A Death March To The Fall Of Equestria

Satou slowly woke up and found that he was not surrounded by anyone he had fallen asleep nor was he in the same room that he was asleep at. Instead find a familiar small room with barely any furnishing apart from a single small one person bed, a set of wardrobes at the front of the room, and a small side table with a lamp and alarm clock.

Turning his head to a nearby window, he slowly climbed out of the bed, standing up and walked towards it. He looked out the window to see the familiar look of the street he used to live in.

“Was that all a dream?” Satou asked nobody. He looked up into the sky to find that the skies were black and full of thunderclouds, yet it wasn’t raining, and there were no signs of any rain outside.

Satou sighed. “Maybe it was a dream, kinda a shame, I actually faintly enjoyed that one.” He then walks to his desk before reaching for his phone only for his hand to phase through it. “Wait… that doesn’t seem right.” He reached for the phone again as he saw his hand simply phased through it like it wasn’t there.

“Okay, that's strange!” Satou muttered to himself before looking at his own clothing to find he was in the armour he had been wearing since arriving in the world, the one he had assumed was a dream. “Or maybe this is the dream?”

“Indeed.” A soft, feminine voice that was echoing around him replied her location obscuring where the voice was coming from. “Hmm… Who and what are thou?” The voice asked curiously.

Satou didn’t respond instantly as he looked around, trying to locate whoever the voice had come from before speaking up. “I could ask you the same thing.”

“Ah~ sorry, thour appearance has caught us by surprise.” A distortion happened at an empty space in front of Satou, a bright blue pony appeared from the distortion that faded away. She had long flowing hair that almost seemed to have the appearance of the night sky as it moved almost like it was being blown by the wind, however; unlike any other pony he had seen; this one had both wings and a horn. Wearing a single silk; pale blue halter strap dress with the skirt parts reaching down to her ankle and the sides having a split from hips down, bottom of the skirt has a few star designs.

‘God she’s attractive!’ Satou thought to himself before shaking his head before saying. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were there, miss?”

She didn’t answer as her eyes were staring at him intensity before that feeling subsided. “That’s the reason we hid’, to observe.” She said in a calm tone.

“I’m really nothing impressive to look at.” Satou responded.

“Thou are an unknown species, even though thou have a similar bipedal and body structure.” The mare said in an odd tone. “But thou haven’t answered our question.”

Satou carefully looked at her before he said. “My name's Satou, and I’m what's called a human… although I’m surprised you haven’t seen any others of my race.”

“We haven’t, are there others like you?” She asked.

“I know of three others personally, with the possibility of at least two others existing.” Satou responded.

She floated towards where Satou tried to pick up his phone and was surprised as she lifted it in her hand in curiosity. “This thing is fascinating.” She said in fascination.

“It’s not that impressive.” Satou responded. “Besides, you can’t really learn anything from it and I don’t believe there's a copy of this old thing back in the real world.”

“Thou would be surprised on how much thour mind can describe to dreams in visual.” The mare said now looking back at him in thought.

“Is something on your mind?” Satou asked curiously.

“We were looking for Cadence and Shining Armor, but you were the only one I got in contact.” She said she barely controlled her worry.

“I’m afraid I’ve never heard of either of those names,” Satou responded, “who even are they?”

She didn’t answer for a long time, trying to think about how to explain. “Firstly, where are thou?”

“In the Crystal Empire… if that's what the cities called.” Satou answered.

“Then, why do thou don’t known Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor, if thour at the Crystal Empire?” She asked confusedly.

“I’ve just never heard anything of them, I didn’t even know the empire had a queen.” Satou responded.

“Princess,” The mare corrected. “We rather not have such a title and prefer princess or prince, it’s to show that we’re more close to the citizens.”

“Okay… Well I was unaware the empire had a princess leading it.” Satou responded, rolling his eyes.

The mare looked at Satou as if his words woke her to an alarm. “Who is in charge of the empire?”

“In charge of the empire?” Satou responded before pausing as he said. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but if I didn’t even know they had a princess, why would I know who the ruler is?”

“Cause you would have met them while checking on any problems or at least Prince Shining Armor since he does usual guard reports to each guard's respective post.” She sat down on the bed, feeling it’s texture with those gentle hands.

“And I’m pretty sure I’ve not had any run-ins with the guards.” Satou lied. “Besides, why would they even allow a civilian into the barracks?”

Her eyes leer at him that definitely say ‘I’m not a fool’ as she slowly spoke. “If we was my sister then we would have ‘bite thour apple’, but our not. we haven’t felt either of their dreams for a few weeks or anypony that lives in the empire, the only one we can reach is thou and one other.”

“Well considering I don’t even know who I’m talking to, and the fact we’ve never met before today, that really doesn’t inspire confidence.”

She blinked in realization. “Thou’s right. Thou continued without giving our chance to introduce ourselves.” She then pushed herself off the bed and stood in a tall, royal stand, her large wings fan out in grace. “We are Princess Luna, Princess of the Night and Dreams, Co-Ruler of Equestria along with our sister.” She spoke in that strong, leadership tone.

‘And she’s eccentric.’ Satou thought to himself before saying. “Okay, well I hope you don’t mind if I drop the titles for now, and just go with Luna.”

“That is fine, it is only us here after all.” She ‘Luna’ said, her wings fold back in.

“Okay Luna, and I assume you won’t tell me who the other one is?”

“I’m afraid not.” Luna answered.

“I see, well I guess it was a pleasure to meet you.” Satou responded.

Luna’s wings opened, with a flap of her wings she floated in the air as everything went white, before the world around Satou suddenly went red, a black light flickering behind him, being followed by a familiar howl.

Luna appeared back in the dreamscape, row upon row of doors leading to others dreams. The door she was in became transparent, him awake. But brush off as a norm, more on their conversation. ‘There's something going on,’ She thought in her mind and noticed the ‘human’ avoiding her questions. ‘and that creature ‘Satou’ knows something.’

“I’ll report this to my sister.” With that, she flew through many doors to assist anyone who was having nightmares while searching for one particular individual.

Satou was suddenly woken up in a shock by a sudden pain on his face. Felt something dripping down his face, he reached up touching his own face. When he pulled his hand away, he found a crimson liquid covering it. ‘Why does that not look good?’He then slowly looked forward finding Frostine’s claw in front of him, covered in blood. ‘And that explains the blood.’

It took him a few moments before he slowly leaned up as the blood stained his clothing. Climbed out of the bed, leaving a trail of blood drops in his path as he made his way towards the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

After a couple of minutes, Isaac woke up before looking around to find the bed stained in blood where Satou had been asleep. Isaac looked around noticing a trail of blood leading from the bed. He climbed out following the trail.

He stopped when he reached the bathroom, seeing the trail end by the closed door. “I really hope it’s not Satou trying to kill himself for some reason.” He muttered.

After a couple more moments, Isaac opened the door to find Satou standing in front of a mirror, almost completely naked. The entire bathroom around the sink stained red with blood. He looked away. “I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking; I swear!”

“Don’t worry, just shut the door before some crazy woman tries to look in here as well.” Satou responded with a sigh of annoyance still looking at the mirror. Isaac closed the door behind him. “Thanks, and sorry you’re stuck seeing me naked, you could have stayed outside instead of being on this side of the door.”

“I could… but I was worried.” Isaac said before looking at the blood stains on the sink. “Th-that’s a lot of blood… A-are you sure a normal person has this much?”

“If I was going to make a comment on that, I would say this world has no logic to it.” Satou responded sadly as he turned to Issac to reveal three large open cuts over his face that had stopped bleeding but were clearly still open.

“How did that happen?”

“I think Frostine cut me in her sleep.” Satou responded with a sigh as he looked to remove a ring before saying; “Aqua Heal” before the wound healed over with two of the three cuts completely disappearing, the last leaving a faint scar over his right eye. He then placed the ring back on before trying the spell again as it reflected off a red barrier hitting Isaac, “So… the ring caused the magic reflection. Good to know.”

“Can you please explain what's going on!” Isaac shouted.

Satou looked back to him, pulling another version of his clothing out of his bag before putting them on, this version being red with black shoulder pads instead of dark blue and white. “My clothes are covered in blood so I’m leaving them to soak in the bath for now, and I’m simply sorting myself out before I start whatever chaos occurs today.”

“And that would be?”

“Hell if I know.” Satou responded with a shrug of his shoulders, before changing the subject. “You got any plans for what to do with your newfound freedom?”

“Honestly. If that first wave was anything to go by. I need to get stronger, find some weaker monsters and level up and improve my bow.” Isaac said.

“Two things. One: You’ll struggle with low-level monsters around here, considering almost every monster I saw was around level 50. And two: I have no idea what you mean by improving your bow?”

“It may be easier to show you the second one… if I had some monster's loot that is.” Isaac responded as he rubbed the back of his head.

“I’m pretty sure I can handle the loot.” Satou responded.‘I have too much of it as it is anyway.’

“Are you sure you are okay with me using your hard earned materials?”

“Trust me, I’m not exaggerating when I say that I have more than enough of the stuff to fill a house.” Satou responded. ‘Thank god for the broken infinite capacity inventory space for that one.’

“So… any idea when you want to try and help me with that?” Isaac asked.

“I suppose I can help now, I’ll just leave a note for the others so they know we’ve gone out.” Satou responded, as they both walked out of the bathroom to find everyone still asleep.

Satou only chuckled at this before stopping at the desk but pausing to see a piece of rolled-up parchment on the table. Rolling it open, Satou found a sketch for some sort of badge. It looked like a small circular badge with a large black flame in the centre. The words; “Caribou Champion” written at the top and “Satou Pendragon, Black Flame of the Caribou” written below the flame on two lines.

“No idea who designed that one… but it’s not that bad.” Satou responded as he rolled the parchment back up, placing it inside his bag but pausing again to find two tome’s that were below the scroll, one of them reading ‘Runes and You’ while the other looked to be a skill tome of some kind.

Satou just shook his head as he thought. ‘Okay, no idea why these are here, or who put them there, but I’ll keep them for now.’ Before placing both books in his bag and quickly writing a note to the others for when they wake up, then both he and Isaac left the room.

The pair walked into the arena, entering the front entrance to find the entire arena empty.

Satou turns to Isaac, saying. “Okay, first; I think you should explain how we upgrade this bow of yours.”

“I think the easiest way to explain it is that I feed anything I can into my bow, that can be bits of monsters to objects and even plants and use them to gain new forms and abilities my bow can use.” Isaac explained.

“So~… do you know what exactly “will” unlock something?” Satou asked.

“Nope, it’s just trial and error.” Isaac responded. “I’m pretty sure a lot of things will do nothing.”

“Of course.” Satou responded with a sigh before saying. “Well, what is there we can try first?”

“What do you have a lot of that you need to get rid of?” Isaac asked.

“I suppose, I have the Frost Lizard-men Corpses.” Satou responded, looking in his inventory pulling out one of the bodies as it fell to the ground. “Maybe you can get something off that?”

“It’s worth a try.” Isaac responded as he began slowly removing parts of the body as it slowly sucked into the bow through the orange gem inside it until the entire body was gone.

Satou didn’t respond for a bit as he thought to himself. ‘I’m honestly surprised he’s not squeamish about tearing a body apart.’

After a couple of moments, he looked back to Isaac to see a gleeful smile on his face as he said happily. “Finally! Something unlocked, it took so long!”

“You make it sound like a surprise. Something gave you an upgrade?”

“It’s kinda hard not to be when nothing ever worked! I thought it was a joke weapon or a fake!”

“Well… What did you get?” Satou asked curiously.

“I don’t know.” Isaac responded before activating the mysterious new weapon power, his bow suddenly changed shape. Bows limbs shortened and gained a bit thicker; the front covered in icy cyan scale moving away from the handle section.

“Okay, that looks different. Any idea what it does?” Satou asked.

“Nope. None at all.” Isaac responded.

“Let me guess, you need to try it out to see.”

“Yep.” Isaac responded. He saw an archery range just ahead of them. “I’m gonna try it out.” before quickly firing an arrow, an icy blue trial following behind it as it struck the target.

“... That's it?”

“For standard mode… looks that way.” Isaac responded.

“Standard mode?”

“I think it has a special skill. But I’m not sure.”

“Is it worth trying? Do you know what it’s called?”

“The Skill move? I think it’s called Ice Shot?” Isaac responded, unsure.

“Then give it a try?”

Isaac contemplated this for a moment before turning back towards the target again, pulling the bowstring back before shouting. “Ice Shot!” The arrow was covered in a white mist before flying towards the target as he fired the arrow. The second it made contact; the legs of the bullseye target board were frozen in a large block of ice, holding it in place.

“So… It freezes the lower half of a target.” Isaac responded in disappointment. “My first skill and it can only freeze a target in place.”

“Not exactly useless, if a target can’t move from a spot, you can chain it with stronger attacks or allow others to hit a fast-moving target.” Satou pointed out.

“Maybe,” Isaac responded, still sounding unconvinced. “Anything else we can try?”

“We can only keep trying things.” Satou responded as they continued feeding other materials into the bow.

Half an hour later; the two of them had tried many other materials, some of them creating results with others doing nothing.

It was then that they heard a voice say. “It seems the two of you are busy.”

Hearing the voice, Satou turns to see Dainn standing behind them. “I’m sorry, we didn’t see you there. Do you need anything?”

Dainn seemed to chuckle at that. “No, I just needed to talk to you about something.”

“And that is?” Satou asked.

“Well, I left you a piece of parchment with a design on it in your room yesterday, I was wondering if you had a chance to look at it?” Dainn asked.

“I did, and I was wondering what that was.” Satou responded. “It looked like a design for some kind of badge.”

“It was. I decided it would be easier and less conspicuous for you to have a badge to show your credentials to those around the empire while allowing you to walk amongst other races as long as they trust you, if things ever go so wrong that my people are branded as criminals, at least you’ll be safe.” Dainn responded shaking his head at the last bit.

“You really don’t expect much from them do you.” Satou responded.

“As you said, when you entered the city for the first time; my guards didn’t even hide their debaucherous ways.” Dainn responded, shaking his head. “Honestly we’ll get found out soon if we don’t get that fixed.”

“Well, create a new collar type then.”

“Wait… What?”

“Create a collar type with terms that prevent the females that wear them from being used by males. Have any mares working for the betterment of the city wear them so they won’t get used in those ways. In a way, you could add females who are capable of fighting to the army with the collars keeping them in line following orders given, and have them be capable and loyal soldiers.”

Dainn paused for a moment before saying. “That's not actually a bad idea, we could have those females walk around freely, acting like everything is fine.”

“And if you made laws to keep the more depraved activities off the streets, you could keep outside forces from seeing anything wrong taking place and reduce the risk of us being found out.”

“That is true… we could extend it to mares who work in stores as well, have more of them working the shops to safely decrease our chances of being found out… But where would we send the men who enjoy those acts?”

“Open a few brothels with mares who want to be used like objects serving the males inside. Make it a service they can provide and it could be a viable business and if needed could allow it to still legally take place without offending people who don’t want to see females being used that way.” Satou suggested.

“I’ll take the idea into account, it sounds promising and could be very useful.” Dainn responded before saying. “Anyway, if you like the design I sent you, I could get it made for you within the week.”

“I think I’d be happy with it.” Satou responded, passing the parchment that had the design on it back to him.

“I see. Well, when you get a chance; I have found an open home for you to own in the empire. A large mansion in fact with plenty of room for any slaves you desire, and I’ll get you plenty of slaves to keep the place suitable for you.”

“Now that I like the idea of. It felt a bit strange sharing a room with all my slaves, it may be better to have a room to myself.” Satou agreed.

“Excellent! I’ll have Sombra take you there later today!” Dainn responded. “I hope to speak with you later my friend!” With that said, Dainn walks away, a bit more cheerful than before.

“Well… that was strange.” Satou responded.

“I can agree with that.” Isaac responded with a nod of his head.

“Anything else you think we can try to help you out without going out hunting monsters?”

“Sadly, I don’t think so, unless you have more materials we can try; I think that's our limit for now.” Isaac responded. “Maybe we should go and check on the others?”

“Maybe for the best… Frostine would have woken up with blood on her claws. She’s probably going mad after realising where the blood came from.” Satou admitted as he rubbed the back of his head before both of them made their way back to their room in the castle.

Few minutes of walking back to their room in the castle. Satou opened the door and went inside to find Frostine running around the room in a panic with the room being torn to pieces as she screamed out Satou’s name. Sunny was staying low while she searched, trying to avoid Frostines panic attack. Sapphire appeared to have; at some point; fallen unconscious on Eliza’s lap, who seemed unaware of what had happened and looked to be asleep.

“Why do I get the feeling that this is my fault?” Satou asked loud enough that everyone could hear. Before he knew it; Frostine and Sunny both leapt at him, grabbing a hold of him. Frostine kept apologising through sobs.

“Calm down Frostine!” Satou responded as he placed a hand on her head. “I’m fine. Nothing happened.”

“But there was so much blood!” Frostine shouted back as she sobbed.

“And I’m still standing, so it couldn’t have been that bad.” Satou responded. ‘That's a complete lie, it hurt like hell as I cleaned myself up.’

Eliza opened her eyes that looked to Satou. “Took your time, Frostine woke the others.” She said calmly.

“To be fair, we did leave a note on the table.” Satou stated. “Besides I didn’t want to wake any of you up.”

“Actually, I was awake this whole time.” Eliza said, correcting him. “As for the note, I read it.”

“And you didn’t think to tell them?” Satou asked.

“To focus on my scan, and it’s really your problem, not mine. They are your servants after all.”

Satou then paused at this before saying. “But isn’t Sapphire yours… and wasn’t she knocked unconscious in the carnage?”

“That’s true, however, if you were here instead of in the arena; then this would have been prevented. Besides, I’m not your babysitter for your servants.” Eliza petting Sapphire mane. “Sapphire’s still your servant, she isn’t fully mine to make me guilty.”

Satou only smiled and shook his head. “Anyway, I spoke with Dainn while I was out. He said he’s sorted a mansion out for us to live in instead of this room. we should be moving in later today.”

“I know, heard it from Sombra’s eyes and ears a few hours ago.” She said it casually.

“Kinda ironic you know about this stuff before me.” Satou admitted.

“Did you know that ever since the arena he became quite chatty?”

“Who, Dainn? I thought he seemed a bit more cheerful after he left, but I wouldn’t expect him to be more chatty?”

“It was interesting.” She then paused as if distracted before slowly spoke again. “He’s back with Sombra, said something about a new collar… suggested by you.”

“And from your tone, you sound disappointed in me for it.” Satou replied with a sigh.

“Yes! It goes against what we’re here to do!” Eliza said.

“Not exactly.” Satou responded, trying to explain his intention. “Sometimes you need to make a minor change to help the few, so you can start to improve more people's situations. Think about it this way, the new collar means many of those who don't want to be used can be placed on the new collar, where they can’t be touched or used, in essence, they gain the freedom we want, and if I can get it going further, they can get the right to own their own stores again. Sometimes a smaller step can lead to a better outcome in the long run.”

“That’s useless if those cock crystals are around! Why didn’t you focus on ‘that’ first?!”

“Eliza, just think a second, that started being used a few days before we arrived, unless something happens to make them become a threat to the order he’s making or a health risk. It would be suspicious and could give away our true intentions.” Satou responded. “Besides, I have something to start helping us on a smaller scale and to help Sunny recover.”

Sighing a long breath; Eliza looked back to him. “Fine, if it’s for her. But,” Her hand reached to her own collar and easily removed it. “I can’t believe that you did something without talking this to me first.”

“It was a spur of the moment idea, Dainn was in a good mood, I wanted to see just how much I could sway him to new ideas. If I can control that, we can input more ideas. But going straight for major changes without implementing small things to build trust with him almost felt too risky.”

“So should I stop trusting you then.” Eliza said sternly.

“Very much not.” Satou responded before looking out the window. “I may not show it very well, but your thoughts, your ideas, help me more than anyone else. I trust you unconditionally and I honestly want to help as many people as I can.”

Eliza looked away with frustration etched on her face. Taking a deep breath she looked back with her usual neutral expression. “Different topic: Is there anything else I need to know?”

Satou closed the window before sitting on the bed. “Last night, I spoke with someone called Princess Luna. She started questioning me about a lot of things, and right now, I know that there should be two rulers of the empire, a princess called Cadence and a prince called Shining Armor.”

“Well, explains two of the tags underground.” She muttered. “Anything else?”

“Not that I can think off.” Satou responded before grabbing the book “Runes and You” from his bag before saying. “Okay, let's try this. Sunny. Come here.” The mare moved up to him with her breathing heavily and her tail raised up as she climbed up beside him.

Satou then removed her collar before saying. “Stay calm, and don’t move.” He then began to hold the collar in his hand before looking over the book. Eliza saw the runes shimmer slightly before they changed slightly before fading away.

It took a few moments before Satou looked back at Sunny and attached the collar back onto her. After he was done; he looked back at her asking. “Sunny, you feeling okay now?” Her response was a “meep” before scooting away, realizing the position she was in and how close she was to Satou.

“W-wha-where am I?! What happened? Where are we? Why do I feel like I'm in a heat cycle? It’s not even my heat cycle yet!” She kept questioning frantically, realizing a lot of things.

“Sunny, take a breath and calm down okay.” Satou requested as she slowly breathed in and out, trying to calm down. “Now; what do you remember?”

She looked to Satou as her mind tried to recall her last memory. “W-we were standing outside the gate to the Crystal Empire. The next thing I remember; I felt all hot and desire for pleasure, and grew more and more until everything went fuzzy and blissful. The last thing was me being here.” Sunny recalled.

“Okay, well it’s been a few days since then. We entered the empire, which was when you lost yourself, we switched your old collar with one linked to me and for some reason, you started acting like a dog the entire time. Then I made an adjustment to it just now and it brought your mind back." Satou explained.

“Oh, oh dear.” She hugged herself, shivered. “Th-this is why I didn’t want to be here.”

“I worked that out rather quickly when we got into the city.” Satou reassures her. “But… we won’t be leaving anytime soon I’m afraid.” That made her head bow with a groan. “Don’t worry, you still won’t get hurt, I remember my promise.”

He looked to the group before saying. “Now, I’d say we’d better gather all our stuff. We will be moving to our new home soon.” Eliza nodded as she called to Sunny to explain a few things to her as Sapphire regained consciousness. Before long; the group gathered everything up and waited to be taken to their new home.