“…and that completes my report, your highness.” The royal guard salutes, standing before his princess.

“Thank you, Lieutenant Fury.” Celestia replies, dismissing her guard.

After he left, Celestia sat alone upon her throne. She had dismissed her usual guards to help in the patrols around Canterlot, leaving her to deal with incoming reports and casualty listings for the past few hours.

Not only was her captain of the royal guard killed, but all of the archmages, with the exception of Crescent Moon, were slain as well. From what was gathered, the archmages appear to have been beaten in magic combat. The conclusion was easy enough to arrive at: Aselith. This man, this monster, was not only able to defeat all of her most powerful unicorns, but he had also allied the griffons and the changelings. This, of course, isn’t all that surprising, as griffon nobles have their own militias and are loyal to the crown as long as their political power remains intact. If Aselith can defeat all the archmages of Equestria and make off with the statue of Discord, then surely he can give the griffon nobles greater power, political or otherwise.

“Your highness?” Iatril calls out, entering the throne room.

“Yes, Iatril? What is it?” Celestia responds.

“I have finished clearing the debris from the streets and have healed everypony I could. Several shops have been restored while others will need new supports, which I can replace tomorrow. Is there anything else I can do for you today?”

“Is there anything you can do for my sister?”

“Not today. I’ll prepare the necessary spells for tomorrow and return in the morning. Raven and Flurry will be working with Dante, if that’s alright with you.”

“Yes, of course.” Celestia rises from her throne, walking towards Iatril. “Tell me, though, and please be honest. Without Dante, what are the chances of us defeating Aselith?”

Iatril shakes her head. “I don’t know how to answer that. Even with Dante at full power, it would be a difficult fight. First, you’d have to get past everything Aselith would throw at you. The griffons, the changelings, not to mention any elementals and undead he controls.”

“Elementals? Undead?”

“Recall the form I took when we first met. That was an air elemental. If you saw our fighting earlier, we had an earth elemental under our command. There is also fire and water. They were summoned from their respective elemental planes, so I suppose our plane and your plane are similar in that regard. Undead, however, are mockeries of all that is beautiful in the world. They are brought back to life through foul magic and some can drain the life of creatures. However, Dante would know more about them than me. He’s the only one here who’s made legions of them.”

“He—” Celestia starts, but stops herself. “No, I should expect this.”

“I know it’s wrong and I hate working with them, but I’ll admit that we would have met our end many times over if Dante hadn’t created so many to work for us. Now, if that’s all, I shall be taking my leave, Your Highness.”

Iatril turns to leave, letting the princess of the sun be alone with her thoughts.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

News of the attack on Canterlot spread quickly. By the time Iatril arrived in Ponyville, the whole town had already heard the news. The ponies pressed her for answers, but Iatril avoided everypony, especially one particular lilac unicorn, though she was nowhere to be seen. She had quickly made her way to Fluttershy’s cottage, barely acknowledging her host as she hid herself in the guest room, shutting herself off from the world around her and sitting on the bed.

Wanting to get her rest over with quickly, she entered her trance. In it, she went through her normal exercises. Namely, reliving her experiences from today. While in her trance, she could see and hear everything from before more clearly: the roar of the fires, the screams for help, and the blood of the changeling killed by her hands. She could even feel the snap of the neck from the last changeling she killed. Every experience, every sensation, was played over and over again in her mind for hours.

When her so called rest was over, Iatril stood from the bed and made her way downstairs.

“Fluttershy?” She calls out. The house gave no reply.

Iatril went to the back of the house and looked outside.

“Fluttershy?” She calls again, and is met with silence again. The setting sun slowly moves over the horizon, signaling the end of the day. Seeing as she is already rested, Iatril took to the street in search of her host.

As she crossed the small river in front of Fluttershy’s cabin, she could see the town before her, completely empty. Well, more accurately, the streets were deserted. As she moved through the streets, she could see ponies in their homes either walking around or peeking out at her. Some of the houses even had boarding over the windows.

Eventually, Iatril found herself standing outside Ponyville Library. The inside was lit up and she could see somepony inside; it looked like it was Applejack. Not knowing where else to look, Iatril walked up to the door and knocked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a swirl of pink in the window right before the door opened and a yellow pegasus wrapped her hooves around her.

“Are you alright?!” Fluttershy yells out, looking up at Iatril. “After you came back, I heard Canterlot was attacked and when you weren’t coming out of your room, even after I tried knocking, and—”

“I’m alright.” Iatril says calmly, setting her hand on Fluttershy’s head. “I just…had a lot on my mind.”

“Are you sure?” Fluttershy asks, looking at Iatril’s various bruises and setting her hooves back onto the ground.

“I’m sure.” Iatril says with a smile. “What’s going on here anyway? I thought I saw Applejack through the window before and now I see you’re here. Did something…oh.”

Fluttershy looks to the ground. “Twilight hasn’t said a word in hours. We’re really worried.”

“Who’s we?” Iatril asks.

“Me, Rarity, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, and Spike. We’ve been trying to talk to Twilight, but she’s just lying on the couch. We don’t know what else we can do. Maybe you could—”

“I, uh, don’t think I should come in.” Iatril says, taking a step back.

“Why not?”

“I’ll just be a reminder of what’s happened. Also…there are a few topics I’d like to avoid in regards to Sir Armor. I’ll just head back to your cottage.”

“Oh…alright. Will you be okay by yourself?”

“Yeah. You should stay with Twilight, at least until she gets better. I’m heading back to Canterlot in the morning, so if you aren’t back by then, I’ll come by here.”

“Okay. Well, goodnight then.” Fluttershy says, retreating back into the library.

“Goodnight.” Iatril says, turning as the door closes. She quickly makes her way through town and back to Fluttershy’s cottage.

It’s quiet inside the cottage. Perfectly quiet. Iatril takes a seat on the floor, crossing her legs and relaxing her breathing. She decides to meditate on the events of the day, rather than reliving them again through her trance. She sat there, thinking about the lives she took today, and the lives she would inevitably have to take to end this journey.

‘It’ll all be worth it.’ She hums to herself. ‘Dante will change his mind, and then we’ll keep going. It’ll all be worth it.’

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Morning came quickly for Iatril, who was lost in her thoughts until light passed through a window and into her eyes. Rising from her position on the floor, she stretched her body, giving a few cracks, before surveying her surroundings. She figured Fluttershy stayed with Twilight and her friends, given that she would have noticed her return. Deciding to get her day started, she pulled one of her transmutated berries from a pouch and popped it in her mouth as she left the cottage. She went straight into the Everfree Forest.

She didn’t travel for too long. About ten minutes in, she saw the large timberwolf ahead of her. She cast her spell and spoke to it.

“Greetings, forest sentinel.” She says.

“What has become of your companion?” The timberwolf asks sternly.

“What do you mean?”

“Great…evil…has…been…unleashed.” The forest creaks out.

“How could you possibly know that?”

“We…are…everywhere.”

“The forest can sense what happens near any plant in Equestria. However, there are few plants in the mountain city.” The timberwolf walks closer to her. “Now, answer our question.”

“He…lost control for a minute. Now his powers are crippled.” Iatril says, looking over at the vines crawling along the forest floor towards her.

“And what of your enemy?” The timberwolf asks, circling Iatril.

“He escaped, though most likely with some injury.” The vines on the ground wrapped themselves around Iatril’s feet and some vines in the trees came down around her hands. The familiar green glow began coming out of them, feeding Iatril her magic. “With Dante weaker, though, I should stay in Canterlot for the time being. Otherwise, something might happen to him.”

“So, the dark one is weak?” A rumbling voice calls out.

Iatril turns her head to see a very large green dragon moving around the trees towards her.

“Who are…wait. You’re the dragon Dante fought, aren’t you?!” She yells at the dragon.

“The same.” He speaks again in his low voice. “When the forest said something happened in Canterlot, I thought the Great Discord had escaped again. How interesting that our…friend was the one that caused the disturbance.”

“You can speak with the forest?” Iatril asks, trying to move her hands from the vines. They don’t budge an inch.

“Indeed. I have lived within this forest for most of my life. It is only natural that I learn to commune with it. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to get to Canterlot.” He turns and moves to an empty area in the forest, clear of branches overhead.

“What? NO!” Iatril yells, pulling at her vines, trying to break free. Before she can get loose, the dragon takes a running start and flies into the air towards the mountains. “Forest! Please release me!”

“Not…finished” It creaks out.

“Please! I need to go!”

“Wait.”

No matter how much she pulled, the vines wouldn’t loosen their grip. After a few minutes of glowing, the vines dimmed and released her. Not waiting a second longer, Iatril casts her spell over her amulet, taking the form of a huge golden dragon and flying up after the dragon. He was ahead of her by a few miles, but that only spurred her on. She raced on after him.

After over twenty minutes of flight, Iatril reaches the castle. Fully expecting the castle to be under attack, she didn’t expect to see the dragon standing in the courtyard, facing away from the castle. Lowering herself down into the courtyard, she keeps her gaze fixed on the dragon.

“What are you doing?” She asks in a low voice.

“I am guarding the castle.” The dragon replies, not even looking at her.

“…why?” Iatril asks, not letting her guard down.

“Master Dante is in a weakened state. So, I shall guard the castle from any attack.”

Iatril looks at him incredulously, reverting back to her own form. “I thought you came to get revenge on him for forcing you into service.”

“Not at all.” He says, turning his neck to look down at Iatril. “We may have fought before, but Master Dante agreed to train me in magic if I served him in his battles to come.”

Iatril puts her hand over her face. “Of course he did. I don’t know why I thought otherwise. It’s exactly like him to pull something like this and not tell me.” She looks around the courtyard before turning her attention back to the dragon. “Where are the guards?”

“I ate them.” He says calmly.

Iatril takes a step back before calming herself. “I see you have the same sense of humor as Dante.”

The dragon smiles at her. “Indeed. There were no guards in the courtyard when I arrived. One came, saw me and ran back inside before I could explain anything. If you would be so kind, could you inform the princesses of the reason for my presence here?”

“Yeah, sure.” She says, heading towards the entrance. “If anything does come to attack, give a roar and I’ll be right out.”

Entering the castle foyer, Iatril sees a group of guards watching the dragon. She informs them of the situation, relieving them of their anxiety before continuing to the infirmary. The first order of business for her is to heal Luna properly. Well, that and informing Celestia of the dragon, apparently. Both goals seemed to coincide, as Celestia was sitting alone in the infirmary with her sister when Iatril walked in.

“Greetings, Your Highness.” Iatril says, walking up to Celestia with a bow.

“Good morning, Iatril.” She replies. “You may not be the one to ask, but I’ll ask anyway. Why is there a dragon guarding the castle?”

“Apparently, Dante is on good terms with the dragon he fought before. Of course, he neglected to tell me this.”

“I see. It’s good that he met the dragon then.” Celestia looks over at her sister, who is resting in a bed with bandages wrapped around her burns and wings. She was hooked up to a heart monitor, which gave a steady beat, and an I.V. attached to one of her legs. “Are you able to help my sister now?”

“Of course.” Iatril says, walking over to the princess’s bed. She was about to cast her spell before the machine caught her eye. “Um, I don’t me to prolong this, but what is that thing attached to her?”

“That’s a heart monitor.” Celestia responds, pointing at the machine. “It shows her pulse on the screen. The pouch of liquid is used to numb the pain.”

“Heart…monitor…” Iatril says, looking over the machine. “Simply amazing. Now, I don’t possess the spell necessary to remove her affliction, but I may be able to get past it. I’ll simply cast my spell over and over again until it works.” Iatril cast her spell and placed her hand on Luna. Instantly, a black energy comes up from where she touched Luna and pushes her hand back, dissipating the spell and lightly burning Iatril’s hand. Again, she casts her spell and places her hand on Luna, only for the same thing to happen again.

Two more attempts later, the energy almost overcomes her hand again, but is pushed aside as the healing energy overcomes Luna. She wakes up with a start, gasping for breath. She looks around with wide eyes at the room around her before settling on Iatril.

“What happened?! Where’s Aselith?!” She yells in a more than loud voice, blowing Iatril back a little from the force of it.

Celestia walks over to her sister. “Easy, Luna.” She says, placing a hoof over her sister’s shoulder. “The fighting is done for now.”

“But what happened?!” She yells again.

“Aselith…hit you with a powerful spell.” Iatril says, stepping forward. “After that, Dante and I took care of the invading griffons and changelings. You’ve been asleep for a whole day and—”

“A whole day!?” She shouts out in her powerful voice again. “What. Happened!?”

“Auntie?” A voice comes from the open door. Turning, Iatril sees Cadence standing in the doorway. Her hair was ragged and her eyes looked sunken in.

“Cadence…” Celestia says quietly.

“Cadence?” Luna asks, looking over at her niece. “Are you well, dear? You look like you haven’t slept in days.”

“Luna.” Celestia whispers to her sister. “Shining Armor was killed in the attack yesterday.”

Luna looks over at her niece, unable to say a word.

“You healed her.” Cadence says, stepping forward, towards Iatril.

“Yes.” Iatril responds. “I’ve shown you my healing powers…before…” She peters off, remembering when she did perform healing in front of Cadence.

“Does that mean…you can do more than heal injuries?” Cadence asks, walking right up to Iatril, who began walking backwards.

“What…what do you mean?” Iatril asks, slowly approaching the nearby wall.

“Dante died. I saw you carrying his body in the hallway yesterday. Now he’s in the library, reading, alive.” Cadence stops walking forward as Iatril is already pressed against the wall. “You brought him back, didn’t you?”

“N-No. That’s something Dante prepared ahead of time.” Iatril says, trying to look anywhere but at Cadence. “Look, we really should—”

“But you can bring him back, right?” Cadence gets right up in Iatril’s face, visibly shaking. “You can bring back Shiny.”

“I…no. If I do it, there’s no telling what he’ll come back as. He could be a unicorn, or a pegasus, or even a griffon. There’s no telling—”

“Then what about Dante?!”

“He can’t either. Not right now. He’s too weak. Now please—” Iatril tries to get around her, but Cadence moves to the side, stopping her.

“What does he need?!” Cadence yells.

“Cadence, don’t do this.” Celestia says, walking over to her niece.

“Please, whatever he needs, I’ll get it for him! If he needs supplies or some magic potion or anything, I’ll get it for him! Please! I’ll do anything to—”

“Don’t say that!” Iatril yells, startling Cadence into stepping back. “Please, don’t say such a thing to me!” Iatril takes a step forward, shaking. “Believe me, I want to help you, but you don’t understand what you’re offering me. I want to accept it so badly it hurts, but I can’t do that to you, or Shining Armor.”

“What do you mean?” Celestia asks. “What is it Dante needs?”

Iatril looks up at her sorrowfully. “He needs the souls of outsiders.”

Celestia stares at Iatril, unblinking. “You mean…”

“Like you or Luna; probably Cadence too.” Iatril looks away. “Without that, he can’t use most of his magic, let alone control the monster in him.”

The room quickly grows silent. Cadence looks at Celestia for a moment before turning away.

“I’m sorry about this.” Iatril says, walking around Cadence. “I have to get to work in the city. If you’ll excuse me Princess Cadence, Princess Celestia, Princess…Luna?” When she looks over at the bed, all she sees are a few bandages on the sheets.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Luna stood right outside the library, fixed on the sight before her. Several maids and workers were standing outside the library, as well as a few guards, looking in through the cracked open door.

“What’s going on here?” She asks loudly, startling the ponies in front of her. The two guards quickly took back their posts, standing at attention on either side of the doorway while the others quickly scampered away.

“Apologies, Your Highness.” One of the guards states. “We were…observing the human.”

“I see.” Luna says, opening the door with her magic before passing through. “Carry on.”

Both guards were confused for a moment before going back to looking in at Dante.

Luna walked over to the table he was sitting at. He had his back turned to her and was wearing his cloak’s hood over his head. A wooden staff sat propped up against the table. It looked to be same one Iatril had been carrying around before. Raven stood on the table in front of him, reading aloud from the book in front of Dante.

“…but such teleportation spells have never been attempted, due to the high risk involved. Star Swirl believed there exists creatures, perhaps even unicorns, that could move through these planes at will, although no proof of any such creature has been found. He even…uh, Dante?” Raven paused, looking up at the princess.

“What?” Dante asks, though his voice sounds lower and even…softer.

“Luna…I mean Nightmare Moon is here.”

“Yes, I heard her before she entered.” He speaks out slower than normal. “Continue reading.”

“Um, alright. He even went so far as to claim—”

“Dante.” Luna says, interrupting Raven’s reading. “We need to talk.”

“No, we don’t. Raven, continue.”

“This is important, Dante!” Luna stands right next to him, yelling down at him. “Iatril spoke with us this morning.”

“That so? I’m sure you had a nice conversation.”

“She told us what you needed to use your magic.”

“Fascinating. Now, unless you’re offering yourself to me, we have nothing further to talk about. Unless, of course, you’re just here to say what a horrid creature I am.”

“Stop being so arrogant for just one minute! I think I know how to help you.”

Dante is silent for a moment. “Raven, go take a break.” Not missing a beat, the bird flies off of the table and through the nearby door. “You might as well take a seat.” He nods at the chair across from him. Luna walks over and sits in it, looking over the scattered books on the table. They’re all open at various parts, seeming to be about planar travel. “Now, what could you possibly have to help?” He doesn’t remove his hood from his head; he just keeps his face concealed; even his hands are hidden in the sleeves of his tunic and rest right in front of the open book.

“You require creatures made of essence other than that of this plane, correct?” Luna asks.

“Yeah. What of it?”

“There is a place in Equestria that leads to the underworld, a place filled with vile creatures and great evil. Surely one of these creatures is an outsider. I can take you there and we can get it.”

Dante hesitates for a second. “Do you realize what you’re saying? You’re basically talking about killing something and feeding me its corpse. Does that not bother you?”

“It does, but something must be done. You’re very powerful and we need your help.” Luna could almost feel a smile creep onto Dante’s face.

“Why Princess, you surprise me! The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few? Last time I heard that, a king was willing to let a town be invaded so his army could flank Aselith’s. But I suppose it must be done.”

Luna let her mouth hang open. “You…you conceited bastard! I’m trying to help you!!”

“Thanks, but no thanks. Besides, it’s not as simple as you make it. I need to cast a spell to store the creature's soul for the ritual. I was lucky enough to have a scroll of that spell on this plane before I lost my powers, but there’s no way I can cast it.”

“I’ll cast the spell!” Luna retorts quickly. “Give me the scroll and I’ll cast it.”

“Assuming you can. Besides, I’m in no position to fight anything—” Dante leans over, entering a coughing fit. He quickly covers his mouth with his hand, trying to hold it back. After a few moments, he rests his hand on the table. There were two things wrong with it. Firstly, his hand was completely covered in blood. Second, his hand was wrinkled and worn.

Concerned, Luna lit up her horn and gently grabbed Dante’s hood in her magic, pulling it up. Dante’s face was worn and old as well. His goatee was white as snow and stretched down to his chest. His hair was also white, running down the sides of his face and past his beard. His eyes were a cloudy and grey, showing little life in them.

Eventually, words slowly leave Luna’s mouth. “What happened to you?”

Dante sighs, wiping his bloody hand on his cloak. “It’s called ‘Demon Rot’. It’s a disease only the demonic race can get. When infected, a demon’s body will age until it’s grown too old to move and falls apart. When they do, their soul is destroyed, forever, considering the fact that their body and soul are one in the same. It’s not curable. To prevent this death, a demon will return to its home plane, the Abyss, and hurl itself into what’s called the Well of Cleansing. It will fall through every layer of the Abyss it can until its body can take no more and it’s killed. When that happens, depending on how far it makes it in the well, it will be reborn as a more powerful demon. Only infected demons can use the well. All others will be eradicated. It’s a sort of blessing to demons.

“Without realizing it at the time, I bonded an infected demon to my soul. When my body began to rapidly age, I had to use the energy I stored from other demons to suppress the effects. That started a real struggle between me and Aselith. Since I was using more energy, I had to hunt down demons more often. During those times, Aselith would go on the move, conquering lands or relocating. If I focused too much on stopping Aselith, well…you weren’t conscious when it happened, but it’s nothing good, I assure you.

“And now, here I am; my body is nearly at its end, with no spares I can transfer into. I calculate I have about two weeks before I die. My eyesight is gone, so I can’t prepare more arcane spells, except for the few I’ve trained myself in preparing without my book. Since my warlock powers are tied to the soul energy I have, those are blocked. And, of course, I still can’t regain divine magic. Between the fight yesterday and dying twice, I hardly have any variety in my spells.”

“Twice?” Luna asks.

“Aselith cast a spell called ‘Disjunction’ on me. It breaks apart any spell or magic in the area. When it hit me, and my form got distorted, my soul was separated from my body for an instant. When my body and soul rejoined, it felt the same as coming back to life. Whenever a spellcaster is brought back, they lose about half the spells they had prepared. So, not only will you have to cast the spell yourself, but you’ll have to do all the fighting too.”

“I think not.” Luna says, standing from her chair and walking around the table. “While I was lying in bed, I overheard Iatril mention something about a dragon in Canterlot. This wouldn’t be the same dragon that you have working for you, now would it?”

Dante leans back in his seat. “Interesting. I’m surprised he came here so quickly. If it is him then we would be much better off. Hmmm.”

“How about it then, Dante? If I can restore your powers, will you stay and fight?”

“If you restore my powers?” Dante looks in Luna’s general direction. “I would say…fifty-fifty chance of me staying.”

“Honestly.” Luna says with a sigh, looking at Dante with a smirk. “It’s better than nothing, I suppose. We have a deal.”

END CHAPTER

Author's Note

Come to the dark side, Luna. We have cookies here! Or not. I mean, they are evil creatures that likely kill for fun or the like. Come to the grey side, Luna. We have...rice cakes? Hmmm.

Anyways, here's the next chapter y'all. The secret is out: Dante needs to om nom on souls for power. I wonder what Celestia's gonna do about that. Wehehell, if what I've seen other authors do in this sort of situation is any indication, then there may be some hilarity in Dante's future. *Wink* *Wink* *Nudge* *Nudge* Hell, someone might even get stabbed......again.

See you in about 2 weeks.