Luster's Knee Deep in the Dead

Meanwhile, at the Hell's Keep, right where Queen Twilight was being held at, she watched the projections screen as her protege student, her friends, and Flurry Heart are able to make their way out of the Arena of Blood, much to the alicorn's relief. For the Dark Lord, the shadowy figure finds it rather unamusing since his minions aren't able to impress him enough by not killing any of them. No matter, he still has more tricks up his sleeve as he turned his back and headed towards the doorway behind Queen Twilight. When Twilight turned towards where the Dark Lord is headed, despite being restrained, she sees him speaking to another creature from the other side of the door. After they're done talking, another shadowy demonic-like creature appeared before Queen Twilight. As she looked closely at the new visitor, Twilight noticed that she looked very familiar. Before she could say anything, the creature revealed herself as a tall, dark-red changeling with insect-like wings, a red horn, holes in its legs, and a red sash wrapped around its body.

"Does she look familiar to you, Twilight?!" The Dark Lord smirked.

"No way!! CHRYSALIS???" Twilight gasped in horror, realizing that it is one of her old foes from the past, except that her nemesis has gone under a complete transformation.

"It's been a while hasn't it, Queen Twilight!!" The Demonic Changeling cackled, followed by a demonic hiss.

"That can't be!! Celestia already turned you into stone!!!" Twilight exclaimed.

"I told you we will always return!!!" Chrysalis grinned maliciously. "We're really grateful that the Dark Lord is able to collect our souls while still trapped behind stone. If he hadn't, we'll never make it up to the end of the bargain."

"What are you going to do then?? You already lost more than once. I wish you just give it up already!!" Twilight snarled, only to get whipped in the back by one of the demons, forcing her to stay silent.

"He already told me that your student and her friends came into the Demon Realm to find you. So, he wanted me to send in a little greeting before I face her." Chrysalis cackled. "I can't wait to have some fun with her!!!"

As she continued to laugh in an evil tone, Chrysalis disappeared into the red portal behind her before it disappeared along with her.

Before long, Twilight got teleported back into the cage that held her up earlier as she heard both sinister cackling coming from the demonic changeling and the dark lord at the same time. Twilight just couldn't help but feel even more angrier that she is being stuck here against her own will, completely restrained from using her magic to escape. Also, Twilight felt even more terrified that it is only a matter of time before Luster will come face to face will Twilight's old nemesis.

On the other side of the Demon Realm, a blue portal emerged from somewhere within the middle of the forest. The moment it opened up, Luster came falling face first onto the ground, along with Vecra, Rubeth, Bright, and Flurry all landing on top of the unicorn.

"UGH. Would you all please get off me?!" Luster grunted as she felt the sheer weight pressing her down on the dirt.

"Where are we?!" Flurry Heart asked, after every pony and creature got of Luster Dawn.

"I think we're in some kind of forest." Rubeth said, observing the group's surroundings.

As they looked far and wide all over the forest, they see red Maple trees mostly caught on fire. However, Luster noticed that none of the leaves on the trees are burning even when set aflame, which happens to be a bizarre sight. It's as if the trees are immune to fire beyond all possible reasons. Other than just the trees, they could see red smoke spewing from the holes in the trees. All around the group, small orange particles were floating above their heads harmlessly. In a huge surrounding, the whole forest is completely illuminated with bright red and orange, which is not a normal sight for any pony. Well, since they're in a demon world, all laws of the environment are deemed unnatural and full of terrifying wonders.

Most of Luster's group could feel intense heat coming from inside their armored suits, making them sweat from inside their helmets. Thankfully, they have an in-built A/C vent from within their visors. Up ahead, they see a road leading towards the north, assuming that it may lead to another place where Queen Twilight is held up at. Before any creature or pony could advance, however, Flurry Heart became the first to notice that one of Luster's friends is missing.

"Did anyone see Spring Light, the kirin?" Flurry asked.

"Uh oh!!" Luster gasped. "I think she got left behind back there."

"What do we do?" Vecra panicked. "We can't leave Spring behind!! We all have to stick together."

"I'm right here!!!" Spring shouted out loud as the kirin popped out from one of the burning trees behind Luster.

The moment the kirin came out, Luster got a little spooked when she turned around to see Spring making a cute, wide grin.

"Sweet Celestia, Spring!!" Luster gasped in fright. "I thought you got left behind. Other than that, you almost fried us back there. DON'T DO THAT!!!"

"Sorry guys!!" Spring apologized sheepishly. "I was just trying to buy you all time to escape that wretched arena."

"Well, at least try to keep up with us more often." Rubeth suggested the Green-maned kirin.

"Anyway, does any pony or creature know where we are?!" Spring Light asked.

"I think we're in the middle of some kind of strange burning forest." Flurry Heart commented.

"And I think I heard demonic voices echoing throughout this place." Luster added in as she heard ominous whispering into her ears.

As the demonic voices started to intensify, Luster and her friends drew out their weapons into thinking that more demons are being heard nearby. Before they knew it, they saw something frightening heading there way. At first, it was like a big ball of rolling flames moving straight towards Luster. However, after taking a good look at them, the unicorn realized that it's actually a huge ball of red changelings rolling down the forest trail.

"Changelings??" Everypony and creature exclaimed in unison.

"I thought for sure after Chrysalis' defeat that the Changelings stopped fighting against our ponykind!?" Bright thought.

"I think something was off when Chrysalis met her end. Scratch that, we can't stand around for answers; we have to run!!" Luster shouted as she aimed her shotgun at the Changeling cluster.

"Stay back, Luster!! Me Vecra got this!!" The female yak grunted underneath her armor.

In just one second, Vecra aimed and fired three rockets all at once from her mounted rocket launcher, making the rolling ball explode into a green gooey mess. From within the green blood, a swarm of red Changelings scattered out of the green goo and charged straight at Luster's group. In a clear line of sight, the red Changelings had orange glowing eyes and red insect wings set aflame, yet unharmed by its affects. It's as if, Luster and her friends are dealing with a whole new kind of Changeling Swarm unlike Thorax's clan or Chrysalis' clan.

The Red, burning Changelings made a loud, vile hissing noise as they used her magic to summon a barrage of fireballs aiming directly at Luster, Flurry Heart, and the rest of their friends.

"Oops!! I guess I made it worse!!" Vecra thought.

"GET BEHIND ME EVERY PONY!!!" Luster shouted as she raised a huge shield barrier with her magic. The moment Luster's friends went behind the unicorn, they hurdled together as the Luster's shield was being hammered by the exploding fireballs and the ground near it.

As soon as the red Changelings got closer, they rammed their horns onto Luster's shield in hopes of breaking it apart. But Luster managed to make her shield as wide as a huge dome, slamming most of the Changelings head first. Upon impact, the fire bugs got knocked out before slamming their backs onto the trees behind them.

"RUN FOR IT!!!" Flurry Heart shouted as she sees an opening from within the knocked out changelings.

While Flurry and Rubeth took flight, the rest of the group made a mad dash through the burning forest without looking back. During their run, the earth around them started shaking in total madness as the red changelings went back up and kept pursuing Luster's group across the forest.

Not wanting to get chased down, Flurry levitated her railgun and started shooting beams of lighting at the changelings, vaporizing them in an instant as they exploded into flames. At the same time, Rubeth and Luster blasted the changelings that got too close to them with their shotguns. Unfortunately, all three creatures ran out of ammo in less than 2 minutes, making them even more horrified that they're all going to get taken down by the changelings.

"This isn't good, they're getting closer to us!!" Luster shrieked as one changeling attempted to take a bite at her tail.

Thankfully, Flurry Heart and Spring Light stopped behind Luster's group as they both holstered their weapons and charged up their horns to the fullest. In about 20 feet away from the alicorn and kirin, the red changelings were met with a wide, powerful wave of bright magic, making them all vanish in an instant. Feeling triumph at first, Flurry Heart still hears screeching, buzzing noises coming from above the trees.

Unsure what is going on next, Flurry flew up above the burning forest only to see more Red Changelings flying straight at her and Luster's group, along with a swarm of chomping Lost Souls, hungry for flesh. Realizing that the horror in the forest is far from over, Flurry swooped down from her flight to warn Luster and her friends that more enemies are coming down from the red, burning sky.

"There's more coming, guys!! We have to keep moving!!!" Flurry shouted as she tried to protect the group while in mid-air.

"Sweet Faust!! They just can't give us a bucking break!!!" Bright panicked. "What do we do??"

"Let's find a safe place to hide in this forest, quickly!!" Luster suggested as she ran ahead of the group.

As they kept running, most of Luster's friends are losing their stamina due to the sheer weight of their armor and mounted weapons. This is could very bad if they stop to catch their breath since the Burning Changelings and the Lost Souls are hot on their trail. For Luster, she start to feel tired after running for more than a minute. Eventually, Luster was able to cast a massive slow spell on the Changelings, much to the relief of her friends and Flurry. However, in her previous try outs over that spell, it will only remain in effect for about 10 minutes. Luster and her group decided to hide inside the thick bushes which is adjacent to the road they're on. As soon as the spell wore off, the moment Luster's group went into their hiding place, the Changelings kept flying straight head unaware that Luster's group is no longer in their path.

From inside the huge, tall red bushes, Luster and her friends took a few deep breaths. While trying to recover from fighting through the temple all the way into the forest, one of Luster's friends felt a bit hungry after fighting for their lives.

"Man, I wish we were able to pack some food with us. This whole dimension is such a mad house I tell ya." Vecra grunted, hearing her stomach growling.

"Wait, what is that?!" Bright said, looking at the bush behind the female yak.

The moment the yak turned around, she spotted glowing apples hanging on the branches of the bush behind her.

"I look like some kind of apple!!" Vecra said, with her mouth drooling with relief. "Except that is is orange instead of red as usual."

The moment Vecra took the apple from the bush, she put it in her mouth and made several crunching sounds. Before they knew it, Vecra felt herself not just satisfied with her hunger but also felt totally energized as if she is getting high on crack. Too the surprise of her friends, Vecra is seen glowing orange all over her armored body from head to hoof, making her feel like she is totally all charged up.

"Wow, I never felt this pumped up before." Vecra said, totally shocked at what she did to herself.

The moment Luster activated her data analyzer from her helmet's visor, it scanned the rest of the apples on the bush behind Vecra. In the next minute or so, Luster gained new information from their new resources:

Crimson Zap Apples: Known to grant the user full adrenaline for the next 24 hours, as well as satisfying their hunger in the process. Very rare and very scarce. Can tolerate heat as high as 100 degrees Celsius.

"Since we just stumbled into a Zap Apple bush, we might as well take a dozen more with us and stuff them in our backpacks." Bright suggested to the group.

"Now that you mentioned it, we haven't eaten since we just went down here and made our way through two large locations." Spring Light added in.

"I guess its time we shall chow down first before moving on." Luster said as she took a few Zap Apples and chomped them down one by one.

While Luster was eating that Zap Apples, the rest of her friends took several bites out of the apples they picked from the bushes next to them. As soon as they're done, Luster and Rubeth filled their backpacks with 2 dozen Zap Apples, in case any of their friends are starving again.

As soon as they're ready, Luster's group went towards the forest trail up ahead, cautiously.
"Whatever you do guys, don't let your guard down!" Luster told her friends. "Those changelings and demons could be hiding anywhere in this forest."

As Luster's friends and Flurry Heart all nodded, most of them lay low while navigating through the dense forest and the dense bushes all around them. Just like the trees, most of the bushes are all orange-red and every time Luster and her friends get too close to them, they could feel moderate heat coming from the inside of it.

After walking through the trail of the burning forest for three hours later, there was no sign of any demons, changelings, or possessed Royal Guards interfering their path. It was getting a bit too quite, despite the hot environment in the forest. Nevertheless, Luster and her ground still tried to be aware of any enemies lurking within the trees and bushes.

Before one of them knew it, Flurry Heart, who is walking alongside Luster and Spring Light, spotted some tall ruins up ahead. In such a sudden move, Flurry recklessly spread out her wings and took flight towards the ruins which are in the middle of a large, circular field surrounded by the trees. Across from the other side, the ruins are now seen spread out in a large, exterior square-like area. Right in front of Flurry, there were marble stairs leading down five huge stories full of cracked, concrete blocks, broken pillars, and dried-up dirt. Down at the 5th story, a small 12 by 12 floor is seen with a small stone platform in the middle.

As Flurry looked closer, the white alicorn sees some strange relic-like object floating a few feet above the stone platform. Before Flurry could fly in any closer to the stone platform, Luster spoke out to the white alicorn.

"Don't come up any reckless ideas, Flurry. We still don't know what is hiding underneath those ruins. It could be another horrendous trap or a demonic ambush."

"Come on, Luster. We're all heroes aren't we?!" Flurry said, feeling a bit prideful. "We still need to take risks to accomplish the bigger things. That's what Auntie Twilight told me when she faced off most of Equestria's enemies back in her day."

Feeling a bit anxious, Luster watched Flurry safely land a few feet away from the relic before taking a closer look at it. The relic looked with some sort of cross made out of bronze metal with a pony skull shown in the middle of all four sides. It was glowing in a bright, orange hue as red glowing eyes are coming out from the skull's eye sockets. Right in front of the relic, Flurry notices a small stone pedestal with marble tablet on top of it, written in an ancient inscription. Seeing what Flurry Heart just saw, Luster teleported right in-between the white alicorn and the pedestal.

"Hold up, Flurry. I think I need to translate this inscription myself." Luster suggested as she took a small handbook from her backpack with her telekinesis.

When the handbook lifted up and in front of Luster's face, she flipped the pages in order to find the words that she may use to compare with the inscription on the marble tablet. After spending a couple of minutes in trying to put that pieces of the words together, Luster finally came up with a possible conclusion.

For those who refuse to see the horrors leave this realm, the Skull Relic will be used to seal the gates of Hell from Equestria. However, it must be taken straight into Hell's Keep which lies in the Northern Fringes of the Demon Realm, close to the edge of the hugest mountain seen by all. Beware, those who claim the Skull Relic will be hunted down by the Realm's most toughest warriors in such unpredictable ways.

"It looks like we may have hope for all of Equestria, but at a much more larger risk!!" Luster told the group.

"Well, we still need to find Queen Twilight before we can use the Skull Relic to seal off this dimension first." Flurry suggested otherwise.

"Even if we could, we may not be able to find it again without getting killed along the way back." Bright said, controversial.

"Then, we're just going to have to take it with us!!" Luster announced. "It won't matter what they will throw at us. We will always find a way to beat them, whatever the cost."

"I hope you're right, Luster!!" Rubeth said, feeling agitated, followed by a low growl at the pink unicorn. "Because if we die down here, I'm going to kill you Luster Dawn!!!"

"Chill, Rubeth." Bright told the agitated Griffon. "The least we can do is stick together."

The moment the silence occurs, Luster puts away her handbook before turning her attention towards the Skull Relic. In one second, Luster uses her magic to take the Skull Relic from the pedestal and stuffed in her back. In the next minute after she jumped off the stone platform, flames started spewing out from all sides of the circular area of the ruins. Before they saw what was coming, three huge floating demons appeared from all four directions. As Luster and Flurry looked carefully at the new demons, they were seen with two huge horns coming from its head, with smaller horns on its brows and scalps, they each have one huge red eye staring fiercely at Luster and her group, and human-like mandibles seen from both sides of its jaws.

Before any pony or creature had a chance to aim their weapons at these new Demons, they started to roar as they spewed out familiar flame-like creatures from their mouths. Just like that, swarms of Lost Souls came appearing from the flying, horned demons, much to the surprise and horror of Flurry Heart. When Vecra activated her scanner from her helmet, she discovered more terrifying details about the hovering, horned demons.

Pain Elemental: Risen from the depths of the Demon Realm, these big hulking mandible freaks can spew out a swarm of Lost Souls, distracting its target as well as using them as a meat shield against its enemies.

"Oh hell no!!" Vecra shrieked in anger. "Me can't tell which monster is worse, a Lost Soul or the one who generates them!!"

"Hold nothing back, we'll keep shooting all of them until they drop dead!!!" Luster bellowed as she raised her shotgun at the Pain Elemental in front of her.

In a split second, Luster blasted one Pain Elemental in the eye with her shotgun as it burst into a white, liquidity substance before it screeched in pain and collapsed onto the marble stone. For the other Pain Elementals, they turned towards Luster and spit out several more Lost Souls in hopes of exploding in front of the pink unicorn. With barely enough time to react, Luster cast a shield spell on herself before the Lost Souls screamed and exploded on its barrier, making her unable to return fire. However, Flurry flew up into the air and drove straight into the second Pain Elemental, impaling the demon in the eye with her horn. Under such excruciating pain, the demon could feel the horn lodged into its eye as it came out of its back. At the same time, the Pain Elemental roared in pain so loudly that a nearby group of Changelings heard the noise from a distance away from the ruins.

Realizing that the demon is the only one remaining, apart from his slain brethren, the third Pain Elemental fled deep into the woods before trying to call out for the other demons hiding behind the burning trees. After Luster lowered her shields, she teleported herself away from the stone pedestal in back to where her friends are at.

"We still need to chase after that Pain Elemental before he recovers!!" Flurry Heart suggested.

"Actually, I think that will be the least of our worries!!!" Bright spoke in a horrified tone as he saw something else behind Luster and the others.

As the earth pony raised his hoof up and pointed behind Luster, she turned around to see another swarm of red Changelings appear above the forest with hostile looks on their faces.

"This is can't be good!!" Luster gasped the moment she turned toward where Bright is pointing.

"FOR OUR CHANGELING QUEEN!!!" One of the Burning Changelings shouted as he lit up his horn in a ominous red hue.

The rest of the Changelings did the same thing before they all charged straight at Luster's group and Flurry.

"Back into the forest, quickly!!!" Luster ordered as she fired her shotgun while on the run.

Consequently, by the time Luster's group went back into the forest, the Changelings immediately swarmed all over the trees and flying all over their heads before lunging at her friends one by one. Although, they managed to kill several oncoming changelings with their magic and weapons, two more come in after one gets taken out. In such an endless onslaught, the forest is getting covered up by changeling blood every single second.

For Vecra, she was running and screaming as five Burning Changelings were all on top of her armor.

"ARGH!!! G-G-GET OFF ME!!!!" Vecra shouted as she repeatedly kicked backwards and forwards blindly, unable to shrug the Changelings off her back.

Before she knew it, Vecra and the Changelings all fell down into a big dark hole and disappeared from plain sight, unnoticed.

As for the other five, Flurry was flying low below the tree branches while she was continuously shooting down the changelings that are chasing her from behind. The next thing she knew, Flurry accidentally slammed her wings into a very thick branch making her yelp as she crashed straight into the dirt ground. Luckily, the alicorn had enough time to hide behind a bush filled with amber leaves before the changelings flew past her, not knowing where she ran off too. Even though the changelings flew off, Flurry still kept herself hidden while peeking out for any of Luster's friends.

"UGH!! I think I sprained my wings!!" Flurry grunted in silence, feeling pain coming from one of her wing spans. "Where's auntie Twilight and Fluttershy when you need them.

On the other side of the forest, Luster, Rubeth, and Spring are once again isolated from the rest of the group, unable to figure out where Flurry, Bright, and Vecra are at. In such a frustrated effort, Luster sees that Spring was being held down by a group of four Burning Changelings, making her drop her Plasma gun in the process. What's worse is that the shape-shifters are actually immune to the burning sensation of Spring's Nirik Form. Things aren't looking good for Luster's Kirin/Nirik friend.

"LUSTER, HELP ME!!!" Spring roared in fright as she is getting hauled away by the Burning Changelings.

"NOOOO!!!" Luster screamed as she tried to jump in to rescue Spring.

In a desperate effort, Luster grabbed Spring's Plasma gun with her magic and attempted to shoot down the Changelings that are taking the Nirik away. Unfortunately, one of the Changelings cast an orange shield barrier that absorbing most of the plasma shots, not taking any damage from the overheating weapon.

As soon as the Plasma gun ran out of ammo, Luster charged up her horn and charged straight at the Changeling group only to get knocked out cold by an exploding Lost Soul that came from the mouth of the remaining Pain Elemental. After seeing Luster go down, Rubeth fired the hooks from his super shotgun and pierced the Elemental in the eye as he feels himself getting pulled by its chains. In anger, Rubeth slashed at the screaming Pain Elemental in the face with his razor claws and ripped its tongue out before it collapsed into a mangled mess of a corpse.

The moment Rubeth dropped down onto his feet, he went over to an unconscious Luster Dawn to see if she is okay.

"Luster!! LUSTER!!!" Rubeth shrieked upon seeing his downed friend bleeding from the side of her head. The griffon didn't know what to do at the moment: go after Spring and rescue her or tend to Luster's wounds first. Before he could make his decision, Bright Vermillion appeared only to be seen with a huge crack on his helmet.

"Rubeth, what happened to Luster?? And where is Spring Light??" Bright said, seeing such horror in Rubeth's eyes.

"Those damn fire bugs took Spring!! And Luster got hit by an exploding Lost Soul. I need help getting Luster Dawn to safety!!" Rubeth said in a panic.

Without reply anymore, Bright kneed down with his hooves as he let Rubeth put an unconscious, injured Luster on top of the earth pony's back. Once that's done, the griffin and the earth pony made a mad dash through the woods in hopes of find a safe place to tend to Luster's injuries.

For Rubeth, he stuffed the Plasma gun, BFG, and the combat shotgun into his backpack before catching up to Bright Vermillion. He hated himself from the fact that Luster's group got separated again and this time Luster need help from him more than ever. Since Vecra and Flurry are nowhere to be found, Rubeth felt horrified that Luster's group is in total disarray thanks to those wretched Changelings.

Meanwhile above the forest, Queen Chrysalis appeared standing on top of a rocky cliff watching the whole scene from where she is at. Upon seeing that most of Luster's friends are injured or hiding, the Red Changeling Queen couldn't stop laughing uncontrollably.

"This is just as exactly as I planned!!!" Chrysalis cackled with delight. "Hey Twilight, if you're watching this, then you can say goodbye to your top student!!! There is no place for such foolish rulers like yourself, Princess Celestia, or King Orion!! Very soon, once Luster and all of her friends are eliminated here, I can finally have my vengeance at last!!!!"

As she continued with her evil laugh, Chrysalis' voiced started echoing throughout the burning forest from over miles away.