//-------------------------------------------------------// Daughter of the Sun -by Silver Butcher- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// At War's End //-------------------------------------------------------// At War's End cold winds ran through Ponyville, the town was silent and in ruins, the Everfree Forest was slowly overtaking the boundaries of the town, the only structure still standing tall and mostly undamaged was Twilight's castle, around it was a large crystal wall with an army set up inside it. On the outside of the wall was a small number of creatures on guard, standing on either side of the only entrance facing the town stood Maud Pie and Spike, They were wearing matching black armor with Luna's Cutie Mark on the chest, signifying them as the Nocturnal units of the army, they both look exhausted and worn out. "Where the hell is our replacement?" Spike asked with a yawn as he tried to stretch the sleep away, "We were supposed to switch off over an hour ago," "They're probably still sleeping," Maud said in monotone irritation as she looked out at the wrecked Ponyville, "You know, 'cause it's so unacceptable for us to be 5 minutes late one time, but they get to make us miss our dinner just so they can laze about for a while longer," Maud took a breath before calling out loudly "Hey! Where's our replacement?" "They'll be here," One of the guards patrolling the upper wall replied "There in the shower just lighten up and-" "Fuck you," Maud shot back, "The last time one of the Noctuirals was in the Shower for too long you dragged his ass out and made the entire Night unite stand guard in their pajamas!" They could all hear the guards laughing at the memory and began groaning in irritation. "I hate this," Maud decided. "But your determination to kill Grogar exceeds your hate for the noble's currently acting as the Day unite," Spike said simply "Maybe a few months ago," Maud replied, "Grogar may have destroyed my Family's home, but he never covers my bed in Honey and Fire Ants," "Oh shit I forgot about that," Spike said as he leaned against the wall, doing his best to stay awake "they filled mine with ticks and rotting fish, not nearly as bad thanks to the scales, although I did have to sleep on the floor for a few weeks until the stench was washed out," "Hey," A voice called, Spike moved away from the door to look up, hoping it was their replacement and was instead met with a stream of ice-cold water followed by a bucket on his head "That should help you wake up," The Guard above said as his friends laughed "you'll be covering the day shift, your replacements seemed to have hurt their back and can't work today," "We're not deft or blind," Maud cried back as she pulled the bucket off Spike's head "I know your one of the guards who cover this spot, get your ass down here and do your fucking job!" Maud didn't receive an answer and instead grabbed jumped back to the cover of the wall as more ice water was poured over the side onto Spike, who stood his ground to avoid getting his friend wet and instead sat down shivering in defeat. He grabbed a few sticks once the water had stopped and set them on fire for warmth, not wanting to melt or warp his armor with fire. "The second I get a chance to see Any Princess I am making so many complaints," Spike chattered through his teeth as he set up another fire for Maud to huddle up to as the cool breeze of early winter began hitting them. "Stupid high security," Maud said as she tried to open the gate and found it was still locked, knowing there was no way back into the base she tried her best to warm herself with the fire "Can't even so much as send a letter to my own Sister to tell her how we're being treated out here," the duo did their best to warm-up and prepare for the hell that was staying up for both the rest of the day and the night. Celestia sat in silence around the Map room that had been converted into a war room, The other Princesses all sat in seats around her, Luna was on her right and Cadance was on her left, Twilight was next to Luna. The only Princess missing was the young Flurry heart, who was in hiding with her father and most of the Elements of Harmony in Discords world to prevent their enemy from using any of them as a hostage or from killing Them. The only Elements Present were Rainbow Dash as the active leader of the Wonder bolts, Applejack who was doing her best to keep the army fed, and Pinkie Pie who had refused to leave and was doing her best to keep utter despair away. "Your sure it's him?" Cadance asked as Rainbow reported in. "Oh yeah, Grogar's making his move, he's set up his own base on the other side of Ponyville, those monsters from the other day were just him announcing his arrival," "How many monsters?" Luna questioned as looked at the map. "A lot, now I know there are a lot of soldiers out there but you should probably make sure only the most capable are on the front line, I've caught the Day soldiers basically torturing the Night ones, you really need better officers out there, all those snobs and nobles are just ignoring it, I didn't get a good look but I think the Night unites for the front gate are still on duty," Luna frowned and looked to Celestia, who looked less than pleased about this. "If Grogar makes his move while we have exhausted guards..." "It's time to make our move," Celestia decides as she got to her hooves "Mobilize all Day unties, and make sure any Night Unties still active are sent to the mess hall to eat, we'll punish the Day unites later but at the moment we need to make our move before Gorgar makes-" The loud cry of a monster cut her off and she turned to the door before saying loudly "GO! Go now!" As the Princesses and the attending Elements began mobilizing Spike and Maud watched as a Three-headed Hydra came marching proudly towards the base. "The gate still locked?" Spike asked as he and Maud stood up. "Yep," Maud confirmed. "Think they'll open it?" Spike asked curiously, the sound of panic above them telling them that the archers would never be able to get a clear shot thanks to all the morons who had clumped up to the top of the wall to torment the front gate. "If anything they'll probably fully lock it down," Maud noted casually, the sound of movement through the door confirming what she had just predicted as the sound of the wooden door barricaded falling into place was heard. "Well, let's just hope they don't dump more wa-" Spike fade into quiet, and Maud looked at him, her curiosity at why he had stopped dead in his verbal tracks was quickly sated and replaced with panic as soon as she saw what had shut him up, Spike had pulled out his sword and found it had been replaced with a wooden one, "You have got to be fucking joking," He said as he looked at it and turned to his friend, who unsheathed hers and found the same thing. "They took our swords?" Maud demanded as she looked at it, she hadn't bothered to pull the weapon out in months due to lack of action during the night and angrily stomped out into the open and yelled loudly. "You jackasses replaced our swords with wooden ones?" She demanded, causing the panic up top to quickly stop as she gained an audience "How long have we been guarding the base with toys?" She cried out "Are you all fucking brain dead?" "It was just a joke," One of the guards called back "It's your fault for-" "for what?"Spike demanded angrily as he joined Maud in yelling at them "for not daily checking to see if the weapons we used to prevent a sneak attack in the middle of the night had been stolen and replaced with toys?" Spike chucked the sword over the wall as hard as he could and watched it shatter into splinters against the wall, Maud threw her's with a little more force and accuracy and managed to hit one of the ones she had seen dumping water on them in the face. Maud turn to Spike and offered him her fist, Spike made a fist of his own, and the two fist-bumped. "See you in hell?" Spike asked, "See you in hell," Maud agreed as they turned towards the approaching Hyrda and charged at it empty-handed, hoping to at least distract it long enough for someone with actual power to come and stop it. Spike was the first one to get the hydra's attention thanks to a ball of fire, something the large sea serpent-like creature did not appreciate, one of its three heads lashed out, and Spike only just managed to avoid its jaws, as the other two heads joined in the hunt for Spike, Muad ran in undetected and punched it in the leg. Months of poor nourishment, lack of sleep, and constant torment had sapped her of her strength, but she still had enough to make one of the side heads lose interest in Spike and angrily go after her. Maud stepped back as it lashed at her and jumped just as it arrived, landing on top of its head, and began punching the top of its head with as much force as she could with one hand while using the other to grip its eyelid, the head began violently lashing around trying to get her off, She managed to stay on thanks to her grip on its eyelid and changed directions, now directing her punches into its eye in an attempt to blind it. While Maud was riding one of the heads Spike did his best to follow her lead and jumped onto the rightmost head and dug his fingers into the hydra's skin, but instead of lashing the head positioned itself towards the other head and Spike had to Fall Back as the two heads slammed a one another, they instantly changed directions and whipped around as they sent Spike into the air and opened their mouths, the rightmost one catching Spike in mid-air and chomping down. Before it could begin chewing Spike bit into the creatures tongue and began screaming, spewing out as much fire as he could, the head went wild and tried with all its might to spit Spike out before giving in to the flames and falling to the ground, Spike still letting out a torrent of flames. As Spike's head went down Maud was now standing on firm ground, her hydra-head lay beaten and bleeding out next to her, Spike rolled out of his head once he saw the ground and quickly found his armor was all but gone, he shook the flames out and Maud walked to him as she pulled a rolled-up cloth from her belt and tossed it to him, Spike unrolled it and quickly covered his shame with the simple purple robe, using the rope that it had been wrapped in like a belt. The Two turned their attention to the middle head and found it was staring blankly ahead, showing no signs of movement. "It's in shock," Spike realized after a moment "With the other two heads dead it has full control of the body and it's overwhelmed," The two were about to attack when it simply fell backward, Maud walked up to its foot and put her hand on the ankle after a second she sighed "overstimulated," She said with relief in his voice "It just had a heart attack, guess we aren't going to hell today," She made her way back to her friend so they could head back when they heard a laugh. "What a fun choice of words," Grogar said as he walked out from behind the creature, more monstrous screams could be heard in ponyville and the trio watched as many large monsters began converging behind Grogar. "I just want you to know I love you," Spike said as he prepared himself "See you actual hell this time," "Love ya to buddy," Maud agreed as she clenched her fist "Let's be as big an inconvenience as we possibly can," they declared in unison as they gave a final fist-bump before running at Grogar. Celestia frowned as she looked at the carnage, hundreds of small monsters had broken through the front gate and were attacking, Luna was at the entrance of the Night unite's underground sleeping quarters and was blocking it off with magic, only those wearing the right armor could get thought it, Twilight and Cadance were busy with the three elements keeping the larger monster's at bay, she waited for it, she knew he was coming. At the sound of wood breaking she turned and watched Grogar walk into her room, in one hand he was dragging a mare in the Night unit armor, in the other was Spike. She wanted to help them but she could see just from looking at them that they were both long dead. "A lot of people are gonna be mad about him," Celestia said as she looked at Spike before turning to the other one, "And I imagine she had a family waiting for that will never fully recover from the news," Celestia looked at Grogar, who didn't say anything, just stood there smiling smugly. "Why'd you drag them up to me?" She demanded as she motioned to the fight taking place below "Surly you had a juice harvest to choose from," "These two attacked me," Grogar said "knowing full well they would die, even said that their only goal was to be as big of an inconvenience they could, just wanted to show you the faces of the first one's who died because of your pride," Celestia bit her lip as Grogar continued talking "I offered to end this months ago, all I had where two simple demands...well that's not entirely true but the only creature it would have inconvenience was you, instead you declined and now these two, and so many more are dead," Celestia stared him down and lit his horn, "Go ahead," he said, dropping the corpses "Kill me, but I currently have hundreds of thousands of monsters laying in wait around every single equestrian town, city, and village, Kill me and the signal I'm magically emits cuts off and all of them go savage, you may win, but your country will die and some other villain will take advantage," Celestia cut of her magic and stared at Grogar in silence. "Oh don't look at me like that, it's not like I'm demanding you let me rut you or something, just a vial of blood is all I need from you personally, although the demands have changed," Celestia stood without response for a moment, looking at Spike and the unknown mare before looking up at Grogar. "What are they?" She asked. "First," Grogar said, holding up one finger "I want you to surrender all control of Tartarus to me alone and let me rule over it," he smiled "The second one is the only new one, I want ownership of all the souls who died in this battle, just so you can't shove all these deaths off by telling yourself they got a peaceful afterlife, no...no there all going to spend the rest of eternity in Tartarus because of you, And finally I want a vial of your blood and some of your magic so that I may make an heir for myself, one that you won't be able to fight against without any attachments, one that will be both my and your biological child," Grogar held out his hand as his horns began glowing "Do we have a deal?" Celestia held out her hand and shook his. "We do," She agreed as she felt the ownership of Tartarous fade from her soul, instantly all the monsters outside turned into ash, being sent to Tartarous by Grogar, Celestia watched as Spike and the unknown one jolted up, their souls being forced back into their corpses. "Um?" Maud said as she looked at her cold dead hands and put them over the large empty hole in her belly that was devoid of organs, "What the actual fuck?" Spike's head moved around but he wasn't looking at anything, his eyes having been crushed. "Great now I'm blind and dead," He said angrily as Maud reached out to him and helped him up. Spike moved his head around and grumbled, "What's happening, Maud are you there? can you still see?" "Princess Celestia just sold me your souls," Grogar said simply "Because she cares more about her own image than letting those who died for her have a peaceful afterlife," before either of them could respond he raised his hands and they dissolved into ash as they were sent to Tartarous. Grogar turned to the Princess and held out his hands, "Now then, as for the final item on our deal," Celestia sat in silence in the War room, she had a few bandages around her right arm hiding stitches and she was physically weak after having given up Tartarous and having been temporarily drained of magic, around her sat the princesses, none of them were having a good time, Pinkie was sobbing into the table with Rainbow dash doing her best to comfort her morning friend by saying that both Maud and Spike had gone out as heroes. "So we lost," Celestia said in despair, "We lost the war, we lost Tartarous, and we lost a lot of soldiers," She frowned as she held her tongue, not willing to admit to selling the souls of the fallen to Grogar knowing it would only make the despair worse for those who had lost loved ones, "We must inform the soldiers and the rest of Equestria, the War is over, and the enemy was victorious," The room began emptying out, leaving only Celestia and Luna alone. "I told you," Luna said looking at her sister, "I told you as soon as he made the offer the first time that if you didn't give in he'd make you given in to worse demands," "Well, why didn't you accept them then?" Celestia bit back angrily. "I tried," Luna said angrily "But he made it very clear that it was either your child or war and in the end, he got both," "I couldn't just let him-" Celestia attempted to say only to be cut off by Luna. "I told you, he told you, Discord fucking showed up and told you there was no winning this and you still chose war!" Luna stood up and headed to the door "You chose to let all of them die," She added before opening the door and leaving, slamming the door behind her, Celestia sat along in the room, rubbing at the wound on her arm that had been used to create a child. Grogar made his way down the stairs of death, closing the opening behind him as he did so, in his arms was a bundle of cloth holding his newly born child, now being the ruler of Tartarous he lit his horns and teleported to where he had sent the ones he had hand-selected to be his personal minions, upon arriving he found the long empty cages of Tirek and Cozy glow, sitting in wait for him was Cerberus, and being forced to bow to him where Maud and Spike. "Hello," he said casually, visibly startling Spike. "Oh sweet Celestia, I'm actually blind," He said as he moved his head around in a vain attempt to look at his surroundings "And this place is super echoey, where is he?" "Directly in front of us," Maud informed him, and Spike turned his head so he was mostly facing Grogar and greeted him. "Hi um...Lord Grogar?" he said, unsure how to address the owner of his soul. "Lord will do," Grogar agreed "Didn't think your lack of eyes would persist after death, I'll have to find some way to fix that, but in honor of knowingly sacrificing yourselves just to try and slow me down you shall be the head's of my new court, first things first I'll need to fix this place up to my liking, now then, Rise before your lord and come say hello to your mini-lord," Grogar moved the blankets and allowed Maud to see his daughter, she was blue in color, her mane was white with a streak of Pink running down the middle, she had a dark Blue unicorn horn, she had Grogar's ears and his set of bottom snaggle teeth, she had large wings and looked more like a foal than a buck. Upon her opening her eyes they saw that she had Magenta eyes and when the baby started laughing and kicking out she saw that the foal's hooves were the same shade of dark blue as her horns. "How lovely," Maud said before noticing the confused look on Spike's eyeless face. "It's a baby alicorn, "she whispered to him, and Spike looked even more confused. "How long have we been down here?" He demanded, once again trying to look around. "About an hour?" Maud guessed as Grogar looked at his daughter. "Let's see, now for the name, I'll name you Selina, great name right?" He looked over to Minions with a happy grin. "Yeah, good name," Maud agreed. "A Very fitting name," "I dunno what she looks like but I bet it works wonders," "Good sucking up," Grogar congratulated before turning his attention back to his daughter, "Now, time to get to work," Author's Note Foal - baby pony Buck - baby ram Enjoy this story, I'll be posting this and one other chapter, just a little something to keep you at my readers entertained while I work on other stuff //-------------------------------------------------------// Typical Tartarus Tuesday //-------------------------------------------------------// Typical Tartarus Tuesday a repetitive ticking noise filled a room that had been silent up to that point, it continued in perfect rhythm, getting louder with each tick, After 30 seconds the room filled with noise as Selina shot out of her bed and cried out. "Alright, I'm up," She yawned after her words and looked over as the source of the ticking was silence and her loyal servant stopped messing with the clock, she stood before her in a flowing dress with a floral pattern with a belt around her waist, without looking away from her she bent over and set the clock exactly where he had found it and put his hands together, letting them slide past one another and into the others sleeve before bowing and happily declaring in both a male and female voice. "Happy Birthday Mistress," She looked at her, and her tired face turned into a smile. "Oh my gosh, I totally forgot!" "We figured," She replied as she held up a set of clothes for Selina, "Which is why we woke you up a little earlier than usual so you could properly get ready for your big day," she set the clothes on the floor of her bed. Selina happily got out of her bed and hurriedly stripped off her pajamas and got into her favorite set of casual clothes, a torn-up Black T-shirt, and a simple pair of Blue jeans, along with a pair of spiked wrist bands, once she was dressed she turned to Maudie. "Repairs?" She asked as she gave her servant a once over. "Come on now Maudie, strip down so I can check," The Dress faded away and revealed that while the servent had a female form it posed the reproduction system of a male dragon, its body was purple and its mane was Green. "We do not require repairs," Maudie replied "we are no longet mortal and our body can not be destroyed for long" "Well, either way," Silena muttered, clearly enjoying the view of Maudie in the nude "I like to check to make sure, how about them peepers?" Maudie leaned forward and opened her eyes as wide as they could go, they were Glowing yellow where they should have been white, while the puppies were neon Blue. Selina moved her hand to the right and only one of Maudie's eyes followed her hand, the other staring firmly at her face. Selina frowned and reached out, forcefully pulling out the unmoving eye, Maudie showed no signs of offense to this action and proceeded to stand at attention as Selina popped the eye in her mouth before spitting it out. "This one needs a deep clean," She said as she opened her bedside table, pulling out a jar overflowing with eyes, she took one out and popped it into Maudie's vacant right eye hole while dropping the old one in, the new eye having Pink Pupil. "Good, Maudie please go to my father and ask him if he remembered my birthday," Maudie nodded as the ground around her erupted with wood, after a second she was encased in an unmarked Coffin and shot into the ground, leaving no trace he had been there. "Woot," Selina cheered, "One year closer to 18," In another part of the large castle that made up the home of Grogar and Selina Maudie's coffin broke through the floor and released her from it, she walked out and looked up with a smile. "Lord Grogar," He called, in front of her sat Grogar, who was gargantuan in size as he sat in his throne, his take over of Tartarus had given him enough power to slowly shape the land and eventually allowed him to create a spectral avatar that could interact with the world around him, giving him the look and power of a giant, Maudie watched as Grogar lifted his hoof and frowned "Oh dear," She managed to say before the large hoof crushed her, Grogar was looking to his left dully with a yawn, unaware his servant had even entered the room and had started tapping his hoof, Beneath his hooves the gore that was Maudie began swirling away from him and reformed good as new, her smile returned and she set her arms out straight before bending them at the elbows in an upward angle and laying her hands out flat, the ground beneath her cracked and a large throned black vine curled beneath her before rocketing her up to Grogar's eye length. "Maud, Spike!" Grogar greeted, happy to have a reason to do anything "What brings you two down to these parts? Selina, need some alone time?" "Selina sent us to ask if you remembered that today was her birthday," They replied simply. "Oh shit," Grogar said as he stood up straight "Is that today?" "Indeed sir," They confirmed with a nod "Her 16th," "Ah no," Grogar got up, and in his hast accidentally swatted Maudie across his throne room, Grogar's larger avatar dissolved and returned the Ram to his normal size. He waited as Maudie recovered from splattering against the floor, "Tell me you..." "Set up a party?" They asked "Yes, and we got her a gift from you," "I'm so happy I killed you two," Grogar said as he patted them on the back. "I am aware, you say that very often sir," "Alright, take me to the Party," Grogar and Selina sat at a table in a large ballroom, the rest of the room was decked out in decorations and a small pile consisting of four presents was waiting for Selina, altho both she and Grogar knew that it was the same thing she had been given for the last 9 years, a knife that was half an inch longer than the one she had given last year, a hat of some kind, and from a hand made stuffed animal that was made of cannibalized parts of other stuffed animals, and the last one would be the one they put Grogar's name over, a random book that they had stolen from the library. "So," Grogar said as he and Silena ate their party meal "How are things going with you?" "Same old, same old," Selina said as she waved her fork around, "Go on a walk around the castle with Maudi, torment the other staff members with Maudie, Go to the casino with Maudie, make sure Maudie doesn't have any parasites eating away at them, check if they need repairs, play around in my room, do some experiments with their bodies and whatnot, I decided to remove the dragon tail but I've added a long tongue, should be fun to watch them eat with it," She yawned and looked over at her servant, They Stood directly in the doorway, They had their arms crossed behind their back, were standing at attention, and had vines covering the entrance. "You could come and join us," Grogar called over to them, Maudie replied instantly, their two voices in perfect unison. "By order of Grogar, we are under no circumstances allowed to join him and his daughter while they are eating, we are to stand guard at the nearest door and only speak when spoken to," Their line's spoken they went back to existing in silence. "Oh yeah," He grumbled "I forget about that sometimes," "Could you unorder them?" Silena asked, vaguely hoping something had changed since the last time she had asked. "under no circumstances," Grogar repeated "Me changing my mind is a circumstance, so no all I can do has been done, there no longer allowed to follow order with under no circumstance added to them but they still have to follow any of them that they had already been told to follow, and I made a lot of stupid rules before finding out I couldn't change 'em," "This is so boring," Silena whined as she started playing with her food, "There's never anything fun to do down here," She bite her own tongue before adding, "That's a lie," She turned to Maudie with a smile "you're a lot of fun," She said waving at her servants. "Thank you, Ma'am," They replied before going back to silence. "It's just...things are so repetitive," "Well," Grogar said as she stroked his beard "I could...maybe see if your mother would be interested in a sort of visitation period, maybe you could spend a year or two in Equestria, spend some time with your mother should bring about the changes you require," "I have a mom?" Silena asked in shock, making Grogar stop mid-bite. "I am a shitty dad," he noted before turning to Maudie. "You know where Celestia is right?" "Yes," Maudie confirmed, "she is probably somewhere in Canterlot, casually being a bitch or maybe actively being one?" Maudie tapped her chin before shrugging "Whatever she's doing she's definitely being a bitch about it," She decided before going back to being silent. Grogar squinted at them as he chuckled. "Did I tell you to insult her, or are you guys just doing it out of spite," "Spite," Maudie replied without a moment wasted on thinking it over. "Well, just in case, I command that you be polite to who you see fit, and be rude to who you see fit," "Very well sir," They said in unison. "I'm done eating, you can come over here and be you now," Maudie rushed to Silena in excitement. "Open This one first please," She asked sweetly before looking to another "No, wait this one is way cooler," she frowned "But that one has the most style," Silena simply laughed and began opening her presents while Grogar made his plans carefully. "Maudie," He said getting her attention, "I have a task for you after the party," Celestia sat on her throne as she and Twilight dealt with a recurring issue that was slowly becoming more drastic with each year. "...and so we Can't," Twilight said angrily "Grogar's last insult was to destroy the corpses of all he killed so they could neither be identified nor given a proper burial," "I don't believe that crap in the slightest," Ember spat back, she was standing before the Two Princesses with Throax at her side, neither looking happy at the explanation they were being given, "Why the hell would Grogar waist his fucking time burning corpses? He gains nothing from it, we all know he was trying to hurt her, not the world! He had literally no reason to destroy the bodies," "Have you considered that this reaction your having might have been his goal?" Celestia asked peacefully "you have come to me at least once a year with this same issue Dragon Lord Ember," She kept her temper calm and her words free of personal feelings, "Have you considered he may have Killed Spike and destroyed his remains to inside a war between Ponies, Dragons, and Changelings?" "Well if that is his plan, somepony should tell him it's fucking working," Ember replied venomously "Think your calm words will soothe me over?" Ember literally spat on the floor before continuing "I heard about how he was treated while he worked in your fucking army, his last days of life shouldn't have been spent being tormented by some noble pony fuckers," Ember pointed to Twilight, looking away from Celestia "And that's another thing, I still want the head of all those shits for what they did," "Ember the army was vast, I couldn't tell you who was stationed where because the mare in charge of that died in Grogars Final Assult, her quarters were burned to the ground, all records of who was supposed to be stationed up front where lost, for all we know they died in the assault to!" "Oh, well you hear that Thorax?" Ember demanded turning to her friend "All the records were conveniently destroyed, what was that part of Grogars master plan to!?" "Enough," Thorax suddenly cut in "Ember you're mad, Believe me I understand, but nothing you say here will make them say anything different, I hate to be the instigators of violence, but I am prepared to declare war if the ponies who locked my friend out of the fort and left him to die aren't brought to me by this time next month," Thorax turned around and walked away. "Dam," Ember laughed "Well you heard Him, best believe I'll be backing his ass," Celestia got to her hooves and held up her hands, clearly about to call for Thorax to halt when the ground began shaking. Ember stumbled momentarily before following Thorax and Twilight's lead and hovering slightly in the air to keep from falling over. Celestia fell back into her throne as the floor began cracking before a white ivory coffin burst from the ground. Inside both Maud and Spike smiled, having gone out of their way to ask Selina to take them apart and make them a sight to behold. "Princess..." Maud called out in a monotone call. her voice earned no emotional reaction from the current party, a fact that quickly changed when Spike spoke. "...Celestia," He laughed out as the Coffin began falling apart around them, the upper right half of their body was Maud while the left half was Spike, their torsos were sown and stabled together at the shoulder, Allowing them both the move their heads independently. They still had both of their arms attached to their free shoulder, but the missing arms had been attached just above their respective waists, with Maud having Spike's spare and Spike having her's. the large stomach hole that had killed Maud was gone. Both of Spikes' legs were on the right, while both of Maud's hooves made up the left side. Spike's tail was coming out of the small of their back and they both had only one glowing yellow eye, Maud with the Pink pupil and Spike with the Blue. a simple dress was stretched over them, with multiple rips and tears showing allowing their extra arms and the tail to be seen freely. "We come with a message," They declared, doing their best to make it look as though every movement was pain "From Grogar," They achieved their desired reaction when Celestia had to turn away as her lunch forced its way back up. "What's wrong?" Maud questioned. "Something the matter?" Spike asked, the two speaking together in unison. "S...Spike?" Twilight asked in horror "Oh my..." Twilight fell to the ground and lost her lunch as Spike turned to her, his lower jaw slowly sliding off he popped it back into place with a sickening sound that made Ember shiver, Throax now lay unconscious on the floor. "Your Message," Celestia demanded, already trying to think of how to explain Spike's presence to Her Faithful student and his two friends. "What, no hello for me?" Maud asked, "Suppose my name wasn't worth learning was it?" Spike shook his head before the two began speaking in unison. "Lord Grogar wishes to speak with you about the future of the child you had with him, Selina," "The Fuck!?" Ember practically screamed out, whether about the Frankenstein's corpse with Spike on it or the news of Celestia having a child with Grogar was unknown as Spike turned to her and she too lost her lunch and was forced to turn away, unable to look at her friend's empty eye socket. "When," Celestia demanded. "Tomorrow at noon a doorway to Tartarus will open right where we are standing," Maud and Spike pointed to the floor as they spoke, "Whether you come is up to you entirely, though it will not close until you speak with him about your daughter, so ignore us at your own peril," The Ivory Coffin began enclosing the duo and they raised their hands and flipped her off. "We don't forgive you for what you did to us," They called out before the Coffin encased them and shot back into the ground, the floor bearing no signs of having ever been damaged. "Everyone leave now," Celestia demanded. "Like hell," Ember cried back as she tried to stifle the tears in her eyes "What the fuck did you do!?" "Twilight," Celestia said looking to her student, who looked horrified at what she had just witnessed "I need to go prepare, take care of Ember and Thorax," Celestia teleported away and appeared in her room, falling to her bed as she arrived. "I just wanted to retire," She sighed "Why did I ignore Luna's warning and come back?" She held her hand to her head and did he best not to think of what she had just witnessed, "Selina," She said as she thought back on the message "Her name is Selina," Grogar's castle was filled with lesser demons preparing for Celestia's arrival, the pitiful souls were nothing more than silhouettes of the creatures they had been in life and all looked the same to Grogar and Silena and could only be separated by race and gender and color, Maud and Spike could tell each individual lesser apart from one another presumably because Grogar had made them Greater Demons upon being sold their souls, as such they had the same power over the lesser that Grogar and Silena had over them. Under their direct command were a trio of Griffion souls, a Trio of Mares, and a Trio of Dragon souls, past those nine souls all the rest had a rank that was dictated based on the color indicating the severity of their sin's in their past life. The more severe the sins the lower they ranked. they were at the moment doing their respective tasks, Maud and Spike had been recombined into Maudie, and their subordinates were hard at work the Griffins were overseeing the cleaning of the castle inside and out while the Dragons oversaw that a lavish meal that could be eaten by the living was made, and the Mares were tasked with making sure the Military might of Grogar's Kingdome was on display, without making it look like they were displaying them. With Grogar taking the scenic route through Tartarous to the stairs of death Silena had full rein of the castle in his absence. Its usual empty halls were now a bustle with lesser demons making sure every inch was cleaned and set in order. Selina was walking with Maudie to get a look at what was perceived as a normal area in the living world. "What happened to the fountain?" Selina asked as she put her hand in the crystal clear water flowing from it "Why is it full of bathing liquid," "Those who live are required to drink water," she explained simply "They also find blood to be quite disgusting so we have replaced the Blood fountain with one that is usually seen on the surface," "Weird," Silena said "But this crap doesn't taste like anything," She stood back up and pointed to it "So if they drink it, what do they bathe in?" "Also water," Maudie replied. "Fucking gross," She said sticking her tongue out "What else do they drink up there?" "The same kind of things you do," Maudie esponded "Just wanted to warn you about the water, it's the most abundant drink available, as it falls from the sky from time to time," "You're really not selling me on this place," Selina replied as she shook the water off her hands, "So what else is normal in Equestria?" "You won't be permitted to walk around in the nude just because you feel like it," Maudie noted simply. "Wha-" Selina blinked at that "But what if it gets hot?" "You will still have to wear clothing unless you are on a designated beach, oh and a beach is a place where a massive area of water meets the ground, typically characterized as having a lot of sand," Silena let out a groan. "Maudie, do you think you could tell me something that would make me want to actually visit the surface?" "Unlike here, where the temperature consisted of hot, hotter, and hottest, they also have colder temperatures like warm, cold, and freezing cold," Silena pondered on the idea of the temperature going down instead of up. "Weird," She muttered "Is it comfortable?" "Sometimes," Maudie replied "Sometimes however the water turns into snow, and you can use it to throw at people you dislike, as your not allowed to stab people in equestrian, seeing how they can't just walk it off," "Fastly falling back to boring," Selina complained. "I'm sorry," Maudie said with a frown "But there is so much to say about Equestria and we can't fully express how much we miss it," "oh," Selina turned to Maudie with a frown "I forgot about that, you use to live up there right?" "Yes," Maudie replied "It's where most of our families are, Maud's sisters, Spike's Sister, and Brother," "Stop," Selina said immediately "you two have siblings?" "Also Parents," They replied "Although Spike was adopted by Ponies so don't get too excited about...," "Sold," Selina said instantly "If I go up, you can come with me and see how they're doing," "They will be exceptionally disturbed by our presence," Maudie assured her "Spike's Sister was with your mother and was violently sick at our appearance," "Why?" Selina asked in confusion "Eh' whatever, still wanna meet her," Selina put her hand around Maudie and smiled. "Maudie, you and I are going to Equestria, even if my mother doesn't want anything to do with me, I'll just wait till I'm 18 and you and I are outta here!" A Loud bell tolled across the castle and Selina patted Maudie. "welp Dad's home, Come on Maudie I wanna meet my mom," //-------------------------------------------------------// Grogar's Family Dinner //-------------------------------------------------------// Grogar's Family Dinner Celestia stood silently as she waited for the door to Tartarous to open. she was accompanied by three others who would be joining her in Tartarous. Twilight hadn't been able to get over what she had seen and after telling her friends and family with as little detail as possible Shining and Pinkie Pie had agreed to Join Celestia, both deciding they would love their siblings no matter what they had become, the last one was Ember, who had been talked out of war only by being convinced to go to tartarous and see if Spike could be saved in some way. "Let it be known," Ember said low enough so Celestia couldn't hear, "That if I don't return with Celestia, you are to lay siege to Equestria," Before her stood a handful of dragons who had come to wish her luck and Thorax "Understood," Her Dragons replied quietly with a salute. "And you better believe I'll back them up," Thorax added as he also saluted her. Ember smiled at her friend and hugged him, just in case she was being led to her doom. While Ember made her emergency plans Pinkie was making plans of a different kind "I brought pictures," Pinkie said as she held up two large binders in each hand "One for Maud, and one for Spike, They probably lost everything when they died, so just in case I never get to see either of them again..." Pinkie sniffed "...oh it's just not fair," She sighed "Maud was the best sister I could have asked for, and Spike brought peace between Ponies and Dragons, and Changelings to, how could they have been sent to Tartarous, they even sacrificed themselves to try and stop Grogar," "Maybe they sold out," one of Shinings Guards pondered, he was immediately knocked over by his fellow guards. "I'm just saying," "The Great Spike saved us from Sombra," A mare guard said angrily "How dare you even suggest he 'sold out' to Grogar!" "Stop," Shinning demanded "Stand in line and leave him to his opinions, although I suggest you keep your opinions about my brother to yourself soldier," Shining turned back to ask what was in the picture books when the ground began shaking and a brimstone archway constructed itself before them, Grogar stood silently waiting for them, his hands behind his back and a smirk on his face. "Hello," He greeted "I should warn any who might want to smack me that it won't end well," Grogar turned away "Come then, and bring as many companions as you wish, I'm sure Maud and Spike would love to tell them all about what you did," He chuckled, knowing full well that Celestia had kept secret that she had sold all who had died for her to him to stop the war she knew she would lose. The Four followed after him, All restraining their desire to attack the Ram, knowing they would instantly be beaten by him while in his domain. "Oh and be warned," Grogar "Should you die while your down here, your soul will become my property and you'll lose your ticket to Elysium should you be destined for its plains upon your death, that said if any of you have committed heinous acts then have no fear, you're destined to be mine sooner or later regardless," No one in the group slowed down at his words and they continued down the staircase to the underworld, the entrance closing behind them. "So...you have a house or something?" Shining asked as he looked out across the vast fields of Tartarous. "I have a castle," Grogar replied, "And I must say your brother, and Miss Laughter's sister, have both done wonders keeping it in order for me, they did so well I decided to give them to Selina as a present, she loves tearing them apart and putting them back together again," He chuckled at the look on Celestia's face "Yes, your daughter was responsible for what you saw yesterday not me, wanted to make a good first impression," Grogar laughed as another doorway opened at the bottom of the stairs "Come them, this way to my humble abode. Grogar, Celestia, and her three companions all walked through the door and found themselves in a massive hall, lining the wall shadowy creatures stood in line, all armed to the teeth, Another door was opened to their right and Grogar lead them inside as his army all broke formation the second the door closed and scattered. The Dining table was Triangular in shape, with flat ends instead of points, Grogar sat at one of the ends, Celestia took the end to Grogars left and her three companions sat opposite of Grogar to avoid sitting next to him. "Where's Spike?" Ember demanded. "And Maud," Pinkie added, "I want to see my friend and my sister, even if they are stitched together," "Oh I doubt Maudie still looks like that," Grogar replied casually. "Maudie?" Shining questioned. "Well their always cobbled together in one body, and Selina couldn't think of a good combination of their names, and they usually walk around in a modified version of Maud so we settled on Maudie, see their bodies rotted away a long time ago, but Selina can combine their soul in whatever way she wishes, using every piece or leaving some parts out, Sometimes Maudie has a tale, sometimes she has wings, sometimes fur, sometimes scales, and sometimes both, hooves or feet, Just depends on how Selina wants, although it's always a female body with the male reproductive," Grogar laughed at the odd looks in response to the last bit, "What? why stop a tiny little fetish when she lives in a literal hell? My daughter wants a dick girl she can have one, I couldn't care less what she does to Maudie, their soul is hers to toy with," "I don't like this kid," Ember decided. Grogar looked at the door they had entered through and saw Maudie and Selina peeking in. "So, which one's my mother?" Selina asked. "Let's see, the pink one is Maud's sister," "Huh!?" Selina lost all interest in trying to find her mother and looked to Pinkie. "The white Unicorn is Spike's adopted brother, the blue dragon is a friend of Spike's, and the white Alicorn would be your mother," "Yeah," Selina said "So were Spike and the Blue dragon-like...friends or 'friends'" "I do not understand your question," Maudie replied casually, her tone mixed between a confused Spike and a Monotone Maud. "Were they friends with benefits or just boring old friends?" "Spike failed to get it on with any female in his life," Maudie informed. "What about Maud?" Selina asked curiously. "She had a boyfriend but they never did much, he died early in the war and ascended to the good place," "So...what I'm hearing is you two need to get laid?" Selina asked with a mischievous smile. "We are here to meet your mother," Maudie informed her "Our sex life, or lack of one, is irrelevant," "Oh can't wait for that sweet eighteen," Selina chuckled "Anyway, Mother is the white Alicorn right?" "Indeed," Maudie replied as she moved her arms into a V shape and held her arms out flat "Enjoy your dinner," Selina was picked up with vines and forced into the room, being placed in a chair next to Grogar, who had telepathically ordered Maudie to bring Selina into the room. "Thank you, Maudie," Grogar said as Maudie stood with her arms behind her back and vines covering the door. "Indeed," She replied, drawing everyone's gaze to her. "Eeeee," Pinkie squealed and shot out of her seat, jumping onto Maudie, who took the hug tackle without so much as flinching. "You can talk to that one," Grogar said with a wave. "Pinkie," Maudie said with glee "We missed you so much, how is your life?" "Just give me a minute," Pinkie said as she held onto Maudie sobbing "Just...just a minute," "Very well," Maudie said as she held out one arm and began rubbing Pinkies back, the other staying firmly in place. "So," Selina said looking at Celestia, who looked at her silently "You're...tall, let's talk about that, you inject yourself with magic, you know kinda like how Dad did?" She asked. "It's...a pleasure to meet you," Celestia replied, not sure what to say upon meeting her nearly-adult child for the first time, Shining and Ember had lost all interest in the group and had joined Pinkie in investigating Maudie. "So," Grogar said as black vines began setting the table "let's cut to the chase, this is extremely awkward for us all, and trying not to acknowledge that will just make this worse, Selina your mother and I had you because we hate each other, one day you'll pick a side and probably kill one of us, but for now seeing how you would like to ask your mother if she will take you in so you can experience Equestria, I felt I should give you the option, since I'm confident that upon seeing how sickening it is up there you'll side with me and we can begin wiping them off the map," Grogar put his hands together with a smile "and Discuss," "I dunno," Selina muttered "I kind of wanna kill you so I can take full ownership of Maudie," "I'm willing to give you full control of them once you've killed your mother," "And yet if she kills you she gets Maudie either way does she not?" Celestia cut in, realizing her life was currently on the line. "True," Selina muttered "Guess I'll just kill whichever of you I like the least?" Selina nodded "Yeah, that seems right, guess I have to get to know mom before I decided if I like her or not, so, what do you say?" Selina held out her hands "Mother-daughter bonding? If not we can just hold off, I'm not exactly in a hurry to kill one of you so I can wait, I mean I kill you and you go to 'the good place' and if I kill him I get to throw him into the deepest pit of Tararous and laugh as he tries to climb out to no avail," Selina chuckled "All good choices," "What more," Celestia added quickly "Should you end up liking Equestria, you can still own Taratous and live in Equestria, as I use to do the very same thing," "Dammit," Grogar muttered and Selina nodded. "Oh yeah, hadn't thought of that, guess it would be easier to live up there if everyone loved me for killing Grogar," Selina sighed "Guess it all hinges on if I like it up there or not," while the family talked Maudie answered an important question for Pinkie Pie. "As per Lord Grogar's order, I am only permitted to talk to you," Maudie replied as she ignored Ember and Shining's attempt to talk to her "I am unable to interact with the others in any way unless through you until dinner has subsided," "You hear that," Pinkie asked slyly "I'm their favorite so I get to be the medium," "That is not what they said," Ember said angrily "Now ask Spike why the hell he's in hell," "Alright, Maudie why are you in Tartarous," Before Maudie could respond Grogar beat them to it. "Maudie you're forbidden from answering that question," Maudie bit down on her own lip instantly, her sharp jagged teeth cutting into her lips as she was forced to keep her mouth shut. "Oh she did not like that," Grogar noted as Maudie angrily scratched at her own face, visibly outraged she had been forced to keep silent "Haven't seen them struggle against an order since I told them they had to breastfeed Selina. "We were together like this when he made us do that," Maudie whispered to Pinkie, "It was a...it happened and we hate it," "Wait your dead," Shining muttered "And one of you is a male dragon, how do you even produce milk?" Maudie made no attempt to answer the question as she was instead standing at attention again, the tears in her lips already repairing themselves. Shining looked to Pinkie who just shook her head, "I don't want to hear the in-depth explanation of that one," She decided. "Listen," Ember said to Maudie in a quiet voice "I don't know why you're down here but Spike is in that mess, so I'll do everything in my power to free you from this hell hole," Maudie predictably didn't acknowledge Ember had Spoken and the trio returned to their seats as the vines finished setting the table for the first course and a set of chimes began ringing around the room. "Ah, Dinner," Grogar cheered as the food was presented to them, all of the guests had a tray of vegetarian extra cheese lasagna, with the exception of Selina, who had specifically asked for her meal upfront to be to her liking, it looked the same at first but after a moment Pinkie spotted that there was something extra in Selina's food. "That's a lot of sauce," She noted as Selina's maw was slowly being stained with red. "Hm?" Selina looked confused at the statement "Maudie did you add extra sauce to mine?" "No ma'am," Maudie confirmed "As per your request the only addition to your food was the grounded meat of my left arm, with an extra drizzle of blood for flavoring," Shining gagged on his food and spat it out. "There's no meat in this," Ember noted as she tried to find some extra taste in her food. "Better not be," Selina replied "Only person allowed to enjoy Maudie's body is me," Pinkie's ears perked high at that and Selina could tell what she was thinking "No, not like that, Dad said if I forced them to sleep with me while I'm still young it might actually taint their soul, so I'm waiting for my eighteen birthday before I enjoy Maudie to her full potential," "You're very...attracted to your servant I see," Celestia noted. "Yeah well Dad over there wasn't exactly the parenting type," Selina noted "So Maudie took care of my every need, and she's never once disappointed me," Pinkie covered her mouth as Selina continued eating her meal, the added blood dripping down her maw and onto the table. "I've lost my appetite," Pinkie decided, Shining mimicking her action, Ember simply took their plates and dumped them onto hers. "No need to let good food go to waste," Ember noted "And they still have an arm so I doubt it's really an inconvenience for them," Celestia forced herself to keep eating as she looked over at Maudie, who was silently glaring at her with a hate-filled smile. "So," Celestia said as she looked at Selina "When would you like to leave for Equestria?" "How about tomorrow morning?" Grogar recommended, "So you can pack..." "And say goodbye to your Maudie," Celestia added, resulting in Selina stopping the fork as it was on her way to her mouth. "Why would I say goodbye?" Selina asked "Maudie goes where I go, I go to Equestria then Maudie's coming with me, hell taking Maudie to see her friends and family is what convinced me to even give the place a try, It honestly sounds like a drag," "Selina," Celestia said after putting her fork down "You can't bring them up there with you, they're no longer part of the living world," "Yes I can," Selina countered "She sent you the message, so she can go up to equestrian, so she is going with me," "You can't just...take two souls, shove them together, and have them accompany you in Equestria, you'll cause problems for everyone involved, yourself included" "Sounds like your problem," Selina retorted "but hey if you'd rather I just side with dad feel free to keep arguing this point," she took another bite of her bloody lasagna before adding firmly "Maudie and I are a Package deal, either both of us go or neither of us does," Celestia bites her lip as she looked at the fusion of the two souls she had personally condemned to eternity in Tartarous, Maudie just smiled at her, knowing full well they were winning regardless of what she chose to do. "Could I at least ask for a moment along with them?" Celestia pleaded of Selina, "Just one minute along is all I ask," "Like right now?" Selina asked curiously "Sure, Maudie go ahead and take my mom somewhere private, I'm generous so give her two minutes of your time once you reach the spot and then come right back," Maudie bowed at the command and walked to the door, Celestia got to her hooves and followed after the condemned entity before her. "So," Selina said as her mother left and she gave her attention to Pinkie "Since you knew both Maud and Spike, what were they like before they died? they've never told me much about what it was like for them before they died," "I would be more than happy to share after you wipe the blood of my sister off of your face," Pinkie said politely as she tried not to stare at Selina's blood-stained teeth while she smiled at her. Celestia said nothing as she followed after Maudie, she felt sick as the creature began ripping itself apart, and after a few steps she was instead following Spike and Maud as they took her to an empty room across the hall from the dining room, Celestia found herself in a Ballroom with the dup as they turned on the spot and crossed their arms. "Two minutes," They both said with venomous tones. "You two have a reason to be mad at me," Celestia said immediately "I can understand your personal vendettas to an extent, but by your own logic you should be just as mad, if not more so, at Grogar," "We can't fucking do anything to him," Spike shot back "We are bound to his word and when we bite back at him in the early days he told us to shut the fuck up, so if we try to bad mouth him we literally just explode," "He likes it when we complain about you," Maud countered "as such, you're the only one we can vent our rage to," Maud and Spike both shrugged and shook their heads. "Why don't you tell Selina that then?" Celestia asked "If she sides with me and ends Grogar, at the very least you two might be freed from Tartarous if Selina is willing to do so," "We love Selina," Spike said "Not in the way she loves us mind you, we're infinitely less wanting of an intimate relationship with the girl we raised from birth," "But we can't tell her this," Maud cut in "Grogar forbid it, he acts kind to us, but that is simply because we are his pawns to play, he can't beat you in a one-on-one fight even now, but he is far more cunning than you and as the war that led to our demise proved, he can more than easily use that to beat you. And his first step in the final battle is using us to manipulate Selina into acting against you," "Of course, Selina is clever and powerful," Spike noted "So, while I lack the free will to go against Grogars plan, I also lack the free will to go against her plan," "Good luck princess of the sun," Maud said as Spike and she started heading to the door. "The fate of the world rests in you being able to prove yourself a better mother than Grogar is a manipulator," The Two recombined into Maudie, who promptly flipped Celestia the bird. "We still fucking hate you by the by, try not to take it personally," Celestia watched them go and took a deep breath before following after them. "This is going to be very hard," Author's Note This entire story was made to help me with writer block, so I hold back nothing, everything about this is going to be a weird Ship wreck so get ready for some serious lack of a filter.