Chapter 21: The Demons Part 1
The two ponies walked through the deepest places of hell for what seemed an eternity and finally they arrived at the border to the demon's area. Their territory was marked out by a large sign beside the path: No trespassing! Area of the demons. Ponies will be killed.
"I can't go with you," Apocalypse said stopping at an invisible line next to the sign, "I won't risk my life again to get my revenge."
"I do understand you; demons can be frightening especially if they're angry," Firebolt answered, "But I have a plan to turn former foes into friends."
"Good luck!"
"Thanks," the stallion said and swallowed before he trotted slowly into the area of the demons. The deeper he walked into their territory, the more craggy the landscape got. After two hundred meters a lava flow joined the path and flew parallel to it. Firebolt walked against the flow direction and after twenty minutes his way was blocked by a large lava fall. It really seemed that he walked into a dead end but suddenly he heard some laughter.
"Come out and show yourself!" he said loudly.
"You're still the same naive pony as you were the last time we met." The voice answered provoking, "Why are you here?"
"You can't stop me. I've beaten your kind once and I can do it again." Firebolt answered and shot a bright red beam into the lava fall. He turned around and shot a few beams into the lava flow, but the laughter didn't stop.
Suddenly a creature stepped out of the lava fall and closed in towards the stallion without him noticing it. The creature was ten times bigger than the pony and he seemed to be a kind of humanoid, but the crimson colored flesh and its tail characterized it as a demon. The stallion was still shooting beams into the lava as the demon reached for the pony with his large and long-fingered claws and lifted it up as if it was just a little rock. "So we see again." He laughed scornfully in his demonic voice. Firebolt tried to escape the clutch but the claws enclosed his body and increased their pressure at the pony's body, which caused it to breathe with great difficulty. "I should've – known that – it's you, - Inferno." He said as the demon moved his hand toward his mouth. The stallion saw the large gap with the long fangs, which were dripping with blood, and the small yellow eyes of Inferno; he even noticed a large sign on his head between the two big horns, there were eight arrows emanating from a silver, humanoid skull with purple glowing eyes. Firebolt was sure that this sign wasn't there as he met the demon the last time, in fact he hadn't seen it before. "You have something that belongs to me! Give it back!" the demon yelled which caused the stallion's mane to extinguish.
"I can't," he answered calmly and Inferno smashed his hand together with the alicorn, into the ground before he tossed him into the lava flow. The body created a large splash as he dived into the lava. "GIVE ME MY SWORD BACK!" the demon yelled and stepped slowly into the lava flow, "GIVE IT BACK!" He didn't receive any response; so he began to run his claws through the lava.
Suddenly he got hit in the back by a large Fireball which caused Inferno to fall into the lava. The demon began to laugh and splashed on the pony, but before the lava could hit the stallion he created a force shield and the molten stone cooled down forming a wall between the two.
"Your magic can't hurt me anymore!" Inferno yelled, "My master gave me new powers to get my revenge!"
"Was it worth to give up your freedom?"
"You haven't seen his power!" the demon yelled and smashed the wall, but the stallion wasn't there, "Come out!"
Another fireball hit the demons back; the force of the impact caused him again to fall. "Stupid little pony! – You can't beat me!" he laughed demonically.
"Are you sure? I've beaten you once, so why shouldn't I again?" Inferno heard the pony's voice from behind, but as he turned around he saw nothing more than a few rocks. "Over here!" the demon grabbed one of the rocks, turned around and threw the rock at the non-attendant target.
"It seems as if your master has shrunk your brain." Firebolt smirked in his hiding, "Or have you forgotten how I beat you the last time?"
"How could I?!" he answered while he tried to find the stallion, but every time he thought that he found him the pony was gone. Suddenly he spotted a fiery glow behind a large rock; so he dashed towards it and smashed the rock away. Finally he had found the stallion.
"Nope," Firebolt said and vanished before the demon could catch him, "This wasn't the real one."
"COME OUT!" Inferno yelled in such a way that some of the stalactites fell down.
"Or what? – Will you call for your master?" the stallion smirked in his hiding and gave the demon another chance to catch one of his copies.
"No!" Inferno answered smashing another faked pony.
Suddenly he stopped searching for the stallion, it even seemed as if he got bored, and stepped towards the lava fall. As he passed the fall of molten rock he found the golden alicorn.
"Damn!" Firebolt said as the demon grabbed him with his claws before he was able to flee.
"Gotcha!" Inferno smirked and tossed the pony at the nearby wall. The stallion landed rudely on the ground he was unhurt, but before he could stand up the demon pressed him aground. He could barely breathe and his sight slowly became blurred and he began to lose his consciousness. "Where's my sword?!" The demon asked shortly before the stallion went unconscious and as he didn't get any answer he lifted the stallion up and smashed the pony into the ground which broke both of its hind legs. The golden alicorn tried to crawl away, but he didn't get very far before Inferno smashed his clenched hand into Firebolt's back and broke it. He uttered a bloodcurdling scream and bit his tongue which caused to fill his mouth with his warm blood. The pain of his smashed body caused him to burst out crying and made him unable to move which was his doom.
The demon picked up the beaten stallion and went with him to the border of the demon's territory where he tossed him to the ground.
Apocalypse watched the creature as it picked up Firebolt again, whereby he grabbed with his right hand the forelegs and with his left the hind legs of him. "It's time to die!" he yelled and began to pull at the pony's legs. The alicorn screamed in pain as his body began to rip a few inches behind his lungs. A few moments later Inferno held the two pony pieces in his hands. "Where's my sword?!" he yelled again and again he didn't receive any answer so he dropped the pieces carelessly. Firebolt's front part landed on his back so that he stared at the ceiling, while he was groaning in pain, and a small pool of blood formed around the wrecked body. The demon bend down and touched the pony's chest with one of his claw-like fingers. "I – love y-you, - Shadow." The alicorn could groan before Inferno pierced with his finger through its chest and heart.
Apocalypse couldn't believe his eyes as he saw the dead stallion lying there, but he was too much a coward to dash towards him before the demon had left. Finally, after about half an hour, he stepped hesitantly to the corpse watching out for the demon. He couldn't believe that the demon killed his only chance to take revenge and he also couldn't believe that it had been that easy to kill Firebolt. "This couldn't be the Firebolt I fought once," Apocalypse thought, "It was almost impossible for me to take control over his body and with our power he should've killed the demon like a mouse. – Or are those demons mightier than we thought?" He tried to pull at least a part of the stallion's body back to the town, but he couldn't; the corpse caught on every bump so he used his magic to teleport back to his house in the village and walked without it to the town square where he summoned the other damned ponies.
"Listen to me!" he said after most of the damned stood in front of him, "I'm sorry to tell you, but we won't get our revenge."
"I told you that he's going to fool you!" Hammerhoof called out and stepped towards Apocalypse.
"He didn't fool us; he was killed by a demon."
"Liar! The demons don't leave their territory."
"They didn't; Firebolt entered it."
"At least I got my revenge; tell me the demon's name, I have to thank him." The earth pony laughed.
"Good for you!"
"To me it seems that you don't want to recognize that he fooled you!" Hammerhoof smirked.
"No!" Apocalypse shot back, "I saw him dying!"
"There's not a scrap of evidence for your story."
"I sure have one." The spirit of destruction answered and teleported Firebolt's wrecked corpse at Hammerhoof's hooves, "He's dead; our hope of revenge is dead."
"Fuck!" the earth pony called while it winced, "That's really him."
"That's what I told you."
"But there's one thing left I don't understand." The elderly stallion said, "Why did he go into their territory?"
"It was my fault," Apocalypse declared, "He needed more power so I told him that the demons could help him."
"So you're responsible for his death!" some of the damned called out and stepped threateningly towards him, "You killed our hope of revenge!"
"I was sure that he'll survive," he answered apologetically and teleported away with the wrecked corpse.