Ponysiders - Demise Livesby ByteChapters0) The Ravencolt (Prologue)1) A Portal to Somewhere2) Who He Is3) Honest Demise0) The Ravencolt (Prologue)Part Zero: The Ravencolt (Prologue) Note: Only the Prologue faintly follows the main storyline of the game, and although there may be references to it in other parts, I highly doubt I will use much of the game storyline. Also, the coloured names are referencing the games subtitles, as you can see if you watch the Crowfather scene here also, I wish to justify my use of HorseMAN; I don't think it matters :3. Before time was born, there was a bright city for the angels, and a dark realm for the demons... And then a third kingdom for ponykind. But Battle, Horseman of the Apocalyse, destroyed Equestria before it's appointed time. Or so it was claimed. To spare his brother from oblivion, a second rode forth, and his name was Demise. As Demise galloped towards the black citadel in the everfree forest that had been erected one hundred years after the apocalypse had ravaged Equestria, the ever present unique white raven, Dusty, flew alongside him, showing no emotion in his pitch black eyes. Of course, this was no longer a forest. No, things aren't ever that simple.. Many places had changed dramatically during the apocalypse, some had even broken away from the realm itself, as much of the once lush, green everfree forest had in this case. These things happen when your brother lets all hell break loose on the planet. Literally. Naturally, this hadn't been done on purpose. Well, at least, not on Battles' account, although he had unintentionally gone along with the angel/demon plan. When the angels had broken the elemental stones of the Horsemen, they had not planned on things going south as they did, they hadn't planned on failing to fix the stones once their objective had been completed. Heck, their objective didn't get halfway there. The point was for Demise that, whether he wanted to admit it or not, Battle had wreaked the apocalypse loose on Equestria, innocent of meaning to or not. And now? Now he was left to pick up the pieces. There was only one way to do this... He had to resurrect the pony race. He had to undo the apocalypse. Here I am... thought the masked pony as he stopped in front of the grand icy bridge leading into the black citadel of the Ravencolt. He made his approach to the bridge, ready for any surprises. Surprise. Five nasties popped right out of the ice of which thickly coated the bridge, the layer of snow above it flying straight into the wind as the skeletal creatures popped out. Only five... pondered Demise. He mentally grunted, expecting a better challenge. He had thought about that too soon. An additional five approached from behind them, having seemingly come from the citadel. That's better. -- That was a perk about being a nephilim. You didn't need a horn to do magic, making it much simple to use his favourite weapons: Scythes. It was even easier for him compared to what it had been for the other, normal nephilim, considering that he was a Horseman of the Apocalypse, therefore being a much more powerful being. His race, however, was something he didn't dare think about too long. Ever. Their souls still haunted him to this day, regardless as to the fact that the Ravencolt was currently in possession of them. He didn't regret the slaughter he had wrought to his own people, and even his own brother, Absolot, as he knew that balance would not have lasted if he and the others hadn't killed them. Still, they haunted him, and he refused to destroy the amulet containing them. If he found that the Ravencolt had destroyed the amulet... He would surely do something that both of them would regret. Deeply. Dead. Demise noted to himself has he continued towards the enormous black towering citadel, leaving a large pile of very frosty (And now very inanimate) bones in his wake. As the wind blew like a howling wolf, the grand bridge shined in all of its icy glory in the moonlight, Demise could sense that something was off... As he neared the great steel gates of the citadel, he looked at the five peaks of it, each a grand tower, and yet, even though the citadel was grand... It was ruined. Parts of it were... Flaking off. Literally flaking off and floating away. He could see two parts of the flaky citadel from where he was standing, that looked as though there had been other towers once standing tall and mighty over the icy landscape surrounding them. It was old, then... Somehow too old to exist there. Or it had been ravaged by other things. It was as he started to question something, of which the question was never finished, that he realised his mistake. CLANG He had took too much time inspecting the structure, as the gates had closed shut. By the nine hells... He cursed himself for not hurrying to the gates, and more so, as he found himself surrounded by roughly 23 average size skeletal ponies, all wearing minimal armour of which had all clearly seen better times. Not to mention the giant of a skeleton that stood in front, a huge axe hovering in front of it, glimmering in the moonlight. Demise grunted, before summoning all of his fury and channeling it straight to the front of his mind. Alas, the poor giant, though at least three times bigger than Demise was instantly sliced into two as the Harvester, Demises legendary scythe spiralled through the air from behind the giant and, making way through the giants spine with no effort, caused the fore mentioned slice. The Harvester continued to spiral in the same direction, before drifting slightly to one side, retaining the same velocity and spin, and then finally be caught in a... Skeletal hoof... And that hoof was Demise's own, with a flash of purple light, the rest of his body became a purely skeletal structure, of which was mostly covered by a dark purple cloak, complete with a hood that cast a shadow over his face. This transformation was a thing of glory, an amazing sight followed by a sense of dread, the feel of your death being close at hand and despair at the thought of it. None escaped the Reaper. "The Reaper is here!" Shouted a gravelly voice from somewhere amongst the group of spear wielding ice skeletons, in speech somewhere between a growl and a normal voice. "Kill hi-" SLASH The last sentence was cut short as he was torn, ripped and shredded into a hundred pieces by the large, skull embedded scythe of which was being controlled by none other than Demise. He then sprinted towards the enemies, right into their ranks. There was only 13 meters between him and them, and when they had both covered the distance all but save one meter, he acrobatically front flipped over all of them, landing on his hooves, and rending two of them in half with the harvester, one tried to stab at him but met only air as the Reaper sidestepped the blow, grabbed the skeletons skull and ripped it off. With the skull still in his hoof, he hurled it straight at an oncoming skeleton. Crack. The skeleton exploded in a rain of icy bones, leaving its hammer behind. Demise, still in Reaper form, ran straight for it, rolling to dodge an incoming attack from one of his attackers, he was right in front of the hammer. He picked it up in his dark purple coloured magic and swung it straight at the enemies, killing two. Double kill he thought to himself, wryly grinning under his hood and mask. He assumed an aggressive position and was about to run at the remaining skeletons. But before he could end the remaining enemies with a slash slash slash, a voice spoke out through the wind in a sort of loud whisper. "Enough..." All of the nasties surrounding him where quickly encased in ice, the ice working its way up their undead bodies from the ground up. It was the Ravencolt. There was no doubt about it to the Reaper, and so in a flash of light, the Robed figure was replaced with Demise, his usual self once again. "Ravencolt,", he muttered in a warning tone, inserting a pause between the name and sentence for emphasis "Show yourself... Now..." "And why would I do that? No. You will come to me." The Ravencolt said in a matter-of-factly tone. Bright purple, followed by darkness. Demise regained his conciousness on a cold surface, pushing himself up from the icy granite floor which he was sprawled on, his vision refocusing to adjust properly to his surroundings. "Voices... Always voices. Torment without end." groaned the Ravencolt in a pained tone. "Demise, have you come to take back that which you entrusted, or rather cursed me with?" "Easy, Ravencolt. I have not come to end your misery just yet." answered Demise. "Then what, pale one, is your business here? Tell me, before I realise that you have made a mistake in coming here...", said the Ravencolt, retaining his pained tone. The Ravencolt himself was an old stallion, with dark rings around his eyes as though he never slept, a white, slightly grey mane, with bushy eyebrows, showing only a fraction of his old age, and a blackish purple colour of fur to go with it. He also wore a coat with many raven feathers around the neck area, although the rest of the coat blended well with his fur, making only the feathers really show. There was one other important thing which he was wearing. One other very important thing. The amulet of the Nephilim souls. It was a green gem, cut into an upside-down triangular pyramid shape. It had a golden ring at the top of it for the iron chain it was bound on to loop through, thus binding it to the Ravencolt as the iron chain made a cross shape across his chest, tight enough to be unable to be removed by tugging, and yet loose enough to not cause... Too much discomfort for the Ravencolt. "I need not tell you, Keeper of Secrets. You already know.", Demise noted aloud. "Yes, quite... You would redeem your brother, redeem him by restoring something that cannot be restored... You are mad." "Then, is it such a wonder that you are the first I came to?", of course, this was a total deadpan sentence. "There is... A way... It is not an easy one. Especially not for the likes of you. You must return to the past,", as he spoke, he conjured a gateway, old Equestria shining through it. "And learn friendship. From six very famous ponies from the past of the third kingdom." The portal/gate dissipated as Demise walked to it. "Not so hasty, horseman. You will take this back!" he thrust the amulet outward as far as it would go, towards him. "No. You agreed to keep the amulet. That's final." Demise forcedly said, resisting the urge to threaten the old colt. "No, no, no... The voices, they torment and threaten me without end. This is not a choice. You WILL take it!" He then crushed the amulet in his hand, causing the shards to cut his hands and bloody them, before throwing them forward at such a high velocity that in a flurry of green material, they had permanently become embedded in Demise's right shoulder, causing him to clutch at his chest as the souls grabbed at his own soul with blinding fury. "I should kill you for that!", Shouted Demise, half groaning as he spoke, "But I can feel your end nearing anyway... You will not last long, old fool." "Maybe I will, maybe I won't." he replied, "But regardless, you must travel to the small town of ponyville, during the height of the reign of the monarchy it once had, Celestia and Luna's reign. Learn of friendship. Learn of the elements of harmony, find about the one power they have that no one but you can know. Not even the monarch. One that can save Battle. Good bye, old friend.", and with that, the Ravencolt summoned, once more, the portal through time and space. "Dusty." He said blankly, knowing full well the white raven could hear him. Not three seconds later and the raven had landed on his shoulder. "Let's go..." And so Demise stepped through the portal summoned by someone he didn't want to trust. 1) A Portal to SomewherePart One: A Portal To Somewhere Note: This is when the storyline turns from the original to original... If that makes sense. Also, if by this point, you're thinking 'man, he's spelling color and armor wrong. Well, wrong. I'm spelling it right, but I'm English. Not American/Canadian. Thank you. "Ugh... Where am I?", groaned Demise as he got up off the lush green grass ground which he was laying on. Slowly recovering from the teleport through time and space, he let his eyes adjust to his surroundings. "What... Dusty, see what you can fi-" "That will not be necessary, horseman.", said the Ravencolt, seemingly appearing out of nowhere and speaking in a calm demeanour. "I cannot stay here long, but you must listen; follow the road, it is close, but I cannot say in which direction. When you find the road, follow it until you come to a town. You can look out for yourself after that." "But Ravencolt, wh-" Demise would have continued, but the keeper of secrets had gone already. "Perfect.", he grunted. After roaming around for thirty minutes in the green meadow, he found the road, with the assistance of Dusty. The realm he was in was in the past, he knew that much, but what had the Ravencolt said about friend ships? 'Oh, friend...ship? Why in the nine hells would he have me find out about... *That? I doubt even Furiee would care about such trivial things. What ever. I just hope this doesn't turn out as stupid as it sounds.' So he was a... *Bit skeptical about the situation. But although he didn't know it, this pursuit would change him forever. "FOREVEERRR!" shouted a pink pony that popped out of nowhere in front of Demise. "What?" Seriously what? "Oh nothing, anyway-I'm-Pinkie-Pie-and-I-saw-you-walking-around-and-then-" "Calm down, give me the short version but slower. Also, what did you say your name was?" Demise questioned the random, eccentric pony. "My. Naaame. Iiiis. Piiinkiiie. Pieeee. Aaan-" "Normal speed..." He had only been talking to her for two seconds and was already getting tired of it... What was her problem? "My name is Pinkie Pie. I saw you walking around near the town and then I thought 'Omygosh I've never seen you before' and if I've never seen you before then that means you're new because I know everypony-" Demise groaned at the incoming assault of words, just wanting to move on. "And I mean, if you're new, I get to throw you a WELCOME PARTY! And I love parties and this is going to be SO fun and-" "Which way is the nearby town?" Demise asked her, growing bored of listening to her ramble. "we can- Oh it's that way!" She answered, pointing in the direction of the town he was heading for, as they were at a crossroad now and there was no sign. "Anyway we can have it at Sugarcube Corner and I can make cupcakes and-" She carried on with her pointless, persistent rambling, while Demise paid no attention, not caring anymore. "Demise, are you even listening? Helloooo?" Pinkie Pie asked. The mention of his name caught his attention even though he wasn't paying the slightest bit of interest. "No, I am not... Wait, how do you know who I am?" "Ohhh, it's obvious. You're one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I can tell because you're wearing the mask and have two scythes on your back and-" She carried on talking. He didn't care anymore. Not one bit. He was used to meeting some crazies and listening to them but this was just too much. He needed to get any information he could from her without going insane, and then be rid of this crazy pony. 'If I find the Ravencolt ever again...' He began thinking of ways to get payback for what was happening to him while the clearly clinically insane pony walked alongside him. -----фпПФФПпф----- Two minutes after he stopped caring the tiniest bit, he and the pink pony were still walking, and she had not stopped talking. At all. but thankfully for him, wherever he seemed to go, trouble always seemed to follow. Remember those measly little frosty skeletons? Forget about them. ROOOAAARRR! Another, louder roar came from the same direction as the last about 5 seconds later. The roar was coming from in front of them. Quicker than he could react, two large beasts came barreling towards Demise. Luckily, they jumped over him and the pink one, and carried on running. Something is not right... No sooner than he thought that, did a huge red dragon with yellow spines shining brightly in the glory of the sunlight came flying straight at them from the sky. "Run!" Demise shouted, realising that it was going to land on them. But it didn't. They carried on running, with the dragon closing in, until Pinkie turned around and said "Look!" And so Demise turned around, only to see a yellow pegasus pony with a pink, flowing mane staring at it. Not in fear, but in a fearless way. He was about to shout at her to move, until something wondrous happened. The dragon yelped, turned and flew away. What? Demise walked over to the yellow mare, as she tried desperately to hide behind her own mane, until she saw that Pinkie Pie was with him. "H-h-hello Pinkie..." she said in such a quiet and shy tone that Demise barely heard her. "w-w-who is this?" she asked timidly, but thankfully not as quiet as a feather hitting the ground. "Ooh ooh ooh I know this one! He's Demise!" Pinkie shouted, although she was the one that was asked. "D-d-demise?" She seemed terrified by his name. Rightly so, too. "Yes... My name is Demise... You are?" "I'm... uttersy..." she said so quietly that he couldn't tell what she'd said. What is wrong with everypony around here? he could already tell that this town was going to be full of strange ponies. "Ooh oh ooh I know this one! Pick me! Pick me!" Pinkie shouted while jumping around "Me, me! Me meeee!" "Alright!" He shouted at her, starting to get immensely annoyed. "Her name is Fluttershy! She's one of my best friends!" She said, still speaking loudly. "Okay okay! Calm down Pinkie Pie. Now, can you tell me why you two mares are out here?" He was curious as to why they happened to be in the right (or wrong, depending on how events turned out) place at the right/wrong time. "Well DUH I'm always there when a new pony shows up, and Fluttershy was looking for me, I think." She said, answering Demise's question. "But how could you even kn- never mind..." Demise didnt usually get worn out, but purely by just having to try to comprehend the pink pony, he was feeling tired. 'Ugh, I need to get away from them...' he thought. 'As soon as I get to this town, I'm finding a way to ditch them.' As they turned a corner on the path, they walked into town. "Welcome to PONYVILLE!" Shouted Pinkie Pie with glee. "Great..." He groaned. 'Now to ditch them.' Demise thought. -----фпПФФПпф----- Although she was so quiet and shy that Demise wouldn't have realised that she had been with them the whole time, he knew she was because of the sound of her hooves adding to the noise of both his and Pinkie Pie's. And Pinkie Pie was still talking as though he were listening. 'I really need to get rid of them...' It proved, however, much harder than he thought, because although Fluttershy decided to go home, Pinkie would just not budge. He tried and tried again. But he failed each time, as she would just appear out of nowhere. He tried to get her to wait outside a general store, and then exit through the side door. But nope, she just popped out from behind a house. He tried to lose her by sprinting away, but just found that even though she just stood there as he ran, she would be in front of him as soon as he returned his gaze forward. He was tired of this, and therefore gave up, defeated. Demise had been defeated by a pink earth pony who didn't even know she had defeated him. This was not his day. 'I'm going to go mad soon...' Still feeling defeated, he decided to ask her something. "What do you know about the elements of Harmony? And..." He shivered "Friendship." "I don't know much about the elements, my friend Twilight knows more, there was this one time when-" Demise just stopped listening at this point, sensing incoming rambles. "Where can I find this 'Twilight'?" He questioned once the pony stopped talking for two seconds. "She's usually at the library, Books and Branches. She's really clever. Rainbow Dash says she's an egghead, which is-" 'Why do I *always** have to stop listening to her mid sentence?* He quickly then reminded himself that it was so that he remained at least partially sane. -----фпПФФПпф----- They arrived at the library inhabited by none other than Twilight Sparkle, who Demise had learned (over a long period of time because of Pinkies rambles and tangents.) was the monarch Celestia's personal protégé. Things where so crazy in this place that he half expected to walk in, and be greeted by Twilight spinning around in an office chair and saying, quote the film starring Goldhooves, "Mister Demise... I've been expecting you." Luckily for him, Twilight wasn't as strange as the others. Not all of the time, anyway. He walked up to the wooden door embedded in the trunk of the treebrary, dreading what was going to happen upon meeting this one. He knocked three times, loudly. "Come in! I'll be down in just a second." Crash! 'Oh dear lord, what will it be this time!?' He and Pinkie walked through the door of the library only to find very messy and large pile of books on the ground, covering a lavender coloured pony with a dark purple mane which had a pink streak through it. "Umm... Sorry about the mess. I was just trying to re arrange some of the books and then- wait, why are you wearing a mask and furthermore, who are you?" "My name is Demise. I wear this mask because..." He cringed as he thought of how an innocent pony like her would react to his truthful answer, so instead lied. "Because... I don't want to be recognised by unfriendly faces." "Demise... Wait a second... I know who you are!" She said in a tone of horror. Demise cringed again as he realised that this would lead to a bad reputation. 'Here we go again, I'm going to be recognised as the Reaper of Souls... Or... Someone else?' 2) Who He IsPart Two: Who He Is Note: Sorry for the short chapter, I've been busy lately (lazy) and I wanted to just get this out there. I'll make sure the next ones at least 2,200 words before releasing to make up for the short addition to the storyline here. I'd also like the extend thanks to Urdreth, who gave me some concepts when I had a colossal mindfart and so couldn't figure out what to write in this chapter. Bravo :3 "What?" This is not good... I've been recognised twice already, by people who shouldn't know anything about the other kingdoms... "You're... You're the Reaper..." Twilight said, walking the thin line between mildly scared and worried. "Yes, I am, but I am not here for that. Keep your composure, I am not here for souls." It was the truth, but not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He was, figuratively, here for his brother's soul, but they didn't need to know that. "Wh-what are you here for then?" Twilight asked, still untrusting towards Demise. "I'm here to learn about something which I never thought I would need to learn about... But that is besides the point, how do you know of me?" He asked, his voice turning into a slight growl towards the end, angry that he was somehow known to these Third Kingdom ponies. He was also surprised that Pinkie Pie had been quiet for so long, but quickly decided that her motor mouth was probably recharging as they spoke. "Wait a second," She said, walking over to a nearby bookshelf and quickly producing one of the books from the Mythology section. She then walked back over to where Demise, despite his current shortage on patience, was waiting calmly and then handed him the book. Demise looked at her questioningly, not knowing which page to turn to. Twilight took the hint and told him. "Page 40, I think." He turned to page 40 and began reading. The Grim Reaper (In Mistism) The Grim Reaper has many names, Death, Demise, Kinslayer, Pale One. No matter what the name, the same pony always appears throughout many seperate cultures. Not only does he always looks similar and wear the same dark hooded robes, he is always pictured using a large scythe, with a skeletal figure hidden beneath. There was, back some hundreds of years, a religion believed by some of the Zebras which was very notable in this instance. This religion doesn't have a recorded name, so we refer to it as Mistism. Mistismists believed in many unorthodox things, including some very horrendous ones. We will focus on one particular subject they believed in, called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It was believed that there were two races known as the Angels and the Demons. When Angels and Demons were *mixed, a new race spawned: the Nephilim. A few hundred years after they were believed to have been formed, the Nephilim went on a rampage, demanding 'The Creator' to create a realm for them, or else they would destroy everything. They were told to have come very close to destroying 'The Third Kingdom', which is our 'Realm'.* Unfortunately for the Nephilim, there was a group of beings known as the 'Blackened Council', who, when the creator left the universe, were charged with keeping the balance between good and evil, dark and light. The Blackened Council were none too happy about this rampage, and so called forth four of the Nephilim's own, who did not agree with their race's choices. These four ponies were granted unimaginable powers and fame, in return for one thing: They had to restore the balance. Restoring the balance required the Nephilim to be stopped, imprisoned or killed. Unfortunately, the Nephilim refused to relent, and therefore, the Four Horsemen were forced to call upon their last resort: killing them. The Horsemen Battle, Demise, Furiee and Confliction obeyed their orders, and executed the Nephilim in one single, bloody battle. Demise, after this battle, was charged by the Council to destroy the Nephilim souls, which he had stored in an amulet. He refused, but still earned the title of Reaper. When they were called upon, when the seven stones were broken, the Horsemen would bring about the apocalypse to our planet. --- 40 It took Demise but ten seconds to read all of this, before closing the book and, finally deciding that he had lost it, lost it. "How?" He shouted, "There is no way that anypony, any zebra for that matter, can, or could have known all of this!" Twilight looked startled for a few seconds, before deciding that it would be best not to say anything yet. "Furthermore, even if anypony did know, how has such important knowledge ended up in a common mythology book?" Demise was furious, if this religion were still active, which thankfully he knew it wasn't, it could have severely disrupted the balance and broken many sworn oaths, not to mention undoing a lot of his keeping the balance work. Only one third kingdm pony was entrusted such knowledge, which was Princess Celestia. He would have to speak to the Council about it at some point, he thought. At least, he did until he remembered that the Third Kingdom was currently a wasteland in his time. "Moving on, -" Demise was just about to change topic, being angry at the current one when something light blue slammed into him at a high speed. "Spill the beans, you!" Yelled the voice of the pony who currently had Demise pinned to the floor. "Who are you working for? Trixie?" Demise had had enough. He violently pushed the pegasus off himself, and then grabbed her, flipping her so that she was held upright and then pinned her to the wall. "Who do you think you are, pegasus?" he was furious that she had the nerve to pin a horseman down, knowing what he was or not. "What gives you the right to pin me down? Answer me!" Rainbow Dash, the pegasus with the rainbow mane, started to panic. "I-I.." "Put her down right now you big mean meanie pants!" shouted the voice of Pinkie Pie, who was still present. Demise obeyed, not daring to challenge the pink party pony who was now officially starting to scare him. He was not scared of anything, and yet, she still worried him. She was too inconceivable, too unpredictable. 'I'm scared of a third kingdom pony... I'm disappointed with myself.' Dropping to the floor, Dash caught her breath, generally shaken by the experience. "What... The... Hay..." She said, each word after a gasp of air. She then realised that everyone was looking at her. Upon seeing this, she instantly got up and dusted herself off. "I'm fine. See ya!" She flew off, trying to keep her pride intact. "What was that about?" Pinkie and Twilight yelled in unison. "You can't just do that!" continued Twilight. "I will not allow anypony to treat me with such a manner of disrespect." He replied gruffly. "I am not a mere pony. It does not matter to me whether ponies know that or not, I will not tolerate disrespect." "You're not going to do well here until you learn to behave normally, and I think I know just who to send you to who will gladly teach you proper behaviour." Demise exited the library through the front door, before proceeding to follow the directions that Twilight had given him to this 'Rarity's' home. As he wandered through town he earned no end of sideway glances, stares and funny looks. No doubt thanks to his mask and double scythes. One pony even had the nerve to tell him "It's not Nightmare Night yet, dummy.", to which he restrained himself from reacting to. When he arrived, he knocked on the door, and then inspected the outside of the house. 'Carousel Boutique? Is this some kind of tailors?' His mental question was quickly answered as a pure white pony with a royal purple delicately styled mane answered the door, he could see mannequins and fabrics inside the building behind her. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, -" she stopped talking as she looked at him. "What... What are you wearing? Your mane looks so... Horrible... Oh this simply won't do." the pony then tried the push him through the door and into the building, but met resistance. "Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie sent me here. They said that I needed to learn how to behave around ponies here." he said in a cold tone. "My name is Demise." An hour later and Demise had finally gotten over the 'no violence' policy, still deciding that he would act if necessary and learned how to politely (as much as he could anyway, which wasn't that great) introduce himself to ponies. "You see, Demise, ponies are equals here, no getting angry if ponies come across slightly rude, as they are probably just joking with you. Now that you know how to talk to ponies nicely, I think you should go to meet Applejack. She's a very honest and polite pony, and I have a feeling that you are going to meet her soon anyway if what little you told me about why you are here is true." "Where does she live?" asked Demise. "Nearby?" "Oh darling, she lives at Sweet Apple Acres, the orchard run by the Apple family. Just go to -" She proceeded to give him the location of Sweet Apple Acres, before he bid her farewell and left. 'Why am I doing this?' he asked himself. Dust then cawed and landed on his right shoulder, above the glowing green nephilim amulet shards. 'Right. Learn about friendship. I have a bad feeling about this...' 3) Honest DemisePart Three: Honest Demise Note: Thank you to all of my readers! I didn't expect this story to get any attention whatsoever, aside from the occasional viewer. So for my first story? I'm happy with this. :) I'm also glad to announce that my original statement to keep it down to 14 chapters is invalid, I'll make sure to do a lot more than that, because I'm enjoying this a lot. Don't forget to join the Ponysiders group! Demise arrived at what he assumed to be the apple orchard he was searching for, as all he could see before him was a large expanse of apple trees. "Dusty, it's time you find something." The bright white raven cawed at him in response and flew up into the sky to get a birds eye view. Five seconds later, Dusty was back near ground level, guiding Demise. After a five minute walk, they arrived in front of a big red and white barn, with no one in sight. 'Well, where is this "Applejack"?' he thought to himself. "Ya lost here or sumthin'?" A southern voice asked from behind him, causing him to jump and draw his scythes with his magic. Once Demise realised that it was nothing to worry about, he put them in their side sheathes, because having them on his back had been preventing Dusty from landing on his shoulder easily. "No, Rarity sent me here. Something about learning to speak to ponies nicely." He said, holding back a shudder on the last word. "You are Applejack, correct?" "Yeah, but who in tarnation are you? This here mask yah have is off-putting'." "My name is Demise." He answered "And this," He said as Dusty landed on his shoulder "Is Dusty." "Is it a... White... Raven? Ah dun' think ah've seen one before." She said to him, interested with the strange bird. Demise was slightly irratated by her calling Dusty 'it', and apparently so was he, as the raven cawed at Applejack. "Yes, he is. Dusty is very intelligent, sometimes more so than a pony. He's extremely logical and good at solving problems. That's why I let him stay around." Applejack realised that she'd slightly offended the raven, not having realised his intelligence and logic. "Ah, ah've never seen such a bird then, he's unique." Demise was now starting to get a bit irritated with the conversation, until he realised that he was currently fulfilling what he had come to do. Still, he wanted to change the topic to something other than Dusty. "Are you the only one working on this orchard? It seems a lot of work for just one pony. Too much for you alone to handle." He said to Applejack. Applejack rolled her eyes, having heard this before. "Nah, it's not just me, ah got mah family, wanna come meet 'em?" "Caw!" Replied Dusty. "I think that means yes." Demise replied after. "Applebloom!" Called out Applejack. "Come and meet our visitors!" "Visitors? Oh mah, what's their cutie marks?" Replied Applebloom from upstairs. Applejack simply facehooved at the comment, it was typical of Applebloom. "Just git awn down 'ere!" "What was that about?" Inquired the nephilim. "Oh, just typical Applebloom. She an' her Cutie Mark Crusader friends are absolutely obsessed with find in' their cutie marks." She answered. "Cutie-what?" He asked, in a serious tone. Applejack gave him a questioning look. "You tired or sumthin'? Dehydrated?" "No." He said in reply. A small yellow filly with a red mane appeared in front of Demise. "Who are you?" She asked demise in the same southern accent as Applejack. "My name is..." He wondered if he should tell a white lie for now, not wanting to make the filly scared, or worse, ask more questions. In his split second decision, he decided to be honest. "My name is Demise. You must be Applebloom." "Demise? What an o- Nice name!" She nervously said. "Nice to uh, meet ya?" Her sentence turned into a slightly uneasy questioning tone at the end. "Yes, it's nice to meet you too." He replied in short, remembering the way that Rarity had taught him to speak nicely. Applejack, sensing the unease between them, decided to change the subject. "So, wanna meet tha rest o' mah family? They gotta be here somewhere." She asked. "Granny Smith?" She called out loudly. "Wha? Ya called, Applejack?" Asked an old ponies voice from behind the group. Everyone turned around, and let her answer. "Yeah, Demise? Meet Granny Smith." The old lady squinted at the masked figure, unknowing that it was, in fact, a mask. "Is there something wrong with this here face o' yours? Ya ain't got a mouth." She asked him innocently. "... No, that's my mask." 'Every single pony in this area is strange. With the exception of Applejack, who hasn't shown any strange actions.' "Uh... Movin' on, do ya wanna meet Big Mac?" Applejack asked him. "No thank you, I've had enough of meeting new ponies for today." He said, trying to say it in a polite tone, which wasn't very easy. "Caw!" Agreed Dusty. "Well, ya got somewhere to stay?" Asked Applejack, realising that it was night soon and that Demise was new to town. "Not really." He grunted, realising that he was probably going to be asked to stay. "But I can take care of myself." An hour later, he was in the spare room which Applejack had insisted without relent that he must stay in for the night. "Dusty, what have I gotten myself into?" He muttered. "More than you know" The Ravencolt replied to the rhetorical question from out of nowhere. "You've got a long journey ahead before you'll be able to leave this place." "Leave this room." Demise grunted at the white spectral image of the Ravencolt. "I won't have a choice before too long, it's not easy to project my image into another dimension without travelling there. So listen." He said to the nephilim, who was tired of listening to anything. "Then tell me what you need to. Do me a favour, and spare me the riddles." "I need to tell you, that where there are friends, there is hope." He answered, ignoring Demise's request. Demise merely groaned at the riddle. "What ever you have to say, I'm not interested in, so get out of my sight, unless you want me to force you." Dusty glided down from his perch on a ledge near the ceiling and landed on the Ravencolt's shoulders, then the Ravencolt started to stroke the raven with his hoof. "Do not approach the forest." And with that statement, he disappeared, leaving Dusty to glide onto the bed that Demise was sat on. 'That's it, I'm going to finish this as soon as I can.' He was tired of the riddles, every time he met the Ravencolt, it was riddle after riddle. Then more riddles. 'I might as well try to sleep... I haven't slept in mon-' CRASH! "What in the nine hells?" He shouted aloud, realising that the crash would have woken up the apple family by then anyway. "Dusty, follow me!" He then ran straight outside, and sprinted as fast as he could towards the town. 'That sound was loud, but it was definitely not here, it's got to be in... What was it? Ponyville.' as he sprinted, he thought of what it could be. Meteor? No... Battle? Definitely not. But what could it be? He was almost there when it hit him. CRASH! Literally. 'Ugh, what...' He got up, and was thankful to see Dusty standing on the ground, cawing at him. "What is it?" He asked. The bird then hopped over to a hole in the crater. A pony sized one, in fact. He walked over to it, and peered down. "Hello?" A groan came from the pit, following by a "Huh? Ah!" CRASH! Demise simply ignored that one as he had figured what was happening. But before he could act on it, a pegasus with light blue wings and golden armour climbed out. "What is your business here, angel?" Demise calmly asked. "Well, apart from the falling from the sky part." "I don't know, one minute I was guarding the gate to Elysium, the next, I am plummeting to the third kingdom so fast that I couldn't stop it." The angel answered, knowing full well who he was speaking to. "I'm not the only one, am I?" "No, you are not. I heard several other crashes before you arrived, and just as you regained consciousness... Summon a portal back to your post, we don't want this kingdom to realise what's happening." "I agree, horseman." The angel answered, before a neon shining blue portal opening up beneath him, and he went through. 'These angels should not be falling... Hopefully the others have left by now.' Such wishful thinking was, for once, correct. The angels had gone back. But something still didn't feel right to Demise, whatever it was, he couldn't quite place his hoof on it. That was, of course, until he was tapped on the back. "Demise, we have a problem." A familiar feminine voice said. "Not. You." He growled. AUTHOR NOTE: Another troll hanger for you guys. ^_^ peace out! Oh, P.S: Another thank you to Urdreth, one of the best pre-readers I know! (Though he'll be post-reading this, methinks.)
0) The Ravencolt (Prologue)Part Zero: The Ravencolt (Prologue) Note: Only the Prologue faintly follows the main storyline of the game, and although there may be references to it in other parts, I highly doubt I will use much of the game storyline. Also, the coloured names are referencing the games subtitles, as you can see if you watch the Crowfather scene here also, I wish to justify my use of HorseMAN; I don't think it matters :3. Before time was born, there was a bright city for the angels, and a dark realm for the demons... And then a third kingdom for ponykind. But Battle, Horseman of the Apocalyse, destroyed Equestria before it's appointed time. Or so it was claimed. To spare his brother from oblivion, a second rode forth, and his name was Demise. As Demise galloped towards the black citadel in the everfree forest that had been erected one hundred years after the apocalypse had ravaged Equestria, the ever present unique white raven, Dusty, flew alongside him, showing no emotion in his pitch black eyes. Of course, this was no longer a forest. No, things aren't ever that simple.. Many places had changed dramatically during the apocalypse, some had even broken away from the realm itself, as much of the once lush, green everfree forest had in this case. These things happen when your brother lets all hell break loose on the planet. Literally. Naturally, this hadn't been done on purpose. Well, at least, not on Battles' account, although he had unintentionally gone along with the angel/demon plan. When the angels had broken the elemental stones of the Horsemen, they had not planned on things going south as they did, they hadn't planned on failing to fix the stones once their objective had been completed. Heck, their objective didn't get halfway there. The point was for Demise that, whether he wanted to admit it or not, Battle had wreaked the apocalypse loose on Equestria, innocent of meaning to or not. And now? Now he was left to pick up the pieces. There was only one way to do this... He had to resurrect the pony race. He had to undo the apocalypse. Here I am... thought the masked pony as he stopped in front of the grand icy bridge leading into the black citadel of the Ravencolt. He made his approach to the bridge, ready for any surprises. Surprise. Five nasties popped right out of the ice of which thickly coated the bridge, the layer of snow above it flying straight into the wind as the skeletal creatures popped out. Only five... pondered Demise. He mentally grunted, expecting a better challenge. He had thought about that too soon. An additional five approached from behind them, having seemingly come from the citadel. That's better. -- That was a perk about being a nephilim. You didn't need a horn to do magic, making it much simple to use his favourite weapons: Scythes. It was even easier for him compared to what it had been for the other, normal nephilim, considering that he was a Horseman of the Apocalypse, therefore being a much more powerful being. His race, however, was something he didn't dare think about too long. Ever. Their souls still haunted him to this day, regardless as to the fact that the Ravencolt was currently in possession of them. He didn't regret the slaughter he had wrought to his own people, and even his own brother, Absolot, as he knew that balance would not have lasted if he and the others hadn't killed them. Still, they haunted him, and he refused to destroy the amulet containing them. If he found that the Ravencolt had destroyed the amulet... He would surely do something that both of them would regret. Deeply. Dead. Demise noted to himself has he continued towards the enormous black towering citadel, leaving a large pile of very frosty (And now very inanimate) bones in his wake. As the wind blew like a howling wolf, the grand bridge shined in all of its icy glory in the moonlight, Demise could sense that something was off... As he neared the great steel gates of the citadel, he looked at the five peaks of it, each a grand tower, and yet, even though the citadel was grand... It was ruined. Parts of it were... Flaking off. Literally flaking off and floating away. He could see two parts of the flaky citadel from where he was standing, that looked as though there had been other towers once standing tall and mighty over the icy landscape surrounding them. It was old, then... Somehow too old to exist there. Or it had been ravaged by other things. It was as he started to question something, of which the question was never finished, that he realised his mistake. CLANG He had took too much time inspecting the structure, as the gates had closed shut. By the nine hells... He cursed himself for not hurrying to the gates, and more so, as he found himself surrounded by roughly 23 average size skeletal ponies, all wearing minimal armour of which had all clearly seen better times. Not to mention the giant of a skeleton that stood in front, a huge axe hovering in front of it, glimmering in the moonlight. Demise grunted, before summoning all of his fury and channeling it straight to the front of his mind. Alas, the poor giant, though at least three times bigger than Demise was instantly sliced into two as the Harvester, Demises legendary scythe spiralled through the air from behind the giant and, making way through the giants spine with no effort, caused the fore mentioned slice. The Harvester continued to spiral in the same direction, before drifting slightly to one side, retaining the same velocity and spin, and then finally be caught in a... Skeletal hoof... And that hoof was Demise's own, with a flash of purple light, the rest of his body became a purely skeletal structure, of which was mostly covered by a dark purple cloak, complete with a hood that cast a shadow over his face. This transformation was a thing of glory, an amazing sight followed by a sense of dread, the feel of your death being close at hand and despair at the thought of it. None escaped the Reaper. "The Reaper is here!" Shouted a gravelly voice from somewhere amongst the group of spear wielding ice skeletons, in speech somewhere between a growl and a normal voice. "Kill hi-" SLASH The last sentence was cut short as he was torn, ripped and shredded into a hundred pieces by the large, skull embedded scythe of which was being controlled by none other than Demise. He then sprinted towards the enemies, right into their ranks. There was only 13 meters between him and them, and when they had both covered the distance all but save one meter, he acrobatically front flipped over all of them, landing on his hooves, and rending two of them in half with the harvester, one tried to stab at him but met only air as the Reaper sidestepped the blow, grabbed the skeletons skull and ripped it off. With the skull still in his hoof, he hurled it straight at an oncoming skeleton. Crack. The skeleton exploded in a rain of icy bones, leaving its hammer behind. Demise, still in Reaper form, ran straight for it, rolling to dodge an incoming attack from one of his attackers, he was right in front of the hammer. He picked it up in his dark purple coloured magic and swung it straight at the enemies, killing two. Double kill he thought to himself, wryly grinning under his hood and mask. He assumed an aggressive position and was about to run at the remaining skeletons. But before he could end the remaining enemies with a slash slash slash, a voice spoke out through the wind in a sort of loud whisper. "Enough..." All of the nasties surrounding him where quickly encased in ice, the ice working its way up their undead bodies from the ground up. It was the Ravencolt. There was no doubt about it to the Reaper, and so in a flash of light, the Robed figure was replaced with Demise, his usual self once again. "Ravencolt,", he muttered in a warning tone, inserting a pause between the name and sentence for emphasis "Show yourself... Now..." "And why would I do that? No. You will come to me." The Ravencolt said in a matter-of-factly tone. Bright purple, followed by darkness. Demise regained his conciousness on a cold surface, pushing himself up from the icy granite floor which he was sprawled on, his vision refocusing to adjust properly to his surroundings. "Voices... Always voices. Torment without end." groaned the Ravencolt in a pained tone. "Demise, have you come to take back that which you entrusted, or rather cursed me with?" "Easy, Ravencolt. I have not come to end your misery just yet." answered Demise. "Then what, pale one, is your business here? Tell me, before I realise that you have made a mistake in coming here...", said the Ravencolt, retaining his pained tone. The Ravencolt himself was an old stallion, with dark rings around his eyes as though he never slept, a white, slightly grey mane, with bushy eyebrows, showing only a fraction of his old age, and a blackish purple colour of fur to go with it. He also wore a coat with many raven feathers around the neck area, although the rest of the coat blended well with his fur, making only the feathers really show. There was one other important thing which he was wearing. One other very important thing. The amulet of the Nephilim souls. It was a green gem, cut into an upside-down triangular pyramid shape. It had a golden ring at the top of it for the iron chain it was bound on to loop through, thus binding it to the Ravencolt as the iron chain made a cross shape across his chest, tight enough to be unable to be removed by tugging, and yet loose enough to not cause... Too much discomfort for the Ravencolt. "I need not tell you, Keeper of Secrets. You already know.", Demise noted aloud. "Yes, quite... You would redeem your brother, redeem him by restoring something that cannot be restored... You are mad." "Then, is it such a wonder that you are the first I came to?", of course, this was a total deadpan sentence. "There is... A way... It is not an easy one. Especially not for the likes of you. You must return to the past,", as he spoke, he conjured a gateway, old Equestria shining through it. "And learn friendship. From six very famous ponies from the past of the third kingdom." The portal/gate dissipated as Demise walked to it. "Not so hasty, horseman. You will take this back!" he thrust the amulet outward as far as it would go, towards him. "No. You agreed to keep the amulet. That's final." Demise forcedly said, resisting the urge to threaten the old colt. "No, no, no... The voices, they torment and threaten me without end. This is not a choice. You WILL take it!" He then crushed the amulet in his hand, causing the shards to cut his hands and bloody them, before throwing them forward at such a high velocity that in a flurry of green material, they had permanently become embedded in Demise's right shoulder, causing him to clutch at his chest as the souls grabbed at his own soul with blinding fury. "I should kill you for that!", Shouted Demise, half groaning as he spoke, "But I can feel your end nearing anyway... You will not last long, old fool." "Maybe I will, maybe I won't." he replied, "But regardless, you must travel to the small town of ponyville, during the height of the reign of the monarchy it once had, Celestia and Luna's reign. Learn of friendship. Learn of the elements of harmony, find about the one power they have that no one but you can know. Not even the monarch. One that can save Battle. Good bye, old friend.", and with that, the Ravencolt summoned, once more, the portal through time and space. "Dusty." He said blankly, knowing full well the white raven could hear him. Not three seconds later and the raven had landed on his shoulder. "Let's go..." And so Demise stepped through the portal summoned by someone he didn't want to trust.
1) A Portal to SomewherePart One: A Portal To Somewhere Note: This is when the storyline turns from the original to original... If that makes sense. Also, if by this point, you're thinking 'man, he's spelling color and armor wrong. Well, wrong. I'm spelling it right, but I'm English. Not American/Canadian. Thank you. "Ugh... Where am I?", groaned Demise as he got up off the lush green grass ground which he was laying on. Slowly recovering from the teleport through time and space, he let his eyes adjust to his surroundings. "What... Dusty, see what you can fi-" "That will not be necessary, horseman.", said the Ravencolt, seemingly appearing out of nowhere and speaking in a calm demeanour. "I cannot stay here long, but you must listen; follow the road, it is close, but I cannot say in which direction. When you find the road, follow it until you come to a town. You can look out for yourself after that." "But Ravencolt, wh-" Demise would have continued, but the keeper of secrets had gone already. "Perfect.", he grunted. After roaming around for thirty minutes in the green meadow, he found the road, with the assistance of Dusty. The realm he was in was in the past, he knew that much, but what had the Ravencolt said about friend ships? 'Oh, friend...ship? Why in the nine hells would he have me find out about... *That? I doubt even Furiee would care about such trivial things. What ever. I just hope this doesn't turn out as stupid as it sounds.' So he was a... *Bit skeptical about the situation. But although he didn't know it, this pursuit would change him forever. "FOREVEERRR!" shouted a pink pony that popped out of nowhere in front of Demise. "What?" Seriously what? "Oh nothing, anyway-I'm-Pinkie-Pie-and-I-saw-you-walking-around-and-then-" "Calm down, give me the short version but slower. Also, what did you say your name was?" Demise questioned the random, eccentric pony. "My. Naaame. Iiiis. Piiinkiiie. Pieeee. Aaan-" "Normal speed..." He had only been talking to her for two seconds and was already getting tired of it... What was her problem? "My name is Pinkie Pie. I saw you walking around near the town and then I thought 'Omygosh I've never seen you before' and if I've never seen you before then that means you're new because I know everypony-" Demise groaned at the incoming assault of words, just wanting to move on. "And I mean, if you're new, I get to throw you a WELCOME PARTY! And I love parties and this is going to be SO fun and-" "Which way is the nearby town?" Demise asked her, growing bored of listening to her ramble. "we can- Oh it's that way!" She answered, pointing in the direction of the town he was heading for, as they were at a crossroad now and there was no sign. "Anyway we can have it at Sugarcube Corner and I can make cupcakes and-" She carried on with her pointless, persistent rambling, while Demise paid no attention, not caring anymore. "Demise, are you even listening? Helloooo?" Pinkie Pie asked. The mention of his name caught his attention even though he wasn't paying the slightest bit of interest. "No, I am not... Wait, how do you know who I am?" "Ohhh, it's obvious. You're one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I can tell because you're wearing the mask and have two scythes on your back and-" She carried on talking. He didn't care anymore. Not one bit. He was used to meeting some crazies and listening to them but this was just too much. He needed to get any information he could from her without going insane, and then be rid of this crazy pony. 'If I find the Ravencolt ever again...' He began thinking of ways to get payback for what was happening to him while the clearly clinically insane pony walked alongside him. -----фпПФФПпф----- Two minutes after he stopped caring the tiniest bit, he and the pink pony were still walking, and she had not stopped talking. At all. but thankfully for him, wherever he seemed to go, trouble always seemed to follow. Remember those measly little frosty skeletons? Forget about them. ROOOAAARRR! Another, louder roar came from the same direction as the last about 5 seconds later. The roar was coming from in front of them. Quicker than he could react, two large beasts came barreling towards Demise. Luckily, they jumped over him and the pink one, and carried on running. Something is not right... No sooner than he thought that, did a huge red dragon with yellow spines shining brightly in the glory of the sunlight came flying straight at them from the sky. "Run!" Demise shouted, realising that it was going to land on them. But it didn't. They carried on running, with the dragon closing in, until Pinkie turned around and said "Look!" And so Demise turned around, only to see a yellow pegasus pony with a pink, flowing mane staring at it. Not in fear, but in a fearless way. He was about to shout at her to move, until something wondrous happened. The dragon yelped, turned and flew away. What? Demise walked over to the yellow mare, as she tried desperately to hide behind her own mane, until she saw that Pinkie Pie was with him. "H-h-hello Pinkie..." she said in such a quiet and shy tone that Demise barely heard her. "w-w-who is this?" she asked timidly, but thankfully not as quiet as a feather hitting the ground. "Ooh ooh ooh I know this one! He's Demise!" Pinkie shouted, although she was the one that was asked. "D-d-demise?" She seemed terrified by his name. Rightly so, too. "Yes... My name is Demise... You are?" "I'm... uttersy..." she said so quietly that he couldn't tell what she'd said. What is wrong with everypony around here? he could already tell that this town was going to be full of strange ponies. "Ooh oh ooh I know this one! Pick me! Pick me!" Pinkie shouted while jumping around "Me, me! Me meeee!" "Alright!" He shouted at her, starting to get immensely annoyed. "Her name is Fluttershy! She's one of my best friends!" She said, still speaking loudly. "Okay okay! Calm down Pinkie Pie. Now, can you tell me why you two mares are out here?" He was curious as to why they happened to be in the right (or wrong, depending on how events turned out) place at the right/wrong time. "Well DUH I'm always there when a new pony shows up, and Fluttershy was looking for me, I think." She said, answering Demise's question. "But how could you even kn- never mind..." Demise didnt usually get worn out, but purely by just having to try to comprehend the pink pony, he was feeling tired. 'Ugh, I need to get away from them...' he thought. 'As soon as I get to this town, I'm finding a way to ditch them.' As they turned a corner on the path, they walked into town. "Welcome to PONYVILLE!" Shouted Pinkie Pie with glee. "Great..." He groaned. 'Now to ditch them.' Demise thought. -----фпПФФПпф----- Although she was so quiet and shy that Demise wouldn't have realised that she had been with them the whole time, he knew she was because of the sound of her hooves adding to the noise of both his and Pinkie Pie's. And Pinkie Pie was still talking as though he were listening. 'I really need to get rid of them...' It proved, however, much harder than he thought, because although Fluttershy decided to go home, Pinkie would just not budge. He tried and tried again. But he failed each time, as she would just appear out of nowhere. He tried to get her to wait outside a general store, and then exit through the side door. But nope, she just popped out from behind a house. He tried to lose her by sprinting away, but just found that even though she just stood there as he ran, she would be in front of him as soon as he returned his gaze forward. He was tired of this, and therefore gave up, defeated. Demise had been defeated by a pink earth pony who didn't even know she had defeated him. This was not his day. 'I'm going to go mad soon...' Still feeling defeated, he decided to ask her something. "What do you know about the elements of Harmony? And..." He shivered "Friendship." "I don't know much about the elements, my friend Twilight knows more, there was this one time when-" Demise just stopped listening at this point, sensing incoming rambles. "Where can I find this 'Twilight'?" He questioned once the pony stopped talking for two seconds. "She's usually at the library, Books and Branches. She's really clever. Rainbow Dash says she's an egghead, which is-" 'Why do I *always** have to stop listening to her mid sentence?* He quickly then reminded himself that it was so that he remained at least partially sane. -----фпПФФПпф----- They arrived at the library inhabited by none other than Twilight Sparkle, who Demise had learned (over a long period of time because of Pinkies rambles and tangents.) was the monarch Celestia's personal protégé. Things where so crazy in this place that he half expected to walk in, and be greeted by Twilight spinning around in an office chair and saying, quote the film starring Goldhooves, "Mister Demise... I've been expecting you." Luckily for him, Twilight wasn't as strange as the others. Not all of the time, anyway. He walked up to the wooden door embedded in the trunk of the treebrary, dreading what was going to happen upon meeting this one. He knocked three times, loudly. "Come in! I'll be down in just a second." Crash! 'Oh dear lord, what will it be this time!?' He and Pinkie walked through the door of the library only to find very messy and large pile of books on the ground, covering a lavender coloured pony with a dark purple mane which had a pink streak through it. "Umm... Sorry about the mess. I was just trying to re arrange some of the books and then- wait, why are you wearing a mask and furthermore, who are you?" "My name is Demise. I wear this mask because..." He cringed as he thought of how an innocent pony like her would react to his truthful answer, so instead lied. "Because... I don't want to be recognised by unfriendly faces." "Demise... Wait a second... I know who you are!" She said in a tone of horror. Demise cringed again as he realised that this would lead to a bad reputation. 'Here we go again, I'm going to be recognised as the Reaper of Souls... Or... Someone else?'
2) Who He IsPart Two: Who He Is Note: Sorry for the short chapter, I've been busy lately (lazy) and I wanted to just get this out there. I'll make sure the next ones at least 2,200 words before releasing to make up for the short addition to the storyline here. I'd also like the extend thanks to Urdreth, who gave me some concepts when I had a colossal mindfart and so couldn't figure out what to write in this chapter. Bravo :3 "What?" This is not good... I've been recognised twice already, by people who shouldn't know anything about the other kingdoms... "You're... You're the Reaper..." Twilight said, walking the thin line between mildly scared and worried. "Yes, I am, but I am not here for that. Keep your composure, I am not here for souls." It was the truth, but not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He was, figuratively, here for his brother's soul, but they didn't need to know that. "Wh-what are you here for then?" Twilight asked, still untrusting towards Demise. "I'm here to learn about something which I never thought I would need to learn about... But that is besides the point, how do you know of me?" He asked, his voice turning into a slight growl towards the end, angry that he was somehow known to these Third Kingdom ponies. He was also surprised that Pinkie Pie had been quiet for so long, but quickly decided that her motor mouth was probably recharging as they spoke. "Wait a second," She said, walking over to a nearby bookshelf and quickly producing one of the books from the Mythology section. She then walked back over to where Demise, despite his current shortage on patience, was waiting calmly and then handed him the book. Demise looked at her questioningly, not knowing which page to turn to. Twilight took the hint and told him. "Page 40, I think." He turned to page 40 and began reading. The Grim Reaper (In Mistism) The Grim Reaper has many names, Death, Demise, Kinslayer, Pale One. No matter what the name, the same pony always appears throughout many seperate cultures. Not only does he always looks similar and wear the same dark hooded robes, he is always pictured using a large scythe, with a skeletal figure hidden beneath. There was, back some hundreds of years, a religion believed by some of the Zebras which was very notable in this instance. This religion doesn't have a recorded name, so we refer to it as Mistism. Mistismists believed in many unorthodox things, including some very horrendous ones. We will focus on one particular subject they believed in, called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. It was believed that there were two races known as the Angels and the Demons. When Angels and Demons were *mixed, a new race spawned: the Nephilim. A few hundred years after they were believed to have been formed, the Nephilim went on a rampage, demanding 'The Creator' to create a realm for them, or else they would destroy everything. They were told to have come very close to destroying 'The Third Kingdom', which is our 'Realm'.* Unfortunately for the Nephilim, there was a group of beings known as the 'Blackened Council', who, when the creator left the universe, were charged with keeping the balance between good and evil, dark and light. The Blackened Council were none too happy about this rampage, and so called forth four of the Nephilim's own, who did not agree with their race's choices. These four ponies were granted unimaginable powers and fame, in return for one thing: They had to restore the balance. Restoring the balance required the Nephilim to be stopped, imprisoned or killed. Unfortunately, the Nephilim refused to relent, and therefore, the Four Horsemen were forced to call upon their last resort: killing them. The Horsemen Battle, Demise, Furiee and Confliction obeyed their orders, and executed the Nephilim in one single, bloody battle. Demise, after this battle, was charged by the Council to destroy the Nephilim souls, which he had stored in an amulet. He refused, but still earned the title of Reaper. When they were called upon, when the seven stones were broken, the Horsemen would bring about the apocalypse to our planet. --- 40 It took Demise but ten seconds to read all of this, before closing the book and, finally deciding that he had lost it, lost it. "How?" He shouted, "There is no way that anypony, any zebra for that matter, can, or could have known all of this!" Twilight looked startled for a few seconds, before deciding that it would be best not to say anything yet. "Furthermore, even if anypony did know, how has such important knowledge ended up in a common mythology book?" Demise was furious, if this religion were still active, which thankfully he knew it wasn't, it could have severely disrupted the balance and broken many sworn oaths, not to mention undoing a lot of his keeping the balance work. Only one third kingdm pony was entrusted such knowledge, which was Princess Celestia. He would have to speak to the Council about it at some point, he thought. At least, he did until he remembered that the Third Kingdom was currently a wasteland in his time. "Moving on, -" Demise was just about to change topic, being angry at the current one when something light blue slammed into him at a high speed. "Spill the beans, you!" Yelled the voice of the pony who currently had Demise pinned to the floor. "Who are you working for? Trixie?" Demise had had enough. He violently pushed the pegasus off himself, and then grabbed her, flipping her so that she was held upright and then pinned her to the wall. "Who do you think you are, pegasus?" he was furious that she had the nerve to pin a horseman down, knowing what he was or not. "What gives you the right to pin me down? Answer me!" Rainbow Dash, the pegasus with the rainbow mane, started to panic. "I-I.." "Put her down right now you big mean meanie pants!" shouted the voice of Pinkie Pie, who was still present. Demise obeyed, not daring to challenge the pink party pony who was now officially starting to scare him. He was not scared of anything, and yet, she still worried him. She was too inconceivable, too unpredictable. 'I'm scared of a third kingdom pony... I'm disappointed with myself.' Dropping to the floor, Dash caught her breath, generally shaken by the experience. "What... The... Hay..." She said, each word after a gasp of air. She then realised that everyone was looking at her. Upon seeing this, she instantly got up and dusted herself off. "I'm fine. See ya!" She flew off, trying to keep her pride intact. "What was that about?" Pinkie and Twilight yelled in unison. "You can't just do that!" continued Twilight. "I will not allow anypony to treat me with such a manner of disrespect." He replied gruffly. "I am not a mere pony. It does not matter to me whether ponies know that or not, I will not tolerate disrespect." "You're not going to do well here until you learn to behave normally, and I think I know just who to send you to who will gladly teach you proper behaviour." Demise exited the library through the front door, before proceeding to follow the directions that Twilight had given him to this 'Rarity's' home. As he wandered through town he earned no end of sideway glances, stares and funny looks. No doubt thanks to his mask and double scythes. One pony even had the nerve to tell him "It's not Nightmare Night yet, dummy.", to which he restrained himself from reacting to. When he arrived, he knocked on the door, and then inspected the outside of the house. 'Carousel Boutique? Is this some kind of tailors?' His mental question was quickly answered as a pure white pony with a royal purple delicately styled mane answered the door, he could see mannequins and fabrics inside the building behind her. "Welcome to Carousel Boutique, -" she stopped talking as she looked at him. "What... What are you wearing? Your mane looks so... Horrible... Oh this simply won't do." the pony then tried the push him through the door and into the building, but met resistance. "Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie sent me here. They said that I needed to learn how to behave around ponies here." he said in a cold tone. "My name is Demise." An hour later and Demise had finally gotten over the 'no violence' policy, still deciding that he would act if necessary and learned how to politely (as much as he could anyway, which wasn't that great) introduce himself to ponies. "You see, Demise, ponies are equals here, no getting angry if ponies come across slightly rude, as they are probably just joking with you. Now that you know how to talk to ponies nicely, I think you should go to meet Applejack. She's a very honest and polite pony, and I have a feeling that you are going to meet her soon anyway if what little you told me about why you are here is true." "Where does she live?" asked Demise. "Nearby?" "Oh darling, she lives at Sweet Apple Acres, the orchard run by the Apple family. Just go to -" She proceeded to give him the location of Sweet Apple Acres, before he bid her farewell and left. 'Why am I doing this?' he asked himself. Dust then cawed and landed on his right shoulder, above the glowing green nephilim amulet shards. 'Right. Learn about friendship. I have a bad feeling about this...'
3) Honest DemisePart Three: Honest Demise Note: Thank you to all of my readers! I didn't expect this story to get any attention whatsoever, aside from the occasional viewer. So for my first story? I'm happy with this. :) I'm also glad to announce that my original statement to keep it down to 14 chapters is invalid, I'll make sure to do a lot more than that, because I'm enjoying this a lot. Don't forget to join the Ponysiders group! Demise arrived at what he assumed to be the apple orchard he was searching for, as all he could see before him was a large expanse of apple trees. "Dusty, it's time you find something." The bright white raven cawed at him in response and flew up into the sky to get a birds eye view. Five seconds later, Dusty was back near ground level, guiding Demise. After a five minute walk, they arrived in front of a big red and white barn, with no one in sight. 'Well, where is this "Applejack"?' he thought to himself. "Ya lost here or sumthin'?" A southern voice asked from behind him, causing him to jump and draw his scythes with his magic. Once Demise realised that it was nothing to worry about, he put them in their side sheathes, because having them on his back had been preventing Dusty from landing on his shoulder easily. "No, Rarity sent me here. Something about learning to speak to ponies nicely." He said, holding back a shudder on the last word. "You are Applejack, correct?" "Yeah, but who in tarnation are you? This here mask yah have is off-putting'." "My name is Demise." He answered "And this," He said as Dusty landed on his shoulder "Is Dusty." "Is it a... White... Raven? Ah dun' think ah've seen one before." She said to him, interested with the strange bird. Demise was slightly irratated by her calling Dusty 'it', and apparently so was he, as the raven cawed at Applejack. "Yes, he is. Dusty is very intelligent, sometimes more so than a pony. He's extremely logical and good at solving problems. That's why I let him stay around." Applejack realised that she'd slightly offended the raven, not having realised his intelligence and logic. "Ah, ah've never seen such a bird then, he's unique." Demise was now starting to get a bit irritated with the conversation, until he realised that he was currently fulfilling what he had come to do. Still, he wanted to change the topic to something other than Dusty. "Are you the only one working on this orchard? It seems a lot of work for just one pony. Too much for you alone to handle." He said to Applejack. Applejack rolled her eyes, having heard this before. "Nah, it's not just me, ah got mah family, wanna come meet 'em?" "Caw!" Replied Dusty. "I think that means yes." Demise replied after. "Applebloom!" Called out Applejack. "Come and meet our visitors!" "Visitors? Oh mah, what's their cutie marks?" Replied Applebloom from upstairs. Applejack simply facehooved at the comment, it was typical of Applebloom. "Just git awn down 'ere!" "What was that about?" Inquired the nephilim. "Oh, just typical Applebloom. She an' her Cutie Mark Crusader friends are absolutely obsessed with find in' their cutie marks." She answered. "Cutie-what?" He asked, in a serious tone. Applejack gave him a questioning look. "You tired or sumthin'? Dehydrated?" "No." He said in reply. A small yellow filly with a red mane appeared in front of Demise. "Who are you?" She asked demise in the same southern accent as Applejack. "My name is..." He wondered if he should tell a white lie for now, not wanting to make the filly scared, or worse, ask more questions. In his split second decision, he decided to be honest. "My name is Demise. You must be Applebloom." "Demise? What an o- Nice name!" She nervously said. "Nice to uh, meet ya?" Her sentence turned into a slightly uneasy questioning tone at the end. "Yes, it's nice to meet you too." He replied in short, remembering the way that Rarity had taught him to speak nicely. Applejack, sensing the unease between them, decided to change the subject. "So, wanna meet tha rest o' mah family? They gotta be here somewhere." She asked. "Granny Smith?" She called out loudly. "Wha? Ya called, Applejack?" Asked an old ponies voice from behind the group. Everyone turned around, and let her answer. "Yeah, Demise? Meet Granny Smith." The old lady squinted at the masked figure, unknowing that it was, in fact, a mask. "Is there something wrong with this here face o' yours? Ya ain't got a mouth." She asked him innocently. "... No, that's my mask." 'Every single pony in this area is strange. With the exception of Applejack, who hasn't shown any strange actions.' "Uh... Movin' on, do ya wanna meet Big Mac?" Applejack asked him. "No thank you, I've had enough of meeting new ponies for today." He said, trying to say it in a polite tone, which wasn't very easy. "Caw!" Agreed Dusty. "Well, ya got somewhere to stay?" Asked Applejack, realising that it was night soon and that Demise was new to town. "Not really." He grunted, realising that he was probably going to be asked to stay. "But I can take care of myself." An hour later, he was in the spare room which Applejack had insisted without relent that he must stay in for the night. "Dusty, what have I gotten myself into?" He muttered. "More than you know" The Ravencolt replied to the rhetorical question from out of nowhere. "You've got a long journey ahead before you'll be able to leave this place." "Leave this room." Demise grunted at the white spectral image of the Ravencolt. "I won't have a choice before too long, it's not easy to project my image into another dimension without travelling there. So listen." He said to the nephilim, who was tired of listening to anything. "Then tell me what you need to. Do me a favour, and spare me the riddles." "I need to tell you, that where there are friends, there is hope." He answered, ignoring Demise's request. Demise merely groaned at the riddle. "What ever you have to say, I'm not interested in, so get out of my sight, unless you want me to force you." Dusty glided down from his perch on a ledge near the ceiling and landed on the Ravencolt's shoulders, then the Ravencolt started to stroke the raven with his hoof. "Do not approach the forest." And with that statement, he disappeared, leaving Dusty to glide onto the bed that Demise was sat on. 'That's it, I'm going to finish this as soon as I can.' He was tired of the riddles, every time he met the Ravencolt, it was riddle after riddle. Then more riddles. 'I might as well try to sleep... I haven't slept in mon-' CRASH! "What in the nine hells?" He shouted aloud, realising that the crash would have woken up the apple family by then anyway. "Dusty, follow me!" He then ran straight outside, and sprinted as fast as he could towards the town. 'That sound was loud, but it was definitely not here, it's got to be in... What was it? Ponyville.' as he sprinted, he thought of what it could be. Meteor? No... Battle? Definitely not. But what could it be? He was almost there when it hit him. CRASH! Literally. 'Ugh, what...' He got up, and was thankful to see Dusty standing on the ground, cawing at him. "What is it?" He asked. The bird then hopped over to a hole in the crater. A pony sized one, in fact. He walked over to it, and peered down. "Hello?" A groan came from the pit, following by a "Huh? Ah!" CRASH! Demise simply ignored that one as he had figured what was happening. But before he could act on it, a pegasus with light blue wings and golden armour climbed out. "What is your business here, angel?" Demise calmly asked. "Well, apart from the falling from the sky part." "I don't know, one minute I was guarding the gate to Elysium, the next, I am plummeting to the third kingdom so fast that I couldn't stop it." The angel answered, knowing full well who he was speaking to. "I'm not the only one, am I?" "No, you are not. I heard several other crashes before you arrived, and just as you regained consciousness... Summon a portal back to your post, we don't want this kingdom to realise what's happening." "I agree, horseman." The angel answered, before a neon shining blue portal opening up beneath him, and he went through. 'These angels should not be falling... Hopefully the others have left by now.' Such wishful thinking was, for once, correct. The angels had gone back. But something still didn't feel right to Demise, whatever it was, he couldn't quite place his hoof on it. That was, of course, until he was tapped on the back. "Demise, we have a problem." A familiar feminine voice said. "Not. You." He growled. AUTHOR NOTE: Another troll hanger for you guys. ^_^ peace out! Oh, P.S: Another thank you to Urdreth, one of the best pre-readers I know! (Though he'll be post-reading this, methinks.)
