The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The celestial ox denies and rejects any bad soup, letting it splash harmlessly against his thick hide

…

Arriving back in Sunhill, Speaker was quickly brought up to speed with regards to the rumors about his death, and his secretary who had lost all memory of him. In the time he had been gone, through quiet inquiries, several other ponies in the city had been found who had forgotten all the knew about Speaker – though none of them had worked in a position as critical as Speaker’s secretary, making their memory loss much less important.

“What have you done with her? I can heal a lot of things, but I cannot heal memories that my martial arts erases…” Speaker said, feeling really bad about having put his secretary in such a position, all the while Shimmer hugged the ever-living crap out of him.

Heath Rose appeared in the meeting room – as she had done many other times, just in time to say something poignant – stating that the old mare had been treated weeks ago, her memories restored via the use of the same charm that had given Fire Orchid her memories back: “…what I’m a lot more worried about, is your continued use of these sidereal martial arts. You really shouldn’t do that”

“That’s his choice – and without them we would be facing a much more uphill battle against the deathlords” Fire Orchid pointed out firmly, sounding very disapproving of Heath Rose’s tone and implications.

Not really looking all that interested on a debate on the topic, Heath Rose huffed at Fire Orchid: “I’m not arguing this with you – I’m saying he shouldn’t because Speaker is too valuable for Creation to simply be forgotten. It is a warning; One he would do well to take heed of. Also, Lee of the Third Breath is looking for you lot”

Indeed, a moment later a messenger came knocking, saying that a diplomatic message had just arrived via the light rail system from Great Forks, informing the circle that Lee of the Third Breath, the once-deathknight now redeemed solar and general of the armed forces of Great Forks, had an urgent need to see the circle at his offices in Great Forks.

Looking somewhat distrusting at Heath Rose, Cash casually wondered: “Saved by the messenger – how lucky”

“I’m only trying to help you – using quicksilver hoof of dreams style martial arts will slowly erase you from everyone’s memory. There’s a reason why the style is rightfully feared among sidereals. Goodbye” Heath Rose stated firmly, leaving quickly.

The circle took the rest of their meeting on the move, as they walked towards the nearest light rail pillar to the Sunhill manse. Enroute Speaker told of his dread encounters with the now late Shoat of the Mire, the filly deathknight that Sullen Hoof had warned about: “She was a nightmare to fight – with a complete disregard for her own troops. She legitimately told me that being alive is a bad thing, because her ‘mother’ had taught her so – and I had my lie detector charm on… she believed that whole-heartedly”

Sullen Hoof corroborated Speaker’s observations: “She was the only deathknight I ever met, who could not just talk to the deathlord called The Bishop of the Chalcedony Thurible, but give him new ideas on how to inspire and teach others to embrace death and nihilism. Her mistress is the deathlord known as the The Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils, who operates out of a shadowland somewhere near the pole of wood”

“Gotta love those deathlord titles – makes you wonder how they came up with them” Cash quipped.

Frowning, Speaker shook his head as the circle passed the secretary at the staff entrance to the manse: “Weird name or not, I think we should target this dowager next – exploit the chaos they’re no doubt it, with the Mask ‘going missing’ all of a sudden”

Fire Orchid loved the idea of going after another deathlord, but quickly pointed out that with the Mask they had gotten very lucky: “Speaker, we journeyed to Thorns to scout out and just weaken the Mask… we hadn’t planned on being able to take him out entirely. We’ll need to collect a lot of intelligence on this dowager before we can strike at her, or to make sure she doesn’t just run off – hell we don’t even know where she operates out of”

Everyone agreed that more information was needed. Sully noted that he had heard a few things about the dowager down in the underworld, none of it good, but none of it recent either: “Supposedly she was the deathlord who created the Great Contagion some eight hundred years ago – but that’s about it too. She hasn’t really done anything since then”

“From the usurpation to wiping out nine tenths of Creation in what… three thousand years? That’s not a small feat” Sunrise said, her scowl one of determination to end such evil.

Speaker nodded as he kept apace: “If it took her than long to develop and ennoble a disease that potent, then seven centuries of quiet is nothing – As it is right now, Creation would not survive another Great Contagion. The dowager has to go”

Everyone agreed, but it was also pointed out that Lee had known a great deal about the Deathlords during his past un-life, to which end Speaker finally relented, since meeting Lee could resolve both whatever Lee wanted but also what the circle wanted.

“Very well – you lot leave, I’ll hold down the fort. I’ve got my bean experiment back in my kitchens to check up on anyway” Sullen Hoof noted, as the rest of the circle gathered their things and left.

Zipping from Sunhill to Great Forks via light rail took no time at all, arriving at the main rail pillar in Great Forks, located in the middle of one of the largest portside squares outside the city walls.

Making their way to Lee of the Third Breath, the once deathknight that the circle had helped redeem and become a solar, required a short trip to Great Fork’s eastern quarters near the harbour: it was there that the walled compound with barracks, parade grounds and several hundred young and eager soldiers exercising and training, was located.

As the circle passed the soldiers, Speaker couldn’t help but notice that a lot of the troops had marks around their necks and hooves – the kind of marks you usually only saw on recently freed slaves, where their chains had once been.

The central administrative headquarters of the walled compound, flying the flags of Great Forks alongside that of a black flag with yellow trim and a bright yellow sunburst on it, was hard to miss.

A clearly godblooded pony wearing nice lamellar armor with a mane of seemingly living wood, and eyes of polished ebony, waved the circle down: “Ah, your lordships, I am Oak Shield – General Lee is waiting for you in his office”

With a quite non-significant part of Great Forks’ population being made of spirits and elementals, then godblooded ponies were quite common in the city – it also made the local essence flows a hilarious hodgepodge of essence. Still, despite that, Shimmer quickly stepped in front of the circle to block them before they could enter the building: “Wait, something’s wrong”

“What is it?” Speaker asked, quickly glancing around and not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

Her caste mark flaring, Shimmer’s eyes briefly glowed with cobalt-blue moonlight: “There are demons in there…”

“Hey, quiet about that – and they’re not really demons… sort of… it’s more like a possession or something. Look, just come up to Lee and talk to them, ok? They need your help” Oak Shield said with a forced whisper. It was clearly not something she wanted to talk about out loud.

Ok, now that grabbed everyone’s attention. The circle knew well enough of Great Forks’ hardline stance against consorting with demons – but if it was a case of demonic possession, then they were more than willing to help – and had the powers to do so.

Up the stairs to Lee’s office level, which also housed his penthouse residence, Oak Shield explained that these were a group of ponies that Lee had come across during his continued questing to slay and thus end the suffering of the neverborn: “He found them somewhere in the wyld recently, while raiding a ruined war manse for weapons and primordial-slaying lore”

“I know this Lee guy, right?” Shimmer wondered, looking to the rest of the circle.

Fire Orchid nodded, slowly: “I haven’t met him yet in this life either – but I’m pretty sure we both knew him. Let’s go say hi”

“You never met him Fire Orchid, but I think you’ll like him – he is a dawn caste like you after all” Sunrise noted.

The office of Lee of the third breath was sparsely decorated. There were some relatively new hunting trophies, and other trophies from Lee’s various forays into the underworld and the wyld – but not many. This was a reflection of Lee having only been a solar for barely two or so years at that point, and much if not all of what he might have had previously while he was an abyssal had been lost in his redemption.

Like the rest of the building, wrought of a red stone and thick sturdy timbers, the office was built in a style that looked quite nice, with stone flourishes and detailing – but also in a fashion that rendered it sturdy and solid enough to handle supernatural combat, training drills and the odd misfire or errant bolt of elemental essence from the outside and inside. This put Lee behind his ‘desk’, which appeared to be a single massive disc sawed from an absolutely enormous tree, capped with stone. Along with Lee, around his round table, stood three other beings, the light from nearby open windows casting long shadows in the direction from where the circle arrived, making it difficult to see anything but silhouettes.

The problem was that the silhouettes of the three pony-looking beings who weren’t Lee, did not look entirely look like ponies. Not at all.

This made approaching Lee and his strange gathering somewhat uncomfortable. Abyssals, for all their undead flaws, at least usually looked like ponies, even if they might look like dead ones – but these three… they did not quite fit that, at least not nearly that much.

The one on the right was heavily draped in silken cloth, but her eyes… she did not appear to have any – especially not in the dim lights of the office. Once closer, it became evident that her eyes were simply transparent – along with every other part of her not covered by her clothes. She was unnerving to look at, but at least appeared somewhat passable, if you didn’t look closely.

The two on Lee’s left were even worse: One was a mare. Her smile, while kind, revealed naught but thin needle teeth, and behind them her teeth her mouth was illuminated with green flame from within. Her eyes were pure black orbs, and she had no mane, only a host of brass piercings all over her head, many connected to a separate cord that gave a semblance of a mane. Her purple coat and hooves, combined with her other mutations, instantly reminded Speaker of the Neomah flesh-shaping demons.

The other one on Lee’s left had a mane of thick red hair that rolled down over his back and down the sides of his neck, making him look quite big and imposing. It almost made you overlook that his limbs were replete with various horn-like growths … plus the poor fellow had what appeared to be a set of additional limbs tucked up under his belly, in a dubious attempt to hide them from sight.

Suffice to say that the circle wasn’t quite sure of what to do or say, upon seeing these strange and horribly mutated ponies standing with Lee in his office.

“Lee, what the hell have you being doing?” Sunrise finally said, breaking the ice, her voice not judging – but concerned none the less.

Lee, The Bodhisattva of the third breath, the redeemed deathknight turned solar, stood with his back to the office windows, but you could clearly see his brown coat and his dark-brown mane. It wasn’t possible to see his five-coloured eyes, even from the light of the candles lit on his desk: “Friends, I asked you to come because I have been approached by three ponies desperately in need of your aid – and the demon wards you have around Sunhill prevent them from entering safely”

Approaching Lee and the three mutant ponies, Sunrise confidently stated: “Your minion Oak Shield certainly wasn’t kidding about them possessed by demons… Speaker, have you ever seen demonic possession result in mutations like this?”

The three strangers all looked equally apprehensive as the circle approached, Speaker walking up to the one with translucent eyes first. Up close, it became apparent that not only were her eyes transparent, but so was all of her flesh – for up close, one could see the backside of her clothes through her body via her eye-sockets: “Good heavens… what happened to you?”

From under her silken robes, hood and veil, the mare spoke with a voice that sounded quite unnatural – as if she was had the deep throaty voice of a girthy stallion, despite appearing quite lithe: “I was tempted… we all were, lied to in every way you can be – and now that we have seen the horrors that our new masters desire, we fled… we wanted out”

Shimmer came up next to Speaker, sniffing at the strange pony in silks: “Funny… I was taught that ponies possessed by demons couldn’t really say stuff like that – you shouldn’t have the free will anymore to defy them”

All three of the ponies nodded to this, the purple one’s fake mane of piercings and beaded cord jingling and jangling quite audibly, before the silken one spoke again: “We are not merely possessed… we are different than that. What we have is more like you, but twisted…”

With an explanation that vague, it was difficult to draw any kind of conclusion, but it opened up the floor to further discussion, with Lee trying to explain: “They claim to have been granted powers… but not by heaven, instead by the yozis. Their mutations came as part of that supposedly, and considering their masters then you won’t need much imagination to puzzle out their plans with their new homemade exalted host”

“That’s why we ran away” said the purple one, her needle teeth filled mouth producing a disturbingly calming and almost hypnotic voice – right until the extra-limbed one next to her shot out one of his half-hidden belly-limbs and slapped her with its clawed fist, correcting her with a strange voice that sounded as if he had several things stuffed in his mouth while talking: “Cut that out!”

The purple one quickly apologized, her voice sounding far more normal – but still quite beautiful and gentle to listen to.

Lee sighed and told Oak Shield to fetch food and refreshments.

The silk-veiled one shook her head and drew up her hoof of almost transparent flesh and bone: “You will have to forgive us. Being bonded with a demon was part of the ‘deal’ – a part of the many things the yozis didn’t tell us about. It changed us, both physically but also mentally. It’s difficult for Shirin to not sound seductive, for her coadjutor is strong in her”

Shirin – the purple one – nodded: “I’m sorry… she can be difficult to resist sometimes”

Formal introductions followed: The veiled one said that her name was Ashi of Six Wheels, for she was the sixth daughter of a traveling merchant who had operated a wagon and a half, something Cash nodded to as he recognized the kind of setup she was describing from his own time as a traveling merchant. The extra-armed one said that he called himself Fallen Twin, explaining that him and his twin brother had been lured into a demon worshiping cult, which had led to the two of them ending up in Malfeas after some kind of blood ritual: “There we were preyed upon by the demons, and became deadly sick, but my brother was clever and found a place for us to hide – but he was so clever that it caught the eye of the yozis, who somehow offered him power… but he came to me one night about four weeks ago, telling me of Shirin and Ashi, and the horrors they were being made to witness. He convinced me that we needed to get away from there as quickly as possible”

Twin’s face soured, with everyone else listening carefully as he relayed what his brother had told him of the grotesque practices of the demons: “He had brought a demon slave with him, a blood hound – and said that while he would never be able to get out of there alive due to the dark bargains and oaths he had been made to sweat, then he could save me…”

It was clearly difficult for Twin to explain what happened next: “He had the demon kill him, using some kind of strange weapon of a white material, and took something that burned with green flame from his chest – it took that into itself, and then it ate my brother… and then it ate me”

“You know, for someone who got eaten by a demon, you seem to have survived the ordeal…” Cash quipped, ignoring the disapproving glances he got from everyone else.

Twin nodded: “Perhaps saying that he ate me is wrong. Swallowed me. I awoke sometime later, the demon having merged with me and granted me my brother’s memories and powers… which included a plan on how to escape, without the baggage of being bound by the oaths he had made”

“We emerged deep in the dune sea in the south of creation. Almost died of thirst and hunger more times than we care to remember – and once we found civilization, we had to deal with our appearances being so monstrous, plus dodging the assassins and other of our kind that were sent after us” Shirin added.

Sunrise nodded empathically: “You’re not the first ponies we’ve met who were tempted by dark powers and found it to be a raw deal. We’ve helped others before, helped them find redemption – we’ll gladly help you too”

Speaker nodded in agreement, having detected no lies from the three demon-tainted ponies– though he was quite curious at the nature of these demonic exaltations… for with essence sight he could see their souls blazing with demonic power, no doubt about that, but it was difficult to nail down the nature and source of their power. Had the yozis found a way to replicate Autochton’s work and make their own exaltations? That was bad news in all kinds of colorful ways.

Fire Orchid seemed to share Speaker’s worries, though she voiced them somewhat more directly: “What exactly did the yozis want with you? Twin, what was it that your brother wanted to save you from so badly that he was willing to kill himself for it?”

Shirin spoke up, saying that she, Twin’s brother – who’s name had been Apple Thorn – had approached her and Ashi during their training, before it was complete: “We escaped before we were let in on whatever grand plans the yozis had for us – but we know this: We can cross from Malfeas to Creation freely, while the demons can’t – and that’s part of what they seek to exploit”

Twin nodded: “A lot of my brother’s memories don’t make any sense to me, for they were twisted and tainted by the demon he was bonded to – another blood hound – but it stands to reason that we were made to help establish footholds in Creation, to found new cults and spread the influence of the yozis – for conquest, mass ritual sacrifice… for revenge again heaven”

“…that and a lot of the demons were not at all shy of telling us just how murderous and cruel they would be to all of pony kind when they got back here. It made me sick to my stomach to see and hear that kind of madness” Shirin noted.

Lee, appearing satisfied that the three ponies had been allowed to explain themselves and plead their case, spoke up: “Exactly – and this is why I found their plight so sympathetic, having been in their same situation myself. I was hoping that you could use your connections in Yu-Shan to arrange a meeting with Lytek, so we can get them sorted out”

“What, no! We can’t go to heaven!” Shirin suddenly cried out, her veil bulging unnaturally as her mouth clearly didn’t just have tongue and teeth anymore.

Apparently, Shirin had been in the process of being trained for espionage, which had included a briefing or two on what celestial gods were secretly still loyal to the yozis. She wouldn’t name any names, for she didn’t actually know if it was true – or some kind of test to see if she could keep a secret, for that had apparently been something that her demon trainers had loved to put upon her. Still, it had left her and the two other demon-ponies convinced that heaven wasn’t a safe place to go just yet.

“Well… that complicates things. Lytek won’t come down to Creation – too risky – there are still far too many deathknights who would love to kidnap him, to prevent regular solars, lunars and sidereals from exalting” Cash stated, sounding at the same time understanding but also dismayed at this impasse.

Indeed, without that kind of divine assistance in figuring how the exact nature of these strange new exalts, the circle couldn’t really offer much aid.

“Look, I was at least hoping that you could host them in Sunhill. There are far too many godblooded and divine citizens here in Great Forks who can detect demons – it was difficult enough for me to get them in here and keep them hidden for this m-” Lee began, when a bell at Lee’s door rang. It was apparently connected to a cord outside the office, that messengers could ring instead of knocking.

Excusing himself, Lee went to check the message, quickly returning: “The message is to the Lords of Sunhill, From Lord Sullen Hoof – there is trouble in Sunhill. A powerful unicorn and his entourage have arrived by ship and is making trouble”

“Oh delightful – Speaker, can you handle that while we figure something out here?” Cash asked.

Nodding, Speaker moved over to a nice reclining chair and sat down, floating out his hearthstone amulet set with the hearthstone of the Sunhill manse. While the others brainstormed and negotiated, with Cash and Sunrise sounding worried about Sunhill’s repuation if they were to start hosting half-demon whatnots, Speaker focused his mind on the hearthstone, transmitting his senses to the city of Sunhill.

What Speaker saw didn’t look all that out of the ordinary. He recognized the streets he had built, the houses, the nice and spacious tenements and apartment buildings, all connected to the essence-fuelled water supply systems he had set up. The alchemical district was still standing, which was nice – since it was one of the biggest fire hazards in the city. The forging district next to the harbour was also still standing… so what was the issue?

With his magical birds-eye view of the city, Speaker used a charm to quickly give the whole place a quick look-over, the charm enhancing his ability to instantly pick up details that he might have otherwise missed, to which end he detected a new ship in the harbour, and the harbourmaster trying – and failing – to talk a regally dressed pureblood unicorn in moving his ship, with the unicorn mainly just shouting abuse back at the poor pony in heavily accented rivertongue.

Using another of the hearthstone’s powers, Speaker combined his farsight with the ability to make illusions appear – namely by making an image of himself appear next to the harbourmaster, allowing Speaker to address the situation directly: “I am Lord Bright Machine Speaker – identify yourself”

The unicorn looked quite frankly insulted at what Speaker had said, standing resplendent in his regal black, grey and green silk robes, with his magnificent green jade staff by his side: “Identify myself? Do you take me for some commoner?”

The accent of the unicorn revealed him as being from the blessed isle, meaning that he was some kind of Realm nobility – but the realm had unicorns by the tens of thousands… and Speaker was much more acquainted with Lookshyan unicorn celebrities: “No I do not – but this is not the realm, and I am one of the Lords of this city state – so do be polite and tell me who you are, lest I order you ejected from the city”

It seemed clear that the unicorn was quite baffled by Speaker’s response, but that expression faded into a condescending smirk: “Adorable. I knew that this place was boorish, but this is just sad”

Speaker was about to say something snarky back at the unicorn, when the unicorn did… something. It was an arcane gesture of immense subtlety, yet its effect was instant: The magical illusion of Speaker froze, and he was unable to make his voice manifest as part of the illusion, effectively locking him out of the conversation.

The harbourmaster quickly fled, sensing the disturbance of essence in the air, even though he didn’t quite understand it, as the unicorn advanced down the pier in a calm and collected manner, past the frozen illusion of Speaker. Speaking in old realm, the unicorn quietly spoke in Old Realm: “Deploy the vanguard and sweep up to the city manse – have the morays check their staff to identify their doctors. I’ll judge their heresies and see if there’s anything I can use. We’ll dispose of the rest”

Speaker snapped back in Great Forks, finally able to shape off the spell the unicorn had cast on him enough to release his senses from the hearthstone: “Demons!”

Everyone quickly turned to look at Speaker, the three infernals looking unsure if they should be worried or insulted from what had just been shouted. Speaker quickly got up, making towards the door. Cash instantly picked up on Speaker’s worries, asking if he needed help.

“Shimmer, come – Sunrise, message Sully and tell him to put a kettle on!” Speaker quickly said, just before racing out the door and going quite loudly down the stairs.

The three demon-ponies looked at Lee, hoping for an explanation, while the rest of the circle quickly sprang into action: Shimmer leapt out of the nearest window, shapeshifting into her seagull form. Sunrise began shaping up a sorcerous messenger spell, relaying Speaker’s message to Sully – the circle knew quite well what it meant when Speaker requested that Sullen Hoof prepare his tea: It meant to prepare your best poisons.

Fire Orchid gave Cash an apprehensive poke: “Should I join him?”

“No, we need to finish hashing out a solution here – and I appreciate your point of view” Cash said, remaining composed and professional as ever.

The three demon-ponies looked quite unsure, Ashi stating: “If you’re having a demon problem in Sunhill then we can’t go there – any demon who spots us will rat us out to the yozis. The bounty on our heads in the demon realm is unbelievable, and no demon would be able to resist going after us”

Speaker leapt from rooftop to rooftop, Shimmer flying alongside him, racing to get to the portside light-rail pillar.

The supernatural peacekeepers of Great Forks weren’t exactly happy with someone jumping around on the roofs – but they knew Speaker well enough to not try to bother him or the bird flying next to him once they caught on to who he was. Meanwhile, Shimmer was certain that the situation was dire, but beyond the dire cry of “Demons” then she wouldn’t mind some more information: “What’s going on Speaker?”

“A powerful realm sorcerer has breached our wards and snuck in an army of demons into Sunhill – we need to contain and repel them before the city is overrun!” Speaker quickly stated, in between deep breaths and supernaturally long leaps.

At the rail pillar both of them quickly dodged the line of ponies waiting to get their goods or themselves moved via rail carriage, latching onto the light rail with their essence directly and zipping to Sunhill in the blink of an eye.

Arriving at the harbour rail pillar, amidst warehouses and merchants loading goods to or from ships or rail-wagons, the duo quickly scanned their surroundings with essence sight.

“Can you use the hearthstone to issue an alarm?” Shimmer asked, as she shifted into her warform and flew up into the air.

Shaking his head while looking at the hearthstone amulet in disbelief, Speaker replied: “He did something… something magical… jammed or broke the thing. I’ll have to find out what he did later”

The duo quickly found the unicorn in question, flanked by half a dozen other unicorns – all clad in robes that looked far too fancy and officious to be random coordinated fashion. It was uniforms of some kind.

“Shimmer, fly ahead to the manse – he wants something there. Prepare a lockdown if any fighting starts out here. I’ll try to talk him down in person, or deal with him” Speaker said, before towards a point between the hospital manse and the harbour, figuring that he could head the intruder off.

Knowing full well that Speaker prioritized the wellbeing of his citizens over his own health, Shimmer flew off hard and fast to carry out her solar mate’s wish. Speaker similarly raced to head off the intruder, finding the unicorn and his entourage calmly moving through the streets of Sunhill towards the manse.

Landing some thirty paces before the unicorns in a crouching stance, Speaker instantly recalled his singing staff from elsewhere and slammed it into the stone street. The shockwave it sent out could be both heard and felt for several blocks – and everyone in Sunhill knew quite well what it meant: It meant get in cover or to a safe distance. With a flick of the wrist Speaker had the singing staff back in elsewhere, at which point Speaker finally got up and addressed the host before him: “I am Lord Bright Machine Speaker, exalted and chosen of Celestia of the Twilight Caste – now you are going to tell me who the hell you are and why you’re here”

The regal looking unicorn, clad in the finest of embroidered silken robes – which was clearly a fancier version than the robes than the dozens other unicorns behind him – shook his head and issued orders in a tongue unknown to Speaker, his followers all nodding and making way for one of them to step forth.

A unicorn mare on the left of the lead unicorn stallion walked out and began to shape up some kind of sorcerous spell – that much Speaker could recognize – to which end Speaker raised a hoof before him and swiped hard to the right, as if slapping the mare at a distance.

Nobody present appeared to have expected the slap to actually connect, even less so for the mare to fly off as if struck by the fist of an angry god, slamming into a nearby building.

“Very curious… but the powers of the anathema are always quite curious. Apprehend him” the lead unicorn said in high realm, still sounding quite disinterested.

Speaker was not impressed, as he felt their air around him subtly shift. He knew the presence of immaterial demons when he felt it, having prepared his demon-sensing charm – and thus, spreading out his forelegs he sent out a blazing ring of gold-white light in the form of a potent spirit-repelling diagram. The howls and snarls of invisible demons around Speaker quickly became evident as the power of the diagram forced the demons around Speaker to either materialize or shy away from him at great speed.

…this of course meant that several of the hulking blood-hound demons approaching Speaker to capture him simply materialized – but the instant they did that, Speaker executed another lightning-fast series of attacks, striking each of them with his spirit-slaying charm. The unicorn looked somewhat surprised at seeing Speaker barely swipe at the demons, yet all of them ruptured as if struck with the mightiest of blades, their thick hides granting them no apparent defence.

“Attempted kidnapping of heads of state is very illegal here in Sunhill. I’m going to have to ask you to leave now – though first I would have your name, so you can go on our list of ponies banned entry here!” Speaker called out, the collapsing demons around him splashing quite a bit of blood on the ground, as his hooves dripped with bright and colorful demon blood.