Winter checked her phone to make sure she had the right address. The GPS had brought her through many loops and turns, but somehow she ended up here, to the front of a dingy building with a flickering neon sign that read Crimson Elysium.

It was the band’s fan website that had told her where to go. While Underlord was a relatively unknown band, they had enough of a presence that she found several clips of on-stage performances and even a dedicated fan website.

The Crew section was odd. It contained information on all of the band members, but it was vague. Toxic, a griffon, was their drummer, and by the looks of his picture, he was a clear druggy. There was also Half-N-Half and Ghost in the Shell (cool name), otherwise known as the Underlings (Half-N-Half played bass while Ghost in the Shell played a sax—honestly, pretty cool for an underground rock band.). Then, there was Stellar Eclipse, who had by far the least information available, not even a picture. All it had was a description that read, Stella plays the synth. She’s kinda a bitch. Possible tsundere. She’s a fan-favorite. I love her. (づ ᴗ _ᴗ)づ♡

That left Tyranny: a hippogriff who had, by far, the most information available. Tyranny is the lead singer of Underlord. She plays a double-neck electric guitar that is said to be possessed by the same demon who gifted it to her (okay, so, really it’s part of the ARG I’m putting together). She also owns the Crimson Elysium Nightclub in Manehatten, located in the Southern District of Prometheus. I’ve been there. The strippers aren’t half bad. ★★★

“Guuuh, this was a bad idea.”

“It is the only way we could find them,” Rakasha said.

“No, I mean,” Winter began, groaning in frustration like the autistic filly she was. “I should have gothed out. I’d totally rock the vamp fangs. I got these plastic fangs from one of those stores for goths and hipsters for, like, two bits. They glow in the dark, they’re pretty cool”

She looked down sadly and kicked a rock, muttering, “Gosh I’d look so friggin’ sexy with those.”

“Doesn’t matter. We’re here anyways.”

“Yeah, but we dressed you up, and now I feel left out.”

It was true. The moment she realized that her night would veer straight into a strip club, she got nervous that ponies would think he was some creep tailing her. While that was true, she still needed to come prepared.

She threw a pimpy hat and a fluffy scarf on him and called it a day.

“These rags you have thrown on me have a harsh scent. I have worked many thousands of years in the Underworld mine, smelled the smelliest of sulfurs and endured the stench of death for longer than I can remember. Yet this ‘scarf’, you so call it, far exceeds that experience. I don’t know whether to be proud or applaud. Either way, I am scared of what other evils you conjure up next.”

Winter stared at him for a moment. “Okay, wow dude, you could have just told me to do my laundry. Like, like really. I know you’re a demon lord and all, but don’t be a dick.”

“I just—”

“And I thought I was the autistic one. I’m impressed, genuinely. You have zero grasp on social cues.”

Rakasha raised his brows, which made him look an awful lot like a surprised skeleton. “I have been stuck in a cave for several thousands of years, having no one to interact with.”

“You just described my childhood. That’s literally my childhood. I was a gamer from the moment I yeeted from my mom’s pussy!”

“Will you two forget about fashion!?” Claire shouted. “Like, gahhh, shut the fuck up. I shouldn’t have to listen to spaghetti-dick and spectrum-incel-virgin blather all day! Seriously, shut the fuck up!”

“Okay,” Winter said. “Ouch, but yeah, let’s head inside.”

They entered a simple concrete vestibule, the only tinge of elegance being a framed 1940s pin-up poster of the old superhero Crimson Knight, which reeeeally showed off her legs. Winter immediately figured that the name was derived from that. Mostly, because “Elysium” was written in permanent marker with an arrow pointing to her no-nos.

The actual inside looked much better. The floors were painted a dark crimson hue, while a variety of colorful lights did great work at distracting her for long enough to not notice the pungent stench of cigarette smoke that clung to the air. Still noticeable, but Ooo pretty lights!

There was a thestral mare at the bar cleaning a tankard with a rag. She had a few too many facial piercings that made Winter think, We get it, you’re goth. Also, def a lesbo.

She plopped down and threw her hooves over the counter. “Yo, wassup, can you help me out here?”

The thestral looked up with an expression of utter banality, but when she spotted Rakasha, banality was swiftly replaced with surprise. “Uh, who’s your friend there?” Her voice was deep and very tsundere-like, which collided with the fact that he had almost no personality.

Wow, Winter thought, She even sounds like a lesbo!

“He’s a Neighgerian pimp. Ignore him, he’s harmless. Anyhow, I’m trying to find some peeps, maybe you can point me the way?”

“If you’re here to see Tyranny, she comes in whenever she wants. Haven’t seen her at all tonight, but you’re free to call ahead tomorrow.”

“What about Toxic?”

“Too stoned to meet anyone right now.”

“Stella?”

The thestral rolled her eyes and scowled. “Girl, I’ve never even seen her here. This is the last place she’d want to be.”

Winter scratched her head. “Okay. What about the Underlings?”

“The Twins? You’re in luck. They’re the DJ’s, so they’re here almost every night.”

“Cool! I’mma head in.” Then, the question Winter had been itching to ask slipped out. “Hey, are you a lesbo?”

“Yeah. Lookin’ for a night or summthin’?”

“I knew it! My lesbo-dar isn’t broken. I—”

The thestral rolled her eyes. “Ugh. Nevermind.”

The dance floor was electric. Creatures of every variety got down and groovy to beats that came out of colossal subwoofers. The energy overwhelmed Winter to the point of uneasiness. Every little bump and shove made her antsy, and every scream made her want to plug her ears.

The place smelled of smoke, and the lights were overwhelming to a degree of epilepsy. Winter was pretty sure she stepped in a puddle a few times. What fluid? It didn’t matter. It was better off not mattering.

She shivered.

Pee. She stepped in pee. She was in denial about it at first until she smelled her hoof. So, it doesn’t need to matter.

She arrived at the DJ booth which appeared as a tall fortress, mostly because it was a tall fortress. Speakers encompassed the wall at the top, blasting music that made her ears thrum and body vibrate. Above it all was a pony of no distinction, too dark to be perceived. Occasionally, the lights would flash and she’d catch a glimpse of their eyes.

A dark pony with red irises, and that’s it.

She rounded the corner. Atop a small flight of stairs sat two ponies. An earth pony with a dark red coat and short, spikey blue mane with frosted tips, bobbing her head over a soundboard. The other was also a unicorn. Coat an opalescent white. Mane flat and bubblegum pink with a yellow stripe, and she was grooving with the music with some headphones over her head.

Winter walked up the steps and tapped the unicorn on the shoulder. She opened her eyes and pulled the headphones off one ear. “Yo, wassup girl! How can I help ya?”

“Hey, are you two the Underlings?”

The mare moved the headphones to her neck. “You’re looking at ‘em! Name’s Half-N-Half.”

She held out her hoof to be shook and Winter obliged, albeit hesitantly. “You two… are twins? You look nothing alike.”

Half-N-Half glanced at her sister, who Winter assumed to be Ghost in the Shell, and back at Winter. “Oh, pssssh! Come on, we look sooo much alike. Practically indistinguishable!”

“Yeah, sure…”

“Anyway, what you need girl? Got a song request?”

“No, I had some questions regarding a recent venue you guys played at. A few questions, actually.” She looked back to make sure Rakasha was still behind her, which he was.

“Oh yeah? What venue?”

“Uh…” Winter cleared her throat as she realized that Rakasha never told her where he was summoned. “I don’t know which one exactly. Uhh, hey, sorry to be upfront, but did you happen to summon a powerful demon lord from his prison in Tartaraus?”

Half-N-Half laughed. “Ha! Oh, that? It’s like you want to hear me brag.”

“Uh, no. I want to hear about why and how you did it.”

Half-N-Half pressed a hoof against Winter’s lips and said in a very chirpy yet rapid voice, “Nonononononononooooooo can do sista. That’s confidential info’mation right there. Can’t go spoiling the plot!”

Winter pushed away her hoof, which also smelled vaguely of pee.

“Yes, but—”

“Winter!” Claire called. The little pink demon sprite floated up next to her. Holding out a tendril, she held a can with an anthropomorphic anime character on it. “They have anime on their soda! How is this possible?”

I’m just going to ignore youuuu! Winter sang in her head with a tad bit of annoyance in the hopes that Claire could somehow read her mind. I’ll look crazy if I talk to you right now.

She turned back to Half-N-Half. “Listen, I know it’s confidential and… y’know. But, like, I got this problem that I need to get off my back, and I could reaaalllly use your help.” Then, with a hesitant smile, she squeaked, “Please?”

Half-N-Half blinked. She blinked again. She blinked a third time. Then several times rapidly. She jabbed a hoof in Claire’s direction. “Yo, is that a Parasite?”

Winter’s pupils shrank and she stepped back. “You can see her!?”

Half-N-Half leaned into Ghost in the Shell’s ear and whispered something, then turned back to Winter. “Let’s go somewhere quiet.”

They stood in a green room that looked more like the inside of one of those mall stores closed for remodeling. The walls were a dainty white, covered in smudges and grime from years of neglect. The only furniture in the room was a vanity mirror with three working bulbs out of 12 and a ripped-up couch that looked like it was taken out of some back alley.

“Hey, where did you get that couch?” Winter asked.

“Some back alley.”

“Ah.”

“Anyway, I’ll start by asking, who’s your Neighgerian refugee friend and why is he pimped up?”

Winter looked back at Rakasha and wondered if it was a good idea to say. Just as a precaution, she said, “Oh that… that’s Derckle. He’s a pimp from Neighgeria. Cousin n’stuff, y’know, long family history of pimps. Runs in the genes, I guess, y’know, the pimp gene.”

“Yes,” Rakasha said in his rather typical ‘I’m an evil demon lord bow down to me grrrrr’ scary voice. “I am Derckle, pimp lord of Neighgeria. Bow down to me.”

Winter facehooved.

Half-N-Half rubbed her chin. “Waiiiit, do I know you from somewhere?”

The room went silent as everyone waited for Rakasha to respond. “Uh, the store?”

Half-N-Half glared, piercing through his dark eyes as if telekinetically shoving scalpels through them, but this was quickly replaced by a smile. “Probably!” she giggled. “I meet a lot of people at the store. You’re not the first weirdo I’ve spotted there.”

Winter breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay, now’s my turn to ask a question. How come you can see Claire? Are you a hybrid too?”

Half-N-Half giggled again, and Winter couldn’t help but notice that she sounded like a child. “You can say that. I’m a Half-Soul.”

“A half-what now?”

“That means she only has half her soul,” Claire said.

“I mean, the title explains itself, but come on bro, I need more deets. How does that explain how she can see you?”

“Because she’s half dead.”

Winter reared back in shock. “Whoa. That sounds kinda metal, actually.”

Half-N-Half laughed and booped Winter’s nose. “Yep! Me and my sister both are. Died in my mama’s womb just as the embryos were splitting and my sister took on the dead half. It’s a rare birth defect. Basically, I was dying in her tummy before achieving fetus status, and—” she stopped, gasped, and sang— “ANATOMY LESSOOOOOON!!! Okay, so, unicorns have this nifty little thing with magic that works in tandem with the cells and chemicals in their body. So, like, her body recognized that I was dying and split my embryo to take away all of my negative side effects, and that other embryo ended up surviving and becoming my sister. Which is awesome because she’s the bestest person ever! My cousin Rollie O’illie is a close second, but Ghosty is top ALLLLLL the way. Good thing Rollie O’ille is a bottom.”

Winter’s brain made internet dial-up noises. “Was that last part a joke? I can’t tell if that last part was a joke or not. Seriously, was that a joke?”

Half-N-Half gave a cute little snort-giggle. “Take it however you want, doesn’t change how awesome my sis is!”

“Wow, you really like her, heh.” she said, trying to refrain from making an incest joke.

“Just scissor her already, dammit!” Claire yelled in her stead.

This time Half-N-Half burst into an outrageous fit of laughter that seemed to consume the entirety of the room. Winter joined in on the laughter too, albeit nervously as she tried to gauge how that was funny, or why Half-N-Half even found it funny in the first place.

“I just—” Half-N-Half began, wiping away a single tear. “Y’know, lotta weird fanfics about us. What few there are, that is.”

“That’s…” Winter was going to comment on how creepy that sounded but suddenly remembered her own onslaught of slashfiction she’d written and didn’t feel like it was her place to judge. Suddenly, she remembered the issue at hand. “Oh, yeah! Okay, so, you’re half-dead, that’s why you can see Claire. I’m guessing it has something to do with how you’re connected to the underworld or some shitzo.”

“Basically!”

“Right, okay, so this is very cool and all, but I’m on a mission. Did you summon a demon lord at your last rock concert by any chance?”

“Welllllll, that’s confidential information, but since you’re pretty cool n’all and likely have most of your soul sucked away by that parasite of yours and will probably explore the Earth for the rest of your days as a husk of what you once were, I can drop a few deets. Yeah, we did. We picked one at random out of this crazy ancient grimoire and performed the summoning on stage. Stella wasn’t having it and kept saying, ‘You’re gonna fuck everything up, Tyranny!’ but Tyranny kept on insisting that a stage performance was the best way to go. She really likes explosions, lemme tell ya. I like explosions, too. Especially pretty explosions. So does Toxic, he’s a pyromaniac after all. Sometimes, on holidays, he makes these really cool fireworks that—”

“You’re getting off topic,” Claire interrupted, placing a tendril over the unicorn’s mouth. “Why did you summon him? What are your plans? And where can I find more soda with anime of anthropomorphic characters on it?”

Half-N-Half’s tail perked up. “Ooo, that? Yeah, not that, I can’t say that. That could jeopardize everything. Not the soda thing, the plans thing. Trying to summon a primordial demon hundreds of thousands of lightyears across the universe takes a lot of work, y’know? Can’t have the PO getting involved, know what I mean?”

Rakasha shambled forward, leaning in toward Half-N-Half with all the malice of a feral dog giving a warning snarl. “Enough balderdash! Tell us if you plan on summoning more, you bubbly virgin swine, or so help me, the misery and hardship I’ve been forced to endure for so long shall encroach you tenfold.”

Half-N-Half tilted her head, staring at Rakasha with confoundment. She stared and she stared, until finally, she gasped. “No way! Didn’t think I’d see you again, Rakasha!”

She took Rakasha’s hoof by force and shook it, to the demon lord’s utter annoyance. “Sorry about the whole imprisoning you in a magic bubble n’all that. Had to make sure you wouldn’t try to kill us.”

Rakasha grumbled. “It is fine. Now, tell me, do you plan on summoning more demon lords? I do not care for the reason.”

“Mmmmmm… okay! I’ll tell. But you have to promise to keep it a secret, ya silly filly.” She booped his nose. “Alright, so, we’re trying to acquire the blood of three demon lords so that we can summon a demon god. His name is—”

“Again, I do not care what your reason is. All I need to know is if you plan on summoning more. And since you do, we can offer our assistance.”

A gleeful smile stretched across Half-N-Half’s face. “You mean you want to become our groupies!?”

“A—what?”

Winter budded in. “A groupie is some weirdo fan that follows a band around to every venue. They’re basically the weebs of music.”

“I didn’t quite understand that last part.”

“Well, I did,” Claire added.

Half-N-Half’s horn lit up in a lemony aura, and a phone floated out of the inside pocket of her jacket. “Aight, so here’s the deal. I’m cool with ya guys taggin’ along and supporting the band. But I need to call Tyranny first since she’s the band leader. Whatever she says goes.”

She held the phone up to her ear and waited. After a few seconds, she spoke. “Sup girl, where’s yo sexy ass at?

“Wait, really? You actually went through with it?

“Well, heck ya! That means we’re already prepped for the next show. Speaking of which, I have someone here with me who’s interested in tagging along.

“Yeah, I know, I can’t tell anyone about it, but Rakasha was with them.

“Yeah.

“Yeah.

“Uh-huh.

“Yeah.

“An earth pony mare. And get this. She has a parasite with her!

“Yeah, I can put her on, hold on.”

She hovered the phone over to Winter and said, “It’s for you.”

Winter took the phone with her hoof. “Hi, this is Winter Heat. This Tyranny?”

“So, ya have a parasite, don’tcha love?”

“Uh, yeah. I do. I’ve heard that you might have one, too. So…”

“Do you feel it as well?”

Winter’s ears flicked. “Huh?”

“The emptiness? Do you feel it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“Oh, I’m sure you very much know what I’m talking about, love. Waking up day after day, feeling like you’re walking through one long boring dribble of a scene from a movie, living life one banal step after another. It’s… soul-sucking, as they say. You wake up one day into another banal existence, then POOF, you have a parasite attached to your soul. Now you don’t know where your own feelings begin. You can’t remember the colors you used to see as a child, and you can’t remember the last time a movie got you all choked-up-like. Life just becomes meaningless dribble ‘till the final grain of sand in the hourglass falls. Know what I’m sayin’, love?”

Winter was silent, trying to find the best way to respond. After a few moments too many, she spoke. “Yeah, but Claire—”

“I can tell ya still have someone of your enthusiasm, love. Enjoy it while it lasts. In the meantime, have a rut and join our tour. It may be the last thrill you’ll ever have, so it’s best give ya something to remember.”

Tyranny ended the call before Winter could get another word in. She handed the phone back to Half-in-Half and said, “That was weird, but she said it was cool to join.”

“Sweet!” Half-in-Half practically shouted. “Oh, you’re going to have so much fun! We’ll get you a backstage pass, and you’ll get to meet some of the band members! Just stay away from Toxic, he’s a creepo. Also, Stella isn’t the most social butterfly, but as long as you stay on her good side, you’ll get along with her just find. She’s nothing but a harmless tsundere. Ooo, and also—”

Winter held up a hoof for her to stop. “Heh, this all sounds very exciting, but I’m pretty beat. I think I’m going to head home. Should I give you my number?”

Half-N-Half’s eyes lit up, much like a child’s upon discovering crack cocaine. “Heck yeah!”

After giving Half-N-Half her number and stepping outside to the warm night air, Claire hovered next to her. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Winter replied blankly.

“You don’t seem okay.”

“I’m just… tired. Hit me like a wave while we were talking.”

“You didn’t say a whole lot to Tyranny, but you were on the phone for a while. What did she have to say?”

Winter looked up at Claire and wondered. She wondered so much about who her friend really was. She’d only gotten to know the parasite for a little over a year, which was more than a plentiful amount of time to have her soul sucked away. Remnants of it were obviously still there. Well, she liked to think. She still had moments of joy. But how much of that joy was finite?

This feeling of existence. Her ennui. Her anxiety. Going into work day after day, feeling like nothing will ever be okay. Was that just her, or was that because Claire was fulfilling her end of the bargain from the day they made the pact?

Was she a walking husk?

Or was she just a lost cause?

“She talked about nothing,” was all Winter said. “Just rambled about a few things I couldn’t understand cuz of her accent, then let us join the tour. That’s about it.”

Just as that was about it for the conversation, and thus the night.

Author's Note

Sorry for the absence, been having a rough time since moving. Mainly sleep-wise. I work nights, so it's really hard to have a stable schedule when you're a nocturnal husk with a busy daily life. Gonna try to write a bunch of chapters in bulk to make up for the lack of new content.

Also, I realize that the world is starting to grow big, and some of the characters I would really love to have artwork for. Problem is, art costs money. If you like the story and the characters and would like a visualization of them, consider donating to my Paypal. Idk how to link it so just DM me, and I'll give you my email.