I'm gently shaken awake by Twilight who looks quite upset with her yellow thestral friend next to her.

"Twilight? What's the matter?" I ask and yawn.

"Um, Fluttershy would like to know if she could sleep in here on my bed? She can't bare the thought of being on her own right now after what happened to her," she tells me where Fluttershy looks like she has no life left in her eyes.

"Sure, I don't see a problem with that," I reply as Desire starts nuzzling me in her sleep.

"Thank you, Damien. Come on, Fluttershy, you need some sleep..." the succupony replies and then guides her friend to her bed where she gently hugs the crying thestral. I just notice that little rabbit of hers looking at me with an expression of deep thought on its little face.

I shrug it off and pull Desire closer to me and tune out the quiet sobs coming from the other bed.

I'm in the mess hall eating a breakfast of fish and steamed potatoes when Twilight and Fluttershy walk over and sit across from me. "Good morning you two," I greet them and look at Fluttershy. "Feeling better?" I ask her.

"No..." she quietly replies.

"I see. I suppose it would take time after what you went through. I know how it feels losing those you care about quite well," I tell her with a sigh.

"You do?" Twilight asks with surprise.

"Geneine was my first secretary when I took my first town in Tartarus, she was a harpy who was bright and clever, she also wasn't afraid to tell me when I fucked up. Helped me keep the town running and taught me how politics worked, until I changed them that is to more of a human structure," I reply.

"And what happened to her?" Twilight then asks.

"She'd died of old age over thirty years ago," I reply sadly.

"Oh... I'm sorry," she says as her ears fold back.

"It's okay, I've gotten over it now, but I do miss her, and Soft Touch's blood apple pies..." I say with a faint smile, I can still taste them if I remember hard enough.

"Blood apples?" Twilight asks intrigued. "I'm not sure if Applejack would like to know about those or not," she says with a dim chuckle.

"Well, they're more like meat than a fruit grown on a tree as they taste like chicken to me," I reply with my own chuckle as I finish the last of my breakfast.

"Then there's my other wife Slitherana’s sister Adderine, she was kinda like your blue pegasus friend, hard-headed and brash but strong and a great friend once you get to know her... she was killed in a demon raid from an archdemon about forty years ago," I tell them and smile at some of the fond memories I have of her. "So what can I help you two with then?" I ask them shaking those memories away for now. I then notice that the crew and ex-prisoners here are avoiding us like a virus but I ignore them.

Fluttershy hides behind her pink hair and Twilight places her left hand on her shoulder with a sad smile.

"Fluttershy wants to come with us so no more of her animal friends will be hurt because of her," she tells me.

I look to the thestral and stare at her, she's got the power of a lesser demon unlike Twilight, Shining, Ironhoof, and Scarlet. Unless I give her more power, she's still mortal and weak. "I see, and what can you do? Can you fight?" I ask the upset girl. She looks at me with horror and shakes her head quickly.

"Hmmm, well considering you're a new kind of demon I've never seen before, I have no idea what you're capable of," I say and scratch my chin. "You look more like you're built for speed and agility over brute force or magic," I observe and hum in thought. 'I wonder how fast she could fly if I made her into a deamon?' I wonder and shake my head, I won't force her to be ageless unlike the others for now.

"Well, for now I recommend staying close to Selene or Luna until we get you trained to at least protect yourself," I tell her. Her little rabbit then hops out of her arms startling her.

"Angel!" she says to the rabbit who sits in front of me and frowns.

I raise an eyebrow at the little white rodent. "What do you want?" I ask it.

As if understanding me, it points at me and then at Fluttershy and Twilight, then it points back at me and then at itself. "Angel! That's too dangerous! We don't know what could happen!" Fluttershy scolds the rabbit who looks determined and keeps looking at me.

"What does it want?" I ask confused.

"Oh, erm... he want's you to, um, turn him into a demon like us... he wants to pay back the guards for hurting our friends," Fluttershy tells me with sad eyes.

"Oh? Really?" I say and look back at the rabbit. "You want power? Even if you might end up looking hideous or deformed?" I ask him.

Without hesitating he nodded once and continues to look at me in the eyes.

I smirk and lean back in my chair. "I see, for one so small I admire your determination and resolve," I tell him and look at the two girls, Twilight looks intrigued while Fluttershy looks scared. "Very well, but don't blame me for what you may end up looking like," I tell him and extend my right index finger and place it on his chest and slowly pour demonic energy into the little guy.

His face impressively doesn't flinch despite the sweat beading down his brow. His fur turns black and his body starts growing until he's two feet tall, his back legs bulge with powerful looking muscles but still keep their slim and agile shape yet extend to half a metre long in length. His ears grow a few inches longer and his two front teeth turn into fangs as his eyes turn red and slitted. Next his front legs lengthen and his paws turn into hands with claws on the ends of his three fingers and thumb.

Angel's spine then cracks as his posture moves upright into a more bipedal posture, and to finish it all off two horns grow out of his head similar to a succupony's but I feel they're more for show than magic.

Once done, Angel stumbles trying to maintain his balance but ends up falling onto his back on the table. "A-Angel?" Fluttershy asks worriedly as she reaches out to the black rabbit.

"Well, he's a lesser demon at least, I'm not sure if he'd be able to take more than that... for now," I say as Fluttershy gently picks up her pet and holds him to her chest.

"Wow, that was amazing... Can I turn others into demons as well?" Twilight asks with intrigue.

"No, only highly powerful archdemons or demonlords can do it," I reply making her frown in disappointment. I look back to the rabbit and smirk as I have the perfect name for his kind of demon. "I'll be calling your species of demon a hellhare," I say to the new demon rabbit.

Angel smirks and then flexes his new claws and muscles looking quite happy with himself. "Fluttershy, I take it you know to stay away from silver correct?" I ask her.

She looks up from Angel to me and nodded with a wince. "I had to give my silverware to Rarity since I could no longer touch it," she tells me closing her left hand shut.

"I see, then you'll also have to keep it away from Angel as well now... how long do rabbits live for?" I ask her out of curiosity as I don't know if what I've done has extended that or not.

She seems to perk up now that she's talking about something she likes. "They live around eight to twelve years, Angel Bunny is five years old," she tells me and nuzzles him, good to see that despite his new vicious appearance she still loves him.

"So not really long at all..." I say and look at the hellhare. "If you could, would you choose eternal life?" I ask him, it's rather strange how intelligent he seems to be.

What happens next stuns everyone in the room. "If... Shy does... I do... to," he replies in an almost high pitched caveman like way.

"Angel! You can talk!?" Fluttershy asks him in awe with a slight smile on her face.

Now even Angel looks shocked that he spoke. "Yes?" he replies and looks up at her.

"That's incredible! You either altered his vocal cords or gave him an increased brain capacity!" Twilight gushes and summons a scroll, quill, and inkwell as she begins writing it all down. I notice that everyone around us looks horrified at what I did to the bunny and backs away or leaves the mess hall altogether.

"Then that leaves one more question. Fluttershy, would you like to become a deamon like your friend here and become ageless? You'll also become stronger as well," I offer her and she looks down at her pet.

"I-I... I don't know... living that long... watching others die around you... I don't know if I could do that," she replies and sighs before looking back at me. "Can I have some time to think about it?" she asks me.

"Take as long as you need my dear, there's no rush," I reply and stand up. "Now then, I need to talk to Luna, Selene, and Desire about our next move, have a pleasant breakfast girls," I tell them getting a faint blush from Twilight and a small smile from Fluttershy, at least she's looking better than the lifeless looking girl she was yesterday.

'So I can make animals more intelligent as demons... I don't know if that's a benefit or just scary,' I think to myself as I walk through the hallways toward our cabins.

"Dost thou remember when we swapped our sister's shampoo for food colouring?" I hear Luna ask someone in my cabin.

"We do!" I hear Selene reply and giggle. "It took her three weeks to get it all out, she chased us around the castle for days," she says happily.

I open the door to see Selene and Luna talking to each other while Desire is just listening in giggling with them.

"Hello, ladies. I see you two have finally met," I say to them and sit beside Desire.

"We have, and we hast establish we share the same memories which were not split between us," Luna replies and smiles.

"That's good to hear. So, Luna, what do you plan to do now?" I ask her as Desire leans against me.

Her smile drops and she sighs. "We cannot return to Canterlot in fear of facing our sister's wrath as we nary hast the magic to face her... Although our twin here seems to have recovered her full strength whilst we are still only half our original power," Luna says with confusion.

"Hmmm, that could be because of me... I gave her my energy to make her a new body which made her into a demon, perhaps my energy filled in the gap that each of you used to fill? If you were both split in half, it only makes sense your power was halved as well," I theorise.

"That does make sense..." Selene says in thought.

"So we would have to absorb thy energy to recover our full strength again?" Luna asks worriedly.

"That's one way of doing it, but you'll become a demon like Selene if you do, there could be other ways but I wouldn't know where to look," I reply with a shake of my head.

"We see..." she says and looks at Selene who smiles at her and hugs her.

"Do not worry, sister. We art fine with our form," Selene tells her and her horn glows until she looks like a unicorn again. "We can still use our magic to fit in if we so choose," she tells Luna and cancels the illusion.

Luna looks at her wide eyed and then at me. "Wouldst thou aid us in returning to our full power, Sir Damien? We would like to aid thee in returning our sister Celestia to her old self and teach Tirek the error he hast made," she asks me with a frown.

I raise an eyebrow at her question. "You sure? What about your subjects? Won't they be even more afraid of you than before?" I ask her.

She looks away sadly. "We dost not care anymore. No matter how hard we try they shun us and ignore us... our only friends are a maid named Sweet Song and... thee," she replies and hangs her head.

"That's it?" Desire asks shocked.

Luna nodded in reply as Selene hugs the smaller alicorn gently to soothe her.

"Then you realise that by doing this you become a citizen of Tartarus under my rule right?" I tell her. Luna looks at me just over Selene's arm and nodded slowly. "Alright. Come here and we'll begin, it may take a few days like it did with Selene, at least I don't have to make you a new body this time," I say and Luna gets up off the other bed and walks over to me.

I hold my arms out and let Luna sit on my lap and hug me. "Are you sure you want to do this? As far as I know, there's no going back," I warn her one last time.

"We art sure, Sir Damien," she tells me quietly but surely.

"Very well then, this may or may not hurt at first," I tell her and start covering her in my demonic energy.

She whimpers and hugs me tighter as her fur darkens slightly and she grows a couple of inches, she sobs as her feathers fall out and a fleshy membrane takes their place giving her the same wings Selene has. Next her eyes turn slitted and her horn lengthens an inch as well.

After ten minutes of silence the changes continue until they seem to finish and I cut off the flow as my energy is down to half.

I release our hug and look at her, she's looks exactly like Selene now, same height and shape except of turquoise coloured eyes, they're teal instead and while Selene's hair and tail look like a raging cosmos, Luna's looks like a calm and quiet night sky. I also notice her clothes have ripped exposing some parts of her.

"Seems the physical change is complete but I'll still need to give you more energy later," I tell her and let her stand up.

Desire then slaps her hand over my eyes to stop me from seeing anything. I then hear the sound of magic being used before Selene speaks up. "Here, sister. We have spare clothes thou canst use," she tells Luna.

"We t-thank thee, sister," Luna replies and I hear the sound of cloth rustling.

Desire then removes her hand and I give her a deadpan look to which she sticks her tongue out at me with a smile.

"Now that's done, I came here to talk to you all about what we'll do once we reach Gryphonia," I tell them all.

"Ooooh, so what's the plan, Master?" Desire purrs into my ear making me roll my eyes at her.

"Once we reach the bay, we'll stock up on food and water as well as more gear due to our increasing group, which we can cover with some of the gold on this ship. We'll also need a map as I doubt Gilda will know that area well," I say.

"Desire, you'll need to find yourself a new weapon as I want to conserve what little remaining ammunition we got in case we have to fight Celestia again. Selene, Luna, what weapons do you prefer using?" I tell my wife and ask the twin alicorns who are staring at each other trying to mimic the other's movements like a mirror.

"We prefer dual-wielding longswords," they both reply at the same time and giggle. Seems that despite being two separate beings with different personalities they still think alike.

"Then we'll stop by a weapon store at Skullcove Bay and see if they have anything you'd like. I'll need to find myself another weapon as well," I say and frown. I doubt they'd have any scythes and the best I could hope for would be a halberd.

"I would like to have a rapier in my hand again, I miss my one back at the Castle..." Desire says and gets off the bed before heading to the door.

"Where are you going off to?" I ask her.

She giggles and looks back at me. “I need to use the little fillies room, unless you'd like to come and help me?" she replies and teases.

I roll my eyes as Luna and Selene both blush as Desire laughs before leaving.

"Right then, I better go and see how Ironhoof and Jock are doing," I say to the twin alicorns and get up as well.

Not much has happened over the last four days.

Twilight has learnt a lot from Desire, Selene, and even Luna while Shining is focusing on his shields and barriers, he's also learnt how to form weaponry from his demon energy and surprisingly has been less and less disobedient. Whether or not he's finally learning or it was something Twilight said, I'm not sure. They also both began learning to fly which Shining is getting the hang of quicker than Twilight is, despite her start with her lessons on our way to Horseshoe Bay.

Shining also almost went into a lust hunger but Desire saw it coming and managed to lock him in with Gilda in her cabin who let him have sex with her, sufficed to say Gilda looked very happy when she came out the cabin with a limp. Though Shining is trying not to think about it too much.

Twilight has given up her bed for Fluttershy and is now sleeping with me and Desire at her own request, Desire instantly allowed her and wouldn't let me say otherwise.

Luna's taken a cabin for herself and has been using her night magic to allow Desire and Twilight along with herself, Fluttershy, Shining, Gilda, and Selene into my dreams to see my world from my memories, Shining, Gilda, and Luna have taken a liking to video games while Twilight has been reading books from my old home's bookshelf, though some of the books were blank or missing words as I don't fully remember them. Desire and Selene were outside most of the time learning to drive cars as they found them more interesting, but they all gorged themselves on sweets, candy bars, and other foods that I can remember. Fluttershy has mostly been in front of the TV watching animal documentaries with a smile on her face with a stuffed version of her hellhare Angel in her arms.

Luna is also upset a bit that she's had to leave her new student Dusk Shine behind, but she's debating whether or not to go back to get him or to wait until she can return later, she has visited him in his dreams twice so far telling him what is happening. What was more depressing is that his family disowned him thinking he was corrupted after having summoned demons, so he's currently living in the dorms of Celestia's school. It seems if a noble family's child disgraces them, they get disowned and exiled from the family to restore their honour as that has been their tradition for centuries. Makes me sick to my stomach and I told Luna to bring the boy here if she wanted to but she needs more power to teleport him from Canterlot to here with Selene’s help which will take some time as I'll have to give her more energy to help her recover her power still.

Ironhoof and Scarlet have gathered a large amount of gold from the ship's vault while I topped up my pack with more gold as well, there was nothing of real interest in the vault, just some ornamental weapons, armour, coins, and valuable looking art. Though Twilight took a yew staff with a diamond on the end of it saying it was a zebra shaman's staff that they use for channelling their magic through it and wanted to examine it.

Selene and Luna have been talking to each other every day comparing what they know and exactly what parts of their personality they got each. It was rather depressing when I heard them say that the original Luna is now technically dead as both of them are so different from the original but at least retained their memories, Twilight also heard that and for a day she freaked out believing she and her friends 'killed' Princess Luna.

This lead me to believe that the elements do what their wielder or wielders want since Twilight and her friends 'wanted' to separate Nightmare Moon from Luna when they used them, resulting into their separation with Selene being the Nightmare Moon half, like how Celestia and Luna wanted to seal or imprison Discord away turning him into stone... I'll have to meet this Discord someday as from what Luna told me of his appearance seems too much like a demonlord to me.

Fluttershy had spent a lot of her time in our cabin with Angel constantly trying to get him to talk better and more clearly, she's also still deciding about being a deamon or not but I'm not going to rush her, there's plenty of time for her to decide. Angel himself though I've caught sneaking off at night which I followed him the first time in the Shadow Realm to find him practising with his new claws down in the brig where no one would find him. I just watched as he also surprisingly to both of us belched out a small amount of darkfire from his mouth by accident but soon started practising with that as well, I left him to it but I'll have to keep an eye on him to see how he progresses.

Gilda surprisingly is following Shining around teasing and flirting with him, if I didn't know any better from Desire's constant flirting when we were younger, I'd say Gilda has a crush on the incupony. That or he was really good in bed to her and she wants more.

Lastly, the ex-prisoners have been less and less afraid of us over the days and some even talked to us for a short while. Sheldon plans on returning to his hive and informing his Queen about me and my wife. I asked him to tell his Queen that I'll be back later to find and talk to her as I'm interested in how a demonlord got out here and stayed for so long undetected.

"LAND HO!" the crewman shouts out from the crow's nest as I look up from the game of chess I'm having with Ironhoof, despite his brutish appearance he's very good at the game and so far it's five wins each.

"Call it a draw for now?" I ask him as I stand up.

"Very well, it was good finding somebull who could keep up with me, my old crew were as smart as bricks... no challenge at all," he replies and smirks. "Though we will finish this later, Damien," he says to me making me laugh.

"Agreed," I reply and walk over to the front of the ship.

The first thing I barely see is the lands of Gryphonia coming up and what appears to be four ships as big as ours heading our way.

"Four vessels are on an intercept course, Captain!" the crewman then yells next while looking through his spyglass. "They bare pirate colours!" he then says.

"Do not worry, they are from Skullcove and will escort us to the docks," Ironhoof informs us.

"Alright, but just so you know, if they attack I won't hesitate to kill them and burn the bay down to the ground. Make sure you convince them of that," I tell Ironhoof who just chuckles.

"I have no doubt you could do so, Sir, but I shall try," he replies as we wait for the ships to arrive.

It takes a couple of hours where Desire is now on deck along with Luna and Selene. The passengers have taken shelter below where they'll be safe for now.

"Where are the others?" I ask Desire as the crew all look nervous.

"Twilight is still examining that staff and has figured out how to channel her pony magic through it, apparently it makes her pony magic stronger but her demonic energy is useless with it. Fluttershy is with her teaching her pet to talk more while Shining is with Gilda getting a top up again if you know what I mean," she tells me with a giggle.

"I see. Well, get ready for a fight in case these pirates attack us," I tell her as well as Luna and Selene.

They nodded as we wait for one of the ships to pull up beside us and extend a gangplank across. A black furred gryphon with grey feathers and a left glass eye which has a scar over it wearing a harness with multiple knives walks over with six others of mixed races and stands in front of us.

"Greetings, I am Captain Blackhide of the Skullcove Bay guards. Where is Captain Ironhoof?" he asks us.

"I'm here, Black," the balrog replies getting a surprised look from the gryphon as he looks Ironhoof over.

"Ironhoof? What happened to you?" he asks with intrigue.

Ironhoof snorts and glances at me. "I've been bested in combat... though I wouldn't even call it that as I had no hope of winning. Instead of being killed though, I was given a second chance along with my wife, we now serve Master Damien in exchange for power," he replies as the gryphon looks at me.

"Him? How could a scrawny thing like him beat you?" Blackhide asks making me glare at him.

"I wouldn't insult me again buzzard unless you wish to die," I threaten him coldly and summon my scythe, making his guards draw their own weapons and Desire to aim my rifle at them.

Blackhide frowns at me and gestures his guards to stand down. "Oh? I don't know you, so it's hard to believe something like you could beat Ironhoof here who’s never been defeated," he tells me with an irritating smirk.

"Perhaps you would like a demonstration?" I ask him and coat my left arm in my darkfire.

He raises an eyebrow at my arm and scoffs. "For threatening the guards of Skullcove, we'll be taking this ship along with it's crew and valuables for the pirate King," he says as another ship pulls up alongside us with its crew ready to board.

"Desire?" I ask my wife as she knowingly knows what I just asked of her. I was willing to let Ironhoof convince him we're just passing through but after Blackhide’s threat to enslave my wife and companions, he and his crew are now dead.

She aims my rifle at Blackhide and pulls the trigger blowing his brains out over the deck, the bullet coming out between his eyes which roll up as he drops dead.

"Hmmm, all bark and no bite. Desire, Luna, Selene, Ironhoof, you take the right boat, I've got the left one," I order them. "The rest of you protect this ship!" I yell out to the crew who look uncertain but comply as they draw their weapons.

Luna looks unsure but Selene looks more ready to fight. "Finally, we canst test our magic in combat once again!" she says and flies into the air as some pegasi and gryphons fly up to attack her. Luna frowns and flies up to help her.

"Desire, only use your energy and magic to fight, save your ammunition," I tell her and she sighs but nodded before holstering the rifle and conjuring two red energy whips with razor sharp thorns on them, she then walks over the gangplank and begins slicing up the pirate crew on the deck.

Ironhoof just stares at the corpse of Blackhide and then to me. "You didn't have to do that," he says coldly before crushing two of the guards Blackhide came with and I glare at him making him flinch.

"Anyone who threatens my family or friends is dead, remember that," I tell him and then fly over to the left ship before they could get their gangplanks across.

I look around at the crew and then take on my demonic form. "Thanatos, I hope you're hungry, because it's an all you can eat buffet today," I say to my scythe who I can feel grin in anticipation.

Hmmmm, will Damien burn Skullcove to the ground? Or will he try something else?

Also, does anyone want to see a clop chapter of Shining and Gilda?