It was a nightmare.
The day had started out quietly enough. Birds were singing, the sun was shining, and no reports of villainous movements had been reported.
And then the air had seemed to split open, and what emerged seemed like a monster from the deepest, darkest nightmare to ever exist.
It had swept aside the Royal Guard with a laugh, had swatted the elite guards like they were nothing. Even the Elements of Harmony had no effect on it; the rainbow of harmony they generated simply seemed to dissolve before it reached the beast, its power too great to overwhelm.
The Element Bearers struggled to come up with a plan... and then the resident human walked past them, right towards the beast.
"B-Bacchi! What're you doin', get back!" Applejack demanded, to no avail - the human simply kept walking towards the monster, coming to a halt only a short distance away from it.
Twilight's eyes widened as she tried to reach out with her magic to pull him back, only for the ambient power the creature was putting out to ruin her spell before she could even complete it.
"Oh? And what have we here?" Said creature taunted, staring down at the human in amusement. "Another bug for me to squash?"
"If you know what is good for you... you will leave this world now." Bacchi quietly stated, his eyes shadowed by his long, dark hair.
"Huh? You think you take take on me?! Cozir, the king of all demons?!" The monster demanded, growling angrily, its mirth having vanished in a moment.
"I have no desire to fight... but if you do not leave... I will. And I guarantee that you will not survive if we do."
For some reason, Twilight's mind flashed back to the first time she met Bacchi. She remembered him simply walking into the town, seemingly as lost as a puppy as he asked where he was. She remembered him being awestruck as she explained how magic worked here, comparing it to the magic of his homeland. Remembered the time they had spent exchanging magical theories back and forth for hours.
Humans possessed a great many magics, each with their own unique way of using it. Other races, like elves, had their own brands of magic, less varied than the humans, but with greater potency. And so on, with each race of Bacchi's homeland having something unique about their own magic.
Despite his knowledge of magic, however, Bacchi seemed loathe to admit if he had any magical power himself - and seeing how uncomfortable it made her new friend when she started asking, she had instead moved away from the topic and back into general magic discussions.
She was snapped back to reality by the roaring voice of the beast.
"You truly think you can stand up to the god of all monsters?!" Cozir roared down at him, his power forcing everypony around him to tremble as they fought to stay upright.
"...The humans of my home possessed many types of magic; some possessed several types at once." Bacchi said impassively, not phased at all by Cozir's power. In fact, his head was lowered, his gaze fixed on the ground.
The beast standing before him smiled at that; maybe once it was through with this pitiful world, it could move on to this creature's...
"I, however, possess only one type of magic..." Bacchi lifted his head to reveal his gaze... one sharp enough to make the sharpest of blades look as dull as molten metal. "I abhorred my magic. The people of my home feared it... and by extension, me."
A dark aura started to rise up around him, appearing as what looked like a black mist that caused his blue cloak to billow as if in a windstorm. At the same time, everypony around him suddenly felt like gravity had increased its hold on them sevenfold. Even Cozir took a step back in the face of this unknown power.
"My world wanted to hunt me down. To kill me as a threat to peace, to use me as a weapon against their enemies, to try and steal my power away from me... their reasons were as varied as the races of my world. And yet, every single one of them fell before me."
Bacchi paused to look up into the sky for a moment, seemingly reveling in the sunshine.
"But then... I found myself here. Here, in a world where no-one knew who I was, in a world filled with magic users who didn't want to use me." The power around him grew stronger, forcing even Cozir to a knee this time. "And then you... you had to come along and force me to step in. Because I know... if I don't stop you here, this world will be finished."
"You... worthless mortal..." Cozir ground out, forcing himself back upright. "You... think you can get away with forcing me into such a pitiful position?!"
It raised its arm, claws at the ready, and brought them down on the human... who simply stood still as the claws apparently disintegrated, leaving behind only a blackened stump that Cozir clawed at with a roar of agony.
"Animal. Human. Angel. Demon. God." Bacchi raised his arms, the mist moving to condense around his hands. "It makes no difference. Before me... everything... DISAPPEARS."
It happened in a moment. One second, Cozir was standing before them all, preparing to retort. The next, there was a flash of what looked like pure darkness, shaped into a thick pillar, appearing and disappearing so quickly that if anypony had blinked they would certainly have missed it. The moment after that, Cozir had... simply vanished. There was no trace of him ever having existed apart from the damage to the surrounding area.
"This... is my power..." Bacchi said quietly, as if speaking to himself even as the black mist continued to coil around him. "The power to end anything I want at any time..."
All around him, ponies gaped in shock; the strongest beast any of them had ever conceived... and the human killed it. In a single blow.
The black mist slowly faded into nonexistence as Bacchi stared sadly at where the self-proclaimed 'king of monsters' had been standing.
"Now you see... why I hate my power."
Author's Note
This was inspired by two things:
1) my love of the 'Awakening the Sleeping Dragon' trope
2) my love of "heroes" who possess terrible powers
This was also just a short pet project I've been sitting on for a while as I got my head back into writing after so many years. But hey, now that college is done and I've got my degree, I've got a lot more free time to work with!
This might seem kinda anime-ish, and it is, but still. It's the kick in the pants I needed to write again.
