Oponi

Refugee

The sun deities were back in the castle, landing in the center of the empty throne room.

"Will Waka be okay?" Asked Celestia.

"Raw." Mouthed Amaterasu.

"Right. Wolf-talk. That could be a problem if we don't have an interpreter."

Ammy just stared at her. She pointed toward Celestia's horn, then to her head.

"You want me to read your thoughts?"

Ammy did another one of those wolf shrugs that, while they still didn't make much sense, were still easy to understand.

Celestia formed the attachment with Amaterasu's mind, a simple task, one that she had an unnatural amount of practice with when she was bored. The thoughts were projected outward, as if directly spoken.

"-nd I'm telling you it won't work."

"What evidence can you base that on."

"Common knowledge."

Celestia jumped a little at the argument, there were multiple voices in the wolf's head, everyone of which seemed to be in an argument.

"We can't leave that many innocents in the curse when we could be doing something." Huffed what sounded like a stallion.

"Obviously." Spoke a feline voice. "In case you didn't notice, all of us know demons are bad."

"Be silent, Kabegami, we are not alone in our thoughts anymore."

While there was no physical presence of it, Celestia could feel the focus of the voices switching to her.

"Greetings, Celestia." This voice was odd, it sounded like a serpent, yet at the same time the voice sounded like it was coming from under water.

"Umm, hello." She responded.

"We can't all talk to her, she wouldn't know who she's talking to." It already seemed another argument was under way.

"Fine, rock, paper, scissors to decide who talks."

Surprisingly, the voices became silent, apparently focusing on the game. Amaterasu looked unfazed, sitting quietly on the floor of the throne room, staring at Celestia as if everything was normal.

"We win!" Announced a trio of voices.

"You are the only ones with fingers." Asserted another voice.

"We win!" They announced again.

"Row." Amaterasu spoke verbally.

"Right, right."

Celestia wasn't sure if it was fine to talk now, it didn't seem to be difficult to cease all progress.

"We're waiting, princess." Spoke one of the voices.

"Right, first of all, who are you?"

"You are currently talking to Hanagami, the triumvirate of flora gods. We consist of Sakigami, Hasugami, and Tsutagami. That is of relatively low importance now, you must have other questions."

The voice spoke very quickly, it seemed that whichever of the three was speaking, he was skimming-over the introductions as much as possible.

"Well okay then." Celestia was starting to get more accustomed to the unusual oddities that seemed to be surrounding her recently. "I guess first of all I would like to know what will happen to Waka and the ponies in Ponyville."

"They will be fine. Even in the demon's abyssal night the gods have eyes. It would seem Waka has found a way to protect himself for the time being, and the demons will not bother with the citizens."

"That's good I suppose. Now I must ask, why are there so many voices in this wolf's head?"

"You have already been told that this wolf is a god, and that much is true. What you may not realize is that she is responsible for the creation of us, the celestial gods. She is, quite literally, our divine mother."

"That's informative, but you haven't answered my question."

The voice paused for a minute before continuing, it voice was a little different but almost the same, whoever had been talking must have switched with one of the other two. "Over the course of many years, we were forced to flee to the heavens, for our own protection. As our mother journeyed to rid the land of it's evil, she found us, one by one, and accepted a part of each of us into herself. While we are far from what we used to be, Amaterasu allowed us sanctuary until we can regain our bodies. Until then, we maintain a conscious domicile in our mother."

It was a slightly hard to follow situation, but it was presented with enough confidence and sincerity to make it believable. "If I may ask, how many of you are... in there?"

"All fifteen of us currently reside within Amaterasu."

"Fifteen?"

"Fifteen, every celestial god."

Blight was reeling within the library of Ponyville, thoughts and images had been invading his mind for days now. Admittedly not much different than the norm but theses thoughts were not his. He couldn't even think clearly enough to plot effectively and he knew that if he couldn't plan, the army couldn't move. Demons make perfect invaders, and even better defenders, but planning was not a typical trait of a demon. With the only possible tactician out of commission, they were vulnerable.

Blight was a prideful demon, his very life had been born from the countless killings of the sword Goldnail, he was battle in physical form. Unfortunately, even a soldier has to take a knee when he needs assistance. Blight did an act that demons had not been associated with since their conception.

He knelt down and prayed.

As he chanted to himself, the interior of the library darkened and swayed, from the outside it would look like an aquarium of darkness within the building. Across the city, figures from the shadows stepped out of their hovels. The various demons and spirits twisted and contorted across the town, the entity to whom the prayer was addressed was feeding. The demons cried out in joy for being able to do their part.

Atop the library, the twin demons paused their repairs out of respect.

A certain large demon paused it's patrol around Waka's statue to do the same.

The vicious presence left Ponyville, leaving it dead silent for a few moments before demons across the town burst into cheers, crying for their eventual victory.

"How long does it take for you to recover your bodies?" Asked Celestia, hopeful for assistance.

"We have been resting for a very long time." Spoke the third of the trio. "We would most likely be able to appear whenever we desire. However, we are strongest together, and would prefer such a status until the danger has passed. This is not something that can be negotiated, at most we would allow a single one of us to leave at a time."

"Because then you wouldn't be able to defend yourselves as well."

"Indeed."

It was silent a moment. "What should we do about the demons?"

She was afraid that this would start another argument but there wasn't even a peep. "You must gather your forces." Stated a yet unidentified voice.

"You mean for me to raise an army to combat the demons?"

There was silence. "It is shameful to involve your people but it is also inevitable, we can not destroy all of those demons by ourselves. You should gather as many of your warriors as possible within this city."

"What about the other towns, they will not be left unguarded while this conflict occurs." She was firm, she didn't care who she was talking to, nothing was going to convince the princess to leave her ponies open to attack.

"Of course they may have a guard, but answer me this: only a complete army will be able to stop the demon's advances, so what is the point of leaving troops in other towns and leaving the capital to chance?"

"The point is that it's the right thing to do." She said while narrowing her eyes at the invisible voice.

"Ease up, Moegami." Slurred another voice. "It isn't going to just... happen because you say so." The voice was apparently getting quite a buzz going.

"I see his point regardless. I shall corral the guard and reduce the border patrol, it should increase our present army by almost thirty-five percent."

"Good, that should be a passable army for the time being. We still have much to discuss, but it can come later. You will need to rest and gather your commanders."

"I have led an army before, goodnight Amaterasu." As she exited the throne room, she turned back towards the wolf. "And good night Amaterasu's imaginary friends."

Before she got too far away for the spell to wear off, the drunken voice could be heard laughing in the room.

Waka kept his eyes closed, he had never been cursed before but he wouldn't allow it to show him up. All around him chaos swayed but he remained seated within his own mind, legs crossed and eyes closed. He rubbed his thumb against the talisman in his pocket, without it, he would have been enveloped in the madness immediately, no willpower would have changed that. He had used charms before, but even he wasn't sure about their prolonged effectiveness within a curse like this. He wouldn't lose hope, he continued to pray.