“Shade…” Dante sputters out, “…the fuck…?”

Shade rips the dagger from Dante’s abdomen, eliciting a flash of light from the wound. Just as he begins taking another swing, Iatril swings her leg into his side, sending Shade flying to the side of the room and smashing into the wall. Flurry leaps from his spot and stands on top of Shade, snarling at the unconscious pegasus. Raven hovers in the air as Dante staggers backwards towards the throne. Before he can fall over, he’s grabbed by Iatril.

“Dante!” She calls out, lowering him gently to the floor. “What’s wrong? Your wound…” She lifts her hand to reveal the opening in his front, still fresh and bleeding.

“The…dagger…” He breaths out slowly, pointing at the blade where it fell from Shades grip.

Raven flies over to the dagger and sweeps it up, bringing it back to Dante.

“What’s going on here?” Luna asks, stepping down from her throne. “Why did he attack you?”

With a gesture and a small light from Iatril’s hand, Dante’s wound closes completely. The warlock then stands and takes hold of the dagger from Raven.

“I’m not sure.” Dante says. “But, I’m guessing this knife—FUCK!” He yelps, dropping the dagger as a flash of light emits from it. Looking down at his hand, he sees a searing burn where his hand gripped the blade. Viewing it with his magic, he sees what the blade is made of and the magic within. “That’s cold iron.” He says. “Not only that, but it’s infused with good magic and lawful magic. Also…yes, it’s infused with a magic designed to slay humans, inflict greater damage and draw out blood from the recipient of the attack. This blade was made to kill me.”

“How could he have acquired such a blade?” Celestia asks, walking over to the unconscious Shade.

“Only one person on this plane that knows my full weakness.” Dante says, stepping over to the window. “It has to be—”

“INCOMING!” A voice yells from outside. Just as quickly as it was said, a piece of flaming rock smashes through the wall of the throne room. It heads straight towards Iatril, but with a swing of her fist the boulder is broken into pieces and scatters around her. Outside, the chaos of battle ensues. Griffons in the air, armed with bows and crossbows, rain their bolts and arrows into the city below. The pegasi guards that are in the air attempting to counter them are being blocked by other griffons armed with swords and lances. Behind the pegasi are a group of changelings, flanking them. On the nearby mountaintop sits a couple catapults seemingly built into the mountain.

“No…” Celestia say quietly, flying over to the opening in the wall. “NO!” She yells out at the carnage before her.

“What the fuck!?” Dante asks out loud. “Shade said the griffons would hear me! He…” Dante looks back at the pegasus, searching him for any spells. Seeing none, he teleports in front of him and places his hand on top of Shade’s side, opening the mouth on his hand as he does so. With a surge of magic, Dante drains a spell from Shade’s body; an illusion spell. Once removed, Dante clearly sees multiple enchantments clouding and manipulating Shade’s mind.

“That bastard!” He yells out. “He’s controlling Shade! He already met with the griffons and the changelings!” He drains the remaining spells from Shade’s body, freeing his mind. “I should have known!”

Luna unfurls her wings and runs next to her sister.

“Where are you two going?!” Dante yells at them.

“We have to help our subjects!” Luna calls back.

“You idiots! Don’t you get it?” Dante stands from Shade, stepping closer to Celestia and Luna in long strides. “That’s just a distraction! Aselith gives less than a shit about killing your subjects!”

“We can’t just leave them out there!” Celestia yells at Dante. “There’s far too many for the royal guard and the army stationed here to handle!”

“Which is why they’re being attacked!” Dante cries out. “If you two are out there fighting, no one will stop Aselith from claiming what he’s here for!”

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

“Discord.” A voice calls out in the room. Searching for the source of the voice, Iatril points towards the throne, where a rat is sitting in front of the seats. “A prize fit for a king, or a god.” The voice emanates from the rat, though it doesn’t move its mouth.

“Aselith!” Dante hisses. “You bastard!”

“Come now,” The voice says casually, “it’s not as if you are using his power. I’ll just take him off your hands so you won’t have to worry about it anymore. Feel free to stop me if you—”

Before the voice can finish, Dante teleports right to the rat and grabs it, crushing its ribs slightly.

“You better believe it.” Dante says through clenched teeth. He throws the rat high into the air and fires a blast of eldritch magic at it, lighting it afire and killing it instantly. “Let’s go!” He yells, looking at Celestia and Luna. The two princesses quickly teleport as Iatril runs up to Dante, who then teleports the both of them. They all end up outside the vault Discord is locked in, still closed. “Quickly! Open it!” He says to the regal sisters.

Celestia and Luna, already working the door before Dante arrived, open it to find a man standing inside the vault with a tiny statue in his hand. Looking closely, they find it to be the statue of Discord shrunken down. Before anyone can react, the man puts up a Wall of Force in front of the opening.

“Ah, Dante. Iatril. So good to see you again.” Aselith says, smiling at the pair. “I see you’ve met the princesses of the sun and moon already. I do hope you’ve been able to make some friends.”

“You!” Celestia points a hoof at the human in the vault. “You’re responsible for this attack on Canterlot! On our citizens!”

“Guilty.” He says with a shrug. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a few promises of power. Now, as you have so thoughtfully put up an anti-teleportation spell in this room, I shall casually be taking my leave the way I came in. Good day to you all.” He says, turning his back and heading towards the opposite wall.

Luna steps forward, lowering her glowing horn at the force field. “You think we will just—”

An ear splitting roar from behind the regal sisters cuts off Luna’s words. Behind them, right next to Iatril, is a hulking, red monster, similar to what Luna saw in the Dante’s dreams. The monster wields Dante’s lightning bolt shaped sword in its hand as it howls at the Wall of Force.

“You will not leave this place!” He yells out in a distorted, half Dante’s and half a sinister, voice. He rushes towards the entrance of the vault, slamming his sword into the force field. As he does so, a crack appears on the surface of the wall.

Iatril’s eyes widen. “Shit! Get ba—”

An explosion of force blasts all around them, knocking Celestia back and into Iatril, sending them both into the wall, and sending Luna down the hall way a bit. Aselith, seeing the wall break, quickly passes through the stone wall as if there was nothing there. Not missing a beat, Dante raises his free hand, conjuring an intense amount of magic in the form of fire in his hand. He quickly unleashes the fire forward, washing over the wall and burning a hole right through to outside, spilling flames out from the castle walls.

As he flies through the hole, he looks up to see Aselith with his hand pointed right at him.

“Time for some high powered spells.” Aselith says, casting his spell.

In an instant, a mighty beam of frost springs from his hand and right at Dante, who holds up his sword to the ray. The frost engulfs him, spreading out all around him and the nearby tower of the castle. Behind him, the tower, from its spire all the way to where it connects to the castle itself and nearly a hundred feet further, the walls are covered in thick ice. As the smoke from the spell meeting his sword clears, Dante sees Aselith flying away towards the mountains.

“No you don’t!” He calls out. “Not this time!” He flies after Aselith, quickly closing the distance. In a matter of seconds, he is right on Aselith. Right as he is about to bring down his sword on the fleeing mage, Aselith turns around and gestures at him, casting a spell.

‘Oh shit!’ He thinks to himself just before the spell catches him. In an instant, parts of Dante’s form are blown off, revealing parts of a red cloak, a blue tunic, and half of Dante’s original face. He begins falling to the ground as his left wing was blown off from the spell. Aselith, not waiting to see him fall, resumes his flight to the mountains.

Dante quickly sprouts one of his shadowy wings in place of the demonic one he lost, stabilizing his decent into a hover. Looking at his randomly red patched arms, he curses to himself and looks up again towards Aselith.

'Damn him! I can’t believe he was willing to cast such a spell to stop me! I’ve got to return to the castle and make sure I’m still stable.' Turning in place, he finds Luna flying through the air at incredible speeds, racing right towards Aselith, who turns around again to cast another spell.

“YOU STUPID MORON!” He yells up at her. “RUN AWAY!”

Before she can react, she is struck by four flaming spheres that each explode in a ball of fire around her, sending her falling to the ground. Moving quickly, Dante teleports to the ground, right below the falling princess. As she nears him, he casts a spell at her. When her body comes closer to the ground, she slows down incredibly, allowing Dante to catch her as if being handed something. Her body is mostly burned, showing several patches of dark red where the flaming spheres struck her. The feathers on her wings are slightly melted together and her mane has lost most of its translucent nature.

‘Please don’t be dead.’ He thinks to himself. He waits for a moment, feeling her shallow breathing in his mismatched arms. ‘Good.’ Readying himself, he casts a spell, bringing both him and Luna back into the castle. Iatril and Celestia stand before him, covered in a small layer of frost that made it through the hole. The walls and floor are also covered in ice, albeit a much thinner layer than the outer walls. He sets Luna’s burnt body on the ground before convulsing violently. His demonic body parts shrivel back down to his own form before he passes out.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

“DANTE!” Iatril yells, running over to her companion and crouching down over him.

“LUNA!” Celestial yells, following suit with Luna. Celestia looks over her sister’s burnt body before turning to Iatril. “Can you heal her?”

“I…yeah, of course.” She replies, getting up and moving to the unconscious alicorn. She casts her spell and touches Luna’s side, only to be repelled back as her spell fizzles on the touch. “Damn it!” She calls out, grabbing her lightly singed hand.

“What is it? Why isn’t she healed?!”

“Aselith.” She says coldly. “He must have cast a curse on her that prevents healing. I don’t have the right spell to get rid of it, but Dante does.” She looks over at Dante, who begins to stir. Throwing her hand into a pouch on her belt, she pulls out a vile of water before edging closer to him. “Dante? Is that you?”

“Ugh…” He moans. “What happened?” He leans up from the floor, looking around.

“Thank the gods it’s you.” Iatril says, lowering the vial and walking over to Dante, grabbing his hand and lifting him up. “Hurry now. Aselith cursed Luna and you need to remove—” Her voice is cut off as Dante raps his hand around her neck.

“Don’t worry.” He says in his dark voice. “I’ll take care of her next.”

Iatril brings up the vial of water again, only for Dante to grab her wrist and slam it and her into the nearby wall, smashing the vial.

“No more holy water.” He says again, wrapping his other hand around her neck as well. “No more spells.” Iatril tries punching him in the face and kicking his stomach, but it doesn’t seem to affect him at all. “No more elf!”

Just as she was about to pass out, a blast of light knocks Dante over, freeing Iatril. Looking over, she sees Celestia flying over to her, keeping her horn pointed at Dante. He quickly rises and charges Celestia, unarmed. Again, the solar princess sends him flying with another burst of magic. This time, after he lands on the ground, he doesn’t get back up.

“Are you alright?” Celestia asks, turning to face Iatril.

“*cough*…yeah.” She replies weakly, casting a healing spell on herself.

“What’s going on? Why did Dante attack you like that?” She asks sternly.

“It’s a long story, but we don’t have time right now.” She moves from the wall, heading over to the hole in the vault.

“Right.” Celestia says, walking after her. “We need to stop this attack.”

“No.” Iatril holds a hand in front of her. “I’ll stop it.”

“I cannot—”

“Princess, please!” Iatril pleads. “If they come in here, I won’t be able to protect both Dante and Luna! You can! I’ll go out there and put a stop to this fighting. Right now, Luna needs you more than ever. Just…keep an eye on Dante for me, please?”

Celestia looks Iatril over before looking back at her sister. “Alright.” She says, turning back to face the elf. “But as soon as Luna is in good hooves, I’ll be out there as well.”

“Thank you.” Iatril bows briefly before walking right to the hole.

“What should I do about Dante?” She asks.

“If he wakes up again…send him out here if it’s him. Otherwise…knock him out again, but don’t kill him. That would be bad for everyone.” With one final look over her shoulder, Iatril leaps from the hole, sliding down the wall of the tower. After a moment of sliding, she catches a window ledge and leaps to the wall of the castle, sliding down again. Soon, she reaches the ground, where a group of five changelings are waiting for her.

Hissing and screeching, the changelings charge up their horns and fire at Iatril. She dodges each blast with ease, getting closer with each blast. When she reaches the closest one, she swings at its head, cracking the changeling’s chitin armor and knocking it out. The other four, seeing their comrade beaten so easily, charge at Iatril. The trained monk grabs the one that gets to her first, spinning around and tossing it at two others, leaving one changeling in route to her. It jabs its horn at her, only for her to dodge to the side and bring her elbow down on its back. After it hits the ground, Iatril thrusts her hand in its abdomen, making a wound and covering her fingers in its green blood.

The remaining three regroup and charge at her again. This time, Iatril changes her body into that of a huge air elemental, swiping at the three changelings with her tendril like arm and sending them into the castle walls.

“I don’t have time to waste on you.” She says in a whispery voice. Taking to the air, Iatril flies over to the group of griffons in the air, who are still letting loose arrows and bolts into the city streets below. Shifting her form slightly, she becomes a whirlwind in the air, soaring right up to the griffons and catching them in her winds. The few that evaded her tried launching a few arrows at her, but Iatril keeps going. Eventually, all two dozen of those archers were inside Iatril’s whirlwind form, slamming into each other.

Looking around, she sees what remains of the group of pegasi that attacked the griffons and changelings being herded away by said changelings, leaving the other griffons free to come after her. She quickly flew by a building and launched her captured griffons into it, either knocking out or killing them. She then flew back up to engage the other griffons for the short time she had left in this form. She looked around again, checking out the other groups of pegasi, griffons and changelings in the air and on the ground. There were a little under one hundred griffons left and over five hundred changelings, outnumbering the pegasi at least six to one.

Just as she finished blowing away the group of griffons, a sensation came over her body. Her form quickly reverted back to an elf, making her free fall towards the ground. Reacting quickly, she used her wild shape powers to morph back into an air elemental and stop her descent five feet short of the ground. Looking up, she sees a huge griffon flying towards her with an oversized sword in its claws. She dove to the side, barely missing the blade as it sliced into the ground. She turned around to face the large griffon.

“Not bad.” He said in a deep voice. The feathers around his head were tinted red while the ones closer to his torso were white. His light brown fur had a few streaks of black near his rear paws. While he was nearly three times larger than the other griffons, his most notable feature was his bulging arms. They looked far larger and more toned than expected from a flying creature.

“I try.” Iatril retorts, landing on the ground. “You’re a little big for a griffon, don’t you think?”

“Heh. I’d say something to that effect to you, but I’m not entirely sure what you are.” He swung his huge sword up and over his shoulder, standing tall on his other three limbs. “Well, I know you’re like that thing that came to my master’s chambers a week ago.”

“Aselith?!” Iatril practically screamed out. “Where is he now?!”

The griffon smirked at her. “You’d have to beat me to find out. I am General Redfeather of Lord Highwind’s army!” He pointed his large sword at Iatril, the blade parallel to the ground. “Tell me your name, so I might carve out a tombstone for your corpse!”

“I am Iatril Dryeareplith!” She calls out, soaring right towards Redfeather. “And I shall be marking your grave!”

Redfeather raises his free hand towards Iatril, his palm facing her. In an instant, Iatril’s form again reverts back to her own, letting her fall to the ground a few feet short of the General. He quickly brings up his sword and slashes down, cutting into the stone where Iatril lay a moment ago. Iatril had pushed off the ground, flipping in the air and landing in a defensive pose.

“How can you do that?!” She calls out to the griffon. “I thought griffons couldn’t use magic!”

Redfeather pushes a patch of feathers away from his neck, revealing an amulet that has sunken into his skin. “Lord Highwind has bestowed a great artifact upon me. It strengthens my body and allows me to undo any sustained magic. It also protects me from direct magical attacks, such as unicorn blasts. That creature told me that, with this, you and your friend would be unable to defeat me.” Standing on his hind legs, he grasps his sword with both claws. “I’d rather have a challenge, but I do as my lord commands.”

With a flick of her wrist, Iatril summons her staff from thin air. She points it at the griffon, discharging some magic into the air. “I’ll give you a challenge!” She yells out. In the blink of an eye, the wind in the city street picks up. In a few seconds, it starts pushing at great strength: nearby tents are completely blown away, loose stone is picked up and launched, even parts of the stone buildings crumble away. The griffon, starting to lift into the air, slams his sword’s blade into the ground, rooting him in place. Piercing his claws into the ground, Redfeather starts crawling his way towards Iatril with a grin on his face. The elf in question stares at him in horror.

‘Impossible! How could he move through this? These are tornado strength winds!’

Before she can ponder this further, Redfeather lunges forward, snatching her leg with one of his claws and throws her behind him. She is quickly picked up by the wind, thrown around the street several hundred feet, buffeted by the high winds. When she final slows to a stop, she stops the winds from blowing, returning them to their original state. Standing up, she can see the bruises covering her body from her flight. Casting a spell, she heals her wounds and looks around for her staff. Before she can locate it, she sees Redfeather pick up his sword and soar right at her.

She charges at him head on, narrowly dodging the swing of his sword as she slams her fist into his stomach. Redfeather pauses for a moment before grabbing Iatril and swinging her against a nearby building, sinking in its stone wall. As she stands up and prepares a spell, Redfeather pulls a vial of black liquid from under his wing and hurls it at Iatril, shattering on impact. Ignoring it, Iatril tries healing herself, only for her body to reject her magic as Luna’s did.

“What did you do to me!?” She yells at the griffon.

“The creature also gave me something to stop you from constantly healing yourself, as he said you might. I thought he was some crazed fool talking about healing magic, but I see he wasn’t mistaken.” He puts two of his fingers to his mouth and blows, producing a loud, sharp whistle. A moment later, a dozen changelings fly over to his side. “This fight isn’t worth my time. Kill her!” He commands the horde.

Iatril puts her arms up in a defensive stance as the changelings hover forward.

From the side of Iatril’s view, a large bolt of lightning strikes Redfeather and bends, arcing into each of the changelings, frying them. Redfeather looks over, surprised but unharmed, at the figure in the distance. His expression quickly turns from surprise to contempt.

“Ah, you must be the other one.” He spoke.

Turning, Iatril sees Dante with his hand stretched forward. Making another gesture, he casts another spell. The ground beneath Redfeather quickly turns into rubbery, black tendrils that grasp at him from all sides.

“What is this?!” He calls out. He tries pointing his palm at the tentacles, but they keep moving his arm around. “Get off!”

“Sorry, I don’t have time for my usual banter.” Dante says, quickly flying straight up into the air. Iatril walks over to where Dante began his ascent. Half a minute and five hundred feet later, Dante halts his ascension. Iatril sees him make a couple gestures, but she can’t make them out. A few seconds later, a huge object appears next to him and begins to fall.

“What in Tartarus is…no…” Redfeather gapes, realization coming over him. He vigorously struggles against the tentacles to no avail. “No no no no no no NO NO NOOOO—”

A crater is made in the stony road as the huge earth elemental crashes into the ground.

Iatril looks up at Dante as he quickly returns to the ground.

“Wow.” She says, looking back over at the earth elemental, blood and feathers falling from its back as it stands. “You’re really pissed, aren’t you?”

“Oh, no.” He says with a toothy smile, his dark brown eyes piercing through Iatril. “I’m absolutely livid. I don’t sound very angry because I think I’ve come full circle. Now all I want to do is violently murder everything in the city. How does that sound?”

“Um, how about just the—uh—griffons and changelings?” Iatril asks, taking a step back.

“Sure!” Dante looks over at the elemental and speaks to it in its own tongue. The message is garbled gibberish to all others, but the elemental understood the command perfectly: kill all changelings and griffons. It lumbered off towards the nearest group of enemies.

“Hey, Dante?” Iatril spoke again, stepping closer to him. “Seeing that you could summon this elemental, how about we summon a few more for air cover?”

Dante’s right eye twitches at this. “Fine, but if I don’t get to kill at least thirty more griffons or changelings, I’m taking it out on the ponies. Got it?”

“Y-yeah.”

Dante and Iatril perform similar motions for their spells. Before Dante comes into being two huge air elementals; in front of Iatril appear four huge air elementals, though these ones appear darker and denser than Dante’s. Together they command their summoned allies to act as Dante instructed the earth elemental. Before Iatril can say another word, Dante flies off towards a group of griffons on the ground.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Dante soars towards the first group of griffons, muttering under his breath. “Stupid dagger. Stupid griffons. Stupid changelings. They should be working for me!” Casting a spell, his body became enwreathed in frost. Casting another spell, fire springs forth in front of the griffons, cutting them off from the guards they were fighting and roasting a few of them alive. Dante slams into the back of one of them, pushing him into the springing flames and killing him. The other twelve remaining griffons start to surround him, but soon back off from fear of the frost and the overwhelming heat. While they were distracted, the guards came around the wall and flanked the griffons on both sides.

They made short work of the griffons, at which point Dante lowered the flames. Looking around, Dante counted the dead griffons.

“Only seventeen.” He mutters.

“Hey, thanks for the help.” One of the earth pony guards says to Dante, though keeping his distance.

“More.” Dante says without turning to face the pony.

“What?” The pony asks, taking a step back when Dante whips his head around, glaring at him.

“More.” He says again, approaching the guard.

“Up there!” Another guard says, pointing a hoof up into the sky. When Dante looks up, he sees a group of five pegasi being chased by at least fifteen changelings. Dante cracks a smile.

“That’ll do.” He says, taking off into the air. He flies up and positions himself several hundred feet in front of the pegasi. He motions his hand down and the pegasi follow, more than happy to have the changelings off of their tails. When the changelings get close to Dante, he casts another spell, sending out a huge wave of frost and frozen air at them, freezing the changelings in midflight.

Dante looks around him, content that he’s satisfied his bloodlust. The air elementals he and Iatril summoned were busy with their own groups of changelings and griffons, their whirlwind power most likely expended. His earth elemental is gliding through the street, chasing down a group of grounded griffons, when it suddenly disappears.

‘Hmmm. The spell must have expired. I must say, we turned this fight around pretty quickly.’

Just as he finished his though, a horn is blown. In the distance, Dante sees a griffon standing on the mountains next to the catapults, blowing on a horn. The griffons and changelings on the ground and in the air take off to the south, heading towards the mountains and beyond.

“Awe, don’t leave yet!” Dante calls out. “We were just starting to get to know each other!” Casting another spell, Dante fires a small, red bead from his fingertip towards the griffon on the mountain. The bead shoots straight into the horn, expanding and engulfing the griffon’s head in fire, melting it. The griffon falls over, no blood leaking from his cauterized wound.

‘Hey, that was a pretty good shot!’ Dante thinks to himself. Seeing his enemies out of his range for his most potent spells, he looks at the aftermath of the battle below him. Most building are either damaged or destroyed; bodies of ponies, changelings, and griffons alike line the streets; fires started from the flaming ammunition of the catapults have caught several other buildings on fire. ‘Well, I might as well help out with that.’

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

With the fires put out from the combined efforts of Dante, Iatril, and the local firefighters, the humanoids return to the partly frozen castle. In the courtyard of the castle, hundreds upon hundreds of ponies sat waiting for it to be safe again. Making their way to the throne room, they see Celestia coming out of the infirmary.

“I didn’t see you do too much fighting.” Dante says, coming to a stop right in front of the solar princess.

“Dante!” Iatril shouts, stepping next to him. “None of that! Not now. Besides, she spent half of the fight guarding Luna and your unconscious ass.”

Dante just looks over at her. “You just couldn’t let that go, could you?” He turns back to the princess. “Well, the enemy started to rout a couple minutes after we sent the elementals after them. No doubt they’ve never fought against things like that before. Some huge griffon was wearing some fine jewelry, or so I hear, but, when we checked, it was gone. I can only assume it’s the same one Shade stole from you.”

“That doesn’t matter!” Celestia yells at him. “How-how many of my little ponies…died?”

“How should I—” Dante starts, but is cut off when Iatril places her hand over his chest, shaking her head.

“We don’t know, Princess. We came straight here. From what I saw…many were killed. Perhaps hundreds. Only a handful looked injured as I saw them fleeing towards the castle.”

The look on Celestia’s face was beyond grim. “Hundreds…” She whispers, barely audible.

“I’m terribly sorry this has happened here.” Iatril speaks up again. “I know it won’t change much, but we can help rebuild the city and—”

“Yeah, no.” Dante interjects. “We’re not staying here.”

“Dante! What are you saying?” Iatril yells at the warlock. “The city has just been decimated and you want to leave them here? You can’t even get the changelings or the griffons on your side now!”

“No, you misunderstand. We aren’t staying here, as in this plane. We’re done here.”

“I—you—what?!”

“Yeah, we’re done. Pack your shit. The second I figure out how to bring us back to our world, we’re gone and not a second later.”

“WE CAN’T JUST LEAVE!” Iatril bellows at Dante. “We spent years chasing after Aselith and all of a sudden you’re oh, we’re done here?! How can you—”

“Are you blind!?” Dante snaps at her. “Look at my eyes! Can’t you tell? In case you didn’t notice, I didn’t use a single warlock power while I was out there. Do you know why? My powers are blocked!”

Iatril stares at her companion. “…what?”

“I can’t use my invocations right now. When Celestia blasted me, she knocked the fiend out from control, but nothing’s holding him in place right now. If I so much as fire off one blast or use even my weakest invocation, he’ll take control again. I’ll have to spend hours meditating to keep him in check every day! And without him giving me power, you know what happens next. Besides, I still can’t regain any divine magic. So, with our worst enemy more powerful than ever with not only the changelings and griffons backing him up, but also Discord’s power as soon as he tames it, how are we supposed to do anything when our strongest magic user, ME, has been all but crippled?”

Iatril says nothing.

“That’s what I thought.” He turns to face Celestia, fear present in her eyes. “Look, I’ll be completely honest with you. I want to stay and help; truly I do. But I require a very specific type of energy and it’s not something that you can just give me freely. Without it, I’m useless, not to mention dangerous. This is for the best. I’ll hole myself up in your library and try to figure out how to leave from whatever book I can find. I’ll give you a list of every power Aselith has and every spell he knows, but that’s it. You’ll be on your own.”

“Princess!” A unicorn guard calls out, running up to Celestia with his partner before bowing. “We have news about the mages!”

“What is it?” She asks with a tone of urgency in her voice.

“An explosion occurred in the mages tower. Everypony we found there is dead. Archmage Crescent Moon is missing.”

“If you don’t find him,” Dante interjects, “he’s likely defected to Aselith, willing or otherwise.”

“Also,” the second unicorn says hesitantly, “we found Captain Armor next to a pile of changelings… dead.”

“No.” Celestia breathes out, sitting on her haunches. “What do I tell Cadence? And Twilight?”

Sighing, Dante turns to Iatril. “Come on. I’ll need some help in the library.”

“Mr. Dante?” The first unicorn guard calls out. “I have something to inform you of as well.”

Dante turns to face the guard. “Yes, what is—” The guard cuts him off, sticking his horn into Dante’s chest. Before Iatril can react, the second guard lunges up and smashes his hoof into her face. A green ray is shot out from Dante’s back, right on the opposite side of the unicorn’s horn and right through his heart.

Dante stammers back, falling to the ground. The last words he heard were “Master Aselith says goodbye.”

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

“Dante!” Iatril screams out, shooting her hand into the guard that hit her, drawing out a green liquid. The guard fell over, bursting into a green flame before showing the corpse of a changeling. The second guard attempts to flee but is grabbed in a yellow aura and pinned to the wall. Iatril leaps right to him, grasping his neck in one hand.

The green flames come around this guard as well, revealing the impersonator changeling. “And you can tell that princess that her husband died mewling for mercy!”

With a quick push and a sickening crack, the changeling’s neck was snapped. Iatril stepped back and let it hang in the air before Celestia released her magic. Iatril steps over to Dante’s body and kneels down. She checks his throat for a pulse.

“He’s gone.” She says, standing up again.

Celestia looks her over, stepping closer to her. “I’m… so sorry for your loss.”

“No.” She says, leaning over and picking up Dante. “This body is dead. If Dante were truly dead, I would know.”

Puzzled, Celestia asks “So, where is he then?”

“I think he set one of his clones down below where he carved out that room for himself. He’s likely there. I’ll go give him his old body and begin working with him.” She bows and turns to leave.

“Wait!” Celestia says, stopping Iatril. “Will he truly leave?”

Iatril waits only a moment before continuing her walk.

END CHAPTER

Author's Note

Moral of the story: Don't piss of Dante, or he'll summon a 60,000 lb earth elemental over your head on drop it on your ass!

Well, chapter's up on time. Let me just go over my checklist here:
1. Dante gets stabbed twice...check
2. Hulk smash...check
3. Death and destruction...check
4. Profit........uh, nope
(I have no idea what I'm talking about )

What's next after the loss of Dante's powers? Why would I kill Shining Armor? Where IS Waldo? Tune in two weeks for the next chapter of A Demon, a Devil, and Ponies Z!

EDIT:: I must have had a massive brain fart since I forgot about the spell guessing game for 2 whole days. So, in this chapter, Dante was shown casting 7 spells, plus 2 Summon Monster spells that we're just going to ignore. If you can guess 5 of them, you'll win for this chapter. Post your answers in the comments.