The fight was hard and glorious, but it had ended with the victorious and the defeated, as all fights must.

What’s that? You want to know how the fight went? Well…okay!

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Celestia struck first. A yellow beam of energy shot from her horn towards Dante, who quickly teleports behind her. As he prepares to fire a blast of eldritch energy at her, Luna fires a blue beam of her own at him, forcing Dante to teleport again. This time he appears on the ceiling. Using his readied energy, he shoots at Luna, who simply teleports out of the way herself. The blast hit the stone floor, but it bounces off of it and redirects itself towards Celestia. The solar princess gives a strong flap of her wings and rises above the crackling energy.

Luna appears right in front of Dante and shoots another blast right at him, hitting him square in the chest. Ignoring the burn, Dante pushes off of the ceiling, launching himself at Luna, energy in hand. She teleports out of the way, giving him a clear shot at Celestia and vice versa. The two fire a blast of magic at each other, only for the energies to clash in the air, emitting a small explosion.

The cycle repeated itself a few times: Dante would fire at one of the princesses, she would avoid, and the other would try to blast him. After the fourth repetition at attacking them, and the third hit on himself, Dante landed on the ground. With their positions in the air, the princesses were each about the same distance from Dante. Throwing his hands up, he lets loose several bands of eldritch fire in the air around him. Celestia avoids them with only being singed, but Luna was hit by a few and spun to the ground, one of her wings badly burned.

Grinning, Dante turns his attention to the fallen alicorn, amassing energy in his hands. Noticing this, Celestia teleports in front of Luna, blocking Dante’s path, and starts charging an attack of her own. With their respective powers charged, they fire off their energy at each other; one through Celestia’s horn, the other through Dante’s extended hands. The two beams meet, pushing against each other, trying to force the other one back. The beams moved back and forth a few times, but it was apparent that Celestia’s was stronger. Not wanting to be outdone, Dante pushed on. Barely noticing Luna appear off to his side, Dante flung an arm in her direction, firing another beam of energy at her to meet her own. Luna’s attack, as well as Celestia’s, quickly overtakes Dante’s and slams into him. Dante is pushed into the air, and then lands on the ground in a spin. He kneels down, trying to cover his arms under each other. The flesh from his arms is blackened, parts of it hanging off of him. His burns extended up to his now exposed shoulders.

Celestia cautiously walks over to him, wings flared. She stood only a few feet behind him.

“This foolishness must end. You cannot defeat us.” She declared.

“Oooah…” Dante moaned. “Maybe…we should just…fight one-on-one.”

“That is even more foolish.” Celestia continued. “There’s no reason for us to give up our advantage over you.”

“Sounds like…you think you’ll…lose.”

“A weak taunt.” Luna said, walking over to her sister. Her right wing was flared out, but her left one was only about half-way flared, remaining level with the ground. “We’ve already bested you. We have nothing we need to prove.”

“Well then,” Dante says, disappearing from sight, “I guess I’ll just have to take care of that myself.”

The two alicorns lower themselves, looking around the throne room. They light up their horns and cast the resulting light around, searching for their foe. A pair of guards come running into the throne room.

“Princesses! Are you—”

“Get back!” Luna yells at them. “Get out and close the door!”

The guard she spoke to stood for a moment before realizing what she said. “Yes Princess!” The guards quickly turned back, closing the door behind them.

“That won’t do them much good.” Dante’s voice calls out. “I can simply teleport around the door if I need to.”

“But you won’t, will you?” Celestia asks, searching in the direction she heard the voice.

“I suppose not. It isn’t very smart to turn your back on your enemy.”

Celestia quickly turns about, searching for her enemy. There was nothing there.

“Quite jumpy, aren’t we?” He mocks.

“How cowardly of you to hide from us.” Luna says, checking around the throne. “I was beginning to think you wanted to fight us. Now here you are, hiding.”

“You have to roll with the punches, not simply take them.” Dante says a few words of power, then continues. “Sure, I wanted to fight you two, but I was hoping for a little one-on-one with Celestia first. That makes you far less important to me, Nightmare Moon.”

Luna notices a shift in a nearby curtain and fires her magic at it, cutting a section of it from the rest. As she did that, the needle on the table was lifted into the air, right before it disappeared from sight. Neither alicorn seemed to notice.

“Why do you keep calling me that?!” Luna yells all around her.

“That’s your name, isn’t it?” Dante mocks again. “I mean, 1000 years ago you changed your name. Don’t be embarrassed; many would be conquerors change their names to make themselves sound scarier. It’s perfectly normal.”

“What I did back then was a mistake that I must live with. I’m no conqueror!”

“No, you’re just a princess. How easy a title can change when it needs to. What will happen when war comes to your precious little kingdom?”

Behind another curtain, a small hole appeared in the air and two rolled up scrolls were taken out of it. They disappeared as quickly as they came.

“Do you plan on waging war on Equestria? All by yourself?”

“Why not? That’s what you did. I’ve had a lot of practice conquering places. It shouldn’t be any problem for me.” Dante spoke a few more words of power. This time, a bit of dust fell to the ground, visible, right where he stood.

Celestia, noticing the disturbance, shot a ray towards the dust, hitting the wall.

“That gibberish.” She began. “You’re casting spells, aren’t you? Word magic?” She started walking closer to her throne.

“That’s just spell magic where I come. I’d love to get into a whole spiel about it, but we’re in the middle of a fight, aren’t we? But I promise to tell you all about it after I trounce you both.”

“Unlikely.” Luna states, joining her sister. “You are badly injured, outnumbered, and have inferior magic.”

“Inferior this!” Dante yells, appearing between the two sisters with a scroll in hand. In an instant, a sphere comes into being in his empty hand and explodes in a brilliant display of colors, all colliding with each other and everything in the immediate area. The regal sisters are buffeted by the colorful magic while Dante remains unfazed. Not missing a beat, Dante unfurls the scroll.

He speaks another few words of power and a clear, nearly invisible block of force surrounds Luna. Shaking off her confusion of what happened, Celestia blasts Dante again, hitting him in the back and pushing him away. Pushing past the pain, Dante whips around and casts another spell. A ray of black, crackling energy shoots from his outreached hand. Celestia lights her horn to teleport away, but quickly finds her spell blocked. She is struck by the wicked looking magic, feeling as though her life is being sucked right out of her.

Celestia tries to fly up and backwards, towards her throne, but finds her movements to be a bit sluggish. This gives Dante enough time to shoot another ray of eldritch magic at her, similar in style to his last spell. When the energy strikes her, Celestia feels the exact same sensation as she did from the spell. This time, however, she felt wounds open up on her body: several cuts, some bludgeoning, a burn or two, all randomly spread out on her body.

Regaining her bearings, Celestia lights her horn once more.

“ENOUGH!” Her voice resounds about the room. Grasping the situation, Dante quickly builds up energy for his attack. The two remaining combatants launch their magic at each other, the beams meeting halfway between them. This time, Dante’s blast starts overtaking Celestia’s. The focal point of the two magics quickly reaches Celestia’s horn, harmful energy cascading over her body. Her wings give out as she begins to fall.

Seeing the falling alicorn, Dante reaches out for the wooden table. His sword, still in its sheath, swiftly flies over to him. He catches it, pulls the sword from its sheath, and dashes towards the throne. Celestia lands with a thud on the ground. The moment she lands, Dante is over her, sword inches from her throat.

“Surrender.” He tells her calmly.

“I *cough* I won’t surrender. I won’t…let this kingdom fall to you.” She says, fighting back the urge to enter a coughing fit.

“SISTER!” Luna yells, doing whatever she can to escape her confinement. She tries teleporting out, blasting the walls with magic, and bucking the walls; the barrier remains strong, and she remains confined.

“I promise you, I won’t take over your kingdom. I have beaten you. Now, admit defeat and let us be done here. There’s no need for you to die. Not yet.”

Celestia gazes into Dante’s only eye. She doesn’t see the murderous intent of a monster there. She only sees the gaze of a creature who is tired of fighting.

“I…I surrender.”

Dante smiles and lifts his sword straight above his head. In one quick motion, he brings it back down at the defeated alicorn. The sword is plunged into the stone floor, barely an inch from Celestia’s exposed throat, angled to lie above her.

“Oh thank the gods!” Dante calls out, falling on his ass. “For a moment there, I thought you were really gonna make me kill you! That would not have fun to deal with!”

Celestia just glares at him. “What are you talking about!?”

“Heh, don’t worry about. In the end, no one died, so I’m not in trouble.”

“The guards—”

“Are fine. If that weak blast killed them, then you have some serious recruiting problems.”

“And what about Captain Armor?!”

“He’s…uh…shit, hold on.” Dante stutters. He casually flies to the side and hovers over the unconscious captain. Staring at him intensely, Dante finds what he’s looking for. “He’s breathing. Barely, but breathing none the less.”

“He needs…medical attention.” Celestia coughs out.

“Heh, so do you, but I’ll just worry about him for now.” Leaning down, Dante speaks a word of power and presses his hand on Shining Armor’s side. Part of his side lights up the faintest amount before dimming again. “There. That should keep him from bleeding on the inside.” Turning again, he sees Luna glaring daggers at him past her prison. “Hi~” He calls to her.

“Let me out of here!” Luna yells at the human.

“Now, now. That would defeat the purpose of putting you in there to begin with, wouldn’t it?” Dante says smiling, gliding over to the lunar princess.

“What do you want?” She glowers at him.

“I…uh…” Dante twists his face in contemplation. He shifts his eyes back and forth before returning his attention to his prisoner. “Wow, that’s a really good question. Shit! What do I want?”

“You don’t even know?! You fought us and you don’t even know why?! How could you—”

“Okay, hold on! Just…just give me a minute. Hmmm. Alright, I came to the castle, chased guards around, ran away, thought about asking for your help with something, decided to wait—”

“Help you?!” Luna yelled again. “Why would we help you?!”

“Because there’s someone even more powerful than me on the loose, now please!” Dante snapped at Luna. “Let’s see. I went into the mountain caves, met that pegasus, chatted it up, tried to hire him, he wanted…” Dante claps his hands together. “That’s it! You!” He points towards Celestia. “You have some sort of amulet that improves one’s physical strength, right? I want it.”

Celestia looks more confused than angry at this point. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s in your private collection or something. My associate planned on stealing it, so I’m going to get it for him. Where is it?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t have anything like that.”

“Well, my associate, and soon to be employee, says otherwise. You know what, that’s fine. I’ll just tell him to come here and find it. But first…” Dante turns to the closed doors of the throne room. “Guards!”

The twin doors opened inward, slowly revealing a group of three guards. Upon seeing one of their princesses captured and another bruised and bleeding on the floor, they charge into the room.

“Ah, ah, ah!” Dante points his hand at Celestia, lighting it with magic. “Attack and all that will remain of her head is a skull.”

The guards stop in their tracks.

“Good. Now,” He says, pointing at the first guard, “I have someone…err, somepony hiding in the caves behind a waterfall. I want you to inform the guards in that area to bring him to me, unharmed. He’s with me. You.” He points to the second guard. “Somewhere here, my eye is sitting in a glass container. Bring it to me. And you.” He points to the final guard. “I’m hungry. Have someone…somepony bring me some food. I’m thinking fruit. Go!”

The guards look to their princesses for an answer. Only Luna responds with a simple nod. The three guards leave the room, closing the doors behind them.

Seeing a break from everything, Dante focusses his eldritch energy in his body. Releasing the energy, his burns begin healing. It begins with the hanging skin dropping off, new skin taking its place. The blackened skin slowly returns to its original color, closing up gaps in the skin where the energy that struck him was stronger. Soon, his arms were back to how they were before the fight, minus the sleeves of his tunic. The light burn on his back and torso also healed up, though not completely.

“Well, then.” Dante says, walking over to the throne and sitting upon it. “I better come up with a list of demands while I’m here.”

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Twilight Sparkle galloped down the halls as fast as she could. She slowed down only the slightest bit after every corner she turned, and then sped right back up. Her legs hurt, but she kept running.

She saw everything.

Using a spell she learned, she was able to see the whole fight. Right after the creature went into the room, she came around and cast her spell. She was able to see and hear their whole conversation. Princess Celestia gave her permission, of course. Twilight didn’t want to face her attacker just yet, and it was a good thing she didn’t. The second the creature beat Celestia, she ran. Now, she knew what she needed to do.

Arriving at a door guarded by two royal guards, Twilight collapsed on the ground, out of breath.

“Miss Sparkle!” One of the guards calls, kneeling next to her. “Are you alright?”

“Hah…the creature…Celestia…trouble…” She says in between breaths. “Where’s…Cadence?”

The second guard knocks on the door and calls for the princess. Moments later, Princess Cadence stood before them.

“Twilight?” She looks down at her sister-in-law. “What’s wrong?”

Standing up and taking a deep breath, “The creature has Princess Celestia and Luna in the throne room!” She yells at the top of her lungs.

“Twilight, calm down.” Cadence says calmly, getting Twilight to breathe with her a few times before continuing. “Now, tell me what’s happened.”

“They brought the creature in to question it, just like they planned to. Then, it broke its magic-cancellation restraints and attacked them. It…Shining…he’s….” She started breaking into sobs.

Cadence stood there, dumbly. She quickly gathered herself together and spoke.

“Guards, come with me.” She steps out of her room.

“What are you going to do?” Twilight barely manages to speak the words.

“I’m going to the throne room to assess the situation.” Twilight starts to protest, but is silenced by Cadence. “I’ll be careful. We need to know what is happening right now so we know what we can do. That being said, I have something I need you to do.”

“What is it, Cadence?”

“Can you send a letter to Spike? Do you know how to do that?”

“I…I’ve never tried, but I’ve seen Celestia send letters before. I can try.”

“Good. Tell him to get your friends together and to come to Canterlot. I don’t want to send out a chariot, just in case this creature decides to go after it. After you send the letter, go get the elements of harmony. I’m going to see if I can reason with it. If nothing else, I’ll keep it distracted until your friends get here. Do you understand?”

Twilight looks up to her old foal sitter, fear more than present in her eyes. She dried her eyes and stood tall. “I understand.”

“Alright. Use some parchment from my desk. Go quickly!” With that, Cadence took her leave with her escort.

Twilight stepped into the room, moving over to the desk. She found some spare paper and a quill and began writing her note.

‘Spike,

There’s an emergency at Canterlot. I need you to find Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie and tell them to come to Canterlot. When they get here, tell them to meet me in the castle foyer. I’ll be waiting with the Elements of Harmony.

Please hurry.

Twilight Sparkle’

After looking over her note once, she picked it up in her telekinetic grip, rolled it up, and focused on it. She tried to remember how Celestia used to send letters to various diplomats and tried to mimic the spell. After a few seconds, she cast it, making the scroll disappear into a whisper on the wind.

‘Now, time to get the elements.’

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

“Hey, Celestia?” Dante asks the prone alicorn before him. “Hypothetically speaking, if someone were to attack and conquer your kingdom, what would they do it for?”

Celestia just sat there, still under Dante’s sword, ignoring his question. This was fifth question he’d asked her about spoils of war, and just like every other question before, she gave no reply.

“Whatever. Nightmare Moon, same question.”

The princess of the night said nothing, continuing her assault on her cage, earning no progress.

“*sigh* You two aren’t helping at all. Look, my food, my eye, and my underling have not arrived yet, so why don’t we just try to get along?”

Celestia mumbles something under her breath. Taking interest, Dante stands from the throne and floats in front of her.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” He asks, leaning his ear down to her mouth.

“Monster.” She says plainly.

“Monster? Where? All I see are two princesses, a captain, and four guards. Huh, you know, I think I hit them harder than I originally thought. They should have woken up by now. I think—”

“How can you act like this!?” Celestial yells at him. “How can you just fight for no reason!?

“What is your deal with this? Both of you! I fight for a reason. Today, that reason is actually several. I wanted to get the amulet so I’d have someone under me. I wanted to test your combat prowess. Finally, I wanted to settle a curiosity of mine: I wanted to see if you were outsiders or not.”

“Outsiders?” Celestia asks, still fuming. “You mean like you?!”

“Oh, no. You must have a different word for it. An outsider is a creature composed of essence that isn’t from the material plane. I saw you two radiate with such magical energy yesterday, so I had to be sure. If I was able to beat you, like I have, then I would know you were outsiders. If I’d been easily beaten, well…then I wouldn’t know.”

“And what does us being ‘outsiders’ mean for you?”

“Well, that opens up some options for me, but that’s for later.”

“I should have known something like this would happen. I knew the second we saw you that capturing you would be the wrong choice.”

Dante stares down at her. “What do you mean?”

Celestia looks him straight in the eye. “The moment I saw you, I could tell you were wicked. You say you saw great magic in us? Well, we could see a great darkness in you!”

“Oh?”

“Creatures like you shouldn’t exist!”

Dante lands and takes a few steps away from the solar princess. He looks around the room, viewing the defeated guards, Luna trapped in his magical cage, Shining Armor with a broken back and barely alive, and a lightly burned and broken throne room. Looking back at Celestia, he has a hard expression on his face.

“So, this isn’t even about what I’ve done, or even what you think I might do. This is about what I am.” Dante begins walking back towards the solar princess. “I’ve dealt with that a lot in my life, and every time it began with those damn paladins. Every fucking paladin I’ve ever met has looked down at me like I’m just a beast! And every time, I’ve had a way to deal with it.”

Standing right in front of Celestia, Dante picks up his sword.

“You’re just another paladin in the guise of a magical horse. There’s no room for people like you in the world, yours or mine.”

He raises his sword high above his head, gripping it tightly in both hands. Eldritch energy swirled around it.

“Be gone from this world and preach your self-righteousness in the next!”

END CHAPTER

Author's Note

Hello, hello! Sorry for the slight delay in releasing this. Well, I said it might take 2 weeks, so you have it in advance, if you think about it.

Okay, so, Dante cast more spells in this chapter. I count 4 that are actual spells. 1 spell isn't legitimate (ie, isn't in any DnD book). The good news is that spell had no discernible effect. It was the first spell he cast after turning invisible, so don't worry about that one. Here's a hint for the others, since there were so many of them: The orb that exploded into colors was a Cleric spell. Now, since there were so many, you only have to guess 3 of the 4 spells. Post your answers in the comments below. If you want to show off your DnD knowledge and try to guess all 4 of them, go right ahead. Just don't put down the entire list of spells or anything. Whoever guesses at least 3 of them right first will win. The game from 2 chapters ago is still on (as of right now) so you can guess that one too. Just be sure to write what chapter you're guessing for, since this game will probably be a more-or-less regular thing and I'll quickly get confused otherwise. (Phew! Long paragraph)

Expect the next chapter in a week (probably). Have a good day/night/week everyone!