Author's Note

Hello, dear readers, I decided to put my notes up here just to give you a couple of quick updates, The first one is the more important one, and the second is just a small note about my variation of Vergil in this story, and how he will be very slightly different in this story.

1. While I started this story based on Season 5 of FiM, I've recently reworked a bit of what I had planned and added more as well, part of the reason why this chapter is out MUCH later than I had planned, I also spent a lot of time editing because I wanted this chapter to be worth the wait. (aside from the hand injury I mentioned in my last blog post, lots of life stuff got in the way but I'll make a post about that later.) I've decided to change it to during Season 6 since it suits the story much better. Not linked to any specific episode as it gives me more freedom with the plot, and with what I've added, I also decided to add one more OC to the story, but it's someone who you'll find out more about later in coming chapters as I'm still building that characters traits up a bit. These are the only major changes to the story.

2. If you've read the Visions of V Manga, the last thing to note is that Vergil is very slightly canon-divergent in this story, but not by a lot. I just wanted to mention this so I don't get comments telling me that Vergil isn't canon in here, this is also why I used the Alternate Universe tag, so I have a little bit more creative freedom with all the canon characters involved in this story.

Anyway, that's pretty much it.
This will be the only author's note I put on top (Except one other later on for a particular moment in a future chapter), and the only one this long.
So don't worry about that for the next chapters, should I feel the need to add any notes.
I apologize for the wild delay, there definitely won't be another delay this long for the next one without further notice. As always, thank you very much for your continued interest in this story.
I look forward to hearing what you all think as this story keeps unfolding, especially with the new things I have planned.
As always,
Happy reading!

~Darkslayer

Chapter 4: The War No Pony Knew

Devil Mare Cry

The Fate Of Two Worlds

Chapter 4: The War No Pony Knew

Location: Ponyville || Outside the Castle of Friendship || 4:43 P.M. ||

“You … knew my father?”

Getting dragged into a portal with an enemy he knew little or nothing about was one thing, but hearing that the kingdom's ruler knew his father blew his mind. So many questions began to pop up inside his mind about how his father could have come to this world during his time.

The idea of Sparda somehow being connected to Equestria never crossed his mind. The half-devil was immediately curious. There was plenty he wanted to ask the ruling Alicorn about, but since this information, she had more than likely involved the demon, Vergil thought so anyway, so for now, he would have to save those questions for later, right now he wanted to find out as much as he could about this demon.

“I did. Sparda became a wonderful friend of mine, and he was also quite a powerful warrior, too. I met him a very long time ago.” She answers, recalling a few memories in her mind.

“I never expected my father to have come here, although, given the Yamato’s special ability, I can sort of see how that could happen, despite my mild bewilderment.” So, it was true, it had to be. It was coming from the ruler of Equestria herself. There was a lot more to find out about this world than it seemed.

“So, what was it you were going to tell us, Celestia?’ Twilight finally spoke. The purple Alicorn had been patiently waiting for Vergil and Celestia to finish their brief conversation. It seemed pretty important, and she didn’t want to interrupt.

“About this other demon, the both of you saw last night. Was he covered in shadow, with cold red eyes?” She asks, moving back to the reason she had asked them here.

Vergil and Twilight turn their heads and look at each other, the mare’s ears perking upon realizing something, and she could tell that Vergil was coming to the same conclusion at Celestia’s accurate description of the ominous, shadowed silhouette from the night before. Breaking their gaze, they turn to face the taller Alicorn, her colorful mane still majestically flowing in an invisible wind.

“Yes … that’s exactly what he had.” Twilight confirmed. Celestia’s expression darkened, becoming serious.

"…Just as I’d feared." She cursed under her breath. ‘We ensured he could never escape. How is this possible?!’ Celestia thinks to herself, that if Daemon was back, then Equestria and the entire universe could be in danger.

“Um … Celestia, did you know that demon?" Twilight asks, unsure of what to expect.

“…Unfortunately, I did.” She woefully admits there’s a hint of regret clear in her tone. With a sigh, she enters the castle with Vergil and Twilight following, shutting the door with her magic behind them.

The clicking of hooves melded with the light footsteps of Vergil echoes throughout the castle halls. Up the stairs and into the Hall of Friendship with the thrones and cutie map, Celestia leads them. Finally, within the confines of comfort behind closed doors, she turns to face the two. It would be a long story, but they needed to hear it. Taking a deep breath, the tall Alicorn captures their immediate attention, and Celestia began to explain shortly after.

“Several moons ago, back when my sister first shared her rule over Equestria with me. I was returning to Canterlot from some royal duties out of town, in the furthest outskirts of town, I passed by a rare sight, a male Alicorn with dark fur, for some strange reason, he could not use his magic and was about to be mangled by an Ursa Major … I saved him because he was an Alicorn I did not recognize.” A short pause, but she’s quick to continue.

“His name was Midnight Prancer, and he seemed especially grateful that I had saved him, which seemed normal at first … little did I know, that my saving him, became the greatest mistake I could have ever made…” She stops for a moment, briefly gathering her thoughts, the other two remain silent, but sharply attentive, so she goes on.

“I trusted Midnight as a friend … but I was wrong.” a short pause before she continued.

"One night, he stayed over as a guest in Canterlot. While we slept, he roamed my castle through the night, killing all my guards along the way. He found the Equestrian Crystal, and corrupted it with his dark magic, evil, and malice, amplifying the negative emotions of every pony across the kingdom of Equestria, gathering them up, and using his Alicorn magic, he spread waves of hatred, malice, fear, and every swirling negative emotion known to pony, it infected the kingdom and its land, turning all of Equestria into a Living Hell. His power became so great, that he pushed me and my sister out of our castle and took it over. Without peace and harmony, the kingdom suffered. Next, we knew that Equestria had a war on its hooves. It was called The Eternal Harmony War, the most chaotic and devastating war in our history,” Celestia explains in great detail.

“Eternal Harmony War?” Twilight repeated, furrowing her eyebrows in thought. The name of the war was one that she didn’t recognize. There was no memory of it being in the records. “I don’t remember reading that in the history books. I hope I didn’t accidentally read past it.” She adds.

Celestia just shook her head, knowing very well that Twilight could have never possibly read about it, and she would explain that in a moment.

“Don’t worry Twilight, you couldn’t have skipped past it, because none of the history books have publicly recorded it.” She corrected.

“Really? Why? Was there a specific reason for not recording it?” Twilight asked a question that Vergil had also been wondering ever since she had explained.

“To prevent any chance of giving him any power,” Celestia replied, which didn’t make sense to them, and she could tell by the way they were looking at her.

“Remember how I said he amplified the negative emotions of all ponies? Well, that includes Fear, contempt, guilt, anger, sadness, hopelessness, and finally, despair.” She explains.

“I understand the severity behind this, your highness, but first, I have to ask. You claim this person was an Alicorn, so how is that related to the other demon that we saw?” Vergil asks a question that has also been floating around in Twilight’s head ever since Celestia began this story.

“I do understand the slight confusion, but I was about to get to that.” A momentary pause to wet her lips so she can continue. “The war I mentioned lasted for about six moons. It may not seem like a lot by itself, but I assure you, that during the first four moons of warfare, I witnessed several unpleasant things, things that would surely drive anyone with a less than substantial willpower to insanity…” A short pause, shuddering at her words.

“After one more moon of fighting, his forces discovered our hideout, and this resulted in the loss of several brave ponies’ lives … and for a moment, it seemed like all hope was lost. After most of our army either died or fled me and Luna were the only survivors... All seemed lost, until a portal opened, and out came a man with silver hair and a purple long coat –The moment he arrived, he eliminated the attacking forces and even escorted us to safety. Thanks to him, we were able to escape, and that’s when we finally learned the truth.” Celestia pauses for a moment, taking a few to recall the details scene-by-scene.

“Sparda told us that Midnight Prancer was only serving as a vessel body for a powerful demon named Daemon Hellfire – the former ruler of the demon world where Sparda came from.”

“A vessel? Why was he a vessel?” Vergil asks, trying his best to put all the pieces of this story together so he can get a better picture of everything.

“Not a lot was known, but according to Sparda’s account, Daemon used to control one of the circles of hell. At some point during his rule, he developed a desire for more power and attempted to overthrow Lucifer, aiming to dethrone him and take control of all of hell. They ultimately defeated Daemon and sentenced him to face a cruel and horrible fate - The Torture of Ten-thousand deaths - as punishment for his betrayal." Celestia explains, recalling all she could from such a long time ago.

“Ten-thousand deaths…?” Twilight repeated, shaking a bit at how gruesome it sounded. “That sounds … horrible.”

The moment Vergil heard that something came to mind. Part of this sounded familiar to something he had come across in his father’s memoirs. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember all the details, but the part about The Torture of Ten-thousand Deaths resonated with him–it had been something his father had briefly mentioned in the pages he had read through, and Celestia seemed to notice him catch on with the look in his eyes, so she continued.

“It is. It’s a punishment where the accused has their astral body–their soul, shattered into ten thousand fragments, and sent into a continuous, but slow loop of living a new life span across multiple worlds and universes, only for them to die in the most brutal and agonizing ways…” Celestia grimly explains, that even she couldn’t imagine such a horrible fate, as just talking about it made her cringe, it was a truly horrible fate.

“The accused is cut into multiple fragments? I’m a little confused.” Twilight modestly admits it mostly made sense, but it was hard to understand how it was possible–though it was probably a question that she was better off leaving unanswered.

“In short, the shattered pieces are forced into smaller souls of the accused and is forced to live a multitude of very brief new lives where they have no choice but to experience an extremely painful death shortly after,” Vergil explains, simplifying it the best he could. Twilight was a smart young mare, but even Vergil could understand the slight confusion. Even he was having trouble wrapping his head around it for a bit, until the rest of her story filled in those blanks.

Twilight’s ears drooped, lowering until her flank tapped the ground. She had to sit down for a moment. The horrifying thought of having to endure a brand-new life, only to die shortly after, was hard to imagine, especially if the death was a painstakingly agonizing end.

Using all of this information, Vergil could finally piece together exactly what happened, the one thing that connected Daemon to this world. It all made sense now. Sharing a glance, Vergil can tell that Twilight had come to the very same conclusion that he did.

“I think I might be able to guess what else it was my father told you,” Celestia says nothing, and just closes her eyes, giving him a slow nod—a nod of shame.

“When you saved Midnight Prancer…” the half-devil says, stopping as Twilight finishes his sentence.

“…You were also saving Daemon from his fate in his Equestrian vessel.."

“I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s true.” She paused. It was a moment in time. She had wished she would have approached it differently, but she didn’t carry any guilt from it, because she had taken full responsibility for it all. Moving on, it was time to tell them about how it ended.

“For the final moon, Sparda trained my army, and even took the initiative to create some special anti-demon armor, he even forged an entire armory's worth of specialized demon-hunting weapons for ponies, and within the middle of the year, we successfully cut through their defenses and stormed his castle. Once his forces were vanquished, Sparda opened a rift leading to the demon world from his realm, together we combined our powers, and sealed him deep within the depths of the demon world.” Celestia finally finishes explaining.

Silence falls between the trio, giving Vergil and Twilight a few minutes to process all of this important information. A few moments later, the half-devil is the first to break the silence with a question.

“How do you think he got out?” Vergil asks.

Celestia shook her head. “I wish I knew. That being said, I’d rather not spend time worrying about how he got out, right now, figuring out his plans should be our very first priority. Even the smaller details are imperative.” She adds, that there were many questions, several unanswered, and eventually, they would be answered. All they could do for now, was take what they’ve learned so far and try to use it to gather any other information they possibly could.

“Right! It’s going to be difficult if there are no written notes about that war, but I will do my best to find out what I can.” Twilight beamed, siting the challenges that she would undoubtedly face in this search, but remained determined to come through.

“As will I,” Vergil adds. “If my father came to this world, I’m sure he may have left something here for me. One way or the other, I’ll find it.”

Celestia smiled. While the outcome was still uncertain, despite the unpredictability of what was left to come, she had complete faith in Twilight. Vergil, too.

“I’m sure that you will, both of you.” Finally, the two of them were now well-informed. Princess Celestia turned her back to them, slowly trotting her way to the staircase. Instead of going down, she stops on her hooves to look back at them.

“Until we know a little more about Daemon’s plan, I would appreciate it if you kept this between the two of you for now. When the moment is right, you will tell your friends. Right now, we don’t want to risk causing a panic. Any emotional distress will make him stronger.” She quickly added.

Both Vergil and Twilight nod in agreement. If this was a kingdom kept secret, then of course they would keep it between them. Normally in these types of situations, Twilight felt bad for keeping things from her friends, but she understood how serious it was to keep the peace while they dug for more information on the down low. At least this time, Twilight had some pony–or in his case, someone else to talk to about it, which did help a little. Vergil and Twilight exchange a glance and share a nod, the half-devil turning his head to face Celestia shortly after.

“Twilight and I were already keeping Daemon’s appearance to ourselves. We’ll continue to do so, your grace.”

“Thank you. Anyway, I think we should go check on Ponyville now. I’m sure they’re still going to need help to clean up.” Celestia suggested as she turned around to take her leave.

Vergil and Twilight followed behind her, with whatever that creature was dead, it was safe to start rebuilding, thankfully Ponyville had only suffered minor damages, and thanks to some miracle, there weren’t any casualties, and despite everything, it was always a good outcome when no pony lost their lives, especially in an unexpected attack like what happened earlier. Hopefully, this would be the only attack this peaceful little town would have to endure.

Returning to Ponyville, Princess Celestia walks on ahead. The second the other ponies notice her, they begin to bow, capturing every pony’s attention immediately. Once she could tell every pony was looking at her, Celestia raised her wings and began to speak.

“My Little Ponies of Ponyville, as you all know, we just experienced an attack by an unknown creature. We may not have been ready for it, but thanks to all of your combined efforts, I’m happy to report that there are no casualties." A pause, as every pony cheered, celebrating the glorious fact that no innocent pony had lost their lives during this unfortunate event. Once the cheers and hoof stomping finally subsided, Princess Celestia continued.

“While there has been some significant damage reported, it is nothing that we can’t handle. That being said, tomorrow’s Summer Sun Celebration will go on as planned!” Cheers and happy hoof stomping are heard in response. To finish addressing the town, Celestia turns to look at Twilight as the crowd’s cheering comes to a stop, prompting her to take a step forward and raise her wings next to speak.

“Because of the damage our town has suffered, the cleaning will take some time. To ensure that we have a successful Summer Sun Celebration tomorrow, I humbly ask that every pony continue to lend a helping hoof in today’s cleanup. By working together, we’ll be all set for our special celebration.”

Following her request, the sound of a hammer on wood cuts the brief silence, causing every pony to turn and look, to their surprise, every pony spots none other than Vergil, who had already gotten a head start in rebuilding. Within the exact time of Princess Celestia, and Princess Twilight’s speech respectively, Vergil had already finished rebuilding Mayer Mare’s home, and office entirely all by himself, a testament to his demonically enhanced speed for any task, even building.

After Twilight’s words, more and more ponies began to leave the crowd. One by one a pony began to help Vergil build. Gradually, in a few minutes, all of Ponyville was at Vergil’s side, working hard in repairing and rebuilding, it was truly a sight to behold; every single pony who resided here locally was now doing their part, working alongside the person they all avoided in unison. Watching as every pony actively engaged with Vergil in a friendly manner, she couldn’t help but smile at the sight.

Shortly after, Twilight and Celestia joined in on helping with the reconstruction and rebuilding of Ponyville. A task that seemed like it would take a while originally, only took about two hours, but with every pony working together, two hours felt more like thirty minutes. A repair that would have normally taken all day took significantly less time, a shining example of proof that good teamwork could be possible, regardless of whether you had hands or hooves. Twilight had suggested splitting up into groups, so she organized each pony squad a task.

Most of the Earth Ponies led by Applejack and Pinkie dealt with clearing away the rubble using their remarkable strength and natural resourcefulness, they would also help with the reconstruction of buildings, damaged homes, and structures.

The Unicorns were led by Rarity who focused on fixing and redoing the two decorations, as well as repainting the recently rebuilt homes the Earth ponies had finished, and were now moving on town monument repair, as well as a general maintenance check by Applejack to make sure all of their plumbing was still intact, repairing any that needed to be fixed.

The Pegasi were led by Rainbow Dash, and they were tasked with helping the Earth ponies build by placing the roofs on each building, then had to prepare a light rainfall for a few overnight night to wash away any remaining little pieces of rubble and broken tree branches, while Fluttershy and Dr.Fauna helped settle the animals into their new homes, relocating them to a safe place so they had places to stay again.

After everything was finished it was starting to get late, but all of their hard work had paid off. The rebuild went so well, that it didn’t even look like a gigantic monster stormed through here, at all, Ponyville, was good as new again. The sound of multiple trotting of hooves takes Vergil out of his daze, turning around, he meets with every resident of Ponyville looking at him, but this time, their faces wore an expression of shame and regret, the mayor being the very first pony from the group to approach him directly, clearing her throat as she stopping in front of him before she finally spoke.

“Hello there. In the beginning, we avoided you and acted completely rude, and yet, you still saved our lives, even going so far as to help us rebuild.” says the mayor, her ears drooping as she looks at him. There had been a grave error of judgment on their behalf; it had taken them a bit, but at long last, the mayor and the rest of Ponyville realized that they had been wrong about him. This humanoid wasn’t an enemy. He was a friend and the very first of his kind here in this strange new world.
“And when you saved our beloved Princess shortly after, I knew for sure I was wrong … we were all wrong about you.” She sighs, looking back up at their guest.

“Vergil, I, on behalf of all of Ponyville, am very sorry for the way you’ve been treated upon your arrival. Normally, we are a welcoming bunch, but with everything that’s happened lately, seeing a being unlike our kind may have made us a bit more anxious than we’d like to be.” She says, taking a moment to look at all the other ponies behind her, several of them nodding in agreement as Vergil looks around the crowd of mares, fillies, foals, and stallions gathered around him, a way to mirror the mayor’s apology without saying anything.

For a few minutes, Vergil just looked around at every pony staring at him, wearing facial expressions that showed him these ponies did genuinely feel bad. Eventually, they knew they had perceived him wrong, and he shouldn’t have taken it personally. When the mayor looked back at him, she held out her right front hoof for a shake.

“Admittedly, I originally thought that none of you would understand, though I soon realized that there was also a lack of understanding on my part as well. So we were all wrong about something.” Taking her hoof in his gloved hand, they shook, accepting the apology. Equestria was now the first world where he had somehow managed to come to an understanding with the locals, because of his unlucky track record of experiences with otherworldly locals, Vergil didn’t think this would ever be possible.

This world may be different, but this realm was by far the best place he’d been to in quite a long time. Vergil had made some friends, and the locals in town finally accepted him, and for that, he was grateful to the residents of Ponyville for their reconciliation with him, having them see him as a friend, rather than a foe, would make his time in this world much easier.

Unfortunately, though, Ponyville was only just one small fraction of a larger kingdom. Equestria had several other parts to it. While Vergil may have won over Ponyville, the other parts of the kingdom might not share the same sentiment that this town did, though it was hard to say. Regardless, the half-devil wasn’t going to worry about it; one small portion of Equestria on his side was more than enough for now.

“Yes, I agree. That just goes to show you that you’re never too old to learn something important.” The mayor nods, taking her hoof back. Vergil was no longer someone they would avoid; instead, he was their newest resident in their peaceful little town. Considering that he was from another world, it didn’t seem like he would be here permanently. Despite that, from now on every pony would see him as a friendly face, and they would treat him as one of their own until the day would come when he could finally return to his own world.

It was ironic hearing Mayor Mare say that since that had been the same thing Vergil had recently realized himself, well before he ended up here in this world, he could relate. “That’s true … I’ve had my share of eye-opening lessons, too, lately. Anyway, good day Mayor.”

Exchanging a tiny smile, Vergil turned around, taking a moment to look at the other ponies around him, as if they were anxiously waiting for him to say something. “I never meant any harm, so I appreciate all of you coming to understand. Thank you, every pony. I look forward to the rest of my time here in this peaceful little town of yours.” His words cast smiles across the rest of the ponies, grateful that he was forgiving them for how they had been avoiding him like the pony plague, but it would be a brand new day tomorrow, with a brand new start.

Princess Celestia watched the exchange from afar with a smile, proud to see the other ponies no longer afraid of him, and instead, treating him like a local, as they should have. With Ponyville and its residents safe, Celestia prepared to take her leave back to Canterlot to wait for her sister and return here with Luna for the rising of the sun early tomorrow morning.

As the other ponies in town went back to their homes, Vergil caught up with Twilight, as she was trotting to meet the girls. Along the walk, Celestia approaches them, bringing them to a stop. “I’m going to head back to Canterlot for a few hours and wait for my sister to return from Saddle Arabia. I’ll see you two tomorrow morning.”

“Alright, me and Vergil are going to check back with the girls.” Twilight and Celestia hug.
“See you tomorrow, Celestia.” The purple Alicorn adds, flashing her mentor a smile as they lightly pull back.

“Yes, I’ll see you then, Twilight.” She smiles in return. Turning to walk away, Celestia stops for a moment to glance back at Vergil. “Oh, and Vergil.” The half-devil meets her gaze upon hearing his name.

“Welcome to Equestria. Aside from what we spoke about earlier, I hope you enjoy your time here in this world.”

Vergil gives the tall Alicorn a very tiny smile in response.
“Thank you, your grace. Take care for now.”

The two share a nod. Then Celestia turns away to spread her wings, and with a powerful flap, off she went soaring into the air in the direction heading towards Canterlot, leaving Vergil and Twilight alone. The moment Celestia is gone, the two begin to make their way back to Ponyville so they can meet up with the others.

As the two walk, and trot in step with each other, Twilight can’t help but express her amazement about what the two of them had just recently learned, so she strikes up a conversation.

“Wow … I didn’t know Princess Celestia knew your father.” If his father had been to this world at some point, perhaps this was fate’s way of connecting the pieces of the past to the present. With this new important piece of information, maybe Vergil’s arrival here in this world was happening for a reason. There were so many more questions now than ever, but for the moment, Vergil knew not to focus on that, despite how peculiar it was. The half-devil had a feeling he would eventually find out just how deep this connection with his father’s apparent history in this world.

“My father is the one who forged the Yamato, so I had already assumed he had traversed into other worlds. I just never thought that I, myself, would ever stumble into a world that he’s been to before.” A world like this. It was the last place he thought his father would ever come to.

“Well, now that you know, I’m sure that later on, you’ll be able to find out more about his time here," Twilight reassured him.

Even if he was playing it off, there was no denying the look he had on his face when Celestia told him. That was all she needed to know that he was still thinking about it, regardless of him choosing not to show it. How did Twilight know? Because she was the same way for things you were dying to know the answers to, the major difference between them was that Twilight would often let her worry and stress show in those situations, while Vergil appeared calmer, and focused. Wearing an expression that was hard to see through–like a faded stone sculpture, if one looked hard enough, they would be able to very faintly see the finer details.

“Yes, I’m sure I will too. For now, though, I think it would be best for us to just focus on what the Princess wants us to find out. We need to try and at least try to find out whatever it is he might be planning. The longer we’re left in the dark, the more dangerous things could potentially become.” Finding out more about his father’s history here was something he was going to look into. For the moment, though, it was more important to focus on the task at hand–or hoof, from Twilight’s perspective.

“Yeah, you’re right. As much as I’d like to figure out the connections from your father’s time here, we probably should.” She agrees, trying to calm her excitement.

“Anyway, I was thinking later we could-” Before Vergil can finish, Twilight interjects, unable to contain herself–this new fact had blown her mind, there were so many possibilities, and many things it could mean, so many theories to discover and debunk, it was thrilling to her.

“Connections and links like this aren’t something that happens too often, and from another world too! There’s got to be some kind of reason for all of this.”

“…Twilight.”

“Just think about it! All the connections from one world to another, I mean, there are SO many levels, or types of parallel universes, to the multiverse theory. If this turns out to be true; it could be a HUGE scientific breakthrough! Level one! The idea that space is so big that the rules of probability imply that surely, somewhere else out there, there are other planets exactly like Equestria. An infinite universe is likely to have infinitely many planets, and on some of them, the events that play out would be virtually identical to those on our own Equestria! We don’t see these other universes because the speed of light limits our cosmic vision — the ultimate speed limit. Light started traveling at the moment of the big bang, about 14 billion years ago, even in this world, and so we can’t see any further than about 14 billion light-years”

“…Twilight!”

“Level two, I don’t think fits here. In a level two parallel universe, regions of space are continuing to undergo an inflation phase. Because of the continuing inflationary phase in these universes, space between us and the other universes is expanding faster than the speed of light — making them completely unreachable!” Vergil doesn’t even get a chance to say anything, Twilight continues her overexcited rant.

“No, I think this is more of a level three connection: A level three parallel universe is a consequence of the many world's interpretation, or MWI for short. From quantum physics, every single quantum possibility inherent in the quantum wave function becomes a real possibility in some reality. When the average pony thinks of a parallel universe, like, for example, in a science-fiction story, whenever a parallel universe is brought up, it’s usually a level three they are referring to. I’ve experienced this myself before, so I’m a BIG believer in the theory of the multiverse. There are so many potential theories, especially when it comes to quantum physics! There are just books full of information about this. I can’t wait to find out more!”

“….” Vergil just crosses his arms, letting the Alicorn have her fit of excitement, patiently waiting for her to finish. This was by far the most energetic he’d ever seen in Twilight. While he wasn’t giving much of an outward reaction, internally, he had to admit, her little bout of overexcitement was pretty adorable, and was it rather cute to watch, especially the more she got lost inside of her little scientific rant, he was beginning to learn a lot more about Twilight from their interactions, he certainly didn’t expect this side of her, but it was a sort of endearing.

“THIS IS SO EXCITING!” Twilight exclaimed, with a big smile painted on her face. Finally, as she slowly calmed herself down, only then did the Alicorn know that she had once again gotten a little too carried away. The second their eyes met, Vergil simply arched an eyebrow, this immediately caused Twilight to blush in embarrassment.

Ironically enough, though, Vergil understood every single thing she said. While he didn’t go to school as a child, the half-devil did take the initiative to read several educational books, the kind the teachers read to the students. It wasn’t a practical way of learning, but it did help him learn everything he needed to learn as a kid.

“Uh … s-sorry about that…” she says, giving a sheepish, flustered smile, shyly clicking her front hooves together.

Vergil just chuckled a bit and shook his head. He found it rather amusing, and charming all the same. Not only had it been a cute thing to watch, but it also really showed just how intelligent Twilight was, and very passionate about science as well, another new thing to learn about his new friend.

“No need. You were caught in the moment. Besides, I can undertand the excitement. I enjoy flossing my brain with knowledge too."

“Really? I do remember you telling me that you were also well read. I just didn’t know to what extent. What kinds of books have you read?” She asks, curious to find out more about Vergil’s reading history and how it was connected to his own level of intellect.

“Every single educational subject one would learn in school. When I was a child, I always went out of my way to find the book for every technical and vocational, academic, for every grade. I wanted to know everything a kid was supposed to learn. I knew that I wouldn’t understand the world if I didn’t,” Vergil explains, even briefly mentioning his childhood.

As he spoke, Twilight listened to every word he said, she wasn’t expecting him to bring up his childhood, and hearing him willingly mention it, the Alicorn became immediately interested, though she didn’t want to get too invested, since she knew that he would likely only share a limited amount of his earlier years, wanting to respect his boundaries and save herself from becoming too curious, she would take what she could get about his past until he was done talking about it.

There was a growing urge to ask him for more details, but she didn’t want to force him to talk about something in full if he didn’t want to. And from how it sounded so far, it seemed like his childhood was relatively difficult. If a child had to teach themselves basic education, she could only imagine how hard it had been for him. Curiosity was already starting to kill her, but she would wait until he was ready to reveal that part of his past to her. Even so, she just had to ask at least one question.

“Wait a minute, you had to educate yourself? Why in Celestia did you have to do that?”

“…. Let’s just say I was a very misfortunate child.” A vague response, but she expected it, there was probably a lot more behind what he was saying, and her curiosity was peaked, although she would respect his decision to withhold it a bit longer if it wasn’t something he talked about much, she could only assume it meant his childhood was a lot more difficult than she had originally thought it was.

“Well, whatever happened, as tough as it might have been, you made it! And I'm glad you managed to get by,” Twilight replies. Several potential theories immediately started popping up in her mind. ‘I wonder how bad his childhood exactly was?’ she thought to herself as the two turned the corner into Ponyville.

“Yes … I am, too.” The half-devil quietly added.

Coming up to the center of town, Vergil and Twilight spot their friends just up ahead. Only one of them is missing, Fluttershy. The Cambion and Alicorn speed up their pace a bit, concerned with why their soft-spoken friend was suddenly absent. The girls seem to notice the pair, and they quickly trot on ahead to meet halfway.

“Vergil, Twilight, there ya are. We were wonderin’ when you two would be back.” Applejack says, being the first pony to speak up.

“Hey girls, sorry we took a bit,” Twilight replies.

“What’s going on? And where is Fluttershy?” Vergil asks, though he had a feeling he may know why she was missing–it likely had something to do with those poor unfortunate animals and the tragic fate they had suffered.

The five mares look at each other, sharing a somber glance before the five look back at their two friends. “We were helping clean up the rest of the debris from the attack, then I asked Fluttershy if she could go grab some extra garbage bags from her place, but she hasn’t returned yet.” Rainbow Dash explains.

“Of course, we were concerned; in fact, we were just about to go to her cottage to check on her.” Rarity added.

“In that case, we’d best stop wasting time, let’s go.” Vergil insists, that shortly after, the group began to make their way to their friend's cottage, there was no detection of any demon energy, so he didn’t think she was in any danger, regardless, everyone was still worried about her. Several trots and steps later, the group arrives outside of Fluttershy’s home.

Applejack is the first to move forward and begins to knock on the door with her right forehoof. “Hey, Sugarcube, it’s us. Are ya in there?”

There’s no response, but when she listens closely, Applejack can make out the sound of faint sobbing behind the wooden door. “Do ya'll hear that?” She asks, wanting to make sure she’s hearing that. Rainbow Dash moves forward and puts her ear to the door. “That’s Fluttershy alright, let’s go!” Without another word, Rainbow pushes the door open and speeds inside, the others quickly following in after her.

Vergil is about to head inside behind them, when something tells him to look back for a moment, so he does, in the faint glow of the moonlight, Vergil spots a small stack of garbage bags, they are down in the grass, right in front of the corpse of that demon creature. Just as he thought she had seen. It wasn’t hard to piece together what had happened. She probably stumbled upon this just as she was about to head back to the others.

“I should have cleaned this up before Princess Celestia called for me…” He cursed his failure to clear the body. Vergil truly didn’t think she would come across it tonight since it was so far back to the side. Instead of going back inside, Vergil decides to get rid of it.

Vergil quickly ran over to the corpse, placed his hand on it, and teleported with it, taking it to an empty field on the outskirts of Ponyville, the half-devil had spotted this field during Twilight's tour of the Castle sometime after he had first arrived when she showed him her balcony, and since her Castle just along the outskirts of town he managed to steal a glimpse of it, he needed to know where he was going in order for him long distances.

Once he was at the field, he dropped the corpse and backed up, holding out his right arm. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate, in his right hand, he conjured up his Phantom Force Edge, gripping the handle. Moving his arm back down, he held it behind him and crouches down low, channeling up a lot of demonic energy, and shortly after, his sword begins to glow a bright, dark blue. Once it grew into a large energy-mass blade, he brought his sword forward and jumped up into the air, with a swing he unleashed a large energy slash of blue energy which completely eradicated the corpse.

Upon entering the cozy cottage of Fluttershy, Vergil is met with the sight of his friends surrounding the crying Pegasus. Silently, he joins the other’s side, standing in place between Twilight and Rainbow Dash as they all try to comfort her.

“W-W-Who would do such a horrible thing to innocent animals?” She says between weeps, tears streaming down her usually gentle, now puffy eyes like a waterfall.

“Oh, Sugarcube … there is a lotta nasty folk out there. Why, they could be doin’ it for a whole buncha terrible reasons. Whatever the reason, ain’t nothin’ ever gonna justify any excuse in harmin' some peaceful lil’ critters.” Applejack says, her tone soft and comforting. Her southern drawl was a lot more clearer in her softer tone.

“But they weren’t doing anything!” Fluttershy cries, tears still falling from her soft blue eyes, she wails, her sobs becoming louder, which prompts Applejack to reach out and start to lightly rub Fluttershy’s back with her right front hoof comfortingly.

“We’ve seen our share of truly terrible ponies before, Fluttershy. While we may have been able to help some. Unfortunately, there are some out there are and have little to no desire to reform themselves. I think this is one of them. It’s those who are truly the worst of the worst.” Twilight adds, trying her best to explain why anyone would want to do such an awful thing to some innocent animals that were just doing their own thing.

“If I could, I would trap all of those horrible ponies, and beings, in one great big tornado where they would stay forever, but I’ll just have to settle for throwing hooves, and I’ll throw hooves if I have to!” Rainbow Dash adds, taking a makeshift fighting stance, and throwing out a few punches with her front forehooves.

“Anyone who would dare do such a thing is a dreadful pony. Listen, I know this is really hard for you, dear, but you’re just going to have to be strong. If not for yourself, then for the animals!” Rarity chimed in.

Pinkie Pie wasn’t the best with words sometimes because she was always so hyperactive and incredibly upbeat and would accidentally get lost in saying the wrong thing, Pinkie didn’t want to do that seeing how vulnerable her friend was right now, so she wasn’t sure what to say in this moment, instead, she did the one thing she knew she could, Fluttershy had never really dealt with the death of one of her animal friends before, so Pinkie opted to pull Fluttershy into a warm hug, trying her best to find any kind of words she could.

“I know this isn’t easy, but put it this way, those friends of yours, are in the big party up in the clouds now, WAY past the sky, and I’m ABSOTUTLY sure that they are having a lot of fun up there.” She rubs her friend’s back with her hoof. “So, they’ll be just fine. In fact, I can imagine them, smiling down at you, and up there, everyone’s smiles are SUPER EXTRA bright!” Pinkie says, doing her best to reassure her.

The girls and Vergil are stunned by how surprisingly profound Pinkie’s words were. Silence amongst them as they let Pinkie’s words sink in. She managed to find the right words this time. It was almost poetic, just without the rhyming. It was touching, especially coming from somepony like her, who had a bit of a track record in saying the wrong thing, especially to Fluttershy.

The pink-maned Pegasus even seemed to resonate with her friend’s words, slowing her crying down a decent bit, while she was still visibly distraught, the party pony’s sweet words had calmed her enough to where she wasn’t crying as loud anymore.

Fluttershy sniffles, puffy wet eyes looking at her.

“…Y-You really think so?” She asks between shaky sobs.

“Are you kidding? I don’t think so, I KNOW so!” Pinkie happily exclaimed, throwing her hooves up in the air with her usual bright smile. Her next sentence had the pony of kindness a bit more, and she began to wipe her eyes with her hooves.

“Pinkie’s right, Fluttershy. I’m sure that your friends are up there having a great time. Sure, they might miss you, just as much as you miss them, but even if you can’t see them, they will always be in your heart, watching over you from above.” Twilight softly says, adding to every pony else’s reassurance.

“Totally. I bet they have everything that every animal of every kind loves up there. It’s like a super cool, super awesome paradise. So, I’m sure those friends of yours are doing A-Okay up there.” Rainbow Dash added, trying to add to the moral support in her way.

“That’s right, darling. I’m certain that every animal is in a much better place up there in the heavens.” Says Rarity, reaching out to touch her friend’s hoof for a few moments, before taking it back.

“Exactly, Sugarcube. Shoot, ah’m sure all of em’ up there are as chipper as a bird in an apple tree!” Applejack says, enthusiastically, but making sure to keep her tone soft.

“A-Are you sure?” She asks, her lips trembling a bit. She just needed one last push. Immediately, the girls turned to look at Vergil, waiting for his input. Glancing at everypony for a second, Vergil takes a few steps towards Fluttershy’s couch, crouching down to her height so they could look each other in the eyes without her straining her neck from looking up at him.

“I know how difficult this is, Fluttershy. Especially dealing with loss for the first time, it's never easy.” Vergil softly says, his tone gentle.

Upon hearing that her new half-devil friend had also faced this kind of grief before, her crying comes to a subtle stop, rubbing her eyes with her hooves, her tired, blue eyes peer up and meet Vergil’s gaze, a mix of curiosity and sadness clear on her face. Their Cambion friend’s statement immediately captures the attention of the other ladies, they all look at each other, and move in closer to Vergil and Fluttershy to hear about the details.

The half-devil was internally cursing himself that he had to tell all of his new friends this but he felt that his past grief would do a lot in helping Fluttershy get past her current grief, and he did trust these mares, just like they trusted him. Besides, this horrible news was clearly too much to handle, and for someone as emotionally sensitive as her, he could only imagine what had been running through her mind once she found out about the tragic fate those four animal friends had met.

Twilight, being the most surprised out of the others though, frowned. She didn’t know Vergil had faced loss before; she hadn’t experienced such a thing in her life yet, so she couldn’t relate, but she did understand how terrible loss affected someone. The purple Alicorn was an avid reader, among the copious amounts of books she had read, there was a handful of them that had expressed how loss could affect somepony, a good example being the main character of a fictional novel losing a friend or loved one to an enemy or some tragic accident.

While there was a lot of pain in trying to accept it, those stories also showcased how that same loss, could also help one better themselves as a pony, although it wasn’t always easy for others, the shy Pegasus being one of those others. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to be crying anymore,

“Really…? You’ve lost someone, too?” She softly asks, a sniffle after her question. The five other girls take a seat on the floor once they’re close enough to listen.

Vergil nodded. “Yes, I have. When I was a child, I lost my mother.” A brief pause, as he takes a moment to let the memories come back to him, and it didn’t take very long for every scene from that night to return. He would spare his new group of friends the full details of that night, but give them enough to show Fluttershy that he knew exactly what she was going through.

“It was the around the evening, just after a birthday party-”

Pinkie’s ears perked up immediately upon hearing that word.
“A Party?! Ooooo! What KIND of birthday party was it?” She excitedly interrupted, hopping up and down a few, but the moment all of her friends stopped to look at her, she realized that question wasn’t an important one, and that she probably shouldn’t have rudely interjected.

“Oops … hehehe… sorry.” The hyperactive mare apologized, sheepishly rubbing the back of her mane, calming her energy a bit. She sits back down, allowing Vergil to continue, giving an innocent smile shortly after.

“Don’t worry about it, anyway.” Vergil lightly clears his throat, then continues.

“It was around the evening after a birthday party had finished. I was at a playground not far from my home…”

Location: Human World || Playground || Sparda Manor Outskirts ||

Time & Date: 7:28 P.M. || March 1st A Few Decades Ago

A young Vergil, wearing a dark blue knit vest, and a pair of black shirts, with brown sneakers, the young devil boy had been playing by himself on top of a play structure. Sitting on top of the little roof with the bar to help slide down, the child enjoyed the view, before glancing down at the golden-chained necklace around his neck, a beautiful pink gemstone amulet hanging down from it, his half of the gift he and his brother had received earlier today. In his lap, a poetry book was given to him by the librarian who saw Vergil visit often, so he wrote the first letter of his name on the cover to solidify it as his own. It had been an enjoyable evening full of fun and games, but after the celebration was finished, the rest of the night seemed to quiet down significantly.

His younger brother Dante had eaten a bit too much Pizza and was taking a nap, so Vergil opted to go play by himself for a little at the nearby playground that was just outside of the border of the land that was still his family’s property.

The young boy had come here to this playground quite often, especially on days when he just wanted a place to read in peace, since no other kid came to this playground after the swing set broke, it hadn’t been replaced yet, but he didn’t mind, it allowed him to treat this place as his quiet area.

“It’s so pretty…” the young boy says, admiring the sparkle of the gemstone from the glow of the moonlight. It didn’t take long for Vergil to take a liking to this present. He was going to cherish it. Finally letting it go, it fell back against his chest. Vergil frowned. While today had been fun, it did feel pretty empty. The absence of his father had been felt all day, looming over his head like an invisible dark cloud, especially compared to the previous year’s party, when his father was still here.

Despite what Dante wanted to believe, Vergil knew their dad didn’t abandon them, there was surely some important reason he was gone, and he would cling to that belief forever, he believed in his father, there was no way he would just leave them without saying goodbye if it wasn’t some sort of emergency.

Their mother did her very best to keep it fun for them, and she did succeed in doing that. Today wasn’t horrible, just a little lonely without the man he looked up to so much. Looking up at the moon, he sighs.

“Father … where in the world did you go…?” He asks the moon, knowing he won’t get an answer. Looking down at his poetry book, he’s about to open it and read when he hears a loud explosion in the distance, making him jump a bit.

(“The explosion shook the entire play structure, even shaking up the ground it stood. It felt like a bomb went off. It nearly knocked me off the top of the slide.”) He narrated; his recollection continues.

“What was that?!” Jumping down from the top of the slide, the young devil boy landed on his feet, quickly taking a look around him to see where it possibly could have come from. It takes a few minutes or so before he spots what must be the source, a cloud of black smoke, so he heads directly in that direction. As he passes through the short-wooded area, he starts to become increasingly more concerned with each step, because this is leading toward his home.

("As I finally reached the top of the hill, I witnessed the source of the explosion - my home engulfed in flames. My world was falling apart all around me, but what I saw next … changed me…”)

After about five minutes…. he finally saw it, his luxurious family home, completely engulfed in flames, and just outside the gate of his family estate, laid his mother’s lifeless body in a pool of blood.

Eyes widening in despair, as reality winded up to hit him in the face with the gravity of this horrible situation, he burst into tears, clenching his mother’s hand, it was so cold to the touch, even as a mere child, Vergil knew she was dead, still, he didn't want to believe it. After a few silent steps to her body, the young devil kneeled down and gently placed his right hand over top of hers, she was colder than ice to the touch, confirming his worst fear, she was indeed dead, and Dante was nowhere in sight–he was all alone.

Tears fall from the young boy’s face, his sobs echoing around the area. Not a single living soul nearby, at least not a human soul. “NO!! MOMMY Wake up, PLEASE wake up!” The child cried, desperately shaking her, clinging to even a sliver of false hope that she was just badly injured, and would be up soon, but he knew it was hopeless. Burying his face into his deceased mother’s neck, he clung to her, his tears trickling down her cold flesh, smearing her blood-stained rouge cardigan as hit tears wet her cold flesh.

The sound of inhuman snarls and slow footsteps catches the young man’s attention. He knows that danger is approaching, but he’s frozen in panic and fear. “…m-mommy… p-please don’t leave me here…” the boy says, in weeping whispers. “…Please… I don’t want to be alone…” but she’s already gone. He knows it’s all up to him now, but where does he start? What could a mere child do against a large group of attacking demons?

(“So, I ran. As fast as I could, for as long as my legs could take me, I didn’t stop even when I could feel the flattening of my airless lungs with each footstep. There was no way I could run forever, so eventually, they found me, I just barely survived…”) He briefly recalls, Finally, as the demons inch closer, Vergil’s fight-or-flight mode takes over, his small body pumping full of adrenaline, he quickly stood up, and took off running, down the road towards the graveyard, the demons following in pursuit, there’s more to the night he lost his mother, but Vergil left that out, he wanted to spare his friends the gruesome details of the near-death experience he would face at the claws and scythes of those demons.

"That pain stayed with me for a very long time. It wasn't easy to erase.."

The girls are in shock at what Vergil had just shared with the six of them, each of them with an understandingly sad look on their faces, his friends felt awful for him, but he didn’t share those details about his past looking for sympathy, he was using it as an example to express what he was trying to say, and the girls seemed to catch that, they didn’t need the full details of his past to get the picture he was painting for Fluttershy’s advice.

“The moral of the story, Fluttershy. Loss is one of the worst and most difficult things to go through, but we can't spend our life missing that person, we need to move on. I know it hurts a lot because that pain can lead to much worse in the future if you hold on to it forever. that emotional pain. It will control you, and might turn you into the wrong kind of pony -- one you never want to be. They are gone, but will never be forgotten because your memories with them, will keep them alive inside your heart." A brief pause to let those words sink in a bit before he continues.

"Besides, I’m sure your little friends above would much rather see you rise and overcome this struggle, instead of letting this despair drag you down into a fall."
Finally, Fluttershy finally smiled, his words resonating with her deeply, the smile in her eyes also came back.
“Thank you, Vergil.”
She wipes her tears with a hoof. “And, you’re right. I could never forget that I have such amazing friends to help me.” Fluttershy agrees, the mane six, joining together for a group hug.

As the girls put a hoof over each other, Twilight briefly looked over at Vergil who was fixing his jacket collar while they hugged, as the friends embraced each other, the Alicorn wasn’t about to leave their new friend out, her horn glowed a deep magenta, that same color surrounds Vergil who looks down at his feet as Twilight effortlessly levitates him up, and right between the girls putting them at the center of their group embrace.

“Twilight, what’s the meaning of this?” He quickly asks, looking around as she hovers him over towards the mares.

“That’s including you too, you know.” She smiles, lightly setting him back down on the ground, the six of them turn around to face Vergil, shifting a bit before leaning in for the hug, the girls hugging his chest from left to right (Applejack at the far left of him, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle with Pinkie Pie at the other end)

The half-devil wasn’t expecting them to pull him into the hug, so he felt a bit awkward at first, but it didn’t take long to subside, a slight bit of hesitance, but it faded shortly, and Vergil finally wrapped his arms around them in return. Including him in the group hug was sudden, but he didn’t have any problem with it. A group hug felt nice, but it would certainly take some time getting used to.

Back in his world, the small circle Vergil was a part of would never do something like this. Besides, it was more his brother Dante’s small circle, friends of Dante’s, were merely just acquaintances, or in some cases, business partners, so he never really saw them as friends, and Vergil was pretty sure that Trish and Lady would probably agree with him. Those ladies only spoke to him if she were partners on a demon-hunting job, which was to be expected. In this world, though, Twilight and her friends treated him like a proper friend. The differences here and back in his world was like night and day.

Vergil was starting to get used to friendship. In this world, Vergil was free to be himself here, without the need to worry about anyone knowing about what he did. There was a bit of shame in keeping his new friends in the dark, but he had his reasons. Would all of them still be able to call him a friend if they knew that he had the innocent blood of millions, if not more, on his hands? He didn’t think so; it was better to keep that to himself, at least for now.

Unfortunately, Vergil couldn’t lie to Twilight. She was the only one from the group who had asked for more details about what he did; the Alicorn was kind enough to respect his decision not to tell her yet, and he appreciated that, so one day he would have no choice but to tell her, and he wasn’t expecting a positive reaction, the day he told her, would be a true test of friendship. For now, he was going to focus on adjusting to life in Ponyville, taking some time for research, both on the world, and any potential leads that might give even the faintest hint of Daemon, Vergil wasn’t going to let that bastard catch them off guard next time.

As the group embrace gently broke, the girls all smiled. Fluttershy was in good spirits again. Every pony was glad. The shy Pegasus looks around the room at each of her friends. Every pony notes how late it’s gotten, so Fluttershy walks them to the door, stopping to smile at them.
“Thank you all for coming to check on me. I feel much better now.”

“Of course, Fluttershy. You know that we’ll always be there for you.” Twilight says with a smile. Normally, the Alicorn would wait outside and say goodnight to all her friends one by one, but tomorrow morning was the Summer Sun Celebration, and she was once again taking part in the ceremony, her second time doing this as the Princess Of Friendship, so she had to be up a bit earlier, and if she wanted to sneak in a bit of research reading with Vergil as planned, while still having time for a quick nap before the ceremony then she would need to hurry, she had calculated exactly how much time she could spend for each in her head, and she wanted to do it while it was still fresh on her mind.

“I have to be up a bit earlier tomorrow, so I’m going to start heading back home a bit earlier tomorrow for the Summer Sun Ceremony. Goodnight, girls.”

“That’s fine, Sugarcube. We’re gonna make sure Fluttershy is all settled in. Goodnight, Twilight.” Applejack says with a smile.

Twilight looks over at Vergil. “I’ll meet you back at the Castle.”

Vergil shook his head. “I’ll be right behind you.”

She smiles. “Okay, I’ll wait for you outside then.” Twilight politely excused herself and trotted out the door.

Turning back to Fluttershy, the half-devil nods. “Take care, Fluttershy, ladies, Goodnight,” Vergil says, giving her a small half-smile.

She smiles. “Thanks, you too, Vergil. Goodnight.”

Vergil gave her a small nod, then turned his back, and joined Twilight outside, and off they went, walking down the path leading through town. Things were calm and peaceful, at least for the moment.

“It’s nice to see the other ponies in town relaxed now. None of us were expecting something like that to come storming out of the Everfree Forest.” Twilight says, starting up a conversation with him.

“That was probably exactly what he wanted. To try to catch every pony by surprise, creating a new type of demon from scratch takes a lot of magic, so we should be okay for a bit.” Vergil added.

“That’s a relief. Tomorrow morning is very important.”

“Twilight, if you have to be up a bit earlier, shouldn’t you go to bed?” He asks as they pass by Sugarcube Corner.

“I can be up for an hour or two. We did say we were going to do some research after all, and it’s also important for us to start.”

“Well, alright, if you’re sure.”

“Of course I'm sure. For studying or researching late at night, this pony is a professional.” She puts her right hoof to her chest, raises her chin, and closes her eyes, speaking proudly, a hint of playfulness to her words.

“Oh, really now? Even after the eventful night that you’ve had?” He asks, playfully doubtful of her claim. After the busy day it had been, he was sure that Twilight was pretty drained. Though he was curious to see if she could prove her words.

“I have plenty of late-night study sessions behind me before I became a princess, so I am positively sure. I bet you’ll fall asleep before me.” The Alicorn playfully challenges, and he accepts, amused to see if she can back her words up.

“A bold statement coming from you. I’m a bookworm too, so don’t underestimate me.” Vergil playfully retorts. He was used to a little back and forth with the winged, purple-furred pony. Out of all the group, Twilight, and Vergil seemed to connect a bit more than he did with the others. They were still friends, but Twilight was becoming a bit closer to him than the rest.

“I guess we’ll just have to find out then, won’t we?” Twilight replies, a soft giggle after her words.

The two make their way through the rest of Ponyville. A few minutes later, the duo is outside of the Castle. Walking up the stairs and through the double doors, they enter, the doors closing lightly behind them as they step onto the crystal floor, clack and clicks echo from their steps.

“Feels good to be home after a long day, don’t you think?” Twilight asks as the two head upstairs towards the living quarters.

“Indeed, especially after a battle.” Vergil agrees, walking up the steps behind her, her tail happily swaying to the left and right as she trotted her way up.

Along the way, each swing of her tail gives him a very quick glimpse of her flank and everything under her tail … he pretends not to notice, joining her side as they step into the living room.

“Okay, here we are.” Says the Alicorn, using her magic to float over a couple of books towards them.

Now that they were back, Vergil took a seat on the couch, and Twilight hopped up onto the couch, taking a seat beside him, floating the book over to him. Vergil takes it from her magic.

“Okay, I’ll read volume four of Equestrian Ancient Legends. You read the first volume and try to look for even the smallest detail. Anything will help.” Twilight politely reminded him. Even the vaguest detail counted for something, so the two began their read-through, looking for anything that could even point toward the war that Celestia had mentioned.

“Got it. Let’s see what we can find.” After that, Vergil opens the book, turning it to the first page, and begins to read.

Vergil and Twilight began to flip through the books, going through every paragraph, combing both books for any piece of information they could come across. For the first several minutes, neither Twilight nor Vergil could find anything, so they read on.

Even if they wouldn’t find anything conclusive yet, reading these books was still beneficial to Vergil, he didn’t know anything about Equestria, so this was also a good opportunity for him to find out more about this world while trying to do research at the same time. During Vergil’s read, while he didn’t find any clues or hints, he did learn about the origins of Harmony, the story about the four pony tribe leaders, Princess Platinum, of the Unicorns, Commander Hurricane of the Pegasi, and lastly, Chancellor Pudding Hat of the Earth Ponies, eventually came together to settle their differences, uniting in friendship and harmony, thus creating the land of Equestria.

About one hour had passed so far, and Vergil had already read the first volume. As the half-devil closed his book, the purple Alicorn beside him also closed her book. The two look at each other and realize that both of them have finished reading at the same time. Twilight giggled.
“Wow, I’ve never met any pony else who could read as fast as me.”

“I can say the same. Back in my world, others I know don’t read much.” A pause, as he recalls Dante’s magazines he reads sometimes, though, Vergil didn’t count that as proper reading, since it was just a magazine, so he didn’t think it was worth mentioning, a magazine, wasn’t exactly literature, especially the types of magazine's he often looked at.

“A bunch of the girls read. A few moons ago, Rainbow Dash didn’t read. She thought it was ‘uncool’ and that reading was only for-”

“Eggheads?” Vergil asks, a term he’s heard before.

“Exactly.” Twilight giggled softly. “You’ve been called that before, too?”

Vergil nods. “Yes. A word my brother likes to use often whenever I’m reading a book.”

“Me too. Rainbow actually tried to hide the fact she enjoyed reading when she first found out she liked it. Pretty funny whenever I remember all the ways she would try to hide it.” The Alicorn speaks, sharing a funny memory of one of that competitive Pegasus that he had also befriended.

“That does sound pretty funny. At least she came around to enjoy it in the end.”

“Yep! And she even has a favorite series. Daring Do. Her adventures are pretty exciting. I have the entire collection, so browse through my library anytime you like.” She says, giving him a small smile.

“I will certainly pay the library a visit sometime, thank you." Vergil gave her a smile in return.

“Oops! Sorry, I guess I got a little carried away from our conversation. Did you find anything in that volume?”

Vergil shook his head. “No worries. But no, I have not. Nothing that will help us, anyway. Although it did allow me to learn a bit about this world. Which was helpful.”

“That’s okay, we have plenty of books to look through, so I’m sure we’ll catch a break somewhere. Although, at least you got a history lesson about Equestria in the process?"

“Indeed, vital information for me to learn. I think we'll find something. It will take some time, but let's just keep looking.” Vergil agrees, grabbing the second volume next, opening the book, and flipping it open to the first page.

Twilight’s horn glows and she levitates a book towards herself, opening it to the first page as well.

“Since I’ve already read those books. I’m going to take a look through the Ancient History of Harmony book. Keep on checking through the other volumes of Equestrian Ancient Legends. I might have missed something.”

“Will do,” Vergil replies as he begins to read the first page. The two took their sweet time in their research, carefully reading through every page, keeping a close eye out for any sentences, phrases, or words that stood out at all. Even the smallest speck of a hint would help them to some level of degree.

After about half an hour of reading, on page four-hundred seventy-two, Vergil’s eyes caught something in one of the last sentences in the last paragraph of that same page. “Hey, Twilight, I think I found something.”

Hearing her name, the Alicorn's ears perk up. Looking up from her book, she turns to face him, curious to see what it is he found. “You did? That’s great! Where is it?” She asks, moving a few trots closer to him on the couch. She comes in next to him and sits her flank down to take a look.

“Right here, page four-hundred and seventy-two, read this last sentence. I think you’ll catch it the moment you hear it on your lips.”

Twilight leans down a bit to inspect the specified line. Her eyes scan the page, reading it in full until her eyes come across what he was pointing at, to which she began to read. “In a kingdom of harmony for all, there can’t be even a trace of negativity, for the cursed dark magic of despair can taint and corrupt, even the purest of things.” She reads a hum after the task. Her ears flop, slight confusion. What exactly did that mean?

She looks up at Vergil with a puzzled expression. Though he was right, she could feel a deeper meaning to that phrase as it rolled off her lips.
“Hmm, I always thought that was just a clever old way of expressing how important harmony and friendship are. But reading it out loud like this now? I can tell that this was some sort of hint, just a really vague one.” Expressed the Alicorn, putting a thinking hoof to her chin.

“I’m not sure what it means, either. For now, I suggest we-”

“Write that sentence down? Way ahead of you!” Twilight says proudly, her magic levitating the notebook with the written quote, upon looking at it, Vergil noticed that Twilight had also written the page number it was found on, what paragraph it was, and even wrote down a few hypothetical theories of what it could mean, it was a truly impressive thing to see, she had done that all in only a minute or two as well–another testament to Twilight and her impeccable amount of intelligence, she was a smart, and sophisticated young mare.

“Ah, yes. Precisely that. You did that in less than three minutes?”

“Yep! I figured that taking notes would be an effective thing to do the more we look. But just in case, even though we have it written down, I think we should still p-”

“Put a bookmark on the page? Already done.” Vergil interjected.

Twilight blinked, she didn’t even notice him place that there, upon closer inspection, she had also read that Vergil had also written the phrase in question, as well as a brief description of the context and meanings of the hint, good attention to detail, even for a bookmark.
“Wow, I didn’t even notice you put that there.”

Vergil shrugged. “Well, I figured in case we didn’t have time to flip through the book to read, that having that short sentence on there would make it easier to just have it on the bookmark instead.”

“Good thinking, Vergil. That will come in hoof if we’re ever in a rush.”

“It’s just common sense, really. Nothing special.” A short pause, as he modestly brushed off the compliment.

“You on the other ha- or erm—hoof. Are a rather resourceful young mare. You already had it done before I could even ask.”

Twilight smiles up at him. “It’s like you said. Great minds think alike.” She says, playfully pressing a hoof to his arm.

Vergil softly chuckles. “I suppose you’re right.”

She gives him a sweet smile before turning her attention back to the book on the history of harmony, flipping over to the next page. “Anyway, we should probably finish these books.”

Vergil looks up at the clock on the wall, it read:

1:36 A.M.

Looking back down at Twilight, he recalled her saying she had to be up earlier to prepare for the raising of the sun, and lowering of the moon for the special Summer Sun Celebration that would be taking place in the earlier morning hours. “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Twilight? You said you needed to be up earlier, did you not?” He asks.

“Well, yeah I do. But I can still finish this book. I’m not tired at all. Remember, I’m the expert at late-night researching.” Says the Alicorn, putting a hoof on her chest and raising her wings. She closed her eyes and gave him a proud smile.

“If you say so…” Says Vergil, a bit doubtful of her words, Twilight had quite a busy day, so he wouldn’t blame her if she were to fall asleep.

The two continue to read, about twenty more minutes go by, and Vergil is at the halfway mark of the book, he comes across someone named Star Swirl, the Bearded, a pony Vergil recalled her mentioning a few times as a legendary wizard that she saw as an inspiration for her magic.

“You’re right, Twilight, Star Swirl the Bearded, was indeed a very skilled wizard. I just got to the part where he-”

As Vergil looks down at Twilight to speak to her, his lips close, and he smiles. Twilight had fallen asleep, her head resting comfortably in his lap, the book she had been reading just below her front hooves. She looked so peaceful because she likely had a big morning ahead of her. Vergil decided that it was best to leave her be for now.

“Sleep well, Twilight.” He quietly says, slowly closing the book and carefully setting it down on the table in front of the couch.

Looking again at the sleeping Alicorn Princess in his lap, he couldn't help but admire how cute she looked, sleeping soundly, her little chest slowly rising and falling as she silently snored. As she lay there, sleeping with her head nestled into his lap. Twilight Sparkle may be a magical pony, but from these four days with her, he’s already learned a decent bit about her.

Initially, at first, he thought this world was bizarre, and didn’t think much of this place. But thanks to Twilight, he’s found a new appreciation for this world. Magical Ponies or not, they were still his friends, and he was glad to have met them. The circumstances weren’t the best, but at least they still welcomed him in so warmly.

The more he looked at her, the more this urge to pet her soft purple fur seemed to grow, and he didn’t know why. Hesitantly, he crept his hand down and gently began to stroke her mane. Twilight sighed contently in her sleep, shifting a bit, but didn’t wake up. He noticed something. Twilight was smiling in her sleep now, so he continued to pet her soft, smooth mane.

Being the only one awake, Vergil’s mind began to wander. Several thoughts filled his mind as the events of the past four days played back inside his head like a show recorded on a PVR. So much had happened in the past four days. After this weekend, it would be a week since he had been here, crazy to think it was nearly that long already.

Hours would pass, and eventually, when the clock hit six a.m. Vergil decided to wake her up. He didn’t want to, but she had told him she had some important duties to attend to for the celebration. Reaching down, Vergil gently began to shake Twilight. “Hey, Twilight, it’s six in the morning, time to get up.”

Twilight stirred in her sleep.
“Nnnnm … it’s easy, just… calculate the variables, and times the hayburger, then round it to the nearest daffodil…”

Vergil scratches his head. “What in the devil is she even dreaming about?” Shaking his head, he gives the sleeping Alicorn another gentle shake, this time a bit more quicker. The second time did the trick, and Twilight quickly jolted awake.

“I know the answer!” She says quickly sitting up on the couch, glancing around to realize she’s still in the living room. It’s at that moment, Twilight finally realized that she had fallen asleep in his lap. As the reality of her unplanned nap hit her, she slowly looked up at him, only to be met with an amused smirk.

“Well, well. Good morning.”

Twilight giggles bashfully, a blush on her cheeks. She quickly looks away from him, moving her head out of his lap, trying to hide the pink line over her cheeks from him. “Uhm … S-Sorry. I guess I didn’t realize how tired I was, eheheh…” she adds, shyly tracing her hoof in a circle on the couch.

“Don’t worry about it. Yesterday was rather exhausting. It’s good that you got rest.”

She gives him an endearing smile.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Twilight remembered it all clearly. It’s at this moment she realized she had never thanked him for last night.

“Hey, Vergil…?”

“What is it, Twilight?” He turns to look at her.

“Last night, things took a pretty bad turn. If it wasn’t for you, I might not be here, so … thank you for saving me.” The Alicorn gives him a warm smile.

The half-devil just shook his head. “You took care of me while I was out of commission. Saving you is the least I can do. Just glad I got there in time.”

Twilight nodded happily. She was grateful to still be alive after an attack by such a horrid creature. Next time trouble would threaten to stir, Twilight would make sure that this time, she would be ready for it.

“Anyway, now that I’m up, I should probably get going. This year’s celebration is going to be a little different, so there’s a bit more me and the other princesses have to prepare. So you and Spike can meet up with the girls. I’ll join you all shortly after the raising of the sun and lowering of the moon.”

“Sounds good to me. See you later, Twilight.”

“See you later, Vergil.” Twilight nodded, giving him a little wave of the hoof before trotting out the door, the light tapping of hooves on the floor follows as she took her leave and went out the door.

About five minutes after Twilight left, in walked Spike, finally awake. He yawned and stretched. “Good morning, Vergil.” He greets, a yawn after his words.

“Morning, Spike. He says, standing up from the couch, stretching out a bit himself, sitting down for a long time definitely required a bit of stretching.

“How did research go last night? Did you learn about Equestria?” As far as Spike knew, Vergil and Twilight’s researching was about him finding out more of the history of Equestria, which wasn’t exactly wrong, since he did do that a bit after, but only once they found a hint about what Celestia had told him and Twilight about.

“I did. Twilight showed me all the books that explained the history of Equestria. So I’d say I’ve learned enough to call it a good start.”

“That’s good. Twilight has at least ten-hundred or more enormous library’s worth of books here at the castle, so you’ll probably be able to learn the rest of its history here, easily.” Spike explained Twilight’s collection was only getting larger and larger. There is a wide variety of books available here.

“Yes, I’ve noticed that she has an incredibly vast collection. It sort of reminds me of my personal library back in my old home.”

“Wait, you had a book collection this huge back home?” Spike asked, taken aback at this new piece of information. To the little dragon, Twilight was the only one he knew who would have an insane amount of books, and even though he wasn’t exactly a pony, he still didn’t think anyone would have as much books as his longtime friend.

“I did, an entire basement’s worth. Twenty-five acors of land, and the underground turned into a private library. I miss it sometimes, so I suppose I’m grateful she has a large variety, like any avid reader should.” Vergil responds, a clear proudness in his tone. It’s slight but noticeable.

“…I swear, it’s like he’s like an alien version of Twilight.” Spike muttered under his breath. Luckily, Vergil didn’t catch all of it, he just gave the dragon a slightly narrow eyed look.

“Uh, anyway! If you’re ready, we head out and meet the girls.” Spike quickly added.

Vergil nodded. “Yes, we probably can start making our way.”

“Well, then we’d better get going if we want to make the party.” Says Spike, leading the way out of the Castle of Friendship, and Vergil follows.

Spike and Vergil walk down the steps, and towards town, the sound of music in the distance of the tow. It was interesting, witnessing all the other ponies in town being up so early. If the entire town was up for the party, then the Summer Sun Celebration must really be an important part or Equestrian tradition. There was still so much to learn about this world, indeed.

“Let me guess, amazed at seeing every pony up so early?” Spike asks, giving a few town pony a wave as he passed by

Vergil nodded, taking a look around them as Spike lead him through town, ponies passing them by who were also on the way to the party.

“Twilight spoke of how important this day was, so I’m not too surprised. But it certainly is a spectacle, seeing so many here when the sun isn’t even up yet.”

“You can say that again.” Looking around, Spike spots the girls and waves. “There they are, let’s join them” Spike moves on ahead the moment he spotted Rarity.

“Good morning girls, especially you, Rarity.” Spike greets, to which the unicorn smiled.

“And a splendid morning to you as well, Spikey-wikey.” Rarity replies, causing Spike to blush a bit as her hoof ruffles his scales.

“Mornin’ Spike, Vergil.” Greeted Applejack with a friendly smile.

“Good morning, Every pony, Vergil too.” Rainbow Dash greets, stretching her wings out a bit, a yawn following suit after.

“Morning, girls.” Vergil replies.

“Good morning.” Fluttershy says, giving her new friend a kind smile.

“How are you doing today, Fluttershy?” Vergil asks, wanting to check in on the Pegasus, especially after yesterday.

“Oh, um. I’m okay. Much better than before, though, thanks.” She softly replies.

“That’s good. Glad to hear you’re doing better.” He says, Fluttershy looked pretty shaken up yesterday, so seeing a smile on her face this morning was a wonderful thing.

“Good morning, Vergil. Soooo, some little pony told me that it was your first Summer Sun Celebration?” Pinkie Pie asked. Disappearing after a blink of his blue eyes. Looking around for her left and right, Vergil is about to call out for her, only for Pinkie to reappear from behind him, just over his right shoulder.

“Is it really? Is it really? IS IT REALLY?” The party planner pony hyperactively asks, reappearing on a different side of him with each time she asked, from right, to left, and below his leg before reappearing back where the pink-furred pony had been previously standing before, her random speed and seemingly endless energy leaving a bewildered look on his face for a moment, before he finally registered the question once again.

“Uh … yes, it is. I did come from a different world after all, and our sun and moon sets and rises up by themselves.” Vergil finally replies.

“Yeah, I knew that. So, are you EXCITED!?”

‘She already knew? Then why ask at all?’ He thinks to himself, Pinkie was a very peculiar kind of pony, that he could tell right from the moment he had first met her, definitely the wild card of the group. Pinkie Pie and all her hyper reactions would take some time getting used to.

“Well, everypony that talks about it says it’s a very important celebration, so I suppose I am rather curious to see it with my own eyes.”

It wasn’t a direct answer, but an answer regardless. If it was an event held in such high regard, Vergil was naturally going to be interested in seeing it. There was no real indication of how long he would be in this world for, so getting used to their way of life, and adapt to their celebrations and traditions was a crucial part of him starting to blend in–or blend in the best a humanoid in a world of magical talking ponies could, anyway.

“Oh yeah, you are just GUSHING with excitement right now!” She paused, going up onto her back legs for a moment to reach out and shake him a bit with her two front hooves.
“Deep down behind those steely blue eyes, you’re a BUNDLE of joy, just waiting to explode. Am I right?” Pinkie asks, chipper and full of energy even this early in the morning ‘how does she do it?’ He wonders to himself. Vergil doesn’t even know where to begin with whatever it was she was talking about, so he concluded that the best option in this exact moment, would be to just nod and agree with her, despite him being completely lost in the topic of the conversation at this point.

“Uh … sure, something like that.”

“Well, you’re gonna be SUPER excited when it starts.” Pinkie replies, a big smile on her face as usual. Before Vergil can get a chance to respond, the three Princesses take the stage, their regal presence being felt the moment they put their first hoofs on stage.

Right away, the half-devil’s eyes center on Twilight, the purple-furred Alicorn felt different. She had this special aura around her as she stood on stage with the other two princesses. Vergil wondered just how long she had been a princess for now. She just seemed so in tune with her duties. It was like she was a different pony whenever she was on duty.

“Um, Vergil. Did you have your own celebrations in your world, too?” Fluttershy asks, just like the others. She was also curious to know more about their new friend.

“As a matter of fact, yes, there are. We have several celebrations. And much like Equestria, each distinct part of my world has their own cultural traditions and celebrations that differ from the ones on my part of the planet.” Vergil briefly explains he knew of them, but even in his travels, the half-devil didn’t go everywhere in the world. That was impossible. In light of that, though, he could at least tell the girls a bit about the ones he did know about from personal experience.

“Several celebrations!!?” Pinkie lets out a very over-exaggerated gasp that no pony other than Pinkie could produce, then began to bounce up and down on her hooves in excitement.

“More celebrations means more ponies, and where there’s a celebration there’s also A PARTY!!” the happy-go-lucky pony added.

“What about sporting events? Did you have those back in your world too? Those are so awesome!’ Rainbow Dash eagerly asked, a question he was expecting her to ask at some point.

“Yes, we do. There are many sports in my world.”

“What kinds of sports did ya’ll have in your world, anyway? Sure sounds like there are a lot of ‘em,” Applejack chimed in with her own question.

“There are several. But the most popular in my world would be baseball, basketball, soccer, football and ice hockey.”

“Baseball? Huh. That sounds pretty similar ta Buckball. Is it just like that?” AJ adds, throwing out a question of her own.

“It probably is. I don’t know how Buckball works, but for baseball. You have players on the field. One team is throwing the ball at the other. They are called the pitcher. The pitcher’s job is to throw the ball at the batter of the other team.” Vergil briefly explains, encouraging more questions, and there was plenty more they had.

“Oh wow, that sounds fun. What is the pitcher supposed to do?” Asked Fluttershy.

“The pitcher’s goal is to try to make the batter of the other team miss the swing three times . Three strikes and they are out. Then the next swinger comes in to try to hit it”

“What’s the batter do? I mean, I know they have to hit the ball, but for what? Is there a basket you have to throw it in? Like Buckball?” Asked Rainbow Dash, quite invested in this conversation, just another example of her appreciation for sports.

“Good question. Yes, the batter is supposed to hit the ball. But you see, the moment the ball passes the players on the field, the swinger has to drop the bat and run around four specific sandbags, we call them bases. If you reach one base before any field pitchers catch the ball, you’re safe, but if the catcher near the base your running to catches the ball, you're out.“ Vergil explained, the girls were a little more interested in sports than he thought.

“What happens if the running batter runs past all the four bases?” Asked the sporty Pegasus.

“If the running batter makes it to the fourth base, the team gets a point. We call that, running home.”

“Is there anythin’ else the batter can do to get the team ah point besides makin’ sure the others don’t catch it?” Asked AJ.

“Yes, there is. If the swinger hits the ball so hard that it goes out of the baseball park or stadium, it’s called a Homerun. If the batter hits a Homerun, every teammate that’s on either of the four bases, get to run all the way home.” Vergil explains.

“Sounds a little boring, but it could be fun? The part about hitting a Homerun, anyway.” Rainbow Dash comments, which makes sense coming from her. He never took her for the type that something like baseball would entertain.

“Well, I think it sounds about as fun as a lasso trick at a rodeo.” Applejack says baseball sounded like something she would enjoy. Her enthusiastic reply said it all.

“Are there any other more, you know, cooler sports?” Asked the cyan-furred Pegasus, hoping that there was a more interesting sport from his world.

“Now Rainbow Dash, that wasn’t a polite way to ask, you know,” Fluttershy politely reprimanded.

“I appreciate that, Fluttershy, but it’s not necessary.” Vergil reassures.

“It’s not?” Asked both Rainbow and Flutter in unison.

“I’m not too surprised that you find baseball boring. Some people in my world would certainly agree with you. It’s not a sport that’s for everyone. Or in this case, not for everypony.” Vergil quickly explains.

Pinkie playfully nudges his arm with her hoof, acknowledging his of the wording here. “Aww, listen to that! It’s only been a few days and you’re already using the right phrasing!”

“Admittedly, sometimes I do forget to say that,” Vergil modestly replies.

“You’ll get used to it,” Pinkie adds, giving him a polite, dismissive wave of her hoof.

“So, what’s the other sport you mentioned?” Rainbow Dash inquired about the other sport, but before Vergil could respond, the royal horn sounded, immediately grabbing the attention of every pony. It seemed like the celebration was about to begin.

“We’ll have to put a pin on that for now. I’ll tell you later.”

Rainbow Dash groaned a bit. She was just so curious to find out, but since the ceremony was going to start, she agreed. “Ugh, alright. But you gotta tell me about that sport after!”

“I will. Anyway, it’s about to begin.”

With every pony’s attention, the three Princesses stepped forward, all the ponies bow, and so does Vergil. The Alicorn's raised their wings up the moment Princess Celestia began to speak.

“Good morning, everypony! And welcome to this year’s Summer Sun Celebration. As you all know, this celebration over a few moons ago had a very different meaning. What was once a day to celebrate the banishment of Nightmare Moon now serves as a special day for us to celebrate the return on my sister, Princess Luna.” All the ponies in the crowd cheer in response, but Celestia extends her wings, politely ushering the other ponies to quiet down, and listen.

“Before we proceed with the lowering of the moon and rising of the sun, Princess Twilight would like to say a few words.” With that, Princess Celestia gave the Princess Of Friendship a nod–her signal to go ahead, and Twilight steps forward, wings raised up high as she spoke.

“Hello, everypony! I would like to extend another welcome to this year’s Summer Sun Celebration! Ever since I became the Princess Of Friendship, I’ve seen the power of Friendship grow significantly. We’ve all come a long way to get to where we are now. As you all know, we have a new face here in Ponyville.” She says, looking at Vergil from the crowd, it was pretty easy to point the hint out from the crowd since he was the tallest figure among the crowd.

“It was a bit of a rough start, but you all came around to welcome him, despite not being a pony. This is proof that friendship is getting stronger and stronger, and I am so incredibly proud of all of you. In light of this, we will be having a festival to celebrate our harmony. After the ceremony, please feel free to enjoy any of the food and drink stalls here throughout town. There are also several very fun games and other activities for families and especially the ones with foals. So with that being said, I will leave the rest to Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, and once again, Happy Summer Sun Celebration to everypony!”

The crowd of ponies cheer, applauding by stopping their front hooves on the ground in sync, a few of the Ponies looked up at Vergil after Twilights little speech, and gave him a smile, each of which he returned with a small smile of his own

Princesses Celestia, Luna and Twilight looked at each other, giving a nod to prepare for the traditionally special lowering of the moon, and raising of the sun. Princess Luna closed her eyes, her horn glowing a deep moonlight blue as she slowly began to levitate into the air, Vergil watched closely as the moon began to lower, but halfway, not long after that, Princess Celestia closed her eyes, also beginning to levitate as her horn began to glow a bright sunshine orange, Princess Twilight watching carefully for her queue.

The second that the moon and sun are about to pass each other by, Twilight extended her wings, and gave them a flap, then took off, soaring with speed directly between the sun and moon, the second Twilight disappears behind the sun and moon, in a flash of magical beauty, the second Twilight is out of sight, a large purple flash of her cutie mark began to explode into the sky creating a truly extravagant display. As she flew, Vergil starts to concentrate, and everything slows down through his eyes, he’s able to see just how large Twilights wings were, they were beautiful, especially the way the lights of both the sun and moon looked reflecting off Twilight, only he could see this thanks to his ability to slow his breath, and completely focus, allowing him to watch this utterly incredible view, blue eyes watching the Alicorn as she gracefully flew between the sun and moon, his vision speed returning to normal shortly after she’s through.

“Absolutely astonishing…” Vergil says to himself, captivated by what he had just witnessed. It was almost as beautiful as fireworks, but maybe a little better.

After that, the moon lowers, and the sun rises high above the sky. One by one, the Princesses gracefully land back on stage, Luna first, Celestia, then Twilight last.

The ponies cheer, the applause much louder along with the cheers this time, and Vergil joined in on the applause, so this was the Summer Sun Celebration, an amazing celebration at that, he could tell just how much the ponies adored their Princesses, a true testament to the Harmony that resides over the kingdom thanks to their rule, and Ponyville very clearly looked up to their resident Princess of Friendship.

Now that the sun was up, the crowd of ponies in front of the stage slowly began to disperse as the Princesses leave the stage, Twilight can finally jump down and go see her friends, slowly cutting through the leftover groups of ponies as she passed them by.

“So, what did ya think, Vergil? Real pretty, wasn’t it?” Asked Applejack, curious to hear his thoughts.

The country mare’s voice fully bringing back to reality. After a couple of blinks, he gave a nod. “That was indeed an incredibly beautiful display. And from how loud the crowd was cheering and applauding, I can see how truly important this celebration is to every pony here.”

“It was simply dazzling! I’d dare say it’s even better than the one she did last year. She took flight with more gusto this time.” Rarity complimented, praising her dear friend’s performance.

“Yeah, she took off pretty fast. Not as fast as me, of course.” Rainbow Dash says, wearing a proud grin, but clearly no one was having it. She could tell by the narrow-eyed look her friends were giving her.

“I-I mean, yeah, she’s uh, definitely gotten faster with her take off … eheheh…” Rainbow corrects herself, a sheepish smile as she rubs the back of her neck with her hoof.

Not long after that minor exchange, the sound of steadily trotting hooves tapping on the ground coming towards them captured their attention, making them all turn to face the direction behind them. Twilight, giving her friends a small smile, meets the group.

“Hey there, everypony.” She turns to look up at her half-devil friend wanting to include him in her greeting too, though he wasn’t exactly a pony.
“And Vergil, of course,” she adds, flashing her smile as she joins her group of friends.

“Howdy there, Twilight, that was a real nice lil’ display ya showed us there.” Applejack complimented.

“It was as gorgeous as it was last year, if not more, darling.” Rarity added, taking a few steps forward as the purple Alicorn joined her friends.

“Oh, yes. It was absolutely beautiful, Twilight.” Fluttershy softly adds a smile after her piece.

“You’re timing was definitely a lot better too this year, too.” Rainbow Dash adds in their best friend’s appraisals.

"That was as exciting as shooting a giant party canon!!' Pinkie added, jumping up into the air after her last sentence. She randomly remained in the air for an extra minute, finally landing back on her hooves just before Vergil could comment, though he did notice, and decided to leave it be for now.

“Thanks, girls. I was a lot more prepared for it this year. I took extra time to calculate the best speed I should run, and cross-calculated it to match the best angle I should take off at for maximum flight.”

“Yeah, it was amazing! But uh … wasn’t that a bit much for one fly through?” Spike asked, though this type of thing was just typical Twilight at this point.

“Nope! You can never be too prepared, Spike.” Her response earns her a rolling of the yes from the little dragon.

With most of her friends have given her feedback, there was one particular person’s, that she wanted to hear as well. Lightly walking over to him, Twilight’s violet eyes turn to Vergil. As their eyes meet, he knows right away she’s expecting a response.

“I must say, I certainly wasn’t expecting a display like that. Witnessing the rise and lowering of the sun and moon was one thing, but that explosion of magic after you flew between. It was a breath-taking sight to behold, quite the spectacle indeed.” Vergil compliments, saying the first words that come to mind after her silent question.

Twilight smiled at his words. There was also a faint sense of relief on her face. Perhaps she thought the ceremony wouldn’t move him since it was so different to him, but his words proved her thoughts wrong. “Thank you, Vergil. I’m glad that you enjoyed the ceremony. Summer Sun Day is a very important day for us.” Twilight is about to say more, but it suddenly cut off by Pinkie Pie, who randomly appeared right beside her.

“Happy second Summer Sun Celebration fly through zoom, Twilight! I made you this big cupcake to celebrate!” Pinkie Pie suddenly congratulates, Twilight isn’t expecting Pinkie to be right there beside her, so she jumps back a bit letting out a surprised ‘eep!’ nearly falling over, but maintains her balance. Twilight’s eyes widen a bit at the ridiculous size of this cupcake, though she has to admit, it does look rather pretty. It is clear that Pinkie has put a lot of work into this, as it is well decorated for its size and looks delicious.

“Wow! This is the biggest cupcake I’ve ever seen you bake, Pinkie. Thank you.”

Twilight moves in to give her a hug, and Pinkie happily returns her hug. After pulling back, the hyperactive pony handed her the large cupcake, it was about the size of a hard cover book, with purple frosting, her cutie mark in the centre of it, surrounded by little sparkle sprinkles, with an added layer of thin vanilla frosting, with a rainbow cream filling. The Alicorn takes an extra few moments to admire the impressive attention to detail Pinkie had when she dressed this cupcake beautifully. It was like an art piece in frosting form, a testament in showing just how much of an expert baker Pinkie Pie was. Twilight was grateful.

“Oh, I’ve definitely made WAY bigger cupcakes before. Actually, this wasn’t even the first version of it I made, so I’m SUPER DUPER happy that you like it!” Pinkie cheered, happily hopping up and down a few times.

Twilight was curious. If this really wasn’t the first version of her cupcake, the just how many did Pinkie Pie make? Knowing Pinkie, she assumed she made several. The pink earth pony had so much energy that her thoughts travelled about one-thousand milers per second. “Wait, if this wasn’t the first version, just how many others did you bake?”

Pinkie puts a hoof to her chin with a hum. Thinking for a moment, she counts in her head for a few seconds before nodding to herself, again turning to face Twilight. “Abouuuuuuut, ten different cupcakes! I just had SO many ideas, but Mrs. Cake said I shouldn’t overdo it, so I kept it at ten. It was a really tough choice in picking which one I wanted to give you. So, after some REALLY INTENSE thought, I decided to go with this one.” Pinkie energetically explained, giving Twilight a smile after she finished talking.

“That sounds like it’s going to be a very yummy cupcake. I’ll definitely enjoy that later. I’d have it now, but I don’t really want my first meal of the day to be dessert.” Due to being in a hurry, Twilight didn’t have time for breakfast today, and now that the ceremony was finished, brunch sounded like a great idea.

“Oh! I understand, Twilight. Dessert for breakfast isn’t for everypony.” Pinkie smiles, proceeding to randomly produce a big cupcake from out of nowhere, and in one chomp, devouring it. “Ahh, that hit the spot!”

Twilight giggles at Pinkie Pie, she was always so random, but that pony always knows how to put a smile on every pony’s face, she could make almost everything fun, the Alicorn was looking forward to seeing how Vergil would react once he found out about her Pinkie sense, he was already slightly baffled that his friend had just scarfed down a cupcake, devouring it whole like a snake, it was quite the thing to witness so suddenly.

“Anyway, I’m going to go put this away really quick. Thanks again, Pinkie Pie. I’ll let you know how much I enjoyed it later.” Twilight adds, to which the energetic earth pony nodded, and cheerfully replies, “OkiDokiLowkie~,”

Using her magic, with the deep magenta glow of her horn, Twilight and her cupcake teleport, disappearing in a burst of magenta, and reappearing inside her castle so she can wrap up her cupcake and put it away for later. While her friend did that, Pinkie happily hopped her way back to the others. With her magic, she grabs a piece of paper and a writing quill, placing the paper down on the kitchen counter first. She quickly begins to write a note with the quill that says: Twilight Sparkle’s Cupcake, DO NOT TOUCH;

While Twilight was away, Rainbow Dash flies up and glided until she was front of Vergil, with her hooves to her hips, speaking up before Vergil or any pony else could say something.
“Now that the ceremony is done, you gotta tell me about a few more of those cooler human sports! Baseball was kinda laaaame. So, what are some of the cool ones?” The cyan Pegasus eagerly pressed him to know more.

“I know, I didn’t forget. Like I said, there are quite a few different ones. But I’ll tell you about the ones that may be more your style.”

“Well, Ah for one, think baseball sounds mighty fun, Vergil. Traditional games are always somethin’ ah enjoy. Some ponies just prefer a lil’ more action in a sport.” AJ comments, a playful jab at Rainbow Dash.

“What? Standing around watching players try to catch a ball just sounds boring. Aside from the whole HomeRun thing though, that sounded pretty cool.” Rainbow Dash replies, not denying the country pony’s comment either. Every pony here knew that Rainbow was always the type who enjoyed the more upbeat and faster pace games, which did make sense considering ponies called Rainbow Dash the best flyer in Equestria, and had easily become one of the most recognizable Wonderbolts of all time, next to Spitfire.

“I can sort of understand. Just like you, back in my world, the few people in my group of acquaintances knew me well for my speed.” Vergil proudly admits this was probably the only thing for he and Rainbow Dash had in common, and that was just fine. After being here for almost a week now, Vergil had learned that you didn’t need to have a lot in common with someone to be their friend. An important lesson to have picked up on, and there was more than likely a lot more here that he would be learning, and he welcomed it.

“Really? Haha, nice! We got a need, a need for speed!” Rainbow Dash cheered, dashing to the left, right the back to Vergil, her wings flap excitedly as her hooves lightly lift up a bit from the ground, she holds out her right hoof for bump.

Noticing this, Vergil lifts his hand, makes a fist and they bump his knuckles through his fingerless gloved hand, tap her hoof, creating a little ‘clack’ from their contact.

“Anyway, regarding speed. We do have several types of racing sports. Though only a small handful would be suitable for you.”

“Huh? Why do you say that? I’m the BEST at races. I always win.”

“I’m well aware, Rainbow Dash. I’m not doubting your abilities. I say that simply because your world here lacks the necessary technology for those types of races.”

“What do you mean?” Rainbow asks, scratching the back of her head with her hoof.

“Obviously, you ponies don’t have cars.”

“Uh … what the heck is a car?”

“Exactly.”

Rainbow Dash thinks for a moment, coming up with a vague idea of what she thought he was talking about. “Wait … do you mean karts? We have kart racing here.”

“Not quite. Although, karts are relatively close. I’m talking about motor vehicles.”

“Ah ain’t ever heard of those before.” Applejack admits, looking at the others, and their expressions of confusion were all shared equally.

“It’s something civilization in my world relies on quite often. Just walking down the sidewalk, cars used to pass by all the time. It was very normal.” Vergil briefly explains.

“Used to? They don’t use em anymore?” AJ asks, catching exactly what he says.

Vergil realizes he kind of screwed up by saying that she he opts to dodge the question entirely. “Anyway, regarding those sports. I’ll start with explaining track and field. It’s often an Olympic sport, so many professionals spent years training, staying in perfect running shape. Although in the Olympics, there are several more competitions other than running.”

“Did you say Olympics? That sounds a lot like the Equestria Games!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed; Vergil’s telling of the Olympics immediately fascinated her, and very eager to hear more about it all in great detail. He had them hooked on hearing more now.

“That’s pretty much what it is. Just the human version of it.”

“What other kinds of events an’ competitions do ya’ll got in them Olympics?” AJ asks, her own curiosity beginning to peak as the inner athlete inside her seemed to come out the more he spoke about the sports back in his world.

“There are several, but if you really want to know, I’ll go over the ones I can recall from memory.”

As Vergil began to tell his friends about the Olympics in his world, back at the Castle Of Friendship, Twilight had taken some time to organize all of her paperwork and fan mail neatly on her work desk. “There! All ready for later on.” She checks the clock on the wall. “Oh! It’s already been over twenty minutes? I hope the others haven’t been too worried.” Her horn glows, and in a flash of magenta, Twilight teleports out of the Castle.

During that span of time, Vergil had managed to go over the most common competitions that the Olympics from his world would participate in whenever the Olympics would come around. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were the most interactive in this conversation. While the others listened, Pinkie Pie was stuffing her face with cupcakes and all kinds of desserts, but was listening as well.

“Whoa! You’re right. It’s exactly like The Equestria games, just a little different. The Three-way Relay is basically a grounded version of The Aerial Relay.” Rainbow Dash commented.

“And the Javelin Toss is just like the Heavy Horseshoe Throw. We’re just throwin’ different things.” Applejack added.

“The Long Jump is EXACTLY the same, though! WHAT A WORLD!” Pinkie very cheerfully added, jumping up into the air after the end of her sentence.

“The Triple Jump is also pretty much the same, too. Oh, the only difference is that the Pegasi that compete in it are only allowed to flap their wings once for an extra boost. Two or more is disqualification.” Fluttershy adds to the conversation. She was also relatively interested in hearing about the differences or other potential similarities regarding these Olympics. The girls were learning so much about them, and a bit more about their new friend as well.

“You’d be surprised at just how similar some things from here are when compared to my world. Even I’m rather intrigued.” Vergil replies, it was pretty perplexing on how closely similar his world, and this world here was, but interestingly, he was also curious to learn more about this universe and all the things it had to offer.

“I must say, I find it rather remarkable that our worlds are quite the same in some aspects as well. On the day of the picnic when we first met you, I do happen to recall you telling us a bit about your world, too. From all you’ve told us so far, it certainly doesn’t sound like our worlds aren't all that different after all.” Rarity chimed in, sharing her thoughts on everything he’s told them all about his world.

“I think so too. Upon my arrival here, at first I thought everything would be completely different. I wasn’t exactly sure how I could adapt. I assumed this world differed vastly from mine. I wasn’t exactly wrong, but I wasn’t right either.” He says, looking around at the rest of the town from where he sat. He was slowly starting to get used to this place, and having friends definitely helped him adjust.

“Well, we are all very happy to have you here, Vergil.” Rarity generously adds, flashing him a sweet smile.

“ABSOTUTELY!” Pinkie cheered, wearing a big smile on her face like usual.

“Thank you, ladies. I first saw my ending up here due to bad luck. But after spending a few days here, I couldn't be any more glad to be wrong.” Vergil replies, giving them a tiny smile, making sure he looked at every one of them.

“Rarity is right, Vergil. Even if you got here entirely by chance, I’m glad we could make you feel welcomed.” Says Twilight, emerging from behind the shadow of a nearby tree, catching Vergil and every pony off-guard, except Pinkie Pie, of course, who smiles amongst the gasps.

“Twilight? How long have you been there?” Vergil asks. He had been so caught up in the conversation that he didn’t even notice the Alicorn get back and rejoin them.

“Twilight! I was wondering when you would finally join us,” Pinkie quickly adds, causing everyone else to glance at her for a second. To which she just smiles. “Pinkie sense!” A response that makes Vergil arch a curious eyebrow.

Twilight giggled a bit at Vergil’s reaction, understanding his slight confusion, this would probably require a bit of an explanation later, something Twilight would keep in mind for after, as even she still didn't fully understand Pinkie's sense, but knew enough about it to trust in those senses.
“Not too long, about twenty minutes or so.” She replies, walking down from the little hill next to the tree, finally rejoining with her friends.

“Really? Then how come I didn’t pick up your magic?” Vergil asks, clearly recalling that Twilight had a distinct magical power that he felt within her.

“I hid my magic, so you couldn’t pick it up. I wouldn’t be very sneaky if you knew I was here. I had a feeling Pinkie would know, but knew she wouldn’t give me away.” Twilight adds, looking at Pinkie for a second, the two exchange a quick smile.

“I had no idea you knew how to cloak your magic as well.” Vergil replies. If she knew even a cloaking spell, he was curious to find out just how wide her knowledge of magic was.

“Well she does have the element of MAGIC after all ” Pinkie Pie playfully states, pointing a hoof a Twilight’s cutie mark.

“Ah … good point.” Vergil says, clearing his throat. Right, they had elements, he had nearly forgotten the uniqueness of their cutie marks, something they had explained to him during his very first picnic with the girls.

While everyone was engrossed in the conversation, she had already teleported back, right beside one of the trees nearby. The Alicorn heard all her friends getting along with Vergil, and she wanted to sit back and listen for a few moments. It made her happy to see that all her close friends were getting along so well with him.

A humanoid from another world, enjoying a conversation with Equine Ponies, a true sign that showed just how powerful friendship was, so strong that it could even reach beings from other dimensions entirely. It was a very amazing thing to see.

“What were you doin’ over there, Twilight?” Applejack is the first to ask.

“Yeah, were you watching us the whole time?” Rainbow Dash chimed in with her own question.

“I was just listening to you all talk for a little. It’s just so nice to see you all get along well with someone who is so different from us in a lot of ways. It really shows just how far we’ve come in making friends.” Twilight answers, giving all of her friends a smile.

“Whoa, you’re right! I never really kept count of all the friends we’ve made. After all six of us met, I guess making friends just came to me naturally.” Rainbow Dash mused, it was hard to believe that so much time had passed since they had met.

“Well, ah’ll be. We really did make ourselves a whole apple barrel’s worth of friends, didn’t we?” Applejack adds upon realizing this revelation herself.

“It really does make me happy to have met you all.” Fluttershy sweetly adds.

“Indubitably. And I am unequivocally certain that we’ll continue to make many more friends from here on out!” Rarity chimed in, feeling the shared sentiment of their friendship.

“Anyway, now that we’re all together, how about we go enjoy the rest of the festival? Besides, it's not too often we have a whole festival like this for Summer Sun Day.” Twilight suggested, this was the first time they held a full-on festival to go along with the celebration.

“Ah think that sounds like a fine idea, Twilight, let’s go ya’ll.” Applejack agrees, standing back up on all fours.

“Yeah! Last pony to the apple bobbing game treats us to ice cream!” Pinkie shouts, taking off into a sprint.

“Oh! It is ON!” Rainbow Dash grins, and in a strong flap of her wings, she took flight, zipping after Pinkie leaving a trail of rainbows behind her, the two mares thinking their friends are right behind them were so focused on the little race, that they didn't even notice the other girls stay behind.

“Do we really have to race?” Vergil asks, looking over at Twilight and Fluttershy.

Twilight can’t help but laugh a little at hearing Vergil’s lack of interest in the race, though she could understand his reluctance, maybe he wasn't used to abrupt competition?
“Don’t worry about those two, that’s just how they are.”

"Once you been hangin' round us enough, this kinda thing will feel a mite bit normal." Applejack chimed in.

“Exactly. So you don’t have to participate if you don’t want to.” Fluttershy adds. “Not into competitions too much either, Vergil?” She asks, curiosity in her soft and sweet tone.

“On the contrary, I don’t mind a friendly competition. I just don’t have enough bits for ice cream.” Vergil says, giving a shrug.

“Oh, I see. Um. Sorry I asked.” She had to admit, Fluttershy felt a little bad for asking now. She felt her question may have felt a bit insensitive, at least to her it did, anyway.

The half-devil shook his head. “No, it’s not rude. I’m aware that of my financial situation here. I haven't exactly had the time to look for some work.”

“No worries, Vergil. I can cover your ice cream.” Twilight politely offered.

“Much appreciated Twilight, thank you."

"It's my pleasure, Vergil." Says the Alicorn, flashing him a sweet, little smile.

“Um, you guys. We should probably hurry and catch up with the others. We don’t want any pony to worry about us” Fluttershy softly interjects.

“You’re right, let’s head to Sugar Cube corner, the others are probably there by now.” After that, Twilight leads Fluttershy and Vergil towards the bakery to catch up with the girls.

Meanwhile, a sinister shadow with malicious intent lingers over his next target in another part of Equestria a bit outside the kingdom.

Location: The Dragon Lands || Time: 8:56 a.m.

It was a typical early morning unlike any other in the Dragon's part of Equestria. Dragon Lord Ember was already awake, and ready for her day. She had woken up around six o'clock to give herself time to wake up, have her breakfast and prepare herself for a quite a busy end to her week. Today Ember had a bit of a hectic schedule. Ever since she had become the dragon lord, within her rule, she had been hard at work trying her best to make a few more allies, though it wasn't going as planned. Friendship was nice, her experience with it thanks to Spike and his friends made it something she wanted to be more open to, it just wasn't an easy task.

The dragon's as a whole have always followed the old ways of ruling their kingdom, a way that involved ruling with an iron fist, with a more domineering and aggressive approach. She was trying to change things within her rule, and the other dragons didn't seem to be too into following her encouragement of being a bit more kind to ponies, and others, but it was clearly going to take some time, it would be a slow shifting process, because she was also still learning the deeper concepts of friendship herself. Today the first things on the list, was this meeting she a formal meeting with Prince Rutherford who would be here around eleven to discuss important matters since the dragons and yaks had a long history with each other.

Sat on top of the tallest rock in the dragons land, she watched over her land, as the other dragons did their own thing "Man... being dragon lord sure is a little tough sometimes." There was so much else she had to do later, her day didn't stop after the meeting with the yak Prince, she had also gotten some letter from her friends back in Ponyville, one of them being an invitation to visit Ponyville for their first official friendship union with Ember as Dragon Lord, and Spike as the official Friendship Ambassador of Dragons for Equestria.

While she had some spare time, Ember decided to check out the laves rivers and maybe sneak in a quick round of Scorch Surfing to give herself a little jolt of adrenaline to help loosen up a bit. Upon her arrival, the Dragon Lord is met with the sight of some of the other dragons on top of a large downhill lava slope.

"Hey, Dragon Lord Ember!" One of the dragons called out, giving their ruler a wave.
With a flap of her wings, the blue-scaled dragon flew up to the top of the lava slope where a few of the others were there gathered, Garble being among one of them.

As she got there, Garble gave her a wave.
"Hey, Ember, catching an early morning lava wave?" He asks, handing her one of the rock boards.
and she took it, moving over towards the stream of lava

"Yeah, I have a busy day ahead of me, so I wanna have a little fun to give me a bit of a boost, get me through the day a bit easier, you know?" She replies, taking the board.
Taking a few steps back, just as she's about to jump down the lava slope to begin her ride down, she stops after her eyes catch something suspicious about halfway down the slope just off to the left by a large boulder; It was hard to notice at first, but the longer the young dragon lord stared at it, the more she could see it.

"Hey, why aren't you going down?" Garble asks, scratching his head, expecting to have been seeing her catch a lava wave by now.

"Something's off." She simply replies, her red eyes staring at a suspicious-looking shadow of a boulder, it looked a lot darker than any normal shadow would be, and to make it even more strange, the sun wasn't as high up in the sky yet, and that shadow, was a size slightly larger than it was supposed to be. Normally Ember wouldn't care for little details such as the shadows of rocks and such, but this shadow was just too hard not to notice, because it stood out so much when taking a long look at it. If the sun's angle was just a bit more up, she might have missed it. This shadow gave her a bad feeling, one that made her sick to her stomach.

"What do you mean?" He asks, taking a few steps forward, his curiosity peaked.

"Look at that shadow down the middle left of us, and when you notice it, don't point it out." Ember cautiously informed, her eyes still locked with the shadow, not even wanting to blink until he confirmed that he could see it, too.

It takes Garble a few minutes, but once he realized what it was that she was talking about, he double takes a few times. It was incredibly hard not to notice it now. The immensely darker shade of that shadow could literally be seen from where they were. "You're right, that's weird. You think it's trouble?" Garble whispers to the young Dragoness Lord.

"Yeah, I have a bad feeling.." It doesn't take her too long to realize she hasn't seen someone in a couple of hours. Wherever Garble was, Smolder wasn't usually too far behind him, not today, unfortunately. With a potential threat very likely lurking within the darkness of that boulder's shadow, the safety of her dragon kind was important, especially the younger dragons, and right now, Smolder was the only one here, as the others are on a practice flight led by her father, former Dragon Lord Torch.

"Where's Smolder?" She asks, concern worn clear on her face. If she was nearby, then it would be dangerous to strike first with a young dragon caught between the crossfire of the fight.

"Smolder wanted to practice goin' down the giant slope, the one at the end of the lava lakes." He answers back, waiting for Embers options in this increasingly dangerous situation.

"If she's not here, then she's safe, let's make the first move." Ember says, preparing to command the dragons here with her to attack, but it's a little too late. "I think we were a little too slow, watch out!" Shouts Garble, quickly looking up, Ember spots that same large boulder coming right for her. Reacting quick, Ember moves out of the way, the boulder smashing into pieces on the ground a few feet behind her shakes the earth as a shadowy figure with bright glowing red eyes appears before them.

"What in the hell are you?!" Garble gasps, surprised by what he's looking at, he's not frozen in fear. but wasn't at all expecting this thing to emerge from the cover of a big rock, he already didn't know what to expect, and it sure wasn't this.

"What do you want with us?" Ember chimed in, demanding answers, hiding her fear best she could. it wasn't like her to be scared, but she had never seen a creature before truly as terrifying as this, and whichever creature that it was, it was unlike anything she'd ever encountered.

"I always liked you dragons, so I'll give you an easier option."
Ember scoffed, curious to what exactly these demands of his were, judging from the kind of energy he gave off, they probably weren't going to be fair.

Daemon casually crosses his arms, clearly not worried, or intimidated by the fact that he was slowly being surrounded by more dragons the longer he stood there. The shadow demon was relaxed, even as the numbers continue to stack up on him. "My demand is simple. Surrender to me your land, and I'll let you all live. I'll even sweeten the deal and give you dragons your very own part of this land after I take it's resources. Follow these demands, and I'll give you a pass when I burn this world to the ground."

Ember narrows her eyes at his words, dismissing his demands immediately. The dragons obviously were not going to willingly hand over their home turf, the dragons didn't owe him anything, and if it was the land he wanted, well then he was going to have to fight for it, these dragons weren't giving up their land without fighting to protect it, regardless of that being or creature's power, and to top it off, if he intended to burn the world, then he was clearly threatening not only the dragons, but their allies too, and with Dragons slowly starting to branch out into friendship, successfully beginning to build bridges with their allied kingdoms, and Dragon Lord Ember wasn't going to let this guy ruin everything she was building for her fellow dragon kind and their future.

"There's no way in hell that we would give up our land to some weirdo who hides inside the shadows of things!" The dragoness bravely refused. She knew what was best for her kind and wasn't about to give up something so important carelessly. Every dragon here was used to this land, and leaving it all behind abruptly was out of the question.

"Disappointing. But oh well. Just know that when you're all screaming in agony, that I did try to give you an easier option."

"Dragons! Attack!" Ember commands, and the second she gives the order, several dragons swooped in with their sharp claws pointed forward, the first to strike a small group of four dragons, and they went in for a dip downwards to swipe with their claws, but Daemon moves out of the way, shadow spikes extend, simultaneously impaling the three dragons in the neck, stomach and chest, blood spurting out of the wound the second the shadow spikes retract back within him, and the three drops to the ground, lifeless, red pooling below them from the wounds.

The very quick death of the three seemed to shake up the other dragons for a moment, as they all winced, but they knew that this fight was for their home and if this being truly wanted it, he would have to pry it from their cold, dead claws, and these mighty dragons weren't going down without fighting with their lives. Another group, this time a group of five Dragons, tried to pelt him rapidly with giant fireballs from all directions, but he simply moved out of the way. With a speed quicker than the eye could follow, the shadow demon hands become large shadow claws, and extend, giving it the ability to strike any vital spot with lethal intent, several claws capture one of the dragons midair, impaling his wings, and body in multiple locations, creating a mess of blood all around him

Despite the initial shock, more dragons moved in, planning to try a variety of different attack strategies on him. Four dragons quickly flew above him and with a deep breath, unleashed their fire breath on him, and while he was dealing with the heat, Garble charged into the flames, grabbing a large rock, he broke it across Daemon's face, then dug his claws deep into the shadowy being's body, the attack seemed to work, as the Garble had drew blood, but there was something very different about it, this blood was pitch black, it was so unnatural, further proof of just how different this person or thing was.

As the flames subsided, Daemon was nowhere in sight, it was like he just vanished without a trace, leaving the dragons that were previously engaged in combat looking everywhere around them desperately trying to locate where this dangerous new foe could have hidden. Still seemingly invisible, Ember the other dragons suddenly heard his voice from every direction, causing some confusion. "Damn... that really hurt. I think I'm done playing games now. Blood was drawn, and now I can't wait to tear you all apart."

Without warning, The ground is struck hard around them, this caused a plume of dust to rise up and cover the dragons, making visibility poor. To make it even more difficult, using the darkness within the dust cloud, Daemon extends his magic and it causes the entire inside of the smoke cloud to go completely dark, stripping every dragon trapped inside it from the little visibility they barely had.

Thinking smart, Garble and Ember move in close, back to back, and wing to wing. The two knew it was important to stay together, especially in crucial moments like this. With their vision temporarily obscured, all they could do was listen, doing the best they could as alert as possible.

It's quiet, so quiet you could hear a pebble drop and everyone would hear it.
Slowly but surely, the two dragons focus hard enough, that their eyes finally adjust, but just enough for them to see a few feet in front of them. Luckily, this wasn't a spell and was only a magic aura, it only served as a sort of screening that added to the visual impairment of the dust cloud putting them at a disadvantage. With her vision tolerable, Ember very briefly catches a glimpse of a shadow zipping right by her sight, that was clearly the new foe, he was just moving fast, much quicker than she had thought. While they could technically fly out of the dust, that was probably what he was waiting for and she wasn't about to potentially fly right to her death.

The silence around them was deafening, every single dragon here was on edge, trying their best to keep a look out. Several more times this shadow would speed by, at a speed too fast to get even a decent glance, until a green dragon at the far left of the group suddenly yells, but is cut off by a rough fleshy sounding S L I C E, the voice abruptly ending as the head of that very same dragon went flying off, the corpse hitting the rocky ground as the severed head hit the ground, hitting the rocky pavement with a disgusting meaty thud, leaving behind a splattering of blood as the head rolled down two more rocks before stopping against a large rock, truly chilling noises to hear when you're vision was heavily limited. The dragons were in an intense stand off, enveloped completely inside a dust cloud of shadow.

Not even a second later, a second dragon, this time its sliced in half right down the middle, blood and innards spilling out everywhere, the two opposite sides of that creature's inner anatomy all on morbid display. Suddenly, a third dragon, then a forth, and a fifth. Only leaving behind either a puddle of blood or a mix of blood and chunks. One of the dragons break under the difficulty of this situation, and with a panicked shout, this green dragon flapped it wings and flew out of the dust cloud, only for his scream to be heard shortly after, the sound of a devastating meaty snap is heard -- unbeknownst to the dragons in the cloud, that same noise was the result of Daemon using a large shadow hand to crush the dragon in his palm, snapping his bones through its tough scales like it was nothing more than a thin twig of a tree branch, it was a horrifying thing to hear, especially the light thud after the body hit the ground, a big dragon's large skeletal frame had been reduced to grinds so easily, this wasn't just some man, this was a Monster.

The remaining dragons begin to shake, the feeling of their mortality creeping over them in the realization that this was it, they were going to die a horrible death, this being was ungodly, and absolutely dangerous. While the other dragons in the background were picked off one by one, Garble turns to Ember, his expression was probably the most serious face she's ever seen him make. The chances of them making it out of this fight alive we looking slimmer and slimmer with each passing minute.

"You should find Smolder and get out of here.." Garble suggests.

"What? No. What about you?"

"Even if we die here, the dragons won't be gone, the kid dragons are on a field trip, and as long as our Dragon Lord is alive, dragons will continue to live on."

"But, Garble, I-"

"Nevermind! Listen..." He sighs. "I don't want him hurting my sister. I can buy you some time."

"Garble.."

"Ember, there's no time! So get going!" He shouts.

The young dragon lord wants to protest his decision, but deep down inside, she knows that he's right. Smolder was the only younger of the dragons that stayed behind, and after witnessing just how brutally this creature was murdering the other dragons, Garble and Ember didn't want Smolder to suffer such a cruel fate, she still had her whole life ahead of her. With a defeated sigh, she nods, understanding the severity of the situation.

"Okay... I'll get help, just hang on!" With that, Ember extended her wings, and took off into the air, flying as fast as she possibly could immediately making her way towards the furthest part of the lava lakes. This attack on dragonkind was unexpected, then again, who in their mind would ever think to expect facing a shadowy humanoid figure that hide within shadows and shade of objects.

As Ember flew away in a hurry, a dark shadow rose up from the ground, it was Daemon, his empty souless red eyes, with a large outstretched grin extended from ear to ear. "Awww, how noble of you. If your that determined to defend your Dragon Lord, then I think I'll take my time killing you."

Garble doesn't show any intimidation or fear, he suppressed it all with anger so it was easier to focus completely on the fight. Instead, he just narrows his eyes, showing this creature that despite the immense power this figure had, Garble wasn't going to back down. "Oh yeah? We'll see about that."

Ember was flying to the tallest Scorch Surfing slope, it had taken quite a bit of flying since the surfing because of how large the surfing area was, so many different lengths of slope, some short, while others like the aforementioned one she was heading to. This one slope in particular was called The Titan Drop, a well known slope that only very experienced scorch surfers tended to go for a ride on, it was also a popular slope for Dragons who loved the extreme thrill of Scorch Surfing.

As she got closer, after a few more minutes of speed flying, Ember catches a visual, there she was, down below on the top of The Titan Drop, the dragon lord quickly lands right next to Smolder who is immediately confused to why Ember had been flying so fast towards her, as their eyes met, Smolder can see the serious expression on the dragon lords face, the little dragon was concerned.

"Hey, Ember. What are you doing here? Is there something wrong?"

"Smolder, I need you to come with me to Ponyville." She quickly states, skipping right to the point, and understandably so, Smolder is very confused to the sudden request, she doesn't see any reason to go to Ponyville with her.

"What? Ponyville? But why? We're dragons! We don't live the same, we're better than a pony anyway. " Smolder retorts, crossing her arms and turning her back to Ember.

"It's not safe here right now, we have to go!" Ember insists.

"Not safe? What do you mean?"

"Smolder, I know you don't want to go to Ponyville, and you probably have a lot of questions, too." Lowering a bit, Ember reached out and lightly grabs Smolders shoulder, quickly turning her to face her. "Hey, what gives?" She protests, she had more to say but stopped when the blue-scaled dragoness gave her the most serious look she's ever given, which kept her silent.

"There's no time to explain, Smolder! I am the Dragon Lord! And right now, I'm putting the dragon lands in a state of emergency, and this is an official order of evacuation. So we NEED to go, and NOW!" She says, raising her voice to a much serious tone. The little orange-scaled dragon finally notices the severe look of urgency in her eyes, and it scares her a bit. Ember, was absolutely serious about this. It's not long before the realization fully hits her in the face, Smolders rebellious nature fading away the moment as the gravity of the situation comes in full circle, at last became crystal clear to the young dragon that things were not okay at all right now.

"O-Okay fine... I'll go." Smolder finally agreed, she didn't know exactly what was going on, but if the Dragon Lord was this serious, then this all had to be legitimate.

"Good, let's hurry." The exact second Smolder agreed, Ember motioned her to follow, and with a flap of her wings, took off in the direction leading out of the Dragon lands, Smolder quickly flapping her wings and following after her. Smolder tried to look around to try and catch a glimpse to what was going on, only for her spot a huge explosion somewhere down blow, that explosion catching Embers attention too, sadness in her eyes as she realized that it had happened in the area where Garble and that shadow man were fighting, that boom, made her heart sink, knowing all too well that there would be a lot of casualties, the loss of her fellow dragon kind pained her deeply, but she had to move on, she had to get help, if this person or creature was strong enough to cause a ground shaking explosion, then the chances of surviving against that were dismal, and she wasn't trying to get herself killed.

Just before they could reach the border of the Dragon Lands, Ember stopped, feeling that same dark energy from before, Ember's sudden halt made Smolder stop too. "What is it Ember?"

"Smolder.. stay back."

As soon as they stopped, up flew Daemon, long spiked shadow wings spread out and on his back as he blocked their path, his crimson-red grin that matched those soulless red eyes extended, he could see the fear clear in her eyes. "There you are Dragon Lord."

"What in the hell do you want with us?!" Ember asked, keeping Smolder behind her, her tail wrapping around her to keep a safe distance between Smolder and this intruder, her guard heightened to its peak, as she flapped her wings on spot, the two glaring at each other, refusing to blink in caution of the other determined to make the first attack.

"It's real simple really, Dragon Lord Ember." Daemon said, saying addressing her formally in a mocking tone.
"Give me the blood stone inside the scepter, and I'll spare you and the little orange dragon's life. surely your lives are more important that maintaining the rule of your land."

"Not a chance, Dragons defend their home until the very end." Ember says, her voice a bit shaky, but determined.

Daemon just shakes his head. "...What a shame."

"Smolder, fly away now.."

"But, Ember.. I-"

"-That is an order!" Ember desperately exclaimed, about to flap her wings and soar in to try and attack the shadow figure, time felt like it slowed down, as Ember knew that with each second that she got closer to him bit by bit, she was inching further and further towards her immanent death, knowing very well that she probably wouldn't be able to win this fight, creeping closer and closer to what would most certainly be a gruesome death, she began to try and mentally prepare herself, even if it was a one-sided fight, she would go down defending her home.

Just when the shadowed spikes were nearly within reach suddenly, Daemon is swiped up from the ground, a bit of black blood splashing below, and then was quickly thrown hard into one of the smaller volcano pits, the burns along his shadowed body, appearing as white energy tears in his shadow color.

Looking above, Ember smiled at the sight-- it was her father, Torch, it seemed he returned to the Dragon Lands just in time, and she was very grateful for his arrival, but horrified at the same time knowing that her father could face a fate similar then whatever happened to Garble.

"Dad, you're back!"
She quickly flew up to the much larger dragon's forehead, hugging him, flying back shortly after.

"Ember, take the younger dragons to your friends in Ponyville and make sure you tell Princess Twilight what happened here. If these allies mean what they said, well with this bloke, this is going to be their chance to prove it." Torch clearly instructed, his tone of voice just as serious as the expression on his face.

"But what about you?" She asked, her voice starting to get a little shaky when asking her father this question.

"I'm going to stay here and buy you some time." He says, his tone was now somber as it was serious.

Embers eyes widened, Garble and the other dragons were probably dead now, and the thought of losing her father too, horrified her, she wanted to protest his decision with all her heart, but considering the fact that this creature had taken down so many dragons already, she knew that she had no choice but to comply, as much as she didn't want to leave her father behind, she knew that she had to, for the sake of the dragon race and their continued existence.
"Okay... I love you, dad."

"I love you too, and I always will. Now go."
With tears in her eyes, she nods, then flaps her wings, catching up to Smolder not long after.

As soon as Ember and Smolder were gone and safely out of the main dragon land area, a shadow figure slowly rises back up into the air across from Torch, red eyes glaring down at the dragon, someone the shadow demon recognized right away.
"Long time no see, Torch. Still looking the same as ever, just a bit older now."

As soon as he spoke, Torch knew exactly who this was. Someone he never expected to see again.
"If it isn't Midnight, Fancy new look ya got there. Got tired of being a pony?"

"This body is just so much better than my old one. This form allows me to get stronger with each bit of magic I steal. So yes, you could say that," Daemon replied, a dark low chuckle after his words.

"If it's magic you're looking for, why come here? Dragon's don't have magic." Torch asked, demanding an answer.

"Yes I remember, I'm here for something else entirely."

"Well you're not going to get it!" Torch was done talking, the fact that he had come here and killed several of his own kind, there was no way Torch was going to let him get away with this, not without one hell of a fight. Torch flapped his wings and moved in for a strike with his claws, while Daemon did the very same.

Location: Ponyville Town Outskirts || Time: 10:15 A.M

After flying for what felt like hours, but was probably just over one hour, Ember had managed to fly all of the younger dragons along with Smolder just on the outskirts of Ponyville, the Castle of Friendship and the town visible in the distance. She had been flying non-stop the whole journey, taking the time to check in on the other dragons during their trip.

The dragons got tired midtrip, so Ember found a place nearby for them to rest, while she said she would go to Ponyville and get some carriages so the little dragons could rest their tired wings. Ember had been doing a lot on the flight, so she was pretty tired herself as the dragoness finally reached the outskirts, there's a figure seen below -- a pony returning to Ponyville, the closer she got, Ember was able to recognize the distinct cutie mark and mane.

"Starlight!" Ember called out, her voice exhausted from the long trip, she landed albeit a bit sloppy due to fatigue. Right away, the pony turned to face the dragon, concern immediately as the unicorn was able to tell that she was in great distress, and with how drained she looked, this was probably serious.
"Ember! What in equestria happened?" She asked, worry in her tone of voice.

Ember took a moment to catch her breath, finally speaking with the last of her energy.
"Need... to speak to.. Princess Twilight.. Dragon lands were.. attacked." That's all she's able to get out before her panicked adrenaline faded, and with the energy boost wearing off, she collapsed, but before she could hit the ground, Starlight caught her with her magic.

"The dragon lands were attacked? I better bring her to Twilight right away!" Starlight quickly levitated the dragoness into the air with her magic, then turned and made a dash towards Ponyville rushing as quickly as her four legs could take her, steady clacking of her hooves on the path as she sped through town in desperate search of her mentor.

--End Of Chapter--