The dream tears away the uncertainty one page at a time. It reveals the ways lesser stories could end, and stealing them again in a heartbeat. We continue the story of Courage's Inferno, with our favorite demoness' once more in Lust.

"What's wrong?" Corignis looked to her sister, sensing something about Courage that set her own teeth on edge.

"A dream again; don't ask why, but you need to put up a shield now." Courage struggled against the hunger, eased this time due to familiarity with the sensation. When Corignis had a shield of demonic energy up, she gave a sigh of relief. "Okay, quick rundown. First time around, Celeph and the others started feeding us with a 'lord's tithe,' " Courage nodded to Corignis' wide-eyed look. "And we ended up stuck here, ruling the place as it was meant to be. Nice, but not what I want."

"Yeah, you want out still, right?" Corignis leaned closer to Courage and nuzzled her cheek. Outside the shield, Celeph—without a leader to guide her—claimed control of the situation herself, and sent her pack out to hunt.

"All the way out. The second time we avoided being queens in here, but then we faced…" Courage faltered, struggling to mention the Lord of the Pit to Corignis. "Ugh, we fought a big demon and I became lord of this place."

Corignis held off her nuzzling to give Courage's cheek a lick. "Of Lust?"

"Of the whole pit." Courage gestured vaguely. "Then that ended and I woke up back here again. We have to do things differently; we have to get out of Lust and negotiate our way free."

"Who is the 'big demon' we defeated? Must have been someone important to make you… wait, it was him? The Lord of the Pit? We actually beat him up?!" Corignis' eyes were wide. "How the buck did you do that…? Did we do that?"

The mention of the Lord shattered the enchantment in Courage's mind—the one that kept her from talking about him—and she gasped hard. "Yes, the Lord of the Pit. He was the one who spoke to me first in the Ninth Circle. He was the one who told me how to get out. He… has been talking to me the whole time, watching and listening. He thinks he knows my name, but he doesn't!"

"Slow down." Corignis was trying not to panic, just the thought of fighting the ruler of the Pit was driving fear into her. "Right, the Lord of the Pit wants us dead, but why?"

"I don't think he wants that. If he wanted us dead, he would have killed me way back when I first got here… when I was still just a pony." Courage shook her head. "He told me that he could only open the gates for a short while."

"He will want something. No demon does anything for nothing." Corignis grinned at Courage. "Except me of course." She kissed her sister warmly on the lips, and the pair set aside their panicked planning for a full minute before coming up for air.

"I have never been like this," Courage kissed Corignis' snout to emphasize what she meant, "before in my life, you know." Courage smiled at her sister—and lover—and let her heart melt all over again.

Corignis licked Courage's lips. "I do, I remember I was your first." She gave a happy little groan at the thought. "And don't you think for a moment that I will forget that." Leaning forward again, Corignis started to kiss Courage once more, when the bubble of magic she had around them was shredded.

"And what are my little saviors plotting in here?" Celeph's tone was more playful than serious; she had already won back her Circle, and was now stronger for it. "Not that conspiring isn't just the thing a succubus queen likes to see, but I do wonder why you blocked me."

"This is a long one. You can have the full version, or just the condensed one." Corignis broke the kiss and bowed her head a little to Celeph. She was shocked when Celeph clopped right up to Courage and leaned in to kiss the startled mare.

Courage's eyes widened, but then energy flowed. She closed her eyes as the gnawing hunger inside her was fed, but it wasn't the wild feeding a succubus normally experiences. This was more akin to feeding a pet. She whimpered when her reserves were restored, and moaned as Celeph overfed her.

Rolling her eyes, Corignis waited for the moment to pass. Just as Celeph drew back from Corignis' sister, the demon queen claimed Corignis' own lips as her next target. The taste of power was overwhelming, and Corignis gave in and fed on all that Celeph fed her.

Panting and a little dazed from the surprising kiss, Courage took a few moments to square everything in her head. "The Lord of the Pit is waiting for us in Tartarus, and I don't know what it is all about. I… I have visions of things happening, and in the last vision, when we went there, we fought him."

Breaking the kiss, Celeph raised a single eyebrow. "And what happened?" She stretched, more than content at giving up so much energy to the two mares. Being the Queen of Lust meant she was already being resupplied as her minions fed.

"We beat him, I…" Courage remembered her shape-changing, and how effective it had been. "I turned into the demon I was in Heresy… the giant spider." Her memory told her just how amazing it was to drink not just the magic from the kirin, but also his destiny. "I drained him of his power, and dropped him into the lava. I became the Lord of the Pit…"

"Forgive me, Your Lordship, but where do these dreams leave us?" Celeph gave a cross-eyed Corignis a gently pet on the head—it was nice for a demoness to be reminded she still "had it."

"I know he is waiting for me, and I know fighting him right away isn't the answer." Courage tapped her chin and thought. "So negotiating would be better. But how do I convince him of that?"

"Wait a second." Corignis tapped her head with one hoof, trying to improve her thinking process. "When we were caught here, what did they say? Something about an ambush, and being warned?" Her wings ruffled a little at her sides as implications started to set in. "And didn't…" she paused a moment, her eyes flashing to Courage, "Learned Scholar sort of get put in your way too?"

"Testing her?" Celeph jumped to a conclusion like a practiced feline after a mouse. "But to what ends? Does this mean all the events here, my imprisonment and torture… it was all a plot to test you?"

Courage backed up a step. "N-N-no!" She felt her plot press to the wall and realized she was in a corner. "It's not my fault!"

"I don't doubt that, but I went through a lot of pain for... for this purpose." Celeph stepped up before Courage, and was at a loss what to do. "You freed me, you turned down my worship of you so that I could rule again…" Closing her eyes, the Queen of Lust calmed the chill anger and focused on the problem at hoof. "It is wholly the fault of whoever set these tasks ahead of you, and I can only think of one creature who could—and would."

"What if it wasn't testing?" Corignis didn't want to trigger the Queen into attacking, but she was ready in case she reversed her stance. "What if it was always a plan to build Courage up? She was put in danger again and again, and while it was a series of tests, it was a series of trials designed to make her what she is."

"That is a much more interesting idea." Celeph leaned a touch closer, and kissed Courage on the bridge of her nose. "I hold no grudge. You are always welcome in my Circle, at my table, and in my bed." She turned back to Corignis after a moment of staring into Courage's eyes. "But first, names. Who are you both?"

"Corignis Fire." Corignis bowed to Celeph, and gestured to Courage. "And my sister here, recently become a demon herself, is Bale Fire."

"Wait…" Lifting a wing, Courage gestured for the proceedings to stop. "He screwed up my name; he thought Balefire was my last name. Corignis, we have to do that again. He already knows my first name."

"If I accept this is all fact—and I have certainly heard wilder stories that were true—then we need to craft you a more delightfully confusing name. If these are really visions you have, and you have another, make sure you introduce yourself to me with at least Leorins in your name." Glaring at both the sisters, Celeph tried to impart the gravity of the name on them. "That is my second name, and a word more of it than any other being knows."

"Threpin." Corignis bowed her head, and turned to Courage. "Add that as another of your names. Throw in Learned, and some random nonsense, and we can go with that."

Courage smiled and cleared her throat. "Courage Threpin Leorins Learned…"

"No, you are doing it all wrong." Corignis rolled her eyes and looked at Celeph—who was grinning. "Courage el Threpin lis Leorins aj Learned." The words slipped from her tongue easily. "And if you live long enough, I would suggest dropping these names completely and cooking up something completely new."

Tapping her hoof to the cadence of the name, Courage sounded it out in her head. Then she spoke it. "Courage el Threpin lis Leorins aj Learned? What is with the extra words?"

"Mostly placeholders to make it sound right, but also because different names at different places mean different things. There should be another name in there, but since Celeph has given you part of her name, she has put claim on you." Corignis gestured to the Queen of Lust.

Nodding, Celeph cut in. "You carry the blood of succubi, and no matter how far the blood roams from Lust, you are one of my daughters." The weight of her words stirred in the air.

"And you are my sister. You carry part of my name, and I yours." Corignis reached her hoof up and gently booped Courage. "And finally, Learned. He is your bound stallion, your mate. You carry his foal, and will one day call on him again, probably for another."

Courage coughed at the implication, but something in her mind would not refute it. "Courage el Threpin is Leorins aj Learned. It really is a mouthful. Okay, so when he wants my name, tell him that?"

"No!" Both Corignis and Celeph shook their heads. Corignis continued. "When he asks your name tell him what he already knows. It won't work without all of it. If he pushes hard, sell him another word at a dear price. If he tortures you, give him all of it." Standing beside Corignis, Celeph nodded to the plan. "And do try to get at least his first name, if you give him all of yours."

"So is that it?" Courage looked between the two demons, and got a pair of nods. "I guess the rest is up to me. Memory of the spell that had ripped a hole between Circles came to Courage from her dreams, she reached out with her dark magic and started to weave the runes.

"Wait, I have one little gift for His Lordship." Celeph walked up to the slumped body of Mistress where it lay on the ground not far away. She pulled at the cold that the dead demon had grown inside her, the hunger that even now wanted satiation. "This will be perfect…" A chill wave of power, like a blizzard focused to a thin blade, swept out and removed Mistress' head from her neck. The icy blade of power froze the wound as it cut, leaving a bloodless stump and head behind.

"Do you want us take him her head?" Corignis reached out with a wing, picking up the head from the ground.

"You are as much my daughter as Courage is. Take this… excrement… and show His Lordship what the succubi of Lust do with traitors." Celeph gave Mistress' body a little kick. "Damn you, child, you never even shared your first name with your sisters; I should have seen you coming."

Taking her place at Courage's side, Corignis felt one of her sister's wings pull her tight. "Be well, and make sure you live an interesting life." She heard Celeph's peal of laughter as the spell ripped them from Lust and catapulted the pair towards Tartarus.

Author's Notes:

So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and I they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, I they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! I They will pick one question per chapter. (note, the commissioner will answer questions in the comments, since this is their OC)

Support me on atreon

Join me on Discord. Please use your FimFic name as an alias. Warning, said chat may contain NSFW material and should be considered adult in nature.

Awesome ponies who are already helping to keep me in keyboards and rum:
A.P.O.N.I.
Boulder
Canary in the Coal Mine
Daremo
Dio-Drogynous
Ian
Javarod
Jeffh4
Mary Rowland
Mephia
Nils
Sirion123

And special thanks to the following, for careful eyes and friendly words:
Cross Lament
Jeffh4
Vutava