celetia’s eyes flicker with relived emotions and memories. She felt equal measures of sorrow and shame at the news of how desperate her big sister had become and how close she came to destroying herself. All because Luna couldn’t handle a little rejection. Her eyes watered as she spoke, “Tia I…I’m so sorry I-”

“Don’t Luna,” Celestia interrupted sternly. “The past is done and I am finished with talk of blame. Frankly, I think I’ve done more than enough hoof wringing and second guessing for the both of us.” Her stern frown was quickly replaced with a warm smile. “As far as I am concerned, all that matters is that we are together again. And it’s together that well will face whatever comes of this crisis.”

Luna’s tears dried, and she returned Celestia’s smile with one of her own. “Indeed, sister. Together!” Her smile disappeared beneath a blank mask hiding her emotions and she spoke flatly, “However, there is one thing I have to revisit.”

Celestia blinked in surprise at the sudden shift. “And…what would that be?” she asked hesitantly.
Luna stood there emotionlessly, providing no answer. Celestia actually started to worry about which part of her tale affected her so until- “AH HA HA HA!!” Luna broke into raucous, Canterlot Voice level laughter that managed to send Celestia’s mane waved back as if in hurricane winds. The lunar princess laughed so hard that tears streamed down her eyes and she fell to the floor holding her sides. Before Celestia could ask just what had gotten into her, Luna managed to calm down enough to speak, “Ha ha, H-ehe. He hit y-you with a fish!”

Confusion gave way to annoyance as Celestia heard this. “Of course. After getting past the issue of the demon, that would be the very next thing you latch onto.”

The manically laughing sister managed to control herself enough to look up and answer, “Ha ha *gasp* Oh, come now, Tia. You needn’t feel so…o-fin-ded. *snerk* After all, anypony might react the same after…herring such a thing!” She struggled to her hooves and suddenly put on a serious expression so quickly that Celestia knew that more was coming. “S-still, as much as I fish I could have seen that for myself, we really shoal-d return to the matter at hoof. Let us away to the salmoning circle so I can judge for myself whether this Vin character can be bene-fish-ial or is simply after our…sole.”

A longsuffering sigh came from Celestia as she nodded her head wearily and made her way to the rune covered door at the hall’s end. “Just please try to pull yourself together before he gets here. The last thing I need in all of this is two childish maniacs punning at me all day. While I’ve come to trust him, he is already enough of a pain without somepony giving him ideas.”

“I-I can only promise to try, sister,” Luna chortled as the both approached the doorway to the ritual room. She looked over and nodded, “After all, I wouldn’t want you to be…snapper with me.”

“Guuuhhhh!” Celestia groaned and slammed her head into the door in a rare occasion of unprincess-like behavior that caused Luna to giggle. Hoping to cut off anymore puns, Celestia deftly opened the door and led the way inside to reveal the setup inside. Luna’s giggling cut short as she noticed the scene and had to force herself to ignore her first instinct to charge in and disrupt the very ceremony she agreed to hold judgement on. The center of the room was dominated by a red runic circle surrounded by candles providing the main source of light. The unicorn maid, Luna recalled she was named Marigold, seemed understandably green faced as she placed finishing touches on the circle symbols using dark red liquid dipped out from a nearby cooler.

Answers to the morning’s events seemed to piece together in Luna’s mind as she looked from the cooler to the maid, one of Celestia’s S.M.I.L.E. agents perhaps, working on the circle with a thoughtful frown. “I see. ‘Tell the chef’ must be code for retrieving blood from the stock of wild game magically preserved in the kitchen in case of visits from the Griffin ambassadors. ‘Rotten eggs’ would refer to the description of brimstone’s smell which, naturally, tends to be associated with demons. And then ‘the pizza’ would be…assembling the summon circle?”

“Close, but you were only half right on the pizza code.” Celestia regarded Luna with a quirked eyebrow as she asked, “Tell me. Do you remember the origins of pizza?”

“Ah, yes indeed, dear sister!” Luna said heartily, making Celestia smile. On her return, one of the first things Celestia did was introduce her nervous sister to the activities and fare of modern nightlife. Celestia would always remember that look of profound joy on Luna’s face. One of her favorite discoveries, aside from coffee which she had to be temporarily banned from due to…incidents, was pizza. “I dare say, that might be the one good thing about that miserable millennium. I was a tad surprised in my history readings to learn that you invented it. Thankful, certainly, but-”

“I didn’t invent it,” Celestia interrupted gently, getting a confused look from Luna. “Historians assumed I invented it after I described it to one of my chefs who shared it with the culinary community at large.” She glanced to the circle and back. “I was introduced to pizza during a visit to Vin’s plane when he and his mistresses invited me to dinner. Therefore, ‘pizza’ is a signal for a circle specifically related to him.”

The conflicted look on Luna’s face as she switched from looking at the circle to Celestia and back again made Celestia chuckle inwardly. She could tell Luna wanted to remain suspicious but was being quickly won over by the reveal. After a few minutes staring at the circle thoughtfully, she nodded slowly, “Very, well. Any creature that brings pizza to an ignorant world can’t be wholly evil.”

“Then I suppose all that remains is to call him then,” Celestia said with a small smile. She turned to the circle and began the chant. It had been centuries since they parted as, without an anchor or the willingness for either party to extract/pay the typical prices for such things, he was only able to keep consistent visits for so long using only his own power to maintain the link; just long enough to help her get back on her hooves and come up with a plan. Despite the current crisis being the reason, she was looking forward to seeing him again….even if he could be a pain in the flank sometimes.

Author's Note

New chapter and a bit of feels :scootangel: , if it went right :trixieshiftleft: .

Also, little bit of Princess Luna the...Punisher.
I know, I know. 'Shut up and go into the corner Redstar' :trollestia: .

As ever, look forward to comments and constructive criticism :twilightsmile: .