Devil Mare Cry

The Fate Of Two Worlds

Location: Ponyville – Inside The Castle Of Friendship|| Time: 12:54 a.m.

Tick

Tock

"Why does it sound… louder than usual?"

He thought to himself, blue eyes staring up at the ceiling as the wind from the spinning ceiling fan creeps in like a chill in the night.

Tic

Tock

…

Tick

Tock

The noise of the clock's ticking continued with each slow movement of the second hand, the noise, although faint, cuts away the comfortable silence in the safe confines of this guest bedroom like a loud crash of thunder on a clear, partly cloudy night. As this ticking continued, ten minutes became well over an hour since Vergil had been lying on his back in this comfortable spare bedroom.

The mattress was plush and very soft, it felt like the ones made of that soft foam that stayed cool, and didn't get warm, that he could get another good night's sleep, yet he couldn't drift off. Vergil was never usually this restless, but he couldn't fall asleep for some reason. Twilight had made his unofficial room for the remainder of his time in this strange new world. Upon his arrival, he felt like such an outsider since he was the only person of his kind here. If these ponies had seen any other humans at all before, and because he was also part demon, it made him especially fascinating to them. Thankfully, it was starting to become a bit easier to adjust since he became friends with Twilight and her circle of best friends. For ponies, they all had distinctive personalities.

That group of ladies turned out to be some pretty interesting people, friendly too – a huge difference compared to how the normal residents of Ponyville looked at him. Trying to settle the steady flow of thoughts in his head, he turned over onto his side, his eyes now facing the window a bit above his nightstand. This bed was comfy, so it was odd not to be able to sleep. His body wanted to, but his mind refused to cooperate.

"Dammit…" He silently cursed to himself. Ever since he and Twilight found his sword cursed with an unknown type of dark magic, something just didn't feel right, and no matter what he tried to do, any mind-numbing task to slow his thoughts failed – he just couldn't shake this feeling, a stinging twist in his gut pulled at the pit of his stomach, it felt like something had his stomach by sharp claws, but he was well aware that he wasn't injured.

For several moments, he began contemplating if he should get up and do a quick walk around Ponyville, and it seemed like he was going to do just that. Rising from the bed, Vergil stood up, his usual slicked-back hair messily hanging down in front of his face, making his bangs come down to his face just like his younger brother Dante. Running a hand up through his hair, he pushed it back to his original hairstyle.

Wearing only his sleeveless vest and slacks, Vergil quietly snuck out of the guest bedroom, very quietly shutting the door behind him. The half-devil managed to get downstairs, carefully taking each step so he wouldn't potentially wake either Twilight or Spike.

After quietly slipping his black belted combat boots on, just before he can reach the door, there's a flashlight coated in deep pink, and the beam shines on him, completely stopping him in his tracks, he looks back at her over his shoulder.

"Vergil? Where are you going at this time of night?" He was asked.

It was Twilight with her wizard nightcap on, she was holding a glass of water in her forehoof and quietly trotted over to him to catch his answer.

"I can't sleep… I've been trying for a few hours now, but I just get a feeling that something bad might happen tonight, so I'm about to go take a quick walk around town, just to make sure all is well." He explained Vergil wasn't going to lie to her, if something like this was making sleep impossible, then he just had to take a look.

The purple Alicorn Princess gives him a look, and here Twilight had thought she was the only pony who worried about one thing for several hours in a day, especially if that worry stays with you late into the night. "You're still thinking about that, huh?" She politely asked, a tinge of concern in her tone.

Vergil nodded. "Yes... I've tried everything I can think of to try and ignore it, but no matter what I do or try, it just never helps. It doesn't even matter if I'm comfortable.. sleep is just unobtainable." He quietly explained to her.

"Hmm… are you sure you're not just thinking about it too much? I've had some similar days and nights of my own in the past. Sometimes, if you lay down with a lot on your mind, it can lead to a particularly rough night."

The Alicorn didn't necessarily doubt him, it was also just important to note that the odd time this type of thing would happen, that one silly thought could sound a lot more serious than it was, which could be a thing that can happen sometimes.

"I understand what you mean, Twilight. But I'm positive that this isn't the case with this one." He sighed, the half-devil had planned to tell her anyway, so this was probably as good a moment as any to do that – Vergil wanted Twilight, and only Twilight to know about it for now, that way none of the others would worry. The most important thing to do for the moment was to try and find out as much as he possibly could about this demon.

"Twilight… there's something important I should tell you." Vergil shifts a bit, eventually turning his head to look at her, before he gets a chance to start, Twilight speaks first.

"Let me guess, you didn't come to this world alone?" She asks, giving him a proud little smile that tells him she already knows.

"How did you know?" He asked, curious. Did she sense a magical aura somewhere? He hoped so, because despite having this deep gut feeling, for whatever reason, he couldn't detect any energy, and usually Vergil's power detection ability never failed him, but tonight, he hadn't sensed anything at all, despite that he still wanted to take a quick look outside just for assurance.

"Yesterday, when we were in the Everfree Forest, I overheard you quietly thinking out loud to yourself. I'm glad you told me yourself though." She says, flashing him a tiny smile.

"I see... I'll have you know, that I never intended to keep that piece of information from you for long. I did plan on telling you." Vergil modestly replied she was a lot more perceptive than he thought her to be. Still, though, he didn't want to make it seem like he wasn't going to tell her.

The Alicorn Princess shook her head and smiled. "It's okay, Vergil. I'm sure you had you're reasons. I'm just glad to hear that you weren't going to keep it from me."

It was strange, Vergil had thought she would be a bit more upset that he didn't tell her right away. Instead, she was completely forgiving and brushed it off, something he wasn't used to, though he was grateful to know that she understood, and believed him, too.

Twilight hummed in thought, well, she was already awake, and this did sound important, so an idea came to mind.

"Since we're both awake, mind if I join you? You can tell me all about this mysterious stranger who came here with you, too."

Vergil nods. "Sure. If anything, I owe you an explanation anyway."

Leading the way, Vergil exits the front castle doors, Twilight following behind him, taking off her nightcap, and setting it down on the table before closing the door behind them with her magic.

Upon their trek outside, the two make their way down the path from the castle leading to town, enveloped under the serene, and beautiful dim, blue glow of the moonlight cascading the entire town, surrounding Ponyville in this enchanting, midnight grace of the cool shade of moon and its luminescent nightshade, as the peaceful silence rang throughout town like a quiet lullaby that gently nestled its residents into a comfortable sleep.

Walking with Twilight toe in hoof, Vergil strolled through Ponyville at the Alicorn's side, the two of them being the only individuals awake creating an especially tranquil experience in their late-night venture. Now that they were fully alone, it was a good time to start explaining.

"Alright, Vergil. Whenever you're ready, please start with how you got here." She smiles, waiting patiently for the half-devil to begin.

With a nod, he takes a breath and then starts to explain.

"Before my arrival here, I was just about to return home after being in the demon world for about four months. Unfortunately, before I was able to open the portal back to the human world, I was attacked by a demon in his human form."

"Another demon? Was there anything important about him you remember? Like what he looks like?" She asks, trying to find any bit of information about this mysterious stranger that Vergil could remember from the encounter with him.

"Yes I do.. he had long silver-blonde hair that went down past his back, blood-red eyes, and two sharp pointed ears.. he was wearing a long black trench coat, it was a shade of black that looked … darker than the color black, if that makes sense?" He explained, trying to recount as much as he could from just under two days ago.

"A darker shade of black? Strange.. anything else?" She asked, checking one last time if he was missing any details.

After a pause, Vergil tries to think of more, it takes a few minutes but the only other thing he recalls is the strange power he used. "The only other thing I can remember about him is his powers. Somehow, he's able to manipulate the darkness, and can even bend the shadows of objects." The half-devil added, taking a few extra moments to see if anything else came to mind, which he didn't. It wasn't a lot, but at least they had something to start with, he just hoped that he would be able to find out more soon, before anything major would happen. Coming up with nothing else, he shook his head.

"That's all I can remember, after that, we both ended up in the portal, and both managed to get one good hit on each other before we were separated. Though, just like me, he's probably healed by now." Vergil says, as they finally finish the walk through Ponyville. "Thank you for telling me, Vergil. Tomorrow, I'll write Princess Celestia a letter telling her about all of this. If this other demon is a potential threat to Equestria, then the sooner she knows, the better."

The two turn around at Sugarcube Corner beginning to make their way back to Twilight's castle. Now that she had all the information about this other demon Vergil could provide, they could start doing more research.

The two continued their moonlight stroll, Twilight decided to use this chance to talk to her new friend a bit more since this was a rare opportunity for some one-on-one time. "So, not counting the rough arrival here, what do you think of this world so far?" The Alicorn asks, curious to hear his thoughts after now spending nearly three days here in Equestria.

"I've seen quite a few different worlds in my past travels, but this one was certainly not something I expected." A short pause, gathering his thoughts, before continuing. "When I looked out that guest bedroom window after I woke up, it dawned on me right there that I was the only humanoid here in this world, which was part of why I felt so unnatural here." short pause, gathering more of his thoughts.

"While I still feel a bit like an outsider, I will admit, you and your friends have helped in making my being here much more comfortable. I don't exactly excel at making friends when it comes to new worlds. Oftentimes, the locals tend to avoid an outsider that's so different from them. So I'm very grateful."

"Really? Well, I'm delighted to hear that your experience in this world has been a positive one." A short pause as the two turn the final corner leading towards the outskirts of town, they finally arrive back at the Castle of Friendship which prompts Twilight to stop for a moment, in turn causing Vergil to stop as well, the Alicorn Princess turns around to face him, taking a few steps towards him to meet his gaze. Despite what he's saying, the clever mare can tell that he was feeling a little bothered by the way the other ponies were looking at him.

"I'm sorry that the other ponies in town haven't been as welcoming, give everypony some time, I think they just might be a little intimidated since humans like you are extremely rare. I'm sure they will come around eventually." She lightly reassured.

"Twilight, there's one more thing you should know about me…" Vergil politely interjects. If they were going to be friends, then there was no sense hiding in exactly the type of being he was from her – this would be the real test.

The Alicorn blinks. "What is it?" She asked, the mare could tell that there was slight hesitance from him, she could see it on his face, which told her that this new fact about him, was very important.

"It's okay, Vergil. You can tell me." Twilight adds, flashing him a small reassuring smile, and it does seem to help, as Vergil is noticeably less reluctant now, she could see it in his body language.

"I'm not just a human, I'm also part demon, as well." A short pause, to recount the exact name of his kind.
"A Cambion, if you will.."

He added, expecting a sour reaction. The mare's eyes widened slightly at his confession, but it didn't seem to cause her any discomfort, she seemed more intrigued than anything, which was a bit surprising to him, demons were a type of species that were either universally hated or feared.

In most of these worlds he's been to during past adventures, he found many people and beings, who always subjected him to disdain for his kind, part demon, or full demon, they were all the same to those people. The odd time, some would see him as a hero due to his father's history of heroic chivalry, although it didn't happen as much anymore, especially considering what his demonic half, Urizen, had done back in Red Grave before he saw the error of his ways.

"Fascinating! I suspected that you weren't some ordinary human when I saw your wounds heal." She admits, that while she had a theory that he wasn't just human, she would have never guessed that he was part demon, though she could tell that revealing his species wasn't something he did to just anyone, the way his face looked, told her that he may have had some incidents in the past due to being what he was. Something she understood since demons technically weren't seen as a particularly good species, Vergil on the other hoof, was different. She didn't see some scary demon in him, so he wouldn't have to worry about that, and the purple Alicorn wanted to convey that message to him wholeheartedly.

"That doesn't bother you?" He asked, genuinely curious to understand how she was so calm about it. Every time he told people (which already was rare in itself) there was always some sort of sign or reaction that usually told him there was some discomfort, but not with Twilight Sparkle.

"Of course not. You're a demon, but it doesn't mean you're the same as every other demon in the whole universe. Yes, I've only known you for a few days, but I can already tell that you are far from being a malicious and terrifying demon." A short pause, as she gently reached out to softly touch his arm with her right forehoof. Sure, it had been just about three days since they'd known each other. But it didn't take Twilight long to see the good in Vergil. There was no doubt that he was very different from her for obvious reasons, but if a pony and a griffon could become friends, then why not a pony and a demon, too?

"So if you ever find yourself feeling out of place here again, come talk to me, and I'll gladly remind you that, whether you have fur or skin, you'll always be a friend to me, and the others." Twilight warmly reassures.

Twilight's kind grace has Vergil temporarily speechless, he wasn't expecting to run into such wonderful people – or ponies, in this case. Twilight Sparkle was something else, she seemed to have a heart of gold. This warm sentiment made the half-devil understand exactly why she was the Princess Of Friendship – she was willing to accept others, no matter how different someone was, a true testament to her crown.

"Thank you, Twilight. That means a lot." This had probably been one of the only times where Vergil had been met with such kindness, so much generosity. Never did he think he would make some friends, let alone an entire little group of friends. It was not something he was used to, but it did feel rather nice to be treated as an equal instead of a danger or threat to society – which was unfortunately more often than not.

The two of them exchange a smile. For seconds, they realize they had been staring at each other for a bit longer than usual, and the two seem to notice before Twilight quickly, but tentatively took her front forehoof back, causing the both of them to look away.

"A-Anyway, it's pretty late. We should probably head back inside." Says the Alicorn, who slowly, but shyly rushed through the doors of the Castle of Friendship, leaving Vergil to his own devices for a moment – but one single moment was all he needed. Suddenly, before he can even get a chance to reflect on Twilight's sweet nature, he feels it, a familiar dark and ancient energy, and it feels slightly larger than before, it isn't long until Vergil suddenly feels the sinking feeling of being watched. Carefully closing his eyes, he looked around, thoroughly checking his surroundings, it took him about a minute or two, and then – he found it.

Standing far away from a ledge high up on the mountain that gave off a perfect view of the Castle Of Friendship down below, was a dark figure, his shadow seemed to be moving, swaying in the gentle night breeze almost like the darkness that surrounded him was alive, he stared down at Vergil from above, crimson red eyes with a worn outstretched blood-red grin that would strike fear into the eyes of someone weak-willed. The son of Sparda just stared him down, knowing that this was undoubtedly the same demon who had attacked him in the demon world, the familiar dark, and malicious feeling in his power aura gave it away -- but he looked different, very different.

Just then, the Castle's doors swung back open, causing Vergil to look away for a moment, and in the direction of the noise, Twilight Sparkle quickly poked her head out, trotting outside afterward, confirming that she could also sense the presence of magic, especially if it felt completely irregular.

"Vergil! Do you feel that!?" She asked, quickly joining his side, only to freeze upon her eyes finally glimpsing the figure standing up above, giving him a glare the second her purple eyes spotted the dark figure, staring down its crimson-red eyes, her glare remained unwavering, although there was a particularly strong eeriness to this power that made her shiver a bit.

The Alicorn saw him, but the exact moment Vergil shifts his eyes back above to look, the figure is gone. Twilight witnessed him disappearing into a void of darkness that seemed to have carried him away, even just looking at him for those few seconds was more than enough for Twilight to pick up a powerful sense of dread in her sights.

"…Was that him, Vergil?" Twilight asks, still looking up at the now empty mountain ledge where the figure had previously been standing.

Vergil nodded. "Yeah … that was him alright."

Slowly looking away from the mountain, Twilight, trots over a few steps to Vergil, gently nudging his arm with her right forehoof prompting him to lightly turn his head to face her. Blue eyes meet her purple hues. While she wore a bravely strong expression, the half-devil, he could tell that she was a bit shaken up.

"I've dealt with my share of enemies, before and after I became the Princess Of Friendship … but" A short pause, drooping her ears before she speaks.

"…But that demon's aura… was by far, the most foul magic aura I've ever felt.." She adds, slowly shaking off the unease that crept over her as she recalled the intensity of those cold, red eyes.

Vergil slowly reached out, his hand gently patting the back of her fur.
"Come on, Twilight let's head back inside."

She blinked, relaxing at his very brief touch before he felt him take his hand back. "R-Right. We still have to prepare for the Summer Sun Celebration after all." Finally, with the uneasy feeling washing away completely, the two head back inside the Castle. Vergil stopped at the final step briefly, to look back one more time at the mountain where the demon had so boldly revealed his presence to Twilight. "Whatever it is you're planning, I'll find a way to stop you.." He says to himself, a vow to find out more, and foil those plans, whatever they were – he wasn't going to let that demon do anything to this world. Turning his back to the mountain, Vergil finally heads inside closing the doors behind him.

Chapter 3: A Little Taste Of Hell

Despite the eventful and tremulous night, Vergil, and Twilight both managed to fall asleep, not right away of course, but were well-rested enough to go on with the day. In Vergil's room, blue eyes slowly opened, as he reached up to rub them with his hand. Sleep may not have come right away last night, but at least he had been able to fall asleep at all, he hoped Twilight slept at least decently, although he couldn't blame her if she didn't. Last night still bothered him, there was no way that demon was out there just to make his presence known to Twilight, Vergil suspected that he may have done something in Ponyville, whatever it was, all he could do was just make sure he was ready for anything.

Slowly, sat himself up in bed before eventually pulling the blanket off of himself, and shifting his body to move his legs out of bed then rose to his feet. He outstretched his arms with a yawn, letting his arms gently drop back down to his side after. Reaching towards the coat rack, Vergil grabbed his sleeveless two-toned blue turtleneck vest, zipped it up then moved over to the mirror in his room so he could run his hand through his messy silver hair, slicking it back like he usually had it.

Upon finishing looking at his reflection, he noticed that two lone bangs were hanging down past his forehead, reminiscent of the hairstyle that he previously had in his earlier days. He tried to push them back up, but to no avail, annoyed with it, he decided that if it was mostly slicked back, then it was good enough, he didn't want to deal with his hair right now, so he turned and left the bedroom. Passing through the hall and entering the dining area, he spots Twilight who was reading a book at the table, with a cup of tea next to her. The sound of the door opening makes her poke her head up from her book. "Good morning, Vergil. There's some tea if you'd like some." She offers with a smile.

"Morning, Twilight. Tea sounds nice, thanks." Returning a smile with a tiny one of his own, the half-devil walks to the counter, grabs a mug, and puts it on the counter, picking up and pouring himself some tea from the teapot, steam rising as it spills into his cup, giving way to a pleasant aroma of berries. Shortly after adding his three sugars and milk, and stirring, he joins Twilight at the table taking a seat across from her.

"Spike is still sleeping, I figured I'd let him sleep in a bit. I also wanted to talk a bit about last night." Twilight says, waiting for Vergil to take his seat.

"We can if you want, but I already told you everything I know."

She slowly nods. "Yes, I remember. It's not related to what you told me" She stops for a moment, taking a few seconds to recollect her thoughts.

"The way that magic felt, it was unreal. Almost like the magic surrounding him, had a mind of its own.."

"He's a demon in the most pure, and evil form. I'm going to find out exactly who he is, one way or the other." Vergil replies, clearly upset that he knew little to nothing about this enemy demon, he despised being a few steps behind, the less he knew, the more of a disadvantage he'd face. Considering that the fate of this world could potentially be at stake, he did not want to take any serious risks, especially a very costly risk.

"We'll have more luck if we work together. With the both of us doing research, I'm sure we'll be able to find something to work with." Twilight insisted, with how utterly horrifying that magic felt, there was no way she wasn't going to do her part – she was a Princess for a reason after all.

Vergil reluctantly agreed. "Alright, we'll both try and find out whatever we can." Given just how powerful that demon may be getting, this was a serious matter, so the sooner they found information, the better. "Regarding that, Twilight. I think it's best if we keep this just between us for now." Vergil suggested.

The Alicorn nodded in agreement. "I agree. We don't want to cause any panic. It also gives us time to do some information hunting, too."

"Thank you. And yes, I'd rather we tell our friends when we have some concrete information to give them on this new enemy." The Cambion added, picking up the mug and putting it to his lips to sip his tea, setting it back down shortly after.

"Me too. " The purple-furred mare agreed, using her magic to take a sip of her tea and flip over the page of the book she was reading.

"What are you reading, Twilight?" He asked, looking down at the book she was flipping through. He had noticed her reading it ever since he first joined her at the dining table.

"Huh? Oh! Equestrian Ancient Legends, it's the third volume. I'm trying to see if there are any links to what's been happening." She explained, flipping over to another page with her magic.

"Ah, I see. Any luck yet?" He asked, going in for another sip of his tea. It was funny, Vergil also relied on books for information several times before, it was ironic seeing someone else who shared some of his habits, which wasn't very often.

She shook her head, eyes still glued to the book. "Nothing yet, I'm almost done with this book though. If there's nothing in here, then there should be something in the next volume, Equestria has a pretty huge history. I've read the previous volumes too, and also found nothing. So I'd say that volume four is our best bet."

"Later on, after you're done with today's final preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, I say we come back here and do some reading. I'll look through any other books you think may be relevant, while you read through volume four of that ancient legends book. What do you think?" He pitched, from what he could tell, that there were just two days left before this celebration, so tonight would be their only chance to do some research before things became busy, since she was a Princess, he assumed she would be relatively preoccupied that day.

Twilight hummed in thought, looking over at the calendar to check the date, she's able to confirm, so his idea was doable. "Yes, we can do that. I'm going to be a bit busy during the day of the Celebration, so tonight can work." She adds, giving him a small smile.

Before changing the subject, Vergil recalled her saying she planned to write to the Princess, he figured he would ask her about that. If the Princess of Equestria knew something, given the circumstances, he was positive that Princess Celestia would be able to provide some much-needed input that would hopefully fill in the blanks that could help them piece together the identity of this demon, and what exactly he could be planning.

"Oh. Twilight, did you write that letter already?" He asked, to which the Alicorn would nod.

"Yes. I wrote it a little bit after I woke up. Once Spike is up, I'll get him to send it to her. Princess Celestia is in Saddle Arabia with Princess Luna right now on royal business. She told me she would be done tonight. So tomorrow, she'll be here in Ponyville." She replied, showing him the neatly rolled-up scroll with her magic, setting it down next to her shortly after.

"Excellent. I was just checking. If she knows anything, I'm certain that she'll tell us what we need to know." A short pause. "What did you tell her?"

"I told her about your arrival, what you told me about how you got here, and then I mentioned to her this other demon, I told her that we saw him last night too. All we can do now is wait until she can reply."

Vergil nods. "Very well. In that case, I suppose for now, we'll try to carry on with the day. I'm sure there's still much to prepare."

Moments later, before Twilight could respond, the two heard a yawn, and in walked Spike prompting an immediate subject change. It seemed that he had finally woken up, outstretching his small arms, he let out one last yawn.

"Good morning, Twilight, Vergil." The dragon greeted them, jumping up onto one of the stools at the table to join them.

"Good morning, Spike. Did you sleep well?" The Alicorn asked.

"Oh yeah, like a log." He pauses for a moment, only to realize that he overslept a bit, and breakfast wasn't made.

"Wait, I slept in. Darn! That means breakfast wasn't made! Ugh.. sorry about that." The little dragon apologized, though Twilight didn't think it was necessary, and lightly shook her head.

"Don't worry about it, Spike. You always go above and beyond for me, and I'm always grateful, but it doesn't mean you can't sleep in, of course, you can." She gently reassured.

"Thanks, Twilight." He smiles. "If you want, I can make you something now?"

"That's okay. I think I'll probably grab something on the way. I have to go meet Princess Luna soon to find out a bit more about the part I'm going to be playing in the celebration. She's coming back first to oversee things while Princess Celestia finishes over there. I'm supposed to have more to do now this year, too." She explained, that it was something she was very excited to learn, especially since this would be her second Summer Sun Celebration as a Princess, and the first one where she would be given her chance to address the other ponies in her speech, and not just be the final finishing touch to the rising of the sun like last time.

"Alright. I'll be able to make lunch after though, so that I can take care of." Spike replied, throwing a ruby into his mouth with a crunch.

"Thank you, Spike. Before I go, could you send this letter to Princess Celestia for me, please?" She asked, her horn glowing deep pink as her magic hovered the scroll over him.

"Sure thing, Twilight. I'll do that right now." Taking the scroll, he runs his claws over it to make sure it's sealed tight for its trip, then he grabs it, throwing it up into the air, he inhales deeply, blowing out a small green flame that made the scroll disappear, turning into a trail of smoke that made its way out the window, and officially began its journey to Princess Celestia.

"Anyway, I think I'm gonna start heading out now. So I'll see you later."
With that, Twilight began trotting away, stopping when hearing her name.

"Twilight wait." The Alicorn turns around to look back at him.

"Hm? What is it Vergil?"

"I was just wondering.. if there was anything I could do to help?" He offered, sudden but very kind of him to offer to help, she guessed maybe it was a way to try and show the other ponies that he wasn't so different after all.

"You want to help? But what about the other ponies?" She asked, wondering if he would be bothered by the fact that he would be stared at and avoided just like the other day.

He just shakes his head. "It's whatever. All I care about is lending a hand, and maybe making a few bits while I'm at it. If I'm going to be in this world for a while, then I may as well do my part and earn some money in the process." A short pause after his words. Considering how the others in town looked at him, there was no way he would be able to find some work, especially some that would pay him, Twilight was his only chance at getting something, he just hoped it wasn't too much to ask of her.

"…If it's not too much to ask, I could use your help. I doubt any of these ponies will let me take part. They'd sooner run away, rather than talk to me." Vergil wasn't expecting much to come of his request, if anything, she probably had more important things to do. "On second thought, you probably have more important things to do, so … don't worry about it." He quickly changed his mind.

"It's no trouble at all, Vergil. Go grab your jacket, I'll wait for you outside." Turning back around, she stepped outside. Patiently waiting for Vergil below the stairs while he grabbed what he needed.

In a blur of blue, Vergil teleported away, reappearing inside his bedroom, he grabbed his long coat off the coatrack, then teleported again, this time reappearing right beside Twilight, his sudden appearance causing her to jump a little bit – she was not expecting him to be able to teleport.

"Whoa! You can teleport too?" She asked, genuinely surprised at this new fact about her humanoid friend.

"That's right. It was one of the very first demonic abilities I perfected. The art of teleportation was relatively easy to get the hang of once I figured out how much power I needed in total that was required to use it." He briefly explained, recalling a little bit from his childhood, the better parts of it anyway.

"That's amazing! I can do that, too!" Twilight excitedly chirped, not wasting a second before proving her claim, disappearing in a flash of deep pink, reappearing behind him in that same explosion of color less than a second later.

"See? Of course, this version is quite different compared to yours, it's still interesting nonetheless." Again she poofs, once again reappearing in front of him.

"Indeed. Although you seem to reappear slightly quicker than I do, that's probably because your teleportation is based on magic, and not natural power. So mine takes an extra millisecond. It doesn't sound like much of a difference, but trust me, there is a distinctive difference."

"Really?" Twilight hummed. "I don't think I noticed. Teleportation magic is a high level of magic here in Equestria. So I haven't met any pony else who could do it." She was intrigued, the Alicorn wasn't expecting Vergil to also have the ability to teleport, the only other she could think of was Discord, but that made sense for him. This silver-haired half-devil though, was quite the specimen indeed. She wondered what else he could do.

"Impressive, though I already had a feeling you were quite the talented mare." Vergil complimented, the half-devil didn't need to see much to know. The way she had been able to trap the demonic magic was a clear sample of just how skilled she was. Magic worked very differently here than how it did back in his world, and Twilight seemed to have a very good grasp on it.

Twilight just giggled bashfully, looking away shortly after to mask the tinge of her flushed face. "W-well I don't know about that. I guess I always loved studying, so I suppose you could say I've done a lot of research.." She adds, shyly rubbing the back of her mane with her right forehoof.

"A high knowledge of magic, and you're well-read. I'd say that's a good combination for success." The half-devil says, giving her a tiny half-smile. The two continued down the path.

"Thanks. But aside from all the studying and hard work. I know one thing is for sure. I wouldn't have gotten to where I am now if it weren't for my friends. They've been supporting me ever since I first arrived in Ponyville a few moons ago." Twilight warmly adds a quick flash of all the things she'd been through with her friends play through her mind, she was grateful to them.

"I see. Well, with a precious circle of close friends, I'd imagine anything would be possible…" The devil hunter comments, walking on a little bit ahead, there is an underlining hint of sadness in his tone, it is faint, but the Alicorn can notice it right away.

"All friendships are important to me!" A short pause as she rushes a bit to catch up to him. "That includes new friends, too." She quickly added, giving a small nudge of his arm with her right forehoof, the little touch prompted him to turn and meet her gaze just in time for her to give him a small smile.

The moment the two of them began their casual trek through town, the staring quickly began. All eyes were on Vergil, ponies watched his every move, looking at him with wide eyes that made it seem like they were staring at an alien from another planet – which wasn't exactly accurate, but at the same time, not that much of a stretch, since he was in a way, from another planet. The only difference is that he was from another world instead. The princess decided to strike up a conversation, to hopefully distract him from the onlookers, it also gave her another excuse to get to know him a bit more.

"Hey, Vergil. Can I ask you something?" She tentatively inquired just as the two passed by Rarity's Carousel Boutique. At the request to ask him something, he simply turns his head to look down at her.

"Sure, what is it?" He responds, his tone sounding a bit more normal now. The question on her mind was a bit of a tricky one. On one hoof, she wanted to ask about it, but on the other hoof, she wasn't sure her question would be considered prying. Unsure of his reaction, she goes ahead to ask it.

"Do you have friends back in your world?" She curiously, yet cautious asked, carefully studying his reaction, in case he was vague, his body language should be able to tell her a bit more about how the question made him feel.

"…." Just as she thought, no answer. Purple eyes shifted to watch his movements, he was shifting his arms a bit, and the pacing of his walk slowed, but only for a second, before it continued. From what she had seen, this seemed like a bit of a sensitive subject for him, quickly she began to regret asking.

"Ah … er, never mind. Stupid question. Of course, you had friends, right?" She brushes it off, feeling a little bad for asking. Instead of being met with anger, he just sighs a bit, then finally looks over at her.

"It's not a stupid question, there's nothing wrong in being curious." There was a brief pause before he finally began to answer.

"No … I don't. I've never really had any friends before, not once." Vergil finally answers, there's slight hesitance in his voice, but Twilight was only asking a question, he wasn't about to bite her head off just for that, if anything he should have expected that question from her at some point since she was The Princess Of Friendship.

Her expression saddened a bit at his answer, ears drooping a little as she let him go on with his answer. Now she did feel a little bad for asking such a personal question. Still, he told her anyway, which showed her that he trusted her, and she was glad. Friends needed to have trust in each other after all, and she was happy that he was willing to share a bit with her.

"Unfortunately, the people back in my world would sooner want to see me dead, rather than have me continue to exist around them. Though I can't say I blame them for their low opinion of me." There was a notable softness in his tone now. Judging from how reluctant he'd been about giving her the full story, the purple-furred mare could faintly spot a gleam of guilt in his deep blue eyes, after that, it wasn't hard to put the rest of the pieces together – he was a reformed villain. A revelation she wasn't expecting to find out.

"That's awful Vergil.." She pauses, thinking for a moment. "…What did you do?" She asked, now more curious about him than she had previously been. Twilight knew how those who were reformed tended to be. Discord was a bit iffy, but she still trusted him. Trixie was another that came to mind, but two ponies stood out the most from the others she knew. Starlight Glimmer, and most notable of all, Princess Luna. If those two could be forgiven for their wrongdoings, then she didn't see how Vergil couldn't be forgiven, too.

"…" Blue eyes shifted away from her gaze to look at the ground, while he did trust Twilight Sparkle, from the severity of his crimes, he wasn't sure if he was ready to tell her that yet. Perhaps one day, but that day would not be today. Finally, his eyes revert down to again meet her gaze.

"...With all due respect, Twilight. I don't think that's something you're ready to hear."

"Oh … it's okay. I understand.." Twilight says, although it is rather obvious that she is a bit disappointed that he won't tell her. Part of him wanted to, but with all she had done for him thus far, and given the gravity of all that he'd done, the half-devil just wasn't sure how she would react. He had just made some new friends in another world for the first time, if they knew that he had damn-near killed off the entire human population in his world by summoning a demon tree that drained people of their blood, he was pretty sure that the girls, especially Twilight, wouldn't look at him as a friend anymore.

"Maybe another time…" He quietly added, the mare caught what he said but didn't say anything in response. The two walk down the path. Twilight silently hoped he would have the courage to tell her sometime, though it was a little concerning. If he didn't want to talk about it, just how bad was he? Whatever the case, she would just have to prepare herself for the day whenever she would find out, that was if he would choose to tell her at all. For now, despite the slight disappointment, Twilight would respect his privacy and move on to a different subject.

"Anyway, what kind of things did you want to help with? I'm sure we can find something for you to do." Twilight asks, the two stopping as they arrive at Ponyville Town Hall where the Mayor would be.

"I'm honestly not sure. I'm not familiar with the setup for this celebration, but I'm willing to help in any way possible for some…. Uh.. what was the money here called again?" He asked, the name of the currency had accidentally slipped his mind.

"Bits." Twilight corrected

"Yes, that's it! I'll help any way I can for some bits." He adds, and Twilight nodded.

"Okay, just give me a few minutes." With that, Twilight headed inside the town hall while Vergil opted to wait outside. The second he was alone though, the staring once again continued, this time it annoyed him, was staring all they could do? It didn't bother him at first, but at this point, it was just getting ridiculous. In response, Vergil frowns, his expression becoming visibly irritated; he turns to face the onlookers.

"Is STARING all you lot can do?! Keep on giving me that look, and I'll make sure NONE of you can ever see ever again!" He angrily snapped at them, his threats understandably causing the several ponies staring to become scared for their lives, and in seconds, the area was clear of ponies. After the dust settles from the stampede of ponies running away after his threats, Vergil only then realizes that he reacted rather irrationally.

"Rrrgh! Dammit!" He cursed aloud, regretting the lack of control in his previous reaction, to refute this frustration, he summoned a blue phantom blade, angrily crushing it in the palm of his gloved hand, the shattered pieces turning into little blue energy particles before completely disappearing.

"What is every pony's problem?!" He huffed, crossing his arms. Vergil honestly began to question just how Twilight and her circle welcomed him so openly, while every pony else just judged him for being different. While Vergil stood outside, inside the town hall, the Princess was already speaking to the mayor. Just like the other ponies, she was very concerned with the outsider in their town.

"Princess Twilight! How wonderful it is to see you." Mayor Mare gives the Alicorn a bow, rising to her hooves again after a few seconds.

"Good morning, Mayor Mare, good to see you, too." Twilight replies giving a small friendly smile.

"So, what brings you here today, Princess?" The mayor asks, walking to her desk and plopping herself into her chair behind it.

"I know preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration have been going smoothly already, but I was wondering if there was any leftover work that needed to be done. There's a new friend of mine who is hoping to help out a bit." She explained, pausing for a moment to glance back outside the window at Vergil, then back to the mayor. Vergil is getting a bit impatient outside and opts to just up and enter through the door.

"You see, he came here from another world, and since both me and him have no idea how long he's going to be here, he'll need some bits to get by in the meantime."

"B-But Princess, how could you trust something like that? It's an outsider, and certainly not a pony, surely you must think it doesn't belong here, there's just something unusual about that creature that bothers me. We don't know what it's capable of, it could very well destroy this town if we're not careful." The mayor politely disagreed, unfortunately, Vergil had opened the door a bit, but before he got the chance to push it all the way open, he overheard everything the mayor had said.

"Why am I not surprised.." He mutters under his breath, prompting a sudden SLAM as he closes the door hard behind him, the loud noise causing both the older pony and Twilight to jump a bit. The Alicorn knew immediately that Vergil had heard what she said, which caused Twilight to frown at the mayor, giving her a very disappointed look, she wasn't happy with her answer, what she said probably added to Vergil's feeling of displacement, it probably even made him lose faith that the other ponies would eventually come around to accept him.

"His name is Vergil, and he's my friend." Twilight corrected, offended that the mayor would address Vergil as an 'it' rather than a man. It wasn't right.

"I'm disappointed, Mayer Mare. Aren't we supposed to give everypony and everyone, a chance? Judging people based on appearance is not how friendship is supposed to work at all." Turning her back to the Mayor, Twilight raised her wings and walked out, leaving the mayor alone with her shame.

Quickly trotting out the door and down the steps, Twilight began looking left and right for her friend, she felt awful that he had to hear that, she couldn't believe what the mayor said. There was a part of her that understood the reason to distrust him, but he had been with her for days now and hadn't done anything wrong, that told her all she needed to know about him.

"Vergil? Vergil! Where did you go?" She called out, checking all around her for her tall friend, but he was nowhere to be found. Unsure of where exactly he could have gone, Twilight decided to backtrack and see if he went back to the Castle.

|Vergil|

Sitting in his bedroom inside the Castle Of Friendship, there Vergil sat, revealing the reality that he might not be accepted here after all. The half-devil wasn't hurt by it, he was more angry than upset. All this just reminded him about the way humankind treated him, the group of humans that knew he had been the one behind the Qliphoth tree always made it a point to call out Vergil on his crimes, no matter how much good he did, maybe he should have expected a type of scenario like this.

"…What an utter waste of time."

Why did he even bother trying to ask for work? How exactly was he supposed to make something of his being here if no other pony would bother to give him even a glance without either running away or avoiding him only to watch from afar. Perhaps the seven he met here were the only friends he would find here, and if that turned out to be the case, he wouldn't mind – he was lucky to make any friends at all here. It wouldn't be an easy time here in Equestria. Without any money, he wouldn't be able to do anything, and Vergil wasn't about to pester any of his new friends for bits either, that would be pathetic. The very idea of trying to mooch off his friends disgusted him. With all these difficulties he seemed to face, the road ahead from here on out would be quite a rocky one.

A few moments later, Spike opened the door, jumping a bit at finding Vergil there.

"Whoa! Vergil? What are you doing here? I thought you were going to try and help around Ponyville?"

"That's probably not going to happen." The half-devil simply replies, pulling out his replica copy of his poetry book. Nero had the original, but it would be unheard of for Vergil to be without it, so he kept this second copy with him wherever he went. Opening it, he begins to flip through some of the pages absentmindedly, not looking for any particular page.

"Huh? Why not?" the dragon asked, jumping up onto a stool. Spike was just about to gather up the bedding in this room to wash it, he didn't expect to find Vergil back here, so he assumed that something might have happened.

"Let's just say, ponies here are far too fearful and distrusting of me. Although, I'm not very surprised."

"What happened, Vergil?" The dragon further inquired, were the other ponies in town intimidated by him? He couldn't help but wonder just what it was about him that scared them so much.

"I heard the mayor responding to Twilight, she made her thoughts about me very clear. In the end, I suppose it doesn't matter anyway. I'm used to being shunned, hated, or feared for what I am." Vergil stops on a page with one of his favorite poems: The Marriage Of Heaven and Hell.

"So you're just gonna give up like that?" Spike asks, crossing his arms.

"What else can I do? Fear will always carry their judgment, that's just how it goes with us demons." Vergil comments, dismissing the dragon's words. Spike was a dragon, he couldn't possibly understand.

"Come on, Vergil. You don't believe that, do you?"

The Cambion is silent for a moment, blue eyes revert down to the contents of the page he's on. Quietly, he reads along the poem until it comes to a particular two lines in the poem that's highlighted with a blue highlighter marker.

"Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity. A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees." That is all Vergil says, unsurprisingly leaving Spike a little confused.

"Huh? Uhmm. Can I get that in English, please?" Spike asks, a claw rubbing the back of his head.

Vergil sighed, maybe he should have just said it, rather than reading a line from the poem below him on the page. "Every pony in town is much too paranoid to listen to reason. If I'm to remain an outcast here, then so be it."

"Listen, Vergil. I can sort of understand how you want every pony to accept you. But try not to take it personally. In the past few years, we've had a lot happening here. A whole lot of bad, but also some good too. Whenever there's a new face in town, every pony here is usually a little on edge, especially when it comes to a type of species that no pony has ever seen before. You just have to wait and be patient." Spike tries to explain.

"Everypony here is usually kind, welcoming. And always happy to say hello to a new visitor. Even if that person isn't a pony. I think you're just so different, that it scares them out of being friendly. There's nothing wrong with you Vergil, it might take a bit longer than normal, but I know everypony will be calling you a friend in no time, just have faith."

Vergil seems to catch onto this understanding the dragon is trying to convey to him. Twilight had said the same thing too. One would think that if the Princess trusted him, everyone else would follow. Perhaps this world was a lot more complicated than he originally thought. Still, though, the place was in danger, and if none of the other ponies would come to trust him, then it would certainly make it harder for him to help whenever that demon's plan was finally set in motion.

"I suppose I understand.. but what if my time is limited?" Vergil asks, only to realize that he probably shouldn't ask such things, he wasn't supposed to tell anyone else about the demon yet, not until more information was discovered.

"Huh, what do you mean?" Spike asks, understandably confused, to which Vergil quickly brushes it off. So they were always overly cautious, if what Spike said was true, then maybe there was a chance, though he chose to keep his expectations low.

"Nothing... don't worry about it. Anyway, I do see what you're saying." Vergil closes the book and pockets it again. It wasn't exactly the kind of answer he was looking for, but it was enough to make him disregard what the other ponies thought of him. It wouldn't be easy, even without the trust of the other ponies, Vergil wasn't going to stop his mission.

"Thank you, Spike. Perhaps I'm slowly beginning to understand things from the town's point of perspective a little bit more."

"Yeah, that's the spirit." The dragon cheered. "Trust me, you'll get your moment to earn their trust. In the meantime, at least you still have seven new friends, right?" Spike says, giving his taller friend a small smile.

"You're right. I should be thankful for what I already have." The two exchange a mutual nod, and bump fists before Vergil exits the room. Walking through the hall of the castle, the clacking of his footsteps from his black belted boots echo throughout the walls as he steps in toe towards the doors.

The exact minute that Vergil stepped outside, he was immediately met with a very loud explosion in the distance, an explosion so large, that he could feel the entire ground beneath him shake. Narrowing his eyes, a bad feeling quickly creeps up on him, it is one of those gut-wrenching, stomach-twisting feelings where you know that something is very wrong. There was no indication of what it was, you just had to trust your instincts, and that was exactly what he was going to do.

"That can't be good."

Kicking off his left heel, and stepping out onto his right foot, Vergil broke out into a sprint, his demonic energy flowed to his feet, drastically increasing his speed the longer he ran, during his rush, he was able to pick up the familiar dark energy he felt last night when the demon revealed himself to Twilight, there wasn't a moment to lose, he had to get there as soon as possible.

|Twilight Sparkle|

Trotting through Ponyville, Twilight is heading back to the Castle Of Friendship to check up on Vergil, she was a little concerned. Vergil was a bit hard to read, she already knew he was a good person and could be trusted, but at the same time, there were moments when she couldn't predict his emotions, it was almost like he was rediscovering his emotions from how unpredictable his reactions were.

Vergil claimed that the opinions of the others didn't bother him, but maybe they did. Maybe they did, and it bothered him a lot more than he would let on. Three days in of knowing him, she could already tell he had some pride for who and what he was, which she suspected, was probably one of the reasons he decided to play off how he felt, to preserve whatever pride he could hold onto, but that was just a theory she had, and didn't want to assume that was the case without hearing a bit more about his side of the spectrum first.

The Alicorn sighed. "I hope he isn't having second thoughts about all of this.."

She says to herself, remaining hopeful that Vergil didn't completely give up on trying to win over the rest of the town if only the others knew he wasn't as horrible as they all perceived him to be. As she trotted along the path, she was deep in thought, trying to think of some possible way for everypony here to see him for the kind person he was.

Just as the purple-furred mare is about to reach the outskirts of Ponyville where her Castle is, without warning

B O O O O O M !

A loud explosion is heard, the shockwaves of it sending powerful tremors that seemed to shake the very ground every pony stood on. As soon as the explosion went off, Twilight looked in the direction of it immediately, it came from somewhere within the Everfree Forest. Not long after the aftermath of the explosion, a large flock of birds began to fly away, followed by a trail of animals that took off into a sprint running away from something.

"What in the name of Celestia was that?" Twilight says, quickly extending her feathered wings, and she takes off with a wild flap, soaring over to where she suspected the explosion had occurred.

|Fluttershy|

It had been a typical day just like any other for the kind, pink-maned Pegasus. She had spent most of the day taking care of all the animal friends that lived with her at her cozy little cottage, a few of them were sick and she had been treating them one by one, using as much gentle care as she could. One of her unique gifts was her ability to talk to and understand other animals, something she did quite often. During her daily routine. Some of her animal friends had expressed that they noticed that quite a few of their other animal friends were missing. After taking count of everyone, Fluttershy would soon realize five animals in total were missing. A blue jay, a snake, two goats, as well as a rabbit (a friend of Angel Bunny)

For two hours, she had been searching for them already, but had no luck, she wasn't sure what else to do. She wasn't able to ask for help either since every pony was busy helping with preparations for the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration.

"Oh no, what am I gonna do? I've looked everywhere for them. I hope they're okay."

One of her other friends, a red robin flew and landed on her back, chirping to her about something, so the Pegasus listened intently, her attention undivided as she began to converse with the little bird, getting whatever details she could out of her feathered little friend.

"What? There were a bunch of strange noises in the forest last night. What kind of noises?" She asked, becoming increasingly concerned with each detail the robin would give her, she couldn't believe what she was hearing, the sounds the bird was describing honestly sounded pretty terrifying.

"Growls, grunts, and roars? Oh my, that sounds scary.." Trying desperately to stay calm, decides that she can't do this alone after all, and is about to take flight to find one of her friends, when suddenly, her animal friends fly away, the red robin telling her in bird chirps that she should leave too, then immediately took off after the other birds. Soon after, her other animal friends took off, leaving Fluttershy confused, and now very worried. Before she has time to think—

B O O O O M !

A loud explosion sounds off, and it's coming from the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy feels the shockwaves immediately since she's a bit closer to the forest. It catches her by surprise, and she's knocked over but safely landed on her flank.

"W-What was that??!"

Not wanting to wait around to see what exactly the explosion meant, the shy Pegasus took flight, and quickly left in search of her friend Twilight Sparkle.

"I-I don't know what's going on, but I need to go find Twilight. All of you should go find somewhere safe, just in case, but please be very careful!" With a flap of her wings, off she soared. After flying past a few homes in Ponyville, Fluttershy spots her friend Rarity, the two make eye contact, prompting Fluttershy to slow down, and gently descend to meet her friend.

"Rarity!"

"Fluttershy! Glad to see you're alright, darling." The purple maned, unicorn pulls her friend into a quick hug, the Pegasus reciprocating it upon the hug before the two gently pull back. "I'm so glad that you're okay too."

"Did you hear that dreadful explosion? I was in the middle of sewing the most dazzling part of this dress a client requested when that horrible noise broke my concentration." Rarity explains, clearly just as bewildered by this as she was.

"I did, it scared the poor animals. I don't know what's happening, but we should go see Twilight, I was just about to go look for her." Fluttershy replies, the concern for her poor animals freshly weighing on her mind, he prayed that the ones who were missing were okay.

"A grand idea, dear. If any pony knows what's going on, it would be Twilight. Let's be off." Picking up her friend Rarity so they could travel quicker, the two took off towards the explosion, they knew Twilight was more than likely already going there, she just hoped the two of them would make it there on time before anything else bad happened.

|Rainbow Dash|

Fast asleep inside a comfortable fluffy cloud slept the cyan Pegasus. She had recently become a Wonderbolt not that long ago, finally living the dream she had been chasing for so long. Rainbow Dash truly loved what she did, but even being a member of the Wonderbolts could be rather exhausting sometimes, so she had been napping for a few hours, peaceful and undisturbed.

A few hours ago she had just finished everything she needed to do in her part in helping set up for the Summer Sun Celebration, this nap was her reward for all the hard work she had done today – and it was a reward she was thoroughly enjoying. Unfortunately for her, this perfectly comfortable nap was about to be disturbed. Seconds later, it happened.

B O O O O M !

A loud explosion cuts through the deafening silence like a firework without the light show. The noise and shockwave were so powerful, that it even pushed back a few of the clouds in the sky, Rainbow Dash's unfortunately being one of them. Out of nowhere, the shockwave of the blast sent her cloud back, jolting her awake the second the cloud she was on moved, she barely had time to react as she was shoved off of the cloud like a leaf being taken by the wind.

"WAAAAAAAHHHH" She screamed, her adrenaline kicked into overdrive, Rainbow managed to turn onto her stomach midair and extend her wings, catching herself just in time to save herself from a violent spin out. Relief washes over her immediately. "Phew.. that was a close one. Man, I am just too awesome!" She proudly grins, chuckling a bit after. She had never caught herself this quick before, it must have been a new record. Her moment of glory is sadly cut short as she finally registers what happened, the explosion, where it came from, and what could have possibly caused that. She had a bad feeling about this.

"No idea what's going on, but Twilight needs to know about this." Knowing her friend, the purple mare was probably already heading to the scene of the explosion, no sense in keeping her waiting, especially since this felt serious. Taking off into a burst of hypersonic speed, off went the rainbow-maned Wonderbolt, leaving a trail of rainbows behind her. Rainbow Dash zipped past town, rainbows still trailing behind her. During her fly-by, Rainbow Dash spotted Pinkie Pie who was standing outside of Sugarcube Corner looking in the direction of the explosion.

"Pinkie Pie, you hear that loud bang too?" She asked, the energetic earth pony quickly turned around, bouncing in place on all fours at the sight of one of her close friends.

"Hi, Rainbow Dash!" Cheerfully, Pinkie pulls Rainbow Dash into one of her usually powerful hugs, causing Rainbow Dash to softly grunt a bit despite reciprocating the hug, before finally letting go, the ability for air to return to her lungs restored upon Pinkie Pie letting go.

"I'm sure every pony heard that big BOOMsplosion. I wonder what it was." Pinkie replies, very curious about this unknown phenomenon. Despite her natural hyperactive personality, even Pinkie knew that as interesting as the explosion was, it likely didn't mean anything good.

"Same here. I was about to go find Twilight, you should probably come too. I gotta feelin' that we got some serious flank kicking to do!" Rainbow cheers raising her forehoof, which was a typical reaction of her. She had always been quite the dare pony, a thrill seeker constantly trying out new adrenaline-fueled things. While she appeared to be a bit overexcited about it, Rainbow always could be serious when the moment called for it, and she had a feeling, this would be one of exact moments.

"Sounds like a GREAT idea! Dashie. Let's GOOOOOOOO!!" Pinkie announces, eagerly hopping away in the direction of the Everfree Forest, with Rainbow Dash leading the way through the air, staying close to the ground so she could still talk with Pinkie Pie should they need to act fast.

Upon reaching the Everfree Forest, she doesn't even get the chance to fully enter the forest, the second she is about to pass through the entrance, she stops dead in her tracks at the unexpected sight before her. Purple eyes widen in shock at the creature standing before her: It was some sort of grotesque, mutant abomination. This beast had been artificially created. It was about the size of a Timberwolf, if not larger. This thing was a horrifying and morbid amalgamation of other animal parts. She couldn't describe it any other way besides it being some twisted mutation that was comprised of bird wings, goat antlers, the tail of a snake, and oddly enough, the long ears of a rabbit, only these ears had a sharp point to them meaning those ears had been turned into a deadly weapon.

"I don't know what you are, but I will NOT let you reach the town!" With a determined face, Twilight got serious, her horn began to glow deep pink, and she began to shoot a multitude of charged magic blasts at it. The first few shots missed, but soon after a few would hit, which caused it to roar out loud, this was a roar that sounded unlike any other creature or beast she'd ever heard before, just what exactly was this thing? And why was it here?

The thing didn't like her magic blasts very much, without time to fully react, the creature swung its clawed tail trying to crush Twilight with it, but she managed to teleport out of the way in an explosion of pink, just in time to avoid the attack, and counter with another magic blast, this time it hit the creature on the forehead, and it hissed in pain, retaliating quickly by smacking Twilight hard with it's clawed paw. This vile creature was at least five times her size, so it didn't take much to send the poor Alicorn flying back. She shouts in pain as she's sent back several yards. "EYAAAAAAAAAAHHH" She screams as she goes the distance, she is about to go right through a large building, the force of the strike had been so great, that Twilight wouldn't be able to react in time with magic or regain control.

Just when things were starting to look bad, a lasso loop firmly wrapped around Twilight's waist, slowing her down and yanking her away from the building, effectively saving her from potentially sustaining some serious injuries as she landed gently on the grass next to someone, one of her close friends, Applejack.

"Applejack! Phew, thank you."

"Don't mention it. Alright there, Sugarcube?" She asks, lending Twilight a hoof to help her stand back up.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I could have been a lot worse for wear if it wasn't for you."

"Ah'm, jus' glad ah' got here in time," AJ adds with a smile, taking her trusty lasso back. The two ponies stare up at the creature, and it looks right back at them with its cold piercing eyes. It's an intense stare-down, but luckily for the two of them, the rest of the cavalry arrive, as Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity show up to the scene.

"Girls!" Twilight praised. "I'm so glad to see you all"

"Yeah, sorry it took us a bit, there's this weird heaviness in the air that was throwing me off a bit." Rainbow Dash comments, that she had no clue what this strange pressure in the air was, but whatever it was, this thing was causing it.

As the rest of the girls began to assess the situation, to Fluttershy's horror, she saw exactly what happened to her missing animal friends Seeing all those random animal parts protruding out of this thing brought her to tears, she couldn't believe it, this was truly a nightmare to her, those poor animals.

"NOOOOOOO!" Fluttershy screamed, the shock completely washing away, and was quickly replaced by a mix of sorrow and anger, although it was mostly sorrow. "T-Those were the missing animals…"
Tears began to fall from her eyes, and Applejack was the first to rush and comfort her, pulling her weeping friend into her for an embrace. There was a lingering sense of shock, dread, and horror that would spread through the six, as they realized something crucial, something that they weren't used to. The gripping fear of death hit them, the fear paralyzing them into a trance-like state, death was not something this place dealt with very often, it was rare. When it did happen, it was never usually something as horrible as this – a cruel reminder to them that death was still very much a thing, and that it might be setting its sights on the Kingdom of Equestria as a whole.

"Come on girls…. we need to stand up to this thing!" Twilight says, trying to desperately will herself and her friends back into the fight, and out of the stranglehold known as fear, but it's no use, to anyone but Twilight, who manages to break herself free from the grip of fear that had subdued her. The creature is about to come down with a claw that would crush and shred all six of them, thinking quickly, Twilight raises her voice, somehow recapturing their attention.

"EVERY PONY GRAB ONTO ME!" She manages to shout, the volume of her voice is just enough to break them out of their fearful trance, and the five can miraculously grab onto Twilight just in time for her to teleport her and her entire group of friends out of the way.

"Yeah! Now let 'em have it!" Rainbow Dash shouts, dashing right forward towards this creature, With every step it takes, the ground shakes a bit, this thing is enormous, but Rainbow Dash doesn't let its taller, bigger size intimidate her, and she bravely zipped forward, rainbows trailing behind her flight, she's picking up speed more and more the closer she gets.

Finally, Rainbow uses her speed and starts to circle the creature, the Pegasus gets progressively faster with each round trip, and this continues until she successfully creates a controlled tornado, which seems to work at first. she managed to make it dizzy, it staggered back a bit, and with a quick swing of its hand, it smacked Rainbow Dash, making the twister dissipate along with sending the Rainbow Wonderbolt flying.

"Ugh! Aaaahhhhhh!" She's about to slam hard into a rock, which would cause serious injuries, so Twilight acted quickly, catching Rainbow Dash with her magic right before she hit the rock. She lets out an audible groan. "Thanks." She says, as Twilight lightly sets her back down.

"Are you alright, Rainbow Dash?" The Alicorn asks, the others joining her as they move to check up on their friend.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She replies, rubbing her head with her forehoof. The six friends aren't given much time to regroup, the ground shakes steadily as the girls spot the large creature now charging directly at them.

"Ladies, scatter quick!" Twilight quickly instructs, and the group of friends now scrambled to move out of the way, for its relatively large size, the thing could sure as hell move fast. Luckily, the six could move out of the way just in time as the large claw of the monster created a crater in the ground where they had previously been standing, the aftermath of the missed strike made her and the other very grateful to have moved out of the way in time, had any pony been there when that hand came down, there would have surely been no survivors.

"This is like tryin' ta wrangle up a big ol' wildebeest with a hay rope. We ain't gettin' nowhere like this." Applejack comments, an honest assessment of their situation since it wasn't exactly going all that well.

"What are going to do?" Fluttershy asks, her tone sounding a bit hopeless, likely still feeling the aftershock of the loss of her animal friends.

"Don't worry, dear. I'm sure we'll think of something." Rarity chimes in, trying to sound optimistic, even in the face of this seemingly dire situation unfolding before them.

"Well, we better think of something fast!" Pinkie adds, looking around trying to desperately think of something, just when things couldn't seem to get any worse, they did. Suddenly, these black tentacles emerged from the beast, it wrapped around Twilight quicker than any pony could react, pulling her to it.

"TWILIGHT!" All the girls shout in unison. In an act of desperation, Applejack bites her lasso for grip and begins to swing it, giving it a throw, the lasso manages to grab wrap around the beast, even slowing its steps a bit. With a jump, Applejack shifted all her weight to her hooves, trying to fully immobilize the creature. For a second it seemed like the country mare had managed to stop it in place, but before any pony could follow up, in one powerful pull, the creature jerked its body, pulling Applejack forward and sending her through a tree trunk, it snapped in two on the impact the two pieces hitting the ground with a loud thud soon after.

"Applejack! Are you okay!?" Rainbow Dash asked, rushing over to where she landed. When the dust cleared, thankfully, she was okay, just a bit dizzy, and relatively sore as well from the rough landing.

"Y-yeah. Just a lil dazed is all…" The country mare weakly replied, the landing was harsh, but despite the rough impact, she pressed on, and was back up on all fours shortly after, slow to her first few trots, shaking off the initial sluggishness, she's right back in action moments later.

After Applejack's tactic failed, Twilight tried to activate her magic and teleport, unfortunately for her, this creature had magic-draining tentacles, so the moment her horn glowed pink for not even a second, the magic was zapped from her, thus causing the tentacle to shock her.

"EYAAAAAAAH!" Twilight screamed in pain as the jolts were sent surging through her body, effectively turning her magic against her, so she stopped trying to channel her magic, in turn stopping the electrocution, she was spared, but the powerful zap had rendered her unconscious, incapacitated in its grasp. The monster breaks three more trees this time with more tentacles, and proceeds the throw several of the sharp pieces of tree directly at Ponyville, a few even targeting some of the ponies outside blissfully unaware of the danger that was heading their way.

"Jus' HOLD ON TWILIGHT!" Applejack shouts, trying to think of anything she could do at this point, it was clear to them now that this was no ordinary creature, one that was unknown in origin, no pony had ever seen it before. Had it been one they knew of, it surely would have been defeated by now. They were at risk of losing their hometown, and things were looking rather bleak. Every pony had been caught off guard by all of this.

Understanding the gravity of the situation, not wasting a single second, Rainbow Dash tries a desperate move and uses her speed to catch one of the smaller tree trunk pieces, with careful timing, she's able to catch it with her hooves. With her wings flapping wildly to support the weight of the object she could.

"Urrrrrrgh I-I got it!" It takes a moment, but with a careful spin, she launches it at the creature, the sharp tree piece breaking a few smaller pieces in his path and successfully impaling its side. Just when they believe they may have found some sort of counter, the body of this monster was that of a shadow, it somehow managed to phase through the part of its body that was targeted. The creature was unharmed, but it was also angry now. Its eyes suddenly began to glow, and it charged toward Ponyville, Twilight was still an unwilling hostage at its mercy, she couldn't even flap her wings, it was hopeless.

"We gotta go stop that thing, and Fast!" Applejack shouts, leading the rush to Ponyville, despite the gloom of this situation, the girls follow, understanding that it is now or never.

"But how are we gonna do that? This damn thing is practically impossible to beat! We threw everything at it!" Rainbow Dash protests, she wants to stop it, but everything they tried hasn't worked so far leaving them without a foolproof plan of attack.

"Well we have to do something, otherwise Ponyville will be demolished, and the poor other ponies along with it!" Rarity interjects, lamenting on just how severe this scenario was becoming.

"We just have to give it the best we got, even if our best isn't enough, we have to try!" Pinkie Pie chimed in.

"But how are we ever going to stop that thing?" Fluttershy weakly says, her morale had been damaged after realizing she had lost some of her animal friends in the worst way possible.

"Ya'll just keep fightin' Well find a way ta get through this, we always do!" AJ says, trying to remain as open-minded as possible. She didn't want to lose hope, unfortunately, hope alone wouldn't protect Ponyville and all its inhabitants.

The girls finally arrive back in town, and they are met with a chaotic sight, one home had already been destroyed, and just when the other five got there, tentacles emerged, grabbing hold of Lyra Heartstrings, Derpy, and Mayer Mare.

When all hope seemed lost for them, in a sudden and unexpected flash of blue, several of the tentacles were suddenly cut, and several glowing blue phantom blades impaled the beast in all directions and angles, making it impossible to phase out every part of its body, this would finally lead to doing some serious damage to the creature, it hissed loudly in pain, even stumbling back and ending up against a large bolder, stunning the thing for a bit. The moment the girls begin to fall (Except Derpy who just barely managed to open her wings in time to catch herself) Rushing in, Rainbow Dash catches Lyra, while Fluttershy catches the Mayer.

The second the tentacles were sliced, a blur of midnight blue very quickly teleported below – it was Vergil, dawning his usual midnight blue long coat with his serpentine, and branchlike designs on opposites of the front that lined up with his zipper and jacket collar, he had appeared just in time to catch Twilight in his arms pony princess style, there was a two-handed glowing blue sword on his back, it was made of pure demon magical energy, glowing a more brighter blue than usual.

"Vergil!" The girls say at the same time, that they were wondering when he would show up, and what exactly had taken him so long to get here.

"Sorry I'm late, I just needed a bit of time to create this." He twists his body a bit, showing a better view of his mirage phantom edge sword.

"I needed to make some minor adjustments to this special sword, and now it's ready." The half-devil very briefly explained. About a minute or two later, Twilight slowly wakes up, letting out a slightly pained groan.

"Unnn.." As soon as her eyes open, and her vision fully refocuses, she's met with the familiar face of Vergil, the sight bringing a tiny relieved smile to her lips.

"…Vergil?" She softly says his name, to which he gives her a small smile in return.

"Sorry, I took so long.." He adds, and Twilight just shakes her head dismissively.

"I'm just glad you didn't give up on Ponyville.." She weakly responds, moving to wrap her forehooves around his neck into a hug, he wasn't expecting this, nor was he expecting his heart to start racing so much, but he doesn't mind, even moving one arm to hug her back, giving her a soft caress of her fur in the mix, a subtle and tender moment of respite among all the chaos around them, Twilight found an odd warmth in his strong arms.

"Well, let's just say, a little dragon made me realize that I should be more understanding, and rational. Rather than assume everyone, or everypony, is all the same. But I would have come regardless." Truth to his words, even if everyone in Ponyville didn't like him, it didn't mean they deserved to die, especially in such a horrible way.

Slowly, Twilight pulled back and Vergil gently placed her back down on the ground. She took a few slow trots forward; there was a slight stagger to her movements, but the purple-furred mare regained her balance shortly after.

"I'm glad he was able to help you understand."

"As am I..." Vergil caught a glimpse of her staggering mere seconds ago and wanted to double-check, to make sure that she wasn't hurt anywhere.

"You okay, Twilight?" He softly asks, purple hues look up to meet his deep blue-eyed gaze, she gives him a little smile and nods.

"A little shaken up but, yeah, I'm alright."

The group of girls approach their friend and hug her, grateful that she's back with them, safe. While the group checked on Twilight, they were interrupted by the screaming of other mares further within Ponyville which quickly snapped the group of seven and sprung them back into action.

"I'll go deal with that vile creature, I think it would be best for you ladies to go into town and help everypony in trouble, I'll keep that beast preoccupied, and finish it off," Vergil instructed, going with what he thought was the best tactical approach. If he was right about his theory, once he would engage in combat, that thing would likely set its sights on him – as unpredictable as this all was, Vergil already had a feeling he knew exactly who was behind this, that demon, this was far from just a random occurrence -- this was exactly why he felt such unease the night before.

"Alright, we'll leave that thing to you." Looking towards town, Applejack ran on ahead to lead the other girls into Ponyville, the purple mare stopping for a moment to look back at her taller friend for a brief few seconds.

"Vergil.." Hearing his name, he stops to look at her.

"Please, be careful." She adds.

"Don't worry, I've got this." Exchanging one final glance at each other, the two nod and head off in separate directions. Twilight joined the other girls in town to tend to the ponies that needed help or were wounded, while Vergil closed his eyes, releasing some of his demonic energy, four glowing blue devil wings emerged from his back, and in one powerful flapping of all four wings, in a gust of wind, Vergil took flight, he didn't feel that it was necessary to activate his Sin Devil Trigger, so he opted to just summon his wings instead.

The half-devil had excellent timing, by the time he was fully airborne, face to face with this unknown beast, it was about to crush a large portion of the town, but Vergil soared into action. Grabbing his Mirage Phantom Edge, holds it out, conjuring up some demonic energy, the blade dramatically expands until it's just as long as the creature, immediately Vergil threw his arm down, and with one mighty swing, he slices the arm of the beast clean off, thankfully he didn't need to worry about the falling limb and causing damage or harm as it mysteriously turned into a shadow upon being separated from the body long before it could even get close to the ground, and Vergil noticed it right away.

'It turned into a shadow?... strange.' He thought to himself, quickly following up with another swing of his blade, this time a vertical one that managed to successfully slice off the top chunk of its head, the severed half turning into shadows like the last part that was severed, this only proved to Vergil that this creature was the demons doing, and if he was trying to Frankenstein his demons, it painted a small picture of exactly what his plan could be. Vergil hoped they would be able to find out his plan before significant progress was made, but with little to no information on that demon's whereabouts, he couldn't say, all he could do, was try to find out as much as possible – he just needed to know where to start looking.

"It's still not dead? Dammit!" Not giving him time to react, tentacles spur out of the creature, and they target Vergil, the tips of the tentacles suddenly change and morph into sharp blades heading right for the Cambion who was still airborne, but with careful timing, he's able to teleport out of the way, a blue afterimage of himself trailing behind his movements, showcasing just how fast he was dodging.

His quick judgment allowed Vergil to swoop in with his wings, extend the blade again to the same size as the previous strike, and drive the long magical sword deep into the gut of the beast, spilling out a mess of blood, and a strange black liquid. Vergil made sure he ran it through every part of its bizarre shadow-like flesh, upon being this close to the monster, it was honestly kind of disgusting. The creature roars in pain, but before Vergil can finish the job, the devil swordsman feels a powerful magical energy above him, one that provides a warmth almost like it mimics the glow of the sun. The second that magic blast comes down, Twilight can see it from Ponyville and immediately recognizes who it is.

"Oh! Princess Celestia is here, can you girls finish tending to the other ponies?" The purple-furred Princess asks.

"Go on ahead, Sugarcube, we'll take care of 'em' from here," Applejack says with a nod, helping up one of the injured ponies, and stands her back up onto her hooves. Twilight leaves the rest to her friends, flaps her wings, and takes flight in the direction of her mentor.

That same orange blast grows and strikes, hitting the creature dead center in the chest, upon impact with the magic blast, the monster shrieks out loud in agony, just like what happened with the Hell Vanguards the other day, Vergil witnessed the creature's skin start to violently melt the longer the magic blast burned its body, but this time a lot faster, within mere seconds, the shadow creature is nothing more than a large charred skeleton, upon the melting of its flesh, a morbid painting is left on display, the body had other animal parts and bones fused into the thing.

Vergil was sure glad that Fluttershy was in town with the others, he didn't think she would be able to handle this gruesome scene too well, and he didn't want to make those emotional scars she already had, even deeper. Slowly descending back down to the ground, Vergil gracefully lands in front of the now charred and melted body of whatever cursed amalgamation it had been, his devil wings disappearing back within his body.

"What... the hell is this thing?" Vergil asks himself, yet another question, and one of many that he already had no prior answer to. Whatever this was, he had a feeling it wouldn't be the first time they faced something like this.

Watching the scene unfold in its entirety, well hidden within the shadow of a nearby tree, is Daemon, masking his power and aura so he could observe, he had planned for more, but unfortunately with the interruption of one of his old enemies, he was forced to retreat. A low demonic hiss escapes him.

"That DAMN Celestia is ALWAYS ruining my plans… oh well. At least I was able to see enough to write my prototype off as a failure.. time for some major adjustments." Traveling within the clever cover of shadow to shadow, Daemon escapes disappearing into the darkness.

Back near Ponyville, Vergil is met with a snow-white furred tall Alicorn, her colorful mane flowing dramatically as if there was an endless gentle breeze. This was his first time meeting her, but even the half-devil was able to tell who this was – none other than Princess Celestia, the current ruler of Equestria. Twilight had always spoken highly of her

"And you must be Vergil, I presume?" She asked, to which he nodded.

"Yes, that's correct. You must be Princess Celestia."

"Indeed, Twilight told me about you in her letter."

Ironically, enough, just as the regal pony mentioned her name, down descended Twilight, landing gently on the ground beside Vergil, trotting to Celestia the moment her hooves touched the ground.

"Princess Celestia, you're here!" She says, relief in her voice as she wraps her hooves around her mentor for a hug, and she hugs her back, their wings caressing each other lightly in the exchange.

"Ah, Twilight. I am very glad to see that you're okay." The two lightly pull back.

"I'm sorry, I tried to stop it, but it was too strong.." Twilight apologizes, but Celestia just shakes her head.

"You have no reason to Apologize, Twilight. No one could have foreseen something like this. You did what you could, and that is all that matters." Her words reassure the purple Alicorn, her posture easing up a little, and she finally relaxes a bit.

"What are you doing here Princess? I thought you had important matters to attend in Saddle Arabia?" Twilight asked.

"Yes, I did. But the moment I received your letter, I knew I had to check in on Ponyville immediately, and I'm rather grateful that I did. My sister is finishing things over there, she'll be here tomorrow for the Summer Sun Celebration."

If she had gone through the trouble of postponing important royal matters just to come here, that told Vergil that she likely knew something, and right now, especially after what had just happened, they needed all the information they could find.
"Pardon my interruption, your grace. But if you came all this way, then you have something important to tell us, don't you?" Vergil asks, respectfully getting right to the point.

"That's correct. I have something very important to tell you both. Now if the two of you will kindly accompany me to the Castle Of Friendship, I will explain everything." Says Celestia leading the walk ahead, Vergil and Twilight exchanged a curious glance, before quickly following behind the graceful, white-furred Alicorn Princess. The trio continued down the path, the Castle finally in sight, when they were directly in front of the castle, Celestia turned back to look at the half-devil walking alongside the Princess of Friendship as they approached the stairs of Twilight's castle.

"You know, I can see a lot of your father in you, Vergil." She says with a smile, the short sentence causing him to stop in his tracks, prompting the other two to do the same. That sentence alone, while short, spoke volumes to him, did that mean… his father had come here at some point? Twilight even seemed surprised, wearing an equally shocked expression as Vergil.

"…You knew my father?"

End Of Chapter

Author's Note

Hello dear readers!
At long last, chapter 3 is here, and what a wild ride it was.
I appreciate all the patience, it's a bit tough being a one-man editor, but I sort of prefer it that way, brings me closer to my writing I suppose.
Anyway, as you may have noticed,
I wanted this chapter to give Vergil & Twilight a bit more time together
Yes, I am well aware that the other of the Mane Six didn't get a lot of time in this one, but they will in the next one.
Now that the first 3 chapters have set the pace of what's to come, things will start to slow down a bit, and there will be a bit more slice-of-life stuff in the next one, lore stuff and world-building, with some surprises in the mix of course.
As chapters come out when the action starts up again, I may link music to add to the immersion, but I'll figure that all out when it comes down to it.

Side note: Please excuse this chapter if it doesn't seem as polished as the last one, the premium for my writing correction app ended, but I'll be getting it back on payday, so this chapter may be edited a bit more once I get it back.
Thanks again to the people who are interested in my story
I didn't think I still had the drive, but you guys proved me wrong with your interest.
In any case, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter
Talk to you all in the next one, and as always.
Happy Reading

~Darkslayer