Asura is unconscious, holding on to a pillar of some sort that’s high above a lightning storm, or so it seems.

“…”

No thoughts are present.  No worries, dreams, emotions, just… zen.

“…”

Asura begins to hear a girl crying.  He’s not sure why, but it sounds… familiar. Somehow.

“ERRRAUGHH!”

Asura finally comes to.  All he sees is nothing but a few pillars here and there with strange symbols on them. He also noticed that he is hanging onto a pillar of his own.  

“Awake at last, are we?”

The voice came out of nowhere, it seemed.  Asura took a quick look around his surroundings, but he couldn’t see anything that would be the source of the voice.  He decided to talk to it anyways.

“Where am I?” Asura asked, figuring it would be a good idea to find out where he is exactly, as well as seeing if there really is another person in the same place as he was.

“Well… this is Naraka.”  Replied the strange voice.  “But I won’t bother explaining because I doubt you would understand.  So for now, let’s just say you’re having a bad dream.”

Asura got a bit annoyed at the partial answer, but he figured it was a hell or purgatory of sorts.  However, he had more important questions to ask now that he was sure he wasn’t alone.

“Who are you?” Asura asked the strange voice.

“Good question! Not the right one.” The strange voice said.

Asura looks up and sees a golden spider hanging above him.

“The right question would be, ‘Who are you?’” The golden spider told him.

“I…” Asura could not remember his own name, or how he even got here in the first place.

The golden spider seemed amused at Asura’s bout of memory loss.

“Hehehehe. Start climbing then 'I'.”  The golden spider began to retract up its web.  “However, I would be careful.  I trust I need not tell you what would happen should you fall.”

Ignoring the golden spider’s amusement at his predicament, Asura began to climb up the pillar.

“Yes, that’s it.  Up you go.” The spider chimed in as he watched Asura as one would watch entertainment.

“Yes. There is a reason why you must climb, isn’t there?” The golden spider said. “You may have forgotten why, but the flame inside you still burns.  That’s it, keep going, Asura.”

This triggered something in Asura’s mind.  He began to have a flashback to when he was training with his former mentor, Augus…

***

“ASURAAA!”

This was one of Asura’s many training sessions.  The training place was in front of a temple of sorts, isolated from any sort of civilization.  Perfect for practicing against Gohma.

“These are our enemies,” Augus started, “the impure Gohma!”

What stood between Asura and Augus were three Gohma Howlers.  Being the stupid cannon fodder that the impure gorillas were, Augus figured they would be perfect for this session.  

“Let’s see what you make of ‘em!” Augus jumped back on top of the temple entrance, eager to see what sort of violence Asura would show against the unfortunate Gohma.

Heh.  These Gohma don’t even stand a chance, Asura thought to himself confidently.  Even without mechanical arms, Asura was still a force to be reckoned with.  He cracked his knuckles and went straight to work.

Asura began to warm up his muscles with a few simple punches and kicks.  He rushed the Howlers and began wailing on them, not even thinking about what would be the most savage and painful way to kill these creatures.  Even this was a bit much for the Howlers, as they suffered a nasty beating.

Asura figured it was time to start impressing his mentor.  He let out a heavy attack, spinning 360 degrees and letting mantra out to hit the Gohma.  Augus seemed pleased at his student’s display of power.

“Hahaha, would you look at that!”  Augus needed to remind Asura who the big man was though, still being only a whelp to the demi-god.  “But a pup like you won’t be able to use that attack repeatedly!  Time and use that attack wisely!”  While very good advice for the student, the master couldn’t help but wonder how quickly the Gohma would be eradicated if Asura could let out that much power non-stop.  He almost slapped himself in the face as he remembered that his student had, as Augus liked to call it, his Unlimited Mode.  Augus only called it that because of all of the unlimited destruction and pain Asura caused in that form, becoming stronger and able to release heavy attacks constantly with no cooldown.  Despite somehow forgetting that his student possessed that much power, he still grinned, proud of his student.

Meanwhile, Asura was still mindlessly wailing on the three Howlers.  Implementing the use of heavy attacks more, Asura began to feel the brutal but graceful rhythm of combat, guiding his every strike.  He smashed his hands onto the ground, creating a shockwave that launched his Gohma punching bags into the air.  He jumped and dove right into one of them, sending the poor Gohma right into the ground.  Seeing the downed enemy dazed, he grabbed the legs of the other two Howlers and used them to smash their poor friend.  Seeing as all three were downed, Asura seized the opportunity and did a spin kick that released much more mantra than his usual heavy attacks and killed all three Gohma in one blow.  He looked up to his teacher, only to see Augus grinning.

“Haha!  Not bad!” Augus congratulated his student.  Almost immediately though, he moved on to the next part of their training session, not giving Asura a moment’s rest.  Augus never did say to stop.

“Don’t think you’ll come off unscathed!  Pain reminds you you’re fighting for your LIFE!”

A single Howler formed before Asura.  Asura would normally beat the living hell outta it, coming off unscathed, but he had to comply as his teacher made him get hit so he can demonstrate his recovery skills.  Of course, this is on the assumption that the Howler would hit him sometime, as Asura can stand still and not be hit for a while.  In fact, that’s exactly what he did.

After almost not noticing that the Howler was finally going to hit him, Asura got punched in the face.  Forgot how much of a punch those gorillas could pack…

Now being sent back a few feet in the air, Asura immediately positioned his body so that he would land on his feet, taking most of the impact on his legs.  Asura looked at his teacher, seeing if he had to take any more hits.  Augus looked back and only shook his head, now wanting to see Asura’s evasion skills, much to Asura’s liking.

After once again waiting for the Gohma to hit him, Asura expertly rolled and dodged the punches the Gohma was giving.  Asura was more than happy to not get punched in the face again.

“I think you got it!” Augus exclaimed, glad that the boring part of training is over with.  “But even a monkey could do that!  Let’s see if you can read your opponent’s moves and counterattack!”

Asura could only grin.  He looked at the unlucky Howler. Looks like your time is finally up.

The Howler stood on its two legs and began to prepare what would’ve been a rather painful slugging.  Fortunately for Asura, the attack was rather slow, so he had a lot of time to perfectly counter the attack.  And that’s exactly what he did.

After the Howler threw the punch, Asura stopped it and merely pushed it back with enough force to stagger the Gohma slightly.  Immediately Asura delivered a very painful looking uppercut, sending the Gohma high into the air.  Asura jumped up and smashed the head of the Howler into the ground, killing it within two hits.  Pleased with himself, Asura awaited the next part of the session.

“Don’t get distracted by multiple enemies! Concentrate on one at a time!”  

Three Gohma Stingers appeared before Asura.  The flying manta rays gave Asura pause for a small moment, since he couldn’t just simply start wailing on them like he did with the Howlers.  However, he still had a plan of attack.  He’d just simply bring them down with his fists an-

“I never said all battles would be up close!”  Augus said, noticing how long it was taking his student to start attacking them.  “Knock them out of the sky!”

Or not.  

Asura began to fire out balls of mantra rapidly, concentrating on one Stinger at a time.  Shortly, all three of the flying Gohma were dead.

“Haha!  Not bad!”  Augus jumped back to a higher elevation, now standing on top of the temple.  “Time for your next lesson!”

Augus started to lift a giant boulder up with a single hand.  “Now let’s see you shoot this down!”  He threw it directly at Asura.

Asura quickly shot it out of the sky, reducing it to rubble.  Augus threw more boulders at him, and each barrage was quickly dealt with.  Satisfied, Augus stopped throwing the barrage of boulders.

“Haha!  There we go!”  Augus was pleased with his student.  Now it was time for the fun part.

“Now it’s my turn.  Prepare yourself!”  Augus jumped down from the high height, appearing before his student.  “Let’s see how you do against your own master!”  He motioned with his finger for Asura to come at him.

And so he did.  Asura came at him, raining down a beat down that would’ve killed a Gohma.  Augus, being a demi-god, simply staggered backwards instead.  Augus retaliated back, doing sweeping attacks with his fists to knock Asura down.  Augus then let out a short trail of yellow mantra out, sending the student flying.  Asura quickly recovered and started firing out mantra balls, using the distance between them to his advantage.

Augus was not fazed one bit at this barrage of mantra, but Asura expected that.  He was doing this for an entirely different reason anyhow.  He needed to build up power for his Unlimited Mode.

After building up enough power, Asura closed in on Augus, activating his Unlimited Mode when he was close.  Augus was happy to see Asura getting serious.  “That’s it!”  Augus said in approval.  He wished he didn’t say that as he was pushed back quite a bit by a few heavy attacks from his student.  Augus was still a bit amazed at his student’s display of power in this state.  After that display, Asura reverted back into his normal state.

“Right…” Augus was eager to see his student getting more and more serious by the moment.  “Now let’s take your skills… and put them to the test!”

Augus started to throw a punch, which was quickly avoided by Asura. As a result, Asura went behind Augus and spun him around, landing a clean hit to his master’s face and sending him flying.  Before Augus could even get up, Asura dived in quickly from above, not giving him a moment’s rest.  Asura sent Augus back once more, this time downing him as well.  Asura felt the raging flames burning in him, and released a huge wave of mantra as he rushed towards Augus.  Asura punched Augus in the face, then delivered another blow to his ribs.  Finally, Asura uppercutted Augus and sent back crashing into one of the rock walls near the temple.

Augus seemed unfazed by all of this, quickly dashing up to his student.  Instead of attacking, as Asura expected, Augus stopped right before him and chuckled.

“You learn fast.”  Augus said, pleased at how serious Asura got during the fight.  “Here’s your REWARD!”

Augus headbutted Asura with great force, sending out shockwaves everywhere.  Asura was down for the count.  Augus smiled and laughed as he turned around to start walking away.

“That’ll be all for today.”  He simply said to Asura, who tried to stay conscious but failed to do so.  

Before he blacked out, the last thing he heard was his master maniacally laughing as he walked away.

***

“My name is… Asura.” Asura finally remembered.

“Yes. That is your name, Asura.” The golden spider said playfully.

Asura let his head fall back, trying to see if he could remember more.

***

Asura was… fighting a bunch of robots in front of the Emperor’s palace.  They all branded him a traitor for killing their Emperor, Strada.  He fought them back, but more surrounded him and started to close in on him, saying things.

“TRATIOR!”

“The Emperor…”

“GENERAL ASURA HAS GONE MAD!”

“TREACHERY!”

“INSURRECTION!”

Asura couldn’t take it anymore.

“SHUT UP!”  He bellowed, quelling the voices for the moment.  He turned around, only to see more robots and a… man.  He couldn’t remember who he was exactly, but Asura knew he had seen his face before.  Asura was filling with rage with each moment he looked at the man, but he didn’t know why.

“THE TRAITOR, ASURA, HAS BEEN DEFEATED!”  Yelled the man.  At the sound of his voice, Asura remembers who the man is.

Deus…

As Deus began to fire a lightning bolt at him, Asura began to fall down.

“NO! FATHER!”

It was the same voice as when Asura came to in Naraka.  She started to cry again, and as she did, Asura started to remember.  The pain, the suffering, the anger… all of it started flowing back to him.

***

Asura snapped back to reality.  He put a hand to his forehead, pain throbbing in his head.

“Deus said he would save the world.”  The spider told his companion.  “Are you satisfied with being a cog in his machine?”  It garnered no response from Asura.  “Or, you could just curl up and die right here…”

“Shut up…”  Asura was beginning to get angry.

“Hm?”  The spider didn’t expect that.  “What’s the matter?  Have I angered you?”

“Not… you.”  Asura replied, looking more pained with each passing moment.

“Not me?”  The spider was definitely interested in this now.

“The crying…”

“Crying?  In Naraka??  There is nothing to hear but the sound of my voice.”  The spider said matter-of-factly.

Asura slams the pillar he hung onto, starting to climb faster. The golden spider could barely keep up.

Asura didn’t care about anything right now.  All he wanted was the crying to stop.  It was driving him mad.  He began to climb even faster than before, hoping it would help.  It made it even worse.

“STOP IIIIIIT!!!”

It would not stop, nor did he stop climbing. Eventually, he made it to the surface and a large and bright beam of fire shot up into the sky.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He screamed louder than he did when he was falling down from space. It scared the inhabitants of a nearby village as they heard an ungodly scream from nearby…

------------

Ponyville

Rainbow Dash went immediately to Twilight, thinking she might know what is happening. She breaks open the door and flies right in.

“Twilight! What's going on!?” Rainbow Dash screamed to her friend.

“I… I don’t know.”  Twilight was in utter shock, having heard the ear-deafening scream as she was reading a book.  It practically gave her a heart attack.

Shortly after Rainbow Dash came in, the rest of the Mane 6 came in as well, asking Twilight questions about what happened.

“Twi, ya’ll happen to know wha’s happenin’ in the Everfree Forest?”

“Um, Twilight?  I, um, happened to hear a very loud scream in the forest and I was just wondering if you happen to know something about that?  You don’t have to answer though, but that would be nice…”

“Oh, darling, did you hear that dreadful scream!?  I was making a dress for a client when suddenly, I heard something scream!  Thankfully, I didn’t ruin the dress, for if I did, it would be the WORST.  POSSIBLE.  THING!  I came running here to see if you happened to know anything about it, Twilight.”

Pinkie Pie, however, was on a completely different subject.

“… and so I was completely crazy when I had a sip of Mrs. Cake’s coffee!  I was bouncing all over the place and making so many treats that I just had to throw a party about getting so much work done!…”

Twilight couldn’t take it anymore.  “I SAID I DON’T KNOW!!”

Everypony in the room was dead silent after that.  Re-gaining her composure, Twilight started to speak.

“Alright, everypony!  Since none of us have any idea what’s going on, there’s only one thing to do!”

Rainbow Dash, surprisingly enough, protested against what Twilight was suggesting.  “Oh no. I'm NOT going into the forest when there was just a huge beam of FIRE!” She protested.

“But we have to know what is going on-” Twilight was cut off mid-sentence

“NO!” Rainbow Dash protested yet again.

“YES!” Twilight responded.

“FINE!” Rainbow Dash finally gave up.

And so the Mane 6 prepared before heading out into the Everfree Forest.

Applejack had her trusty lasso with her.  Pinkie brought some cupcakes and her party cannon.  Twilight had some books and a map with her.  Fluttershy didn’t bring anything as she was didn’t want to go but was forced to anyway.  Rarity brought nothing as well, wearing a rather fashionable hat and scarf.  And Rainbow Dash was wearing her Wonderbolts costume that she wore for Nightmare Night for some reason… show off.

And so they headed out to the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.  They were about to enter… until they saw something with shiny arms about to fight off against a…

“M-MANTICORE!!”  The six ponies yelled in unison.

------------

The Everfree Forest

When the fire stopped, Asura could not explain what had just happened. It was like his entire body was filled with nothing but rage.

Asura decided to scan the area around him. Apart from a massive crater he made he could see that he was in the middle of a forest.

“What the… Where am I?”  Asura said in disbelief.  He wanted answers.

Then he saw something was moving in the woods. He readied himself for combat, ready to pummel whatever was going to come out.  What he saw next surprised him.

It was a weird creature, nothing like Asura had ever seen before.  It had the body of a lion, but its tail was that of a scorpion with…

Wings??  He thought to himself.  Asura couldn’t believe what he saw before him.  Despite being a demi-god and fighting off Gohma, he was at a loss for words when he saw this fusion of animals appear before him.  Suddenly, he heard voices behind him yell something.

“M-MANTICORE!!”

Asura would’ve looked back to the source of the voices, but he kept his eyes trained on this… manticore, as the voices called it.  Noticing the hostility that the manticore had, Asura decided to throw the first punch.

He rushed up to the creature, punching it right in the jaw.  He felt the bones inside the beast’s jaw break as his fist made contact with it,

Angered, the manticore tried to sting Asura with its tail. Asura countered this by grabbing the tail and punching it with so much force the tail disconnected from the body, leaving a pool of blood.  He heard the voices from earlier whimpering in fear, but he paid them no mind at the moment.

Asura launched the manticore with an uppercut and jumps up, delivering a fatal blow on top of the manticore’s skull.  The beast landed hard on the ground, breaking multiple bones in its body.  Asura landed right on it, breaking its spine with a rather gut-wrenching noise to accompany the brutal hit.

Asura was about to finish it. He grabbed the manticore by the head and started slamming it down to the ground. He started to punch it more and more and more until he heard a voice scream.

“STOP IT!”

Asura finally turned around to the source of the voices, only to see bunch of colourful creatures. One of them, the yellow coloured one, was staring directly into his eyes. However, this stopped when the colourful equines noticed his eyes were completely white and gasped.  Not caring, Asura went back to savagely killing the manticore.

“I-I can’t believe it!” Rainbow Dash said. “I guess ‘The Stare’ doesn’t work if their eyes are completely white…” Rainbow Dash, among other five ponies, were very worried.

“Listen to me you big meanie!”  Fluttershy started, stepping forward.  The creature stopped attacking the manticore, seeing what the yellow coated pony had to say. “You stop hurting that animal or I will-”

Fluttershy was abruptly cut by the creature grabbing her by the throat.

(Listen to this for dramatic effect)

“Shut up!” Asura just wanted his anger out of him, so he grabbed the creature by the throat and threw it against a tree, knocking it unconscious.

“Hey! no one hurts my friends!” Pinkie pie said as she pulled out her party cannon out of nowhere… only for it to be crushed by a very angry demi-god.

“YOU NEED TO SHUT UP AND DIE!!!” Asura did not have time for this useless fighting, so he grabbed the pink one's weapon and crushed it into dust. He followed this with by punching the pink creature up into the sky.

“WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-” Pinkie Pie squealed as she had fun being sent up sky high.  Despite being punched by a scary-looking monster.

“CHARGE!” Rainbow Dash cried as she flew straight for the monster.

Asura countered her by grabbing her head as she flew directly for him and slammed her into the ground.

Twilight tried to cast as many spells at it as she could, but it was all for naught as the creature fired projectiles of its own at her.  She began to bleed as the rapid-firing projectiles hit her anywhere where it would hurt.

“P-please… stop…” Twilight said weakly.

Asura immediately stopped upon hearing Twilight speak.

Her voice… Asura relaxed his body. It sounds… familiar…

“Don’t worry Twi!” Applejack said as she tried to lassoed the creature.  “Ah got thi-”

Asura got a hold of the rope.  Had Applejack’s voice not broken out him out of his trance, he would have been lassoed.  Not that it would do much, but Applejack realized how much danger she’s in now.

“Uh-oh.”  Was all the cowpony could muster.

Asura did not want to hurt the orange one too much, so he simply pulled the rope at amazing speed and punched the oncoming creature on the forehead, knocking it through a tree and onto a boulder.  Applejack was down for the count.

Asura heard a voice coming down from above, and looked up to see what it was.  He saw the pink one and it was… enjoying itself?  Deciding trying to figure out the pink would just make him more angry, he ignored her cries of joy and held his fist up where she would land.

“…EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-”

Pinkie’s fun was cut short as she landed right on Asura’s fist.  Asura opened it up and grabbed her face, making some sort of “squee” noise as he tightened his grip.  He threw the partying pony at a tree, knocking it unconscious.

“HAD ENOUGH!?” Asura bellowed, wondering if they were done fighting.

“Not so fast, you uncouth fiend!!” Rarity said to the monster that was hurting her friends.

“Then keep talking, and I’ll gladly send you TO NARAKA!” Asura threatened the white one.

He jumped up into the air and launched himself towards the annoying little creature, greeting her by sending a barrage of metal fists at her.  Rarity tried to counter this by trying to suspend Asura mid-air, but it was useless as the monster closed in on her with unnatural speed.

Rarity felt more pain then she could even handle. The monster finally sent the final punch onto her jaw. Rainbow Dash finally woke up and noticed all of her friends were either badly injured or knocked out. The rage began to grow inside her.

Asura noticed the cyan one woke up and he saw the fire in her eyes. He saw the same burning rage in her eyes as he felt inside him.  He stopped himself and relaxed his body.  He looked around him, seeing the carnage he had created, the innocent creatures he hurt. And all of his anger left him.

Rainbow Dash saw this as her chance and flew straight towards the monster once again.  The monster did nothing as she was gathering speed, flying as fast as possible and made a Sonic Rainboom.   It was stopped short as soon as she hit the still monster, hurting her head in the process.

The monster just stood there, not moving even a single inch.

Asura began to speak.  “I… know how you feel.”  He sounded solemn.  “I’m sorry.”

Rainbow Dash was confused. She was still angry but very confused. Why would that monster apologize? And what did it mean by “I know how you feel”?  As if on cue, the monster started to talk again.

"I… I’m sorry for hurting your friends." Asura continued. "I am sorry for hurting you as well.  I… I must leave."

And so he began to walk out of there… towards Ponyville.

Author Notes.

I'm sorry for this short chapter but i will hopefully make some longer once later on. Atleast you got some freaking action!

Oh and btw. I'm sorry for my horrible grammar :(

Oh and thanks to CompleteAwsomeness87 for the tip for making the last part make a little bit more sense. Next Chapter: Chapter 4: A angry ally Estimated time remaining: 36 Minutes