Author's Note

I apologize for the delay but I think we have all been there, where we are looking at our work and we feel like it just isn't right, but we cant quite place just whats off about it. I redid this so many times.

Well I'm finally happy with this. It's right. And so, here you all go.

Monk

How Dark the Day

Celestia wiped her lips and walked around the table. She looked down at the crumpled form at her hooves as her guards moved up beside her.

One of the guardsmare nudged the unconscious demon to see its face in profile.

“He is handsome.” She looked over his body. “And a young stallion too.” She paused. “May I speak freely your highness?” The princess nodded. “I don’t think you should help them get back to their home. It's a better service to Equestria to have them added to the catalog.”

Celestia grinned and teased.

“Steady Shield, are you looking to order a stallion?”

Shield looked over the unconscious colt.

“No ma’am. But these are high-end colts, they should be herded with families here. It’s a waste to send them away, ma’am.”

Celestia smiled.

“Calm yourself sergeant, I have no intention of sending them home. But these stallions aren't open to auction. They already have families. The yellow one says he lives in Ponyville, so there is a female version of him out there who has a right to him.” She paused in thought. “The other two are a little more complicated.”
“So you're giving the other colt to Twilight Sparkle then, your highness?”

The Princess looked offended. “No! With his potential, I will take him under my wing personally.” She scowled down at the unconscious demon. “As for him, send him to the dungeons. I’ve locked down his magic and made him harmless. For all intents and purposes, he is as helpless as a foal.”

“Ma’am, may I ask a question?”

“You may”

“They say some types of demons collect souls. Is this something the mares should be concerned with?”

The princess chuckled. “No sergeant, What most ponies know about demons is fiction and rumor. Demons are simply magic given a form. In some ways, they aren’t much different from the other races. They don’t collect souls, they can’t be summoned with circles, and they can’t corrupt the innocent. No, they live in mud huts or wandering tribes, safely locked in Tartarus.”

She looked down at the unconscious male and her resolve faltered.

“No, what you see here is not much different from a wandering gypsy." Her brows furrowed. “Although he is much better spoken than most. I’ve changed my mind. Rather than the dungeons, take him to the special Ambassador's suite, you know the one. This way we can keep a constant eye on him.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Consciousness came back to Easy Comfort with the smell of lilacs and the feeling of soft sheets beneath him. He slowly sat up and took in his surroundings. He was in a suite, a nice one. There was a large bed, a living area with sofas and chairs, and finally a small kitchenette. It was compact yet functional. A space designed for work as well as sleep. He shakily stood and made his way to what he hoped was the bathroom. Once inside he jumped in the shower and took stock of himself as the hot water washed away his fatigue.

As far as he could tell, he was fine. His magic worked and his body seemed normal. There were no signs of damage from Celestia's attack, and no bruises or scrapes from being dragged around. He checked himself for any signs of lewd activity that may have taken place while he was unconscious. Yet there were no mysterious lubricants, or suspicious sticky patches anywhere that he could see. In a way that disappointed him. ‘What was wrong with these ponies?’

He did find a mysterious band of magic around his neck, but he couldn’t, for the life of him, figure out what it was supposed to do. When he looked at it in the mirror, it had the appearance of an ethereal dog collar. That cheered him up a bit. “Well, let’s see if I still have any souls.” Smiling, he knocked on the bathroom mirror. “Charlie! Hey Charlie!” His reflection blinked to life and slowly took in the room.

“Hey man, what's up?”

“I need you to take my place for a while. I want to check out the area and don’t want anypony to know I’m gone.”

The reflection grabbed the frame and grunting, worked his way out of the mirror. “Alright, so what do they know and what am I playing?”

Easy gathered his thoughts and gave Charlie a brief rundown of his day so far.

His copy nodded. “Ok, so they only know you’re a demon in the generic sense and you want me to keep a low profile. You want me seen, but not stand out. Yeah, I can do that easy.” The copy frowned. ”I hope you don’t want me hitting on the ladies, you know I ain’t ever been good at that.”

Easy shook his head. “No, just try to be friendly, keep a low profile.”

Charlie watched the demon transfer the ethereal collar over to him and then disappear in a puff of brimstone. Nodding, he strolled out of the bathroom and looked around his new ambassador suite. He let out an impressed whistle.

“Hey, swanky place. I could get used to this.” Smiling, he sauntered over to the wine rack.

Easy Comfort lay on the sheets and looked down at his sweaty body. His appearance had changed. Instead of his normal demonic form, he had chosen a normal pegasus. One with looks that would be right at home among the pages of any lingerie catalog. He had a flowing blue mane and pristine white coat that was highlighted by a leg garter and a low-cut vest that accentuated his chest tuft.

He had spent the last few hours chatting with ponies and getting to know about the new world he had found himself in. One mare had invited him home and after thoroughly exhausting her, he lay quietly watching her sleep. He smiled as he looked her over. She wasn’t particularly pretty, but her awkward attempts at a pickup and her absolute nervousness were utterly adorable. He carefully brushed her mane out of her face, gave her a light peck on the cheek, and silently left the bedroom.

He needed to learn about the world and her apartment was a great opportunity. It was a small place, and he walked around casually checking out her belongings. He lifted a picture frame. It was three older mares and a stallion standing behind two fillies. One filly was obviously the unconscious mare in the other room. The other pictures he came across were mainly mares. Friends playing pool, some pictures taken while at work. He continued his browsing. An old sofa and a coffee table that had seen better days with a newspaper on it. He looked through the paper.

“The Griffonia problem and what it means for you. Stallions rights activist speaks out about his arrest. Sale on bedsheets. Twenty percent off. Injured in an accident? Visit SilverMane and Judge for council.” He finished reading the paper and picked up the glass pad that had been sitting next to it. As soon as he brought the small rectangular mirror to eye level, it flickered to life. He hummed and tapped the image, it moved slightly under his hoof.

‘Touchpad?’ he thought. He played around with it and soon got a basic hang of it. He found that it was a magic-based multi-purpose device. Mirror to mirror conversations, text messages, and apparently pornography, lots and lots of pornography. He smiled, the mare had a hoof fetish. “Got to love the living and there one track minds.”

Having finished exploring the living room, he moved over to the kitchen. His eyes fell on the mail. He hoofed through them. A bank statement. “So they have places that stored your money.” Money called Bits. A com bill. “Apparently it costs bits to use those tablets.” He set the bill down and picked up another. “You could already be a winner of some… clearing house.”

His eyes fell on a wallet, he picked it up. “Royal ID card, Royal health card, work ID card, and yes, a nude picture cut out of a magazine.” He flipped to its inside and pulled out something round in a silver square foil. “Con dome.” he read. He brought it up to his nose. It smelled of lubricant, even through the foil. He smiled. “And yet more sex. I like this place already.”

His eyes fell on a small pouch that lay next to the wallet. He picked it up and it jingled. He tossed it to help feel its weight and it jingled again. Curious, he tipped it out onto the counter and watched as coins slid out. He examined one. “Bits.” He flipped it over. “In Celestia we trust.”

He scooped the bits back into the bag and pulling on his magic, tossed it onto the counter. The bit bag split and in its place now sat two identical copies. He picked up the original and tossing it, made two more copies.

“Got to love magic.”

Easy comfort sat on the sofa and thought about everything he had learned about this new world. ‘Well, first off, It takes bits to live here. There aren’t many stallions, and there are troubling social issues between stallions and mares. They have a sex industry. I am a fully trained and licensed incubus.” He shook his head. “How could I possibly make money here?” He tapped his chin in thought. He was at a complete loss. Who are we kidding, he knew exactly what he was going to do. Grinning like a man possessed, he picked up the newspaper and shuffled to the part he was looking for, and carefully tore it out. Satisfied with his morning exploits, he grabbed his things and left.

Lust demons strutted, they strutted like swimsuit models on a catwalk and they exuded the sexual confidence of a god. Charlie was many things. He was deceased, he was a soul sold to a demon, he was a stoner shut in, but the one thing that he was not, was an actor. So Charlie, in the disguise of an incubus, slunk down the hallway surrounded by guards on his way to meet up with the other displaced.

His body language screamed; ‘No officer, I haven't been smoking weed, there is no reason at all to check my pockets.’ The guards, being Equestria's police forces, knew that body language well and were giving him the evil eye as they escorted him.

“Excuse me, sir is there anything you would like to tell us?”

Charlie blanched, flashbacks with the cops flooding his mind and looking around for someplace to ditch his pot. He gave his best smile.

“Nope, I’m just walking here to visit some friends. Everything’s cool!”

The guards watched the demon fidgeting like a pickpocket caught with a bag of loot. Their eyes narrowed as his hooves seemed to be patting himself for pockets he didn’t have. Charlie, just now realizing that he was supposed to be in the role of an incubus relaxed and tried to fall into the role he had no skill in portraying.

He said; “Right sexy ladies, everything's cool.” and gave them his best leisure Suit Larry smile.

The guardsmares not believing a single word coming out of his mouth, watched him like hawks as they opened the door to his companion's rooms.

Charlie walked in and as the door closed behind him, he realized that he had walked in on an argument.

Barb crossed her arms. “I said, you two can get a room later! Don’t look at me like that, If you're anything like Dusk Shine you’ve been sneaking into your brother's room for years now.”

Charlie watched as the female copy looked at her now blushing male half. “You’ve been doing what?”

The fake demon strutted over to the sofa and took a seat. “So, What have I missed so far?”

Dusk sat back and rubbed his eyes with a fetlock and addressed the newcomer. “Not much so far. This room has observation wards on it. I have them blocked so that we can talk. They are watching illusions right now. Us playing chess or reading. Things like that.”

Twilight huffed in indignation. “I don’t see why you would want to hide anything from the princess.”

Dusk smiled. “Barb is right, If I’ve been sexually active with my sister Gleaming Shield, then the law of synchronicity states that there is a good chance that you have been doing things with your brother. You are just like me in that we respect our prince and princess, but we also value our privacy. Neither of us wants them to find out about our private lives.”

Barb leaned forward. “There is still the problem of Spike. From what you’ve told us, I’m only a year older than him and I’m twice his size. That tells me that the prince's limiter is still on him.” She looked Twilight dead in the eye. “So why haven’t you loosened the limiter?”

Charlie piped up. “Your Prince is a mare here, so it's a princess in this world.”

Twilight Sparkle, the best mage of her generation shook her head in confusion. “What limiter? Why would Celestia put a limiter on Spike?”

Dusk stood, falling into lecture mode. “It took me years to notice it. But eventually, I found mine, and then after I realized what I was looking for, I found them on others. The first question that you need to ask is why the prince…princess, even has the school for gifted unicorns in the first place.”

Twilight piped up. “Well obviously, it’s to find the best and the brightest and make sure that we can be the greatest mages in the world. So we can do our best to help all pony kind. You would know that if you bothered listening to the princess's introduction speech every year.”

“Then why is there a limiter on every single student in her school, as well as one on Spike and Barb there.” Dusk walked over to Twilight and lighting his horn, touched it to hers. “Here, look for yourself. You're scanning for a cloaked construct buried within a ponies prime meridian, just below the horn. Scan for 1.5 pico-thalms and you should see it. It's around the size of a walnut.”

Twilight stood at her full height. “This is ridiculous! I know the princess and she would never do that. Maybe your crazy prince would, but MY PRINCESS wouldn’t.”

Dusk sighed and began to pace as he talked. “What you have to realize is that Equestria has had to deal with evil mages in the past. Dark mages, necromancers, slavers, and rogue lawyers. Some of these mages have been pretty powerful, but what if she could find them when they were still young? Put a limiter on their magic and keep them to a manageable level. Solaris keeps the general student body maxed at eight hundred mega thalms per second. While certain trusted students I've seen set as high as nine hundred fifty mega thalms per second.” Dusk placed a hoof on her shoulder. “It keeps them to safe levels. Levels that even the guard can deal with.”

Twilight looked at the hoof on her shoulder and blushed. She caught herself and shaking her head clear she lit her horn. “Fine, All of you stand still. You said, 1.5 pico-thalms, prime meridian, below the horn.”

Easy Comfort stepped out of the cell slate store with his new toy and unlimited minutes plan. He was happy with his purchase and grinned as he sauntered down the street. He asked himself. “Now, where can I find a concentration of mares in the darkest pits of sexual frustration? Where can I find mares drawn to the most twisted of perversions? Where can I find mares basking in the very deepest of absolute depravity?” He pondered as he walked, and as he sauntered, his eyes fell on a faded poster. It was stapled to a public notice board. He moved over to read it. “Critical Roll. Comics, Games, Mane-ga, and More. Store hours are eleven to nine, seven days a week. Come… in… and… browse!” He glanced at the address and slowly broke out in an evil laugh. “MwaHaHaHaHa!” The sound brought every mare in ear shot to an icy halt. If mares knew anything, it was that, when a stallion made that sound, some mare, somewhere, was in very deep trouble.