Summonings were something that Anon knew a lot about, as was the nature of his work, but had yet to experience. Some individuals he had talked to described it as a claustrophobic event, trapped in darkness with a constant pressure on all sides while simultaneously feeling the rush of passing through space at a breakneck pace. Others said it was like an old wooden roller-coaster with the only straps keeping them secure being metal clamps around their hooves. A few even said that it felt like a vaudeville cane came down from above and forcibly dragged them off stage.

However, this wasn’t what it felt like to Anon. The transition happened mid-step as he was making his way to his front door, and with the sudden pop came a dark and oppressive cold that shook Anon to his hot-blooded core. With a gasp, he crossed his arms as what felt like a torrent of icy water crashed around him. It was strange, being so cold Anon thought that he would still be able to see his breath through the darkness but with each shaky exhalation, he found nothing before his eyes. Seconds passed as he quickly came to the realization of what was happening and began contemplating what to do when he reached the other side.

*POP*

Light filled his eyes and the frigid agony of the cold water-like space was replaced with a chill but much more bearable air temperature. Anon blinked a few times, stumbling slightly as he felt his feet on hard ground once more. Mind running on overdrive, and vision clearing, he quickly began to take in his new surroundings.

The room was small, dimly lit by the series of red wax candles that surrounded the summoning circle that he now stood in. The walls were a soft pastel blue and there were a number of common living furnishings that dotted the area including a small wooden desk, a four-poster bed, an armoire, and a large shelving unit containing a wide variety of books and nick-nacks. Everything in the room seemed to scream wealth with high-quality dark woods, inlays, and trims. But it also had the feel of a child’s dwelling, as the bed was filled with a wide variety of plush animals and on the wall next to him was a poster of what appeared to be a ponified version of a boy band.

“Excellent! Our ritual seems to have finally born fruit.” Anon looked down towards the creature that seemed to be speaking to itself. About five feet ahead of him beyond his circle was another smaller circle nearly identical to his own, in it sat a unicorn. She was perhaps only slightly bigger than Maze as of the last time he saw the kid. She had a light blue mane with a darker coat, mischievous teal eyes stared up at him and a sinister smile cracked the pony’s face. Anon cocked his head.

“Who the heck are you supposed to be?” He said in a droll. Condescending eyes focusing on the pony before him. The pony jolted slightly, nearly unnoticeable, as though she did not expect a voice to come out of the creature before her. Quickly regaining composure she took an authoritative stance.

“We art Lu~” She cut herself off abruptly. “You shall call us Luna.” She smirked up at the man, oozing confidence. A small smile worked its way up the edges of Anon’s face, his eyes gave a flash of red as he blinked.

“Okay then. Luna, tell me why have you summoned me.” The commanding words dripped with infernal arcane energy and a dribble of black smoke spilled out the side of his mouth as he spoke. Luna stood there unfazed, smiling more genuinely this time.

“Nnnnnnnope!” She said. Anon grumbled.

“Well, congrats on knowing the absolute basics, kid.” Lesson 1, never give a demon your real name. There are a plethora of infernal spells that rely on the emotional and spiritual connection of a name to a pony or any other intelligent creature. Luna scoffed, turning her head up.

“You should feel honored demon. To be the first successful summon of ours, the culmination of many moons of studying and preparation. The late nights spent by candlelight, the thousands of times we meticulously copied each rune and line to the UTMOST perfection! The he~HEY! Are you listening?!” Luna shouted. Anon continued looking down at the circle below him, studying the various concentric shapes and runes written out in chalk that glowed slightly from the resonance of the spell. He muttered the names of them to himself as he went over line after line.

“Alpha, din, zphi, lei, omikron, tau, cas… cas?” Anon stared at the last rune, blinking his eyes and with another flash of red the mystical light vanished from the single symbol he had been looking at.

“Hey! HEY!!! We know that you hear us demon! Comply with our demands or we shall be forced to subjugate you.”

“Kinky…” Anon said. Luna sputtered, her face turning beet red. Shaking herself she seemed to only become all the angrier.

“Mark our words foul creature of the depths, before this night is out we shall show you our vengeful wrath. You will feel the pain of every punishing spell befitting a wretch of your nature. WE SHALL~” Anon stepped out of the circle, passing through a blue shimmering barrier that outlined the edges of the summoning ring and carefully walking out of the loop of candles, he turned back to Luna.

“Please, continue.” The mare stared at Anon mouth agape.

“I-I wuh… HOW!?” Anon shrugged.

“There was an update to the privacy policy.”

The mare tilted her head, brow furrowed.

“You should’ve installed Norton.”

…

“When the pop-up says ‘congratulations you’ve won’, you haven’t actually won anything.” A few long seconds passed between the two.

“Are you insane?” Luna asked, she watched as Anon walked about her room, studying the various objects on her bookshelf, he picked up what appeared to be a spyglass. As he did, the mare seemed to have a reaction. Eyes widening, she stepped towards the edge of the summoner’s circle she stood in, lifting her hoof almost to the point of crossing the barrier she paused. Cautiously, Luna retracted her hoof and moved back to the center. Lesson 2, never leave the summoner’s circle. While the summoning circle helps to bind the demon to a pony’s demands, the summoner’s circle kept the pony protected from any physical harm a demon could deal, magical or otherwise. Anon watched this transpire out of the corner of his eye.

“Cleva’ girl.” He said, tossing the spyglass up in the air with one hand and catching it on the way down. “It seems you’ve got the basics down, but you’re lacking in experience.” Catching the spyglass once more, he studied the brass casing in detail. “Honestly I’d hoped the first pony who summoned me would be some grizzled old geezer that thought he knew everything about demonology, and I’d slowly tear apart his circle. He’d start to freak out thinking I was gonna eat him or steal his soul. Then I’d cop all his research and leave.” Anon gripped both ends of the spyglass, extending it out to its full length he put it up to his eye pointing the lens down at Luna. “But this is proving to be entertaining all the same.” As he looked at the close-up image of the mare, her face turned dark and she lit her horn. Before Anon could react a bolt of blue magic came careening towards him, piercing his chest and impacting the poster behind him, putting a clean hole through the face of one of the hot stallion singers. A look of shock covered Anon’s face as he looked down at the sizable hole that went clean through his body. But slowly, the shock morphed into a bright smile as the visage of the biped dissolved in a pillar of smoke, the spyglass reappearing on the shelf. The sound of slow clapping emanated from the circle opposite Luna.

“Congrats! you’re starting to make me feel like a proud parent.”

“No more games demon! We demand that you obey our commands!” Luna shouted.

“It’s Anon actually.” He crossed his arms. “You should know, considering that you summoned me, also I’m technically not a demon.” Luna took a deep breath, exhaling slowly as she stared at the human with unblinking eyes.

“Look at me…” Anon did so. “Does it look, in any way, like I give a flying feather about what your name is.” Anon gave a sad sigh.

“And I thought we could be friends…” He said wistfully.

“...No…”

“Alright, alright. Here’s the deal. I’ll fulfill whatever your demands are, but you just gotta answer two questions for me. Deal?” Anon held up his hands innocently,

“I am not giving you my real name…” Anon blew a raspberry, waving in a dismissive manner.

“Nonono, nothing like that, just two basic things and we can get onto business, no more jokes.” Luna stood silently, he took that as a yes. “Okay firstly, how old are you? Like eleven, twelve?”

“Fourteen…”

“Wow... ya’ know my neighbor's got a kid around your age, and he’s single.” Anon said wiggling his eyebrows. Luna’s stoic gaze remained unchanged. “I’ll take that as a noooo... Okay, second question! How’d you spot the illusion?”

“The spyglass.” Luna finally spoke up. “The real one does not extend that far.” Anon nodded slowly.

“Ah, so you know a thing or two about the length of a good spyglass.”

“... Are you an Incubus?” Luna asked cautiously.

“No, but my neighbors are.” Luna buried her face in her hooves, groaning in a manner similar to a dying animal. Anon chuckled to himself.

“Anyways, a deal’s a deal. Your wish is my command.” Luna uncovered her face, sad puppy like eyes looking up at him.

“Truly?” He nodded sagely. Luna sat up, taking on a dignified pose. “Good. There is an object that our sister has stolen from us, a book, it has a cross-shaped pattern and a delta rune inlaid on the front. We order that you, Anon, go and retrieve this book and bring it back to us.” Anon raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“No regicide? No stealing the hope diamond?... No secrets to keeping the perfect garden?”

"What? No!"

"Damn, I was hoping for that last one."

“Will you keep your word or not!” Luna said angrily.

“Alright, fine, fine, sign here.” Anon said, holding out his hand in a gout of flame a piece of paper appeared. The paper slowly floated out of the circle and to the mare across from him, a quill materializing alongside it. Luna studied the page as it reached her. A series of symbols that looked like claw marks and splotches covered the page.

“I need this in equish.” Luna said sourly. Anon shrugged his shoulders.

“Sorry, I don’t know equish.” Luna thought for a moment before suppressing a smile. There were ways around this, the binding truth she had placed on Anon’s circle would help with that.

“Read it to us. All of it.” She pushed the paper away. Anon held out his hand, the parchment zipped into it. He turned it over and began reading.

“Anonymous the human, that’s me, is to infiltrate the room of the sister of the pony mare Luna, and in doing so retrieve the book and rightful property of Luna that matches her previously given description. In doing so, he shall cause no physical or mental harm or manipulations to any creature, intelligent or not, that he may come across. His magic shall only be used in manners deemed necessary in the retrieval of the book, including but not limited to opening locks and disarming spells. Upon successful retrieval of the undamaged book and the return of it to Luna, she will release the binding spells tying the human Anonymous to this plane and in doing so send him back to his plane of residence, Tartarus.” He took a deep breath. “Alright, that’s everyth~Also Luna is to summon the demon incubus Maztyz-Zaranerrith within the next 7 days to participate in a dinner-date, lasting no less than 4 hours.” The words spilled from Anon’s mouth seemingly unwillingly. Luna smiled, happy that the spell worked.

“You are going to get rid of that last part, and reread it to me.” Anon groaned, tracing his finger over the last line of text the words disappeared, and he reread it out loud. This time, no extra words being forced out of his mouth.

“Okay, we good?” Luna nodded. Sending the contract across the gap once more, Luna lifted the quill in her magic and signed. Once she finished, the scroll caught fire, burning up like a piece of flash paper. The circles around both the mare and the man glowed brightly before dissipating, a gust of wind blowing out the candles. Anon and Luna stood across from each other the only light coming from the moon through the windows. “Which way to the room?” He asked.

“Down the hall, fourth door on the right.” Suddenly where Anon stood a gout of fire burst from beneath his feet engulfing him completely and lighting the room in a brilliant glow, just as suddenly as it had begun the fire vanished, leaving Luna standing there alone.

She let out a long sigh, slumping before flopping onto her back, glad to finally be rid of the strange creature. What type of demon was he? A number of things that the creature said threw her mind for a loop as she laid there thinking.

*CRITZTZTZTZTZTT*

The sound of something shattering loudly echoed down the hall, followed by a shriek and a series of thumps and bangs. Luna rolled over, burying her face in the floor.

“I’m doomed.”

The sounds continued for a few more seconds, followed by a series of hoofsteps passing her door and the shouts of guards. Suddenly the same gout of fire sprung up in the room and Anon stepped out.

“What’s a guy gotta do to get some peace and quiet around here!” Anon said, brushing the dust off his shoulders. Luna jumped to her feet. Noticing the small book held in his left hand.

“You got it!” She said excitedly. The man nodded.

“Yeah, good read by the way. Not exactly my cup of tea but I thought that Maze might like it so I made a copy. Who’s Celly, by the way?” Tossing the book at Luna’s feet he pulled an identical copy out of his back pocket. Her eyes seemed to go slightly unfocused, the color draining from her face.

“It was locked with a spell…” She said lifelessly.

“Might’ve broken that.”

“You can’t read equish…”

“I lied.”

“The binding truth…”

“It’s outdated. Summoning works both ways, you know? You surface dwellers make new spells, bindings, and all that other shit to subjugate demons. And I research and break them.”

“The contract…”

“You’ll find out about that soon enough.” Anon smiled. “Don’t worry though, you’ll never see me or any other demon, ever again.” Purple fire began rising from Anon’s feet and surrounded his arms. As they grew his body slowly began disappearing. When the flames were just about to reach his waist Luna started walking towards him. “Well, I guess this is goo~BLUGH!” Anon cried as Luna’s hoof shot towards his defenseless crotch. What was left of the man’s vanishing body fell over in agony, he managed to groan something out as the flames reached his head.

“Y-you little shi~” and he vanished

Lesson 3, never trust a demon.

...

...

...

Anon slowly opened his eyes, face scrunched up with pain. He felt the grass of his lawn below him as he remained curled up on the ground hands clutching his balls protectively. He groaned, rolling over.

He felt something sticky on his back.

Author's Note

Decided to come out with this chapter fast since the first was a bit of a cock tease. It feels strange making a new chapter when the expectation seem so high. OH WELL :P