Awaken, O' Beast of Yore.

Awaken, and lay low the Halves.

Awaken, O' Embittered One.

Awaken, and spread thine Gospel.

Awaken, ye who slumber within the Power.

Awaken, and show Them thy Light.

Starlight stared up at the strange and frightening male above her. After years of being violated, years of trying to keep her dignity and sanity, years of being seen as nothing but a plaything for males, she'd grown to wonder if she'd ever truly be saved. And here she was, her captor and tormentor dead in the most brutal of fashions, and her seemingly free. For once, after ten long years, she was free.

Hesitantly, she looked into his eyes, and swallowed visibly as she felt the sheer power in them. "Wh-What do you want?" She asked carefully.

The creature stared her down. "To end the Caribou," he stated firmly.

Starlight's eyes widened at the audacity of that claim, but she eventually shook her head. "Wh-Who are you?"

The demon paused, blinking slowly and retracting it's claw. "...I haven't been asked that in a long time," he said, looking elsewhere, eyes suddenly far away. Slowly, a smile came to his face. "...I am Horus." He looked to her. "But now's not the time."

Starlight blinked, then quickly scrambled to her feet. "Oh my Celestia, what am I gonna do?! Ingvar is dead, and there's literally thousands of guards out there and-!"

Horus gently placed a claw to her lips. "Calm down, and go hide in the closet." Starlight's eyes were wide and fearful, but shakily, she nodded, and raced into the closet nearby, glad that it was a walk-in one.

Horus' ears perked up as he heard multiple heavy footsteps approaching, all in heavy armor. He grinned like the beast he was, bearing his claws as his form crackled with the light of his profane lightning. His blood was boiling, his tail swishing back and forth in excitement.

"Bring it on, you bastards," he growled.

Mood Music

Soon enough, dozens more guards rushed into the spacious bedroom, spears, swords, axes, maces, and even a greatsword or two in hand. They swiftly scanned the room, and, upon seeing the bodies, narrowed their eyes.

"Foul beast! You won't get away with-!" The guard didn't get to finish his sentence as Horus rushed forward, claws outstretched as he tore them through the guard's throat, nearly cutting it clean off. Said guard dropped his axe and collapsed, gurgling on his own blood for only a second before dying.

Horus didn't waste any more time, shooting another wad of volatile, vile crackling red and black energy at one clustered group of guards, atomizing some of their limbs and sides and turning them into bloody messes. Dodging a thrust from a spear behind him, Horus wrapped his tail around the haft of it, held his claw out, and yanked, pulling the guard forward and grabbing his head before crushing it like a grape.

Another guard smashed his mace over the demon's head, only for the mace to shatter upon Horus's horns. Horus grinned, then leaned forward and clamped his jaws around the guard's head, and crushed it with his powerful jaws before spitting it out.

Blood leaking from his fanged mouth, and profane lightning covering his form, Horus looked the part of an utter demon. Starlight shuddered in fear as she watched from the closet, the slits in it's doors allowing her to see some, but not much, of the scene before her. Some was still enough to make her tremble, however.

'What IS he?' She tried to quiet herself, to keep still, but nothing helped. As she watched Horus pluck out the eyes of one guard and stuff them into another's mouth before slamming both them together so hard their skulls shattered, she could barely keep her lunch - or at least, what the Caribou considered lunch for females to be - down.

Horus weaved through the battle- no, he didn't weave. He tore through the battlefield of the room like a serial killer in a parade. Each swipe of his claws, each bite of his sharp fangs and jaws, each slam and whipping of his tail, each hellish crackle of his lightning, only solidified to her what he was. What he truly was.

A beast.

'A monster...' A hand went to her mouth as the screams of pain and agony filled the room, Horus continuing his bloody work with a revelry saved only for demons.

Soon, the tide of troops was quelled, and the room's carpet was dyed red with blood, corpses and gore covering almost everything on one side of the room.

Horus panted for breath, then looked back at Starlight in the closet. "Stay in there," he turned back to the door, stomping towards it. "I have Caribou to maim."

Starlight shivered at that. 'There's no way I can stay in here! If I do, you'll just come back and kill me!'

Of course, she didn't voice these thoughts, and the beast stomped out of view, beyond the door and into the halls of the castle. Starlight fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. "This isn't what I wanted...!" She sobbed. "This isn't the hero I wanted...!"

The sound of distant screams down the hall was her only answer.

Horus sped down the halls, killing every Caribou he saw as he did. He went room to room, as well, searching for Caribou with his exceptional sense of smell. Every now and again he'd find stallions who'd been tainted by the Caribou's ways, and he gave them a bloody send off to hell as well.

He even went into the cellar, smelling the heady scent of Caribou and sex. Growling as he sped down the steps on all fours, he came to the racks of wine where he found a Caribou and a stallion, bottles in hand...as they raped two barely teenage females. One was a zebra, and the other a full-fledged dragon with green scales.

The Caribou was fat, and obviously old, yet his antlers large and almost imposing. Said Caribou also looked to be rather rich, bearing a noble's tunic and gold rings. He was the one driving his filthy dick into the dragoness' snatch.

The stallion was young and spry, for his part, looking to be a young but well-decorated guard, if the medals and knife sheathe on his chestplate were any indication.

But Horus didn't care about that. When he saw the two youths being raped...something inside him snapped. His form absolutely stormed with red lightning, and he roared loud enough to rattle every bottle of wine in the cellar.

As the two males and two females looked to him, Horus let out a breath of steam, little motes of red dancing around him along with the lightning. He stomped towards them, claws seeming to glow with his power.

"Wh-What in the name of Dainn are you?!" the Caribou cried, backing up and away from the dragoness.

A zip of stygian red, and Horus' claw was in his gut. "Your Hell." He then grabbed the bull's intestines, ripped them out, then wrapped them around his throat tightly. The Caribou fell to the ground, gasping for air and coughing up blood. Horus didn't let up, freeing a claw up to stab his hand continuously into the bull's body, over and over, over and over, each time the bull coughing up blood.

Eventually, the life in the bull's eyes died out, and Horus let go...before whipping the intestines at the stallion, slapping him with the bloody organ.

"Gah!" the stallion cried, falling on his bare ass on the cold stone floor. Horus stomped over, the stallion backpedaling. "N-No! Stay back! Stay back! I'm warning you!" He said, pulling a knife from his sheathe and pointing it at Horus.

Horus simply stomped forward...onto the stallion's package. The blue stallion screamed bloody murder, but Horus wasn't done. With a growl, he stomped again, and again, and again, and again, roaring as he did, before finally stomping on the stallion's chest and pulverizing it with a bloody, sickening crunch.

Horus panted, before turning to the two terrified girls. They hugged each other for safety, staring at him with wide, terrified eyes.

"Don't hurt us! P-Please!" the dragoness begged.

"J-Just leave us alone!" the zebra pleaded, tears in her eyes. Both of them shut their eyes, waiting for him to end their lives.

Horus frowned, before slowly walking away. They listened to his steps recede, but didn't dare open their eyes. Eventually, they heard him come back, and started to shiver as he grew closer, closing the distance.

And then, they felt a warm blanket wrap over them both. Opening their eyes in shock, they looked up at him to see him smiling down at them.

"I will not hurt you," He said kindly.

The two girls looked to each other, then slowly back to him, leaning away from him.

"Wh-Who...What are you? Are you a demon?" The zebra asked.

Horus shook his head. "I am the Caribou's end."

The two girls shared a look once more, before again looking to him, eyes still afraid.

"H-How do we know you're not just...just gonna kill us, too?" The dragoness asked.

Horus frowned, then sighed. "You do not trust me. I understand." He turned around, starting to walk away. "Just keep your heads low, and stay where you are for now."

Without any other words, he walked out of the cellar, leaving the two alone with the stench of blood and gore.

Horus continued his rampage, moving on from the castle and saving countless more females as he did. However, instead of staying to protect them, or even to talk to them like he had Starlight and the two young girls, he simply moved on. He knew now that things were still the same as before.

He was still a monster to them.

'I suppose that's just how it is,' he reasoned as he cut a Caribou to ribbons in the streets of Ponyville. 'All I can take solace in is that I can kill Caribou again.' With a deep breath, he grabbed a stallion's leg and started to use him like a club to beat other Caribou to death. 'At the very least...it's fun as Hell.' He surmised, grinning like a beast once again.

And so he went on, leaving Caribou and traitorous blood splattered all over the streets of Ponyville, leaving no house unchecked, no bar, no tavern, no store or stall. Everywhere a Caribou or traitor could be found, he killed them. Viciously, and without mercy.

Only the females were spared. Them, and the children and few stallions not aligned with the Caribou. His only regret was leaving so many of them crying messes. The females and the children were scared, and some of them he knew to be angry as well. He could tell. He always could. But he knew...his work had to be done.

'For my treasure. In her name!' He resolved, pulling the wings off of a pegasus stallion before goring him in the head with his two horns.

After the stallion fell lifeless to the ground, he looked around, panting and now very out of breath. "I don't...see anymore...Caribou..." He sniffed deeply, trying to smell anything besides slowly decaying flesh and newly spilled blood. "Too many...scents..." He frowned. "I think I cleared...all the houses..." He looked around, eyes growing heavy. "Need...to go on...to the next...town...then..." He then fell to the ground, out cold.

Author's Note

Sorry there's no DOOM Eternal music for your mood this time, folks, but the song I originally chose got taken down, apparently. Honestly makes me worried that the other on the last chapter will too, but, regardless, I hope you enjoyed the music I chose as a replacement, as well as the chapter itself. I had great fun writing it~ (Not the music, nowhere near that good at composing or songwriting yet)

Anyways, thanks for reading, everyone!

-Timeless Lord Slayer