Ponysiders - Demise Lives

Part 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.)