Bright Horn lighted the latter part of his name and teleported a whiteboard showing the overall economic benefit for both Equestria and The Griffin Kingdon for the construction of a road in favor of earth ponies and unicorn merchants, which honestly would solve the problem of lack of pegasi in the delivering industry. The few that do usually retire earlier due to injuries.

The nobles and politicians on day court listened intently but I had heard all of this for a lifetime on the throne. Heavens above, if only one of the blueblood's descendants were a perfect balance of just and viciousness to take over the throne for a few years... Ah, a mare can only dream.

At least he has a good merchant voice, "And this brings it to my next point, our alchemists have been
Bright Horn lighted the latter part of his name and teleported a whiteboard in, showing the overall economic benefit for both Equestria and The Griffin Kingdom for the construction of a road in favor of earth ponies and unicorn merchants, which honestly would solve the problem we have about the lack of pegasi in the delivering industry. The few that do usually retire earlier due to injuries.

The nobles and politicians on the day court listened intently but for me, it was just repetition. Heavens above, if only one of the blueblood's descendants were a perfect balance of just and viciousness to take over the throne for a few years... Ah, a mare can only dream.

At least he has a good merchant voice, "And this brings it to my next point, our alchemists have been able to concoct a new, easily ponyfacturated sturdy brick!" Bright Horn once more lights his horn and a blue brick appears in front of him, "Which will further decrease the cost of materials that can be further used for monetary incentive to new workers!" Oh? A plan that might genuinely benefit Equestria? The nobles and politicians that were listening clapped at the good plan displayed by Bright Horn, and I have to give to the stallion, it's a nice plan.

However, "Where is the other sixty percent of the funds going?"

Bright Horn smiles, "To the alchemists of course!"

"Yes, they are getting paid more for their qualifications, but you went over the fact that the bricks were easily mass-produced and 'cheap,' even if qualified hooves were so expensive, there would still be fifty percent of the funds left over, where do they go?" Let's see now, avoiding eye contact, flickering tail, and one ear flickered too- oh, is that sweat?

Bright Horn brought a tissue to wipe his bluish fur clean of sweat and passed a hoove through his black mane, "Uh, well-" My little ponies are terrible at lying. Should I be proud? "It's for- uhm-" But lying is inevitably a survival skill to learn. Ah, I tricked so many dragons into 'borrowing' some gold in my time. "The- The-" Maybe that was why Honesty never chose me. Hm. "For- I-" Stuttering mess.

Let's see. "I'll call the royal alchemists to review the structural magic and integrity of these bricks," His eyes widened- Trying to make the roads sturdy but easily breakable by environmental effects, then build a company to fix said roads and make bits out of it, this is the third time somepony tried something similar this century. "The project will also be reduced in funds, by 55 percent. Any objections?" The stallion looked even more hurt. What were you planning to do with so many bits? Build another mansion? Seven isn't enough, Bright Horn?

Those five other percent will go to advertisement campaigns, any leftovers will be given as a bonus to new workers. After the route to Cervidas is reestablished my little ponies will finally get their hooves on those sweet spices... Ahem.

Silence rang through the throne room. "Then it's settled-" I get up and trot to the window, ignoring the many ponies gasping. My gaze goes to the clouds fleeing from somewhere, the change in the magic, the atmosphere morphing, the air twisting and tearing. The heavens churned in defiance and a familiar taste that magics bring with it... Somecreature broke my seal. Southeast from here is the Eternity Bridge, but I dropped it at Peril Cusp- Doesn't matter, my little ponies are in danger.

It has been too long since I needed to use the traditional Canterlot voice volume, but I can still pull it off, "BLUEBLOOD, TAKE CARE OF DAY COURT UNTIL I GET BACK." and it reverberates throughout the capital, I can trust Blueblood to not break the country and cause an economical crash for some hours, maybe only an hour- forty minutes. but that's enough.

With a flick of magic, I'm above Canterlot. Ten minutes, a second at full speed but... Ten minutes.

Demonic Lord: Five Thousand Facets Elemental Disparity Hydra, Lernean Magnus.

Even if that thing was tens of meters away, it still looked as if it were right here. "Dear Celestia..." The sky churned, and dark clouds began to manifest and twist in an upwards spiraling cone right on top of that thing, golden lightning ran across from cloud to cloud until they reached the spiral where they collided, however, there was no sound, impact or anything, the multiple golden lightnings were fusing into some sort of ball lightning? This is unreal- I don't even know what I am looking-

~Swisssh~

Then it soundlessly dispersed, together with the many clouds- but what was left wasn't the sun and the blue atmosphere but a starry sky in broad daylight- The darkness of space grew unimpeded by the sun and other stellar bodies each grew even brighter, Jet voice echoed through my head "Hold onto something!" And a rainbow of lightning struck down the hydra, severing hundreds of its heads at once- a whole second later came the impact and it hit like a train, my bones, body, blood- my everything felt crushed and by the time I had caught enough air to cry, I had hit the water.

I twisted in pain but the lack of air was a wake-up call, I mimicked Dogday and paddled, for ten, twenty, thirty seconds. The water slowly tinted red from the wound on my head, adrenaline pumping any drowsiness away as I paddled yet closer to the surface, forty seconds and I-

~Kaboom!~

Another explosion rang from outside and another shockwave further pushed me down, I clawed at the water, grasped and pulled, yet I kept sinking. Deeper and darker. I began to paddle again but my limbs were unresponsive- something broke, but I was so close, this isn't fair! It-

My lungs burned, joints creaked and despair leaked into me faster than my open wound- I'm going to drown. My stomach felt like a tangled yarn yelling at me to do something. But I can't do anything.

I held tight onto the handrail, the second bolt was stronger and had cut even more heads of the beast but the remaining were smiling, "Ah, it's nice to breathe again." Its voice shook the entire bridge with all the heads speaking at once, a few hundred heads suddenly turned toward the ponies and- blood. so much of it, a pegasi who stayed in the air had half of its body torn, screaming in pain as it fell to the ocean- and yet that was the only one who remained alive long enough to scream after the assault, tens of pegasi in the air were picked off at a speed that I could barely see- I don't think even I could match up with it. Other pegasi that stood on the bridge immediately tried to fly off only to be picked off instantaneously, they didn't even know they were dead.

I folded my wings and and took a few steps back to mingle with the crowd. This- I don't know what I am doing- What should I do to help?

Do something- Do something! I prepared for something like this for years on end, to become the hero I once wanted to be- So do something! Fly up there and do... something...

Everything was slow- so fucking slow, my hooves trembled and stood firm trying to hide amidst the crowd, hoping that if they were to aim down they'd take somecreature else. I stood still as pegasi turned into minced mint and used other ponies to save myself. A fucking coward that killed and will throw others into danger because of fear- that's what I am- I hadn't changed a bit.

I watched as the lump remaining of the ponies went through his throat and the cut-off heads slowly, grotesquely, grew back- Bones, fiber, and muscle. The heads that hadn't devoured anypony looked toward the sky and began gaggling, until- it vomited? No, spewed a huge amount of it's gastric juice- I can't stay here, but them-

When the heads ate all the flying pegasi my wings unfolded and I took a moment to consider flying to get one of the ponies remaining on the bridge to safety, but that was as far as my efforts went, my wings were stiffly drowned in fear with each pony screaming and running past me, their expressions sculped horror, it was even worse with fellians who had shrunken down with ears dropped Catnap, they're confused, lost- I slapped myself with my hoof hard enough to draw blood, and shouted "What are you doing?! Run!" I can't stay the same, not anymore. I shook the nearest creature near me- an earth pony out of his fear-driven stiffness, his eyes widened and he galloped away.

It wasn't fast enough. It began to rain, sickly yellow. And screams of fear turned into shouts of pain and cries of agony, my back felt burning but no more than a very hot shower- it couldn't get through my acclimatization spell- It protects from any harsh environment, every pegasi should know it then why- Why aren't they using it!? Their coat melted, blood boiled, each one of them screamed, howled a bloody scream tearing through their throats, sometimes literally- I- I grabbed the nearest unicorn and tried to pull him away- just to only pull his melting hoof...

Wind enhancement, proto-cloud creation, Aion rings, Flame cutters- There has to be something- anything of a spell to help- Graklin call, gale burst, cyclone... Gale burst! Gale... Burst? The screams had stopped with lumps of figures that were once ponies or fellians resting on the bridge, I took a look back at the demon and it had long since paying attention to us- to me. What is a pony to a mountain? Nothing. But yet, I was too slow.

I. Was. Too. Slow. I could've saved one- no, five creatures! But- but- it stopped raining... Maybe one of them isn't..! I began searching the lumps, scrying anything or hoping at least one hadn't been liquidated- I could survive, so- so other pegasi should have too, right? They should've learned acclimatization too- right?! Jam was a sturdy mare and so was Swiping Sweeper- Violet Storm was a pegasi too and he went through the same school I did. Light Shade and her sister were also strong, I know they are- so maybe there- there- S-some fell to the water too, like... I- He's fine! He is fine. But here...

There... Has to be somecreature left. Please.

~Clip-clop-clip-clop~

My ears flicked and my heart pounded, I turned around, and- it was the Insurgence.

A giant silver stallion nearly as tall and definitely more muscular than Celestia with a white mane trotted forward, his name was Bulwark En, behind him I could see a small blue unicorn mare with an unkept black mane gagging, Glitter Spell, then a dark pegasi stallion that had a fire-red mane and was a bit of a midget, but still kept an uplifting attitude trying to talk with Glitter Spell, Shady Jar, and another earth pony mare with a white coat with a curly green mane that held a stoic expression, Band Aid. All being of the Insurgency, heroes of Equestria. I took a sharp breath, there was no hiding the smell of rotten flesh.

Bulwark trotted faster than the rest of the group, who slowed down at the sight of corpses, that was until he was by me he stopped. "What happened here?" His voice was cold, threatening even. I pointed to the demon in the distance.

He took a step back at the sight of the demon, his eyes widened but quickly refocused and stared at me. The stallion shook his head and gave me a shoulder pat, "Gladiator." It wasn't even a secret spell, it was just acclimatization, the spell every pegasi learns in first grade, acclimatization. Earth ponies and unicorns have something similar too, I know they do- I studied it to perfect mine, so why didn't they do the same? "Don't dwell on it. The Insurgency is always open for ponies of your capability." Those five long years were for nothing if I couldn't have saved a single creature.

Bulwark turned around to his friend... "Glitter, call Dust."

The unicorn nearly jumped when she heard her name but nodded, determined. "Will do!"

"Soo, as I was talking to Glitz over there-" Jar changed his attention from the unicorn to Band Aid, "There I was, at Tramplevania's biggest evil guy's door-step, confronting the eldest vampire with the BEEEEST taste for clothes, Drippula!" His tales to his friend were stopped as the sky twisted with rage and I held on to the nearest handrail, another rainbow thunderbolt struck down cutting hundreds of heads of the demon... This demon.

After the lightning strike, I was surprised as both earth ponies didn't budge, the leader held the unicorn down and the pegasi simply flew back unphased, Band Aid approached me and asked with a soothing voice, "Were they your friends?" Shady Jar also forced himself in between us.

Colleagues. It felt that way, I felt that way- But it still- I could have put more effort. Were they my friends and I didn't know? Violet Storm used to invite me on slow flights over the ocean...

Shadow Sport and Light Shade had the best board games, Swiping Swiper was always unlucky in card games, and Jam- Jam was always there. Were they just colleagues?

The smell of flesh rumps of bone sticking out of puddles mixed with tissues, blood, and other fluids made me feel rotten, the demon in the distance roaring at the skies in defiance was disorienting, some of his heads still had blood on their mouth. Were they my friends?

Friends... Shady Jar smiled and stretched a wing over my back, "Hey, Bulwark said you were a gladiator, right? Like those of stories that could make giant cloud golems and breathe clouds?" What would he do- "Oh~ Oh! And the flaming wings and flaming cyclones! Breathing lightning too-" Catnap!

I quickly trotted to the handrail and looked far into the ocean, but nothing. "A-a lot of ponies and fellians fell after the first impact, one of the fellian was my friend I-" Band Aid raised a hoof to my mouth and later poked my snout with a smile.

Then she turned around to meet the pegasi, "Shady Jar."

The pegasi quickly bowed, his eyes shone with devotion and... Something else. "Yes, my queen?" Band Aid rolled her eyes but motioned to the ocean.

"Go rescue those poor creatures, and keep an eye out for a fellian..?" She raised an eyebrow to me.

I quickly shouted, "Purple!" Both Band Aid and Jar raised an eyebrow.

Band Aid ended simply sighing, "Look out for a purple fellian over there, alright dear?"

The pegasi saluted "Say less, my divinity!" Shady Jar hoped down the handrails and began searching,

Band Aid turned to me and slowly rubbed my back, "Now, mind telling me how did you survive?"

"Acclimatization." The spell that saved me and could have saved all of them- If I had trained more and put more effort, I could've made a cloud barrier, I could've-

"But doesn't that require a pre-activation mantra?"

I shook my head, "The mantra becomes unnecessary after you figure out where the magic runs into and where it seeps into, after that, it's just a matter of repetition until the body does that on its own continuously." I tapped my chin and looked back to the corpses, "After figuring that out, the next step is as simple as keeping on pushing more and more magic to get a higher level of acclimatization until the spell hits the limit." It took no less than a week, a single week that could've stretched for a lifetime for them if I had just practiced cloud breathing instead-

Band Aid hooves gently caught my muzzle and made me turn to her, "That's impressive!" then she let go looking back at the ocean, "Most pegasi take the Acclimatization as a useless spell and trust their natural defenses to weather." But said defenses don't work on heavy thunderstorms or typhoons. Did our over-management of natural weather cause this misconception that our body alone could withstand any natural phenomena?

I had been hearing more and more about ponies not knowing that weather does work on its own. "That's alarming." Band Aid nods.

My gaze slowly seeped into the ocean, far from the beast behind me, far from everything. I hope Catnap's okay.

"Please!! That bat cannot be a Celestia creature-" It was the second time this week, last week they took Manticore's for demons and now it's a vampire bat! They only suck the blood of smaller animals- They're scared of us for Celestia's sake!

Either way, I had no choice. Work is work. I reached for my amulet of recollection and put it on before nodding at the green mare with a lighter green fancy mane. "Lead the way." I can already see myself explaining the anatomy of vampire bats and why they aren't demons. We left from one of the Insurgency of Demonic Containing Forces branch of Manehattan and the noisy city welcomed me with its pollution-covered skies and oxygen that was no different than smoking three packs a day. Thankfully I have a filtering spell, but these ponies do not know how short their lifespan is because of this environment-

~Ring Ring, Emergency, Ring Ring.~

Thank Celestia! "It seems we have to reschedule our extermination appointment."

"Wait-" And I teleported to the signal, ready to deal with the greater demon- Oh my Celestia. The smell of rotten flesh immediately assaulted me, I took a look around and stopped, glaring at the skies.

"Archmage Dust Powder!" Those are the same skies. Cursed be heaven, cursed be harmony!

I took a deep breath and refocused on the hydra demon lord. It isn't going to survive the tribulation, I can feel its demonic essence being comparable to that of a greater demon, the only thing it has is quantity.

With a single flash of my horn, I teleported a hundred meters away from the beast's many heads, with another flash I began stepping on air, and finally with one last flash I grabbed the attention of the demon lord.

"YOU, BEING THAT COMMANDS THE ESSENCE OF MY WORLD." A booming voice, arrogance backed up by power, checks up. "YOUR DEITY HAS IMPRISIONED ME, FOR SUCH SINS YOU MUST DIE!" The tribulation struck the beast once more for ignoring its presence. Cursed be heavens and cursed be harmony. I began setting up matrixes, pushing magic to mold a plate of stars capable of holding great destructive power but halted at the feeling of something coming from behind.

Suddenly, a beam of pure solar might obliterate half of the heads of the hydra, the remaining few begin to charge blasts of poison, lightning, earth, fire, sand, and more. "Are we planning on creating another Everfree, Celestia?"

And, on time, the princess herself flies by my side, "Its essence is weak enough to free us of this problem." I nodded and resumed my spell, the first circle fills the matrix of stars to hold power, the second circle creates the matrix of concentration and dedication to create a shape, and finally, the third circle entails... harmony.

"On a side note, have you showered recently? Your grey coat is turning brown and I fear those red patches on your face are caked in dirt." I grunted, of course, Celestia would notice that- guess no illusion spell can get through her eyes.

Whatever, I positioned each circle one after another on my horn, then I thrust through them, the essence of the world enhancing my own for a brief moment, I lowered my head and fired a single tiny magical missile, the Hydra lost no time and fire his own massive uncontrolled beam of unfiltered demonic essence. Mine easily pierces through it all, Celestia flares her horn, and multiple solar beams form walls of pure energy for what's to come, an explosion.

The moment my beam touched his flesh, it detonated in the greatest explosion. It would've flooded entire cities and caused a great deal of earthquakes if it weren't for Celestia's protection. If I were to fire it on land, an entire mountain would be decimated- I still wonder, Celestia has powers to contain every demon on Equus and yet she doesn't- blabbers about harmony when ponies suffer, I honestly don't understand her.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" Not happy, Celestia slowly raises her hoofs and I hear the ocean stirring, a few seconds in, the water from the explosion lowered enough for me to see multiple Algae larger and wider than any tree on Equestria swarm the creature, latching onto its flesh preventing any further movement.

"You should take care of yourself better." Next week, I have work to do.

Another charge, exactly the same as last time but a tad bit faster- I don't need the same potency as last time. I fired a lesser magic blast as the demon roared and it blew up, this time instead of dust a red mist.

And it seems it was still alive as the heavens struck down one more time for good measure. Once more I swept the field with a breeze spell and the giant demon was there, headless with huge chunks of its body missing, its blood spreading through the ocean. Hopefully, we can purify it by the end of the month, but on a side note, "Bones and organs are mine." It did resist four or five bolts, four more and it would've become a demon god.

"Not the flesh?" Celestia asked, well sure the flesh is the most valuable for alchemical potions, and since it's a hydra we could dilute his blood to make various regrowth or even rejuvenation potions. But the Insurgency is lacking in good weaponry lately, the organs will be good for enchanting and rituals. I shook my head, Celestia smiled, "If that's what you want, my little pony." Then she frowned at the sight of the bridge, those poor creatures...

I sigh and shake my head, my horn flares, and without another second, I'm back in Manehattan and the mare had waited for me- For Celestia's sake, why didn't you ask help from somepony else while I was away?! Agh, might as well deal with this before filling out the paperwork for extraction.

Author's Note

Oh, hi. This one was done yesterday but I got too lazy to add the flavoring stuff and proof read for the third time so uh. yeah. Two more caps and we get the resolution of the bridge arc B).

As always, remember to say what you did like, what you didn't, and what you think I could've done better on this chapter. Constructive criticism is always welcome, so do please write on the comments!

On a side note, what do you guys think of Jet and Catnap personality and dynamic so far? Do they feel alive?