Demon Bonds

It went without saying that I grumbled with displeasure as Cadance threw open the curtains of my bedroom window before she hopped onto my bed with a spring in her step. Ugh. How could she be so fucking happy in the morning? It should be illegal to wake someone up so early, seriously.

"Good Morning, Pleasure~!" Cadance exclaimed. She was already disguised as her alicorn visage while she had put up her mane in a ponytail. It was such a shame she had gotten a haircut since our coronation. I liked it more back when it was still wild and untamed. This hairdo? It made her look childish, instead. So many conflicting feelings...

Ngh. I was way too fucking tired to deal with her shit this early in the morning. "Fuck off, Cadance," I moaned, grabbing a pillow and hiding underneath it with my head. My blissful darkness didn't last long as she ripped the pillow out of my grasp with her light blue horn magic. Since when did she get so good at using her horn? She was better at it than I was!

"Get up, lazy bum," she told me, and I huffed, annoyed. "Aunty made pancakes~," she sing-songed.

My ears perked up at that, and I reluctantly slid out of bed, bleary-eyed. Cadance giggled before she reminded me to change as I was about to leave my bedroom. It wouldn't have blown my cover immediately, but it was better to be safe than sorry. Our rooms were usually not guarded since the entire suite was private access, but sometimes the maids were already present with a new change of bed covers and cleaning supplies. Demon sweat did not smell pleasant, let me tell you.

I donned my visage while forgoing my usual ritual of combing my mane and tail to no avail in favor of arriving at breakfast on time. Maybe I should get a haircut as well. I've been too lazy, but then again... I kinda liked it a bit longer. Damn the tangles, though.

It was a rare occasion that Aunt Cellybutt was in the mood to cook breakfast herself, but when she did—Oh, boy, she went all out. I salivated at the stack of syrupy goodness, a happy smiley drawn on top of it with cream and fruit. While it wasn't typically expected of a princess like her, Aunty Celestia was a mean cook. She put most of her own chefs to shame and was actually banned from every cooking competition out there. She was that good.

"Good Morning, you two," Aunt Tia greeted us, and I muttered my own back with a mouthful already shoved into my muzzle. The big sun goose swan horse smiled good-naturedly as I moaned whorishly while Cadance greeted her properly. When pancakes made by Aunty Jellysun were involved, I knew no table manners. Not that I was all that big on table manners in the first place, either way, but still. They were better than sex, I swear. "Are you excited for school?"

I gave her a weirded-out look while Cadance nodded. Who actually liked going to school? Aside from the pink goddess of love, apparently. She didn't count; she was popular.

"I'm sure you will do great," Aunt Celestia said. Sunset shambled into the dining room after she said that, and once the amber unicorn saw the pancakes on our plates, she immediately gave us the stink eye. I glanced at her plate of pancakes and looked back at her questioningly. What? Weren't we allowed to have Aunty Tia's cooking now as well? Fuck you, too. "Ah, Sunset! How was your night?"

"Fine," she grumbled with a noticeable growl. She took her plate and left while Aunt Celestia sagged a little in her seat. Great. Be a buzzkill, why don't you? Stupid bitch. I fucking hated her attitude, seriously.

"I'm sorry, Aunty," Cadance said, looking apologetic for how Miss Queen Bitch treated her. "I'm sure she didn't mean it like that."

"It's okay, Cadance," Aunt Celestia said, a sad smile on her white muzzle. Her coat looked noticeably less pristine now that I gave her a closer look. The stress and drama between her and her student was starting to get to her.

"No, it's not," I said bluntly, frowning slightly, myself. "Sunset has been like that ever since we showed up, Cellybutt. Whatever her problem with us is, it's not just her mommy issues."

"Pleasure," Cadance admonished me, but Aunty Sunnyjam held her hoof up to stop her from berating me further.

"No, Cadance. Forbidden is right; Sunset has been getting worse. I think my student must have been thinking I was teaching her to become a princess—which I was—but it has become abundantly clear that she lacks the compassion and selflessness required to be one."

That, and she probably got the wrong idea when you told her you adopted us as your nieces while she was merely your 'student,' I thought with disdain. I didn't voice my thoughts out loud, but I was sure she got the impression I wasn't a fan of how things had played out between us so far.

"I'll talk to her again," Aunty Tia sighed. "Maybe some reassurance will help set her back on the right path."

"Sure," I rolled my eyes, going back to eating. "Whatever."

"Is there anything we can do to help, Aunty?" Cadance asked, only for Auntia to shake her head.

"I fear not," she answered, frowning in concern. "She would just push you away if you tried. She's a complicated pony."

Yeah, right. If by 'complicated' you mean 'jealous' and 'power hungry,' then she was a very complicated pony.

Auntlestia stood up to leave and gave us one last glance. "Now, eat up and don't be late for school, okay? I will see you later today. Have fun~."

I waved, and Cadance nodded before Aunt Tia left. Then, my pink friend gave me a look. I slowed in my chewing. "...what?"

"First off, don't speak with your mouth full," she complained, and I rolled my eyes, shoving another piece of pancake into my mouth to spite her. "And secondly, don't you care?"

"I care plenty," I snorted, swallowing my food down.

"Funny way of showing it, sometimes," she shot back with a frown. "You're making this harder on her than it already is."

"I'm trying to help her in my own way," I sneered, and Cadance rolled her eyes.

"By antagonizing her?"

"No, by being blunt," I shot back, glaring at her. "She's clearly too blind to give Sunset what she actually wants. And no, I don't mean a pair of wings and a fancy title. I mean a fucking mother. She adopted us, but Sunset? She's just her 'student.' Do you have any idea how much that must bother her?"

Cadance shrank in on herself, looking down glumly. "What should we do?"

"Yeah, well... nothing," I grumbled, immediately seeing her give me an incredulous look. "Look, Sunnybum is right. Sunset hates our guts if the bullying wasn't a clear enough indicator for you yet. What do you expect us to do, huh? I'm a—" I leaned in closer, whispering the next part, "I'm a demon; my kind causes strife and bloodshed. We don't make things better; we break them. You're better off trying to get one of the angel pricks to come down from their stupid Silver City and help you out. Not that they would sooner be caught having sex in public than lift a finger to help the mortal races."

My friend let out a defeated sigh as she slumped further into her seat, depressed. She pushed the plate of pancakes back and forth listlessly, her enthusiasm for them curbed thoroughly. "Is that it, then? We just wait and see what happens?"

"You're welcome to try and convince Sunset to not be an ass or 'Aunty' to stop giving her false hopes," I shrugged, putting my fork down with a grumble. Fucking Hell, this drama, I swear. They better make up quickly, or I would have to give Aunt Sunbutt a piece of my mind. "I've already made things worse than they should be; I'll admit that much. As much as I want to give you a solution, I'm not the pony you should ask about relationship stuff." Not if it didn't involve sucking dick, that is. "Now, come on, school is like... twenty minutes away, and we can't be late for our first day." Our actual first day. The surprise visit we paid them didn't count.

Cadance sighed, standing up from her cushion. "Okay," she muttered, notably less happy to leave the conversation where we left it off, not that she had any better ideas about what we should do regarding Sunbutt Senior and Sunbitch Junior.

We picked up our saddlebags from where we left them in our rooms. I tried fixing my bed mane to no avail—no surprise there—and Cadance reminded me that I was supposed to wear my regalia, but I told her to go fuck herself. I wasn't going to wear that shit for more than six hours while the sun was trying to cook us to its best ability in a room full of sweaty, adolescent, horny teenagers. Summer wasn't over just yet.

Cadance took my words to heart (not the actual 'go fuck yourself,' but the rant about metal being hot when it heated up, duh) before she kicked her shoes back into her room, putting her tiny, little mini crown back in its display case, and throwing the chest piece hastily on her bed.

She caught back up to me while I smiled smugly at her, and she rolled her eyes. "Don't say anything."

I chuckled and gave our escort slash babysitter the signal we were leaving. Apparently, we couldn't leave the castle without at least one guard to keep an eye on us—not that that stopped us from shaking them off from time to time to have some fun in the city.

The walk to Canterlot Academy was as eventful as I could expect from the early morning rush of kids hurrying to school and adults making their way to work slurping on a coffee like the half-awake zombies that they were. Even in magic pony land, things didn't change.

Obviously, we gained a lot of attention by being caught outside the castle, but we didn't let that stop us from arriving on time with a few minutes to spare. Cadance and I went our separate ways as we had different first periods due to her decision to take Prench while I went to the classroom for German.

Apparently, Equestria didn't do homeroom at the start of school (or at all, really), so attendance was checked for every individual subject instead of students being assigned a standard class roster like I was used to. Since it was a massive waste of time doing nothing, our fair country decided it was more efficient to drop it and jump straight into lessons instead. If there were some important announcements to be made, the teachers could just give a quick word during the first period, anyway.

As for my German class, the room was utter cringe as I entered it. The teacher was an old, balding pony with one of those tattersall shirts only stuffy old men would wear, and he had a permanent frown etched on his brown muzzle. To his side on the desk stood an abacus while behind him, above the blackboard, was a 'Germaneigh' flag with a stylized image of a pretzel and stein on it. On the left side of the blackboard was a flag of Bavaria on a flagpole, while on the right was the Equestrian Unification flag. And there was a shelf full of soccer memorabilia. Any more cliché, and I think I would have elected to join Cadance with Prench instead.

"Guten Morgen," he said, inclining his head ever so slightly as the other students started to trickle in. I wasn't the first one here, so I just sat in the middle by the window since that area seemed relatively empty. "Wie ich sehe, haben wir Neuzugang."

I gave the old coot an unamused glance for singling me out already but decided to humor him. "Yeah, yeah. Guten Morgen. Es ist mir eine Ehre. Bla bla bla," I told him dryly, and he gave me a surprised look at my flawless pronunciation and accent. One learned a thing or two when literal fucking World War Two Nazis made up a good part of Hell. That seemed to be a universal constant for the multiverse; they all ended up downstairs, no matter what era or country they came from. Extreme right-wingers were evil; it was as simple as that.

"Sind Sie deutsch?" our teacher asked me while the other students looked at us weirdly.

"No," I replied bluntly, tired of the attention going my way. One would expect someone being able to speak a language fluently to not be a big deal, but apparently, it was. Even the teacher had a noticeable accent that made it obvious he wasn't a native speaker.

"Well, be that as it may, I look forward to having you this year," he told me, and I muttered a 'Whatever' as he cleared his throat to start class properly. The murmurs from the other students quieted down, and he wrote his name on the blackboard with a piece of dwindling white chalk. "I'm glad so many of you decided to take another year practicing this beautiful, poetic language, and for everyone else attending for the first time, I am Coffee Pot, but you may call me Mister Pot. We will start with a simple aptitude test to see how much you already know or have retained."

"Bet the nerd's gonna get flawless marks," a student behind me muttered to her neighbor, and I kept myself from growling as my ear flicked. Great. Some kids really deserved Hell. Petty bullies.

"I bet she got all the fancy tutors to get her to speak so well before school started," came the reply, and I tried to drown out their idiotic conversation. "Who knows why these brats even decided to attend our school since they have the resources to pay for their degree."

"Yeah," the other kid agreed dumbly. "At least the other one is not a bat. I heard they drink blood."

Oh, for fuck's sake. Of course, they had to be racist shits, too. And for your information, I never once drank blood in my life unless kinky sex was involved! Thank you very much.

Anyway, that was the moment when the teacher came around to give us our test sheets with really basic, fundamental questions that even a five-year-old could ace. Of course, Dumb and Dumber were hushedly whispering about which answer might be correct and how to spell one word or another. I was tempted to throw them off their game by telling them the wrong answers, but I decided against it before they took it out on me later.

Sometimes being nice sucked big time.

Obviously, I got an A plus for my answers; the teacher even pointed out that I corrected the mistakes he made writing the tasks, which earned me even more weird looks and jeers from everyone else. I really should have resisted the temptation, but who was I to give a fuck about what others thought of me (aside from Cadance, but she wasn't here, and I hadn't done anything to earn a genuinely displeased frown from her yet).

After the aptitude test was over, our teacher gave us a simple reading and listening task as he fumbled with the CD player. I guessed that was another universal constant: teachers, no matter where they came from, always had difficulties with the most basic pieces of technology.

I cringed at the listening comprehension task as the German they spoke sounded incredibly off, and I quietly suffered through the rest of the lesson. As far as first periods went, it could have been a lot worse, but I already had a feeling I would learn to hate Mondays all over again. Here, I thought German would be the least aggravating period of my school day. Obviously, I was wrong.

I was on my way over to catch up to Cadance for our second period of math when I got tripped, and the jerks from earlier giggled like the bitches they were. God fucking damnit. I hated school, seriously.

"Hey, you okay?" I heard a voice to my left before a brownish-gray hoof entered my vision. I looked up and saw a teenage colt with a silverish, arctic blue mane and violet eyes. His eyes widened as he saw the horn on my head in addition to my leathery bat wings. "Y-you y-you y-you're an alicorn?!"

"Y-yeah, y-yeah, y-yeah," I shot back with a mean bite in my voice, exaggeratedly mimicking his stammer. Fucking idiots, all of them. So what if I was? I wasn't the only one. Fuck off. Mind your own business, seriously.

"Eight Bit, you coming?" one of his friends called out to him, and he glanced briefly back at somepony behind me.

"Just a sec!" this 'Eight Bit' said before helping me back on my hooves and putting my books back into my saddlebag with a smile. "I, uh... I'm sorry about those girls."

"It's fine," I grunted, shoving past him.

"I'm Eight Bit!" he commented after me, and I rolled my eyes.

"So I heard," I sneered to myself.

"Uhm... what's your name?" he asked as he followed me, and I gave him a miffed look. Was he for real? "I'm sorry. Did I do something to offend you?"

"How about talking to me?" I grunted unhappily. "I'm not going to be your friend because you helped me up, idiot."

"Oh," he said awkwardly. "I was just trying to be nice."

"Whatever," I huffed. "Don't you have classes to get to?"

"Right," Eight Bit nodded, rubbing his neck. "Look, I, uh... I was wondering if you would like to sit with us at lunch?"

I glanced at him incredulously, and he shrank down on himself. "No."

"O-okay," he mumbled dejectedly. "Sorry for bothering you, then."

I ignored him as he finally left me alone, and I met back up with Cadance just as the bell rang.

"Who was that?" she asked me, a sly smile on her muzzle. "A new friend~?"

I snorted. "As if."

Cadance gave me a friendly bump, and I grumbled. Her smile was insufferable, seriously. "You know it wouldn't be bad to make some new friends, right?"

"You do know all of them just want something from us, right?" I shot back, annoyed. "I'm not a fan of fake sycophants, Cady. I've been stabbed in the back more times than I care to count, and I mean that literally. You try pulling a dagger out of your spine, I dare you."

"You do know these are just teenagers, right?" she countered me, unfazed by my morbid argument. She laid a wing over my back, a sympathetic expression in her pretty purple eyes. "Nopony has it out for you. You're not in—you know, there anymore. Ponies are different. You're safe here, Ish."

"Right," I scoffed, avoiding her gaze. Should have seen the two bitches earlier, then. I pushed away her wing, carefully hiding my emotions behind a mask of cold indifference. "Can we get to math now? Before we get a tardy mark? I'd rather avoid Aunty Sunbutt finding out we were late or skipped classes on our first day."

"Sure," she sighed, clearly unhappy that I ended that conversation prematurely. "Just think about it, please?"

I didn't give her an answer as I spotted our next classroom. I held the door open for her as we made it just in time for the teacher, Miss Parabola, to call out our names. We took the only two empty seats in the front row of the class, and I lamented the fact that there was a pony between us, but at least the bitches from earlier were in a different class. Thank God for small miracles.

Math, while not my favorite subject, was friggin' easy. It was all shit I learned a long time ago and had it memorized. Demons had the advantage of perfectly memorizing everything that happened to them, whether from when they were still mortal or after they were imprisoned in Hell. That was the reason why almost every demon was a petty, resentful shit. We literally did not forget being wronged ever.

Cadance wasn't quite as good at math yet, but that was only due to her still needing the proper understanding despite being able to remember every word in her textbooks now. That might be handy for certain things, but having a book in your memories was less helpful than some people thought. You needed to understand the content for it to be beneficial.

The double period was over soon enough. Not so much for Cadance—she looked like she was keeping an eye more on the clock than her equations. At least the teacher was a fun mare who made the topic actually engaging. It was a nice refresher, consolidating my existing skills in a firmer, tighter framework. Considering my future as a princess, I was going to need it.

Anyway, we also had history for the next period together. Cadance was better at it since I wasn't yet well-versed in Equis' history, but I had no trouble following along. The politics lesson mixed into it reminded me why I didn't want to be stuck in class with other kids, though. It pretty much boiled down to us being the center of attention during the whole lesson as we had to play pretend court. I was glad once it was over.

Then, the time for lunch came. I told Cadance to go ahead and find some seats in the cafeteria while I went to use the 'little fillies' room (just thinking about the ponyism made me want to gag). Once I was done, I made my way to the crowded area every student in this damn school seemed to visit at the same time, only to notice Dumb and Dumber sitting next to Cadance with one Buck Withers blatantly making the moves on her. Of fucking course.

I faltered as the bitches took notice of me with Cadance none-the-wiser, thinking better than to join her. Ugh. Fucking Hell.

"Don't say a word," I said as I sat down at Eight Bit's table with his little posse of nerds. The other three colts gave me a surprised look while the pegasus perked up.

"Holy shit, you didn't lie," the orange-beige unicorn exclaimed in a whispered shout while the awkward white unicorn with the deep blue mane seemed to freeze up at the sight of me. The tiny runt with the glasses next to Eight Bit did a spit-take right in my face. Great.

"Oh, my gosh! I'm so sorry!" his friend said, ducking down as if he expected me to hit him. Eight Bit offered me some paper towels, and I cleaned myself of the juice with a grimace.

"Yeah, well... fuck you," I grumbled, throwing the used towels back at the little shit.

"I didn't mean to!" he apologized, and I sighed.

You know what? Forget it. I wasn't going to hold it against him; he already seemed to have a hard enough time as it was if his first reaction was to flinch back and cower in fear. I might have been a demon, but I was not heartless. Well... not as heartless and cruel as the rest of my misbegotten brethren were, at least. I wasn't going to lie; I could be a bitch as well, sometimes.

"I'm surprised you took up my offer," Eight Bit said, and I nabbed myself some of the fries from Spit-Take's plate. It was the least he could sacrifice to appease my anger.

"Well, Cadance found some new 'friends,'" I sneered, totally not mad or jealous that she would hang out with those trash ponies. Not. At. All. "So, what are your names? If we're going to hang out, I'd like to get to know you guys first."

"Uh..." the white unicorn groaned like a fucking zombie while Mister Spit-Take introduced himself as Poindexter. The orange and beige pinto unicorn introduced himself as Gaffer while giving me the name of the zombie guy. "Hel-lo!" Shining Armor exclaimed with a nervous yelp.

"Right," I said, giving the strange colt a weirded-out look. "What's up with him?" I asked, turning to Eight Bit and Gaffer. Those two seemed to be the only remotely normal ponies at this table.

"Don't worry about him. He's an idiot," Gaffer shrugged. Eight Bit seemed to nod along that same sentiment while Shining Armor let out a 'Hey!' at the friendly teasing. "What I want to know is why you're here. Couldn't you sit with anypony you want?"

"I am," I told him with a deadpan voice.

"What he meant was 'anypony but us,'" Poindexter clarified. "We're not exactly the popular guys around here if you haven't noticed."

I snorted. "You don't say," I commented sarcastically. "Look, if you don't want me here, I can go fuck off."

"No!" Eight Bit exclaimed before he shrank slightly as several ponies in the cafeteria turned to stare our way at the sudden loud noise. "No, you don't have to. We're glad to have you."

"Uh-huh," I said, not believing him. "Whatever your motives are, I'd rather find out now before I have to find out the hard way. So? What do you want?"

"N-nothing," he stammered.

"Sure," I rolled my eyes, skeptical. "I'm not going to be your girlfriend if that's what you were hoping for."

Eight Bit scowled back at me as he asked, "Are you always so bitchy?" I bristled, but before I could lay into him, he continued, "Look, I get it. You don't know us, I still don't know your name—"

I gave him a skeptical look. "Seriously?"

"—but we just want to be your friends," he said. "Anypony being bullied by Buck Withers' gang is a welcome friend in our group."

"I'm not being bullied," I denied, only for him to give me a doubtful look. I growled. "I'm not! I just don't hit back because I know it would be pointless." And I would probably crush their skulls if I did. I still haven't gotten a hang of my earthpony strength, and it wasn't exactly easy to hold back when I felt mad, to be honest. One too many cracked tiles in the castle could attest to that.

"Right," he muttered. "That's called being bullied. I should know; we've been targets of their ire from day one, too."

"Believe whatever you want," I grumbled, crossing my forelegs over each other. The idea was totally, utterly ridiculous. Me? Being bullied? Perish the thought. I was going to be the one tormenting them in their sleep later tonight. "So... what do you guys do for fun around here?"

"Oh!" Gaffer perked up. "We play Ogres and Oubliettes at Shining's place after school."

"The fuck is Ogres and Oubliettes?" I asked, confused.

"You don't know what Ogres and Oubliettes is?" Shining Armor gawked, getting over his zombie fever.

I gave him a look, silently confirming that he was indeed an idiot. "No," I said. "I'm not from around here if you haven't noticed. We didn't get much stuff like that back in 'our' village."

"It's a fantasy roleplaying game," Eight Bit answered me while Shining Armor looked sheepish. "You make a character on a sheet of paper and go on quests with your friends. It's fun; you should try it!"

Oh. So, like Dungeons and Dragons, then? It was pretty weird that magic ponies would play a fantasy roleplaying game, but whatever. "I wouldn't even know with whom I would play."

Right as I said that, the group of ponies sitting around the table perked up as one. Oh, fuck no. I shouldn't have said that. I really shouldn't have said that. "You could play with us," Gaffer proposed, an eager smile on his beige muzzle while his friends nodded in agreement next to him. "I'm the game master of our party. We could find an opening to include you in our ongoing campaign!"

"I..." I hesitated, uncertain. "I'm not sure. I—"

"Please?" Eight Bit asked, interrupting me. "It will be fun! And you did say you wanted to get to know us better. What better way to do that than to hang out and play games together?"

I glared at him. "I meant your names," was my grumbled response.

"That didn't stop you from asking what we do for fun around here," he said with a grin. Cheeky little shit. "Don't be so sour. I swear, you'll like it."

"You don't even know me," I shot back, totally not sour like he accused me of being. I wasn't sour. I just... didn't trust strangers. Or anyone, really. Except for Cady and maybe Aunty Sunbutt.

"That's the point, isn't it?" Eight Bit pointed out, and I opened my mouth before closing it again. He got me there. What a sly bastard.

"I could end up not liking it," I argued, even though my defense felt incredibly weak.

"You won't know until you try," Eight Bit countered, and Gaffer nodded in agreement while Poindexter and Shining watched our conversation with bated breath. "What's the harm in it? Afraid of being a nerd?"

I raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't be sitting here if I were," I denied, slightly offended that he would dare presume what I thought. I've been an outsider my whole life; I wasn't bothered by it. At all. "Fine, I'll join you for one game. When do you play?"

"Yes!" Eight Bit cheered silently while the rest of his friends breathed a collective sigh of relief. "We usually play after school once we're done with homework, but Shining has flugelhorn practice today, and Poindexter has an appointment with the dentist. How about tomorrow?"

"Eh, I'll have to check with Tia. We're supposed to sit in on court with her after our private lessons from our tutors," I said, ignoring their looks at my casual use of her nickname. They should hear me use one of the more slanderous ones, seriously. "For Wednesday, we also have magic lessons, and on Thursdays, we have extended lessons with our 'Aunt.'"

"Friday, then?"

I shrugged. "Sure. I mean, Cadance and I usually chill together and explore Canterlot on the weekends or catch up on our lessons, but one less day can't hurt, I guess. I'm sure she won't mind."

"Y-you could also invite her!" Shining Armor interjected, and I glared at him.

"How about no?" I told him, smelling his horniness from a mile away. "Besides, she has new 'friends' now, I'm sure she won't want to hang out with you guys." And I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of being right, damnit. "Don't even think about asking her. She's more into makeovers and stuff like that."

"Oh," Shining muttered lamely, and I rolled my eyes. Teenagers.

We finished making our provisional plans before Eight Bit changed the topic to one of the latest movies in the theaters until the bell rang. It was some generic adventure flick where the knight saved the girl and whatnot; not something I would watch. I was just glad I didn't have to share the following few classes with Cadance (or the guys); I was half sure she would have confronted me about the absence at her table before teasing me smugly because I made friends with a bunch of horny, game-obsessed teenage colts.

Arts and crafts was more fun than I thought it would be. The teacher praised my 'ingenuity' in painting the canvas black and calling it the abyss of my soul, so I smashed it right in front of her face and called it art to see how far she was willing to go to call it 'flawless.' Of course, that quickly became a new trend since a princess did it, and I mentally declared Mrs. Paint a lost cause. I was pretty sure she spent too much time around the paint fumes in her classroom.

The last period was alchemy. It really was just chemistry mixed with magic, and we only did theory for that first day. The teacher, Bubbling Mixture, did show us a fun experiment at the start, though. Who knew you could turn an orange into an apple, flavor and all?

Cadance hung out with Dumb and Dumber after school was over, so I made my way back to the castle alone. I did the meager amount of homework I couldn't finish in class until it was time for our private lessons with our tutors. Arcane Sigil was a no-nonsense kind of guy, having little patience for mistakes as he crammed as much knowledge into our brains as he could in the two hours we had available on Mondays and Tuesdays after school.

Once we were done with that, we had an hour-and-a-half session in court with our aunt. I honestly preferred sitting still next to the throne and listening to stupid drivel from the nobles over the arrogant ass reprimanding us for not knowing the basics of economics, accounting, Equestrian law, and unicorn magic. But hey, at least Arcane Sigil wasn't a racist piece of shit. He was fair but harsh; I could give him that. The strict unicorn only cared about ensuring we understood each topic he taught us to prepare us for our (eventual) royal duties. After all, a ruler who knew what they were doing was an asset to the country instead of a liability.

Eh, it wasn't like we would ever have to rule our own country, right? The most we would ever have to deal with was to help out Aunt Cellybum with paperwork and court every now and again. And even then, there was little chance of us fucking things up beyond all repair since we could always rely on the big princess to give us advice and whatnot.

Anyway, Aunt Celestia occasionally asked us how our day went throughout the gaps in holding court. Cadance was pretty enthusiastic, talking about how nice everypony was to her while I kept my snide comments to myself. Just because I had a shitty day in the beginning, and felt miffed about her choice of friends, didn't mean I had to ruin it for her. What did I care if she hung out with false snakes, anyway? I gave her ample warning about being too trusting of strangers. Strangers that were obviously using her like I had been used my whole fucking life, I—

Aunty Tia nudged me. "Is everything okay, Pleasure?"

I averted my eyes from both her and Cadance, trying to rein in the piercing agony in my chest and the tears threatening to spill. Fuck me, I was a mess. Just... stop caring, Ishtar. Obviously, this had to happen; why did you even believe you wouldn't get burned by trying to make friends? I thought this time would be different, damn it.

"I'm fine," I lied through my gritted teeth. I hopped down from where I sat next to Auntlestia's throne, and Cadance tried to follow after me, but she didn't get far as I lost her in the castle's hallways. I skipped out on dinner that day as I sat perched on a random balcony that night, lost in thought.

At least the night was quiet. My tumultuous thoughts were noisy enough, as it was. And while Canterlot was certainly busy at night, I didn't hear much of the nightlife from up here where I was. Just me and the gentle whistling of the wind.

"Has anypony ever told you you look beautiful while gazing forlornly into the distance?" Cadance asked, and I tensed up as I heard her step closer to me. Fuck.

"How did you find me?" I asked with a frown, and she giggled.

"It wasn't that hard," she smiled, and I raised a brow questioningly at her. She pointed behind us, and I groaned as I realized it was Aunt Celestia's bedroom the balcony led to. Stupid castle palace. It looked the same everywhere on the outside. How come I had no problems navigating the interior but couldn't differentiate whose balcony belonged to whom on the outside? This was some fucked up reversed navigation issue, wasn't it?

"Why are you here?" I huffed, deciding to ignore my inability to differentiate the castle from the outside like every other normal pony would be able to.

Cadance frowned. "Why are you here?" Ugh. Fair point. "Why did you storm off earlier, Forbidden?"

Why, indeed. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Is it something I did?"

"No."

"Are you mad with me?"

"No."

"..." Cadance sighed before putting her chin on the railing of Aunt Jellysun's balcony, sagging down depressedly. "Did something happen at school?" she asked, glancing at me like a sad puppy.

I didn't answer her, nor did I meet her pretty purple eyes. Ugh. Why the fuck couldn't she just leave me alone to mope? She really was an annoying, cute pink pest.

"Is it because I spent time with Lemony Gems and Diamond Rose at lunch?" she asked, and I forced myself not to tense. So that was what Dumb Bitch Number One and Idiot Number Two were called. Dumb and Dumber fit them better, in my opinion. "Please, Pleasure. Talk to me."

"What do you want me to say?!" I asked, raising my voice slightly in anger. "You can be friends with whomever you want! You don't need my fucking permission. Leave me the fuck alone."

"You don't sound happy about it," Cadance pointed out, and I ground my teeth against each other. Just drop it already, for fuck's sake. Go bother someone else, seriously. "Did they do something to you?"

"..."

I stayed silent even as Cadance turned to face me. Her muscles were tense, and a seething rage entered her eyes. They started to glow ominously, and a faint smell of ozone gave away her true nature. "What did they do..?"

"Nothing," I deflected, not in the mood to cause drama between her and her new 'friends.'

"If they hurt you, I'll—"

"Do what?" I snapped back at her, eyes glowing demonically as my voice twisted darkly. "You'll maim them? Rip and tear their flesh from their bones while they scream for mercy?" I challenged her as the smell of foul eggs dominated the stench of holy righteousness. "Go ahead. Lose what precious grace you have and stain your soul with unforgivable sin. Become a monster like me."

"Ishtar..." she whispered, and I snarled at my True Name being used, even without the intention of her using it against me. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to—"

"Save it," I interrupted her. "I don't want to get in between you and those—"

The pink nephilim raised an eyebrow as I bit my tongue to keep myself from saying what I almost did. "Those what?"

"Those girls," I finished lamely, turning away from her. She was persistent as ever, though. I felt her wings envelop me from behind as she hugged me close to her chest. I tensed as she nuzzled me softly on the nape of my neck. I dared not breathe in to get a whiff of her scent. I knew if I did, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from thinking of her in a way friends shouldn't. I would only put our friendship at risk. I... I couldn't let it come to that. She deserved better than my dysfunctional ass. I had to maintain my distance from her. Somehow.

"I just want to understand. They did something to make you hate them, didn't they? What was it?" she asked, and I struggled not to lean into the comforting gesture. I felt strangely warm and small as the fight drained out of me the longer she stayed there. For reasons I couldn't explain, I kept letting my guard down around her. There was just something about her that made me feel... safe. Accepted. Understood. Free. Equal.

...loved. It tore me into pieces at the mere thought of losing all that.

"You know what I said about Eight Bit at first?" I mumbled almost inaudibly.

She hummed. "About everypony wanting something from us? I thought you started to get along with him and his friends at lunch. You even smiled a little."

For the record, I did not smile. That was definitely a lie, an exaggeration, nothing more. Despite her blatantly misreading my expression (I did not smile, I swear!), my annoyingly cute friend had a point. "Yeah," I said, rubbing one forehoof over the other. "I might have been projecting with his group, but I wasn't with those ponies you hung out with."

"Oh," Cadance muttered, not sounding very surprised after my earlier comments. I could still feel the disappointment, though. She wasn't very good at hiding her emotions from me yet. "They are using me because I'm popular, aren't they?"

"Yeah..." I nodded, and she sighed. "They also kinda tripped me after talking shit about us during the first period."

"Both of us?" she asked, and I nodded again. "Wow," she commented mutely, and I agreed with her. I knew it wasn't end-of-the-world material, but still. That kind of duplicity fucking sucked to find out—especially when you thought they were genuine friends. "Why didn't you say something to me? I would have listened to you, you know that. I will always listen to you."

That was exactly what I was afraid of. "And then what? Make you choose between them and me?" It would be so easy, too...

She snorted. "As if that would be much of a choice," Cadance argued, and I felt a flutter in my stomach. My breath hitched as I felt her sniff my mane with a hum. "I'd rather stick with my best friend than be friends with a pair of false snakes."

"Even if that means risking your popularity?" I asked, feeling suddenly insecure.

Cadance squeezed me a bit tighter against her chest. Despite my best efforts, I noticed that she smelled of roses. Fuck... "Especially then," she reassured me. "You don't think I'm that shallow, do you?"

I felt my ears wilt as she accused me of that. That was not what I thought of her. At all. I just... didn't want to ruin it for her. Heck, I was on the short end of the stick for ninety-nine percent of my life on Earth and in Hell. I knew how much it sucked to be a social outcast. To be viewed as nothing more than an object for sexual gratification...

"Can I trust you to talk to me the next time something like this happens?" she asked me, and I nodded with shame. Fucking Hell, she knew how to make me feel guilty, didn't she? "Good. And please don't talk about maiming ponies again. I still get flashbacks of Prismia and..." Cadance trailed off, but I didn't need to hear more to guess what she meant. Now I felt fucking awful for reminding her of what happened in her village.

Way to go, Ishtar. Way to go, you insensitive bitch. Why don't you return to Hell and stop pretending you don't deserve it. Clearly, it was the only place you belonged, idiot.

Because you like being a pony, a small part in the back of my mind whispered, and I shut that part up. What was there to like? Sure, the lavish lifestyle was nice, but was it fair of me to pretend to be something I was not? I was a sham, a fake.

...then again, I had a real chance to do some good here. And... even if I was lying about my pony race, I could identify myself more with the batpony tribe than I could with my misbegotten brethren in Hell. They deserved to have somepony to look up to just as much as every other pony tribe did with Princess Aunt Neglectful-Parent.

I might be a selfish bitch, and I might be insensitive sometimes, but I wasn't an asshole. Not on purpose, at least. I've done terrible shit to survive, sure, but only because I had no other choice. I could make my own choices here without the meddling influence of my demon 'mother.'

Aunty Sunbutt wasn't better in that regard, but at least she was nice about it. She also had the best interest of everypony in mind, and she let me do whatever I wanted as long as it didn't harm anyone. She cared.

Despite my grievances with the pink nuisance, I liked Cadance a lot. So, mistakes or not, I just had to try harder and do better. I wasn't beyond redemption. Even if that redemption came at the cost of being a pony forever, I would take it.

And what if I liked being a pony, anyway? It wasn't like my life as a human was so much better. I felt more like I could be myself as a pony than I did as a human.

We sat there in silence for a while, simply enjoying the closeness to each other. It got mildly awkward when we heard Aunty Tia snore and mumble in her sleep as we were reminded of where we were. I guessed our heart-to-heart must have taken longer than we thought, and she went to bed with us still on her balcony.

"I, uh..." I extracted myself from Cadance's feathery embrace, shuffling awkwardly on my hooves. "I guess we should go to bed, too, huh?"

"Yeah," Cadance nodded as she also shuffled awkwardly on the spot in embarrassment. "I guess I'll—"

"I guess I'll—" we both said simultaneously and blushed further in embarrassment. Cady motioned for me to go first. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?" I asked and felt immediately dumb, but she nodded with a small smile. "Great. I'll, uh..."—I rubbed my neck awkwardly—" g-good night."

"Good night," she told me, giving me a nuzzle. My breath hitched briefly, and my heart did that quivering thing again that I've been noticing it did more and more the longer I spent time around her. I spread my wings to take off, though before I did, Cady mentioned, "I look forward to meeting your new friends, then."

"I..." I said, stopping in my tracks. My heart dropped into my gut. "W-what..?"

"Obviously, I'm not going to spend time with Lemony Gems and Diamond Rose anymore," she told me as if it was, well... obvious. Oh, hell no!

"But they're nerds..." I argued weakly, and she snorted.

"And..?" Cadance retorted, unimpressed.

"Don't you—I don't know—want to hang out with girls your—" I said before I stopped. "Well, not exactly your age, but still. You know what I mean! They are colts."

"I don't see what the problem is, Pleasure," she remarked, and I huffed in exasperation. "Are you embarrassed about them?"

"What..?" I blinked before shaking my head. "No! I..."—I shifted awkwardly on my hooves, struggling for words—" I don't think you would enjoy being around them?"

Cadance smirked. "Oh, I see how it is," she giggled. "You don't want to share their attention with another girl~."

Now, I glared at her. "Cadance..."

"Somepony likes a certain pegasus~," she teased me, and I grumbled balefully. I shouldn't be surprised she went right back to acting like the annoying pink pest that she was. "You don't have to say another word. I'll just sit by myself, all defenseless and lonely, where who knows which polo star could flirt with me. Oh, woe is me!"

I looked at her blankly. "At least try to sound like you're devastated if you want to manipulate me," I deadpanned. She merely giggled harder in response. "Don't you have other friends to sit with?"

"After the last pair tried to weasel themselves into my good graces, I don't know whether they were genuine with me or merely pretended to be," she shrugged. "And you know Buck doesn't count. He's like bubblegum stuck in your tail: annoying and impossible to get rid of."

I snorted at that image. That was so true. "Fleur didn't seem that bad," I pointed out, thinking of the only other pony that came to mind that hung out with her who wasn't complete garbage. "She was already popular, so I doubt she became your friend for the clout."

"And she graduated earlier this summer to start her modeling career in earnest," my friend rebutted me, and I pouted. Darn it. "If you don't want me to hang out with your new friends, that is fine, Pleasure. I understand."

"You do?" I asked skeptically.

Cadance nodded. "Yes," she reassured me. "Just don't let them break your heart, or I'll break their spines. Among other things."

I gulped as I saw the sinister look in her eyes. Holy fuck, she was scary when she wanted to be. "They are teenagers, Cady. I'm not going to start something with any of them. Certainly not while looking like jailbait myself."

"Jailbait?" Cadance snorted, and I rolled my eyes.

"Ask the fucking dipshit that came up with the term," I stated, not in the mood to explain the fucking pile of wrong that was. Suffice it to say, there was a special place in Hell for those people. There wasn't a lot Lucifer oversaw personally, but that was one thing he made sure to punish with extreme harshness.

I left before Cadance could badger me more on that. I swear, that girl would be the death of me. I wasn't even in the mood to abuse a particular pair of ponies that night, avoiding Cadance by locking my dream door, intent on getting a restful night of sleep instead. My racing heart certainly made that difficult enough to achieve as it was.

As it turned out, Cadance was perfectly capable of tormenting Dumb and Dumber alone. Lemony Gems and Diamond Rose looked like they had the worst nightmares in their life the following morning.

Whatever she did to them, they looked haunted and jumped at every shadow and loud noise.

Note to self: don't piss off Cadance.