Chapters In The Everfree Forrest
Groaning I shake my head in an attempt to clear the haze as I slowly open my eyes. The only thing i can see is a blurry swirl o brown and green. Even the smallest amount of movement sends waves of pain coursing throughout my entire body. Yet somehow everything also feels like it has a numbness to it, almost like I've been hit my a truck or something.
After a few minutes the haze starts to clear a bit and the pain coursing though my body starts to fade a bit. Looking around from my spot on the ground the brown and green splotches that i couldn't make out before now reveal themselves to be the colors of a forest. Stumbling to my feat I try to figure out where I am and how I might've gotten here without remembering actually doing it.
Looking myself over I seem to be alright for the most part. I mean, I'm wearing a bit more black than usual and I don't remember changing into anything for the comic convention but I don't see any wounds at least.
"When did I change clothes?" I say out loud causing me to freeze in place. That wasn't my voice. It was a somewhat familiar voice but I know it does NOT belong to me. I'll file that away until I can get a better look at myself. Now that I think about it the clothes seem familiar to but my memory is a bit jumbled. I remember going to the comic convention but I know I didn't go as anything. I got a lot of crap from my friends for just wearing my normal clothes.
I currently wearing a long black cloak with a whit collar that stops around my ankles. Lifting the cloak the clothing on my lower half seems to consist of black boots, with white wraps underneath, and rather comfortable black pants that are a bit baggy but not overly so. My pants are secured tightly to my waist by two white belts and my shirt is a black sleeveless undershirt and my right arm is covered by bandages but I don't fell any pain. The only accessories I can find on me are my phone, a Katana-like sword and two blueish stones dangling from strings around my neck.
With feeling back in my body and the throbbing pain gone for the moment I start walking in a random direction. Since I have no Idea where I am, my phone has no service, and I can't see the sky through the canopy of the trees so I don't really have many options. After a few minutes of walking through the rather dense forest a break in the trees reveals a roaring river.
There's a small outlet of still water off to the side of the river and between the moss covered rocks and the silt it should be safe enough to drink. I kneel down and taking a few gulps of the refreshing liquid only to freeze once more as the ripples cease and my reflection clears. The face staring back at me isn't mine. Instead of short dirty blonde hair and blue eyes I'm looking at jet black hair with white highlights and blood red eyes and a white headband. Now I remember why that voice and these clothes seemed so familiar before. I look like Hiei, I sound like Hiei.
"I'm Hiei." The familiar voice says to no one. "But how the hell is this possible?" My hand shakily rises to my head to pull off my headband and looking back to the water I can see the slit of a closed eye on my forehead. The Jigan eye! I thought. Focusing for a moment I watch my reflection as the eye slowly opens. The next few minutes go by with me just staring at the reflection in the water trying to figure out what the hell is going on. All of a sudden the jigan starts to glow and my head throbs with pain as the memories come flooding back to me.
A Few Hours Ago
I remember walking into Comic Con with my friends. There isn't anyone who hasn't heard the rumors of the missing people by now. But it didn't seem like it really affected attendance at all since the place was absolutely packed. We spent the whole day there going from stall to stall getting autographs, looking around at merchandise and just having a really good time. That is Until we got to THAT stall. HIS stall!
He was a little unsettling at first but then again so where the forty year old virgins trying to sell their collections. His stall had just about everything you could think of. Items from popular books, movies, video-games, cartoons, comics, anime, and everything in between. Swords, guns, costumes, all sorts of accessories, instruction books, game manuals, glasses, rings, he had everything under the sun and then some.
We looked around for a few minutes and I was seriously contemplating buying a few things when a fifty-some year old man in a brown trench coat bumped into me. He quickly apologized and continued looking around until his eyes fell on the merchant right next to me. The man's eyes narrowed and he reached into his coat and pulled out a hand-gun and pointed it at the merchant.
"This is for my kid you son of a bitch! He bought something from you two years ago and disappeared into thin air a minute later!" The man screamed. He placed his finger on the trigger and began to squeeze.
Now not once have i ever thought of myself as a hero. Not in my own story or in anyone else's. I mean sure I liked to think that I'd do the right thing if given the chance but just doing the right thing doesn't make you a hero. A hero chooses to put themselves in danger in order to help people. I should've just let it go, not gotten involved and walked away. Unfortunately I didn't even get time to make a choice my body just moved on it's own.
Everything started moving in slow motion the second I saw the gun. Not a single thought went through my head. Nothing about right or wrong, or how dangerous it was, not a single heroic thought appeared in my head in that moment. My body just moved. I grabbed the gun and forced his arm skyward away from everyone before headbutting him causing the man to fall backwards, losing his grip on the gun.
As the gunman fell I wrenched the gun from his grip and watched the man fall to the floor. He touched his bloody nose and looked at the blood on his finger for a moment before looking straight at me with eyes of pure rage. I remember seeing him reach into another coat pocket and he started to pull out another gun. I raised the gun in my hand at him and told him to drop it, but what good is that to a man with nothing to lose. Seeing he wasn't going to back down I pulled the trigger twice hitting him in the chest with both rounds. He fell over dead instantly.
Time seamed to return to normal but all I could hear was my own breathing. Looking around everyone else had stopped when they heard the gunshots. I thought they would've been running if fear but they were just standing there staring at me with horrified looks. After a second or two I noticed a sharp pain in my chest and looked down to see a bullet wound right over my heart.
A moment later the gun fell out of my shaking hand. I grasped my chest with my left hand as I first fell to my knees before collapsing on the floor. Everything started getting blurry but I could see the silhouettes of the people gathered around me. I could still hear their voices too, some promising that help was on the way and others offering their sympathies along with some crying in the background.
The last thing I remember before I blacked out was the feeling of a warm hand on my shoulder offering comfort, and the voice of the merchant that I saved.
"Do not worry young one. Your heroic deed will not go unrewarded, you will not die here this day. I am in your debt, and I always pay in full. When you wake up, you will be a GOD."
And that was the last thing that I heard before I died.
(Present)
I fell backwards away from the water, my breathing erratic and my heart beating a mile a minute after having just relived my own death. I don't move a muscle, I don't think I could if I tried. I don't know how much time passed without me moving and I don't know how much longer I could've stayed there but a rustling in the bushes behind me broke me from my shocked state.
I Jumped to my feet and spun around to face the bush in one fluid move, Not sure what to expect I place a hand on the hilt of my sword just in case. After a few more seconds of rustling a rather large cat-like form emerged from the brush. The beast is a good seven feet tall on all fours and resembles a lion with the wings of a bat and the tail of a scorpion. Eyes locking with mine it starts running straight towards me, and while my mind is telling me to run my body is completely relaxed.
"Come on you bastard" said. Gripping the handle of my sword I wait until the beast pounces and with two strokes of my sword I slit the beasts throat with the first before disemboweling it with the second before stepping out of the way before the large cat's body hits the ground with a thud. "That was easier than I thought It would be" I said to myself, flicking my sword to clear off the blood before sheathing it.
Now that I have a moment to myself with a clear head I notice that I can finally see the sky, and Its close to sunset. Looking around the clearing I see a cave on the other side of the river. "Well that takes care of the shelter" I said to no one before turning to the corpse of the big cat, "and that takes care of the food." Walking over to the cat's body I figure that if I really am Hiei than this should be easy.
Grabbing the cat by It's nape I effortlessly drag it to the riverbank and throw the beast to the other side as if it were a mere pillow and watch it land safely on the other side. Now lets try this I think as I run straight towards the water before leaping across the entire thing with one jump. Landing next to my soon to be meal with a smirk on my face as I realize that I just cleared will over fifty yards I grab the body and drag it to the cave which just so happens to be uninhabited. Good, at least that's one less thing to worry about.
After digging a fire pit and gathering some wood I skinned the cat before placing a few pieces on sticks. Reaching my hand out towards the wood I figure since I'm a fire demon I should be able to ignite the wood, and after a few moments the wood burst into flames proving me right. Pretty soon I was warm with a full stomach leaving me alone to my own thoughts.
Where am I? How the hell am I still alive and in a body that's supposed to be fictional? Why is my heartbeat so slow? These questions and many others started flowing through my mind one after another and I could only think of one explanation to any of it. "The merchant" I said out loud just as I feel my phone vibrate in my pocket and after pulling out my phone I'm rather shocked to see a message from an unknown sender.
It reads: "Hello my friend if your reading this than your safe and sound in you're new body as you're old one is no longer among the living, I am truly sorry for that. I am eternally grateful to you for saving my life and have given you a second chance in a new world. You will find yourself in the world of Equestria and before you ask there was no other world that I could've sent you to." Now while it is true that I have sent other people like yourself to other versions of Equestria with various bodies, items and abilities you yourself are quite different from any other I have ever displaced.
For starters the others usually only get the powers, abilities, items, and weapons that belong to the body their in. You however saved my life and as a reward I have granted you the powers and abilities not only of Hiei whose body your in now, but of every human and demon in that particular universe along with some weapons and tools from a few others as a bonus. You will be able to summon any weapon or item from the Yu Yu Hakusho universe there will be a list at the bottom of this message consisting of the additional items I am gifting you with just imagine them and they'll appear.
As for you're newfound powers and abilities there are quite a few of them so they will take a rather long time to master them. Personally I would use that Jegan eye of yours to speed up the process since most of them are simply different forms of energy control and manipulation you don't actually have to physically train all that much. As for tools you'll have everything you need to either lay low, assimilate, be the world's guardian, or to take over the world, whatever you choose. This is my gift to you.
Once again I thank you for saving my life and I wish you good luck and good fortune in you're new body and in this new world. I might even throw in a familiar face or two, but I haven't decided yet. I should warn you however that the events in this world will not happen exactly like they did in the show. It will be rather similar however you may find things a bit less sugarcoated and your presence very well might change a few things as well. Your Friend, the Merchant/ Loki.
]Item List
Power Pole - (Dragon Ball)
Tenseiga, So'unga, and Tetsusaiga - (Inuyasha)
Darksaber - (Star Wars the Clone Wars)
Sword of Omens - (ThunderCats)
Gauntlet of Omens -(ThunderCats)
Utility Belt - (Batman Beyond) -(will not solve every problem)
Various Capsules - (Dragon Ball)
(They'll be a few other surprises as well, when you need them)
Author's Note
My first story, constructive criticism only or get out.
Leaning back against the cave wall I let out a breath, this was all just way too much to take in at once. I guess those rumors of the disappearing people where true after all, and if that merchant really was Loki than all of this kind of makes sense, he is the god of mischief after all. Disguising himself and selling people items that send them to another world in a new body sounds exactly like something he'd do for entertainment.
And now I'm in the body of a demon in a world where harmony rules, Celestia very well might use the elements on me just for being a demon. But if he really gave me the power of an entire anime universe and all of these powerful items than with some training I should be able to handle pretty much anything if the worst were to happen. There are so many things that could go wrong, especially concerning 'those differences that he mentioned, and I'd rather not end up as a lawn ornament.
I'm probably not as upset about all this as I should be, I mean I really didn't have that much to lose by being here anyway. My father died of a heart attack on my first day of college, three years later my mother and brother were killed in a car accident. I walked away without a scratch. Over the course of the next two years I drove away all of my friends and moved to a decent sized house in the woods away from everyone.
It was only this past year that I've been reconnecting with them, since that was what the whole trip to the comic convention was for, for us to relax and have fun like we used to. Of course this whole mess had to happen when things were starting to look up, I'm going to miss them that's for sure, but I suppose If was going to die there anyway than getting another chance like this really isn't such a bad thing.
Deciding to follow his advice I got into a meditative position and closing my eyes I put all my focus on my jegan eye, trying to will myself into my own mind. After a few minutes I felt a weightlessness come over me and I open my eyes to find myself in a deserted version of my hometown. I look around for a while but it gets boring rather quickly with no one else around so I guess its time to begin my training.
One Month Later
Opening my eyes for the first time in a month I have to rub them to remove the blurriness. I stand up and do a few stretches and roll my head around to shake off the soreness of not moving for an entire month. I smiled to myself I can't help but feel amazed that I got two years of training done in a single month, and since I mastered my jegan eye during that time, than next time I should be able to train for longer in even less time in the real world.
I can't help but revel in the feeling of power that I have now. I managed to learn and master so many things during my training thanks to Hiei's natural tallent, Kurama's intellect, and yusuke's drive. First I mastered all of Hiei's natural physical abilities as well as his fire abilities to a little better than Zeru's level of control. I have also summoned the Dragon of the Darkness Flame a few times, the amount of pain that caused was excruciating. I'm also able to use the Sword of the Darkness Flame and The Fist of the Mortal Flame.
Next I learned the spirit-gun, and the shot-gun, along with the spirit-wave, followed by Kurama's grass-sword and his rose-whip. I also managed to learn the spirit-sword, the dimensional-sword, along with a list of other abilities. Such as Suzaku's lightning and Genbu's earth manipulation, Jin's wind abilities and Toya's ice. I have the elder Toguro's regeneration abilities making me almost immortal, as well as the younger Toguro's strength and armor.
I found that the reason Toguro's armor seemed to grow out in all directions when he released his power is because he didn't care enough to use his energy to control or manipulate it into something less bulky. Using this knowledge I managed to create a similar armor to Greed from Full metal Alchemist. In addition to that I've also learned how to conceal myself in and travel through shadows like some of the lesser demons along with sniper's marking ability, and En's angel-blades.
After going over everything I've learned during my training I decided to see exactly where I am in what I assume to be the everfree forest. Using the wind to fly over the treeline I find that I'm actually pretty far in the forest compared to the closes town which I'm assuming is Ponyville. The castle of the two sisters is only a few minute flight away so I head there to see If i can find any information on those possible differences the merchant talked about.
Flying became one of my new favorite things to practice during my time in my mind. Jin's wind flight abilities are are incredible and give me a complete sense of freedom while in the air. The only limit it has is that the user can only fly as fast as the wind itself, so around 300MPH. While that's still really fast it's a limitation that I tried really hard to break, and while I couldn't break it I did find a way around it. By sprouting the wings of a crow demon I can use them to do the flying and I can use my wind manipulation to completely negate any drag, almost like I'm flying through a vacuum which increases my speed to flight mach 5.
Landing in the remains of the castle I immediately head for the library and gather all the books I can find regarding history, culture, and magic. After spending a few hours scanning through and memorizing them with my jegan, I found several references to demons, and a demon war that ended with the demons being sealed in tarturus, though a few seem to pop up in Equestria every now and again, that's good to know.
That means that I'll probably be attacked by guards the second they see me, so I'll either have to keep to myself or make sure their aren't any guards around when I reveal myself. The guards aren't really the problem it's Celestia and Luna that concern me. I'm not sure how powerful they really are and I'd rather avoid becoming a statue, demons and harmony don't generally mix very well after all.
Much to my annoyance according to one of the books the gender rolls of their culture seem to be the opposite of earths, with the mares in charge of everything while the stallions just sit around looking pretty. I guess I'll just have to show them how well I can take care of myself. Then again this book is one-thousand years old so maybe their society has progressed a bit since then, I really hope so. After getting all the dated information that I could I decided to head back to my cace for dinner.
One Month Later
I've made a few trips back to the castle since my first trip a month ago and in that time I found piles and piles of gold and silver in the castle's treasury. Why Celestia never took it with her to Canterlot is beyond me but at least I won't be short on cash for a long time. I also managed to summon and get use to all the extra items that the merchant left with me so now along with Hiei's normal sword I have the darksaber around my waist, bound to my utility-belt.
I've also managed to do a bit of information gathering in the town closest to my new territory. That's right, I have officially claimed the everfree forest as my own since none of the so called predators of this forest will even approach me at the moment. Ponyville is practically identical to the one in the show, the only difference I've noticed is that there are actually a few guards stationed there to protect the citizens from the creatures of the everfree. Recon is pretty easy when you have a belt that can turn you invisible, or rather it bends the light around me and conceals me from every type of light in the natural spectrum except for ultra-violet light.
It turns out that the summer sun celebration is today and with it the start of the show and the return of nightmare moon. Once I arrived in town I only had to wait an hour before the sky darkened, the moon started to overtake the sun causing an eclipse. Nightmare Moon appeared in Celestia's place just as she did in the show and I have to say the power I sense from her is rather impressive, I'd say she would rank as a high B borderline low A class demon. The power gap between alicorn and unicorn is rather large since Twilight, one of the strongest unicorns around only ranks in at high C rank at best, for now anyway.
Using the cloaking feature on my utility-belt I followed Twilight and the others into the everfree forest, I'm curious to see just how different things might be from the show. When I heard Applejack say that the forest isn't natural, referring to the weather I could barely hold in my laughter. I got ready to save Twilight when the cliff collapsed but but it wasn't necessary since Ranbow Dash and Fluttershy were there. They didn't need me for the manticore either however I sensed something as I went to follow them so I jumped into the clearing just as the bushes started moving.
A pack of timber wolves emerged from the brush probably curious to see what was causing so much noise a few moments ago. They just sniffed around for a minute and I would've been able to let them go if they hadn't started making a b-line towards Twilight and the others. De-cloaking I appeared between them and the path the ponies took making the wooden wolves skid to a halt a few feet away, there are ten of them in total, all growling and ready to pounce.
They spread out around me before starting to circle around me looking for an opportunity to strike. Reaching to my belt I grab and ignite the darksaber, it actually seemed to absorb the light of the full moon bouncing off of the wooden wolves as it waited for its first victim. Only a moment later the wolf in front of me jumps straight at me only to be cut clean in two from head to tail by the darksaber, its blade leaving a streak of black coloring the air during my swing.
The five remaining wolves grew visibly angrier at the sight of their pack mates becoming firewood but they didn't yet they didn't charge at me. They spread out around me again each stopping about two feet away from me. The wolf to my right moved first, snapping at my leg only to get decapitated as I spun out of its way, only for another wolf to jump at me from behind. Ducking under the wolf's body as it pounced I bisected it before spinning around and kicking another wolf in the face sending it to the ground where my blade pierced its head like a hot knife through butter. The last two wolves must've decided they liked living because they each glanced at the other before they took off running in the direction they came from.
Turning off the darksaber I clipped it back to my belt before taking off to catch up to the ponies and after a minute of running I can hear Pinkie Pie finishing up her giggle song. I caught up to them as the mustache loving serpent helped them across the raging river and I teleported across into a tree above the ponies as they continued towards their destination. Once we got to the fallen rope bridge Rainbow Dash flew across to fix the bridge before she was caught up in the shadow-bold illusion and knowing she'd refuse their offer waited for her to break free.
I followed them inside the castle where they collected the petrified elements of harmony and Twilight tried to activate them only to jump into a magical vortex that picked up the elements and caused her and the elements to vanish. Following Twilight's magical signature to another part of the castle only to see Nightmare and Twilight charge at each other only for Twilight to teleport to the elements right before they collided.
Twilight's attempt to activate the elements failed and the rest played out almost exactly like it did in the show. The only difference being that nightmare moon finished gloating a few seconds early and actually attempted to kill twilight with a powerful energy blast that would've incinerated the future princess had I not knocked it off course with a well timed spirit-gun sending it flying through a large hole in the roof before it exploding high in the sky.
That threw both of them for a loop and they each spent a few moments looking around the room trying to find the one responsible but since I'm still invisible they find nothing. That few extra seconds of searching bought enough time for the others to come charging into the room. Twilight faced Nightmare Moon with no fear as she proclaimed herself and each of her new friends as the new elements of harmony before they launched the rainbow beam of death and defeated nightmare moon and freed Luna. Celestia returned in a flashy over the top spectacle and praised the six mares before making up with Luna before they all headed back to Ponyville, with twilight asking to stay with her new friends before getting Celestia's blessings.
Twilight did at one point during the night tell Celestia about somepony saving her from Nightmare's attack and asked the princess if it was one of her guards that saved her, but Celestia shook her head saying that she didn't know who it was. She told Twilight that she was grateful to this unknown being for saving her, however, she was also concerned that this being seemed to have enough power to contend with an alicorn and that unknown factors can be very dangerous. She's absolutely right of course but how dangerous I am all depends on her first move when I finally make my presence known.
After making sure Twilight was settled in the princesses headed back to Canterlot and took the elements with them, unaware that I had been watching them the whole time. Twilight's new friends stayed at the library for a bit longer, talking about what happened and how exciting it was. With nothing left to do I returned to my cave to await the many headaches I knew were coming in the near future.
Author's Note
Not much action yet but we'll get there soon.
The next few weeks went by rather quickly as I watched the events unfold exactly as I knew they would. Twilight had her little gala ticket fiasco, Applejack tried to to the whole harvest by herself before eventually learning her lesson and letting her friends help her. Gilda showed up and threw a tantrum during her party causing an argument with Rainbow Dash resulting in Gilda flying off into the Everfree forest in a rage. Its a shame really, all she wanted was some time to catch up with her friend only to end up feeling like she'd been replaced.
A week later Trixie stroled in to town acting like she owned the place and despite her massive ego and attitude she was surprisingly very talented. Instead of using her actual magic to cheat her way through her shows she instead used well rehearsed routines, practiced skill, and natural talent with slight of hoof and special effects to wow her audience. Its actually rather impressive to see a unicorn so talented at something more physically demanding and not depending on her magic to aid her.
Sadly she could've made a lot of friends in Ponyville but her arrogance got in the way, I'm sure Twilight would have loved to learn about a whole new type of magic, sure its not real magic but Twilight's never shied away from learning something new. I mean sure it is Trixie's job to boast and make herself out to be larger than life but she clearly doesn't know when or how to turn it off. But in the end it too ended as it did in the show, with Trixie fleeing Ponyville after those two idiotic colts woke up the Ursa-minor.
All of it was rather boring and uneventful for me, since I know how its supposed to happen and there wasn't anything new or different from the show so far. A few hours ago though I sensed something that actually excited me, I sensed a dragon a appear in the mountains a few miles away from town. so after turning invisible I went into town to find Twilight. I can't help but feel a little excited, a dragon might provide an opportunity to see how strong I've become especially since the only things that still attack me from the forest are those weak timber wolves, well them and this one chimera that seems to be making a game of trying to ambush me.
On a high note I found out that my phone is pretty much indestructible and carries an infinite charge. The battery gauge hasn't gone down a single percentage in all of the time that I've been here. It's also loaded with music, like almost every song known to man has to be on it, talk about one heck of a memory upgrade. It also has thousands of pictures that were seemingly taken straight out of computer along with my memories. The weird part is though that I still have some service. I can't call or message any of my friends through my phone, apps, or email but I can access websites like normal meaning the internet is working at least to an extent.
Sitting down in one of the branches above Twilight's house I just have to wait until Twilight gets her letter from Celestia asking her to deal with it, I may even get a decent fight out of this if things go south. That being said I can't believe Celestia is sending six untrained ponies after a god damn dragon instead of her trained guards. I mean I'm pretty sure the guards would've ended up getting themselves killed but that's not really the point, at least the guards are trained to work together but these six haven't even known each other a whole month. It's just asking to get them killed especially with the lack of information they have to go on, like age, type, or a strength estimate.
Not too much is really known about dragons, just that they have an incredibly long life-span, they're resistant to magic, can breathe fire and are extremely territorial. All of the information I have on dragons is from the books and scrolls I took from the castle ruins. Dragons have their own code that they must adhere to though only a few details are known about what that might include. Fully grown dragons can change the size of their bodies so even an adult dragon could be the size of a dog if they wanted, and that in now way effects their physical strength. They sleep for a long time and are very proud of their power and abilities so if they take challenges very seriously meaning if Twilight and her friends do something stupid this could end very badly for them.
It didn't take Twilight much longer than an hour or so to gather the other girls and inform them of the situation in front of the whole town. After that they met up at the library and gathered some supplies for the trip, which turned out to consist mostly of snacks almost making me confront them on the spot. I can't believe how naive these ponies are, its not like this is still the cartoon its real life and their treating going after a freaking dragon like their going on a pick nick on a Sunday afternoon.
It didn't take long to make our way to the mountain where I have to endure the agonizingly slow ascent filled with pointless conversation, gossip, giggling, a tiny song and a rock slide. A few of the boulders would've squashed the fleeing ponies but fortunately I was able to prevent that with a bit of earth manipulation. After finally getting to the dragon's cave I Rainbow Dash failed at clearing the smoke surrounding the mountain and Applejack was apparently going to use apples as weapons against a a dragon if you can believe that.
Each and every one of their attempts fail one after another at convincing the dragon to leave as I knew they were going to. Twilight's attempt at diplomacy failed, Rarity actually came the closest with flattery but she ruined it by trying to steal some of its treasure. Like seriously how stupid are these ponies? Rule number one with dragons is that they are super protective of their hoard. Whatever it is that Pinkie Pie tried didn't work and Applejack didn't even get to try anything before Rainbow Dash flies in and attepts to use force only managing to piss-off the dragon.
Rainbow Dash is sent flying out of the cave by the dragon's roar where she collides into her friends like a bowling ball, knocking them over. The ponies take a moment or two to run around in panic before hugging each other and shaking in fear as the dragon sends them rolling into a rock wall with a smoky breath causing the wall to shatter on impact.
After the dragon tosses five ponies around like marbles Fluttershy finds the courage to step in and starts berating the dragon. It actually seems lit its working until she drops the ball by calling the FEMALE dragon mister, and if there's one thing that pisses a dragoness off besides trying take its treasure its getting their gender wrong. The dragon's roar sends Fluttershy crashing into her friends who are all in a pile by the cliffs edge, all six of them now cowering in fear of their impending doom as they watch the dragon takes a deep breath.
The Dragoness unleashes a torrent of white flames at the quivering ponies I finally make my move. De-cloaking and stepping out of the shadows I channel my energy to form a barrier around myself and the ponies. The flames die down after a moment and the dragoness seems rather shocked that the ponies aren't a pile of ashes, the ponies seem to think its odd too and finally open their eyes after realizing they aren't dead. The dragoness's eyes narrow at my interruption and the ponies faces are all shocked, however my expression is one of boredom.
" WHO ARE YOU AND WHY DID YOU YOU SAVE THEM?" shouted the dragoness, the force of the shout causing my cloak to flow around me.
" You can call me Hiei and I'm afraid I can't allow you to kill them, despite how annoying they might be they're needed for the continued safety and security of Equestria for the foreseeable future," I said. "And while I realize confusing your gender is insulting it hardly calls for killing them. Besides its not like you can't really blame them, ponies are a rather ignorant and xenophobic species after all." The eyes of the ponies widen comically at their realization of the dragon's true gender.
"You mean that thing is a GIRL?" Rarity yells, followed by nods of agreement from the others and a low annoyed growl from the dragon.
"Of course she is, and you would know that if you ponies took even a bit of time to do any research on dragons before charging up here," I chastised. "Her scales are much too vibrant to be confused with a male since male dragons scales are dull while the scales of a female dragon are meant to draw in the attention of the males. Male dragons also have more bulk to them where as she is more slender and males generally don't have natural curves to accent their bodies. In addition to that her scent is clearly that of a female, it would've been easy to see if you ponies weren't so ignorant to other cultures outside of Equestria." I finished my explanation from both the ponies and the dragoness.
"HEY BUDDY! I don't know who you are but we are not ignorant," Rainbow Dash shouted at me while giving her best glare to which I silenced with one of my own before letting a smirk make its way to my face.
"Oh Really?" I question her. "I know for a fact that Equestria knows very little about dragons aside from the few bits of taken from its dealings with the dragon lord and yet all of you jumped headfirst into this little adventure of yours without even considering how dangerous it might actually be. You lack both general knowledge and any real detailed information on dragons, which is the literal definition of ignorance." They all flinched at that, especially Twilight. "I bet you thought this was going to be easy, a nice little outing between friends, you'd come up here, get rid of the dragon, go home and throw a party or something." Their faces redden a bit as they look away at my comment, at least they have the decency to feel embarrassed.
" Lets get one thing straight, the world isn't as happy and forgiving as your princess makes it out to be, she's put a great deal of effort into making sure all of you lead happy sheltered lives." Twilight looks like she's about to defend her princess but I cut her off by pointing to the dragon behind me."If this is how you would deal with an actual male dragon then all of you would be being raped right now before being eaten later. You have absolutely no idea what your doing and neither does your princess, she practically sent you up here to die by not sending any guards, not that they would have been much help anyway. The world isn't all sugar and rainbows, there are real consequences to stupid uniformed actions."
As I finished my little rant the horrified looks on their faces tells me that my words hit home. I turn back around to face the dragoness that's been waiting rather patiently for me to finish admonishing the naive little ponies."Despite their stupid approach to the situation I'm afraid I am also going to have to ask you to find another place to sleep. The smoke and ash from your snoring will kill off a large portion of the plants and animals in the surrounding areas and since since the forest ins MY territory I'm afraid I can't allow that."
"Can't ALLOW IT? Bit talk from such a tiny male!," The dragoness snarled before without warning she slammed her large paw into the ground in an attempt to crush me, I simply moved out the way and leaned against the cave wall as I waited for them to realize she missed. Twilight and her friends all had their eyes closed as to not see the demise of their mysterious savior, however after a few moments of silence I watched their eyes open and the realization hit them as they watched the confused dragoness inspecting her empty, bloodless claws.
"Your going to have to be a lot faster than that if you want to come close to hitting me," I call out with a smirk on my face and all seven heads whip around to my face me. The dragoness growls before swinging her massive tail at me like a club, not even bothering to move I use some of Toguro's incredible strength to catch her tail in my arms before giving the dragoness an evil look making her eyes widen in realization. "My turn," I call out as I use her own tail to pull her off her feet, slamming her into the cave wall before throwing her into the opposite wall hard enough to crack the stone.
Glancing at the ponies behind me for a moment I see that all of their eyes are wide and their jaws are on the floor from my little show of strength. Turning back to the dragoness it only takes her a moment to shake off the dizziness before she unleashes an even larger torrent of fire than before. Taking a deep breath but still not even bothering to move from my spot I meet her flames with an attack of my own.
"Shards of Winter,"
Frustration evident on her face the dragoness opens her maw before sending her largest flamethrower yet. The white hot flames covered every inch of the cave making dodging or any kind of maneuvering mute. Using one of Seiryū's abilities to control the temperature around me I lower my body temperature and that of the immediate area around me to well below absolute zero before forming Toya's ice cutlass on my right arm and flood it with demonic energy.
Charging forward into the oncoming flames, my icy aura clashing with the blistering heat of the flames as my ice sword cuts through the dragon's fire, not showing a single sign of melting from the intense heat being generated. The dragoness lurched to the left as I cut through her flames and continued on towards her narrowly avoiding my thrust, she responded by bringing up an arm to backhand me. Being in mid air doesn't give me many options to dogde and not wanting to show my pony audience all my tricks I brought my arms up in front of me letting the ice sword take the brunt of the impact from the angry dragoness.
The force of the blow actually shattered part of my ice sword and sent me sailing backwards through the air towards the cave's entrance. Righting myself in the air by doing a back-flip I manage to land on my feet just as I hit the ground but due to my momentum I still slide back about ten feet or so before canceling my two ice techniques, my sword turning to water and splattering on the ground as my temperature returns to normal.
Raising my arms with my open palms pointed at the dragoness I call out another of Toya's techniques, "Frozen Hell " I mutter as the entirety of the cave, the floor, walls, and ceiling all turn to ice as I manipulate the molecules of the water vapor in the air. The dragoness is strong enough that she isn't frozen solid but all four of her limbs are now uncased in a thick layer of ice and stuck to the ground. Watching the draoness flail around as she tries to break free of my ice I decide to use another technique that piggybacks on my last one, "Ice Absorption," I mutter to myself, activating the effect.
The draoness's eyes widen as she immediately notices that somethings wrong an increases her struggle to escape my ice. The neat thing about my Ice absorption technique is that once a target is uncased in the ice of my frozen hell technique I can use that ice to absorb my opponents energy as long as they remain in contact with my ice. After a minute or two of failed attempts to escape the dragoness is visibly weakening, she's struggling less and is starting to breathe more heavily than she was before.
Realizing that escaping might not be an option the dragoness takes a breath before visibly calming herself down before her energy spikes. I can sense that she's molding all of her remaining energy into whatever she's about to do next, probably in an attempt to break free and end the fight at the same time. She takes one more deep breath before opening her jaws and forming a ball of fire so condensed that it resembles that of a miniature sun. I can feel the heat from here, if I let that get anywhere close to Twilight and her friends they'll be turned to ashes way before it even reaches them.While rather powerful, the attack isn't really that dangerous, me being a fire demon and all, but I can't move out of the way with Twilight and the others behind me.
With a mighty roar the dragoness launches her final attack, the heat so intense it actually melts my ice freeing her and melting the rock of the calve floor as it sails towards me. Not being able to move without the ponies behind me getting killed as a result I gather up energy and hold out my hands in front of me to catch the rather impressive attack. As the ball of plasma connects with my hand a small shock wave is produced and it actually manages to push me back a few feet.
However that doesn't last long as I ding my feet into the ground and call upon Toguro's strength to stop myself from sliding. The fire doesn't even burn my hands since I am a fire demon my body is highly resistant to fire even at this level, and as I'm also a pyrokinetic I manipulate the flames and start absorbing the them into my own body causing the miniature sun in my hand to dim before shrinking and eventually fading away into nothingness, leaving a rather tired and fearful looking dragoness before me.
"That was an very impressive attack," I complemented her. "If I didn't have the ability to control and absorb fire than that would have done some serious damage, I don't even think another dragon could survive something like that, Celestia probably could but I think that might be about it. The only problem I see with it is that it takes a large amount of your energy to produce, you seem to be running on empty right about now."
"W-who are you? W-what are you? How can you possibly be this strong?" she asked me between breaths. I could here it in hear the fear in her voice, she'scompletely out of energy and knows she can't defeat me. Closing my eyes a moment to think about her questions I decide to answer since Twilight and her friends are already here I won't have to repeat myself later.
"My name is Hiei, and I'm not really sure what I would be considered right now since i've only been in this body and this world for a few months, I-"
"E-excuse me sir," Twilight cut me off. "What exactly do you mean by that?" The other ponies and even dragon nod in agreement to her question. She's nervous that much is clear but there's a little sparks of curiosity in her eyes, which could be either good or bad for me but I guess I'll have to wait and see. I suppose I've already opened my big mouth so I might as well give them an explanation without any interruptions.
Sighing to myself I turn so I cans see both the dragon and the ponies. "I'll explain, but I don't want any interruptions so save your questions to the end and I MIGHT answer them. Got it?" i said and everyone noded in agreement. "I was what you would call a human, a race descended from primates after billions of years of evolution. I didn't look too different before than I do now except my hair was blond, my eyes were blue, and I was a bit taller with a different face however the basic design of a human is the same, there also not very strong physically so they have to depend on technology which is far more advanced than anything in this world," I told them, pausing a moment for them to take in my words before continuing.
"To make a long story full of many things none of your would understand short, I saved saved someone's life and ended up dieing in the process." A series of horrified gasps fill the air and I raise a hand to stifle the questions they're about to ask. "What I didn't know at the time however is that man I saved was actually a god in human form, and as a reward for saving his life, he took my mind, and my soul and placed them into this body before sending me here, giving me a chance to live out the rest of the life I was robbed of. There is more to it than that obviously but that's all your going to get."
I don't even have to open my eyes to feel the looks of sympathy from Twilight and the others, the dragoness however is still waiting on my answer. Twilight looks like she's about to explode from the list of questions she's most probably building in her head but for now she's staying quiet.
"You said before that humans don't have much physical strength, but you seem to have an abundance of that yourself. You also said that you aren't human any more. So If you aren't human any longer, then what exactly are you? From what I just saw you might be even stronger than the dragon lord, it would take an elder dragon to defeat you," the dragoness chimed in with her question.
"I suppose what I would be considered now is something along the lines of a half-breed," i said causing more looks of confusion. "My mind, and my soul are both human as they were before I died, however this body that I'm in now is that of a demon-lord." Now I know that Hiei isn't a demon-lord but telling them that should at least cause the princesses to hesitate in case they think of attacking me in the future. Now even the dragon's jaw is on the floor in disbelief and I know that the xenophobic minds of the ponies will focus on the demon part so I guess its time to fish for a little sympathy.
"I've been here for almost three months now," I spoke again, grabbing their attention again. "My friends, my family, my home, my future, my very life itself all gone in the blink of an eye. The only way I can see any of them now is by looking through these stones," i whispered barley loud enough for them to here, as I pulled out the tear stones belonging to Hiei's mother and sister. I found out a while ago that by staring into the stones I could see images of my family and friends.
A sharp pain pierces my heart at the thought of never seeing any of them again, all because I had to to play the hero. Feeling something squeeze my leg my eyes widen in shock at seeing Applejack of all ponies hugging my leg with tears in her eyes. The others don't look much better but they're rather hesitant to get any closer. Applejack looks up at me and I can see the sadness in her eyes.
"Ah know how it feels to loose yer parents, but at least I still had the rest of mah family to help me though it. Ah can't imagine how hard it must be to lose all of it at once, tah not have anypony or anything to help you through it," the orange mare cried into my leg. Against my will and better judgement I feel my left hand make contact with her head and start petting the orange mare, my fingers combing through her surprisingly silky mane causing her nuzzle my hand as she melts into my touch.
"Applejack what are you doing? Get away from him, he's a demon!" Rainbow Dash shouts from her spot at the cave's entrance. Bringing my attention to the other ponies I can see that they don't seem to share Applejack's opinion of me. Twilight's horn is glowing and she's taken a sloppy fighting stance however seems a little conflicted, most likely torn between fear of me being a demon and pity from my story. She's probably come across a few mentions of demons during her studies with Celestia, though I'm sure Celestia censored the stories heavily.
Like Twilight Rarity also seems conflicted though to a lesser decree than her fellow unicorn as she looks more afraid than anything else, but at least she's not writing me off as evil right away unlike a certain blue pegasus. Rainbow Dash is in an untrained yet highly aggressive stance staring right at me, waiting for me to make a move. Its actually kind of funny, she actually looks like she thinks she can threaten me when I just wrecked the dragon that was batting her and her friends around like a game of marbles.
Pinkie Pie doesn't have any clue what to do, her mane and tail are deflated and straight instead of curly and she's repeatedly looking back and fourth between her friends and myself. Fluttershy is hiding herself behind the others, shaking even more now than she was at the thought of facing a full grown dragon, not that I really expected anything different. So out of the six of them three are undecided, one seems to be with me with one against, and the last one is absolutely terrified.
"She's right Applejack," Twilight calls to her friend. "He could be making this up so we let our guards down, I've read that demons can be incredibly tricky and misleading. He beat a fully grown dragon like it was nothing, he could pose a danger to Equestria. We have to take him to Princess Celestia and see what she says."
I can feel Applejack's grip on my leg tighten as she shakes her head. "I know he's tellin the truth, he aint no demon, not really, he's been all alone in whole new world and he needs our help." The orange mare lets go of my leg, aiming a glare at Twilight and Rainbow, finishing her statement by stomping her hoof into the cave floor.
"While I thank you for you're sympathies I don't need them, nor do I do I need a place to stay so don't bother asking, I've taken up residence in the forest by your town, as such I've made my home there," I chimed in, and received shocked looks from all six mares.
"Absolutely Not!" Rarity shouted. "No pony can live in that dreadful place, its uncivilized, the weather is always changing, the timber wolves are incredibly dangerous not to mention all the other monstrous creatures that live there, its no place to live especially for a stallion."
"For starters I'm not a pony so that whole stallions being made out of glass thing doesn't really apply to me, and I've been surviving in that forest tor the last three months just fine. I guarantee that I'm the most dangerous thing in that forest, I can walk pretty much anywhere without being attacked by anything. Besides, I highly doubt you're princesses will be welcome me with open arms They'll most likely either attack me on the spot or order their guard to arrest me or hunt me down."
"That's not true!" Twilight yelled with a stomp of her hoof. "Princess Celestia is the kindest pony in the world, she treats everypony fairly and justly, she would never do something like that just because of what you are now," she finished with tears in her eyes at the very thought of her teacher doing something like that, and the other agreed.
"Yes, every pony , Something I clearly am not. You obviously have a very sugar coated view of reality, but I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. Won't We?. But I believe we're getting a a bit off topic," I said turning my attention back to the red draoness whose been waiting patiently and is now shifting a bit under my gaze. Nodding at her I give her the go ahead to speak next.
"You have withstood my strongest attack, I have no more energy to fight you with, I know that I have no chance at beating you so I must concede defeat and acknowledge you as my superior. As per dragon law myself and everything in my possession now belongs to you, My hoard, my body, and my life are now yours to do with as you please, master," she said bowing her head, shocking everyone in the room.
I'll stop you right there, I already have more treasure than I know what to do with, nor do I need a slave. So if you promise to find a new spot to sleep, someplace away from ponies, then you can go live the rest of your life," I tell her but she just shakes her head.
"NO! I must adhere to the law," she yells frantically before shrinking down to the size of large dog and she's much slimmer now. "You are the winner if you reject my service as the loser its as if your saying that I'm not worth enough to be a servant in your eyes, nor am I worthy enough to be killed in combat. It is the most grievous of insults a dragon can be given. It would be as if your calling my abilities as a dragon, and as a female worthless, which means death will be the only way to restore my honor." I remember from one of the books I took from the castle detailing some of Starswirl's personal observations on dragons mentioned just how important the old laws are to dragons, honor and pride being very important concepts to them, many will fight to the death to keep or restore their honor.
Letting out a long exasperated sigh, I concede but I can buy myself some time to get out of this. "Fine, I know how important the old laws are to you dragons, so here's what I want you to do. You still have a nap to take so I want you to go find a new place to sleep, preferably away from any civilization and if you want to come find me after you wake up then feel free. Is that acceptable to you?" I asked, her yes seemed to regain a bit of life at my answer and she nodded in approval.
I walk past her and continue further into the cave to where the massive piles of treasure are. Pulling out a storage capsule from my utility belt I push the button and back away. Everyone seems to be rather interested in what the little device might be. A few seconds later everyone's jaws are once again on the floor as every single jewel, gem, coin, and relic are all gone in a puff of smoke.
Picking the capsule off the ground I turned to them and held it up for them to see. "A gift from the guy who sent me here, they can hold pretty much any inanimate object be it solid, liquid, or gas, doesn't matter.
In a flash Twilight is at my side with stars in her eyes. "What is that? How does it work? What does it do? Can I study it? Is it some kind of spacial magic or maybe it-" I cut her off grabbing her snout.
"Its called a storage capsule. It isn't magic, its technology, and no you cant have it. I only have so many and I don't need you breaking one by trying to figure out how it works." Ignoring any response the purple unicorn might be giving I walk over to the dragoness, holding up the capsule in my hand for her to take, which she does albeit with a bit of confusion evident.
"I know dragons like to sleep with their treasure so once you find a place to stay all you have to do is push this button, set it down and give it some space and it'll spit everything back out. To put anything in it you just have to push this button and set it down near whatever it is you want to seal." She nodded as I handed the tiny capsule to her,
"By the way I don't think I ever asked your name?" I asked, to which her eyes widened and I think the scales on her face got a tinge redder but I could be mistaken.
"My name is Flare, master, thank you for letting me keep my treasure, for now at least. I'll see you after my nap," she says, giving me a grateful look and bowed her head slightly before giving me a peck on the cheek and flying away leaving me stunned. Turning around to face the others only to find them staring, and probably waiting to ask a whole bunch of questions that I really don't feel like answering right now but at least I bought myself around two years or so before I have to deal with flare again.
I really didn't feel like being here any longer than I have to or answering anymore of their questions or their attempt at bringing me to Celestia, so I raise an eyebrow and shift my gaze to make it appear as if I'm looking at something behind the group of ponies before muttering, "now that's interesting."Twilight and her friends fall for it beautifully and turn around to see what it is that I'm talking about only to be met with nothing but air. I shake my head, I can't believe that they actually fell for that. Activating the cloaking feature on my belt I disappear from view before they turn back around to question me. And turn back around they do, just a moment later only to be met again with nothing but air.
"I can't believe we just fell for that!" Rainbow Dash yells, most likely voicing all of their thoughts at the moment. I wait bit, not moving from my spot as to not alert them as they spread out and start looking around for any sign of me for several minutes but with no luck they reluctantly decide to give up and return to Ponyville.
Stepping out of the cave I pause for a moment to watch the mares begin their decent back down the mountain. Their reactions to my arrival and my story were mixed but I actually expected much worse, at least some of them seem to be thinking on it. At the very least its something, though its Celestia and Luna's reaction to my existence that concerns me since its their reaction that determines my actions in the near future. Diving off the mountain's edge I let the wind wrap itself around me as it carries me towards my new home for that nap I mentioned earlier.
Author's Note
And Done. Took a little longer than I would have liked but I got a new job on a different shift so my schedule is changing around. It'll be a bit of a slow start but we'll get to some bigger action soon.
Author's Note
Hey Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I got a new job and it took some time to get use to the different shift. I skimmed it over but I didn't have much time to proof read this one but it should be mostly alright.
Chapter 4
I returned to my cave after saving Twilight and the others from the dragon which turned out to be female and is now by dragon law considered my servant. Fortunately though I managed to buy myself at least two years of peace since I told her to finish her nap and dragons sleep for a quite while. Hopefully in that time I can find a way to release Flare from my service without damaging her honor or her pride.
After my nap I started looking through some of the capsules that the merchant gave me.
Looking around my new home I can see that the first floor of the house consisted of a kitchen, living room, dining room, and a small foyer by the door with two closets for coats and such. The second floor holds three guest bedrooms of decent size as well as a bathroom for them to share. The entire third floor makes up the master bedroom and seems to defy space a little bit, its almost like a little flat that's separate from the rest of the house. The first room of the third floor is a sitting room, followed by a an office and an impressive library fully stocked with books and DVDs of all kinds.
There is a really cool media room where I'll be able to read and watch movies and after that is the master bedroom and bathroom and I gotta say there both huge. Another desk is tucked into the corner of the large room and several empty bookshelves lines its walls. The bathroom consists of a large tub and shower respectfully, along with a Jacuzzi and a closet already full of supplies. The last room of the house is through a door located in my new office is secured by a reinforced steel door, a keypad lock, and a retnel scanner and I can only call this room I can only describe as a small batcave. Multiple monitors surround a large and powerful computer, weapon shelves line the opposite wall with an array of gadgets and repair tools on the next wall. On the final wall is a small medical station fit for almost any emergency.
Finishing my house tour I go back to looking in the capsule crate. There's a bunch of security equipment that syncs up to the monitor room in the house so I spent the afternoon setting up cameras and sensors throughout the cave and the surrounding forest. To further secure my new home I took the boulder I used as a door and pushed it flush against the cave's entrance, blocking it off completely then I used my energy to reinforce it, making it harder than diamond.
Now I'm the only one who can get in or out of the cave since I can use Genbu's ability to travel through the earth and stone I can simply walk through the boulder.
Now that security is taken care of I searched through some more of my capsules to see what's inside them. It turns out, a lot. There are about five capsules that each contain enough food to feed an army or two, with a note saying that it will never go bad, so I won't be going hungry anytime in the foreseeable future. One contained a vast array of tools, while another contained hundreds of jugs of purified water, but the best surprise is the barrel of senzu beans to which I immediately place a few in my utility belt.
A few of them had different vehicles such as a Pelican and a warthog from Halo, the nautilus submarine from the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
the batmobile from Batman Beyond
In the next three capsule were summoning like from Naruto. One of them allowed me to summon up to one thousand Quantrons, the robotic soldiers from Power Rangers In Space.
After thoroughly checking through my inventory I decided to use my jegan to see what Twilight was up to, it simply won't do if I miss an opportunity to do something fun. Besides I'm sure she sent a letter to Celestia by now to tell her about the dragon, which means she also knows about me now so how she reacts to my existence is up to her. But it turns out Twilight's getting ready for a slumber party, which means nothing should be happening for a bit and that gives me some time to tame a certain black dragon.
Leaving my newly created fortress I headed a fair distance away as to not damage anything near my new home. After making a rather large clearing with a rose-whip I decide to do a bit of training first, taking off my cloak so it doesn't get damaged, I use Genkai's spirti-cuffs to make it harder to move with an additional feature I added to restrict my energy. With that in place I use sniper's marker ability and place a marker on myself before firing off five energy blasts which due to the marker proceed to turn in mid air and fly straight at me.
I doge the first on by stepping to the left before jumping over the second one coming from behind me, before rolling out the way of the third into a back flip to doge the fourth. The fifth blast is too close to doge so I use my hands to catch it and it pushes me back a few feet before I kick it into the air, before teleporting a few feet away to get away from the other four blasts that all came at the same time. With my energy and movements restrained by the spirit cuffs this exercise is a lot harder than it was during my two years of training.
After about an hour straight of dodging, blocking, and redirecting I decide to move onto something that I've wanted to try for a while now. I noticed during my mental training that spirit-energy and demonic-energy are remarkable similar to chakra from Naruto, so I've been curious to see just how similar. Over the next few hours I determined that while my energy is similar it is definitely not chakra as I was able to stick to surfaces and walk on water I can't use jutsu whatsoever. Not being deterred though I was able to recreate some jutsu by using my own energy mixed with my elemental abilities.
Using the Prism of Seven technique and creating six other versions of me I was able to recreate the Rasengan , the Chidori and its variants, using Kurama's abilities with some imagination I was able to use Wood Style . I also copied a few fire jutsu and the Raikage's lightning armor and while i wasn't able to figure out the rasenshuriken I was able to create his counterparts Spiraling Ring along with its advanced stage the Great Spiraling Ring . All in all it was a lot to figure out from scratch but I'm happy with the results so far.
After two hours of this training I decided it was time to move onto the next phase, the real reason I came out here. I unwrap the bandages on my right arm revealing the tattoo of a black dragon spiraling its entire length. Taking a few deep breaths to center myself and gather my demonic energy I place another marker on myself and call out one of the most dangerous techniques in all of existance, "Dragon of the Darkness Flame!
The sky turned red and the clouds turned black as the world around me darkened. Thunder and lightning rained down from the heavens striking the area around me repeatedly. Even the Earth itself started to shake in fear of the coming of the black dragon.
My arm screamed in pain as it was burned from the inside out by the unholy flames of the black dragon. I watched the giant mass of black flames fly around the clearing as if it were reveling in its freedom but after a few moments it turns its site on me. I can feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, telling me to move, to run away, to live, but I ignore the feeling as I gather every ounce of energy I have in my body in hopes of surviving the wrath of the dragon.
The massive construct of black fire opens its mouth, letting out a deafening roar as it slams into me. Grunting in pain I can feel the flames burning my flesh a I'm pushed back several yards before being carried into the air by the dragon. I take a deep breath and close my eyes as the dragon carries me higher and higher, putting all of my faith in my own power and my jegan eye I let my instincts take over. I reinforce my entire being with energy before opening my mouth, sucking the dragon into my body and beginning the process of becoming the dragon itself.
If I thought the pain in my arm was excruciating before from launching the dragon, I have absolutely no words to describe the pain I'm feeling now. Not that I could voice them if I could, the sound of my screaming is preventing me from hearing my own thoughts. I can feel my body being ripped apart by the flames but I'm still conscious and aware and it's not long before the flames themselves start to solidify and take shape, re-forming into the shape of my previous body.
I can feel it, the dragon's power is mine, I am the dragon now. The pain however is still there as I can feel the various burns on my body have yet to heal. I am completely exhausted and I can't move or stop myself as I plummet a few hundred feet to the ground forming a small crater. I can feel myself blacking out and I try to stay awake, but I only remain conscious for a few extra moments, with the last thing I see being a blurry mass of black and white moving closer and closer.
Opening my eyes I notice a throbbing pain in my head, which soon spread throughout the rest of my body. Looking around I see I'm no longer in field I was training in nor is it my cave, but in a bed inside a small house or something. The walls are littered with tribal-like decor and shelves holding countless jars of various ingredients, a small fire pit lays in the middle of the room with a large cauldron hanging over it. My cloak along with the rest of my clothes are hanging on a rack a few feet away from me.
Looking at myself I note that I have bandages covering both my arms, my left leg, and all of my torso, and that except for my boxers which I still have on thankfully. Another thing to note is how tired and drained I feel which doesn't make sense since when Hiei absorbed the dragon he came back fully energized and healed, but here I am still injured and feeling like i was hit by a truck.
After going through a few possibilities I figure that it's probably due to the spirit-cuffs that I forgot to release before summoning the dragon of the darkness flame. The technique didn't stop me from absorbing the energy of the darkness flame but since my energy was suppressed the dragon must have fought back before it was fully absorbed into my body, damaging it in the process. I must not have had enough energy to heal afterwards so any energy I've regained since then has gone right into healing my body leaving me with practically nothing at the moment.
The problem with that is that I need energy to release the spirit-cuffs which I can't do if all the energy I recover goes straight into healing my body. So I guess I'll have to wait until I'm healed before I can build up enough reserve energy to release the technique. I do have a few sensu beans on me but I'd rather not waste any on something so trivial, especially before I have a chance to see if I can grow any more, I'll put that on my list of things to do when I get back to my cave. Pushing my thoughts aside for the moment I start to sit up only for a voice to stop me.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you my friend. Your wounds were rather sever and have yet to mend," a deep yet distinctively female voice called out from across the room. I looked towards the owner of the voice as she walked out of the doorway to another room, revealing a female zebra decorated in tribal jewelry. "Hello my friend my name is Zecora. May I ask yours?
I simply stare at her for a moment, debating whether or not to talk to her or simply grab my things and walk out like Hiei would. In the end the prospect of having someone to talk to after the last few months of silence won out. "My name is Hiei. Where am I and why did you help me?" I asked the striped equine who smiles at having learned from learning my name.
"Welcome Hiei, you are in my home just inside the Everfree forest. I found you in a crater while investigating the sound of a large boom coming from deeper in the forest. As for your other question. Why would I not help another in need? Even if that creature is a demon," she replied, my eyes widening in surprise causing her to smile. "Do not be alarmed my friend, I can sense you have no evil in you, I wouldn't be a very good shaman if I could not, you have nothing to fear from me.
"I suppose I should thank you for helping me then. I guess I was lucky your a zebra, the ponies around here are so skittish that they probably would've left me in that crater. For a moment her smile grew brighter before falling into a frown, her sadness showing in her eyes.
"As much as I would like to argue with you my friend, I must admit that is the most likely outcome. I have made many trips to town and they always seem to avoid me like the plague." She mumbled that last part but I heard her as she absentmindedly stepped close enough for me to touch her cheek with my hand to comfort her, which she nuzzled in return, a small smile replacing her frown.
"If they don't want to give you a chance than that's their problem, but I've been stuck alone in this forest for the past few months and I could definitely use someone to talk to" I said honestly, resulting in a beaming smile from the zebra. The thought that her smile was actually kind of cute popped into my head for a moment before it another question quickly took its place. "You're speaking normally. I thought zebras are supposed to speak in rhymes?"
Giggling at my question she shakes her head. "No my friend. Our rhymes are meant more for tradition however we do not usually use them when speaking to friends and family. In our first meetings ponies were weary of us zebras we found that speaking in rhymes seemed to give the ponies a sense safety. It is also quite amusing to watch others try to figure out the meaning behind our words," she finished the last part with a sly smile.
"You do know that if the guards or the princesses find out that I'm here or that you helped a demon its not going to end well right?" I asked her, though her mood showed no signs of dampening.
"And just who is going to tell them?" She asked. "Certainly not you or I, and I unfortunately do not receive any visitors so there is nothing to worry about. Besides I moved here to have access to the vast array of ingredients provided by the Everfree so if the worst were to happen I could just move further in where nopony would dare to go."
Now that's shocking. I know She's been alone for quite awhile but to think she'd go that far just because I promised to be her first friend in who knows how long, its flattering really. Its not like I don't feel the same way though, she took care of me while knowing I'm a demon, she's rather pleasant and easy to talk to, and now she's the first friend in this crazy new world. I don't care if the entire Equestrian army comes knocking on her door at some point, I'm not letting anything happen to her just because she choose to help me.
We talked for a few more hours. She told me all about the different creatures and plants that reside within the Everfree, and I told her about what happened to me and how I got here. I was surprised when she wasn't shocked to learn that other worlds exist, but apparently shamans can occasionally get glimpses into other worlds during their visions so she already knew about them. She did get visibly upset when I told her about my family but I assured her that it happened years ago and that I've come to terms with it, I was lying but she doesn't need to know that. Soon she noticed just how long we'd been talking and decided to call it a night, making sure I was comfortable before heading off to her room leaving me to drift into a dreamless slumber.
Waking up the next day I notice that the sun is already high in the sky, and checking my phone it says its almost noon, I must've been more tired than I thought. Looking around the room I notice a distinct lack of my host, but after a few glances around I see a note addressed to me stating that my new stripped friend has gone into town and that she'd be back shortly. I can't help but wonder if this is the trip where she's Twilight sees her for the first time, I'll have to wait until she gets back to ask her. If it is than I might be putting her in danger if Twilight and the others see me her since Twilight will no doubt tell Celestia.
Turning attention to myself I note that I feel so much better than I did yesterday and while I haven't recovered all of the energy that I've lost it should be just enough to release the spirit cuffs. Closing my eyes channel is much energy as I can before murdering release, theresults are instant.
For a moment I feel completely exhausted before feeling as if someone poured a bucket of warm water over my head as my energy comes flooding back into my body. I can feel my demonic and spiritual energies flooding through my veins, every muscle in my body bulge is for a moment before returning to normal. I'm still missing a nice little chunk of my energy but it feels good not to be suppressed anymore. Almost as soon as I finish the door of the Hutt opens and Zecora walked in looking rather downtrodden. I can wager a guess that its probably because the ponies hid from her again.
It turns out that's exactly what happened. Zecora also told me that some ponies followed her back to the forest and walked through a patch of poison joke flowers. The speckled blue flowers are a lot like poison oak but play pranks on those that touch them. After putting her bags away she starts on the process of making an antidote for the effected ponies who will most likely freak out come morning.
"Your far too kind to a bunch of strangers that go out of their way to avoid you every time you go into town" I told her. She just smiled while getting a few ingredients together.
"Ponies are naturally fearful of the unknown, I can not blame them for something that's just in their nature," she answered. I suppose I can't really fault her for being so forgiving having grown up in a world that seems to preach the concept. I spent the rest of the day helping Zecora prepare the ingredients for the poison joke cure and making idle chit-chat before preparing for bed.
The next morning we both woke up early to put the finishing touches on Zecora's potion. "Well from what you told me that yellow filly certainly seemed more interested than frightened. By the end of the day I can almost guarantee that you'll have at least one more friend, but that won't happen if I'm around. Their already afraid of me so it'll be better if I'm not here when you meet them," I told her while putting my shirt back on over the fresh set bandages. I told Zecora that they weren't needed but she wouldn't take no for an answer.
Before I could however Rainbow Dash and Applejack burst through the door and before careening around the room breaking various things throughout the Hut. They were followed by the others a moment later as Applejack jump onto Zacharias ear and began wrestling it. Rainbow Dash crashed into the cauldron in the middle of the room ending her reign of destruction.They then began accusing Zacora of cursing them and stealing Apple Bloom which she took as a grave insult. I decided to intervene right before it came to blows.
"Enough" I shouted, dropping my shirt and silencing them, bringing all their attention to me. "What are you fools doing here? Barging into someone else's home and destroying it is inexcusable." It took a moment for them to get over the fear of me being a demon but I suppose their anger overwhelmed their fear.
"But she cursed us!" Rainbow yelled.
"And she took Apple Bloom!" screamed Applejack. Twilight looked like she was about to say something but her words seemed to die in her throat as her eyes looked over the bandages covering my body that I had yet to take off.
"W-what happened to you?" She asked, her eyes traveling to Zecora before zooming back to me. "What did she do?" Twilight demanded, the others backing her up preparing more accusations but I silenced them with a small flare of demonic energy. But after two days of not having used any energy along with not having recovered completely yet made me rather dizzy forcing me to lean on the wall for support. Twilight snapped out of it first and her gaze immediately snapped back to Zecora.
"What did you do to him?" Twilight demanded. "And where is Apple Boom?" Twilight demanded as she lunged at Zecora who answered with a lung of her own that resulted in them butting heads, both of them trying to force the other to submit. Before I could move to break them up however, in walks the little yellow filly that they accused my stripped friend of stealing.
"Zecora, I think I found all the things you asked for," she called out her eyes still closed. When she opened them however they shot wide open at the mess. "What in Ponyville is going on here?" she questioned.
Applejack immediately started doting on her little sister, relieved that she was okay. "Apple Bloom your okay!"
The yellow filly tilted her head in confusion. "Why wouldn't I be?" she asked before Twilight jumped in front of her and took a protective stance and accused Zecora once more which made the filly and zebra break out into laughter. Surprisingly it only took a few minutes for everything to be explained and the ponies took it a lot better than I thought they would, even though I knew how it was supposed to go.
"Okay Okay I can except that all of this isn't a curse," Twilight conceded. "But if what about him?" she asked, pointing at me. "Don't tell me the poison joke did that too?"
Feeling well enough to move again I grabbed my shirt and cloak and put them on quickly. "As if something as pathetic as that could harm me" I answered. "These injuries have nothing to do with the poison joke. I was experimenting with a new technique an it backfired injuring me pretty badly, Zecora found me unconscious nearby and treated my wounds. I thought I told you to work on that xenophobic behavior of yours." Twilight smiled at me being okay but blushed in embarrassment a moment later, the others also had the decency to look ashamed at how they'd been treating the zebra.
Rainbow Dash stepped forward eyeing up my bandages, confusion evident on her face. " I don't get it we saw you throw a dragon around like it with nothing what kind of technique could hurt you?" She asked.
"The kind you really don't want to be on the receiving end of, believe me I can attest to that," I said with a small smirk. Surprisingly enough they didn't ask anymore questions after that even Twilight who should have been jumping to get answers.
They agreed to personally introduce Zecora to the ponies of Ponyville. I volunteered stay behind and start cleaning up though Twilight did invite me to come to town with them. Before I could decline her offer Zecora stepped in stating that I wasn't fully healed yet and she didn't want me overexerting myself, to which I shot her a greatful look.
Twilight dropped it after that and wished me well as did the rest of them minus pinkie who couldn't talk, Fluttershy who still afraid of me, and rainbow who's still suspicious. I crossed my fingers and promised to take it easy as I watched them depart for Ponyville.
It only took Zecora about two hours to come back from curing her new friends. I already had quite a bit of the mess cleaned up so when she came back it only took us another hour or so to finish.
After we finished cleaning up the mess Twilight and her friends made we decide to lounge around a bit before it was time to eat. Any extra chairs Zecora might've had were destroyed when Rainbow Dash crashed into them so both of us were sitting on the guest bed I'd been sleeping on for the past two nights. Leaning my head back against the wall I could feel myself starting to drift off into the haze right before sleep takes you, I tried to fight it but the bed is really comfortable. I coud tell by her breathing that Zecora was already asleep, and after a few minutes she inched her way against my leg.
Just as sleep was about to take me my jegan eye snapped open alerting me to a multiple magical signatures approaching rather quickly, It only took a moment to check with my jegan to confirm my suspicions. I jumped to my feet spun around and gently shook Zecora awake. She looked around in confusion for a moment before her eyes focused onto me, a slight blush on her face for having fallen asleep so quickly. Her embarrassed look quickly turned into a serious one as she saw the look on my face.
"What is it? What is going on?" She asked.
My gaze traveled to the front door for a second, then back to her. "There are multiple magical signatures headed in this direction, about fifteen total, five of each type. It looks like Twilight must've mentioned me being her to Celestia since the signatures belong to a squad of royal guards." Zecora's eyes snapped wide open and she started frantically looking around the room, but just as she was about to jump off the bed I stopped her.
"Okay look everything will be fine, you stay here and answer the door when they get here. I'll head out now through the back door, I'll conceal my presence and keep watch from the trees so just tell them that I left and if they ask you had no idea that I was a demon. Okay? I promise I won't let anything bad happen to you." She nodded in understanding, worry evident in her eyes as I take off through the hut's back door and leap into a nearby tree, my hand tapping the button on my belt concealing me from the world.
A moment later the guards came marching into the small clearing occupied by Zecora's hut. They stopped a good distance away and one of each pony-type, presumably the ones in charge walked over to the hut and knocked on the door. The earth pony was a stallion, the unicorn and the Pegasus were both mares. After a few moments the door opened revealing my zebra friend, a look of confusion adorned her face as she asked who they were and why they were there even though we both already knew why.
"By order of Princess Celestia we are here for the demon known as Hiei," the unicorn stated.
"Demon? What are you talking about? The only visitors I've had recently were from Ponyville and a strange bipedal creature but he did not seem demonic, besides he left hours ago." Zecora asked, feigning confusion.
"Are you saying you didn't know he was a demon?" The stallion asked and Zecora nodded in acknowledgement. The mares gave each other a look.
"That doesn't change anything," the Pegasus stated. "It will be taken into account later but for now we've been ordered to bring you in for questioning. If you cooperate you should be released within the week."
"Yeah like I really believe that" I said turning off my invisibility and jumping into the clearing from my spot in the trees. The guards immediately tuned towards me, they appeared frightened but ready for a fight. "I'm afraid she won't be going anywhere with you, I owe her a debt and it looks like I'll be repaying it right now" I placing my hands in my pockets.
"If you weren't in there how did you know we were here?" The unicorn demanded.
"I sensed you the second you stepped foot into my forest" I said.
"You're forest? The Everfree Forest belongs to Princess Celestia" the stallion yelled.
"Wrong" i said. "Neither you ponies nor your princesses can control anything about this forest or the creatures that inhabit it. I however can. Hasn't anyone noticed a distinct drop in timberwolf attacks the last few months?" I asked and they all gave each other looks that told me they had. "I am the alpha of this forest, no creature here would dare oppose me. The trees, the flowers, the weeds, every blade of grass are my eyes and ears. No one enters and nothing happens in this forest without me knowing. The guards looked a bit intimidated by my words, not that I expected them to run away just yet.
"It doesn't matter what you claim demon!" The unicorn yelled. "We have orders to bring you in and that's what we're going to do whether you like it or not. Guards get ready! Unicorns prepare your strongest stunning spells, we're taking him alive!" The other guards hollered in answer and immediately spread out into formation, the three that talked to Zecora joining them. The five unicorns were in the middle directly in front of me but spread out so they wouldn't get in each others way. The five earth ponies surrounded the unicorns acting as muscle to protect them while they prepared their spells. That left the five Pegasi hovering in the air above them ready to respond and counter, all in all not a bad formation for facing an unknown opponent but it won't work against me.
As the unicorns prepared their stunning spells I can't help but smile inwardly, outside my face remained stoic as ever. I always wanted to something like this I thought. I reached to my belt with my right hand and grabbed my darksaber and holding it at my side pointed towards the ground I ignited it, the black blade sucked in the very light from the air as it hummed to life causing all of the guards to jump in surprise. They stared in awe for a moment, unsure what to do, I'm not sure what they thought I was going to do but this definitely wasn't it.
I decided to break the tension by taking a step forward. The guards snapped out of their stupor and the unicorns immediately began firing their stunning spells at me. Twirling the darksaber around I deflected their blasts a I slowly advanced towards them. Left, up, right, down, center, I deflected each blast sent at me towards another one of the guards taking out three pegasi an earth pony. Their fear began to grow as I continued to advance and two remaining Pegasus ponies charged at me.
I simply side stepped the first one before grabbing her tail and throwing her into her fellow Pegasus sending them both to the ground. Still deflecting magical blasts I took out another Earth pony and a Unicorn leaving six left. As I got in about 10 feet from the remaining guards I held out my left hand and using the telekinesis granted to me by my Jegan as if it were the force I pulled one of the Earth ponies to me.
She gasped as my hand clasped around her throat but I didn't squeeze much. Instead I used her as a shield letting a few of the stunning spells hit her before I dropped her at my feet before I continue towards her fellow guards. Using my telekinesis again I grabbed another earth pony and flung her into a nearby tree with a flick of my wrist. I took out two more unicorns with their own attacks leaving only three rather nervous looking guards.The earth pony charged first but she didn't even make it to me as one of the remaining unicorns fired off a shot which I deflected into the charging pony sending her tumbling as her body locked up from the stunning spell.
Only two of the unicorn guards remained one of which I think is a captain or something since her armor is more of a teal color rather than the standard gold of the others. As a Captain she isn't under a glamor charm to make her identical to the other guards. She has blue eyes and bright red fur with a yellow mane and tail each with a red stripe through them.
"Your too dangerous to be taken alive. Your too dangerous to be left alive," she said seriously. Her he'd sipped down and she fired another blast at me and I could tell it had more power in it than any of the prior blasts I deflected and this one was meant to kill. Not that it mattered since like the others I simply redirected it with a casual swing of my sword.
The captain gasped in horror as her blast made contact with my sword before heading straight for her only remaining ally. The deadly bolt of magic sailed through the air for a split second before slamming into the ground directly in front of the other guard before exploding leaving a crater the size of my head, I missed on purpose of course but they don't need to know that. The two guards stared at the crater in shock for a moment, then the stallions eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he fainted dropping to the ground with a plop.
The captain snarled and her horn sparked to life as yellow lightning started dancing all over her body as channeled a large amount of magic. A split second later I snapped my head to the left to avoid a right hook from the enraged captain. It appears the spell she used increases her speed to around a mid B class demon and I gotta say I'm impressed, she has an incredible amount of potential. I dodged her next few strikes by tilting my head from side to side before I jumped backwards a few feet to avoid a kick from her right hind hoof.
Missing didn't deter her in the slightest, she used the momentum of her failed kick to flip her self in mid air and land on her hooves before lunging at me again but having seen enough I decided to end the fight. Since she lunged straight at me her punch was easy to avoid by simply stepping aside. And since she was in the air she had no way to alter her momentum and as she passed me I brought my knee upwards and into her stomach. She dropped to the ground like a brick as all the air left her body leaving her gasping and holding her stomach in pain.
Any fight the captain might've had died as she realized her speed was useless and for every one of my steps forward she would take one backwards and It didn't take long for the captain's back to meet with rough bark of a tree. She looked up at me eyes wide with fear, her body trembling in terror as she realized she had nowhere to go. I reached down and grabbed her horn to make sure there were no unwanted surprise attacks and she let out a squeak as I gripped the sensitive appendage.
"I hope you realize now that you never had even the slightest chance of defeating me," I spoke softly which resulted in the mare cracking an eye open and looking up at me. "What's your name?" I asked her.
"S-Scarlet S-Streak" she sputtered, her eyes not daring to meet my gaze.
"A fitting name" I said. But let me ask you this. What are you going to do now? Your friends are petrified and won't be able to move for a few hours, and your just as helpless as they are at the moment. So tell me how exactly do you plan on getting them out of here safely? You attacked me. You can't possibly expect me to let you leave just like that without some kind of punishment can you?
Her eyes snapped upwards, her gaze meeting mine with a pleading look in her eyes. "Please don't hurt them" she begged. "I'll do anything you want just let them go."
"Your hardly in a position to bargain." I replied with a raise eyebrow. "I could do anything to you or them right now and there isn't anything you could do to stop me. Tears welled up in her eyes and a reserved look came over her face.
"I won't resist" she said quietly. "Anything you want me to do I'll do it, I'll be your slave for the rest of my life if you want just please let them go back to their families." She actually surprised me I thought to myself. She said that last part with such conviction that I could tell that she really would live a life as a slave if it meant her subordinates could live and go home. Tightening my grip on her horn and mane I raised her up against the tree until her face was level with mine. As an added security measure I placed my knee between her legs, forcing them to open a bit and effectively pinning her to the tree.
I lowered my face so that my mouth was next to her ear. "Fine, I except your proposal" i whispered into her ear before throwing her back into the clearing with the rest of the guards. She took a moment to shake her head ridding her of her dizziness from being tossed like a sack of potatoes and looked back towards me. " Your going to deliver a message to Celestia for me in exchange for your lives and freedom" I told her. Her eyes widened and she gasped in surprise.
"R-really? That's all you want? You just want me to deliver a message?" she asked, her voice heavy with relief.
"Yes" I replied flatly. "Tell her that whether I become an enemy or an ally will be decided by her actions in the near future. As for a meeting since she's the one who wishes to meet me tell her that she will have to come to me, Ponyville will do. Tell her that on the day she wishes to meet to come to Ponyville and to flare her energy three times as a signal and I should arrive within the hour.
Also tell her that Zecora had no knowledge of me being a demon when she treated me and that she is now under my personal protection. This is Celestia's only warning. If she or Luna send any guards after her again I can promise you that they will not be coming back. That shouldn't be to much to remember right?" I asked, prompting a nod from Scarlet.
"Good, now I think it's time for you to leave Speedy" I said with a smirk. Before she can make any kind of response I was behind her and chopped the back of her neck sending her into the blissful world of unconsciousness. Using my telekinesis I moved all the guard to the clearing between the Everfree and Ponyville leaving them all to wake up a few hours later in one big pony-pile.
After literally dropping the ponies off I headed back to Zecora's hut where I was greeted by a very happy and affectionate zebra. I forgot for a moment that while she isn't a pony, equine culture in general here is big on hugs, nuzzles, and other forms of bodily contact as a show of affection towards one another.
"I am glad you are unharmed my friend" the zebra said while nuzzling my leg in greeting. I couldn't stop myself from bringing a hand up to pet her head to return the greeting earning me a bright smile. After the little nap we had earlier I no longer had any problems sharing a bed with Zecora in that sense. So after a quick snack we headed off to bed.
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. I opened my eyes and immediately make a mental note that I feel like crap. My entire body is so stiff that I can barely move to look at the clock that reads about four in the afternoon. I remember I blacked out around six in the morning so that means that I was asleep for almost ten hours and this freaking venom still isn't out of my system, now that's some powerful stuff. I might just have to find a way to make use of it in the future. It was almost a chore to lower the covers and pull myself to sit at the side of the bed.That damned zebra must've stripped me at some point because I'm no longer wearing my cloak or shirt, though with a quick look around the room I found it hanging up across the room.
"Ah your awake. I must say I am quite surprised, I thought you would be sleeping for a few more hours at least" Zecora called out as she walked into the room carrying a bag of supplies that she most likely got in town.
"I see you didn't wast any time in taking my shirt off" I said in an annoyed tone.
Zecora stuck her tongue out at me playfully. "What can I say, you make a much more comfortable pillow without that pesky piece of clothing in the way." Her smile shrunk a bit as she walked towards me before nuzzling my side. "I am glad to see that you are alright" she spoke softly.
With a bit of effort I reached out and patted her on the head. "I appreciate the concern but I'll be back to normal in a bit, and because of my healing abilities I should develop some resistance to the venom." I grabbed my head as a striking pain suddenly erupted from the top of my head, I looked up to see Zecora with a bit metal soup ladle.
"What the hell was that for?" I yelled. Zecora tossed the ladle behind her into one of the many cauldrons she has laying around.
"THAT" she said. "Was for leaving me in such a worked up state earlier, and for you being so careless in the forest. It is one thing for you to outdo my teasing, but staying out all night without a word and coming back half dead because you don't want anypony to see how strong you really are is just plain stupid" she lectured. Anything else was interrupted by my stomach rumbling rather loudly which seemed to be just the thing that was needed to ease the zebra's anger.
"Ha ha" the zebra laughed as she pulled away. "Dinner should be ready in a few minutes I just need to grab a few ingredients from town to finish it." She walked over to her cauldron and began to put the finishing touches on our meal while I tried to get my body to loosen up. I gave up after a few minutes since its probably the venom that's still in my system that's causing it than there's nothing I can do about it at the moment.
Dinner was fantastic! I guess mixing ingredients for potions all day really helps with seasoning and cooking. Zecora made herself a bowl of vegetable soup and mine had pieces of chicken and beef in it, seasoned to perfection, not really sure where she got it or where she learned to season meat but I'm not complaining. I definitely feel a lot better with a full stomach, my body feels a bit less stiff probably due to the fact that I hadn't eaten in over twelve hours. I was going to help with the dishes but Zecora was adamant about me taking it easy.
It suddenly occurred to me that I went the whole meal without putting my shirt back on so I shuffled across the room and grabbed it. As I put my shirt on I felt a sudden wave of malevolent energy wash over the surrounding area. I stiffened at the feeling, the energy was everywhere, it was either a strong demon or a bunch of smaller ones working together. Zecora dropped the bowl she was washing and quickly ran over.
"You sensed that right?" I asked her.
"Yes" she nodded. "A large demonic presence just washed over Ponyville and the surrounding area, It could mean an attack is taking place." I moved past her and grabbed my cloak and sword off the wall. I decided to keep a weapon or two hear just in case, and its a lot quicker to come hear than it is to go all the way back to my cave. I made my way over to the door but Zecora jumped in my way. "Where do you think you are going?" She asked seriously. "You can barely move, you are in no condition to be getting into another fight so soon."
"There's not really another option is there? You saw how easily I defeated the guards that Celestia sent and I wasn't even trying. Guards sent out to smaller towns like this one don't usually have usually extra training that the main force does since their main job is to keep the peace. They wouldn't stand a chance against that manticore from last night let alone a demon regardless of its class. Besides, there's either a demon or a group of them trespassing near my territory and I cannot let that pass" I told her trying to disguise my concern for the town.
Zecora's glare hardened. "Still you are in no condition to go out there regardless of the reasons" she said stomping her hoof for emphasis. We just stood there glaring at each other for a minute before she broke eye contact and sighed in defeat. She made her way over to a cabinet and pulled out a potion. "I know I cannot stop you from going, I wish you would stay but I know you will not. This is a rejuvenation potion," she said holding it out to me. "It should allow you to move normally for a time but it only last an hour, maybe less for you since its meant more for ponies that need a quick boost of energy so please be careful."
"Thanks" I said as I grabbed and downed the potion, it almost tasted like Red Bull but without the crappy taste. Almost instantly I can feel my body loosen up making it easier to move around. I headed for the door but stopped as a thought occurred to me. "What about you?"I asked her. "If there are demons in town then some could show up here while I'm in town."
The zebra just laughed and fluttered her eyes at me. "Your concern is most touching, but my runes and wards should take care of most of them. Though even if a few do get through I have a few ways to deal with them, It is my job to sometimes get rid of demons and evil spirits, I am a shaman after all" she said, puffing her chest out at that last part.
I nodded my head as if I acknowledged her abilities but I never was one to take chances so as soon as I was out sight of the hut I summoned ten quantrons. They appeared in a silver flash of light and simply stood there awaiting orders. "Spread out and protect Zecora's hut, make sure no demons get through but make sure not to be seen unless absolutely necessary. Got it?" They simply nodded and spread out to carry out their task, there a lot more capable that the ones from the show that's for sure so with that covered I pressed a button on my utility-belt and faded from view before making my way towards Ponyville.
Once I got close enough I activated my Jegan Eye so i could get a better read on the situation and find out exactly what I'm dealing with and in an instant the information entered my mind as if it were right in front of me. I can see a large collection of both ponies and demons in the center of town. There's exactly fifty E-class demons, that's nothing to me but they are still stronger than the average pony and really aggressive they can still be dangerous especially in such a high number, not very smart though.
There are also ten D-class demons and two C-class demons. The E-class demons were all ogre-like while the D-class were Oni. The first C-class was a large ox-like demon that somewhat resembled a Minotaur just bigger with sharp teeth and claws, and when I say bigger I mean the size of a two story house. He carried two large swords around his waist and an enormous axe on his back.
The second C-class it some kind of cat-beast demon similar in appearance to a large feline from the Kung-Fu Panda series but she looked more like a lioness than anything else. She doesn't appear to have any weapons nor is she wearing any clothing though non of her more intimate parts seem to be visible through her fur which is a dark cream color with her chest and underbelly being white with a large tuft of white fur covering her chest. She is currently sitting on top of a bruised and scratched up Big Mac, her cheek has a light bruise on it so it looks like he got a good shot in at least.
They aren't really going to be a problem to deal with, the real issue lies in the fact that they're rounding up every pony in town into the town's square and tying the ponies up. All of them have their hooves tied but the Pegasi have their wings tied to their bodies and the unicorns are wearing inhibitor rings around their horns. They have the adults and the children split up most likely to discourage the others from fighting back.
Most of the ponies look relatively uninjured but there are a few that look pretty banged up. Applejack is tied up unconscious and covered in scratches bruises laying next to Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie who are tied up next to her, awake but otherwise alright aside from the large bruise on Rarity's cheek, Spike seems to be trying to calm her down. They all look absolutely terrified not that I blame them, nothing like this has ever happened in Ponyville before.
From the mass of demons a large green Kyūkonki walked towards the ponies who could only gasp in horror as it drug an unconscious and beaten Twilight Sparkle across the ground by the mane. Once it reached its destination it handed her off to the ogres who tied her up and placed an inhibitor ring on her horn. https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/51158316-fd7e-48ca-b5fe-8542e9dfe357/ddfrjue-898ec2ab-4c10-4a60-95c4-066d7b4b9b50.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzUxMTU4MzE2LWZkN2UtNDhjYS1iNWZlLTg1NDJlOWRmZTM1N1wvZGRmcmp1ZS04OThlYzJhYi00YzEwLTRhNjAtOTVjNC0wNjZkN2I0YjliNTAucG5nIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.iV2X0oup_1ptHjPcUOizDPNZ3GhL9SRRzzfkvadgDUw Before anyone could do anything else a rainbow colored blur slammed into the large demon's face sending him to the ground. Apparently Rainbow Dash hadn't been captured yet though she would be in a moment so with that I ran into town to stop them from killing her.
General POV
The green Kyukonki god back on its feet and growled at the small blue pony. It ran at her and threw a punch but rainbow dodged it, then another, then another. She dodged a swipe of its claws before flying up and bucking the demon in the face causing it to stumble backwards but it recovered faster than she thought and she was too late to get out of the way of a punch that sent her tumbling off of the ground. She groaned and stood back up just in time to for a large foot to slam into her and send her flying into and through the wall of a nearby house. When she didn't get back up a few ogres went over and pulled her from the rubble. She was mess, barely conscious, her coat and mane were ruffled and dirty from the debris, and her right wing was clearly broken from the angle it was now at.
WARNING: Explicit Material Ahead!
The ogres were going to tie Rainbow up and through her with the others but they were stopped by the she-cat demon. "Wait! Don't put her with the others yet. Lets make an example of her to show these ponies why what happens when they don't cooperate." The ogres nodded and drug Rainbow over to a destroyed statue of Celestia and threw her on the now empty platform flat on her back.
Before she could even get her bearings each of her legs was grabbed by an ogre before being roughly in different directions leaving Rainbow spread-eagle and exposed for all to see. Rainbow's eyes widened as her head finally stopped spinning and she realized just what was the demons were about to do to her and she began to struggle in a desperate attempt to free herself. Her attempts however were futile since even one ogre was physically stronger than her and she was surrounded by eight of them.
Tears welled up in her eyes as the monsters reached out and began running their hands up and down her helpless body. Her mane and tail were pulled in various directions some of it getting ripped out by the roots, fist-fulls of fur were grabbed, fingers forced their way into her mouth to play with her tongue and force their way down her throat. She cried out in pain as her teats were groped and squeezed painfully, her nipples pinched and pulled by various hands and claws. The teas fell freely as the hands ran over the folds of the sex, teasing it and spreading her open for the entire town to see and they had no intent to stop there.
End of General POV
I could see everything that was happening to Rainbow Dash with my Jegan as I hurried through the town. As long as it doesn't get any worse she can tough it out for a bit longer, getting the kids to safety takes priority right now since without them the demons lose most of their bargaining power. I cleared the last house before the square revealing all of the town's children off to the side and away from the adults on the other side of the clearing only being guarded by five ogres.
This will be child's play I thought as I dashed forwards still invisible and silently I cut them each down one by one in an instant. I made sure no sounds were made but it wouldn't have mattered if they had as the attention of all of the other demons was focused solely on the molestation of Rainbow Dash. I made my way over to the foals and starting crusaders and cut them free, urging all them to remain calm with my telepathy. With my direction they all moved as quickly and quietly as they could until we circled around the town square so we were behind the house closest to where the adults were being kept about forty yards away.
"Alright listen up" I said in their minds as I uncloaked and appeared before them, they were all terrified and shaking but I had their attention. "Everything is going to be fine. I will take care of the demons but I need to make sure that everyone's safe first. I'm going to go free the adults like I did with you, once I cut them free and kill the demons guarding them I'll grab Rainbow Dash and bring her over to them. When I do I want all of you to run to your parents as fast as you can because as soon as I save Rainbow Dash I'll have all of the unicorns work together to make a barrier to keep you safe. I know your afraid but everything will be alright I promise." The kids all nodded their heads as they knew exactly what to do since I put all the information directly into their heads to avoid any confusion on their part.
Leaving the kids for now I made my way over to Rarity, Spike and the unconscious Twilight. Using my telepathy again I told them all the plan, for them to stay still and wait for me to kill the guards so the kids could run over while I got Rainbow dash after which the unicorns would make a barrier. They were surprised to hear a voice in their heads but managed to keep from alerting the demons whose attention was still occupied. I hurried around to every unicorn and removed the inhibitor rings from their horns. Since there are more adults than children they had more guards, ten ogres and that green Kyukonki.
The fools couldn't have made it any easier for me, they were all basically standing together in a line since I guess they wanted a good view of Rainbow's punishment, and since I can swing my sword sixteen times in the blink of an eye I dashed forward and took care of each ogre with a single swing with a few extra for the big guy just in case. Not stopping diapered before re-materializing in a crouch on top of the stone platform in front of Rainbow Dash before I scooped her up and jumped high into the air. It too a second or two but the ogres eyes finally caught up with their brains and they looked up to see me holding their prize about fifty feet or so in the air.
During the couple of seconds of hang-time we got due to the power of my jump I shifted Rainbow around until I was holding her with my left arm before I pulled my right arm back and gathered fire in my right hand before thrusting it downward towards the ogres sending a torrent of flames to end their lives. They were reduced to ashes and scattered to the winds at the exact same time the pieces of the guards bodies hit the ground.
My presence was finally made known to the demon horde as my feet made a slight third thud as we landed back on the stone podium. I was meant with looks of confusion as it took a minute for the demons simple minds to workout what happened. In that quick minute I'll let my attention shift to a light blue Pegasus under my arm. She's shivering like a leaf and her eyes are clamped shut. I can't really blame her, the ogres might not have moved past the molestation phase so there was no penetration but a traumatic experience is still a traumatic experience. She's strong, with her friends help she should be able to get over this.
A burst of energy snapped me out of my asessment of the rainbow pegasus and I instinctively jumped backwards to narrowly avoid an arc of demon energy as it sliced through the stone platform I was just standing on. Landing next to Rarity I placed Rainbow Dash on the ground before turning my attention back to the demons. The C-class minotaur had taken a few steps forward from where he was before, in addition to that his sword was drawn and his arm was extended as if he had just swung it meaning he was the one that launched the energy attack.
" Looks like you missed Renshi" the female cat demon stated with a mocking smirk, her red eyes sparkling in amusement, her voice low and seductive.
The Minotaur huffed in annoyance. "Why I had to be stuck with you for this mission Zira I have no Idea but If your not going to help than shut up" the minotaur spoke in a baritone voice. The newly identified Zira simply responded to his words by placing a paw over her chest and acting like she'd been struck by something before sticking her tongue out at him. He ignored her and turned to his attention back to me. "And you! Who are you and why do you interfere with our mission?" He demanded.
At this point the fillies and colts finally made it over to their parents and every single Unicorn in Ponyville jumped up at the same time and cast a massive barrier around the area, minus Twilight who was still unconscious. Though before the barrier was complete I stepped outside of its projected range leaving me exposed to the demon horde in front of me leaving many of the ponies shocked but they couldn't risk dropping the shield and they knew it.
" A true demon's only concern should be fighting strong opponents to challenge themselves and increase their own strength" I told them flatly. "Demons who prey upon those weaker than them simply because its easy have no right calling themselves demons. And since your all about to die my name will be of no use to you." My reply was met with a wave of growls and snarls from the E and D-class demons and chuckles from Renshi and Zira.
"Do you really think that you could defeat us all by yourself?" Zira questioned, her smirk from before still on her face. "I mean even if you could defeat all of these fourth and fifth class demons you'd still have me and horn head over there to deal with and we're third class demons and much stronger than this pathetic low class filth."
"Are we not going to mention that I killed sixteen of your men with minimal effort before any of you even realized I was here?" I asked the she-cat with a smirk of my own.
"Cocky little thing aren't we?" She asked. "Lets see how you fight. ATTACK!" She ordered and with that the remaining forty-four demons charged forward while Zira and Renshi stayed back to observe. With a smirk I answered their challenge by dashing forward and taking the heads off of the five closest ogres with my sword before spinning around and unleashing a spiral of fire at two of the charging Kyukonki turning them to both to ash.
I jumped high into the air to avoid the claws of another Kyukonki demon as they slammed into the ground where I was previously standing. As I started to descend I through my sword straight down into his skull killing him instantly before landed on his large head and pulled my sword out of his skull and jumped off before his body hit the ground. I turned myself in mid air performing a back flip-corkscrew before I landed right in the middle of another group of ogres.
All ten of them jumped at me at once in an attempt to overwhelm me to which I responded by touching the ground with my hand. Razor sharp spikes of jutted out of the ground around me piercing all ten ogres plus two more ogres and a one Kyukonki that were too close at the time. The moment I recalled the earth spikes the remaining eighteen ogres and five Kyukonki all charged me as if they hadn't seen what just happened to their friends.
Before any of them could even register what happened I reached into my hair and pulled out a single, beautiful rose. I channeled my demonic energy into the deadly flower changing it into Kurama's signature weapon. Rose Whip I called out and with a single snap of my wrist my whip cut cut every one of the remaining demons in half before it reverted back into a seed which I placed back into my hair. Now every single demon was dead aside from the two leaders who had yet to move from their spots.
Speaking of the Minotaur and cat demons, it took a few seconds for them to register my movements but when they did their eyes widened in shock at seeing all of their subordinates cut down so easily. The cat demon Zira was the first to come out of her stupor, a large grin made its way onto her face.
"Well, Well, Well" she exclaimed excitedly. "Looks like your not just another pretty face after all are you? You've got some real skill to back up all that bit talk of yours. She said as she circled me, paws clasped behind her back while she eyed me like a piece of meat. "I'd like to apologize for my dimwitted friend here" she said as she pointed over her shoulder at the minitaur demon who growled in response. The cat demon ignored him as she continued circling around me, a circle that was getting smaller and smaller each time she completed a lap. "Such a marvelous specimen you are. So strong ...so Fast ...so powerful " she ceased her movements directly behind me, so close that I could feel her breath on the back of my neck.
Her arms encircled me as she pressed her body up against my back, her muzzle almost touching my ear. She squeezed me tightly not in a violent way but a lustful one as she made sure that every inch of her body made contact with mine while her paws began lightly rubbing my chest through my cloak.
"Watching you slaughter that low class trash was quite the show, such efficiency and brutality, it was quite the turn on. You really know how to get a girl in the mood" she moaned out. "Join us" she spoke softly into my ear. "Its not often a demon of your strength appears out of nowhere and falls into our lap like this.
Your a diamond in the rough and I guarantee that our master will welcome you with open arms. She won't even care that you killed her troops since you're easily worth more than a hundred of those fools. She can be very rewarding to those that are loyal to her, she can even use her magic to boost your power to heights you'd never imagine.
You'll have everything you've enjoyed dreamed of. Money, power, any female you wish, you can have all of it and then some and all you have to do is say yes, and help us complete our mission."
I stayed silent for a moment to make it seem as though I was actually thinking about her offer. "And what exactly is your mission?" I asked. Her I'm tightened around me and she pressed herself against me even more forced to before in excitement.
"To capture and break the wielders of the elements of harmony of course" she said as though she was talking about the whether. "First we seize the town, then we capture the elements of Harmony after which we proceed to break but their bodies and their minds.
I don't believe it will be very difficult to break them, judging by their general way of life is they should break after being beaten and raped a few times. And since you killed all of our soldiers and horn head over there is too big to fit inside any of them I believe that leaves you as the only candidate for the deed" she added emphasis by licking my ear.
And after they're broken physically we can break them emotionally by slaughtering the entire town in front of them" she moaned again. "Just imagine the books on their faces. It'll be even better once our reinforcements arrived and we secure the town to use as a foot hold to start our War.
Can you even imagine how demoralized the ponies will be to lose their strongest weapon before the fighting even begins? And when it does our armies will take battle after battle chipping away at any hope they might have in their hearts. We can even use the six of them as hostages if we have to."
I have to admit the plan itself is ingenious. Take out the enemies Ace in the Hole before the fighting starts, then use their prominent figures as hostages. Celestia would be desperate to get them back even if she somehow succeeded they be in no condition or mindset to use the elements. And Army to army I have to give it to the demons, while the ones I just killed were weak they still were stronger than the average Equestrian guard. The truth of the matter is, their plan will work.
"Which one do you want first?" She asked me. "I suggest the rainbow colored one from before. You gave her a bit of hope by saving her from those ogres, it'll be so exciting to watch it die she's broken. And since we won't be killing them anytime soon we can use them for our fun later.
Zira moved to my front sliding her body against mine all the way. Her arms encircled my neck, her chest and pelvis pressed against my own and our lips were only a hair apart as she gazed at me with her blood red eyes as she awaited my answer.
Figuring that I let this drag on enough I decided to end it. "I decline" I said flatly causing her to let go of me and take a step back.
"W-what?" Zira asked in surprise. "Why?" she questioned, tilting her head to accent her confusion as if she couldn't understand why anyone would refuse such an offer. Why anyone would refuse her.
I know what I wanted to say. That I wouldn't allow them to hurt the townsponies, that whatever her master's plans are I'll stop them. But I couldn't bring myself to actually say it. If I do then these ponies will think I'm some kind of hero and then they'll never leave me alone and I'll be pulled into even more crap just like this. Our eyes met as I opened my mouth to answer, they held genuine confusion, and I could actually see a bit of hurt since she's probably not use to being rejected.
"I didn't come here or interfere with your plans so that I could be some kind of hero" I stated loud enough for all to here. "I came here to see what kind of demons dared wonder so close to my territory."
"You're territory?" The Minotaur known as Renshi asked, speaking for the second time since I arrived.
"I've claimed the Everfree Forest as my own. This town is right on the edge of the forest, its practically in my territory so any demons caught trespassing here or in my forest will be killed on sight. Consider this a warning to you, you're master, and the rest of your faction to stay away or die."
A low chuckling came from Renshi as he raised an arm behind his head to grab a large axe that was three feet wide and five feet tall, it was hidden so well on his back that I almost didn't see it. He lifted it off his back and over his head before he whipped his arm forward sending the weapon hurling towards me at a rather impressive speed. A smile appeared on his muzzle as he saw me make no effort to get out of the way. A smile that disappeared a moment later when I lazily reached up and caught the giant axe with one hand.
A gasp of surprise left the mouths of Zira, Renshi, along with all the ponies watching behind me. I gave the two demons a smirk of my own as I released a wave of demon energy from my hand disintegrating the axe and their eyes widened even further. The minotaur's hands moved to the two swords hanging from his waist and they shined in the sun's light as he unsheathed them, both were Identical and about seven feet long and two feet wide which kind of fit since Renshi himself is about the size of a two story house.
With a roar he charged straight towards me with his arms over his head in an x position ready to swing when he got close enough. It only took a second for him to appear in front of me. His speed is impressive considering his size I thought as I raised one finger to intercept both blades as he swung downwards. His jaw dropped as his swords were halted by my index finger alone, he muscles bulged as he tried to force them to cut through but was met with no success.
The Minotaur ceased his attack, jumping backwards a few feet before charging again this time with his right arm above him and his left behind him waiting for the second strike. The first strike came at me from above but I simply turned my body out of the way, making him miss and carve out a ten foot gash in the ground near me. The second strike meant to cut me in halt at the waist, his left arm staying fully extended behind him swung inwards as his first attempt missed. I jumped into the air just as it was about to make contact and vanished from his view as he completed his swing, the sword in his left hand now rested above his right shoulder with me standing on top of it.
Renshi's head moved from side to side as he tried to find me, never once suspecting where I might actually be. I think that I've let this go on long enough since I'm no longer getting any more amusement out of this. I drew my own sword once more in a reverse grip, raised it above my head with both hands and drove it through the top of the demon's skull killing him instantly. He let out a grunt as his mind registered the pain of the killing blow he'd just received before his swords fell out of his hands as he dropped to his knees first before continuing to fall flat on his face. I jumped off of his head before it hit the ground and with a flick of my wrist I removed his blood from my sword before sheathing it.
The ponies in the shield behind me stand stunned at the ease of which to demonic Minotaur was dispatched with as they stared at his corpse. I snapped my head backwards dogging a swipe from Zira who up until this point had been stuck in her own thoughts. Not stopping with her missed strike she used that momentum to continue spinning and sent a kick at my face which I blocked by bringing my arms up in a cross guard, what surprised me though is that the kick had enough force to send me sliding a few feet backwards.
"So you've rejected my offer..." she spoke in a low tone, her gaze directed at the ground leaving her eyes shadowed. "So you've rejected ME!" she snarled as her head snapped up, the look of absolute rage in her eyes almost made me flinch. "I'll just have to show you why that's such a foolish decision on your part. Normally I'd simply beat you within an inch of your life before killing you slowly and painfully but but you have actually managed to impress me so I think I'll keep you alive, well just barely anyway. And when our reinforcements get here in about thirty minutes, after I've beaten you and slaughtered these pathetic ponies, we'll finally have our fun together.
I could have showed you more pleasure than you'd ever dreamed of but now you'll be nothing but my little toy. And when I'm finally bored and done with you, maybe, just maybe I'll give you one more chance to be by my side. But I suppose that will depend on just how much begging you do. Now! Shall we get started?" She asked as she finished her rant, a glint of insanity sparkling in her eyes. Not waiting for my response she unsheathed her claws, they then began to lengthen until they reached a foot.
Zira crouched down placing her for-paws on the ground with a vicious grin on her face. Her claws cut gouges in the ground as she darted straight at me with significantly more speed than a demon of her class should posses. I dogged her pounce by hopping back, her claws dug into the ground before the force of the impact created a small crater. Not stopping she immediately sprung at me with an arm above her head. I stepped to the side to avoid the strike and raised my left arm to block her followup spin-kick and my right arm above my head to block her other leg. The grin on her face grew as our eyes met and she sent one of her free front-paws at my exposed torso like a spear.
I jumped backwards to avoid the deadly thrust but I didn't expect her claws to keep extending towards me. I barley managed to move my head out of the way in time as the claws sped passed I did end up with a small cut on my left cheek. Having missed their target Zira retracted her claws as quickly as she'd extended them and smirked as she brought her paw up face before licking the claw with my blood on it. She closed her eyes as she shuddered as she seemed to revile in the taste. She licked her lips and opened her eyes with a look of absolute delight.
"That settles it" she moaned out. "You're blood is the most delicious thing I've ever tasted. I'm going to keep you alive for a long time. We're going to have so much fun together!" She said excitedly before darting back at me. Left, right, up, down, right, center, left and right, her attacks came at a much faster rate than before but I dogged each of them pretty easily since I'm taking her somewhat seriously. She might be significantly weaker and slower than me but she's a lot faster than she should be, add in that her claws can actually cut me and that makes her dangerous. And don't even get me started on her flexibility, I mean its a given since she's a cat but the way she can bend and contort her body to continue her attacks is insane.
The lioness jumped backwards after a few more missed swipes with a look of annoyance on her face. "Why do you not fight? Are you afraid now that you've seen what your up against? Or are you hoping that by not putting up a fight that I'll give you another chance?" Her grin grew. "That's it isn't it? I might just consider it if you kill all of the ponies hiding in that shield behind you."
"Actually I think I've seen enough" I said getting a raised brow from the lioness. "Your deadly that's to be sure, your speed and your flexibility make you a very dangerous opponent, mix that with your cunning mind those claws of yours and I can see why you were in charge of this mission" I said and Zira smiled at my praise. "However while you are impressive for your class your still weak" I told her with a smirk. A look of rage made its way onto Zira's face as my words sunk in.
"HOW DARE YOU!" she snarled. "I'll slice you to pieces!" she yelled before she came at me even faster than the previous two times. I ducked under her swipe and kicked her through the wall of a nearby house but when the wall crumbled two young fillies came running out, they must've been too frightened to move when the others did and I completely overlooked them. The two fillies in question were a pink filly with a tiara and a grayish silver filly with glasses and a pearl necklace, they froze the moment they saw me about halfway between the me and the house they just ran out of.
The rest of the house's wall collapsed as Zira made her way out of the house, she stopped after only a few steps and looked over at the two frozen fillies before turning back to me with a wicked grin. I made my move when I saw the smallest twitch of her paw as she unsheathed her claws. I moved as fast as I could and the world blurred around me as I landed in between the young fillies and grabbed each under one arm. I looked up to see Zira only a few feet away, her arms behind her as she ran which would allow her to hit both fillies at the same time.
POV Change
Zira unsheathed her claws with the smallest of twitches before taking off straight for the two young ponies with a look of glee. When she was only a few feet from her targets a black and white figure materialized between the two frightened little ponies and she smiled. The demon playing hero did exactly what she thought he would and now that his arms were occupied by holding the ponies he had no way to block as her arms swung forward cutting through his chest along with the two little girls the fool was trying to save.
Zira closded her eyes in glee at the thought of not just one but three more kills in a single strike and she reveled in her thoughts as the adrenilin pumped through her veins. But something wasn't righ, something was missing. There was no resistance as her claws met their flesh, no screams or pained grunts and even the tingling sensation she got when her victims blood ran down her claws and onto her paws wasn't there. She opened her eyes only to gasp as the mysterious demon and the two ponies still stood in front of her perfectly fine, no wounds or blood to be seen.
Just as she was about to ask what was going on the image in front of her began to fade before dissapeared completely a few seconds later. The lioness took a step back in surprise and her head darted from side to side as she searched for her missing targets. "Behind you little kitty" a monotone voice called out from behind her. She spun around to see the black-clad demon standing near the shield in the center of town about thirty feet away, the two fillies huddled behind him as he met her gaze with a bored look on his face.
"What sort of trick was that?" Zira asked him with genuine curiosity.
"Its called an After-Image and its not really a trick or a technique though it does take some practive to perfect. Its simply an illusion caused by moving so fast that it looks as if your in more than one place at a time" Hiei replied before a cocky smirk made its way onto his face. "Like this" he said as he appeard to flicker for the briefest of moments before suddenly Zira found herself completely surrounded by ten identical versions of the yound demon.
The copies faded after a few moments leaving the real one standing in the same spot he was before as if he had never moved to begin with. He was fast, much faster than her even at her top speed, and she was fast enough to rival a Class-two demon and as Zira realized what exactly that meant she began to laugh. It started as a low chuckle before transitioning into full blown laughter, it was as if she had just whitnessed the best thing ever.
The laughter died down afer a minute and she turned her attention back to him with a smile. "Someone hasn't been taking this seriously" she said in a singsong voice. "Its alright, I don't mind" she said, her smile getting bigger."The longer our little dance takes the closer my reinforcments get and the closer you get to becoming my plaything," she looked as if she could barely contain her glee at whatever thoughts were running through her head. "But that doesn't mean that we can't continue" she exclaimed as she rushed him once more.
POV Change
If she's telling the truth and there really are more demons on the way than I have to finish this up now so I have time to see what I'm dealing with. Zira practaclly flew towards me, ready to continue what she believed to be some kind of dance that the two of us were doing. This has gone on long enough and I've gotten all of the information I can out of her with the time I have. That means its time to end this so I can head the other demons off before they can reach Ponyville.
I moved my head to the left to avoid her attempt at spearing my head with her claws and brought my right arm back as I channeled my energy in the palm of my hand. Zira gasped and spat out a glob of blood as my open palm met with her exposed stomach, the hit itself wasn't too hard but then again it didn't have to be since I managed to re-create the Hyuga's gentle fist from Naruto which damages the target's internal organs by injecting pulses of energy into and through the target's body. Which means that the majority of the damage done to her is internal since I injected my own energy into her body at the time of impact shredding some of her internal organs.
Zira fell to the ground with a thud as she gasped for air. "H-How?" she gasped, spitting up more blood as she held her stomach in a vain attempts at lessening the pain.
"You said earlier about you and the Minotaur being class three demons" I spoke gaining her attention. "If the two of you are class three than judging from your power levels I can safely say that I would be considered class one." Her eyes went wide at my proclamation.
"That's impossible. Your lying" she stated with certainty. There are no demons that powerful outside of Tartarus, the barrier prevents anyone above class two from leaving and there's no way a lesser demon would have time to get that strong since the princesses keep hunting them down.
"Then I suppose I'm a special case" I told her and she spat up another glob of blood as she chuckled.
"I suppose you are...no wonder you caught my interest so quickly. I guess I wasn't strong enough" she whispered softly to herself before she out one more grunt and gasp before she lost consciousness and her breathing stopped. It was a rather anticlimactic end but a necessary one to keep the town safe especially if there are more demons on the way.
I made my way past a horde of grateful ponies before stopping in front of Rarity who was busy tending to the still unconscious Twilight Sparkle. "How bad is it?" I asked the white and purple mare as she ceased her actions to look up at me with tears in her eyes.
"Bad doesn't even begin to describe it darling" she said in a depressed tone, the tears in her eyes threatening to fall any moment. "I'm no medic but from what I can tell she has a few minor fractures and a multitude of cuts and bruises but those can be healed relatively easily it's her horn that's the real problem.I turned my attention to the appendage in question to see a rather sever crack traveling down the side of twilight's horn.
"Even a tiny crack takes an expert to repair and are incredibly difficult to do so, so much so that there are only two ponies in all of Equestria that are qualified, but I've never heard of anything even close to this being healed successfully. Magic is everything to Twilight" she whispered, looking down at the purple mare, "its who she is, and if she loses that part of her I honestly don't know If she'll ever recover."
I was hoping to keep the sensu beans a secret as long as I could but It looks like I don't have much of a choice, she's too important. Reaching into my utility-belt I pulled out five dried out beans and held one up to Rarity who looked at me questioningly. "These beans are extremely rare and have incredible healing properties, if there's anything that'll heal her its this" I told the fashionista, her demeanor perking up almost instantly. "Can you use you're magic to make her chew it?" She nodded and the bean was encased in a blue magical aura and lifted out of my hand and made its way into Twilight's mouth before the aura moved to the unconscious pony's jaw, helping her to chew it.
The Results were Instant. Twilight's entire body tensed for a moment before her muscles bulged and the wounds that covered her faded away as if they were never there to begin with, including her horn which was now as good as new. Rarity was ecstatic at her friends miraculous recovery. "That's absolutely amazing!" she exclaimed. "I've never seen anything like it before, something like this could revolutionize the medical industry!" I decided to stop her there before she got carried away.
"Unfortunately like I said they're extremely rare and hard to grow, even in the right conditions only so many can be grown at a time" I told her. Rarity's smile dropped for a second but came back after she took another glance at the newly healed Twilight.
"Oh-well than I suppose its just a good thing that you had any at all" she said before looking around at some of her friends. "You wouldn't happen to have any more on you at the moment would you?" she asked turning back to me, it looks like there's a few others that are in pretty bad shape."
Opening my hand I showed her the remaining sensu beans. "I have four left" I told her. "The two surviving guards can share one since it doesn't look like their lives are in any danger at the moment, the effects will be lessened but most of their wounds will be healed." Her lips twitched the tiniest bit but because of my Jegan I can tell that she's disappointed that I don't have anymore on me since the bruise on her cheek does look rather painful.
"Here" I said, gaining her attention. "You won't need one of these for something as simple as that" I told her before I reached out and gently cupped the side of her face that held the bruise.
Rarity flinched but she didn't pull away. "What are you-OH!" she interrupted herself by taking a deep breath as I channeled my spirit energy through my hand and into her cheek using Genkai's spirit wave technique to heal the damage. It only took a minute to finish but somewhere during that time Rarity had closed her eyes and started to nuzzle my hand. The blue glow died down and I pulled my hand away from the mare's face which was now flawless once again. Her eyes fluttered open and she lifted a hoof to her cheek then let out a sign of relief.
"Thank you darling, while I know it wasn't as bad as Twilight or any of the others It did hurt quite a lot" she stated gratfully to which I simply nodded in response. With Rarity taken care of I went around to each of her friends, giving them each one of the remaining sensu beans leaving them unconscious but fully healed. Mading my back to Rarity a few minutes later I notice that she's talking to a now conscious Twilight Sparkle who smiled a small tired but grateful smile when she noticed me.
"I guess we owe you another thank you" she said as I arrived near the two unicorns. "I have so many questions. I don't suppose you'll stick around this time?" questioned the purple unicorn.
"Don't thank me yet, its not over" I told them and their eyes widened.
"Beg your pardon but, what do you mean its not over?" Rarity asked fearfully, Twilight nodded in agreement.
"They have reinforcements on the way, the lioness-demon told me during the fight. I thought she might have been lying at first but I can sense them now, their coming from the East and they'll be here in about fifteen minutes, two-hundred of them all around the same power of the Minotaur and the lioness." I answered as they both lost a bit of their color.
"Two-Hundred?!!!" "Fifteen minutes?!!!" Rarity and Twilight shouted simultaneously. "That's not enough time to evacuate everypony, or to fortify the town, or even to get everypony to the shelter" she listed off, trying to make a plan to fit the time limit. Just as I opened my mouth to tell her that a shelter would be useless and that I would take care of it I sensed a large power flare up behind me. I spun around to see who was responsible for the power surge only to be blasted from above by a beam of golden energy that sent me into the ground back first.
I stopped skidding after about thirty feet or so and pulled myself out of the two-foot deep trench that now existed in the middle of town only to come face to face with the last two ponies that I wanted to deal with right now as they stood protectively in front of Twilight and Rarity, their wings spread, their heads down, and their horns were ablaze with raw magical power as a. Celestia and Luna had arrived.
Author's Note
Things are about to get good, the princesses are here and the demons are coming.
And yes the lion demon is basically a semi-anthro form of Zira from Lion King 2.
I'm also toying around with an idea for another story about a guy that wakes up in Equestria as a Mew and he abuses the transformation ability to be a few different Pokemon throughout the story.
Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter. 