Of Demonic Firepower

Two hours later...

"... ... Hoh..."

Dante shifted. After two hours of recovering his energy, he was finally able to move again. He grunted, and pushed on the ground next to his chest with his hands. He then stepped one leg under him, and pushed upward steadily.

Once Dante was on both legs, he observed the immediate area. "Hmm... And when did I take a train to La-La Land?" He noted that nearly everything looked like it was out of some children's picture book. Confused, he found where he lobbed Rebellion earlier, picked it up, and pushed it into its appropriate position on Dante's back.

"I remember fighting with Vergil... I remember him launching me off the bridge... Falling into the dark pit... When the hell did I get in Toon World? Is Hell a freaking fantasy land or something?"

Then, out of further curiousity, Dante looked up. But, he didn't quite see what he was hoping for. What he saw was a light blue sky; and what he was hoping for was an endless abyss.

Dante shrugged and stepped forth. Then he took another. And another. And another. His steady pace carried him to the nearest trail he saw out of this clearing in this forest.

"Wonder if there're any demons here..."

Ebony stumbled out of Sugar Cube Corners with a mild case of the hiccups. He had a couple too many food items and drank just a bit too much juice. His chest and face met the ground simultaneously.

Ivory, who was a little less entertained with the party, followed Ebony outside, and froze when she saw his hind legs were pointing right at her. She quickly closed her eyes and turned her head away. "Uhh, Ebony, you know there's some things I could've gone without seeing for the day? That was one of them."

Ebony only now removed his face from the dirt. "Huh?"

"Never mind," Ivory said and stepped over in front of him, "now stand up before you embarress yourself in front of some stranger."

Ebony returned to his previous standing position, however still unsure of what she meant by 'embarress yourself.' "Well, I guess I enjoyed myself, didn't I?"

Ivory snorted. "Talk about an understatement."

"So we had some fun. Whadaya wanna do now?"

"Umm... Let's go back to that cave. I'm getting kinda tired, actually. I think it's about time we called it a day. Plus you need to burn all those calories you just got."

Ebony scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

They had gotten about ten feet away from the door, when some rediculously fast movement from behind them shouted, "Aww, are you guys goin' home now? Your welcome party isn't over!"

Ebony called back, "Yeah, sorry guys, but I think I've hit my limit. I'll catch up with you tomorrow!"

"Promise?"

"Uhh... Sure, promise."

"Pinkie-Pie-Promise?"

Ebony stared into the turquoise eyes from afar and let out a little laugh. "Sure, Pinkie. Whatever you say."

Pinkie Pie returned a smile and extended her right forehoof out the door. "Okey-dokey-lokey! See ya tomorrow!!"

Without waiting to give Ebony a chance to reply, Pinkie dashed into the building. Shrugging, Ebony turned once more to walk alongside Ivory and go back to their settlement in the Everfree Forest.

It took Dante a moment before he was out of the giant forest, but now he was. Along the way, he had encountered several different kinds of 'monsters,' but none of which he really considered to be demons. They didn't pose much of a threat to him; most of them were rather small and chickened out when they came in comtact with the devil hunter, but there was one monster that didn't. It reminded him much of his battle with Ceberus, for this monster also had multiple heads. However, Ceberus was much more fun and lasted much, MUCH longer. All Dante had to do was jab Rebellion toward one of its necks, and it panicked like a little child. Dante never touched the beast, but it still ran off as if it were a baby.

With every step, Dante found himself wondering more and more, "Where the hell am I? What is this place?" But, he was out of the forest, and a new obstacle awaits him. A town. Excitement got the better of him as his pace broke from a slow walk to a jog. He didn't know what to expect, but where there's a town, there's some kind of smart civilization. And Dante has only had run-ins with weird creatures thus far, and there was something about it that seemed familiar to him.

A short minute or so later, Dante was walking on the cartoon cobblestone roads of the town. All his weapons hidden under his coat, he cautiously entered the town, as making a bad first impression - he's learned over the years - on your first day tends to ruin your reputation.

But, as Dante observed, he didn't see anyone else here. at least, not humans anyway. There were a multitude of horses, though. Several unusually colored horses of various shapes, sizes, ages, and genders seemingly randomly did stuff in the streets.

And upon closer observation, it looked as though these horses were actually talking to one another. Not only that, but communicating in many ways that humans normally would. Hell, some of them appeared to be running business stands!

Dante could only stare from afar, unnoticed by the massive audience. "Sheesh! Talk about Toon World, eh? It kinda looks like somethin' you'd see off of My Little Pony or somethin'!" He took one last look on the town, then shrugged and turned around. "Screw it. I'm not about to go in there. Whatever shit I got high on before I came here sure seems to be workin, though."

Dante put his hands in his pockets and began to walk away from the town. Upon his return, he noticed a signpost that had several signs on it. Just for the heck of it, he decided to step over and read it.

"'Welcome to Ponyville!'" He placed a hand on his mouth to explode from laughter. "Are you for real!? Who the hell would name a town 'Ponyville!?' Oh my gosh, I gotta keep reading these..."

"And what's so funny about our guide post?"

The devil hunter looked back just enough to see a pink horse looking right back at him, with an odd look in her eye. That was the end of the line for Dante. "Whoa! Okay, are you the one that just said that!?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Dante facepalmed. "You know what? I give up. I'm leaving. This place is way too rediculous for me."

"But wait!"

The pink horse seemed to want to know more about Dante, but he didn't even look back as his pace again reached a run.