#33

What I heard depicted what I was seeing, Luna overthrown by tears while Celestia backed her to a wall with her magic. Celestia was surrounded by flames while Luna was being a victim to her sister. I had no time to waste, they hadn't noticed me but they were about to. "HEY, WHAT'S GOING ON!?" I yelled quickly making both of them pause what they were doing before both slowly turned to me. Celestia's mean glare greeted my own frown while Luna sobbed and shook her head slowly. "Ben, I need to speak with you!" Celestia demanded but I quickly turned that offer down, I was going to find out what the hell was going on, and I didn't appreciate her making Luna cry like that.

"No," I replied bluntly. "What?!" Celestia asked back obviously outraged by my response. I stared her down as I tightened my hands to fists, which quickly got an immediate response from Luna; she whimpered out a worried, "Stop!" to prevent us from doing anything harmful to each other. I looked over to her and nodded, I wasn't going to do anything reckless but I wasn't liking the direction this was going. "I want to know what is going on!" I demanded. Celestia didn't drop her glare but she did answer me, Luna whimpered as I tightened my frown.

"I spoke with Luna about your situation," She answered being serious about it, so I did the same. "Situation?" I asked, hoping she's elaborate on that because I haven't had a problem besides that strange depression from yesterday which is by now far gone. "Yes, your alleged "Nightmare"," She revealed making me drop a bit of my guard, what kind of situation was that?! It was just a nightmare as far as I knew. For the sake of time, I wasn't going to argue with her about it, I wanted to get to the point to get Luna off those binds that held her to the wall by all her hooves. "Alright then, explain…" I ordered still holding onto my own serious glare.

"It wasn't a nightmare after all…but a vision," Celestia claimed being as serious as ever, forcing me to let go of my fists and anger, and become intrigued. This was either becoming insane or silly, I've had plenty of visions before but only when I was at the brink of death, and as far as I knew, I wasn't dying or was I? I remained silent as I listened to Celestia explain the strange occurrence which I was skeptic about. As I listened in, my eyes drifted off to Luna on the wall, looking like I did when I was put in the dungeon, I had to get her down from there next, it was heart-wrenching to watch.

"And this vision-" I stopped Celestia there, I couldn't bear it anymore, if she wanted me to listen, I wanted Luna off the wall and on her hooves. "-Please, release Luna from your binds," I demanded. Luna looked up at me with a smile slowly trying to emerge but her fear got in the way; Celestia looked up at me and behind at Luna before sighing. Luna landed on the ground with a thump, her hooves were too numb at the moment, all she could do was lay there, despite her efforts to get up. "Now explain, why was she on the wall?" I asked.

"We'll get there, as I was saying, your vision was a representation of something that's going to happen," Celestia responded. I turned to her quickly, if I heard that right, then what the hell is going to happen? "What does that mean!?" I asked ignoring Luna who was slowly making her way to me via crawling. Celestia grabbed my head with her magic and forced me to stare at her eye to eye, "That's what we'd like to know!"

I quickly shook away her magic, "AND YOU WERE FIGHTING OVER THAT!?" I yelled at her. Celestia retreated a step before looking to her side and nodding at the floor. I was going to express how I felt about that but I was stopped by the sudden tug on my pants. I looked down to see Luna using me as support to pick herself up. "You okay Luna?" I asked, catching her from tipping over her side with my hand. She nodded and gave an exhausted pant as she giggled out a few words with watery eyes, "I thought she was going to hurt you, I was scared," she whimpered a bit as she finished that sentence.

I smiled, for once I actually felt the impact of having someone worry about you to the point they cry; it's quite powerful indeed. "Don't worry, you should know I'm not an easy guy to hurt!" I chuckled placing my hand on her mane and giving it a slight playful rustle. She giggled and that was all I need to hear to know I was good with her, now all that remained was Celestia; she stared at me with a regretful smile as I let go of Luna's mane and looked up at her. "Celestia, I know this vision thing sounds bad, but it shouldn't cause problems between you and your sister," I lectured making her slightly sniffle away a tear before nodding and using a hoof to wipe another tear away, "I know, I'm sorry," she apologized making Luna nod and rush over for a sisterly hug. I've never seen sisters hug out their apologies/problems but seemed highly effective and beautiful to watch.

As I watched them part, I couldn't help to think about what Celestia explained, if there was something going to happen that was based off that "vision", then I needed to make sure I knew the most I could. I drew my own conclusions from what I already knew and all of it was negative; death, blood, suffering, screaming, darkness and those words. I wish I could say I was confused, but I was driven by the fear of losing my new friends, the death of them is the death of me as well. I didn't want to be negative when they barely made amends, but I need to know.

"Celestia, Luna, I'm worried about what you told me earlier, how does this work?" I asked making Luna look up at me and place a hoof firmly on the floor. "The first time you got this vision was just a sign but if it occurs twice, it's a warning that it's near," Luna stated making me quickly ask, "How near!?" She looked over at her sister before looking towards me, anyone could see the fear in her eyes.

"Today near," She responded forcing me to quickly retract a step, if this is true then what the hell is happening; Twilight and a great portion of her friends are missing and I left K alone with the only two left. I quickly gritted my teeth as I connected this all somehow. "Ben, are you alright?" Celestia asked. I shook my head before she even finished her question. "No, I have a bad feeling about everything now!" I responded making them both ask, "What!?".

"It might be a hunch, but…We couldn't find Twilight and nearly the lot of them this morning besides Derpy and Rarity-" I began before Celestia quickly intervened with, "WHAT!?" I continued despite her sudden interruption. "I said it might be a hunch, Rarity was there and Derpy, none have any idea where Twilight and the rest went…I'm just saying there might be a connection!" I said hoping to keep Celestia calm but like she told me last night, she worried an awful lot about her little ponies, I guess I should too.

"We must find them!" Celestia exclaimed. I and Luna had no argument over that but we did have the common sense to ask, "HOW!?" Celestia quickly entered a thinking state before she quickly lifted a hoof up and aimed it in direction of the dorms. "We should check the dwellings!" She said taking a slight step in the direction she mentioned.

"Fine, I'll follow you, sis," Luna quickly neared her sister's side. I ran my fingers to my head and focused on K's energy, "And I'll get K and the rest and meet you there!" They both looked at me and nodded, "Agreed!"

The princess teleported away and I was left alone with my fingers to my head, did I look stupid doing this? I closed my eyes and focused once more. "What the-" I whispered as I sensed K's energy but, just like the princesses earlier, his energy was swollen up as well. His energy stunned me for a bit before I shook it off and quickly got back to what I was doing.

gone*

I brought K and the two ponies to meet Celestia in the dorm where Twilight spent last night; apparently, he had to scare away a bully of some kind thus explaining his sudden power surge. I filled K in along the way, he was more than interested about it but he only asked blunt questions like "How?" and "Why?" I answered him to the best of my knowledge let me before the two mares by his side joined in, clearly worried and demanding of answers, well probably just Rarity, Derpy was just listening in. "But, we will find them!? Right?" Rarity asked I wished I could answer that but I really didn't know how to. K got ahead of me and answered like he would, "I'm sure we will, I got a trick up my sleeve that is sure to find one of them!"

"What?" All three of us asked making sure we heard him right. He repeated what he said and made it clear he had something to find "one" of them. I had no idea what he meant by "one" but if it would help find one of them then I'm all ears. "So how?" I asked walking into the corridor that had all dorms. He smirked as he aimed finger to his head, "I'm saving it for last resort, but it's sure to work! Don't worry about it till then," he reassured. "Fine…" Rarity sighed as she followed to the room where Celestia was presumably at, Derpy remained silent as she followed. I sighed as well but I was at least glad that K had a confirmed technique for finding "one" of them; whoever it may be.

"Okay, we're here," I said opening the door and confronting the two princesses inside, the room looked like it was flipped upside down and the right back up. "Hey, any luck? I asked entering with the group following behind. "No, there doesn't seem to be anything!" Celestia exclaimed sounding distraught, I raised my hand to calm her, "Calm down, what about you Luna?" Luna turned to me shaking her head in disappointment as well. Well, I guess it's time for K to show that last resort of his, I turned to him and silently indicated him to do something with that last resort. He didn't comply, he smirked and shook his head as he made his way to the princesses.

"What's the matter?" He asked as if I hadn't informed him. The princesses glared at him sternly, they knew he heard what they were talking about. He asked again but with a bit more "ANSWER ME!" in the way he said it. The princesses complied and answered him. "We've lost nearly everypony!" Celestia responded before Luna picked up, "And we can't find them, we fear the worst!"

K waved his hands in front of him to make them quiet down. "Listen! You're Alicorns right!?" He asked them as if he was about to blow their minds; he probably was. They stared at him before nodding silently making K nod back waiting for them to catch on to what he was saying. "What are you trying to say?" Celestia asked. K facepalmed himself before he lashed out at them, "CAN'T YOU SENSE OTHER ALICORNS?!"

He blew their minds, the two princesses quickly agreed rapidly before using their magic and concentrating very strictly. I facepalmed myself as well as I realized that too, and I facepalmed myself a second time before placing my fingers to my head. How didn't I realize I could do this? If I could detect energy signals and teleport to them then I could just find one of the absent ponies. K also facepalmed making the same realization I did and ran his fingers to his forehead. I looked down to Rarity and Derpy looking completely lost, of course, they'd be lost looking at a bunch that are trying to magically find something. "Uh…yeah, we're working on finding our friends!" I chuckled making them slightly giggle.

It didn't take long for something to happen, Celestia quickly widened her eyes in excitement. "I FOUND SOMETHING!" She quickly exclaimed disappearing into nothing. It was almost in correlation that Celestia somehow appeared over K and dropped with him to the floor; now both stared at each other surprised, K seriously stared up at Celestia, she was on him again. "What are you doing?" K asked not even twitching as he remained still. Celestia blushed as she stared at K, she tried to comprehend what she did. "I…uh…tried to teleport," She responded nervously and shocked about it. I exchanged looks with Luna before we surrounded K and Celestia; K had a raised brow while Celestia stared back the same way.

"Did you say, you tried to teleport?" K asked emphasizing the word "teleport", making sure he heard it right. Celestia reassured him, before hopping off him blushing slightly and K catapulted himself onto his feet. "Yes, I found Twilight's essences!" Celestia said aiming her hoof at K, "Inside you!" K fixed his collar and dusted himself off with his hands. "Inside me eh…" K whispered to himself. Yes!" Celestia answered him.

K looked one hand and the other before dropping them down his sides. "How did they get inside me?" he asked. Celestia was a bit too quick when it came to saving her ponies and quickly demanded K to release them, in which he insisted her to calm down. "JUST RELEASE THEM!" Celestia demanded again for the second time and K responded like he did the first time, "I DON'T KNOW HOW TO!"

Celestia wasn't having it with him today and quickly came back at him. "BUT YOU CAN DO IT WITH FLUTTER SHY! WHY CAN'T YOU DO IT WITH MY STUDENT!?" Celestia argued and K finally had it with her continuous arguing. "FINE! WAIT RIGHT THERE! FUCK ME!" He growled as he quickly disappeared into a floating sphere…a soul sphere. We all stared at the dark-colored sphere as it slowly glowed with K's aura.

"Wow…you actually convinced him to do something!" I chuckled making Luna nod with a slight giggle, "But, he's pretty good at convincing others too!" she added. I gave her that one, K was supportive of others, I knew that well. "Yeah!" Derpy added joyfully from Luna's side and Rarity shrugged with a smile; she obviously wouldn't know. I agreed with them and chuckled a bit before Celestia flinched a bit at the sudden change of color from the soul orb; it went from black to bright purple. We all turned to the orb with high expectations and hoped for the best.

In seconds of the color change, the orb slowly began floating down until it reached about three feet from the ground. "What is it doing?" Rarity asked followed by nods from everypony, I, on the other hand, knew very well what was going. If the orb just changed color and fell from K's eye level to pony eye level then it was a matter of drawing out the conclusion. Before I could comment on it, the orb suddenly quickly blinded with a purple light and we all covered our sight. "What is it doing!?" Luna asked as she used her wings to cover herself. She must have spoken too late because the shine instantly dimmed down and before us was a pony laid on the ground. "What? TWILIGHT!?" Celestia asked quickly getting low and using her magic to turn twilight around, "TWILIGHT ARE YOU ALRIGHT!?".

I stared suspiciously at the body, it seemed normal enough but the way K hasn't appeared lead me to believe that he's done what he's always done. Twilight slowly opened one of her eyes before getting Celestia in her sights and grinning, "Nope, I feel like shit," She chuckled making Celestia quickly widen her eyes in shock. "What? K?!" Celestia asked as she studied Twilight's new red glowing eyes, Twilight(K) nodded and tried to get on her hooves but her hooves gave out and she fell. "This is why…you don't mix a pure soul with a stained one," Twilight warned trying to get up again but failed like the first time.

I didn't know what to say and Celestia didn't either but anypony here could see Celestia's remorse for demanding K to do such a thing, now K was inside Twilight's body and he was weak. "But hey…good news is that they are inside me…" Twilight(K) weakly stated laying her head down on the floor and giving stuttered breaths, almost as if she was dying which was red sirens all over for me and everypony here.

"K, get out of her body, you might not make it," I calmly warned making him chuckle through Twilight's mouth, "Fine…". He quickly made Twilight disappear into the purple orb and his own black one appeared before he emerged from it. He appeared facing the ceiling on his back again and all he could do is catch his breath as sweat drenched his face. He panted heavily as I quickly reached a hand down to help him up.

"You okay?" I asked as he grabbed my hand and pulled himself off the ground and sat there. "Yeah, but- he inhaled deeply and wiped the sweat from his face -I don't think they can get out of me!" He claimed before adding on, "I spoke with them!". Everypony expressed their thoughts with the word "What!?" as I listened in on what he was saying. He wiped away some more sweat before coughing a bit, despite him looking so hurt Celestia wanted answers.

"K, I'm sorry if I'm pressuring you too much, but please tell me they're okay!?" Celestia pleaded. K nodded weakly as inhaled deeply, "They are…for now," he responded making Celestia, along with all of us, inquire about what he meant. He took in another breath before answering us, he was really hurt, but he insisted on answering our questions.

"Don't interrupt me because I will only say it once," he made clear, we all agreed with what he said before he sighed and began speaking. "Twilight told me about a strange creature that tried to hurt them last night," I had to use my hand to stop Celestia from bursting out another question, she wasn't happy about it but I was going to let K finish before she asked anything. Everypony expressed their curiosity with their shocked faces.

"She said this creature was made up of magic itself, almost as if it feeds off the living itself. I asked her about it and how none of them were hurt? She told me she knew "Soul spells" or something like that and managed to move everypony into me since I was the nearest thing around that was safe…" K shifted his focus to Rarity, "You were asleep unlike the rest, so your soul had difficulties and remained behind," He explained making her nod and accept that.

He continued explaining the confusing story, "The creature did target Rarity but it was forced to evacuate since I apparently did something that involved emitting a great deal of energy." K looked over to Luna and nodded and Luna nodded back, "Me and Luna had a slight dispute that ended up in that energy…" K chuckled showing he still had some energy in him. "To summarize, there was this creature that was draining magical energy from them and they were forced to evacuate into me, for now, they are safe! And that's all I got…oh yeah, and Pinkie says "Hi!"," He finished. I had to take that in like every other pony here, it wasn't easy but it suits what was happening.

"So, they're safe in you?" Celestia asked suspiciously.

K blinked a couple of times before he facepalmed himself, "Oh shit…you're right! NO! THEY ARE NOT!" He exclaimed getting some random strength from somewhere. "How so!?" Celestia asked making K clap his hands once before aiming a finger at himself.

"I am a demon! They are pure! IF THEY STAY ANY LONGER THAN A FEW DAYS INSIDE ME, THEY TOO WILL BECOME DEMONS!" K exclaimed making Celestia nearly lose it. I felt everypony cut their breath short as K yelled those words out, I reached my hand to K to pick him up off the floor. I got him to his feet before he was bombarded by Celestia's questions.

"WHAT DO WE DO!?"

"Um…I'll ask!" He said disappearing into his orb, we all stared at each other as we waited for him to come back, hopefully with an answer. "This just went crazy!" Luna commented and she spoke for everypony here, me included. "Okay then, I guess I'll explain how this goes!" I said driving their attention to my small plan for the moment. They turned to me and I instantly started planning it out.

"First, we get Twilight and her friends out of K's body before bad stuff happens, then we take care of this mystery creature, then problem solved!" I planned not even being specific about it, they all nodded in agreement but I got the questions that were expected. "How will we defeat this creature? And how will we get Twilight and her friends out of his body?" Luna asked. I grinned as I responded the only way I knew, "We take it in steps, I promise this creature won't cause harm to anything before me." I've placed my life on the line plenty of times so I wasn't as worried as the ponies around me.

"You should value your life, it isn't given to you so you can waste it!" Luna preached to me, I knew what she meant but I had a code and one I pledged to follow it a long time ago. "Protecting my friends from harm isn't a waste…" I smoothly responded with a smile. I guess they figured what I meant and remained silent but with warm smiles. I liked it when they smiled, it was relieving.

We waited a few more seconds before the orb in front of us began glowing and K quickly landed on his feet. "THEY ANSWERED!" he yelled startling us all. We regained our composure and looked at him expecting an answer. "And…" Luna said allowing him to finish.

"THEY SCREAMED AND PANICKED! Except for Pinkie, she just said YAY DEMON SQUAD!" He yelled out. I scratched my head as I sighed, "So much for asking."

"What now!?" Rarity asked making K sway his head to her and smile a smile that called for help. We all gave K a worried look as he chuckled and laughed a bit insanely as he lifted his hand to his chest.

"Now…I do the painful extraction!" K chuckled pulling out a knife out of his back pocket and giving it a few careless twirls before placing it up to his hand; it was my bowie knife, the one I had stashed on my vest. I looked at him as he placed it against the skin of his hand and quickly got everyponies' denial, I was a bit worried too but he seemed to know what he was doing; he was grinning.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Luna and Celestia yelled out while Rarity looked away. "NO, THAT'S DANGEROUS!" Derpy cried making K's grin more solid. I stared at him as he pressed the knife against his skin and pierced it. "EEK!" Derpy yelped covering her eyes and hiding with Rarity.

"You'll see…" K teased as he slashed the knife across the backside of his hand and blood poured. I can tell these princesses were 100% anti-blood, they froze and whimpered as K placed the knife on his hand again. K didn't seem to mind the blood dripping since quickly deeply cut a circle onto the back side of his hand. "Ah…how I missed doing this to souls that belonged in hell..." He chuckled beginning to make more figures on his hand. He bit his tongue as the knife made lefts, rights, and diagonals. Celestia and Luna where by my side as they looked at K play around with his hand, they would at times gag and shiver as they used me as a shield for their eyes.

"And…done!" K said as he removed the knife from his hand and showed us the backside of his blood covered hand; there was blood all over and this symbol that was a circle with a star in it, this was that symbol I heard so much about in the movies, my boy K is a Picasso. "WHAT IS THAT!?" Luna and Celestia sternly yelled as they squinted their eyes in disgust. K grinned as the star began to glow like fire and his eyes glowed his bright red; I was at a loss for words and the princesses were as well.

"Usually, this sends souls to Hell or Tartarus, but in this case, I'll use it to extract their souls…this is what I call fucking yourself!" He chuckled as he placed his hand to his chest and made the symbol face us. In a few seconds, the symbol on his hand projected a bigger version and a breeze appeared. K clenched his teeth as he swiped the knife once more across his hand to complete his ritual.

"Soul…Extraction!" He yelled out before a white light blinded everything in sight. I ran my hands to my eyes to avoid going blind and I hoped everypony did too. I waited a few seconds before the light finally died out and I was able to reopen my eyes; I didn't notice right away but I could hear multiple groans and grunts. "Wha-?" I managed to grunt out as I finally was able to make out a roomful of ponies everywhere. I blinked away the blur before looking at Celestia rejoice in the reappearance of her ponies, but Luna, Derpy, and Rarity surrounded something else. I ignored the ponies for now as I quickly made my way to where Luna was and looked down to see K, laying down coughing out the last bit of breath he had.

"Oh…fuck that hurts!" He forced out with a grin. I kneeled down next to him and looked at his nearly lifeless looking body. "K, that's enough hurting yourself for today!" I yelled at him sternly. He laughed weakly as he raised a weak hand and gave me the weakest punch to the chest. "The pain from today, will end the pain tomorrow," he chuckled. I gritted my teeth and gave him a soft punch to his arm, "You wiseass!"

"Are you okay?" Derpy asked him nearly losing the fight with her tears, he nodded and placed a hand on her mane. "I'm an idiot with a purpose, I don't die so easily!" He smiled making Derpy smile back with those tears going down slowly. If I knew something, it was that these two would have something special between them…they did have something special.

"How do you just hurt yourself!?" Luna yelled at him, he looked up at her and wiped away those tears of hers with a smile. "Because who better to hurt," He whispered with a smile as he disappeared into his orb and let my body absorb him. Luna was dumbfounded by what he said and just snarled at his response. "He's…He's…"

"A good friend…" I finished for her, she looked at me and weakened her frown, "Yeah, he is," she whimpered. I sympathized her, for knowing K as who he was but she didn't understand the one thing he is; a messed-up idiot with a heart; like me. I reassured her he was fine for the moment as long as he stayed inside me for the while, this way he slowly recovered. She brightened up, it seemed knowing he was safe was good enough for her. "K is that type of guy, to be a fool when it comes to serious matters and be serious when it comes to…others feelings," I chuckled making Luna, Derpy, and Rarity laugh out a bit. "I wish he was that simple!" Luna giggled making me laugh a bit and agree.

Now that I had calmed the company here, I had to get over to the ones behind me. I turned to meet all the ponies there conversating about what was going and what happened. They seemed above off, fine and unharmed. I sighed as I sat on the floor with my legs stretched out, and I stared at the pony mayhem in front of me.

"What now?" Luna asked me resting my side.

"Yeah," Derpy and Rarity added coming from my other side.

"Now…step two…find and get rid of this creature," I responded making the ponies by my side lean in closer. "Okay…we'll help too," Luna reassured me while Derpy agreed, Rarity was a bit shaken up but she gave her word too. I didn't know how to defeat a creature that swallowed energy but hell, it wouldn't be the first time I fought something I didn't understand.

"I'm ready for anything!"