Fiend of a Doomed world.

by deadmanx513

Rating: mature
Tags: Violence, Crossover, Sex, Human, Anthro, Main 6, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Death, Alternate Universe, Original Character, Suicide / Self Harm, Profanity, Non-consensual, Adventure
Length: 27070

can a demon with a human soul save a doomed word?

A human wakes up in a destroyed Equestria after running into the notorious Merchant.

can he survive this twisted realm that was once a beacon of hope and friendship?

or will his inner demon take over and do more damage than the two armies of heaven and hell?

an SMT X MLP Crossover

Published 2019-10-01 14:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-07-05 20:52:10 UTC

Chap 2 - A Dying world and Tormented Locals.

“I see you got into another fight…”

These withered words came from an elderly man adorn in the standard robes of a priest. His old face showing years worth of wrinkles caused by stress and worry for the people that he welcomed into the house of God, and yet his old age and pretty frail form couldn’t hide a fierce spirit and his eyes held the strength that a man in his station carried. Said eyes at the moment where borrowing into the form of a familiar redhead, though this one was a bit younger than the last time we saw him.

“Well Krieger?” the old priest asked as he looked upon a younger Krieger who looked like he just got out of the losing end of a fight with a fight. Said youth looked away from the priest in defiance. “You know you can’t be getting into fights with the other children in school, it was hard enough to get you and the other children in there in the first place.”

“Well, the teachers there should do their job,” muttered the child as he rubbed off some dried blood from his busted lip. “They should have stopped those older kids from messing with me if they didn’t want to see them get beaten up.”

“Krieger…,” Sighed out the old man as he gave the young youth a disapproving look. “That is the path of wrath my child, and indulging in one sin will lead to another.”

Krieger gave the old man a grin that showed off the fact he lost a tooth in that little fight and boasted. “Don’t worry Father Miller! I won’t be tempted by sin, and besides, I think the beating I gave those bullies will make them think twice about messing with me again, they’ll learn just like the others!”

“And there's pride,” the old priest said as he rubbed his bald head in frustration before giving his young ward a look. “You see? This is what I’m saying. You waste your strength on trivial things like pride and anger towards someone poking at said pride!”

“But they were making fun of the church!” Krieger defended as he glared at the aged man. “Saying I’m wasting my time praying to a dead man nailed to a stick!”

“And what weight do words from children that only say them to make you angry carry?” Father Miller asked while raising a grayed brow. “Nothing, unless you react in the way they want.”

Growling in anger the young teen shouted. “And what am I to do!? Just let them get away with that and let them go unpunished!?”

“Why should you be the one to punish them?” Miller asked again. His annoyance leaking into is words. “Child, we are only the servants of God, not his enforcers, you should not throw your fist in anger at what some children say.”

“But why!?” cried out Krieger. “Why should I just let them disrespect my belief but also let them walk all over me!”

Taking a step forward, the young child continued his rant. “Everyday I have to deal with people talking down to me, calling me a freak because of how tall I am or how I look, or about what I believe in! I’m fed up, and they should learn not to mess with someone who can fight back!”

“You know nothing child!” yelled Father Miller as he stormed towards Krieger. Said child took a step back and closed his eyes. Waiting for his punishment for losing his temper.

________________________________________________________

Jolting up from his sleep, a now-adult Krieger sat up in a cold sweat as he let out a few shallow breaths.

“Wha.. what?” Krieger muttered as he frantically looked around, noticing he wasn’t in the convention center anymore but now was in some kind of forest. “Why am I in a-!!! Ugh, my head!”

The redhead’s ranting was cut short as he held his head in pain. The young adult had to hold back tears as his head felt like was on fire and breaking apart at the same time.

“This is worse than the time I snuck into the church’s wine cellar,” Krieger muttered as memories of himself at the fresh age of 16 thinking it would be an awesome idea to sneak into the wine cellar and help himself to some wine.

The lecture he got the next morning was torture with the hangover he had, and the punishment from Sister June was worse…

Holding back a shiver at the thought of going through that old nun’s punishments, the young man started pulling himself up.

“Ok,” Krieger muttered as he got up. “Why the heck am I in a forest and how far from home… am… I.”

As the redhead was talking he slowly stopped once noticing a few key features about himself.

“What the!?” yelled Krieger as he looked at his arms, both now covered in black marking that had blueish-green outlines on them they were even on his bare chest. “What happened to my shirt!”

Panicking the young adult looked around until he spotted a small stream near him and bolted towards it. Making it to the edge the redhead went to his knees and looked at his reflection in the water, and was met with a startling sight.

“What the hell,” he muttered as he saw himself in the reflection, but with some new features. The same black marking on his arms and chest where also on his face which was not sporting yellow eyes! And his slacked jaw expression let him see that he was sporting some longer than normal canines. “This gots to be a joke!”

Scratching his head in annoyance the young adult soon noticed another thing.

“OH GREAT, MY HAIR’S LONGER TOO!,” he shouted as he jumped up to his feet and looked around in anger. Damn it, it was tough already taking care of his hair when it was only down to his neck, now it was all the way down to his shoulder blades!

Growling in anger Kreiger shouted. “OK! Who’s doing this!? I swear if this is some kind of joke it ain’t funny!”

Getting no response the redhead let out a tired sigh. “What’s going on and who decided to make me look like a demonic version of a Red Hot Chili Peppers album(1)?”

“Welp,” he muttered. “I guess I should get moving before it gets dark,” he muttered before realizing they sky was already pretty dark with how the nearly black clouds covered the sky.

“Well…, before it gets any darker I guess.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~(An hour later)~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Ok I’m big enough a man to know when I’m lost,” muttered the redhead as he walked past the same bent tree three times by now, and if wasn’t so tired he’d thing the darn tree was glaring at him with how the torn up trunk resembled a face.

“Ok now, I don’t think I’ve been gone from civilization long enough to start seeing things, next thing you know I’m gonna start calling one of these trees Wilson.”

Laughing at his own joke the tall man decided to go down one of the many twisted trails he hadn’t walked down yet.

“Well at least I hope this isn’t the same path,” he muttered as he kept walking. Feeling confident that this one would lead him out of the forest!

~~~~~~~~~~~~(Three hours later)~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Well screw you too chosen path!” he screamed as he saw the SAME bent tree again! This was the fifth time in a row! “There has to be someone close by who can help…”

“Ah’m tellin’ ya girls, we should head back ‘fore the others know we’re gone.”

“Hm?” Krieger muttered as he looked towards the direction of the voice he heard. It sounded young and with a southern accent to it.

“Oh come on Applebloom, we haven't been gone that long!”

“A second one?” he muttered as he heard a second voice. This one had a bit of a squeak to it.

“Sweetie is right, besides we all promised to help gather food so our sisters and the other grown-ups didn’t have to do it as much.”

“And a third one,” Krieger said as he made his way towards the voices.

As he pushed past the branches and made his way through the bushes the tall redhead could hear the voices getting closer. The thought of not being alone in the woods filled the man with happiness as he quickened his pace.

“Hello!” shouted Krieger. “Is anyone there? Can you hear me!?”

“Did you hear something?” the third voice asked.

“Sounded like a stallion to me,” answered the second voice.

‘Stallion?’ Krieger thought as he made his way into a clearing. ‘What do they mean by tha-!!?’

Any thoughts going through his head died as he looked upon three surprised faces.

“Hooves?” he muttered as he tried to process what was in front of him.

The three before him were definitely girls if their developing curves were anything to go by, that and their attire looked girly enough. Though it was hard to tell with how… not human they looked.

One of them had a pale olive skin tone, her eyes were a brilliant shade gamboge that stared back at him in panic. Long red hair with a pinkish bow adorning her head and was wearing a yellow shirt under a pair of blue overalls.

The second one had pale white skin with pale green eyes and a head of curly hair that was a grayish mulberry with pale, light grayish rose streaks. Out of the three, she was wearing the most feminine outfit. With it being a white sundress with what looked like little blue jewel designs on the bottom.

The third one, who was trying to be brave with how her pale purple eyes glared at him. She had orange skin and a head full of purple hair done in a tomboy fashion. She was wearing a black hoodie and a pair of bike shorts.

Now their skin tone and hair was one thing, but the real kicker was the fact that all three girls had horse-like legs! Each one of them had a single pair of legs with hooves and all, heck the fur one them match their skin tones. And the orange one had a pair of wings, and the pale white one had a horn sticking out of her head!

‘Did the person who brought me to these woods drug me!?’ Krieger thought. Trying to make sense of the scene in front of him.

A few agonizing seconds passed as the two parties stared each other down until they both reacted in the only way that fitted this situation.

“DEMON!!!” screams the three in such a high pitch that could of broken glass.

“ALIENS!” Krieger screamed as he didn’t even take a second to register what they said as he bolted back into the forest. “Screw this! I’m going back into the forest and take my chances there!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~(moments later)~~~~~~~~~~~

“What were those!?” the redhead said as he bent down, using his knees as support as he took a few deep breaths and tried to calm down from what he saw. “What the hell is going on?”

Taking a few more minutes to calm down the young man stood up straight as he tried to think and figure out what he just saw.

“Ok so you just saw some human-looking aliens,” he muttered while brushing his hand through his long hair. “Well I guess I can cross that off the bucket list, but what are they doing here, and why were they dressed like that?”

The memory of what they wore was really sticking out. If these were aliens then why did they have such human-looking clothes? Heck besides confusing his voice for a stallion they seem pretty human. Have they been living on earth for a while with no one seeing them, and what was that about them looking for food?

“Are they hungry?” Krieger muttered as his more sympathetic tendencies started to take over. Were they lost? Did they have anyone else looking for them? Heck, they kind of… looked like...

“Children,” he muttered with a frown until his eyes widen in panic. “I just left a bunch of kids alone in the woods!”

With that he turned around back where he just ran away from. Aliens or whatever they were, it didn’t matter Krieger couldn’t just let some kids wander the woods alone, they could get hurt.

“Damn it!” he shouted. Let’s hope whatever these girls where they didn’t eat brains.

While running through the forest the redhead soon heard some familiar screaming.

“The hell!” he shouted as he rushed through the woods and into the clearing. To where he saw the three girls being attacked by some very odd creatures.

There were 4 of them, all around the girls in height, so barely up to his chest in height. All of them looked the same. Red skin and super spiky hair, with pointed ears and all wearing black tunics.

“What in the hell?” Krieger muttered as he was stunned by what he saw, but the screams from the girls knocked him from his daze as he saw the little monsters close in on them.
“Get back!” screamed the orange girl as she swung a stick at the cackling creatures.

“Someone help!” the white one cried out.

Help, help, help…

Those words ran through his head as he rushed towards the group with memories from old started to pop up in his mind.

~~~~~(flashback)~~~~~

A young Krieger closed his eyes preparing for a hit from Father Miller, but instead of a smack to the face like he was expecting instead, he felt a hand gently land on his head and ruffle his hair.

“My child,” Father miller muttered as he gave the child a soft look. “You were blessed with a strong body and a strong will.

Going to one knee the old priest looked into Krieger’s eyes with a strong look.

“But you should never waste it on petty grudges,” he said as he ruffled the young boy's hair. “You are meant for so much more than violence!”

“But,” the old man said with a sigh as his gaze turned more somber. “But if you must swing your fist…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(Flashback end)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then swing them so you can protect something!

“RAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Krieger screamed as he rushed towards the horde of red goblin-like being. Completely catching them off guard. Leaving one of them completely off guard for a savage haymaker that shattered its face from the pure force behind the punch! Teeth and blood flew through the air as the little red demon was sent flying into a nearby tree witch it slammed into with enough force to shake the tree.

‘Wait, what?’ Krieger thought. Stunned by his show of strength. While not unwelcome, the fact he sent something of that size flying left him dumbfounded. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to keep the other goblins stunned for long, and they soon charged at their marked foe.

One of them leaped at him, its screeching battle cry enough to snap him out of his thoughts before he quickly backhanded it away. It didn’t do as much damage as his haymaker but it was enough to send the creature back into another tree. The rest lunged at his legs, deciding to try a low attack instead. He leaped and rolled out of the way in time for them to smash into each other, and he took advantage of his crouching position to shoulder charge into both of them, sending them flying.

Krieger stood up to see the kind of damage he’d caused only to feel something that felt like a burning punch to his back, he stumbled a bit and turned to see that the creature he had backhanded before had somehow struck him from several yards away, it’s hand extended at him. ‘Did… he use some kind of-?’ His thoughts were cut off as the creature’s hand glowed red. Trusting his instincts he dropped to his hands and knees and saw a basketball-sized fireball shoot out from its hand and fly over him. Not wanting to give it another chance he charged, catching it off guard with speed before clotheslining it in the neck. He heard it gag as the hit landed, and he clenched his arm to grip it, using the momentum from his charge to lift it up before slamming it back first into the ground. Not wanting to get surprised like last time, he stood up before stomping on its face as hard as he could, hearing a crack and seeing some blood cover his boots.

He turned and saw the other two had gotten up and were looking particularly vindictive as they both held their arms out for more fireballs. Krieger charged right at them, hoping he could tell when they would fire their attacks. Sure enough, he saw a cue, a small compressed explosion that seemed to launch them. He dove under them both, rolled forwards, and then launched himself at the creatures. One was able to dodge out of the way while the other felt the full force of his tackle and then the pain of Krieger’s whole body weight slamming it into a nearby tree, leaving an indent in the wood as the creature gasped out in pain before he let it drop limply to the ground as blood leaked from its open mouth.

A scream caught his attention, and he turned to see the last one had seemingly decided to go for an easier target: one of the girls. With a burst of speed and anger, he sprinted the short distance to cut it off, grabbing it by the neck before spinning and raising it above his head, grabbing one of its legs, and then pull down on both ends, the creature being roughly stretched across his shoulders. With a primal shout of fury, he hopped up, still gripping the creature tight, before using the shock of the impact of landing while dropping to his knees for a backbreaker drop, hearing and feeling the creatures spine snap before letting it roll off his body and drop to the ground.

Letting out a few huffs of air as he felt his heart rate go back to normal while looking at his handy work and wincing at the results of his fight. The dead bodies of the red goblins laid across the clearing.

“Oh god…,” Kreiger muttered as he held back the vomit that wanted to come up from seeing the beaten corpses. Though he didn’t need to pay them any attention as the sound of a snapping twig was heard and he turned to see the three girls still here. Surely they would have run after seeing what happened.

“Uhhh…, Krieger could only look blankly at the three possible aliens. (Though the theory was slowly dying as the minutes went by.) Not knowing what to do, the redhead decided to go with the simple approach and walked up towards the three children, bend down and give them a smile.

“Yo!” he said with a wide grin. “Sorry for scaring you and calling ya aliens earlier! Hope we can get along and you can find it in your heart to help me, the names Demi-Fiend by the way!”

A few minutes passed as the three just stared at him and he stared back in return with a blank look as what he just said registered in his mind.

“I… have no idea why I just called myself that,” the now-named Demi-Fiend said as he gave them a confused look. Though he wasn’t going to stay confused for long. Because he was soon met with sweet unconsciousness after the orange skin girl slammed her large stick into his face.

Well, that's one way to meet the locals.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter end

Next time. Meeting the locals, fighting the locals.

(1)Kazuma Kaneko has said in an interview that the concept of the Demi-fiend was inspired by the band the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Additionally, Demi-fiend's tattoo design is intended to convey the image of a shaman

Author's Note

hope you like the chapter.

ShinigamiSparda did the fight scene for this one so a round of applause for him!

Chap 3. Meeting the locals, fighting the locals.

(dream/flashback)

“And he’s down for the count!” cheered a younger Krieger this time with blond hair instead of his dyed red. shouted as he slammed his pillow onto the floor. “And Krieger at the age of nine has become world champion!”

“YAY KRIEGER!” cheered out a younger voice as a little five-year-old girl with short blond hair cheered while watching the little performance from her little bed. “And with the money, you won you’re going to make our home better!”

“You know it, Jeanne!” The young boy said as he did a few victory poses. All to the delight of the younger child who had stars in her eyes. Letting out a few giggles as she clapped her hands excitedly at the display.

“Yay~!” the girls cheered as joy danced in her deep blue eyes. You’re the best!”

“You’re right about that,” little Krieger said while puffing out his chest. “No one can beat me, not even the older kids in the orphanage.”

“Oh really?” asked an elderly voice, causing the two children in the room to nearly jump. “You know you’re not even fighting in the right way.”

“S-sister Ariela!” cried out the children as she saw the grinning figure of one of the nuns. Said woman was showing her years with wrinkles starting to appear on her tanned skin and her once brown hair now fading out and silver streaks took up most of it. Mirth danced in her brown eyes as she looked at the two children who were no caught staying up late… again.

“Pequeños, you know you shouldn’t stay up so late.” the elderly nun said with a smile.

Letting out a nervous chuckle the young boy stammered out. S- sorry sister, it’s just we couldn’t sleep, and little Jeanne wanted to see my new moves!”

“Nuh-uh!” cried the small child as her cheeks puffed up in anger as she tried to give Krieger a scary glare… it looked more like a puppy trying to be tough. “You woke me up so you could show off the stuff you learned on tv!”

“You traitor!” cried out the boy as he shook his fist. “I thought we were always in it together little Jeanne!”

“Not when one of us can get out of trouble~!” Jeanne said with a little impish smile.

“You little Judas!” Krieger shouted with a glare. But before any other insults could be thrown their argument was stopped when they heard Ariela let out a polite cough to get their attention.

“Now now,” Ariela said with a chuckle. “No reason to be at each other’s throats. Besides I didn’t come here because you were staying up.”

“Then why are you here?” Jeanne asked with a cute tilt of the head. Her eyes blinking in confusion.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the nun asked with a raised brow as she gave the two children a smirk. “I overheard little Krieger say something about being the champion.”

“Oh… you heard that?” the young boy muttered with a gulp as sweat trailed down his face.

Now giving both children a full smile that showed off a few gold teeth the nun said. “Yes, and I have to say, pretty brave of you to call yourself the champion without taking on the real champ!”

“Hey now!” Krieger cried out. As he looked at the grinning face of Ariela, who by the way was a former female masked wrestler champion before she retired to spend her remaining days working for the church. “There’s no need for that! Besides, Jeanne is probably tired.”

“You can do it, Krieger!” Jeanne cheered out with stars in her eyes. “Become the real champ!”

The young boy wanted to cry but before he could say anything, Ariela closed the distance between the two of them with speed that belied her age and put young Krieger into a headlock as she started to give the young boy a noogie.

Letting out a laugh the old nun continued her attack on her young ward. “Still too early to call yourself the champ!”

“Ahhh!” the boy cried out as he squirmed around in the nun’s arms. “Not the hair!”

This only made the old nun laugh louder while Jeanne watched and giggled out while clapping at the two.

And that’s how the night continued for a few hours until their horse playing got all three of them in trouble with sister June, who then spent the rest of the night lecturing all of them for such boorish behavior. Though ever since that night, Krieger would go to the former masked wrestler and ask her to train him to fight like a true wrestler.

Those were happier times. Times that Krieger would need to think about if he wanted to get through the hell he was about to be put through.

(waking world.)

Something wet and cold caused Krieger to awaken with a start. “GAH! I’M UP! I’LL SWEEP THE ALTAR!”

Looking around the half-asleep redhead tried to find out who splashed him with what he HOPE was water. It didn’t take him long to spot the culprits.

“Oh… it’s you three,” Krieger muttered as he stared at the three glaring children, while also taking notice of the fact he was now tied up to a tree…, THE SAME FUCKING BENT ONE FROM BEFORE!

Grumbling the adult man gave the three a flat look. “So…, mind telling me why I’m tied up, furthermore why are you glaring at me like tha-ACK!!!”

He quickly shut his mouth once the red-headed of the trio pointed a pitchfork at him.

“Woah!” shouted Krieger shouted. “Be careful with that, you could poke an eye out with that!”

“Shut it, demon! We’re askin’ the questions!” the redhead with the accent demanded.

“Demon? Okay, rude.” Krieger said with a glare. “Is that any way to thank the guy who saved you?”

“Y-Yeah, well… you called yourself a Fiend. No good pony calls themself a thing like that!” The one with the horn tried to butt in.

“Yeah! That’s like saying ‘don’t worry, I’m a good evil pony’!” the orange-skinned one with the wings added.

“Pony?” that’s what you all are?” the older redhead asked with a raised brow. “You might have the ears, tails, and hooves, but you’re all lacking everything else.”

“L-lacking!?” the horned one shouted with a blush as she wrapped her arms around her chest area. “I’ll have you know I’m still growing!”

“He didn’t mean that kind of lacking Sweetie Belle,” the one with wings muttered.

“Sweetie Belle? Really? That’s your name? Who are you two then, Cinnamon Roll and Sugar Plum?” Krieger snarked.

“Hey! Leave the others from Ponyville out of this!” the winged orange one shouted in anger.

“Scootaloo!” shouted the young red-headed girl of the group.

“Wait, there are people with those kinds of names?” Krieger shouted wide-eyed. “Also you live in a place called Ponyville?”

“We’re askin the questions here!” shouted the redheaded girl as she pointed her pitchfork at him again. “Now tell us what you’re doing here demon!”

“Why are you calling me a demon!?” Krieger shouted. “I’m human! H.U.M.A.N!”

“We don’t know what a human is but we sure as heck know a demon when we see it!” the orange one shouted while pointing at him. “Like those markings!”

“These are just some tattoos that some jack off put on me!” the ‘human’ shouted.

“What’s a jack off?” Sweetie Belle muttered.

“Yeah right! Like Ah’m supposed ta believe that some tattoo artist can make marks that glow!” the one with the accent shouted, pushing the pitchfork back into his face.

“Stop waving that thing around!” he shouted, grabbing the shaft the shoving it away. “It’s seriously danger-” he stopped when he noticed they all looked terrified. It was only then that he noticed he had broken free of the ropes without even trying. “... Oh.”

“The demon’s loose!” squeaked out the Sweetie Belle.

“Dang it Applebloom!” shouted Scootaloo. “I thought you said those ropes were tough!”

“They were!” the now-named Applebloom cried out. “Not even Big Mac could break them!”

“Uh, look, I didn’t mean-” Krieger tried to interject.

“Great, now he’s gonna kill us because you never paid attention when Applejack tried to teach you how to tie a knot!” Scootaloo added, all three of them apparently too caught up in arguing to notice him.

“Or… or worse!” cried out Sweetie Belle as she tried to cover herself with her arms as she gave Krieger a teary look. “You can SEE the lust in his eyes!”

“... Okay, I’m concerned about why you even know what the word ‘lust’ is,” Krieger muttered.

“He’s gonna make us slaves, and walk around naked for him!” Scootaloo screamed.

“Ew, no.”

“Or use us to breed more demons!” cried Applebloom.

“OKAY, STOP THAT RIGHT NOW!” he shouted, causing them all them be quiet and look at him in fear. He pressed his fingers together and brought them to his face as he inhaled. “Girls,” he began, pointing to them. “I’m NOT a demon, I’m NOT a rapist, and I’m DEFINITELY not looking for slaves. I’m just some guy who’s lost.”

“If you’re not a demon then why do ya have a horn on the back of your neck?” Applebloom said in a quiet voice.

“Uh… what?” he asked before reaching around to the nape of his neck, surprised to feel a large and several inches long horn extending from it. “Okay, that definitely wasn’t there before.” He tried pulling on it, only for a cold jolt of electricity to race through his body. “Okay, that doesn’t feel good! Yeah, that’s definitely part of my body now.”

“You seem… calm about something you didn’t even know was a part of you,” Sweetie Belle said with a sweatdrop.

“Oh no, I’m definitely panicking on the inside. Speaking of, can you distract me from that with something? Anything? Please?”

“... are you SURE you’re not going to make us into sex slaves?” Scootaloo asked with a raised brow.

“YES! FOR CHRIST’S SAKE, WHY DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT IS!? WHAT ARE YOU, LIKE EIGHT?” he shouted, seriously concerned for their parenting.

“Eleven,” they all responded at once.

“Still too early, as far as I’m concerned,” he muttered with a growl in his tone.

“So…,” started Applebloom. “Why did you save us?”

Krieger just stared at the younger redhead for a good solid minute. “... Because you were in trouble?” he replied, honestly surprised he had to explain that.

“You… just wanted to help us?” Sweetie Belle asked with a tilt of her head. An action that made Krieger think of a certain young nun back home.

Shaking his head from the mental image the marked man gave them a nod. “Yeah, you were in danger from those aliens and I couldn’t just watch you get eaten.”

“Aliens?” Applebloom asked with a confused blink. “Those weren’t aliens.”

“Yeah!” shouted Scootaloo. “Those were demons like you!”

“Demons!?” shouted Krieger. “Why would Demons be attacking aliens!?”

“UGH! WE’RE NOT THE ALIENS HERE! YOU ARE! YOU AND THE DEMONS ARE NOT FROM HERE!” Sweetie Belle shouted in exasperation.

“What!?” shouted the ‘human’. “You have to be joking right!? Last time I checked, I was still in San Diego!”

“San a what now!” Applebloom asked with a raised brow. “What in the sam hill are you saying, you’re in Equestria!”

Hearing this stunned Krieger. “Wh-what!?”

“Equestria,” Scootaloo repeated like it was obvious. “In fact, you’re like in the center of the kingdom.”

“Yep,” Sweetie Belle said with a nod. “You’re really close to our home town of Ponyville!”

“Y-yeah,” Krieger muttered while putting a hand on the tree he was tied to earlier for support. “You did mention a Ponyville before…”

“Are you ok?” Scootaloo asked with concern. Now that she knew he wasn’t going to do anything bad to them, the orange-skinned girl was worried the friendly demon might be upset about something.

“I…,” began Krieger. Taking a second to calm down before forcing a smile on his face once he saw the worried looks of the three children. “I don’t know, but I can’t panic right now. Especially when I should make sure you three get home before any more…, demons attack.”

“You still want to help us?” Applebloom asked with a blink. “But don’t you want to find your way back home.” the younger redhead pointed out.

“Well, honestly… I get the feeling you three aren’t supposed to be here, and you probably have parents worried about you. And, a town with more people to talk to sounds like a good way to get my bearings.”

Nodding at his own words Krieger was about to ask them to lead the way before noticing the sad looks on the girls’ faces.

“Hey,” he muttered to them with a worried look. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s nothing,” Sweetie Belle muttered before she and the others started making their way through the forest. “We should get going before anyone back home notice we’re gone.”

“Right, um… lead on.” He motioned for them to go.

As the group made it through the forest this time not getting lost like a certain marked man. They passed the time making small talk.

“So you’re saying you can’t say your real name?” Sweetie Belle asked with a tilt of her head.

“Yeah, it’s the darndest thing,” Krieger muttered with a thoughtful look. “It seems every time I try to say my name, all that comes out is Demi-Fiend.”

“Maybe it’s a curse?” Sweetie Belle suggested while walking next to Krieger. “Princess Twilight said that some spells are made to keep secrets.”

“Maybe it’s also why ya look like that,” Scootaloo added, putting her arms behind her head and leaning back as she walked the tomboy of the three girls shrugged. “It’s the only thing I can think of.”

“Still can’t believe that magic is real in this world,” the male of the group muttered as he rubbed the back of his head while trying to avoid touching the horn jutting from the back of his neck. “That stuff was just fairy tales back home.”

“I can’t believe that it took Sweetie Belle showing you her magic for you to believe us,” Scootaloo muttered with a flat look. “I mean you JUST fought demons who threw fire at you, and you still needed proof.”

“Hey!” Krieger said defensibly. “It’s all still a little too much to take in, so sorry that I’m still processing things!”

This caused the three girls to giggle at his outburst, which in turn caused him to let out a sigh but smile. ‘It might’ve been a misunderstanding at first, but I’ve made some good relations with the locals. Hopefully, this’ll at least help me get some information on where I am and how to get back.’

Sadly the optimistic thinking grinded to a halt as soon as they left the forest and the sight that greeted him left him speechless… in the worst way.

“Wh… What in the Lord’s name is this?” he gasped. Only a few miles ahead of him he saw a town that looked like it was once an idyllic farming town, somewhere a bit between the medieval and industrial ages. Of course, there were a few exceptions, most notably being the giant palace resting above a crystal tree that would normally have shone brilliantly, and a university of some kind that looked like it would have normally been beautiful. But that town had fences and gates fortified with pikes and barbed wire. That university looked like it had been attacked and hastily repaired several times. And that normally gorgeous palace looked dreadful and ominous silhouetted against a blood-red sky. And off to the right, he could see the rest of the town in ruins.

Houses either burnt down or even looked like they were crushed as if something huge stepped on them. He could also see a massive graveyard on the outskirts of town with MANY makeshift grave markers.

“It’s not much, but it’s home,” Scootaloo sighed out as soon as she saw the place she called home.

“Has… has it always been like this?” he asked, horrified.

“Not always,” Sweetie Belle said with a frown. “But ever since the demons came around, we’ve been doing everything we could to survive.”

“It’s been hard keepin everypony fed, but at least we still got Sweet Apple Acres,” Applebloom said with pride.

“D-don’t you guys have help?” Krieger asked in a panic tone. “Like an army to fight the demons!?”

“Back in Canterlot,” Scootaloo muttered in a defeated tone. “But not anymore…”

“What?” the ‘human’ asked. “What happened?”

“That…,” Applebloom said as she pointed towards some mountains in the distance.

Krieger was about to ask why she was pointing there, but he soon noticed he was able to see in the distance that the nearest mountain from the bunch was heavily damaged. Craters lined it’s frame and chunks of it looked like it was torn off of it. And at the base of the mountain where what looked like a pile of stone and… gold?

“What… is that?” Krieger muttered as he rubbed his eyes. Wondering why he was able to see so far. “Why did you show me that?”

“That’s Canterlot,” answered Sweetie Belle.

Swirling his head towards the horned girl, marked man looked at her with a stunned look.

“W-what?”

“It was the kingdom of Equestria,” Scootaloo said. “Where the first two princesses lived and where our army was stationed.”

“Until the demons attacked,” Applebloom spat out, hatred burning in her eyes. “They tore the entire city of Canterlot right off the mountain!”

Stunned from hearing this Krieger could only look at the three girls who looked defeated. As if they accepted whats happen and little hope for them was left. He then looked back at the sad state that the town was in, and the ruined land around it.

Clenching his fist as he tried to wrack his brain for a solution. Breathing out his nose as he closed his eyes in thought. But any alternative idea he thought up disappeared when he heard the sound of crying.

Snapping his eyes open, the young adult of the group whipped his head towards the source of the sound to see Sweetie Belle whipping away some tears while her friends tried to comfort her.

“I-it’s not fair!” Sweetie Belle said between her sniffling as she tried to keep herself from crying. “Why did this have to happen to us.”

“Sweetie Belle, calm down,” Scootaloo said with a sad look. “It’s going to be ok.”

Glaring at the orange-skinned girl Sweetie Belle shouted. “NO! It’s not going to be ok, it’s NEVER going to be ok!”

“S… Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo said in shock.

“Can’t you see!?” the horned girl shouted. “We’re standing on our last leg! The demons keep coming and Princess Twilight and the others haven’t found a way to help us!”

“They’re doin their best,” Applebloom interjected. “She and our sisters are doing everythin to help us!”

“And it’s not working!” Sweetie Belle argued. “They keep leaving to try to get help but come back beaten! What adults we have can barrly find food that isn’t from your farm and even that’s running out soon!”

“We just have to keep trying!” Scootaloo shouted. “If we keep looking and working hard we can get through this!”

“I don’t want to keep trying!” the pale-skinned girl shouted. Tears running her cheeks. “I want our home back the way it was! I want to see the blue sky and to play again! I… I want my parents BACK!”

With that final rant out of her system, what little strength she had left her and Sweetie Belle fell to her knees and broke down crying Her friends were quick to act and rushed to her and bring her into a group hug. Letting her cry as they tried to keep their own tears at bay, and falling at it.

“I do too,” Scootaloo whispered as she hugged her friends tighter.

“Ah miss Granny,” Applebloom cried silently.

Seeing all this play out before him, Krieger could only clench his fist as he took a deep breath and closed his eyes again and thought about all of his family back home.

“Sorry guys,” he muttered before opening his eyes, which now filled with determination as he walked towards the three crying children. “I think I might be gone longer than I thought.”

With those final words to the people back home, the marked man walked up to the girls and bent down to talk to them.

“Hey,” he said, getting the three’s attention as he tried to give them his best smile, hoping that it didn’t come off as scary as the other times. “It’s ok, you guys aren’t alone in this ya know?”

“What?” Applebloom asked between sobs.

“I mean, you’ve got each other. And you’ve still got people back in town that cares for you. And, for what it’s worth… You’ve got me.”

“You?” Scootaloo asked, wiping her eyes.

“Don’t you want to find your way back home?” Applebloom pointed out while drying her eyes.

“Well yeah,” he said with a small shrug. “And I still want to, but I figure while this princess of yours looks into it, I can help out while I wait.”

“Really?” Sweetie Belle whispered. “You’d do that?”

He nodded. “I was raised not to abandon those in need. If I just left you all behind for my own benefit, I’d never be able to look at those who cared for me in the eye ever again.”

Reaching out, the ‘human’ ruffled Sweetie Belle’s hair as he gave a big smile towards them.

“So cheer up!” he said as he ruffled the other girls’ hair as well. “Big Bro’s got you covered!”

Getting up the man then stuck a strong man pose. “And if any demon shows up I’ll show him what happens when you mess with my little buddies!”

“... Wow, you’re kind of a dork.” Scootaloo deadpanned, only for her smirk soon after.

“But a good kind of dork,” Sweetie Belle giggled out while wiping the last of her tears away.

Laughing as well Applebloom gave him a smile. “And sorry, but for me, that spot’s taken. Ah already got-”

“APPLEBLOOM!” bellowed a deep, masculine voice.

“... Ah’m in trouble,” she squeaked as she turned white.

“Who was tha-AHHHH!” Krieger was about to ask before he was struck by a large blast of what he would assume while being in agonizing pain as a magic blast. Said blast sent in a few feet away until his little trip was halted by slamming into a tree.

‘Hello forest, my old friend,’ he was able to think while trying to endure the INTENSE PAIN he was in.

“Demi-Fiend!” the girls called out, it being the only name they knew to call him by.

“Appelbloom, you and your friends get back to Ponyville now,” a female voice ordered.

“But-”

“NOW!”

‘No, please don’t leave adorable children who can prove my innocence.’ Krieger snarked internally.

Cracking his eyes open Krieger was greeted to the site of a MASSIVE red man with messy orange hair. His green eyes glared at him as he cracked his knuckles. His rippling Muscles barely being contained in his red button shirt and blue jeans. His tail violently swayed behind him like a whip.

And standing behind him was a woman with light purple skin and a head of dark Purple Hair with lighter shades of purple highlighting the darker hair and even a streak of aquamarine hair as well. She was dressed in a simple gray shirt and a pair of jeans as well.

Said woman was also leading the kids away. Oh, joy that means he’s stuck with big red over here.

“This should be fun,” he muttered while trying to get up. Only to get punched back to the ground. “I don’t suppose saying I want to resolve this peacefully will change anything.”

“Nope,” the big man said as he picked up Krieger and threw him away from the forest. Most likely not wanting Krieger even thinking of running away.

‘That would have been a smart plan,’ said human thought as he used the distance to allow himself to get up. “Ok big guy I know what you might be thinking. Should I beat this guy or not? And the answer might surprise-!!!”

Whatever he was going to say was silenced one the red mountain of a man punched him in the face… again.

“Okay… fine. I’ve seen enough anime to know how this works… even if I’ve only seen one.” He made sure his nose wasn’t broken before cracking his neck. “Bring it, tough guy. I’ve dealt with worse than you.”

The man charged and threw a punch that Krieger just barely moved to the side to avoid. He then grabbed the man’s wrist and swiftly moved behind him, twisted the muscular man’s arm and pinning it to the small of his back before kicking the back on one of his legs and forcing him to one knee, much to the taller man’s surprise. Krieger then wrapped one arm around his neck and squeezed.

“Now you wanna listen to me, or should I wait until after you pass out?” Krieger asked as the man used his one free hand to try and pry his way out of the hold.

“... Nope!” the man managed to say before bringing himself up to a standing position, hopping up and leaning back to crush Krieger under his weight. Krieger let go and managed to push off the man’s back, getting away just in time before getting crushed, and then rolling backwards and then onto his feet.

“Okay, so you’re not a dumb brute,” he muttered. “Then I’ll wear you down first.” He charged as the other man took a boxer like stance, ready to respond. Krieger then surprised him with a dropkick, nailing the man in the chest. Even as he fell and prepared to land safely he was shocked to see the mountain of a man lift off the ground for a good second before falling on his back. ‘That’s right, I’m way more powerful than I was before. I need to hold back a little.’

Despite the devastating hit the red man managed to get back to his feet at the same time Krieger did, a grunt of pain and effort the only indication it had actually hurt. This time the man charged, his fists raised and sent out a quick jab. Krieger dodged and tried to grab it like before, only for the other man to spin away, then try and elbow him in the face with his other arm. Krieger ducked under, expecting something, before trying to give a chop to the neck. The hit landed at the same time the man punched down and hit him in the face, knocking him to the ground while the man stumbled back a bit, gasping for breath.

“Know your way around a fight, huh?” Krieger said, getting up as he wiped the blood from his nose.

“... Eeyup.” the man replied after a short moment to catch his breath. Krieger charged and this time the man sent out a kick, hitting the young man in the solar plexus. The attack winded him a bit, but he quickly recovered and took advantage of the outstretched leg. He grabbed the ankle tightly and pulled, causing the man to lose balance and fall, before quickly positioning himself on the ground, pinching the man’s knee with his legs and then pulling on the leg in a classic kneebar. The lack of an actual foot and toes made keeping it in place a little difficult, but he could feel the man groan in pain. He braced himself for retaliation and sure enough, the man tried punching him in the side and head, but the awkward position took a lot of the force out of his hits, and Krieger just pulled harder.

“Give up before I break it!” he warned.

“STOP! BOTH OF YA!” came a voice. Both of them turned to see Applebloom and the other girls running towards them, panic obviously on their faces. Krieger stopped pulling, and the man stopped fighting back. Then all of a sudden Krieger’s body was encased in some kind of seafoam colored aura and he was yanked off of the other man before being suspended in the air.

“Girls, I told you to run!” the other woman from before said, a similar aura radiating from around her horn and her outstretched hands.

“And I said you need to let me talk to those two!” the young girl said with a glare.

“I’m floating… how am I floating?” Krieger asked, still surprised.

“Magic remember,” Sweetie Belle answered. The answer reminded Krieger that he saw Sweetie Belle do something similar when she showed off her magic to him when they were walking through the woods.

“But this is on a whole other level,” the changed man gasped out as he tried to move to no avail. “Sweetie could only make a few rocks float!”

“It pays to be a magical prodigy,” said the woman as she glared at Krieger. “Starlight Glimmer is the name, now who are you and what were you doing with the CMC?”

“CMC?” Krieger muttered. “What the heck is the CMC?”

“That be me and ma friends…,” Applebloom answered with a blush. “It means Cutie. Mark. Crusaders.”

“... Is that supposed to mean something to me?” Krieger snarked.

“Enough!” shouted Starlight as she brought Krieger closer to her. Face to face to the point their noses where touching as she glared into his eyes. “TELL ME WHO YOU ARE!”

“Um, okay miss… um-”

“Starlight Glimmer.”

“Right sorry. So, uh listen, my name’s Demi-Fiend… No, it’s not, but… Okay listen, I’m a human, I was just in San Diego at some convention when I met this kinda creepy guy that sold me some stuff, and then one of the things turned into a worm and burrowed its way into my eye, and then I woke up in some weird forest, and someone stole my shirt and now apparently I’ve got a horn growing out of the back of my neck and tattoos made of glowstick fluid and apparently magic is real and I fought off some small red demon things and for some reason I can’t say my own name and you guys are apparently not humans but ponies and honestly I don’t know how I got here and I’m kinda freaking out and I JUST REALIZED HOW CRAZY THIS ALL IS AND I REALLY, REALLY JUST WANT SOMEONE TO GIVE ME A DAMN EXPLANATION PLEASE GOD ALMIGHTY I JUST WANT SOME ANSWERS!”

You could hear a few crickets going off as the silence that followed Krieger’s little rant was getting too uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry. I just… I think that had been building up for a while.”

“... ok, it seems you girls brought a crazy demon into our town,” Starlight stated with a flat look.

“Yeah, well… he’s a nice crazy demon.” Sweetie Belle noted.

“And he can fight!” Scootaloo shouted her tiny wings flapping in excitement. “I mean HE BEAT BIG MAC!”

“Nope.” The man, apparently named Big Mac, crossed his arms and huffed, not conceding to the loss.

“Big Mac?” Krieger muttered as he looked towards said pony. “Yeah…, that name fits.”

“And the best part is that he said he would help us!” Applebloom cheered. “We have a demon on our side!”

“Not a demon!” shouted said demon in denial.

“Girls,” Starlight sighed out. “You can’t trust a demon, no matter how friendly he might be, he’s too dangerous to be around.”

“Says the pony who put the timeline in danger HOW many times?” Sweetie Belle asked with a raised brow.

“... That’s low.”

“Or used her magic to force better outcomes,” Applebloom added in. “Like messing with ma brother’s way of speaking?”

“Girls, I’m warning you.”

“Big Mac couldn’t talk in his normal voice for weeks!” Scootaloo yelled.

“Eeyup,” the pony in question said in agreement as he rubbed his throat. His throat was sore for a week after the spell wore off.

“OKAY, FINE! Yes, I screwed up a few times…” the other raised their brows at her. “SEVERAL times. But that does not make my concerns any less legitimate!”

“Excuse me? Could I interject?” Krieger spoke up.

“No,” Starlight said before going back to arguing with the CMC.

Letting out a sigh Krieger looked at Big Mac. “Is she always like this?”

“When she’s nervous,” he shrugged.

“... Wow, you say things other than Yep and Nope?”

“Eeyup.”

“Ok that one was on purpose,” Krieger said with a glare as the two males went back to watch the argument between the ladies.

“And finally!” Starlight said to the CMC. “You’re all not ready to look after another living being.”

“But starlight~!” the CMC cried out while giving the older woman teary looks.

“Don’t Starlight me!” shouted the mare.

“But we promise to take care of him!” Scootaloo cried.

“We’ll make sure he’s well behaved,” Applebloom added in.

“Are… are they comparing me to a dog?” Krieger muttered.

“Eeyup.”

“... Now I see why she used magic to get you to talk.” the demon/human muttered as he went back to watching this shit show.

“And we promise to take him out for walks too!” Sweetie Belle said with a smile. “We’ll even put a leash on him.”

“SAY WHAT NOW!” cried the man in question as he looked mortified at the thought of being on a leash.

Looking at the three girls Starlight tried to keep a stony appearance but just looking at the pleading looks of the CMC broke the older woman’s resolve.

“... Fine,” sighed out Starlight as she let Krieger go from her magic. Letting him fall face-first into the ground.

“Ow…” the older redhead said with a face full of dirt.

“But!” Starlight said as she pointed at the girls. “He stays away from the main part of town, AND he can only come into said part with me or Big Mac escorting him, and he needs to wear a cloak as to not freak everyone out.”

“Yay!” cried the CMC as they rushed passed Starlight and helped Kriger off the ground.

“Also while the whole story with you not being unable to say your real name might be true, I believe it would be easier if you responded by the name you CAN say.” Starlight instructed.

“... Call me Demi-Fiend then,” he sighed, defeated.

“... that’s a villain name if I ever heard one,” Big Mac said with a flat look.

“I suppose I should be glad I wasn’t stuck saying Mr. Baron von EvilSatan then,” Krieger snarked while also telling himself to start calling himself Demi-Fiend for now.

“I guess you’re right,” Starlight said with a small smile. “But for now I think we should head inside, the others will wonder what happened and Big Mac will need to sneak you to his farm.”

Letting out a sigh said pony started making his way towards the graveyard while gesturing for Kriger to follow. Said human now demon quickly did just that while waving bye to the CMC.

The two men walked through the graveyard all the while Big Mac questioned the demon in his company.

“So be honest with me, Why do ya wanna help?” Big Mac asked, still eyeing him suspiciously.

“... Look, I don’t know why I’m here, and I definitely want to get back. But when I see someone in trouble, I help them. It’s what I do, and it’s how I was raised.”

“... Hm,” he replied with a grunt that ALMOST sounded like approval. “Welp we’re getting close to the farm if we hurry we can both get some sleep.”

“Sleep sounds good,” sighed out Krieger. “I just want this… night? Yeah, let’s go with night. I just want this night to end.”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac said with a nod. “Let’s hurry then Demi-Fiend.”

“... Gonna have to get used to being called that,” the now newly named Demi-Fiend muttered.

‘Well, at least things should be calm for a while,’ Demi-Fiend thought with a smile as he spotted the nice-looking farmhouse with a large acre of apple trees in the distance.

All the while not noticing the small glowing light watching him from on top of one of the apple trees.

“Teehee~!” giggled the small creature as it spread it’s fairy-like wings and flew down so it could follow its fellow demon from a safe distance.

“This is going to be fun~!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter end. Next time: tricky Pixy!

Thanks to ShinigamiSparda for the awesome fight scene yet again!

Chap 4. Tricky Pixy!

The sun rises to greet the new day… the hellish, bleak, and miserable new day. As the morning sun is able to pierce through the dark clouds to give the people of Ponyville some degree of comfort, there was one person who wasn’t appreciating its effort to light everyone’s day.

“Why does the sun wake me even in this new world,” muttered Demi-Fiend as he placed a pillow over his face as he tried to get back to sleep. Ignoring the sun’s rays as they seem to be extra focus to shine through his room’s window.

“None a’ that,” came a deep voice, wrenching the pillow out of his hands. He looked up to see a familiar, stoic face.

“Oh, hey Big Red. How long you been up?”

“Three hours. You’ve rested enough.”

Shocked from the hearing that tidbit Demi-Fiend. “... what time is it?” the human turned demon asked as he got up while trying to get the sleep from his eyes.

“‘Bout a bit past 6.”

“Why in the world have you been up for so long?”

“It’s the farmer’s life,” Big Mac said with a shrug as he walked out of the room while muttered about city folk.

Grumbling from being woke up the Demi-Fiend got up and stretched to get the kinks out before getting down to both knees and started to pray.

“Lord, I don’t know why I’m here, but please look after me as I help these people and give me the strength to make it through this and find a way home,” he prayed as he got up and made his way downstairs.

As he walked downstairs he soon heard some noise coming from the kitchen. Curious, he decided to indulge in some good old eavesdropping.

“Ah’m hungry,” muttered the voice of Apple Bloom as the sounds of rummaging could be heard.

“Aren’t we all,” the dry tone of Scootaloo soon followed.

“Well Ah don’t see you doing anything to help,” Apple Bloom snap as a sound of pots and pans falling was soon heard and a few panic yelps soon followed.

Wincing at the sound of the poor cooking tools being abused, the Demi-Fiend decided to make his way into the kitchen, were the site of pots and pans lining the floor and a few apples as well. And the CMC staring wide-eyed at the new person in the kitchen.

“Please tell me this doesn’t happen every day,” he asked.

“Uh…” they all trailed off.

“Lord, give me strength,” he muttered.

Letting out a sigh, the red-haired demon started picking up the scattered pots and pans while the CMC helped by picking up the scattered apples.

“So,” he began as he started to put all the pots and pans back in place. “Why did you decide to make the kitchen look like a war zone? Did the pots and pans do something to offend you?”

This earned him a few pouts that only made him chuckle. Grumbling Apple Bloom soon answered. “We were just trying to make something to eat.”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo butted in. “We missed dinner last night when we were out looking for stuff to help out the town.”

“Told you we should have brought some apples with us,” Sweetie Belle said with an, “I told you so” tone.

Ignoring her friends, Apple Bloom continued. “So I was going to make something but…”

“We suck at cooking,” Scootaloo finished with a sigh.

“And we’re still hungry,” Sweetie Belle whined. All three girls’ stomachs all decided to let out a few grumbles to drive their point through.

A sweatdrop ran down the back of the Demi-Fiend as he let out a strained chuckle. “I see…, so why not ask Big Mac or even that Starlight woman? She might be willing to make you something to eat.”

“Big Mac is working the farm,” Apple Bloom sighed out. “He gets up early to make sure the town has food and he doesn’t bother to cook, because a few apples are good enough for him.”

“And starlight is busy keeping the town from falling apart while Twilight is out trying to get help from any one of the other kingdoms,” Sweetie Belle added while letting out a sigh.

Seeing the three looking down sparked an inner fire in Demi-Fiend, Jeanne would always tell him it was his need to be a big brother kicking in that made him want to help any sad children, and right now it was kicking in.

“Well how about I make you something to eat?” he asked. Much to the surprise of the CMC.

“Really?” Apple Bloom asked with a raised brow.

“You can cook?” Scootaloo asked, doubt showing in her voice.

“Hey!” Demi-Fiend asked with a raised brow. “What’s with those looks?”

“Sorry, it’s just,” Sweetie Belle muttered. “You don’t look like the kind of person who cooks.”

He scoffed and grabbed a nearby apron hanging by the oven, one of the frilliest, pinkest, girliest things he’d ever seen, and put it on. Once he was finished tying it he grinned. “Better?” he asked sarcastically.

The three girls could only stare at him before they burst into roars of laughter.

“Oh my Celestia!” cried out Scootaloo. “Why would you WEAR THAT!?”

“My tummy is starting to hurt!” Sweetie Belle said between bouts of laughter.

“And ah thought Spike wearing that was funny!” Apple Bloom said as tears of laughter spilled down her face.

Smiling at his handy work the Demi-Fiend quickly guided the laughing children out of the kitchen as he did what he did best back home… well besides busting the heads of morons that messed with his friends.

“Let’s get to work,” Demi-Fiend said as he got to work.

He started off with a quick scan of the supplies available, checking the drawers for utensils, cabinets for a better idea of what pots and pans they had, as well as the cabinets and pantries for spices and other ingredients. As he was tallying off what was and wasn’t there the recipe options began to fall into place. The stove was gas, as was the oven, but the refrigerator looked modern enough. He opened it up and found the all-important eggs, but noticed something missing.

“Hey, Apple Bloom? Do you keep the bacon somewhere else?” he asked. He figured if it wasn’t there they probably were out, but it didn’t hurt to ask.

“What’s bacon?” she called back.

His brain stopped for a moment to process what he’d just heard. ‘Doesn’t know what bacon is… All of them are ‘ponies’... Ponies are herbivores… they appear to be the dominant sapient species on this world…’ He inhaled sharply, trying to calm himself. ‘Lord, am I not being tested enough as it is?’

“Never mind,” he called back.

He grabbed the milk, and a stick of butter and set them out on the counter before grabbing a well worn cast iron skillet and setting it next to the other ingredients. He grabbed the white sugar from the cabinets, flour from the pantry along with some baking powder.

‘This should work.’ He nodded and checked the drawers again, pulling out a match. ‘Good thing I know how to work with the old stuff.’ He opened the oven, turned on the gas, and lit the burner with the match before letting it heat up.

While the oven was heating up for him to use the top part the Demi-Fiend grabbed the mixing bowl and poured in the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. He then began to mix it together before adding the milk and some of the butter he had sitting near the stove so it would be melted enough to mix easily into the batter. After that was done he went to check if the stove was warm enough. Seeing that it was the Demi Fiend went to grab the pan but noticed a bag of chocolate chips on the counter.

‘That should go nicely,’ he thought as he grabbed the bag and poured its contents into the mixing bowl, and started to mix the new ingredient together all the while whistling a small tune he heard from one of the older nuns back home.

(play: 1933 Ted Weems - The Old Kitchen Kettle)

After mixing that for the second time the Demi-Fiend went to the stove and placed the black iron skillet on top and placed some butter and allowed it to melt. Soon he poured some of the batter mix into the skillet.

After a moment of flipping, the red-haired demon slowly made multiple stacks of pancakes… maybe too many in fact.

‘Maybe I went a little overboard,’ the red-headed demon thought with a sweat drop as he stared at the large stack of pancakes. ‘Oh well, farmers have big appetites right?’

Looking around he grimaced when he saw the mess he made.

“Better clean up before the pancakes get cold,” Demi-Fiend muttered as rushed around the kitchen putting away the ingredients and putting the bowls and skillet into the sink to be cleaned later.

As soon as that was done, he soon started stacking a few pancakes onto some plates.

“I don’t have any whipped cream or smaller fruit, but at least we have butter and syrup,” he said as he poured the sacred sap of breakfast goodness on each stack of pancakes.

Looking over his handy work the apron-wearing demon decided to take them all in one trip, holding the plates in his hands as well as balancing them on his forearms putting his new strength to good use. He then made his way to the door by walking backward as to use his back to move the door open. As soon as he made it through, he quickly turned around with a big smile.

“Breakfast is ready!” he cheered. Though he was surprised to see someone else in the living room with the kids.

“... Well, clearly I’m not getting enough sleep, because there’s no way I’m actually seeing something this ridiculous today.” the woman from before, Starlight, noted in a deadpan voice.

“Don’t know what your talking about,” Demi-Fiend said as he started handing out pancakes to everyone in the room, even giving Starlight the plate of flapjacks he was going to eat. “Nothing strange about making some food for some hungry kids.”

“... You know what? Fine. Embrace the crazy, that what I had to learn living here, even before everything went really insane.” she sighed and sat down. After a moment she looked at the meal and her horn lit up, and aura covering all of the other pancakes for a moment.

“... What are you doing?”

“Making sure you didn’t lace them with a mind control serum or something.”

“Why in God’s name would I do that?” Demi-Fiend asked with a hint of hurt in his voice.

“Because you’re a demon.”

“And you apparently mind raped people before, but here I am not on guard around you,” he pointed out with a hint of venom lacing his words. Mentally counting down from ten to keep his temper under control.

Starlight puffed her cheeks out in an offended huff, but stopped her magic all the same. “Never gonna live that down…” she muttered, before grabbing her utensils and digging in.

The three kids did the same and they all moaned in delight after the first bite. Demi-Fiend smiled and went at his own, enjoying it for a bit, before he heard sniffling. He stopped to see the girls were struggling to hold back tears.

“What’s wrong?” he and Starlight asked in concern at the same time, catching the woman a bit by surprise.

“This tastes like how granny used to make them,” sniffed out Apple Bloom as she took another bite.

“Also like my mom when she was ever home with dad after a job at a dig site,” Scootaloo said between bites as tears ran down her face.

‘Oh man.’ He thought. He’d never been the best at comforting people, his big size and scary features intimidating features being off-putting. He’d mostly just been the bouncer for those around him, scaring or fighting off those who meant to do harm. ‘Jeanne, how would you handle this?’

(flashback)

“H-hey now,” Krieger said in a panic as a small child was crying in front of him both were at the park near the church and this child was one of the newest orphaned to come to their orphanage. “Come on little buddy! No need to cry, it was just a balloon!”

The small child just cried harder as he pointed at Krieger. “Scary man!”

Hearing this made him wince. ‘Damn my scary looks…’

As the scene continued to play out a soft humming could be heard.

Walking towards them was a young woman in a nun outfit as she made her way towards the two a soft smile on her face and a pure kindness dancing in her eyes. Her eyes were bright blue, bits of her blonde hair peeking out from under her habit.

“Now now,” the girl said. her voice sounding like the soft chimes of small bells. “Why is there so much crying? This is a park, laughter is what should be filling the air.”

“S-Scary man,” the boy whimpered again, hiding behind her and away from him.

“Oh, don’t you worry about him. He’s just a clumsy teddy bear, that’s all.” she chuckled.

“Yeah!” Krieger said with a smile. Though this just scared the kid even more. “Dammit…”

“Now, now,” the nun said with a smile. “No need to be down, now tell big sister Jeane what’s wrong.”

“Sniff… my balloon was popped by some mean men,” the boy whimpered. “It was given to me by the nice preacher and now it’s gone.”

“And where were you Krieger?” asked Jeane asked with a raised brow. Not in an accusing tone, more in confusion. She knew Krieger would never let a kid get harmed in any way if he was around.

“I was getting the kid some ice cream from the vendor over there,” the redhead said as he pointed to a spot lacking any such vendor. “And he ran off from all the commotion… with the money, I gave him too..., great.”

“Well that won’t do at all,” Jeane said with a soft sigh as she embraced the young kid while humming a soft song. After a while, the small boy calmed down. “Better?’

Nodding the small child gave Jeane a smile before running towards the church.

“Jeeze, Jeanne. Wish I could do that.” Krieger sighed.

“Might be easier without the hair dye,” she noted.

“No way. Gotta remind you of your short-lived hairstylist career.” he joked back.

This earned him a small jab to the ribs from a pouting Jeane who gave him a flat look.

“Don’t remind me of that,” the young nun muttered with a half-hearted glare.

“Why? You seem so proud of it when you did it,” Krieger laughed. “Though I’m happy the good Father kept you from adding sparkles.”

This earned him a few more jabs but it didn’t stop him from laughing.

“Joking aside, that was still amazing Jeane,” Krieger praised with a small smile. “You were always the best when it came to making people feel better.”

“Yeah, well, I think it’s time for your specialty now. After all, we can’t have a group of troublemakers picking on the children, now can we?” she said with a slightly playful grin.

“Yeah,” Krieger said with a more vicious grin. “Besides they owe us ice-cream.”

Later that day Krieger would come back with enough Ice cream for all the kids back at the orphanage and the police somewhere in town would wonder why some thugs were beaten and covered ice cream.

(flash back end)

‘Well… Might as well give it a shot.’ He got up out of his seat walked over to the girls, ignoring the suspicious look he was getting from Starlight. He put a hand on Apple Bloom’s shoulder and began to whistle.

(play Don’t Worry, Be Happy by Bob Marley)

“Sniff,” Sweety Belle looked towards Demi-Fiend while wiping away her tears. What are you doing?”

Stopping from his little whistle session Demi-Fiend gave them a sheepish smile. “Just trying to cheer you three up…, did it work?”

They stared at him for a bit, then Scootaloo started to chuckle. “You really are such a dork.”

“Hey!” said dork shouted comically.

The other girls all laughed at his expense, making him blush and pout a bit in embarrassment.

“... Thanks.” Apple Bloom said with a smile.

He smiled back. “You’re welcome. Now finish it before it gets cold.” Everyone went back to eating. “So, what’s on the schedule for today?” he asked Starlight.

“Well while Big Mac is busy at the field I’m going to have you accompany me as I make my morning rounds around town.

“You sure about that? Demi-Fiend asked with a raised brow. “I don’t want to freak out the locals.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Starlight said as she pulled a long cloak from behind her.., somehow.

“... So, is that magic too, or were you hiding that under your shirt?” he asked, still looking dumbfounded.

“You learn a few things when you have a friend who is a master of sleight of hand,” she smirked. “Now finish eating so we can go,” she said before casually tossing it at him.

“Fine just let me get some pancakes for myself,” The Demi-Fiendsaid as he went to the kitchen to get some leftover pancakes. but once he went through the door he noticed all the pancakes were gone not a single crumb was left much to his shock there were at least three stacks left!

“What the heck? I didn't even get to eat anything,” The redhead ground as he tried to find any scrap of food. sadly there was nothing left, much to his annoyance.

“Maybe Big Mac ate them,” Apple Bloom said as she and the other CMC ran into the kitchen to put away their dishes. If he ever gets hungry while working he sometimes just comes into the kitchen and eats whatever the first thing he sees.”

“Well I’m glad he liked it, I guess,” he sulked. “I guess I could just have a few apples.”

“Make it one,” Starlight said with a sigh. “I’m late on my rounds and I need to make sure everything is in order.”

“Fine,” Demi-Fiend sighed out as he grabbed an apple that was handed to him by Apple Bloom. Taken a bite he gave the apple a look over. “Hmmm pretty good.”

“Hurry up!” Starlight shouted already out the door.

“I heard you already!” Demi-Fiend yelled back, scarfing down the rest and grabbing the cloak and putting in on, pulling up the hood before walking out with her.

No one noticed a small figure sitting on the old clock on the wall of the kitchen.

“Tee-hee, that was tasty,” said the small figure as she flew out the kitchen window and over the house itself to spy on her object of interest.

Walking outside the red-headed demon started walking beside he Starlight “So, what’s first?”

“First you need to keep your distance and keep silent,” the unicorn girl said as they made their way into the outskirts of town

“And what if they ask who I am or try to talk to me? Got a story for that at least? Kinda doubt you want to announce there’s a demon walking around.”

“So you admit that’s what you are?”

“Honestly, I’m not sure what I am now,” he muttered with some self-doubt before putting on a brave face. “but I know I’m still me where it counts. A human”

“If you say so,” Starlight muttered. Still not believing his story. “Just behave and you stay until you find somewhere else to go.”

“How sweet of you,” Demi-Fiend muttered as they made it into town. “So let’s see what.. We’re… dealing with,”

“Oh my god,” he said as he stared at what he saw.

Even having seen it from afar, the state of the town was even more terrible up close. The houses that once looked like they were almost like they were from a children’s fairy tale were cracked and broken, hastily rebuild with whatever could be found. Ill-fitting planks of wood replacing missing doors, tarps covering the holes in thatch roofs, and windows securely boarded up. One building literally looked like a gingerbread house, somehow made to be more intimidating with giant fake wooden candy canes sharpened into pikes for protection against possible raids.

“Yeah,” Starlight said in a hollow tone. “This place used to be so cheery, now? Now the Everfree Forest would be a more welcoming place to stay.”

Demi-Fiend said nothing as they walked, taking in more of what he saw. Few ponies walked the streets, and most that did were armed, wearing grim expressions on their faces. The few that weren’t were either carrying out some kind of task like building or carrying supplies, and a scant few were hurriedly trying to walk, probably to get back home. They were all either outright afraid, depressed, or using their anger to cover up their other emotions.

“Jesus,” Demi-Fiend muttered as he watched the depressing scene in front of him while Starlight talk to a few ponies about how everything was coming along.

“Not good boss,” said a REALLY buff man with pure white skin and golden hair in a buzz cut style and wings way too small to carry him into the air. “We could get any food from the abandoned farms, too many demons, and the other party couldn’t get any were near Canterlot top find anything of use, too many demons between us and there.”

“Wonderful,” Starlight growled out in anger. “What about the wall? Is it at least fixed?”

“If you can call it that,” muttered a man with swept back hair and wearing a ratty but still fancy suit. “It will hold up against the small fries but if a big guy shows up we’re doomed.”

‘It will have to do,” the horned women said with a sigh. “We might need to risk sending some people out to chop some trees for wood.”

“Speaking of guys boss,” the buff guy said while looking at his boss’s cloaked companion. ‘Who’s that?”

“And please tell us he’s not staying,” the rich looking one said with a sigh. “We can’t afford more mouths to feed.”

“I know Filthy Rich, Starlight muttered. “But you and Bulk don’t have to worry. He’s someone who volunteered to help and I intend to cash in on the promise.”

“You sure he’ll be any use?” asked Filthy Rich. he looked towards the cloaked man as if he was some object worth keeping in stock.

Demi-Fiend moved to respond, but caught himself when he saw Starlight shoot him a glare.

“Don’t worry about how useful he is,” the unicorn said. “He’s going to help us with some skills he has and I’ll make sure he takes care of some problems.”

“Looks like you got him on a tight leash,” commented Bulk. “Why’s that? If he’s here to help then he’s ok in my book.”

“Agreed,” sighed out Filthy Rich,” but only if you keep him from causing trouble.”

“Don’t worry,” Starlight said with a hard look pointed at Filthy Rich. “He won’t do anything without my say so.”

Letting out a dry laugh Filthy gave her a mocking look. “Ya, I can tell.”

Confused Starlight looked behind her to see her companion nowhere to be seen.

“..., he’s dead,” Starlight muttered with a flat look on her face.

Where did that moron go?

(at the center of town)

“Thank you again for lending a hand kind sir,” said a woman with the wavy and styled grey hair, dressed in a fancy brown business suit with a green cravat, both having seen better days. “It was quite hard to carry all these cleaning supplies before you showed up.”

“No problem,” Demi-Fiend said with a smile hidden under his hood. He was currently carrying a wooden box filled with some cleaning supplies. “I just couldn’t just stand by and watch a young lady carry all this stuff now could I?”

“Oh my,” the woman said with a bit of pink dusting her tan skin. She adjusted her glasses before giggling out. “You’re quite the flatterer. Making me blush like a schoolgirl.”

“Huh?” was the intelligent response from Demi-Fiend. Only to get more giggling from the older woman who just gave him a wink and continued walking ahead of him with extra sway to her step.

Demi-Fiend had to keep his eyes from looking down as he kept muttering about the temptations of the flesh.

It was only a few more minutes of walking until they made it to the spot the lady needed to be, and the sight made Demi Fiend nearly drop the box in his arms.

In front of him stood a massive stone monument, about a foot taller than he was. Carved into the front was a symbol of a brilliant sun over a crown, framed by two wings. Even without reading what was on it, he could tell this was a somber memorial, what with being shaped like a tombstone. He looked to read the inscription and felt a knot well-up in his throat.

Beloved Princess Celestia
Gave her Everything for Us to her Last Breath
May We Be the Kind of Ponies She Always Believed We Could Be

He looked upon the massive tombstone for a few more minutes until he started hearing someone crying. Looking down he could see the woman that he escorted to the area on her knees praying with tears running down her face.

“Oh, dear Celestia,” the woman said, her voice cracking as she held back a sob. Her tears still ran down her face freely as her hands trembled still firmly grasp in prayer. “If only you were still here your subjects miss you and Twilight is trying her best to keep us all together. Well, I can see that the stress is getting to the poor dear, along with her friends.”

“I'm not from around here,” Demi fiend said as he put a comforting hand on the crying woman’s shoulder. “Was this Celestia important to you all?”

Holding back a sob the older woman wiped the tears away from her face while giving the red-headed man a nod. “She was our ruler. She helped to safeguard us and lead us to peace and happiness, and when the demons and tore down her castle she still led her army to defend us, and when the time came when the Great Demon was about to kill us all she... she gave her own to save us to the very end. She still loved us more than herself no matter what it cost she gave it so that we may live.”

Not being able to hold back anymore the woman turned around and hugged the Demi-Fiend, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, and she cried. Needing something desperately to hold onto as she wailed in agony the loss of a beloved ruler and of all the lives that were lost because of this tragedy.

The Demi-Fiend could only remnants as he slowly patted the woman's back as she sobbed on his shoulder. Looking around he had to hold back a frown as he saw other ponies just walk by ignoring one of their own in such distress. More than likely they all were just too tired and broken at this point.

“And we don’t know where Luna is,” the crying women muttered. “She left as soon as her sister died fending off the powerful demon.”

Again Demi-Fiend said nothing as he continued to comfort the sadden mare.

Luckily he wouldn’t be doing it alone.

“Mayor Mare?” said a male voice. Turning slightly towards the voice. Demi-Fiend saw a man in ratty clothes. He had pure white skin and long blond hair that was pretty dirty from living in such conditions. He was a unicorn and his blue eyes held worry as he looked towards the now named Mayor Mare. “Are you ok?”

Letting out a small sniff as she parted from Demi-Fiend, the gray-haired woman gave a small smile towards the worried newcomer.

“It’s ok Blue Blood.” Mayor Mare said as she wiped away her tears as the now named Blue Blood walked towards the two.

“You sure?” he asked. “It’s hard for everyone when cleaning duty for… Aunty’s grave is needed.”

“Aunty?” DF (short for Demi-Fiend) asked with a raised brow. This ended up getting Blue Blood’s attention. Though DF could guess that the male unicorn must of forgotten about him while trying to make sure Mayor Mare was ok.

Jumping a little, Blue Blood looked towards the cloaked figure that Mayor Mare was hugging.

‘How did I forget someone THAT tall was here?’ Blue Blood thought before calming his racing heart. After a sec the male unicorn was able to calm down, he then gave the stranger a smile as he held out his hand.

“Hello!” the stallion said. “The names Blue Blood,I must thank you for helping out Miss Mare.”

“Someone had too,” DF said as he shook hands with the stallion.

“Still, thank you for that,” Blue Blood said with a smile. “Kindness like that is rare in these times.”

“I can tell,” DF muttered as he saw that still, no one bothered to even look in their direction.

“Please don’t blame them. They’ve suffered so much, it’s honestly a miracle they can even keep going. Honestly, I think this is the only option they have left to avoid breaking down entirely,” Mayor Mare said sadly.

“Agreed,” Blue Blood said with a nod. “Aunty was well-loved amongst her people. Losing her was a harsh blow.”

“That reminds me,” DF said with a raised brow. “Why are you calling the kingdom’s ruler Aunty?”

“Oh?” the stallion said with a surprised look. “You must not know, well no matter I’ll answer your question. You see Celestia was my adoptive Aunt.”

“Really?” DF said in confusion. “Didn’t know a Princess would do that.”

“Aunty was amazing like that,” Blue Blood said with a sad smile. “My parents were former nobles but they passed away from illness. So Aunty adopted me because I had no family to go to.”

“Huh,” DF said with a smile hidden under his hood. The red-headed demon looked towards the tombstone with newfound respect. “She sounds like a great leader.”

“A-HEM!” came an exaggerated, and thoroughly angry cough. DF turned to see and angry Starlight Glimmer, her arms folded and her foot tapping as she glared at him. “Well… have fun touring the town?”

“Oh… hey Starlight,” Demi-Fiend said with a forced smile as he laughed nervously. “You done with your business?”

“You are my business,” she seethed at him. “Thanks for making me look like a fool in front of Bulk and Rich, by the way.”

‘Ah… so that’s their names,” DF said trying to change the subject. “They seem nice! Bet they work hard and might need help! You know what I should help them!”

“No need. They’re both quite done for the day. Just like you,” she glared daggers at him, seeming to try and burn him to ash with her gaze.

“Um… If I may?” Mayor Mare nervously butts in.

“What?” Starlight asked with a fake smile that would have fitted one of her victims from her days as a villain. “Do you NEED something from this moron?”
“Starlight, I understand your job is quite stressful, but this young stallion here only came to help me carry some heavy supplies. He’s been nothing but courteous and helpful. I know you’re under a lot of pressure trying to keep things running, but there’s no need to be so cross with him,” Mayor Mare replied in a professional tone.

“Yes!” Blue Blood agreed. “He seems like a nice stallion for how he helped Mayor Mare.”

Starlight hesitated for a moment before clearing her throat, her expression a little softer but still stern. “I apologize. I didn’t know you were off helping somepony else. Still, you’re a newcomer and, I don’t exactly trust you just yet. So if you’re going to go do this kind of thing, at least let me know instead of disappearing, would you?”

“Uh… sure,” Demi-Fiend said. Feeling a little guilty for stressing her out. “I’ll do that but please, can you just loosen the leash a little?”

“Leash?” Blue Blood said with a raised brow.

“Oh my,” Mayor Mare gasped out with a blush. “I didn’t know you had doing THAT for you.”

“Huh?” DF said with a tilt of his head. Wondering what Mayor Mare was talking about. All he was asking was for Starlight to be a little more lenient with her watching over him.

“N-Not like-! That’s not-!” she stammered.

“Though I can’t blame you,” the older mare said with a thoughtful look. “You have been under a lot of stress lately, and I can tell with how he talks to a mare, he could be useful in relieving a lot of that pent of stress in you.”

This little jab was finally blunt enough for Demi-Fiend to understand, his face not as flushed red as Starlight’s. It seems Blue Blood caught on too but unlike them, he was laughing.

Also was it just him or was there another person laughing? It was hard to tell, whoever it was sounded pretty small.

“J-Just come on already!” Starlight growled, grabbing Demi-Fiend by the collar and practically choking him as she dragged him away.

“Don’t be too rough with him~!” Mayor Mare laughed. “I know you need to relief but don’t wear the poor boy out!”

This just made the younger mare let out a frustrated yell as she stormed off with a stammering Demi-Fiend. This scene caused a few of the villagers to look at the crazy scene. Some would just sigh and go back to their self-pity, while others would actually laugh.

“You’re awful,” Blue Blood laughed along with Mayor Mare as said mare went and started cleaning around the tombstone.

“True,” Mayor Mare said between giggles. “But I think we all needed a laugh.”

“I can’t argue there,” Blue Blood said as he noticed a little bit of life shining in the villagers who were laughing at the angry unicorn and cloaked stallion. “Though I feel bad for the newcomer. I didn’t even catch his name.”

“Me ether,” Mayor Mare said as she finished picking the weeds around the tombstone, and started to grab a rage and started wiping away some dust and dirt from it. “I was just so happy someone was willing to help, It just slipped my mind.”

“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter. We’ll find out next time. After all, somepony who helps others without a second thought is the kind of pony you cross paths with quite a bit,” he noted as he helped her clean the gravestone. “Isn’t that right, Aunty?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~( back with DF and Starlight)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Um… I’m-”

“Shut it,” Starlight cut him off she stomped ahead of him.

“But I-”

“Zip. It.” she seethed.

“... Sorry.” he managed to say meekly.

She stopped and sighed. “Look, I want to be wrong about you, alright. I really do. Everypony here needs something to lift their spirits and the idea of some…creature helping us would be nice. But I am not going to let that hope leave us vulnerable. You want my trust, you better damn well be ready to work yourself to earn it.”

“... Okay,” he said simply. ‘This is another trial from the Lord, and I will rise to meet it.’

As the two kept walking, with Starlight leading the charge, DF noticed a small light flying down from the sky.

‘What the?” DF said quietly as he saw the light come near him until he could make out a figure from the light. Soon the light died down and he gasped at what he saw.

Floating in front of him was a small woman! But not any woman but what looked like a fairy! She had short and wavy auburn colored hair, orange eyes, and insect like wings. She wore a blue one piece leotard with blue arm length gloves and blue thigh high stockings.

The fairy looked at him with a small smile as it enjoyed his surprised look, but soon it’s smile became more impish as she floated towards Starlight. Said mare was completely oblivious to what was going on behind her.

“Umm Starlight?” DF called out as he watched the small fairy like creature get closer to the mare.

“I said be quiet,” the Mare said. Not even looking at DF as she kept walking.

“But Starlight!” the red-head cried out as he saw the Fairy started floating towards Starlight’s…, Rear?

Blushing, DF watched as the Fairy float close to Starlight’s rear, Giving the young demon a devious look the Fairy reared back one of her arms, and with one mighty swing she SMACKED Starlights ass with enough force to cause a cracking sound to be heard.

“Eep!” Starlight gasped, then froze as the fairy quickly dashed away. The mare then slowly turned her head to look at her ward, eyes burning in fury as her lip quivered in a scowl.

“... Lord, protect me,” he muttered before he saw her horn light up. The next thing he knew his head was repeatedly slamming itself into the ground hard enough to leave an imprint of his face. This stopped after a few times, only for him to hear the enraged scream of one very angry mare as she tackled him to the ground.

Laughing at the two the small demon floated up to stay out of view of the mortal that was now tackling the cloaked demon she had been watching ever since he got to this world. Though her merriment was cut short as she sensed a large amount of demon energy to the west.

“Well…,” the small creature said as she looked towards the west. From the distance, she could see some smoke rising, and with her sharp hearing, she could hear the faint sounds of horns…

“Things are about to get hectic real soon.”

chapter end.

next time: bonds forged, bonds tested

Prologue/Chap 1 - Notes from a Doomed world's End

The scene opens up to a musty old cabin in the middle of the night that is being assaulted by harsh winds and heavy rain.

Inside the crumbling household a person in a ratty cloak, something to keep them warm rather than trying to hide any sort of identity, sits in front of a half-rotten table with a candle with a flame that was barely staying lit.

Letting out a tired sigh the cloaked figure grabbed an ink quill and started to write in a weathered old book.

Day 55. We were able to fend off another attack, but we still lost a few of our own.

The scene switches to outside where bodies are being buried near the walls of a small town as creatures that looked like humanoid horses in varying colors gathered around to mourn the dead. mares who would not see their husbands, foals who would never see their parents, and stallions who would never hold their wives in their arms all mourn their loss, cursed the monsters that took them away.

The cloaked person looked upon the scene through the window of their cabin and shook their head in pity as they continued with their writing.

Even with the losses, I will need to send out another party to retrieve food and information on HIS whereabouts.

As soon as it was written the pony needed to take a moment to calm down. After a bit, the cloaked pony was able to calm their nerves and continued writing.

Call it what you will—A revelation from God, or a curse of the demon king.

When those words were written the cloaked stranger could hear the crashing of thunder and her tiny candle flame started to glow an ominous red for a second before returning back to its normal near-dead state.

Yet this didn’t stop the writer, in fact, she barely reacted to this event at all.

The fact remains that our world came to an end.

A birds-eye view of the lands surrounding this town. Burning mountains, cities laid to waste and heavy storms that tear apart any ship trying to leave the shores of these doomed lands constantly plagued the oceans.

A heretic called upon an unearthly light, and devastation ensued.

The stranger's hand tightens around the quill as an image of a being cloaked in shadows enters their mind. The glowing marks on their body being, were the only thing you could see in the dark. that is of course, besides the being’s golden eyes that made you feel weak as they look directly into your soul.

Letting out a stressed filled sigh, the mare continued to write.

Chaos crawled out of the depths of the ocean, from the black abyss.

We cut to the ocean that is in a constant state of chaos and remains of ships are slowly being dragged into the bottom and the glowing eyes of the monsters that call this chaotic ocean their home eagerly waiting for yet another haul of treasure to become theirs.

Death upon death... nothing but death in this barren land.

Countless graves litter torn battlefields and even more, bodies are left to either rot or become food for the creatures that caused their death.

Who can we pray to?

The writer held back a sob as an image of a grave with the emblem of the sun printed on it rested in the middle of town appeared in their mind

There are only demons and fiends here...

Demons are shown to roam the lands attacking either the remaining natives of the lands or each other for territory

All I can remember are the final words of my mentor.

"Truth is a mystery, unraveled by the candles' flames," the cloaked pony muttered as they remembered those words coming from their dying mentor.

Shaking their head the pony wrote the finale part for today.

— by Twilight Sparkle. Former princess of friendship for this doomed world.

With those final words, the hood of the person fell down to reveal a young woman with purple skin and a horn jutting from her forehead, and dark purple hair.

Tears built up in her eyes as she soon broke down and started to sob. Asking why did this have to happen to Equestria.

All the while outside the town walls, a cloaked figure stood atop a hill leading to a forest watching the miserable site of a once proud and happy people who are now needlessly suffering.

The being looked down at them with golden eyes that gleamed through the darkness of his hood. Eyes that held nothing but pity for the lost souls that were struggling to survive.

Letting out a sigh, the being turned around and made his way towards the forest all the while looking up to the dark sky to see a crimson moon, shine through the dark storm clouds.

"Death's vastness holds no peace,” the cloaked person said as he walked passed a few dead bodies of demons that were more than likely killed by the stranger.

“I come at the end of the long road,” he said as a tiny red-haired fairy in a blue leotard flew up to him and perched herself self on his shoulder.

Making his way to a clearing, the cloaked figure basked himself in the light of the moon as a blond angel wearing a blindfold and leather straps the covered her modesty flew towards him and stood to his right.

Letting a small smile appeared on his face the cloaked man continued his walk, his two companions following closely behind him.

“Neither human nor devil... all bends to my will," he finished as his eyes glowed ominously as he walked forward into the forest where the hungry eyes of his enemies shone through the darkness. Waiting for him to do battle.

One Month Earlier…

“Why am I here again,” sighed out a man dressed in a leather jacket over a blue T-shirt and blue jeans, wearing a pair of boots. he looked at the area he was in. a large building with people dressed up in varying costumes. “Why did father Jacob have to send me here? I don’t even think people who go through the trouble of coming to these conventions would give it up to go to a sermon…”

It didn’t help that he scared anyone off with how he looks. Being 6'5" feet tall and built like a heavyweight fighter tended to make people keep their distance from him. If his brutish face and dyed red hair didn’t make them call the police on him… like a couple of times it actually happened.

Letting out another sigh the man looked around trying to find something that would catch his blue eyes. “Maybe while I’m here I could find something nice to give the sisters at the church as a gift.”

Smiling at the thought of the old ladies who always treated him nicely. The young man continued his walk through the convention. Now on the hunt for some nice things instead of the futile attempt of getting some kids to go to church.

“Not like I was trying too hard,” muttered the redhead. While being a man of faith (and wanted to be one of the cloth someday) he never felt like forcing people to come to church. In his mind, if people wanted to go they would come with their own free will.

“Now. Where, oh where, can I find some nice gifts,” he said with a smile (that scared a few kids off) as he looked around until a certain table caught his eye, well to be more precise the person at the table.

“Isn’t that the merchant from RE4?” the redhead asked with a raised brow.

“Good eye, stranga,” the man replied in a perfect rendition of the creepy merchant’s accent. “So… whaddya buyin?” he asked, opening his coat.

“Hmmm…,” the young man hummed out as he looked at the assorted items on the table. “Got anything… with more religious elements?”

“Depends on what kind of religion you’re lookin’ for, stranga.”

“Well I’m from the local church and I was hoping for something the sisters would like,” the large man said while rubbing the back of his head. “So if you might have anything with a cross on it then that’d be swell.”

“Heh, a cross huh? I wonder if you’ll have the same opinion of such a thing soon enough?”

“Huh?” the man asked with a clueless look and a tilt of the head.

“You’ll see. For now, I think this’ll do, stranga,” he said, pulling out a golden cross for him. But this was no ordinary cross, or even one with a figure of Christ nailed to it. Instead, the cross had an extra horizontal bar on it, and a depiction of a young woman with her hair cut short and bearing armor as she prayed.

“A Cross of Lorraine? With Joan of Arc on it?”

“I figured you might appreciate something a little different, stranga.”

“Well it will fit little Jeanne,” the redhead said while thinking of the youngest sister at the church. “Sounds good to me! I’ll take it!”

The Merchant placed it a box and handed it to him. “Heh heh, thank you stranga.”

“How much?”

“Take it.”

“Huh?”

“Consider it charity. A man of the Faith should understand the concept, right stranga?”

“Holy…,” the young man muttered before a big smile took over his face. “Thanks, Mister! May the Lord be with you and I hope you have a good day and if you ever need help, just go to the local church and ask one of the sisters for me, names Krieger Heilige by the way nice to meet ya!”

“Warrior Saint? Ain’t that just Biblical?”

“Huh?” Krieger said with a tilt of the head.

“Guess you didn’t do too much research on the meaning of yer names, eh stranga? All names mean somethin.”

“Really? And I just thought the priest just gave me that name when he found me at random,” Krieger said with a shrug. “Huh bet he feels silly that he gave such a thug looking guy like me such a heroic name like that hahaha!”

Taking the box the young man bid the merchant another good day and made his way towards the building exit.

“I hope you appreciate the gifts, stranga. After all, it’ll be they’ll be the last you’ll get for a long time,” the Merchant muttered with an evil chuckle.

“What a good day~!” sang the redhead as he looked at the box with a toothy smile… that ended up scaring a few people away who mistook it for a scowl.

“Let’s take a look at this little beauty,” Krieger said as he flipped the box open and took a look inside to find not only the cross but two new items. “Huh? What are these?”

Lifting up the two items and gave them a good look. One was a silver ring with a Pixie on it and the other was a silver chain necklace with some kind of metal worm.

“Oh crap did he put these in by accident!” the redhead shouted as he turned around. “I should give these back to the guy before he closes down shop.”

But before he could take another step he started to hear a low hissing coming from the box.

“What the…,” Krieger muttered as he flipped it open again to see what was going on. At first, nothing seems too out of the ordinary but he did notice the strange worm thing on the chain neckless was now... bigger?

The redhead brought the box closer to his face to get a better look but this soon was proven to be a HUGE mistake as the worm-like decoration sprung to life and lunched its self towards.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!” Krieger screamed as the worm-like creature dug itself into his EYE and was going even further into his skull. His body started to heat up as if someone was branding him all over his body.

The pain was so great his legs gave out and he felt his ability to breath was getting weaker as the air was getting lighter and hotter with each gasp of breath.

Sadly his agony doesn’t end as the pixie ring that was also in the box flew out of it and slammed into his chest, knocking out any air he had left in his lungs, and started to burrow into his flesh until he could feel it go into his heart!

“Someone please… help me,” Krieger begged as he looked around for aid, but to his horror and confusion, the people in the building ignored his pain as if they didn’t even notice!

The pain soon was too much and he fully collapsed onto the ground and began to weep from the agonizing pain that was coursing through his body.

“Please… God help me…,” the redhead whimpered out like an injured animal as he tried to drag his pain-ridden body to the closest person. But not soon after he made it to the feet of a certain merchant.

“Sorry about the inconvenience,” the merchant said no longer speaking in his accent. “But I think I might cash in that favor you offered Krieger, my friend.”

Barely able to make out what the ‘man’ was saying the young redhead could only mumble out a pitiful whimper of pain.

“Oh don’t worry,” the merchant cooed in fake sympathy as he bent down to ruffle Krieger’s hair, this action seems to cause even more pain to the redhead has it felt like white-hot barb wire was being rubbed into his skull. “The pain will end soon…, well THIS pain will end but you will be going through so much worst once you make it to your new…, ‘home’ hehehehe.”

As the twisted merchant laughed at his little inside joke Kieger looked up at him with tear-stained eyes and was able to croak out a single. “what…?”

“So buck up old buddy!” the merchant said in a cheery tone as he gave the young man a few good slaps on the shoulder and ignored the pain-filled screams he caused from that action. “Because you're needed in a world that's went to quit literally hell!”

Bending down the merchant whispered what he had left to say into Krieger’s ear in a menacing voice. “So don’t fail me… Demi-Fiend.”

And that was all Krieger heard before the pain was too much and he passed out.

If only he knew that this would be the least painful moment of his life from now on.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Prologue/Chap 1 - Notes from a Doomed world's End
Chap 2 - A Dying world and Tormented Locals.

Author's Note

first displaced story I hope you all like it.

got a lot of help from ShinigamiSparta thanks man for all the help!

Forced Bonding, and Goblin Hunting

“Um…” Applebloom began seeing the scene before her. She and the girls had gotten up to see Starlight and Demi-Fiend sitting at opposite ends of the table, the feeling of awkwardness thick in the air. Both were blushing and while Demi-Fiend looked sheepish Starlight was angrily pouting. “Wanna explain what this is about?”

“No,” the two ‘Adults’ said while looking away from each other. This left the three children to let out a sigh of annoyance. It was like dealing with their sisters all over again.

“Well, are you at least going to do something today?” Scootaloo said with a huff. “You’ve been like this ever since you got back from town.”

“Yeah,” Sweetie Belle said in agreement. “It’s like super awkward.”

The two adults held their heads down in shame from being lectured by the three kids in the room. Looking at each other the two let out a sigh, as they got up.

“Well I guess it is getting dark,” Starlight muttered as she looked out the window. Taking note of how the dark clouds were getting slightly darker. “So it’s the best time to hunt down some demons for you to take care of.”

“How do you figure that?” Demi-Fiend asked while getting up as well.

“Demons seem more active during the night,” Starlight answered. “At least these ones do, more than likely to avoid being killed by stronger demons.”

“What do you mean ‘stronger demons’? What other kinds of things have you seen out there?” Demi-Fiend asked.

This question made the group of girls shudder as memories of powerful beings flashed in their minds.

“Things you’re not ready to fight,” Starlight muttered as she walked towards the door. Taking a look back towards the red headed demon, the powerful unicorn gave him a harsh look. “Yet anyways. But hopefully, you taking care of these small fries will show me where you stack up for now.”

“You make it sound more like I’m part of some dog fight for demons then a helper for your town,” Demi-fiend muttered as he made his way out the door with Starlight. The two were making their way to the woods near the farm as the CMC waved them goodbye.

“See you soon!” Sweetie Belle called.

“Don’t get too roughed up! I want pancakes again!” Scootaloo added.

Demi-Fiend chuckled as he rolled his eyes and waved back. “So how’s this gonna work? Is there a nest to go after or do we just hope we run into some of them?” he asked Starlight.

Rolling her eyes, the unicorn pulled out a map. Looking it over for a bit the unicorn soon nodded and started moving slightly more east.

“No we are not going to walk around and hope to run into some, and neither are we going to attack a nest without the proper set up first,” Starlight said as she followed the map and checked a pocket watch she had in one of her pockets. “I and Big Mac have been scouting as much as we can, and have not only found out their scouting patterns for Goblins that attacked the girls last night. But also they’re holding out in a cave nearby.”

“Well, why didn’t you say that first?” Demi-friend asked as he tried to take the map from starlight. “Let’s see where they are holding up at and let’s take care of them.”

As the red-headed demon tried to reach for the map, Starlight quickly reached out and pulled his ear, causing the larger person to let you a yelp of pain as he tried to get his ear out of Starlight’s bear trap-like grip.

“AH! WHY!? JUST WHY!?” Demi-Fiend shouted in pain.

“Because A, I still don’t trust you. And B, because I’m still very pissed at you for smacking my flank!” she seethed.

“I’m telling you, it was the fairy! Why don’t you believe me!? What would I have to gain from it!?”

Starlight just growled and then pushed his head away. “Anyway back on topic. We are not attacking the cave until we take care of the hunting parties.”

“Hunting parties?” Demi-Fiend muttered while rubbing his ears.

“Like the group you killed when you first met the CMC,” Starlight said while ignoring how Demi-Fiend flinched at the reminder on how he killed the group of goblins. “If we follow the map and keep an eye on the time we can take out the hunting groups and leave the cave with less Goblins to defend it.”

“Wait, have you done this before?”

“No,” the unicorn said with a shake of the head, “didn’t have the manpower to pull it off, especially now that Twilight and the others are gone to search for help, I and Big Mac are the best fighters the town has right now and we couldn’t risk one of us getting hurt trying this little plan of mine.”

“I see,” Demi-Fiend muttered. But then shot Starlight a wide-eyed look. “Wait, does that mean we're only doing this because I’m expendable to you?”

Shrugging the mare simply continued to walk towards their destination. “Maybe. Let’s see if you can even take out a full hunting party first before I put any confidence in you pulling the rest of the plan off.”

‘I can’t decide if I want to show her up or hold back just to spite her,’ he thought with a scowl as he continued to follow behind her.

An hour passed as the two made their way through the woods, nether stopping for a break.

“We should be getting there soon,” Starlight muttered as she pushed back a branch to get through, and soon let it go after getting through. Letting it hit Demi Fiend in the face.

“Oh com- really?” Demi-Fiend complained. Rubbing his face from where it got smacked. All the while hearing a small giggle coming from somewhere.

“Hurry up,” Starlight muttered as she started walking up a hill.

Letting out a growl, the red-haired demon followed her up the hill… only to look away after he noticed the angle they were walking was giving him a good view of her rear… a view that would no doubt get him killed if Starlight caught him even remotely staring at it after his so-called ‘Assault’ of her rear earlier.

Didn’t help that he saw that DAMN FAIRY appearing again.

“No,” Demi Fiend said as he looked at the little woman who gave him an impish smile as it flew closer to Starlight.

“What was that?” Starlight asked with a glare completely missing the fairy who flew away once it saw Starlight turning around. “Changing your mind about helping? Even after you promised you would?”

“W-what!?” Demi-Fiend said in shock as he turned his attention back to Starlight. Only to look away once he noticed where his eyes were about to wander again. “No! I was just…, distracted with something.”

“... you weren’t looking at my flank were you?” Starlight said with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

“No! In fact, I’ve specifically gone out of my way not to look at it!”

The unicorn simply stared at the sweating demon for a few seconds before scoffing and getting back to walking up the hill.

“Whatever.”

Letting out a sigh of relief, the marked demon followed the annoyed unicorn as they made it to the top. Before Demi-Fiend could ask what they needed to do next he was suddenly yanked into some bushes by Starlight.

“Quiet,” she whispered, then pointed ahead. Demi-Fiend tried to ignore how close he was to her face and looked in the direction she pointed. He saw a group of five of the same creatures he fought yesterday, some standing at attention and looking around, others looking bored and resting against trees. One of them held a crude spear, two had clubs, and the other two had nothing.

“So now what?” he whispered.

“They’ll hang around here for a bit before moving to a new location,” she answered.

“So are we gonna let them pass, or-?”

“We’ll wait until they’re going to head to their next destination. When they’re all facing one way, then we strike,” she answered coldly. He was genuinely surprised at how… murderous she sounded. It wasn’t just hate in her tone, it was also a cold determination to see it through.

“So uh… any plans for when that happens?” he asked, suppressing the urge to gulp nervously.

“Simple,” she said as her horn and even her eyes glowed with a teal aura. “You go in and beat them to death while I take potshots at them.”

“So you want me to just run in?” Demi-Fiend muttered under his breath. “Am I that expendable to you?”

Even though he said that the red-headed demon was already shifting into a sprinting stance. So when he charged in, he would be doing it with the most speed.

“Ready…,” Starlight said as she readied a spell. “NOW!”

With that Starlight shot off a spell into the back of one of the Goblin. Knocking it down from the force. Taking that as the signal Demi-Fiend bolted towards the closest Goblin and dropped kicked it in the chest. Sending the poor bastard sailing.

Before he even checked to see what kind of damage he’d done he got up and rushed the one with the spear, who was just starting to get it’s bearings and realize what was happening. He grabbed the weapon before it could be used against him, using it to pull the creature towards him before grabbing it by the face, lifting it up before slamming it to the ground, smashing it’s skull. He noticed one of the ones with clubs jump to swing at his head before ducking under it. When it landed and then turned around it was met with a spear through the eye, killing it instantly.

He heard the familiar sound of a fire spell going off and quickly dropped to all fours, the ball of flame soaring over him as he turned to see where it had come from. The goblin readied for another blast only to be shot in the back by Starlight, causing it to stumble. He quickly grabbed the club the other goblin dropped when it died and lunged at it, the swing causing the club to smash to splinters and also for the goblin’s head to explode into gore.

He quickly turned to find his next opponent, only to see the other two were already down, apparently having already been killed by their starting blitz.

“Well… I guess that’s that,” he muttered, looking away from the blood and gore he’d caused. ‘I’ve beaten people to a pulp before, but not like this. Lord, give me the strength to do what needs to be done.’

“Are you done?” Starlight asked as she got out of the bushes.

Brushing some stray twigs and leaves the unicorn gave the Red-Headed a once over and let out a hum. “You don’t even get a scratch on you, even Big Mac has to rest for a few days if he even gets grazed by one of the goblins’ fireballs.”

“I got hit in the back with one of those fireballs,” Demi-Fiend said while gesturing where he got hit. “It stung for a bit but it didn’t hurt for that long. You sure the Goblins didn’t just get lucky when they got Big Mac?”

“... Yeah. Lucky,” she agreed hesitantly, suddenly realizing just how durable her new charge was.

“Well, uh… lead the way, I guess,” Demi-Fiend motioned.

“Right,” she muttered as she pulled out the map again before delving even deeper into the forest. Soon the two found another hunting party in the mits of bagging a dead boar.

“Savages,” Starlight hissed out as she saw the group of Goblins laugh as they started tying up the dead boar while also punching anyone from their group who tried to take a bite from the dead animal. “Let’s take care of these demons and move onto the last known hunting party.”

“Really?” Demi-Fiend asked with a raised brow from how few hunters there were. “Why only three?”

“There WERE four,” Starlight said while taking a side glance towards the red-headed demon. “But you took out one of them last night. And I doubt these demons are organized enough to quickly replace them.”

“I see,” Demi-Fiend muttered as he watched the hunting party about to finish up their hunt taking note that like the last two groups he faced this one was made up of five as well. Noticing Starlight readying a blast of magic like last time. “Wait.”

“What?” she hissed out, only to be stunned when she noticed Demi-Fiend quietly climb up a tree near the group of Goblins. “What are you doing!?” she hissed out as quietly as she could as to not alert the Goblins. Thankfully, said group was too busy celebrating their success to notice. Heck, some were even dancing as if they caught the holy grail of hunts and not just a decently sized boar.

“Just get ready. I’ll do the first attack, you follow up. Go for the ones with the weapons,” he loudly whispered back. She scowled at him but prepared her spell anyway. He carefully positioned himself on the branch, then turned around so his back was facing them. He then crouched down and launched himself at the group in a perfect moonsault, landing on and crushing the two unarmed goblins under his body.

Starlight just blinked for a moment before she realized that this was a life or death situation and blasted the spear goblin with a spell, sending it flying back into a tree, blood splatter as it hit. Before she could target the next one Demi-Fiend rolled towards it before extending his legs and grabbing it’s head between his feet, then vaulting backward and slamming its head into the ground with a sickening crunch. As the last one with the club rushed him he quickly spun and kicked it in the head, causing it to spin and fall over, then using the momentum to swing himself to his feet, all the while grabbing the other club from the ground. The last goblin gathered itself just in time to see Demi-Fiend bring the blunt weapon down on its head, ending its life.

When it was all done he turned to Starlight and smirked, tossing the club over his shoulder. “So, how expendable do I look now?”

“Sorry, too distracted with how bloody you are,” the unicorn muttered as she tried to keep a good distance from his blood-covered form.

“Oh, uh… sorry… Don’t suppose you brought a towel?” he asked sheepishly.

“No,” Starlight muttered before gesturing towards a direction. “There is a river near here. Take a quick dip before we head out. Don’t want the smell of blood to tip off the rest of the goblins.”

“Uh, thanks,” said, walking in the direction she pointed. After a few minutes of walking, thankfully with no encounters, he kneeled down by the river before splashing himself with the water, using the reflection to see where he had missed.

“So… that was… flashy,” Starlight said awkwardly as he cleaned up. “Do demons like you usually fight like that?”

“Okay, first, again, human not demon. Second, no, I was taught how to fight like that,” he said, checking to see if he had missed any spots.

“Like what, a combat academy?”

He got up and brushed some of the water off him. “I had one teacher where I lived who took the time to teach and pound the basics of fighting into me, and then there were those who I never met and who I learned just by watching their greatness and trying it out until I could imitate them,” he said proudly, a wave of nostalgia washing over him as he thought back to many Pay Per View wrestling matches.

“... Right. So if I can drag you back out of fantasy land for a minute, let’s keep moving,” she said as continued.

‘Fantasy land, says the unicorn,’ he snarked internally as he followed.

It seems one of the reasons Starlight suggested the river (besides of him smelling to high heaven) was because the last hunting party was known to hunt near the river.

After a bit of walking near the river the two stopped by a large rock, Starlight then hid behind it, took a quick peek behind it before quickly gesturing Demi-Fiend over.

“So is this the spot?” Demi-Fiend asked before getting shushed by Starlight. “What?”

“Shhhh!” the unicorn shushed again. “Be quiet!”

“You're the one being loud,” Demi-Fiend muttered under his breath as he walked towards and looked behind the rock and saw a sight that shocked him.

A group of goblins were cheering near the edge of the riverbank, trying to pull something inside of a net out of the water. But what really caught his attention was what was in the net, and namely how human it looked. It appeared to be a beautiful woman with long flowing blonde hair, skin of a light blue color, and red eyes with what appeared to be purple eye shadow around them. He also noticed the woman hissing at the goblins as it tried to escape, showing some sharp canines. He also tried to ignore the fact that she was clearly naked.

“What the…,” Demi-Fiend muttered as his eyes were glued to the struggling form of the woman who was trying to desperately grasp for the water of the nearby river. This action only got her a quick kick to the side by one of the goblins.

This made Demi-Fiend about to bolt up and charge the little monsters but was stopped by Starlight who used her magic to hold him down.

“What are you doing!?” hissed out the unicorn quietly as she glared at the red-headed demon, only to flinch back a little when he sent her a glare back as he tried and failed to break free from the magical hold placed on him. “Are you trying to get us killed?”

“Don’t you see the woman near the banks of the river?” Demi-Fiend growled out as he tried to break through the aura of magic holding. “She’s in danger!”

“And?” Starlight said with a raised brow. Confusion clear in her voice, much to Demi-Fiend’s shock. “She’s doing a great job distracting them.”

“How can you be so… so dismissive? So cruel!? She’s being attacked by those creatures, just like you and the other back in Ponyville have been!?” he shot back in a loud whisper.

“She’s a demon,” Starlight scoffed. “The same as the rest of the creatures that came to our lands and have been killing our people. Why should I care that they’re killing each other? Better for us in the long run if you ask me.”

Demi-Fiend looked at the lavender coated woman in shock as his mouth moved slightly, trying to find the words to try to argue with the horned magic-user. But nothing came out as his gaze shifted to the group of goblins and their captured prey. Seeing a second goblin joining in the first one’s little game of abuse towards the defenseless demon woman. While the rest laughed around the fire at the show of violence, save for one who simply huffed out in annoyance as it went back to cooking the fish for the rest of its group.

“So let’s let them have their fun and when they're distracted we’ll take them out and head towards the nest,” Starlight said. Demi-Fiend could only continue to gape at her, stunned by her callous and uncaring response, before looking over to the blue woman. To his surprise he saw that she was looking directly at him, forgetting that his head was out enough for her to see. For a moment he panicked, realizing that she could unintentionally attract attention to him. Instead, she closed her eyes, looking defeated, before going back to trying to fight off the goblins.

‘She’s… she’s making sure I don’t get seen,’ he realized. And just like that, his anger raged inside.

“Will you just calm down!?” Starlight hissed. “They’ll hear us if you’re not careful.”

Ignoring her, Demi-Fiend struggled as he slowly got up, much to Starlight's shock as the spell she used should have kept him on his knees.

“Wh-What you-!? Hey, stop that!” Starlight demanded, trying to hold him down.

Her words fell on deaf ears as Demi-Fiend struggled against the magic keeping his arms bound. Slowly but surely he was able to move his arms as the magic tried it’s best to keep them in place.

“What-!? How are you-!? Damn it, stop you idiot!” she ordered, somewhere between scared and furious.

The magic keeping him bound slowly flickered in and out as it tried to fight against the strength Demi-Fiend was using as he slowly let out a guttural growl as his muscles bulged and the marking on his body began to glow as the magic around him started to fizzle out.

“STOP YOU BRAIN DEAD DEMON!” she shouted, then covered her mouth as she just realized what she’d done.

The Goblins stopped their merriment as soon as they heard the scream coming from the other side of the river. Once they looked towards the origin of the sound they were soon shocked at what they saw.

Letting out another growl that soon turned into a full-on scream, Demi-Fiend used all of his strength to break through the magic aura, and with a mighty yell, the magic shattered off of him, the sound of breaking glass could be heard the Aura ripped.

Everyone was frozen in shock. The goblins who were looking at a demon who was radiating a force of power and who was glaring at them with such intensity, and made one of the goblins who had his foot on the blue-skinned woman's head to take a step back in fear.

Starlight who was still hiding behind the rock, and was now on her rear after getting knocked back from the backlash of her spell being torn apart, looked up at the Demi-Fiend with barely contained fear.

And finally was the blue-skinned woman in the net, who looked on in shock but also hope as she stared at the imposing form of the red-haired demon.

“You,” Demi-Fiend growled out. Causing the goblins and even Starlight to flinch from the tone as he stepped forward. “You… GETAWAY FROM HER!”

With a lunge Demi-Fiend leapt at the goblins, so full of rage he didn’t even recognize he’d crossed the river in a single bound, landing on the terrified and stunted goblin that had been tormenting the blue-woman and squashing it into a mess of blood and gore. Without a moment’s hesitation, he grabbed the next nearest one by the leg and effortlessly lifted it off the ground, then roared with fury as he charged at the next closest one, who had finally begun to process what happening just in time for Demi-Fiend to use it’s companion as a club, both of them exploding into messes of flesh and bone.

The next one raised it’s hand and shot a fireball at him in a desperate attempt to do something. Demi-Fiend held his arms in front of him to block and just charged, tanking the hit and plowing through. As he barrelled down at the terrifying creature he raised both his fists and slammed them down on its head, easily crushing its head.

His eyes locked on the last one, snarling as he stomped towards it, his fingers tensed and prepared to rip it to pieces. He was so focused he didn’t notice a small object until it hit him in the face, causing him to flinch. He looked down at the offending object and saw… a rock.

The absurdity of it snapped Demi-Fiend out of his bloodlust to notice something about the last goblin: It was scurrying along the grown, backed up into a nearby tree, and… crying.

“P-please!” cried the Goblin as it went to its knees and pressed it’s face to the dirt as it shook with fear. “Please spare me, strong one! Me no not how to fight, me no threat. Only brought to cook for rest of party!”

“You…,” Demi-Fiend breathed out as the markings on his body stopped glowing and his muscles stopped bulging. Returning to their original size. “Can talk?”

“Y-yes! Me can talk!” cried the goblin as it nodded rapidly. “My kin can all talk!”

“Then why haven’t you talked before?” Demi-Fiend asked with an accusing tone. Causing the goblin to flinch and bury it’s face in the dirt again.

“Probably too busy dying by your hands!” it cried as it groveled at his feet. This made Demi-Fiend flinch. Both in the realization that he was killing sentient beings, and the fact he stopped thinking of them as living things to make himself feel better about killing them.

As he looked down at the crying mess of a goblin, Demi-Fiend simply let out a sigh as he crouched down in front of the scared goblin.

“Hey,” he said. Causing the small creature to flinch. “Hey don’t be scared I won’t hurt you.”

Taking a second the Goblin slowly looked up at the red headed demon. “R-really?”

“Yes,” Demi-Fiend said with a nod. “But first, can you tell me about your nest.”

“YES!” the Goblin shouted as it rose up. “Me tell you anything you wants!”

“Well… that was easy,” Demi-Fiend muttered. “Why so quick to sell out your nest even after what you saw me do to your friends?”

“‘Friends’? Me no have friends. Me not even want go here. Me just do what Big Boss says. Move close to the horse-people village because Big Boss say so.”

“Big boss?” Demi-Fiend wondered before shaking his head. “Anyways if you're so willing to tell me this then will you tell me how many goblins are at the nest right now?”

“YES YES!” the Goblin said with a nod. “There only ten left! All the best goblins who Big Boss likes stay to guard him while we weak ones go hunt and give Big Boss food. Also we need to find pretty ladies.”

This bit of information made Demi-Fiend blink in confusion. “Pretty ladies? Why do you need pretty ladies?”

“Me not know?” the goblin said with a sad shrug. “Big Boss just told us to find pretty ladies or we get the club…”

“Hmmm,” Demi-Fiend hummed out as he looked at the goblin who looked back at him with pleading eyes. Letting out a sigh the red-headed demon waved his hand away in a shooing motion. “Fine, I got what I needed. Get going before I change my mind.”

A look of shock appeared on the goblin’s face before it broke out into tears of joy before getting up and running into the forest.

Just then something hit Demi-Fiend in the back of the head with a loud “smack.” “Ow!” he exclaimed and turned to look at a furious Starlight Glimmer.

“WHAT IN TARTARUS IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” she shouted.

“What do you mean? There was no more reason to fight!” he replied indignantly, rubbing the back of his head.

“You let a demon go!” Starlight shouted. “And if it warns the others at the nest then all this work was for nothing!”

“It’s not going to rat us out,” Demi-Fiend yelled back. All the frustration with Starlight finally boiling up to the surface as he glared down at the anthro unicorn.

“Of course it’s going to! Why wouldn’t it!?”

“You heard what it said, it doesn’t even want to be here!”

“I didn’t hear anything!” Starlight shouted. “All it was doing was making disgusting noises from it’s demon mouth and you were just standing there like some moron as it ran away!”

“... Wait, you didn’t understand any of what it said?”

“You did?” she asked with snark in her tone. “You really are a demon.”

“It said there were only ten goblins left, and that the Big Boss kept the actual strong ones for himself. And that they were ordered to capture any ‘pretty ladies’ they found, though they didn't know why.”

Starlight looked surprised at that, not expecting to get some actual intel out of this. Or that what she thought were just mindless creatures were actually somewhat organized.

As she thought about it, Demi-Fiend took the time to change his attention to the blue woman. Walking towards the bound woman Demi-Fiend kneeled down as he slowly grabbed the net and started to untangle the woman from it.

“Don’t worry,” Demi-Fiend said in a soft tone as he tried to get the net off her. All the while the blue-skinned women just stared at him with a curious look as it silently watched him.

After a bit, Demi-Fiend was finally able to get the net loos and pulled it off of the woman.

“There we go,” he said with a smile as the woman stood up with the aid from Demi-Fiend. “You're free now. Do you have a place to stay?”

“She’s not staying with us!” shouted Starlight. “Already have one defective demon, don’t need another one.”

Shaking his head at his ‘companion’s’ attitude, Demi-Fiend gave the rescued woman a smile. “Sorry about that, but honestly do you have a place to stay?”

Nodding her head, the blue woman gave Demi-Fiend a strange look before grabbing his face.

“What are you doing-mmfff!?” Demi-Fiend asked before the blue skin woman KISSED HIM!

Starlight was similarly shocked, surprised that the demons she once thought were so animalistic would even engage in such acts. All the while not hearing a giggle coming from the nearby tree.

“Oh my~!” giggled out the same Pixie from earlier as it watched the little show going on.

Minutes ticked as the kiss showed no signs of stopping, all the while the Demi-Fiend stood there shocked.

‘Crap… lungs losing air…, vision fading…, brain status report!” Demi-Fiend thought in a panic. Said panic grew as he felt the woman he just saved sliding in some tongue.

‘Uuugggg… frozen peas…,’ his brain muttered out before going silent.

‘That's not good…, that's not good at all…,’ Demi-Fiend thought as his vision began going dark.

*BANG!*

The sudden sound jolted the two demons as they turned towards it to see a blushing Starlight glaring at them while pointing at the sky with a now smoking finger.

“Okay you hormone-addled teens, fun’s over! You!” she pointed at the blue woman. “Get! Go back to… wherever it is you’re from! Just… shoo!”

The blue woman frowned before looking back to Demi-Fiend, giving a smile and wink. She then walked to the water and seemingly fell in before rocketing upstream like a bullet.

“What happened,” Demi-Fiend muttered out in a daze before letting out a yelp as Starlight pulled him by the ear.

“Nothing you need to worry about!” the unicorn shouted as she stomped into the forest towards the final location. All the while yanking poor Demi-Fiend by the ear. Leaving him to wonder what he did wrong this time.

Why did girls have to be so weird?

~~~~~(two hours later)~~~~~

“God, did you need to yank me by the ear for most of the trip here?” Demi-Fiend muttered while rubbing his ear witch was practically glowing red from the abuse Starlight put it through.

“Well, if you don’t want to help, you can just go ahead and find your new demon floozy,” she huffed, her muzzle in the air.

Demi-Fiend could only sigh in defeat at Starlight’s attitude. Then let out a growl once he heard the same fairy from before laughing at his situation.

Did that fairy have nothing better to do?

“You just going to stand there?” Starlight called out, snapping Demi-Fiend out from his thoughts.

“R-right…, sorry,” Demi-Fiend muttered as he made his way to Starlight who was waiting for the red-haired demon. “So what are we dealing with.”

“Well, if your new little friend is right, then we only have ten more goblins to deal with, who should be a little more competent than what we’ve fought so far,” she said.

“And the ‘Big Boss’ it was talking about,” he reminded her.

“And maybe if your luck with it was as good as your luck with demon mares, maybe it actually won’t have alerted the rest of them,” she muttered.

“What?”

She sighed. “Nothing, let’s just get this over with.”

“So,” Demi-Fiend muttered out as he and Starlight crouched in some bushes as they observed the ten Goblins stationed in front of the cave. He noticed that these Goblins were a little bit bigger and looked well-fed compared to the other goblins he fought. “How do you want to start this?”

Starlight hummed as her eyes scanned the area until she took notice of some large rocks over the cave entrance. She also took notice of three goblins standing near the entrance of the cave.

A deviant smile made its way onto her face as she charged some magic into her hands.

“Like this,” the unicorn said as she took aim with her now glowing hand and let loose a blast on energy. The energy shot out of her hand like a cannon and blasted towards the rocks over the cave entrance and slammed into them with mighty force. The noise alerted and shocked the goblins, but not as much the three goblins closest to the blast.

Looking up one of the three Goblins noticed much to its horror that whatever hit the top of their cave had loosened the already unstable rocks at the top, causing them to quickly slide down, and crush him and the other two goblins before he could even yell out a warning.

“Could’ve said go or something!” Demi-Fiend complained as he dashed towards the rest of the group, catching them off guard as he dropped kicked two of them at once, feeling their necks crack as he sent them flying. One of them stabbed at him with it’s spear while he was on the ground, and he kicked it away while using his momentum to swing himself to his feet before punching it in the face. While it staggered he tried to take it’s spear away, but it managed to hang onto it. Thinking quickly he swung the spear, goblin and all, into the two club wielding ones that jumped at him, knocking them away, before slamming the goblin into the ground to make it let go, then quickly took the spear and stabbed it in the chest.

He turned to face his next opponents only to be blasted back by two fire spells slamming into his chest, knocking him onto his back. He groaned and got up to see two with spears rushing to stab him, only for one to be blasted away by Starlight. He wasted no time and stabbed the other one through the eye, then got up and rushed at one with a club who fired another fireball at him which he rolled under, ready to shoulder check it only for the creature to leap over him and slam it’s club into the back of his shoulder. He grunted through the pain and nailed it with a spinning kick, breaking its neck. One of the last two threw it’s spear at him before readying its hands for a fireball, while the other ran to the side, ready to flank him with it’s club. With quick reflexes he grabbed the spear out of the air and hurled it back, nailing the goblin in the throat, which also surprised the club wielding goblin. He took advantage of it’s distraction and charged, nailing it with a lariat strong enough to break its neck. He looked around to check for the next opponent and was pleased to see there wasn’t one.

“Well… besides feeling a small bit of a burn from one of those fireballs I can safely say that we took care of the Goblins,” Demi-Fiend sighed out as he rubbed the spot that was hit with said fireball. “So should we start heading back before it gets too late?”

Not getting an answer the red-headed looked at his companion who was scanning the area.

“Starlight?” Demi-Fiend muttered, but still no response. This pissed off the redhead as he let out a growl before barking out. “HEY! Starlight are you listening!?”

Snapping out of her thoughts, the unicorn gasped in surprise before turning towards Demi-Fiend with a scowl.

“Can you be quiet for a second?” she hissed out. “I’m trying to make sure there are no threats around.”

“Threats?” Demi-Fiend muttered out as he looked around. Seeing nothing but dead goblins. “Pretty sure we got them all. Heck pretty sure we even got Big Boss as well!”

Starlight let out a sigh as she gave the laughing demon in front of her a dry look, and was about to tell him to stop being so cocky.

But before she could even get a word out the two felt the earth under their feet shake a little, causing the two to look down at the ground in confusion. The second wave of vibration soon happens. Then a third, soon the two were able to see that the shaking was coming from the cave itself.

“Demi-Fiend,” Starlight gulped out.

“Yeah?” Demi-Fiend muttered as he got into a fighting stance as the shaking at the cave was getting more intense and the boulders blocking the inside of the cave were starting to get loose. “What do you need to say?”

“I don’t think this big boss was a goblin,” Starlight muttered out right before the boulders in front of the cave exploded and a big hulking beast roared out in anger.

“Yeah, I think you may be right,” he muttered as the large creature beat it’s chest. It was very tall and muscular, with pale green skin and long red hair. It’s eyes were yellow and solid, it had a long nose and pointed ears and had sharp fangs. It wore a very small bit of leather armor with some plumage on its shoulders, and in one hand carried a metal club.

It saw the two of them and charged with impressive speed, Starlight running to the side while Demi-Fiend rushed at it. It swung it’s club down at him, which he managed to avoid by ducking it, and nailed it in the chest with a punch… only for the creature to barely flinch.

“Oh no,” he muttered, before looking up to see it grinning at him before smacking him away with a backhand. He tumbled along the ground before skidding on his back, his eyes clenched shut in pain.

“LOOK OUT!” he heard Starlight scream. He opened his eyes to see the beast charging towards him, it’s club raised. He rolled to the side just in time to dodge, but by the time he stopped it had already raised the weapon to strike again. He rolled, to dodge the next blow, and again for another when he got an idea. He barely dodged one more strike and grabbed the club, holding on for dear life as it swung up and took him along with it. He let go at just the right time, flying through the air and slamming into a large tree branch, which he quickly grabbed onto to keep from falling. He saw the beast look around confused, and took the opportunity to swing up onto the branch.

“Okay, yeah, definitely not a goblin,” he wheezed. The creature apparently heard him and turned to face him, looking furious.

“‘GOBLIN!?’ ME NO GOBLIN! ME TROLL!” it declared proudly before running at him before leaping into the air, club raised. “YOU DEAD!” it shouted as it swung down. Demi-Fiend leapt to another branch to avoid the blow, which cleanly snapped it in two.

It turned to face him again only to be met with a blast of magic to the face, making it flinch. It turned to see Starlight, who was looking scared at how little her attack had done. She practically turned white when it charged at her, far too quick to run away.

“STARLIGHT!” Demi-Fiend shouted, only for the unicorn to raise a dome of magic around her. The club slammed into the barrier, and he sighed in relief when it held, only to gasp when he saw a second hit crack it. A third shattered it and Starlight fell back like she herself had been hit. “Shit!” he muttered. “Here goes something. HEY, ASSHOLE!” he shouted as he crouched down. Like he hoped, the troll turned to face him and he launched himself at the beast, flipping so his back hit it’s chest and his legs wrapped around its neck. He then threw his weight forwards, pulling himself over its head, and then falling down it’s back before locking his feet under its chin and wrapping his arms around its waist, using his momentum to pull it off its feet. Demi-Fiend landed in a sitting position while the troll’s head slammed into the ground, it’s legs in the air.

Both the troll and Starlight looked completely stunned at what had just happened. “MOVE!” he shouted to the unicorn who quickly scrambled away from them, while the troll struggled and managed to wrench itself out of Demi-Fiend’s grip. It got to its feet as he rolled backwards and sprung off his hands, putting distance between them and getting to his feet.

“You! How you do that!?” the troll demanded. “What magic!?”

Demi-Fiend smirked back. “A little something called Lucha Libre, payaso,” he replied. Demi-Fiend sprinted at the troll and the monster roared and charged as well, raising it’s club to strike. When it was in range it swung down, only for Demi-Fiend to dive between its legs and slide, then stopping and lifting himself to a handstand. The troll turned just in time to see him spring backwards, land on his feet, then do a backflip and landing both legs on the troll’s shoulders before gripping hard and swinging his feet down, taking the troll down with them forcing it to its back. The troll turned to try and right itself only to be met with Demi-Fiend rolling towards it to give it a swift kick to the side of the head, hitting in the temple and dazing it a bit.

As he rolled away and then sprung off his hands Starlight just stared at the flashy display that Demi-Fiend was doing, moving like a gymnast he outmaneuvered the power but clumsy troll. The larger demon growled as it got to its feat before roaring in anger, slamming its club into the grow in a display of frustration. In response Demi-Fiend… turned and ran away from it. The troll was confused for a moment before it bellowed and chased after him. Starlight was about to chastise him for fleeing only to notice he was running full speed directly at a tree. He managed to run up it for a few steps, then launched himself off directly at the troll, spinning in the air and slamming one of his elbows into the troll’s face. A crack could be heard as blood spurted and the troll fell onto its back, gripping it's now bent nose as Demi-Fiend landed, still smirking.

“Starlight!” he called over to her, snapping her out of her trance. “That barrier thing you did, can you make one here?” he asked, pointing behind him.

“Uh… y-yeah!” she nodded, gathering her power and putting up a barrier about a yard behind him. “What are you-?”

“Hey ugly! Wanna finish this!?” he called to the troll, standing tall with his arms out to the side. “I’m starting to get bored here!”

The troll stood up, absolutely enraged. “ME BREAK YOU!” it shouted and charged. Demi-Fiend turned and ran up the barrier before launching himself at the troll, locking its head between his legs. He spun around the beast, who was too stunned to realize what was happening, stumbling off balance, before Demi-Fiend adjusted his weight, pulling the beasts head down to slam into the barrier as he fell. The impact left a crater in the protective spell, causing Starlight to flinch a bit, and then the troll hit the ground limp, bleeding from its head.

“Heh, guess that wasn’t too hard once I got the hang of it,” he chuckled.

Starlight just scoffed. “Yeah, we probably could’ve been done sooner if you didn’t do all that unnecessary flashiness.”

“Oh come off it!” he snapped back, causing her to flinch a bit. “You’ve been giving me the third degree all damn day! Let’s not forget I’m the one doing you a favor! I got the job done, didn’t I? So just let me freaking have this! Besides, you will not insult lucha, especially now that I’m finally able to pull off the moves of my heroes!”

She growled and then just huffed. “Whatever! Let’s just get back before it gets… too…” she trailed off, looking up and behind him as her eyes widened with fear.

It was just then he noticed he was in something’s shadow and his body broke out in cold sweat. He gulped and turned to see the troll, still bleeding from its head, looking down at him furiously. The troll lunged at them and Demi-Fiend shoved Starlight out of the way, only to leave himself vulnerable. The monster wrapped its muscular arms around him and pinned him to it’s chest.

“Like me said, ‘Me break you,’” it smiled viciously and began to squeeze.

Demi-Fiend struggled, bracing his body and trying to break out, but the monster’s grip and sheer physical might were too much for him. Part of him noted this was the first time in a long while that he was the one lacking in physical strength as his legs kicked the troll as he was lifted off the ground. He couldn’t even call for help, all the air having been squeezed out of him as he gasped for breath.

The troll smiled as it crushed it’s prey, only to be distracted by a hit to the back of the head. It turned to see Starlight, readying another magic blast before firing it at the monster’s head in a desperate attempt to do something. The troll smirked and just turned to face her, holding the still struggling Demi-Fiend into her line of sight. The human-turned demon felt his ribs start to crack, gasping as he foamed at the mouth, his saliva starting to mix with his blood.

“NO!” someone shouted. A moment later the troll was hit in the face with a fireball, the pain enough to cause the monster to yell in pain, dropping Demi-Fiend and holding its face to try and disperse the embers. Both Starlight and the troll turned to see who had interfered, and were shocked to see a Goblin standing on a tree branch. Starlight recognized it as the one Demi-Fiend had let go.

“ME KILL YOU!” the troll shouted as it charged and jumped at the Goblin, who jumped to the side and just barely made it out of the way before falling painfully to the ground. Starlight didn’t know how to react, but then noticed a groan and that Demi-Fiend was struggling to get up. With some effort he managed to get to his feet.

“Hey, ugly!” he called, spitting out blood as he panted. “We’re not done.” The troll stopped and turned to face him, angrily charging at him with its fist raised. Demi-Fiend waited and then, with a grunt of effort, jumped the troll’s arm, locking it with his own, before spinning around it’s shoulders, locking his legs around it’s head, and then using his momentum to bring the demon to the ground. He then gripped his legs as tight as he could and twisted his waist, a wet snap sounding out as the troll went limp. He then stood up and took a look at his opponent before walking over and kicking it in the head, seeing it make no reaction. It was finally dead.

“And that’s how you wrestle… Lucha Libre style!” Demi-Fiend huffed out as he looked down his fallen foe, slightly wincing when he noticed how twisted the neck was. Almost looking like a twisted candy wrapper more than anything.

“Huh,” he muttered as he looked towards the cheering Goblin that saved him and then at the shocked face of Starlight who looked up towards him. “I’m really surprised that I’m still standing-oh there we go…”

With those words, the red-headed demon fell backward as his injuries finally caught up with him. Thankfully Starlight was able to snap out of her daze and ran up and caught the falling demon.

“Oh Celestia!” Starlight called out in worry as she looked at the battered and bruised Demi-Fiend. “Demi-Fiend! Demi-Fiend!”

“What?” he groaned out as he cracked his eyes open enough to see Starlight looking over him. “Did I not get them all?”

“It’s not that!” Starlight shouted out while trying to fight back the tears trying to come out. “You’re hurt!”

“I…, kind of noticed,” Demi-Fiend muttered out as his eyes slowly started to close. But a few shakes from Starlight was able to keep him awake. “Crap…, I think I might have a concussion.”

“You need to stay with me!” Starlight called out as she tried to use whatever magic she had left to heal him, but even with that and his natural healing, the only thing going away was some minor bruising and a few scraps. Everything else was barely showing any signs of healing.

“At least I got the job done,” Demi-Fiend wheezed out. “At least I can say I kept my promise.”

“Just forget about that!” Starlight Cried out as she kept shaking Demi-Fiend awake. Tears now falling freely down her face. “You need to hold on! T-the CMC won’t forgive you if you die!”

As the young mare cried out to Demi-Fiend. The red headed demon simply smiled as his vision was going dark…

Until he heard a small voice giggling out to them.

“My oh my~! Looks like you're going to need little old me after all~!”

Hearing the voice the two looked up to see the same fairy from last time.

“You…,” muttered Demi-Fiend muttered as he gave a small glare at the small little creature hovering over them. Smug look still plastered on her face.

“Oh~! No need to give a look like that!” the little redhead whined as she started flying around them. “And here I am, coming out into the open to help!”

“What?” Starlight muttered as she looked at the small flying humanoid. “What do you mean help? Who ARE you?”

Giggling at the question. The small fairy-like did a few twirls as she pointed at the two.

“I’m glad you asked!” she said with a smile as she soon did a pretty risque pose and gave the two a huge grin.

“Have no fear!” she sang while doing another pose that had Demi-Fiend a little hot and bothered. “For Pixie is here!”

With that, the Pixie flew up into the air and shot some raw magic from out of her hands. Putting on a show for the new bewildered Starlight and Demi-Fiend.

Why did the two feel like they just let a headache enter their lives...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER END

fight scenes done by ShinigamiSparda.