Back at the underground mines, a swarm of burning Changelings and possessed unicorn guards are able to hold the huge demon down by its massive hooves with several huge chains that they have summoned as the links came out of the ground. As they are restraining the pony demon by its massive head, three more burning changelings are pressurizing themselves with their magic in hopes of opening the demon's mouth by force.

Bellowing in agony, the demon refused to let the changelings open up its jaws as he continued to clench his teeth. Not giving up, more changelings volunteered to help their comrades pry the demon's jaws open. At the same time, about five more changelings attempted to use their telepathy to search for the Changeling Queen who is still trapped inside the demon's huge maw.

Just when their noses are bleeding out due to their overexertion, one of them was able to detect Chrysalis' signature coming from inside the huge pony demon. Eventually, 10 possessed unicorn guards are able to summon a few more chain links from above the cavernous ceiling to wrap the demon by underneath its upper jaws while holding its lower jaws in place on the ground floor. In anger, the huge demon roared in agony while thrashing itself in turning its head left and right to shake off the chains restraining him.

Despite the beast's struggling, the possessed guards are able to raise the chains upward as they successfully forced the demon to open its jaws wide. The next thing they knew, Chrysalis appeared from the huge teeth on the demon's lower jaw. She barely lifted herself up with the aid of her wings before Chrysalis flew out of the Demon's maw and collapsed onto the ground floor out of exhaustion.

Once they released the demon from holding its mouth in place, the huge monster clamped its jaws shut once more as it made a small shockwave that knocked out the Changeling Queen forward a few feet in front of the Burning Changelings and Possessed guards.

*GACK!!!*

*COUGH!! COUGH!!!*

As Chrysalis coughed out her lungs, clearing out her airways, she is now seen covered up in red slime all over her body. Annoyed by such a disgusted appearance, Chrysalis wiped off the slime before turning her attention to the Burning Changelings.

"Are you okay, your majesty?!" One of the Changelings asked only to get burned alive by the magic of an infuriated Chrysalis, whom finds it as a stupid question.

In the next second, Chrysalis faced the other Changelings who gasped in horror by the recent queen's frustration.

"What are you all looking at? Where's Luster and her friends??" Chrysalis sneered in anger.

"They all got away your majesty, along with the slaves!!" Once of the Changelings spoke out, much to Chrysalis' frustration.

"DON'T JUST STAND THERE, YOU FOOLS!!" Chrysalis snapped at the Changelings and Possessed guard ponies. "FIND THEM!! AND DESTROY THEM!!!"

Startled by such a personal uproar, the Burning Changelings and the Possessed Guard Ponies immediately bailed out of the tunnels before they continue their pursuit of Luster's group. As for Chrysalis, she turned around to face the demonic pony face in fury. Just when the demonic pony grinned with amusement, Chrysalis' eyes narrowed in anger and embarrassment before her horn lit up in a bright-orange hue.

"Remember your place, Icon of Sin!!" Chrysalis hissed as she raised an burning, orange skull up high with her magic. "I am your master now!! And if you try to eat me again, I'll blast you from your entrails even if its the last thing I do. UNDERSTAND??!!!!!"

Hearing this, the Icon of Sin grunted in agreement since he mistook Chrysalis as fodder when he tried to swallow up Luster and her friends inside the tunnels. With the burning skull in her hooves, the demon was able to read Chrysalis' mind through that demonic artifact. The skull lit up in a red-fiery glow, hitting the Icon the head as he started to feel its power entering his mind; it was an artifact that Chrysalis used to tame the Icon of Sin dwelling inside the Demon Realm.

"If I ever see that Flurry Heart again, I'll strip her clean of her wings while burning her alive!!!" Chrysalis hissed, feeling totally embarrassed that the white alicorn dodged her attack, letting the massive demonic pony head swallow her by accident.

As Luster's group continued to walk through the burning forest once again, Rubeth is flying above the trees as he is trying desperately to keep on eye out for any flying demons from a distance away. For Luster, she was able to do a wide visual scan with her helmet while holding her shotgun with her right hoof.

So far, she has not seen another demon, possessed guard pony, or burning changeling on sight. However, with Luster carrying two demonic artifacts inside her backpack, she still isn't out of the woods yet. Also, the rest of her friends are trying to be alert for any activity coming from within the burning forest. It felt disturbing to think that the group has been walking through the forest for like almost an hour and a half when all of a sudden, they see tall, ruined buildings from a distance away.

At first, they could see the ruined buildings another cliff out from a distance outside of the forest. In a grim sight, the buildings are seen to be surrounding by red-glowing chasms of spouting flames coming out from the cracked pavement. That isn't the worst part, for Luster's observation. When she tried to zoom in her scanners while still wearing her helmet, Luster sees a group of big huge brain-like demons are walking on four mechanical spider legs. Their exposed brains are being stuck on top of a metal platform where its spider legs are attached to.

Her eyes narrowed in a stern manner as Luster also sees them armed with two small machine-gun cannons attached to the front their small, metal walking platforms. Before long, Luster activates its scanner to analyze data of her new enemy seen in the outskirts of the ruined city.

Arachnotron: Half Arachnid, half robot. They happened to be the offspring and underlings of the Cyber Spiderdemon. Armed with dual machine guns and a mounted plasma turret on the rear of its body.

"Talk about fighting against a mechanical spider." Luster muttered in surprise underneath her breath.

Seeing that the Arachnotron is a distance away, Luster and her friends take their chance to navigate through the maze of wrecked, burning structures. However, the moment they reached the main road several more possessed guards and pegasus-guard revenants appeared as they started firing their weapons and fiery spells at Luster's Group. In retaliation, Luster and her friends are able to eliminate them all with their combined firepower and teamwork only to see a dozen Arachnotrons leaped out of the flaming entrance and the windows above from a ruined building on their left as they opened fire with their plasma turrets, screeching with fury in their eyes.

"Crap!! They see us!!" Luster shouted as she raised her magic shield in blocking the Arachnotrons' firepower. "Every creature, scatter!!!"

As Luster's group made a break for it, Luster, Rubeth, and Vecra ran to the right while Flurry, Bright, and Spring Light ran to the left, dodging the Arachnotron's firepower.

In retaliation, Vecra rammed into the side of one mechanical spider from its left, sending it flying as it made a horrified screech before it toppled over its buddies, making them crash into each other. See them unable to get up, thanks to their faulty mechanical legs, Vecra used this as a opportunity to fire her Rocket Launcher with a salvo of three missiles slamming into them. Once blasted, one Arachnotron disappeared into an explosion of flesh and metal that showered into its buddies, making the rest utter a mechanical roar as they turned their attention towards the yak.

In such bad luck, however, Vecra leaped over one encroaching Arachnotron and pounced on it by its exposed brain. Not only did her hooves pierced its squishy flesh, she shoved a grenade into the gaping hole she made with her right hoof. The moment she jumped backwards off the screeching Aranchnotron, Vecra landed on all four hooves before she sees the robot spider explode into a shower of blood and metal.

For the third, last Arachnotron, it made a frustrated screech as it tried to frantically open fire with all of its weapons. However, this gave the rest of the group enough time to shoot it down with the rest of their weapons as Vecra was distracting the blindly raging creature at the same time.

In an instant, the mechanical spider went down in flames as it exploded into a pillar of scrap metal and flesh before Vecra stopped to catch her breath.

"That was fun. Let's do it again!!!" The female yak cackled.

Groaning in embarrassment, Luster approached the excited yak in a look of dismay.

"I know you wanted to have fun, Vecra but this isn't a game!! We still have to find a way to rescue Queen Twilight even if we have to fight our way through city of flames!!!" Luster said in a reprimanded tone. "If it hadn't been for that old yak hunter, we would never see you again!!"

"Sorry, Luster!! I guess I got carried away." Vecra replied in embarrassment.

"Anyway, time to keep moving!! We still have just came into the city!!" Luster said as she and her friends continued further through the burning, urban area.

As they walked cautiously through the main road, Luster takes notice of several horse carriages toppled to the sides as they are set aflame, letting the black smoke billow up into the red sky before disappearing. Not a moment too soon, Rubeth and Vecra also see several burnt carcasses of various creatures lying on the city pavement. One of burnt carcasses was holding a little filly in its hooves, who is also burnt to a crisp.

Just when they like it's horrible to see such a husky sight, Luster and friends couldn't avert their attention away as they see several more similar, burnt corpses lying on the cracked, bloody pavements throughout the City of Flames.

"This is so horrible. There's no way my kind could cause that much devastation!!" Spring Light gasped in fright. "Who would do such a thing?!"

"Well, I did learn from Queen Twilight's lectures that there used to be ancient, underground cities that were built before Canterlot was founded. But in a dimension like this, I hardly doubt any pony or creature can live in place similar to Tartarus." Luster said, feeling nauseous after nearly stumbling into one of the burnt corpses.

Regardless, Luster still has to stay strong for her mentor and alicorn Queen throughout her journey in the City of Flames.
Along with the rest of Luster's friends and Flurry Heart, they have to keep it together if they were to survive in a world filled with death.

It almost seemed hopeless that there may not be any other innocent creatures to save in this horrible metropolis. In several big cracks on the city streets, Luster's group could see small pillars of flames spew out from the holes before they fall onto the pavement. Before long, more Pony Lost souls came out of the windows of a nearby burning wrecked apartment on their left before Vecra fired another barrage of bullets from her chaingun, making them all disappear in a small, explosive flames.

However, more possessed unicorn guards came out from that same abandoned structure as their horns lit up in flames. No time for any conclusion jumping, Luster's helmet starts aiming its targeting sights onto the group of possessed guards as the shoulder-mounted flamethrower is getting ready to fire its lethal jets of flames.

"Eager to fight fire with fire, eh?!" Luster hissed while glaring at her enemies.

Just as the possessed unicorns fired a volley of firebolts at Luster, Flurry came up next to Luster before her horn lit up, conjuring a yellow shield barrier, larger than the one that she once used when she was an infant back then. This time, the barrier shielded both Flurry and Luster as the firebolts exploded 6 feet away from them. After thanking Flurry for blocking off their attacks, Luster jumped forward outside of her barrier as her flamethrower shot out a strong jet of flames at the guards, making them all scream in pain as the fire eats their tainted flesh from the inside out.

"They may be possessed by the forces of Hell itself, but that doesn't mean the guards of the Dark Lord are immune to fire!!" Luster said in triumph as she sees the guards go down aflame.

Unfortunately, the mayhem is just getting started as a huge, demonic-like pony in brown colors appeared from the building while it swiped the dead, possessed guards away from his sights with its huge hands. It was seen standing 15 feet tall on two huge hooves as its muscular body mass is shown in full view. Its huge face is seen with the head of brown stallion except it has two curved horns from both sides of its temples and a long-pointed unicorn horn jutting out from the middle of its forehead. For his hands, they become engulfed with blue flames as the huge demonic pony gritted his huge, sharp teeth, getting ready to strike at Luster's group at will.

With one terrifying roar, the huge demon pony aimed both of its hands at Luster and Flurry as he let loose a huge beam of blue flames, forcing them both to jump away to different directions.

"SWEET CELESTIA!! That thing is massive!!" Vecra shrieked as she and the rest of Luster's friends circled around while trying to evade the destructive torrent of blue flames.

The next thing they knew is that, the huge, two-legged demon pony started to hurl one blue fireball at Luster, only for her to fire a beam of magic, making it disappear in a harmless shower of blue sparks before she firing her shotgun at it. However, the huge pony demon isn't done yet as he lunged at Luster in hopes of trying to either strangle her to death with its huge hands or eat her alive by biting her head off. Either way, Luster wasted no time as she teleported herself away from the pony monster as she reappeared in firing another shotgun blast at his face.

BOOM!!!

As Luster's Combat Shotgun showered buckshot shrapnel at the huge pony demon, he growled in fury as he is seen unfazed by the firepower of a short-ranged weapon. Freaking out, Luster's horn lit up as she raised her shield to block the demon from slamming its demonic fists onto the pink unicorn. With her pound, Luster grunted in confusion as she struggled to keep her shield barrier up above her head.

"Hang on, Luster!!" Vecra shouted as she aimed her rocket launcher at the demon attacking the pink unicorn.

With a triple shot, Vecra fired her rocket launcher at the huge demon pony as it slammed the explosion rockets into its chest. The demon then bellowed in pain as it staggered backwards a 5 feet away from Luster Dawn. Seeing this as her chance for a counter-attacked, Lusted disengaged her shield barrier as she leaped up high above the demon before slamming the butt of her shotgun into it skull, breaking off its front horn. With a heavy impact from her weapon, Luster pounced on top of the demon's chest as it collapsed onto its back, allowing her to get the upper hand.

Before the huge demon could get up, he was met with the barrel of Luster's shotgun shoving straight down into its maw before she pulled the trigger of her gun. With the loud blast ringing into Luster's ears, the pony demon's head exploded into a bloody spray of bones and flesh showering into her helmet and all over the front side of her armor.

The moment the demon lay lifeless below Luster, she collapsed backwards as the unicorn dropped her shotgun before trying to catch her breath. It couldn't get any worse as the demon they just saw was a smaller version of the Icon of Sin they recently ran into back at the Village of Slaves.

Nevertheless, the demon is a bit tougher than that of the possessed royal guards.

While Luster used her magic to wipe of the demon blood from her helmet and armor, Spring Light activated her scanners from her helmet to see what demon did Luster and Vecra just encountered.

In the next second, Spring's helmet shows a brief detail of the huge, horned pony demon.

Stallion Hellknight: As the first initiate of the Dark Lord's personal bodyguards, the Stallion HellKnight is a towering brute with sheer strength, endurance, and power. They are seen as one of best beast-like warriors of the hellish underworld, displaying utmost brutality and aggression than that of the lesser demons for the Stallion Hellknight directly serve the Nobles of Inferno; their higher-ranking counterparts.

"Whoever is tougher than the rest of these monsters, we still can't underestimate any of them." Luster announced after reading what was shown from the visual intel coming from Spring's helmet.

As they move on, Luster's party continued to walk down the road while seeing various cracks spew out minor jets of flame and lava. Even though, they felt startled fearing that they're going to get burns, Luster did her best to remind them all to keep themselves together as their journey to the other side of the Demon Realm is still a long ways, even beyond the City of Flames.

Before long, they reached a tall building that is somehow an abandoned library. Just like most of the other buildings around them, it happens to be a tall skyscraper with broken windows, with a few of them left ablaze up above several stories tall. At the grand entrance, Luster sees wide stairs leading upward towards the library. However, she still felt disturbed that there is like three pony demon-like statues that looked liked the very same one that Luster just blew apart with her shotgun earlier. However, because the statues aren't moving, Luster felt relieved for a moment as she continued up the stairs before seeing a wide clearing in front of the library's entrance. Nevertheless, when Luster checks her map interface from her helmet, she soon notices that another important key is somewhere inside the abandoned library.

Taking a deep breath, Luster turns towards her friends and Flurry heart as she makes her small announcement before proceeding into the library.

Author's Note

Author's Note: Sorry to keep you waiting Doom fans. I still have other important stuff to take care of in real life. Anyway, I can't say for sure when will the next chapter will come up after this one. Other than that, hope you all still enjoy reading this story.