Hear the voices of Samuel/HTVO: Arc 1: Samuel

Chapter 43: Welcome to The Land of the Unpromised

The streets of Ponyville were empty. It was quiet and the clouds in the sky blocked the sun. The wind was blowing mildly as the sounds of drums were heard from afar. Soon the sounds of chords were heard being played from a bass guitar. The music sounded dark and it sounded like it was getting closer to the center of the town. A flying poster that was getting carried away by the wind came to a dead stop when it hit the window of a shop. The paper was a ripped newspaper article that had war images written all over it.

The sounds of maracas were heard shaking as a soft key was being pressed from a piano. A soft whisper of unheard language was echoing through the streets. The tone was grim and soft. Soon words were heard more clearly from this unknown whisperer. But out of this individual's mouth, these words were laced with the tone of hate and pain.

"I can see all of this pain inside you. Left to suffer here, as your life fades into the blue. There is no door for you to go through. As you are drowning here with no clue what to do. Your hope is gone and your life is next to. As the world will fade along with the sun's fire deep inside of you." The voice belonged to Black March who was singing on a mic on top of a cliff staring down at Ponyville. By his side were two ponies and one griffin each wearing dark hooded robes that covered their faces. One pony was playing the maracas while the other pony was playing the bass guitar. The griffin was playing the piano.

Black March grinned as small glowing orbs of light were spotted in the distance of the forest that surrounded Ponyville, especially the mountains. The zebra lifted his right hoof in the air as a dark beam came out of his hoof going straight into the sky. When it reached the tip of the clouds, it began spreading throughout the sky. Darkness started to take over Ponyville. But the glowing orbs of light were still there shining like stars in the night sky. Soon, in the center of the darkness, a speck of light pierced through the blanket of shadows striking the ground like a bolt of lightning. The darkness soon spreads apart causing the clouds to remain in the same place they were in before.

In the center of the town a pure yellow coat, mane, and eye color unicorn glanced left and right before she lifted up her hoof. "Attack!" She yelled before shooting a lightning bolt at the mountain peak, destroying it. The mountain peak exploded into pieces but as the mare watch the crumbling derbies of earth come crashing down into the forest, she could have sworn that she saw a speck of Black March's tail wave to the left before vanishing.

Ponies, from their hiding spots came out of the forests bearing cloaks that had the Samuel triangle insignia on the side. Other ponies from the opposite side of the forest came out bearing cloaks that had the Azazel triangle insignia on the sides. Each rival started running straight into the opposite sides of the town preparing to launch their waves of attacks. The ones on the mountains were Azazelists and Samuelnists each launching magical artillery at one another. The ponies that were hit by the destructive force of magic were either torn to pieces, injured from the explosive collision, or fell down into the empty sheet of white where the ground awaited its victim's lives.

As the ponies entered into the center of town, each rival member took out their sharp weapons and attacked one another. A few pegasi cult members were in the air having aerial battles. A few fell flat to the ground hard, dying on impact. Some were tackled through a window of somepony's household. It was clear that the unicorns in the mountains, the earth ponies in the center of the town, and the pegasi in the air, that this battle was planned out. Young to old, brave to bold, experienced to dimwitted, and certainty and uncertainty, that these ponies were obsessed with one thing and one thing only. Killing.

A few unicorns of the warring factions launched artillery fire on the town, destroying homes and devastating a few. The pegasi used either their weapons or the clouds nearby them. They managed to use them like electrical shock chargers that if any pony tries attacking them they could stun them. But that didn't work all of the time. It was sometimes used as a last resort weapon. The earth ponies used their brute strength to hoof or smash objects upon other opponent's heads. Sometimes they would use their weapons but in their blood, they were driven to use their hooves. It made them more bloodthirsty. The more blood that was shed upon the ground drove these ponies to become all the more uncontrollable that a few killed some of their fellow members.

Black March was walking through the alley quietly watching as some of his fellow brethren either killed or got killed. A smirked appeared on his face as he then looked up seeing Nero leaping across the rooftop. Looking back down at the exit of the alley where the battle was continuing, he chuckled, beginning to run.

Insane was giggling madly as he dodged multiple attacks from his Samuelnists attackers. "Come on, keep swinging, it's not like that's going to work on me!" He taunted before ducking an attack from two ponies hooves. He quickly rolled forward grabbing their foreheads and blew a kiss to each one before he used his Legilimancy on them. The two victim's eyes widen and soon rolled back as Insane smacked their heads into each other. He started to laugh before he looked back at the other attackers. "Come on, all I did was screw up their heads and smacked them back to sense!"

Mat hid behind a door inside the shop. His back was sitting back glancing down. "I am no participant in this fight." He said in a frightened tone. Taking a peek out of the window, he saw the havoc that was going on outside. He frowned and went back to look at the ground. "I will not fight."

Maple and Eulogy stood top of the Bell tower of the Center Hall, watching the battle. Looking at Maple who had a bored expression on her muzzle, Eulogy chuckled. This caused Maple to look at the Necromancer curiously. "What's so funny?" She asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Eulogy asked. "Look at all of them; they're doing what they are born to do. Survive."

"So, what does this have to do with anything? We see this all the time on every mission we were assigned to do. It's an everyday thing." Maple said.

"Yes, that is true, but if you look at them closely, you can see how destructive they are, how willing they are in trying to survive, and how faithful they are to their gods. The split caused this to happen, we both know why, but do they know. Are they blindly following Lord Azazel just to be safe and live a prosperous life in the afterlife or are they just fighting because they have nowhere else left to go?" She asked.

"Beats me, I couldn't care less what they do. They're giving their lives away for whatever they believe." Maple said.

Eulogy rolled her eyes and gave a disapproving grunt. "All you can care about is that stupid colt Solar while your fellow brothers and sisters are being slaughtered down there." She said.

"Hey, that doesn't matter at all." Maple said looking back at her with a serious look on her face.

"I'm surprised that you made it to the rank of being Azazel's lieutenants. Perhaps it was because of Silver." She said resting her hooves on the ledge.

"You know what, forget it, just worry about yourself." Maple said with a red blush on her face of embarrassment.

Eulogy chuckled and lifted her right hoof into the air. The zombified god, Erebos appeared by her side. "Erebos, proceed to Canterlot's gates as the rest of the Azazelists follow your lead." She commanded. Erebos nodded his head and with a grunt, he vanished.

"What do you plan on doing when you get to Canterlot, can't you see that place is heavily fortified?" Maple asked curiously.

"That's for me alone to worry about." She said giving a taunting smirk.

Maple gave her an awkward stare before she realized what Eulogy meant. A giggle left her mouth as she stared back at the battle going on below. "Nevertheless, I give these Samuelnists credit; they know how to fight when it comes to us." She said.

Seven ponies were pinned to the walls in the hospital hallway with long steel poles. The hallways were covered in bodies of all sorts of cult members. Psionic chuckled, walking down the hallway. He glanced left and right at the death he caused upon to both sides of the factions. He licked his lips and flicked a lock of his mane to the side. "So much fun. You all were simply wonderful being my dolls, but I must bid you all adieu." He said but before he could take a single step forward. A hooded pony came from the side and tackled him. He was pinned down to the ground as the mare above him continued to punch him from side to side of his face with her hooves.

Psionic began laughing every time the mare swung and hit him hard in his muzzle. He could care less if he was getting hurt from all of this; instead, he was enjoying the pain. He was getting pleasure off it. "Is that all, come on, harder bitch!" He yelled, laughing.

The mare above him grew angry and started to hit him harder. Blood started to form on her blue hooves. A horn appeared from the dark part of her hood. "RUN, NURSE REDHEART!" She yelled, looking up ahead at a Custodian closet. Psionic's eyes narrowed as he glanced up seeing the white coat, pink mane pony nurse run out of the closet, heading towards the entrance. He chuckled knocking the mare off of him and hoofing her in the face, stunning her to the ground. He turned towards the fleeing mare and pointed his hooves at her causing her to stop.

"Nopony leaves this place!" He yelled.

"Trixie!" Redheart cried out.

The cloaked pony, known as Trixie, struggled to get up and shot a firework spell at Psionic causing him to lose his control over Redheart. Psionic growled feeling his back burned from the attack. He turned around facing Trixie who had her hood down. "You are one brave as bitch for attacking me." He said getting into a running stance.

As Redheart made it out of the exit. Psionic pounced towards Trixie tackling her into the ground. He started to hoof her multiple times in the face, laughing at the same time. The showtime mare managed to knock him off of her and buck him in the chest. Psionic coughed out blood due to the blow and started to chuckled. "Come on, is that all you have inside of you? Come on, show me, what you're truly made of, bitch!"

Trixie, filled with furious anger, started to charge up a spell while running towards Psionic. She soon impaled her horn in his right shoulder, but intended to stab his chest if he hadn't moved. The insane, blind pony grinned wider from ear to ear, clutching Trixie's mane tight with his hooves. He could feel the warmth of his blood slowly drip down his shoulder from the sides of her bloody horn. "What the fuck was that supposed to do?"

"This." She muttered before launching a firecracker spell deep within his shoulder socket. Psionic yelled out in pain falling back to the ground clutching his missing limb that was burnt away. Trixie smirked while backing away. But that smirk vanished when she saw this mad pony begin to laugh hysterically. "W-what in the name of Celestia are you?" She asked in pure shocked.

"I am...the Blind Devil!" He laughed.

In the mountain regions, Nero was in his Black Phoenix form, firing dark fireballs at the Samuelnists who were performing artillery on the rivaling faction. He grinned through his dark beak watching the ponies' burn in the eternal hellfire. Looking up ahead, he could see the shield that was guarding Canterlot. "Redpen is there." He muttered. He grinned and fired more balls of dark fire straight at the enemies. "I will purge you and your friends within the fires of hell, Redpen!"

March entered into the Ponyville Elementary school and saw chairs flipped over and paper scattered everywhere. He sighed in relief and looked around the place just in case he spotted any small filly or colt hiding. So far, he found none. "Good, the teach' got them out of this place in time." He said.

As soon as he turned around, Silver was in the middle of the entrance. March eyes narrowed as he became nervous.

"Did you kill them?" He asked calmly.

"N-no, I don't kill little foals, Silver." March said.

"You do know that we are supposed to eliminate anything that is or is not part of the Samuelnists and that includes foals." Silver said sitting down.

"Well, I have boundaries, this is one of them." He stated.

"You don't have to be so defensive about it, I already understand. Even I wouldn't be able to bring myself to kill these innocent minds." He said getting up and beginning to walk past March.

"Then- "Don't waste my time, don't you have to see Solar. You do have to kill him and he is vulnerable in Canterlot." Silver said, interrupting March. The zebra stood silent before nodding his head and vanishing into the shadows. "That was fast." He chuckled.

Suddenly, his ears twitched as he quickly turned around seeing a pony with a dirty brown coat and blonde mane. The stallion's eyes were purple and the grin on this pony's face was vicious. Twisted. Jester-like. It managed to frighten the Cryomancer. "Who are you, you don't look like you're from any cult that I know of?" Silver asked, noticing a large scar patch on both sides of the earth pony's flanks.

"Me, well, I am no cult member of any sorts, instead I am a Swords member." He stated calmly.

"Swords...who are you?" Silver asked.

"I am Kukoo." He said chuckling before he took out two small sickles strapped to his foreleg hooves. "I'm just here to have fun, and do you know what kind of fun I love having?" Kukoo asked.

Silver became nervous from this stranger's question. As soon as he saw the sharp objects come out of the shadows. He expected this to be bloody. "What?" He asked, getting ready to attack.

Kukoo started to laugh hard before answering the ice pony's response. "Killing. Isn't it the obvious answer from a random stranger who is capable of destroying the entire town by a flick of his hoof. That is if hooves can flick anything if you want to be logical with pony anatomy." He said.

Before Silver could say anything, he felt a sudden warmth go down the right side of his stomach. It felt weird, like he once felt this feeling before. Looking to the right side of his stomach, he gasped spotting a sickle stabbed deep into him. He coughed out blood as he stared deep into the eyes of the mad pony in front of him. "This world...lost it." He said before collapsing onto the ground.

Kukoo only chuckled, walking in front of him. He looked down staring at the dying unicorn. "No...this world didn't lose it's sanity, it was "We" that lost our sanity." He said before lifting up the left sickle into the air. It started glowing a shade of gold. "And for each pony that becomes insane, a life is lost in order to continue it. Goodbye." He said before he brought it down and blood sprayed onto the ceiling.

Maple and Eulogy walked towards the school house side by side through the abandoned playground. Maple glanced at Eulogy nervously. Something wasn't right. The Necromancer glanced back at the Phytomancer and noticed that worried look. They both stopped in front of the main entrance of the school house.

"Something isn't right?" Maple said.

"Yeah, I can feel that strange feeling as well." Eulogy said.

"We were supposed to meet Silver and March in the school so we could plan out our next move, right?" Maple asked.

"Yeah, that's what Silver told us to do." Eulogy said, before grabbing the doorknob and opening the door.

It was dark in the room. Very dark that even the light outside was having a hard time casting a glow in the darkness. The sound of bones being crushed was heard as the two mares walked inside. Eulogy went into her cloak pocket and took out a flare stick.

"I keep these just in case." She said smirking at Maple who rolled her eyes.

"Silver, where are you!?" Maple called.

No response came back to these two mares, so Maple nodded her head to Eulogy to start up the flare. As soon as the red bright flare lit up. The glow cast light upon the amount of blood that was on the ground and ceiling. What they saw in front of their eyes horrified and chilled them to their bones. The headless, ripped stomach of Silver. Right by his side was Kukoo, feeding on the flesh of Silver's head like a rabid animal. His eyes glinted from the flare as he stared at the two mares. He growled and dropped the head before he ran towards the window and leaped through the glass.

The two mares couldn't speak. They couldn't think of anything to say. Their minds were trying to register the site before their eyes. This was no illusion that any of their fellow enemies or allies would cast upon them. This was no nightmare or any sort of dream. Silver was dead, in their eyes and in their minds.

Fluttershy sat on her rooftop looking at the sky. By her side was a raven. The two stared at the sky with a calm look. They were waiting for the clouds to split apart and the sun to finally reveal itself. They were fully aware of the battle going on in the nearby town. The sounds of metal hitting metal and shout against shout were easy to hear. They knew what was going on in Ponyville. Even the mountains were a dead giveaway. Destruction. That is what they both saw.

(Author's Note: I suggest you listen to The Promised Land from Final Fantasy VII)

"Mother, what's it like in Heaven?" Fluttershy asked.

"Heaven..." The Raven spoke. "Is only a blanket that will keep its inhabitants warm as they pass on through the afterlife. Sometimes."

"Sometimes?" She asked.

"Yes, most of the followers of Samuel seek purgatory than heaven. They are too afraid to stay in either realm." Nocta said.

"But...why, why would somepony want to be in purgatory if all they're going to do is travel through the course of limbo?" She asked.

"It is not a course of Limbo, but instead, to them, it is a test." She said.

"A test?" Fluttershy asked, looking at the dark blue raven.

"A test, of acceptance and understanding of life. Your friend, Twilight Sparkle has been through that realm and out. She understands the things that go on beyond the gate of life and death, this world and the next, she obtained ultimate wisdom." She said.

"So, that is why she is Lord Samuel's favorite follower?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yes." She answered.

"Okay, but, why are so many ponies in the Samuel cult so willing to go into Limbo instead of Heaven? A test doesn't seem that much special if you are going to pass on anyway." Fluttershy said.

"They are all here for something. They are all willing to sacrifice a piece of themselves in order to obtain something of equal value. They are all balance. Life and Death are two balanced powers just as War and Peace. My husband's role is to give life and take it so that balance may occur amongst all of the living and the dead. Soon, when the pony finishes their test in Limbo, they will be finally prepared for the Promised Land." Nocta said before she turned into her humanoid form.

"Mother, how about those who aren't part of any cult?" Fluttershy asked.

"They are given the option to move on or to come back in a whole new shell." She said smiling softly through her black hair that revealed some parts of her pale face. "That is the way of Balance. Azazel, he knows this and he tries to run away from it. He is afraid of balance. For he knows that balance is what can kill him. Once a god dies...they fade away forever, because those who followed this god, will forget him. They will choose to either believe he is ether a myth or fake." She said softly before looking at Fluttershy.

"So, that's what this war is all about?" She asked.

"No...it's far more than that...it's Fear." She said looking back up at the sky.

Erebos stood in the center of the road, staring straight at the violet shield that blocked the outside world from entering inside its presence. The guards that guarded the gates aimed their spears from the peaks above the stone wall. They were prepared to protect this city no matter what. The demonic god began to cover his entire body in his acid-poison coat. Soon he morphed into a giant serpent looking straight at the horrified guards.

"Brace for impact!" One of the guards yelled.

Erebos gave off a piercing roar before he crashed straight deep into the shield shattering it into pieces, causing the city to become exposed to the outside world. The guards that were hit by the acidic-poison beast screamed in pain as their bodies' burned from the coursing poison on their coats and in their veins. The gate and stone structure nearby it was literally melted off. The guards nearby it were shocked and trying to figure out if it was actually possible to stop Erebos' destruction. The city civilians were all escorted into the underground tunnels and all the guards were busy defending the streets against this acid pony.

Celestia limped out onto the balcony glancing over the view, seeing the giant acid serpent attacking her royal guards defending the city the best that they can. Rarity and Pinkie Pie walked by her side. They watched in horror as the buildings were melted away by the beast. The alabaster pony frowned and closed her eyes. She glanced back and saw the portal that Twilight had made still open.

"Sister..." Celestia turned around and spotted Luna floating in the air staring at her with a saddened look. She was in her Royal Night armor. "I know that you are still shamed to see me, but it is time to drop this disappointment and replace it with what we are supposed to do. Skoll knows what I am doing and agreed to help me along with it. We are going to fight alongside the guards, defending this city to our very last bit of strength. You can join alongside me while pushing your problems away with me for that very moment and together we could protect Canterlot a bit longer so Paradise can finally put an end to this god-fairing war." Luna said.

Celestia looked at her younger sister in shock. She was disappointed still that the traitor of her own country would still be with the devil that made her a traitor, but happy to see that this alicorn did not forget about her. She didn't forget that they were sisters. They were rulers. They were the very protectors of this land. It was their jobs to protect this country no matter what.

"Rarity, Pinkie Pie, get me my armor." She said with a confident tone.

"On it!" Pinkie Pie said happily.

"On it." Rarity said following the pink pony.

Celestia looked at Luna sternly. "Even though we been through too much, we are still rulers, we are still sisters." She said. "I will not question you or think about the past problems that we had, but instead...I will worry more about that zombie god who was supposed to be dead." She said smiling.

Luna smiled back. When Rarity and Pinkie Pie came back with golden armor for the Princess. Celestia used the little magic that she had to spare to put it on. "I might not be as strong as I used to be- "I have that handled." Luna stopped her sister from talking as she touched her horn with hers, sharing magic with her. "This will be enough for you to last." Luna said before backing away.

"Thank you sister, now, let us not waste time." Celestia said before she took off into the sky with her sister.

As soon as they made it to Erebos, they launched magical attacks attracting the acid serpent's attention. "Now, that we have his attention, we might as well do what we can, agreed sister?" Celestia asked.

"Just like Discord, we can finish this together." Luna said.

"We will defeat him and protect this city as rulers, together." Celestia said holding out her hoof to Luna smiling. Luna smiled back looking at her sister. The two sisters shook hooves and both stared at Erebos with determining looks set on winning.

"Together."

-To Be Continued -