I open my eyes and find myself laying on my back in a white void. I can't even tell if I'm laying on the ground or on thin air.

Standing up, I stretch my limbs and frown as I look all around me. Nothing as far as I can see, no shadows, no objects, nothing. I then look up and go wide eyed seeing a black shadow version of myself just hovering in the air and staring down at me.

His red eyes narrow before he lunges at me with a shadow version of my scythe.

I try to summon mine but I'm surprised as it fails to form, so I conjure two darkfire dragons and send them at him.

He swings his scythe and disperses my dragons without detonating them. I frown at this copy of me and flap my wings to get some distance from him, but he rushes me keeping no more than three metres apart from us.

I growl and push myself faster, and the doppelganger is keeping up perfectly. I turn around mid flight and launch four tendrils from each hand at him, he slices five of them, but three make their way through and coil around his right arm, neck, and left ankle.

With him now immobilised, I land and send more tendrils to keep him a good two metres away from me.

"What the fuck are you?" I ask more to myself than him.

"I Am YoU," he replies in a distorted tone of my own voice and isn't even struggling.

I raise and eyebrow at him. "You're me? I find that hard to believe since over the last sixty years I've never seen or heard from you," I tell him.

"I'vE AlWaYs BeEn WiTh YoU, BeFoRe YoU EvEn CaMe To TaRtArUs," he says calmly.

I roll my eyes at him, I'm not buying this for a second. This most likely has to do with Tirek's weapon that he stabbed me in the back with.

"Sure you have. Well, I don't need you filling my head with useless lies," I tell him and start to tighten my tendrils grip around his neck.

He doesn't show any signs of pain or even discomfort.

"YoU cAnNoT hArM mE," he says in an emotionless tone.

"Perhaps. Or perhaps I just haven't found the right way to do so just yet," I reply and conjure some darkfire in my left hand.

I then hose him down like a flamethrower and cover him in the flames, but it seems to also do nothing to him.

"YoU cAnNoT KiLl A pArT oF yOuRsElF," he tells me.

I huff and stop blasting him and hold him up. "And just what part of me are you? If you say my inner darkness or my evil side, I'mma slap you," I tell him unamused.

He remains silent making me groan and facepalm. "I knew it... You're nothing more than some hallucination or conjuration made by Tirek's weapon..." I say and shake my head. So does that mean I'm unconscious?

I look around one last time just to make sure nothing else is here. Nothing new has shown up so I look back to the copy and think about what to do with it.

Problem is, I can feel it has a soul of its own, so that means it's either a demon Tirek put in me, or it actually is a piece of my soul given its own form...

I sit down cross legged and we just stare at each other, I've lost track of how long I've been here and I'm not even slightly hungry yet.

After who knows how long, someone else fades in and I see that it's Thanatos. The cloaked and hooded skeletal pony walks over to me and bows.

"Master, Damien. I apologise, but I burned a few souls to inform Lady Desire of what is happening and how to fix it. I'm currently impaled three inches into your brain so I could transfer myself over to your body," he tells me.

I raise my brow at him just imagining my scythe jabbed into my head.

"Okay, and why did you need to impale yourself into my brain just to come?" I ask him.

"When Tirek stabbed you, a soul transferred into you. But felt it moments later and before I could warn you, you passed out. It has been blocking me from contacting you telepathically," he replies.

I look back to my copy and huff smugly. "I knew this thing wasn't a part of me."

My copy glares at Thanatos before launching a shadowy tendril coming out of his shoulder at the cloaked pony. Thanatos just side steps the tendril and grabs it with his left hand.

"It appears to be an archdemon in strength," Thanatos says and grips the tendril harder.

The tendril starts to rot along where Thanatos is holding it, making the copy go wide eyed and disconnect the tendril from his shoulder. He then slips out of my tendrils grip as his body changes shape and falls to the ground as a blob of shadow before it moves away quickly.

"Master! After him!" Thanatos tells me and I frown.

I quickly give chase with Thanatos following behind me. The shadow looks back and snarls before putting on more speed.

Don't know where he thinks he can run off to, there's nowhere for him to hide.

After a long and tedious chase, I get fed up and wrap a tendril around Thanatos. I then catapult him ahead making him rocket towards the shadow where the skeletal pony grabs it by the tip of its trailing body. The rotting effect spreads and quickly engulfs the shadow who screams in agony before his ash wraps around Thanatos' hand and up the sleeve of his cloak or robe.

I stumble as I land as I cannot tell where the floor is, after regaining my footing, Thanatos lands beside me and bows.

"Master, The soul has been removed from your mind, shall I return and let Mistress Desire know to remove me?" he tells and asks me.

"Alright, how long was I out for?" I ask him.

"About four hours at most," he replies.

"Then go tell Desire to pull you out... I'm ready to just take a long vacation after this, maybe bring my sister to Felfire so she can see where it all began for me," I say and he bows again before fading away.

I look around one more time and after a few minutes, my vision fades to black and my head is throbbing.

Opening my eyes, I'm greeted by Desire straddling my hips wearing just a pink shirt and black shorts with a worried expression on her face. I look around and notice we're in a guest room in our old Felfire manor.

"Damien?" Desire says gently making me look at her again.

"That was an experience..." I reply and touch the top of my head to feel a slight dent under some bandages that is slowly healing.

"I thought the worst when I saw what Tirek did to you... I thought I lost you," she says trying not to cry as she leans down and gently kisses me.

I sigh as I return it and then pull back. "Well, fortunately he had a shitty weapon. Did I miss anything while I was out?" I ask her.

"Felfire has taken some damage from the first boulder of magma Infernious launched here, we lost a few demons from the impact, but only one archdemon was badly injured as Bruticus used himself as a shield to take the blows of the next two that came. He's in the hospital recovering from severe burns and a few broken bones," she tells me.

I sigh again and look up at the ceiling. "Make sure he gets a medal and a large sum of decans for his bravery and selflessness," I reply and slowly sit up.

Desire leans back but stays on my lap. "How are you feeling?" she asks me while looking at the top of my head.

"Okay, considering I just had Thanatos in my brain... But the soul was removed and I just need rest. What happened to Killganna?" I ask her.

She frowns at the mention of her name. "She's fully restrained in the prison and is constantly being watched until you can rip out her soul, she's been begging us for mercy and trying to make deals to spare her," she tells me with her arms crossed.

"Good. Once I'm good enough to go and the room stops spinning, we'll head down and put an end to Killganna." I reply and grin as I reach up and wrap my arms around her waist.

She yelps as I pull her to my right side and she giggle as she snuggles up to me.

With Tirek now dead, we can focus on getting the Blasted Wastes Tartarus Gate open and build a fort and wall around it. Then look for a way to remove the curse on Olestra. Once that's all done, we'll find Cerberus if he's still alive and find the Tartarus Gate to Canterlot. Best way might just be to fix the Gate in Canterlot then go through and search for Cerberus.

After twenty minutes, I feel better and get up with Desire. I get fully dressed in my armour as does Desire before we head out to find our sons.

Along the way, many of the manor staff thank us for stopping Tirek from reaching the City and we nod and smile back at them.

We find our sons in the armoury polishing their armour and weapons, they look up at our entry and they smile.

"It isss good to sssee you unharmed, father," Scalefang says and they all make their way over. I notice Vipirior's head wound is now healed as well.

"Yes, thanks to Thanatos, the demon soul that invaded my body is now gone. So, we're off to finally bring judgement on Killganna for her crimes," I reply and smile.

"Then let us make our way then," Tidus says and we exit the manor where we greet Mo'gra along the way.

I look around the City and watch the demons running around doing their jobs or repairing some damage from the magma shots Infernious fired.

Desire tugs on my left hand and I start walking down the street towards the Prison. I greet the population along the way getting smiles and thanks from them.

It doesn't take that long to reach our destination and we enter the large thick iron walled Prison. Barbed wire lines the top of the outer wall along with sniper towers in each corner to prevent any winged prisoners to fly away, although they do have their wings restrained while outside.

We make our way to the underground cells where Killganna is being held and we pass by a single ogre archdemon heavily bound and has some rather colourful words for me and my family. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for killing his neighbour's helhound as it wouldn't stop barking and beating said neighbour half to death.

Fortunately, another archdemon was in the area and subdued him while the guards came and took him away.

We ignore him and make our way to the strongest cell in the Prison where we find Killganna chained and a thick demontie muzzle over her jaw to prevent her from biting but not from talking.

Her eyes widen after seeing me and I glare at her making her flinch.

"So, Killganna. Any last words before we sentence you?" I ask her.

"I'll do anything you want... I'll take your mark, please spare me..." she begs for her life making me glare harder.

"And what about the three border towns home to over two-thousand and four-hundred demons you butchered? Did you spare them when they begged for mercy?" I ask maliciously.

She looks like she's trying to come up with an excuse, but I don't allow her to come up with one.

"No you didn't. You slaughtered or enslaved them. Well today you shall answer for your crimes," I tell her making her struggle in her bindings.

"WHAT CRIMES!? IT'S KILL OR BE KILLED! THE STRONG CLAIM THE WEAK! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO JUDGE ME!" she screams in anger and she growls and snarls making the thick chains protest but hold.

"Oh? But by your logic, I do. I'm stronger than you. By your rules I have claim over you and can do whatever I want with you. And for murdering our people, I sentence you to soul removal," I tell her and summon Thanatos who I can feel grin with anticipation.

Her eyes widen at the sight of my scythe and she struggles harder.

"DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU AND YOUR SELF-RIGHTEOUS-" she yells but is cut off as I swing Thanatos and impale her through her chest and heart.

She coughs up blood and screams as she shrivels up and some scales drop off before her soul gets absorbed into the scythe and her body crumbles to ash.

"One less demonlord to worry about," Desire says and then sighs. "Just another ten or more to go..."

"We'll find them. At least a couple have joined instead of attacking," I tell her with one-armed hug.

Out of the twelve remaining known demonlords, two have decided to join us instead of fight.

A demonlord female named Hellia who looks like a human female made of liquid fire covered in hardened magma like armour on her forearms, hips and groin, chest, and on her feet and shins. Her hair is like a living flame softly flowing in the air. She lives in the largest volcano far to the north of Fel Haven and rules over a small group of fire elementals she herself has made and is still making.

The other is a male demonlord named Malagath, he's a rather small and one of the weakest demonlords but is fast and looks like a proper imp complete with wings, two horns, is slightly larger, and has far superior control over his flames than any imp I've met. He has just a single town of just imps in a secluded area within a mountain near the Blasted Wastes.

We only ever knew he was there when he voluntarily met with me in Fel Haven over a year ago after hearing that Val' Hades was killed by me and how I've treated my demons. After a nice long chat and rules, he agreed to being marked by me and left to his own home and people.

In return, I offer protection to them, their demons, and their lands. They get to keep ruling over their territories but they have to obey and follow my laws. I guess they're like barons or dukes now.

"Well, I guess we'll check what was damaged and then head home to tell the others the good news," I say and stretch my limbs with a yawn.

"I'm looking forward to just relaxing now, and you still have to fuck another foal into me mister," Desire says and tells me seductively into my ear as she licks my right earlobe.

I grin and spank her making her yelp and giggle. We all eventually leave and head back to the manor.

After checking the damage report, which was ten lives lost in the initial attack, and the splash damage from the two Bruticus blocked which totalled 10,400 decans in damages. Honestly, if Bruticus didn't block the last two, it could have been worse.

I've asked Mo'gra to give Bruticus a medal for his bravery and 25,000 decans from my own funds for his heroism.

Lastly, I've ordered tech goblins with the rest of the army still here to scavenge the Castle's wreck and reverse engineer said castle's tech. I want my own walking fortress surrounded by a fleet of airships.

Once that's all sorted out, we board one of the two remaining sloops in Felfire and make our way back home. The army that came through Pinkie's portal will have to trek back on foot once their task is done.

We arrive back at Fel Haven where I see Twilight and the others waiting for us on the dock. Once tied down, Twilight wastes no time and runs onboard where she hugs and kisses me.

"I was worried about you, but once Pinkie told us about the reinforcements she managed to send, I felt better," she tells me.

I smile and pick her up bridal style and look down at her stomach, a nice visible baby bump is through her vest. I look back up to her face and kiss her again before pulling back.

"And I thank Pinkie for helping us when we needed it." I say getting a 'you're welcome' and a giggle from Pinkie. "Tirek did a number on our fleet and it'll take a while to rebuild what was lost," I finish and walk towards the Castle's Dock entrance.

The others follow behind me and I notice Mel glaring at me.

"What?" I ask her making her eyes narrow more.

"You came out of that with no injuries whatsoever?" she asks me still with her glare.

"Oh no, I got stabbed in the back through a lung with a soul weapon. Hurt like a bitch and got possessed by an archdemon's soul. Which has been removed already and I'm perfectly fine," I reply making her stop with wide eyes.

"YOU HAD YOUR FUCKING LUNG PUNCTURED AND YOU SAY YOU'RE OKAY!?" she yells at me making the others flinch at the loud noise. I feel her grab me from behind so I turn my head to see her staring at the hole in the back of my chestplate.

"And? As long as it isn't my heart I'll be fine," I tell her making her gawk at me, along with some of the others.

"I need a beer and a few smokes..." she mumbles to herself and rubs the bridge of her nose.

I just chuckle and continue on walking. We head to the Dining Hall and I place Twilight in her seat while Desire sits across from her.

Everyone else present takes a seat.

Slitherana foregoes a seat and coils around my chair. She then wraps her arms around my neck and lays her head on my shoulder with a smile on her face while her hands caress my chest.

I return her smile and kiss her cheek as maids come in and take our orders.

I look at Fluttershy and she looks a lot more confident than the timid mare I saved in that forest. She's still wearing her furkini while smiling as the pregnant Yin is on her lap happily letting Fluttershy stroke her back and head.

Angel then glances at me and smiles with a slight nod to me. I do believe I have his respect for how the thestral has turned out.

"So how was the, fight?" Rainbow asks me as she and both Gilda and Shining look interested as well.

"Well... at first, we managed to cripple the Castle but then-" I begin and continue to tell them what happened.

Once finished, our food arrived and is halfway eaten before Pinkie tears open a hole in the air and giggles as she pulls out some chocolate bars.

"Who wants one?" she asks everyone only getting me to stare at her.

"Where did you get those? Tartarus doesn't have chocolate..." I ask her with confusion.

"Oh, this is from my own stash from my bedroom in Ponyville!" she replies and passes out the chocolate.

Desire gasps and quickly snatches a bar. "You mean chocolate like from Damien's world!?" she asks and tears the wrapper off before taking a bite and just melts at the sweet taste with an inappropriate moan.

I just stare at Pinkie before it sinks in. "You can make a portal to Equestria?" I ask dumbly. If she can, we might not need to find the Canterlot portal. We can just make a new one using her portal as a base!

"Uh-huh! I tried after I rested from sending those guards to you! I missed the cakes so much that I didn’t think about it and said hello to them!" she says and sniffles a little.

"Miss, Pie. Would thou open a portal to Canterlot Castle? We would like to see our Sister," Selene asks the pink draconequus with hope.

"Sure!" she replies and opens a bigger portal to the Canterlot Castle Throne Room, which looks brand new since my fight with Celestia.

I hear screams come from the portal as I can see ponies in fancy or common clothes staring wide eyed at the portal or backing away.

"Sister!" Luna says as we watch Celestia go from shock to a smile.

After a few seconds, Celestia gets up off her throne and walks up to the portal while ignoring her guards pleas to stop. "Lulu!" she replies happily.

She stops in front of it but then gasps as I think the energy of Tartarus is leaking through, making her disguise drop and her demonic form to be revealed.

"THE PRINCESS IS A DEMON!?" a mare yells in confused fear as Celestia turns around with worry on her face as she looks at her subjects.

I quickly get up and reach through and nab Celestia by her arm and pull her through.

"PRINCESS!" the pony guards yell as I turn to Pinkie.

"Close it!" I order her making her yelp and shut the portal.

"What are you doing!?" Celestia demands angrily and pulls her arm out of my grip.

"Stopping your guards from getting themselves killed," I reply and huff as I make my way back to my seat and sit down, letting my scaly wife coil around me again.

"Sister!" Both Selene and Luna say and sandwich the white and fiery mare between them.

Celestia returns the hug as Twilight gets up and makes her way over. Once the hug is over Celestia looks at Twilight.

"Hello, Celestia," Twilight says nervously.

The larger white mare smiles and hugs Twilight gently, but then seems shocked and looks down slightly.

"Twilight... Are you... Pregnant?" Celestia asks dumbly.

"Erm, yes," she replies and rubs her left arm.

I decide to speak up before Twilight becomes a nervous wreck. "Well then, since you're here, You'd like to know that Tirek is now dead and no longer a threat," I tell Celestia making her look at me in surprise.

"Tirek is gone?" she asks hopefully.

"I took his soul and his body is ash, he'll harm no one else ever again. So, would you like to join us or go back to Canterlot?" I ask her politely and gesture to the spread on the table. As long as she remains civil, I'll show her respect and hospitality.

She looks around and then frowns. "Where are we?" she asks.

"In the Tartarus capitol of Fel Haven in my Castle's Dining Hall," I reply and cut another piece of sausage and bring it up to Slitherana who happily bites it off the fork.

Celestia's eyes go wide and she looks to her sisters who nod at her.

She looks back to me and sighs. "And why haven't you contacted us in over a month?" she asks me.

I finish chewing and swallow my food and look at her. "A demon under Tirek's rule was blocking Pinkie's ability to open a portal, nor do we know how to reopen the gate we came through just yet. She was only able to open it now since I killed the demon blocking her yesterday," I reply and give my wife another fork full of sausage.

"The real question is," Desire speaks up with a shit eating grin. "How are you going to explain this to your ponies?" she asks Celestia who looks horrified. "They must think you've been corrupted and sided with the mean ol' savage demons. That when you come back, you'll be a horrible tyrant while ruling with an iron fist. I have no doubt they fear Luna thinking she turned back into that... what was it? Nightmare Moon when we rescued the element bearers and her student?" she finishes still grinning.

Selene growls lightly at the name and Luna looks sad, but Celestia's wince just confirms it's true.

"Well, first things first. Do you want to go back to Canterlot, Celestia? Or would you like a tour of the place you've hated so much and see life from our perspective?" I ask the white mare.

She frowns and sighs, again. "I need to go back and make sure they aren't panicking too much," she replies and looks at me.

"Fair enough," I say and turn to Pinkie as Slitherana lets me back up. "Open a portal to Canterlot, I want to see the damaged gate under the City anyway," I tell her getting a salute and giggle before she opens another portal.

"Go through first and try to... soften the blow of our arrival," I say to Celestia who frowns harder.

"I really don't want you in my City... But I do owe you for freeing me from Tirek's grasp and protecting my sisters and the bearers from my madness..." she replies and with a deep breath walks through the portal.

I turn to Twilight with a grin making her nervous. "Once it's safe to go, we're going to visit your family. You've met mine, it's only fair we meet yours," I tell her making her eye twitch.

Without warning I pick her up and after a few minutes making sure we have everything we'll need. Including guns and plenty of ammo just in case things go to shit. Celestia tells us it's safe to go through and so with my grin still plastered on my face, I walk through with my family, the alicorns with their student, and the bearers.

Slightly longer chapter than I usually do, so enjoy!