“What a wash.” Dante says, flying over some of the lower buildings with Luna beside him.

“What do you mean?” She asks.

“I’m talking about this battle. All these troops, all these resources, wasted for no gain.”

“There was a gain! You saw Twilight!” She flies faster, getting in front of Dante to face him.

“That’s just temporary. Now, if you or Celestia were killed…” Dante pauses, looking up for a moment, “Shit, where is she?”

“She’s not dead, if that’s what you mean.” Luna resumes her flight next to him. “I can feel her.”

“Ah, good then.”

The pair flies down to a group of guards, who’ve just finished off an undead griffon.

“Hail, guardsman!” Dante says with a wave as they land. “How goes the fight?”

The guard gives the quickest of bows to Luna before responding.

“The fight goes well, surprisingly. After these monsters started attacking, the living griffons fled. The changelings continued fighting, but their numbers were already dwindling. Our group has only one injured guard, no deaths.”

“Really?” Dante asks, looking over the troops. “Wow. I must admit, I thought more of you would have died and…did you say the griffons were retreating?”

After briefly glaring at Dante, the guard continues. “Yes, they started to rout almost immediately after the dead began coming back to life.”

“Hmmm. Odd. I’ll have to ask my prisoner about this.” Dante turns in place, starting towards the castle.

“What—Dante!” Luna yells, teleporting in front of him. “You aren’t doing that again!”

“Relax; I’m not going to torture her. She already resigned herself to death anyway when she attacked me. I could see it in her eyes.” Dante walks around Luna, continuing on. “I’m just going to have a few words with her and hopefully figure out what the hell is going on here.”

A roar from behind grabs his attention. Turning around, Dante sees a guard be flung at a building, slamming into it and falling to the ground. He looks at the group and sees a second guard be slammed into the ground as a large white wolf bites into the guard’s neck.

“Flurry?” Dante takes a few steps closer to the wolf before stopping in place. “Oh, Flurry. Why?”

Flurry looks at him with hunger and lunges forward. His claws come at Dante, who grabs his paws. Dante is pushed back by the momentum and falls on his back. Flurry goes for his throat but Dante teleports away from him, ending up next to Luna again.

“What’s going on?” Luna ask, her stance lowered and her horn alight with magic.

“Flurry…is dead.” Dante says slowly. “I could feel the negative energy in his paws.”

Flurry lunges at Dante again, but this time a stone hand erupts from the road and grabs Flurry. Dante takes a few steps toward the wolf and looks him over. As he does so, Flurry snarls and snaps at him, trying to bite into him.

“Why? Why couldn’t you just stay in the castle?” Dante stops next to Flurry’s head. He brings up his hand, charging it with magic.

“What’s the problem?” Luna asks, taking a few steps towards Dante. “Can’t you just bring him back like you will with Twilight?”

“He won’t come back.” Dante says, bringing his hand closer to Flurry. “He has a strong opinion about life and death. He’ll refuse the offer.” Dante takes in a breath and lets it out slowly.

With a flick of his wrist, a jet of fire springs forth from Dante’s outstretched hand and pours over Flurry. His fur melts to his flesh as it burns. Dante lowers his hand as Flurry continues to burn, his thrashing beginning to slow until he finally stops. Dante dispels the stone hand, releasing Flurry’s corpse.

“Iatril will be devastated.” Dante says, walking over to the burning corpse and snuffing the flames with his magic.

“I’m sorry for your loss.” Luna says, lowering her head.

“Not my loss.” Dante grabs Flurry, flinging him over his shoulder with a grunt. “He never liked me. Anyway, It looks like the bulk of the fighting is done. We might as well head back to the castle.”

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Iatril sat on the floor in the throne room of Castle Canterlot. A pair of guards stood at the doorway to the room. In the center, Twilight’s body lay limp with four of her friends around her. The only one of the group not there was Rainbow Dash, who had disappeared deeper into the castle after seeing Twilight. Despite her best attempts, Iatril couldn’t lift their spirits.

The guards saluted as Luna walked through the doorway.

“Princess.” Iatril says as she stands. Twilight’s friends look up as well. “Is the fighting done?”

“Yes. The undead have been stopped and the living have retreated.” Luna says, averting her eyes.

“What’s wrong then?” Iatril asks. “If you’re worried about Twilight, Dante will…” She trails off as she sees Dante walk through the doorway with Flurry over his shoulder.

Dante just looks at her as he continues walking, not stopping until he’s near the center of the room. He sets Flurry’s corpse on the ground before taking a few steps back. Iatril takes a step towards Flurry; then another. With a burst of speed, she rushes to his body and kneels next to it, grabbing hold of him. She runs her hand over his burnt flesh, holding his head in her arm.

“W-When did this happen?” Iatril asks softly.

“He attacked some guards and me a few minutes ago. He was a wight when he attacked, so he must have been killed earlier in the fight.” Dante walks over to Twilight, looking over her corpse.

Iatril continues holding Flurry’s head in her arms. Fluttershy walked over to Iatril and put a hoof over her back.

“What happens now?” Rarity asks aloud.

“Now?” Dante cracks his fingers, the sound bouncing around the large room. “I begin the resurrection process for Twilight, we burn Flurry’s corpse, and we make plans to murder the son-of-a-bitch responsible for this.” Dante gives a thumbs up to the group. “It’s as easy as that.”

Hoofsteps are heard in the room as a down trot Rainbow Dash walks in with Shade Strider right next to her.

“Shade?” Dante calls out. “What perfect timing! Do you—”

“YOU!” Rainbow yells, pointing a hoof at Dante. She leaps into the air and slams into Dante, pushing him into a wall. “This is all your fault!”

Dante adjusts himself with Rainbow’s hooves pushing into his chest. “What a weird coincidence. I was just talking about—”

“SHUT UP!” Rainbow slams a hoof into Dante’s face, drawing blood.

“Rainbow, stop!” Applejack yells to her friend.

“You seem to be upset about something.” Dante slightly slurs out. His voice corrects itself as he continues. “Whatever is the matter?”

“YOU’RE the matter!” She bellows. “If you didn’t come here with that monster, Twilight…”

“What~?” Dante draws out the question. “Is that all?”

He’s met with another punch in his face, cracking his nose.

“Rainbow, darling, please!” Rarity tries calling to her friend.

“You must not have a good memory.” Dante says with a smile and blood running from his mouth.

“ENOUGH!” Luna calls out with her Canterlot voice just as Rainbow is about to strike again. “Stop instigating, Dante, and tell her.”

Dante teleports from his spot, reappearing next to Luna.

“You’re no fun.” Dante rolls his eyes at Luna. “Anyway, I’ll begin the process of bringing Twilight back to life.” He says, looking at Rainbow.

He teleports again, only to reappear about half a minute later, carrying a small sack in his hand. He walks to the side of the room and draws his needle from his belt. He swishes the needle in the air, hovering up and drawing a large vertical circle in the air as he does so. Once he finishes, he sets his hand on the circle and pushes lightly. It moves slowly with a large glass cylinder appearing from the circle. Teal liquid fills the cylinder with a few bubbles floating around in it. The bottom of the cylinder is made of iron and the top has an iron lid over it. Once the cylinder is completely out of the circle, he closes the portal and puts away the needle.

Dante casually walks past Twilight’s friends to her body. He kneels over her and pulls out a dagger.

“Now, I’ll take a small bit of flesh from Twilight.” He says as he does so, taking the flesh from one of her hooves. He juggles with the bag and the flesh as he sheathes the dagger, walking back over to the tank of liquid. With the flick of his wrist, the lid is lifted up slightly and moved over, exposing a small opening in the tank.

“And now, I will begin the lengthy and arduous procedure.” He says with his arms extended to each side of him, holding the bit of flesh in one hand and the bag in the other. He holds his pose for a moment, facing the group, before bringing his hands together. He opens the sack, pours a bit of the powder onto the flesh, casts a quick spell, and lobs the bit of flesh into the tank. He levitates the lid back into position and then claps his hands.

“Phew!” He says, wiping imaginary sweat from his brow. “That was some hard work right there.”

“That IT!?” Rainbow yells at him.

“Yep.” Dante glides away from the cylinder, nearing the group. “In two to eight months, we’ll have a shiny new Twilight Sparkle.”

“She will be the same Twilight Sparkle as before, correct?” Luna asks, gesturing to Twilight’s corpse.

“Of course! Now, if need be, I can move the container somewhere else, but not in my pocket dimension. It won’t grow there and, on the off chance I should die, all the contents of the pocket dimension will come spilling out all at once. The cylinder may break if that happens.” Dante shimmies towards the grey pegasus in the doorway. “Now, my stealthy friend, have you obtained any information?”

“You know it.” Shade states proudly. “I’ve found out that—”

“Master!” A voice sounds throughout the room. The Marilith appears in the doorway, quickly slithering past shade and Dante. “I am pursued!”

No sooner does she enter the room, a large, blue, spider-like monster appears just outside of the room, barely three feet from Dante. It brings up its front two legs to strike him. In an instant, two narrow beams of white fire shoot through the spider’s head and crash into the nearby wall, burning the stone. The spider sways in place before falling over. A small bit of steam rises from Dante’s eyes.

Luna looks over at Dante, noting the steam. “Have you always been able to shoot energy from your eyes?”

Dante spins in place to face the princess. “Of course I have. I just never had the need to use energy that quickly until now.” He looks over at the Marilith. “And as for you. Being chased down by a bebilith? I’m quite disappointed in—”

Mid-sentence, three more spiders appear behind him, swiftly piercing his back as they pile onto him and eliciting a loud cry from him. Shade had jumped clear of the conflict, remaining aloft in the air above. One of the spiders looks at the group of ponies before it and charges towards them. Before it can even get close, Luna grabs it in her magic and slams it into a nearby wall, stunning it. A second demon removes itself from Dante and charges as well. This time, it’s thrown across the room by a punch from Iatril.

The last spider is striking at Dante, who is doing his best to keep the beast from tearing open his throat. Regaining his focus, he teleports away from it and hovers in the center of the room. Weaving magic into his hands, he casts a spell. The three living spiders disappear from the room.

Dante lowers himself to the ground, casting another spell to heal his wounds.

“What in Tartarus was that!?” Luna calls out, looking over everyone to make sure they weren’t injured.

“Those were bebiliths, demons that eat demons.” Dante rubs his shoulder where a clawed leg had cut into him. He looks over at the Marilith, who’s hunched over due to her wounds. “Did they teleport in here?”

“Yes, my lord.” She replies ghastly. “I tried distancing myself when I started becoming overwhelmed, but they followed right after me.”

“Strange. They shouldn’t be able to do that.” Dante says, walking over to the remaining bebilith corpse. He pulls a black gemstone from his pocket and casts a spell over the demon, absorbing its body into the gem. He replaces the gemstone in his pocket. “Man, that little fight made me all giddy!” He chirps, shaking his hands in front of him. “Anyway, Shade? Your report?” He looks up at the floating pegasus.

Shade looks down, speechless. “Uh…right.” He lowers himself to the ground, looking up at Dante. “I’ve found where Aselith is hiding.”

Dante swiftly grabs Shade, swinging him in the air. “You did?! That’s amazing! That’s the best news I’ve had in weeks! We can kill him before dinner!”

“Where is he?” Iatril demands.

“What’s it matter to you?” Dante asks, jovially. “You’re not going to fight him.”

Iatril glares at Dante, curling her hands into fists. “What?”

“You’re not.” Dante holds shade at his side, a dumb look on the confused pegasus’ face. “You’d just be in the way.”

“You think you can stop me from fighting him?!” She gets closer to Dante, bringing up her fists.

“Two words: no magic. You can’t even fly.” Dante says, slowly flying up in the air.

Iatril simply grunts and slams her palms together. She quickly pulls them apart to reveal her staff. Grabbing it from the air, she points it at Dante.

“I have this!” She yells up at him.

“Ah, yes. You have a staff that can be disjoined with a single spell, or knocked away from your grasp.” Dante lowers to the ground again. He sets Shade on the ground before continuing. “Besides that, you aren’t thinking clearly; Flurry just died; you’re grieving. You think I’d let you go gallivanting with me to kill Aselith?”

“I don’t care what you’ll let me do! I’m going!” Iatril holds the staff right at Dante’s face.

Sighing, Dante holds his head in his hand. “Alright, alright. Give me your amulet. I’ll work something out with your nulled magic.”

With a small smirk, Iatril removes her jade amulet and tosses it at Dante.

“Aren’t you being a bit rash with this, Dante?” Luna asks. “Should we plan this attack out more?”

“There’s not enough time.” Dante pockets the amulet. “More sooner than later, Aselith will change locations, especially if he suspects his location is known. But we aren’t leaving right away. I need to make a few preparations, plus question the griffon I caught; loose ends and all that.”

“Hey, that’s right!” Rainbow exclaims, flying over to Dante. “Why is Gilda here?”

“Who?” Dante looks up at the floating pegasus.

“Gilda. The griffon that’s being held by the guards upstairs. Why’s she here?”

“You know here? Excellent! You can join me in questioning her.”

“Excuse me, lord.” The Marilith says, slowly slithering forward. “I don’t wish to interrupt you, but my wounds are quite severe. I fear I may succumb to them without healing.”

“Right, right.” He says, walking over to the demon. “That would make it rather difficult for you to fight.”

He places his hand on the Marilith’s shoulder. The demon looks at his hand and back to his face. As she goes to speak, Dante pulls out his sword and stabs her through the chest.

“Gah!” She cries out, slowing moving one of her arms up to grab hold of the sword. “You …bas…tard…” Violet blood trickles from her mouth and wound.

“Sorry, but I have no further use for you. Loose ends and all that.” Dante says with a smile.

As the Marilith brings up a sword to strike him, Dante charges his own with eldritch magic, bursting the demon’s chest open. With a soft hiss, the demon falls over, dead. Dante sweeps back his cloak and pulls a scroll case from the back of his belt. Sheathing his sword, he opens the case and unfurls the scroll, casting a spell over the Marilith. Its body is absorbed into the scroll, which quickly crumples up and solidifies into a black gemstone. Dante pockets this as well.

“And now, we mourn the loss of this quasi-fine demon.” Dante lowers his head for a couple seconds before perking right back up. “Well, the moment has passed. On to the griffon!”

END CHAPTER

Author's Note

Oh, sure. Get mauled by three demon-eating spider demons and treat it as just another day at the office. Yep.

As you can see, I was a bit silly with the links today. As I was writing it, I thought "Gee, I think it would be funny if he made a noise like that" and here we are. Hell, I ended the chapter there just so I could throw in another one. (Also to try and get this out sooner. Still trying to make that 2 weeks thing work.) At the end of the day, if I get a cheap laugh out of you, I think it was worth it.

Someone call PETA, we're down a wolf! Some may think Dante was too flippant about Flurry's death. To you I say 2 things: 1) All will be explained in time, and 2) Dante is f***ing crazy. (See above comment about mauling.)

Also, it appears I'm a liar. I told you you'd find out about Necroikos this time around and it wasn't even mentioned. Poor planning on my part? Perhaps. Am I making everything up as I go? Perhaps. Although, technically, I said "tune in next time (just like dragonball z) to find out!" As anyone who watched Dragonball Z can tell you, fights last forever and a planet takes 10 episodes to blow up in 5 minutes. So, really, I'm only only a half-liar. I also said "What lies are upon us!?!" And there was the lie. It's all part of my theory of Quantum Lies.

Anyway, I've digressed enough. Hopefully next chapter out in a week.