Chapter Two: Infernum Descendit.

Canterlot Castle: June 8th, Year 4 of the New Solamina Calendar (2028)

At one side of the grand hall sat a tyrant who desired nothing more than for humanity and the traitors to her glorious rule to be wiped from existence. She had converted many of those from Earth to her way of thinking. They were much happier now. You could tell by the smiles on their faces and their willingness to destroy what had once been their own kind.

She herself had gone so far as to discard her old name for a new, more fitting one. The time of Celestia had passed, it was Solamina's reign that ponies needed now. A reign that would see Equestria into the future and away from the vileness of mankind.

At the other end of the hall, unfazed by the spears and magic being directed at him, stood a figure who seemed too blissful, considering where he was. He simply stood there, beaming with joy, dressed in a black suit with a crimson collar. If anything, the threat to his life just seemed to make that insufferable grin of his grow. His face was untouched by scars or age and his eyes were full of a spark that Solamina saw in her Converted.

How did he get through the barrier?

Solamina halted her guard. No mere human could get through the barrier. She wanted answers. Dead captives were never very talkative.

"Guards, block the exits!" she ordered.

Alert and eager, the guards blocked every door that led out of the grand hall, leaving only the Empress and the newcomer.

"You will tell me how you got here," Solamina demanded.

The figure dropped his arms and began to approach.

"I did not say you could move," Solamina yelled.

"I’m simply showing you how I got here," he replied. "I walked."

Her horn glowing with anger, Solamina used her magic to take a spear from behind her regal throne and throw it in front of the intruder, the tip of the weapon becoming embedded in the ground.

He stopped and gazed curiously at the spear before turning his attention to the ruler of Equestria.

"I shall make this quick then," he said cheerily.

"A wise choice," Solamina responded coldly.

"You have something that belongs to me. I’d quite like it back."

The arrogance.

"How did you get in here?" Solamina asked, losing what little patience she had for this thing.

The figure sighed. "You may recall," he continued, ignoring Solamina’s question. "that you converted a man called John Constantine. He and I have an agreement-"

"-I do not care," Solamina interrupted. "If your friend has become one of my loyal Converted then you should be happy for him."

The figure stepped around the spear, being careful as not to even touch the weapon with his suit. He rubbed his chin confused before clapping his hands together, having had an epiphany.

"You would have known him by his new name. 'Hell Blazer', I believe he called himself."

That pony?

Solamina knew the name. Her faithful student had spoken about him at great length to her, saying that they had come up with using a divine power to stop the humans and end the war.

That was the plan.

Yesterday, Twilight had sent word to her that the experiment had failed and that almost all of their PER allies were lost in the ritual, along with Hell Blazer himself. It had been a blow to both of them. Twilight had always put part of her heart into every piece of work she had undertaken so to have one fail on such a scale left her defeated. Solamina had told Twilight that she understood and that Twilight should take a trip home to see the smiling faces of those alive because of her successes. Failures should be learned from not dwelt on.

"The pony you seek is dead," Solamina said.

"Oh I'm fully aware of that," the figure chuckled. "It's the matter of his soul that I've come for."

A human interested in souls. This was getting interesting. Solamina lifted the spear again with her magic and pointed the tip between the man's eyes.

The man casual moved the tip from his sight. "My name is Lucifer. Dealing in souls is something of a hobby of mine and I'd quite like his soul back."

"Why?" Solamina questioned.

"Because it's mine."

A smile squirmed itself onto Solamina's expression. It was the first thing Lucifer had said that amused her.

"Yours? I think you'll find that he was quite happy fighting for my just cause," she proclaimed.

"It doesn't matter," Lucifer chortled. "Hell Blazer's soul belongs to me."

Solamina tried forcing Lucifer to bow with her magic, he held strong, clearly resisting the power. She stopped and approached him. Whoever this human was, there was something he was hiding.

Lucifer ran his hand through his pitch black hair. "It is quite simply. Your potion shattered his soul, I'm here to pick up the pieces."

A few of the guards had been listening to the conversation, there once silent facades had been overcome with chatter about the new arrival. Solamina shot them a glare and they instantly returned to nothing more then living statues that fought for her empire.

"Hell Blazer, in any form, did and will always belong to me," Solamina rebutted. "You will explain how you got here or I will get the answers in more...unpleasant ways." She returned to the seat of her throne.

The smile on Lucifer’s face began to twitch as a few of the guard stepped forward at Solamina’s words.

"Are we clear?" she asked.

"You don’t quite understand." He straightened his collar. "Your potion ruined his soul. His soul was mine by right. You will surrender the pieces to me. That is how this will end. Pure and simple." The joy in his voice hadn't wavered for even the briefest of moments during his demand.

"At arms," Solamina called the guards, her voice more annoyed than full of rage.

As one, the guards readied their weapons for the end of another enemy. Some guards grinned while others showed fear. Lucifer had proven to be somewhat interesting but Solamina's patience was fading quickly.

"One more time. How did you get here?"

The smile faded from Lucifer's expression. "If you give me back my property then I will be out of your mane until the day you become a permanent resident of my humble home."

Solamina's eyes narrowed. A nod towards one pack of guards sent them charging into Lucifer. Every spear hit their mark into his body. Lucifer remained still. The ends of the spears did not drip with blood as Solamina had expected nor did he even flinch.The guards let go of their weapons and backed away.

This was no mortal human.

One way to be sure.

In a blink of an eye, Solamina blasted Lucifer with magic and sent him hurtling back against a far wall. The blast was normally capable of vaporising those she used it on.

Lucifer got up and brushed the rubble from the dent he made in the wall off of him. As he did so, he noticed a tear in his neck that was bleeding black slime. He sighed, coughing as he did so, and rubbed the tear until it looked like a stitch in a doll. The Guards watched him take up the exact spot he had before the blast, each noting that Solamina was paying close attention to the stitch.

He really wasn’t mortal.

"If a fight is what you desire, my dear little Solamina, then I will give you just that," Lucifer's voice echoed through the hall but his mouth did not move.

The spears that were buried in Lucifer’s body began to dissolve away while the grin that had returned to his face grew wider and wider.

"One last time," Lucifer’s now crackling voice said. "Return the pieces of my property to me or I shall enjoy getting them back."

Solamina stood strong as she approached Lucifer. She had seen beings do far worse than dissolve weapons, she had been the one doing them half the time. Nothing threatened the great Empress.

"You are in no position to threaten me, little man," Solamina declared. "I am the Empress of the Sun. You are just another distraction. I have brought Earth to its knees while the most you have done today is be too stubborn to die." The last words were practically spat out in disgust.

Lucifer flexed his hand. "I know billions of souls who are begging for even the slightest glimpse of happiness. If I told them ‘I will give you 5 minutes of happiness if you fight for me,’ they would jump at the chance to take you-"

"Guards," Solamina interrupted, her tone now like venom. "Contain him."

As one, the unicorns of the guard fire wave after wave of magic at Lucifer. Not a single bolt hitting him, none were meant to. After a few moments it became clear what they had done. The bolts of magic had stopped around Lucifer, creating a small-but thick-bubble around the intruder.

"That’s adorable," Lucifer mocked.

"Tell me Lucifer," Solamina quipped. "How long do you think you could endure being probed and prodded before you relented and told me all your secrets?"

Lucifer tapped the bubble, causing a ripple in the field. "War it is then," he smirked.

Slowly, Lucifer raised his arm, winked and Solamina and clicked his fingers. The bubble around him shattered into pieces that quickly dissipated into the air. Lucifer himself was gone.

The eyes of the guards darted to every spot in the grand hall. There was no evidence that Lucifer had been there. Nothing misplaced, save for the spear that Solamina put back on the wall behind her.

"Find him!" she ordered.

The guards in the hall swiftly fanned out in search of Lucifer. On their way out they called for more soldiers to look for him. They knew his face and his name but nothing else. Every piece of Information they could find about him would be given to Solamina to examine. There was no place to hide for the intruder.

***

Lucifer did not hide from Solamina’s troops. On the contrary, he met them full force. The skies of Equestria darkened and winds were at the command of new masters. Creatures that should have departed the Earthly realm centuries ago began to dine on Equine flesh. That was if you were very lucky. Most of Lucifer’s followers were more inclined to take you away and have a lot more ‘fun’ with you. By all laws of magic and sanity, these creatures should not have existed, and yet here they were, infesting Equestria with their malice and devouring any lives that got in their way.

In some cases these creatures looked very much like the humans that Solamina was used to fighting but twisted and deformed to be better soldiers, spikes and talons sawn on to their bodies as if they were dolls to be played with.

Others were not as familiar in shape. They slithered and crawled their way across the land with forms that would haunt the lucky few that escaped the clutches of the Hell-born armies.

For two years, the war on Humanity was brought to a halt. All the troops she had sent away were brought back to Equestria to defend the land from Lucifer’s forces. The forces did not sleep, they just continued to move forward, only stopping when Lucifer willed them to. The illusion of hope was one of his favourite little tricks to play.

Every day Lucifer would appear to Solamina and demand the same thing.

"Give me Constantine’s soul."

Each time he demanded it, Solamina would refuse and the fighting would go unstopped. Lucifer would continue to demand the soul until Solamina relented.

That day had not come.

***

Canterlot Castle, June 8th, Year 6 of the New Solaminan Calendar (2030).

The attacks on her kingdom had made Solamina decide that it was best to wear her battle armour every minute she was awake. Her armour, much like her, was golden and resplendent. It glistened in the light of dozens of fires that lit up the grand hall. They were useful to have around, incase a soldier needed his weapon ignited for combat. Solamina found herself in increasing need for more desperate measures, the fires were the earliest example of thinking outside her normal tactics.

Without a sound to foretell his arrival, Lucifer appeared once more in the grand hall. The guards were at arms, though none ever attacked him head on.

"You already know my answer," Solamina told him.

Lucifer never changed his appearance for his meetings with the Sun Tyrant. It was a new tradition of his to appear young and eager in her sight. He took his spot in front of her throne and straightened his crimson collar.

"And you in turn know that I won’t stop until you give me it back," Lucifer noted with a giggle.

"My ponies will defeat your armies and you will leave this land without Hell Blazer’s soul," Solamina growled. "That is how this will end."

"You can keep saying that," he smirked, "but it will never not amuse me."

"Nice to know one of us is amused by these meetings," Solamina answered coldly.

"You can make this all stop," Lucifer said.

"You're right," Solamina agreed. "I will do just that when I send you back to whatever pit you and your armies crawled from. Have I not been clear on that?"

Slowly he raised his hand high up, and clicked his fingers. The fires around the hall went out in unison and the guards were put on full alert. Lucifer was gone once more, replaced by the sound of hissing oozing from the walls.

Solamina readied her glaive. Her weapon had seen many battles but still looked fresh from being forged.

"Fear not," she declared to her Royal Guard. "Canterlot will not fall this day."

They moved to the centre of the hall and stared at the walls that seemed to be squirming.

The very skin of the walls melted off, forming pulsating pools of brick on the floor. With the hissing getting louder and louder, the pools bubbled and soon erupted into new shapes. Some of the shapes were taken out with bolts of magic before they could form into one, only to join to the shape next to it to create someone twice as big. In moments, the hall was surrounded by a large troop of twitching wolf like masses with stone claws. When their gazes looked around the room, their eyes moved around the head and some even down the bodies. Their skin rippled with every twitch they made. A few of the wolves were still dripping onto the floor. The hissing stopped. The growling began a second before they charged at Solamina.

The leader of that guard let out a flash to blind the wolves. The flash was bright and glorious, giving the troop the chance to take their positions around their Empress to protect her.

When the flash cleared, the leader’s head was crushed beneath the jaws of one of the attacking wolves. The wolf ripped the head from its body and tossed it aside, moving in for another attack.

As one, the remaining guards unleashed a flurry of bolts at the wolves, trying to stop them in their tracks. A few guards got lucky and hit the eyes before they could slither down the bodies. Other were less fortunate and had to fight the wolves in melee combat.

Solamina had been valiantly sweeping the wolves away with her glaive while simultaneously building up her magic for an attack. As vengeance for the first fallen guard, she sliced off the head of the wolf that had struck him down.

Side by side, Solamina fought with her loyal Guards and watched some come out victorious only to be viciously mauled by another wolf creature.

This ends now.

The living guards found themselves rising into the air, protected by their Empress's divine magic. Circling wolves jumped up, clawing at the guards in an attempt to bring them back down. The ground beneath them was littered with the corpses of their fallen comrades and the husks of the wolves they had taken down.

With one powerful blast, Solamina unleashed beams of pure energy that swiftly destroyed any hellspawn it touched immediately as they were enveloped in its light. One by one, the growls that echoed around the hall were silenced by, if not Solamina’s magic, then the magic that the remaining unicron guards used in her aid.

All of Solamina’s anger was fueling those beams of magic. The only thing she had to do to keep that anger, was picture Lucifer’s smiling face in her mind along with the sound of his laughter. It took a few moments for Solamina to realise that the last of the wolves had been destroyed and she was currently firing beams into her own floor.

With ease, she floated back down to the ground along with her ponies. Only five of the Royal Guard that had been in the hall with her had lived past the fight. One of them, an older bronze stallion, rushed up to Solamina, whose armour now looked like it had seen battle for years.

"Are you alright Empress?" he asked.

"I’m fine," she replied bluntly. "Gather the corpses for the Eternal Guard."

Before the stallion could give an answer, more growls and screams echoed down the corridors of the castle. The Empress and her guard were far from done yet.

***

Colton Mansion

On the table lay a map of Equestria. The portions of the map in red were locations lost to Lucifer’s forces, too dangerous to go back into as long as Lucifer’s armies were a possibility. These red portioned were scattered around the map, surrounding the blue portioned that were land the Equestrian forces defended. Day by day, the armies would come and go, leaving devastation in their wake.

Looking over the map was a Prince of white mane and golden locks with a troubled brow. In his heart he knew it would not stop. The Empress, his aunt, would never give them back Hell Blazer’s soul. She was far too stubborn at that point.

“I need something,” Blueblood muttered to himself.

He began to pace the room, trying to think of something that they could use to fend off the forces long enough to regain an advantage. Blueblood struggled to think of anything in the depths of Canterlot Castle that would prove to be more than just another sword. Equestria needed a shield, something that would defend all of its ponies. He wasn’t sure how much more war the land could take, they had moved from the war against humanity to a war against Lucifer and his forces.

“Somepony’s been busy,” said a cocky voice.

Blueblood looked around to find a burnt umber Earth stallion stood by the map grinning at him. The Prince immediately rushed to the map, checking the door to the study. It was still locked.

“Who are you?” he asked quickly.

“Call me Impish Laugh,” the stallion replied before taking his seat on the fine chair by the window.

Blueblood glared at him and Laugh got off the chair, seemingly half annoyed he had to stand up.

“Can I help you with something?” Blueblood asked cautiously. Ponies appearing in his locked study were not something to be taken lightly but teleporting wasn’t out of the norm for the ones that wanted to see him.

“It’s more what I can do for you,” Impish Laugh grinned.