Author's Note

Alright, this was going to be longer but the last chapter has a distinctive lack of MLP so I'm throwing this up for fear the mod-gods smiting it down.

As an apology, you get to decide what happens in the next chapter you're into that kind of thing. Save Ponyville or Stop Nightmare Moon?

2. Hero or Professional

Welcome to Ponyville!

Staring at the sign, I can't help but wonder if this is the strangest name for a village I'd been to yet. Not that I'd been to many villages, but this Ponyville certainly seemed spirited if the splotches of glitter and smiley face stickers were anything to go by as well as the various doddles of people dancing and generally being happy. It was all rather nauseating in a sickeningly sweet way.

The sign didn't do the village any justice, though; under the baleful gaze of the full moon, Ponyville felt subdued even from just outside the town. The men in robes and dark armour gathering everyone in and around the town Hall certainly didn't paint a positive light.

Then, that corrupt moon god was still running around, so this was probably why this was happening.
{Ew, gross, cultist.} My lips twitch upwards at Satanael's disgust. I couldn't say why but he seemed to have an overwhelming hatred for occult behaviour. Although, amusement faded when I recalled he used to answer fake demon summonings and slaughter everyone involved.

"Alright, let's see what's going on." Cracking my thumb, I move to enter the village proper, but as I do, so I notice a pair of cultists heading in my direction. As I stare at them, I can't help but see their darker, almost grey skin, cat-like eyes, and leather wings. I couldn't help but notice that, outside of demonic corruption, their souls were no different than that of a human.

"Greeting and good tidings to you, my friend." Blinking in surprise at the pleasant welcome, the cloaked man offers a boisterous laugh at my visible confusion. "How could I not be in a good mood? Our Lady of the Night, Nightmare Moon, has finally returned to us after being exiled by Celestia."

"Ah, that's nice." I blandly state, Nightmare Moon? Celestia? The last one I could see, but what kind of name was Nightmare Moon?

{A weird one?}

"I don't want to hear that from you, Satanael."

{Boo.}

"Are you well, sir?" The second man asked, concern in his voice.

"Of course, Nightmare Moon is back. Why wouldn't I be?" I say again, and both men perk up.

"Ha, I told you they'd understand her divine right to rule." The first man says smugly. The second groans before fishing out a small bag of... gold coins?

"Yeah, yeah, I know, don't rub it in." I stare at the transaction with a frown. This exchange didn't seem very... professional.

"So what exactly does Ni-hm, Queen Nightmare Moon intend to do during her reign? I fear I've only heard rumours." Hearing my question, they both frowned, and for a moment, my hand flexed towards my bag before they answered.

"Oh, you poor, unenlightened fool." The man laments to himself.

"Our great lady intends to have the night reign eternal. To forever smother the sun of Celestia into scattered embers to be snuffed out." The second elaborates, and I nod in understanding.

"Evil then, thank you." Reaching for my backpack, I grab the first thing I touch and pull out a pair of hedge sheers, the same ones coated in angel blood, and smile. "This really does simplify everything."

"Huh, what ar-lagh! Nngh! Kuh!" Cramming the blades into his throat and out the back of his neck, I force them to open, decapitating the first man.

"You-!" The man cuts himself off and tries to pull back as he reaches for a weapon on his waist.

Satan.

Finally!

From my back, just under my bag, two tendrils of a tar-like substance erupt forth and shake themselves like a wet dog before growing faces made almost entirely of eyes and teeth. Soon after settling, all their eyes focused on the last man left and lunged forwards, biting his left wrist and right ankle before dragging him into the air and slamming him back down with a pained grunt. The biting his wrist lets go revealing mangled, necrotic flesh as the other drags him across the ground towards me.

"Didn't expect you to let him live. Nice initiative." I thank Satanael and move towards the bleeding cultist until my feet are at each side of his torso. Without much grace, I drop down and sit on the man's chest with both my feet beside his head, causing him to gasp out a winded breath before opening my hedge sheers and stab around his throat, which locks his head in place even as he tries to writhe of the spot. "Explain why you're locking down the village? What's in it to necessitate rounded up all the villagers?"

"Ugh, ah hah, ngh!" Closing the sheers enough to draw blood, I coil my magic around his mind.

[Answer The Question Honestly.]

"Nightmare Moon se-sealed Celestia in the, in the sun." The man's eyes glazed over for a moment before he shook his head straight, causing a small cut along his throat. "Villagers are, huh hah, a sacrifice... to keep her sealed, permanently."

{Ohh, clever.}

"Of course, you'd say that." Slamming the sheers shut, I cut off the man's head and got back to my feet.

{Shouldn't you have asked more? Like how many cultists there are?}

"It doesn't matter. One or one hundred, they're just mortal in the end."

{Hoh, what about the innocent?}

"If they're so innocent, they'll get to this realities Heaven."

{Eh, fair enough.}

Getting or my feet, I made to head towards the village with newly bloodied sheers in hand only to feel my knee give in. "What now?"

{Check it.}

Seeing a tendril pointed at the ground, I find the bag of coins the man dropped. Moving towards them, I pick them up and inspect one. It was gold, literally, with a stamp of who I assume is Celestia on one side with an image of the sun on the other.

Looking at the headless corpses, I shrug, moving to inspect both of their bodies for anything of value. Although outside of another coin purse, it didn't seem as though they were carrying much and given the state of my backpack, I wasn't willing to take their weapons for fear of it bursting.

{Look.} Losing control of my hand, Satan tears one of their pockets, revealing a note. Picking it up, I scan through it to find orders from the head cultist?

'Good job, Satan.' Apparently, they were basing themselves out in the Everfree forest at The Castle of the Two Sisters. I don't know where that is, but I'd be willing to assume that the Everfree is the forest behind me. I look towards it and frown as I turn back towards Ponyville. 'Shit.' Do I go straight for the castle and end things now, possibly dooming everyone here to die and banishing this Celestia forever, or do I save Ponyville. I don't know where the castle is, so... maybe?