This continues a bad end, leading on from the previous chapter.

The moment they blasted into Heresy, Alphias threw a barrier up. Pouring energy into the wall of force, he looked around with narrowed eyes. "Where is he?"

"Uhh?" Courage looked at Corignis and saw a little panic and laughter on her sister's face. "What do you mean?" Something was making her feel great, happy, strong.

"White. The demon lord who should be the lord here." Alphias peered out through the barrier of magic he had put up, but rather than the milk-white demon who ruled this Circle, he saw ponies. "What is going on here? Where is their lord to punish them?"

"About that… you can drop the shield, Learned." Corignis nuzzled Alphias' neck. "You see, Courage was having a little trouble with him." She gestured to Courage.

"He trapped me and stole my destiny!" Courage knew she was pouting, but didn't care. "So I beat him up… with Cor's help."

Alphias' mouth dropped open. "You defeated the lord of this Circle?" He glared at Courage. "Why didn't you tell me this? This changes everything!" Releasing his shield, Alphias saw that there were demons among the ponies living in Heresy, but they all looked oddly happy together. Things started to click into place, and Alphias gave a bark of laughter.

The demons and ponies approached the three visitors, but it was the demons who stepped forward. "Corignis," an incubus began, "we have done as you asked. The Circle grows stronger with every new addition." Unusual for his kind, the incubus was a soft yellow in color, and bore a mane and tail of soft blue. Huge yellow wings were folded on his back, and his eyes burned with devotion.

"Insepheral, I see you have done well." Corignis still felt the draw of the Lord of the Pit's command, but until Alphias helped resolve the new leadership of Heresy, she could relax somewhat. "How go the ponies?"

"You were right. They were so weak and lost. We are feeding off each other mostly." Insepheral gestured with a leathery wing to the other demons just behind him. "But some ponies have joined our dances." His smile hinted at just what kind of dance he meant.

"Who actually killed White?" Alphias looked between the two succubi that seemed to be the center of his world now. When Courage lifted her hoof and waved, he blew out another laugh. "So you have the energy of the Master of Heresy." Stepping closer, Alphias nuzzled Courage's cheek. "Take it, use it."

"But that will bind me to Heresy!" Courage shook her head. "And Master gave us orders—"

"He gave you orders to find the lords of the Circles. We can't do that unless you take your place!" Now that Alphias knew what to look for, he could see strands of magic reaching to Courage, begging her to accept them. "Our mission is failed unless eight lords stand before your master."

Courage looked at the mixed members of the Circle of Heresy. Most of the ponies lacked the facelessness that White had imposed on them, but there were ponies here and there that lacked eyes to see, or mouths. Some still sported the smooth coats that the spider demon had forced upon them, and yet others sported multiple, spider legs sprouting from their bodies. A few of the mares sported swelling bellies, and she had to wonder how much time had passed since she had faced White.

Turning her focus on the demons, Courage saw succubi and incubi, and most looked happy. The few that had outright hostile looks on had their wings slightly spread, and had put themselves between the three newcomers and the ponies they had sworn to protect. Even some of the succubi had bellies swelling with new demons (or cambions). "Alright." The word tumbled from her lips, and it was as if the land itself awaited it. Courage whimpered as she felt the plane bind itself to her, making the connections she remembered from the prophetic dream she had experienced about Lust.

While the ponies and demons in Heresy were working to change the nature of the Circle, Courage felt the desire of the very world around her to become what she wanted it to become. "Mine?" The word was answered by a surge, and Courage opened up to the feeling of desire pouring into her.

What really shocked Courage, however, wasn't the power that resulted from her being Master of Heresy, but the side effects of it. She felt a ripping within herself, her own mind separating from what she had believed was true, what she had thought to be required. "He doesn't control me?"

"Not with that collar, or your name." Alphias smiled at Courage, and watched her power ebb and flow. "The Lord of the Pit cannot hold any of the lords of the Circles in that way. It is why he only controls me with his power alone… and those I care about."

Courage's eyes followed Alphias', both of them now looking at Corignis. "What about Cor?" The "song" of Heresy now echoed through her being, just like her prophetic dream had shown her how Lust would have. "I want her free of his grip, too."

"The Lord of the Pit controls Corignis by her name, something we both have." Alphias felt a cool power shrouding around Courage, and knew it to be the essence of Heresy. "We could craft her a new name, but it would take time for it to catch onto her soul."

"What if she became the lord of another Circle?" Courage turned to look at Alphias. "If she were like this, she wouldn't be bound by her name!" The idea excited Courage, and she felt sure that would be the answer.

Alphias nodded a little. "First of all, as a lord of one of the Circles, she would be bound to him—as you are now—in a different way. He wouldn't have the level of control he has now. But this creates a new problem. It is only by his will that the lords can leave their Circles."

"Yes, but he is throwing the doors open, there will be a war over Equestria." Courage felt the very nature of her new land seep into her thoughts. "In war, there are often accidents."

"Kill the Lord of the Pit?" Alphias smiled, quite taken with the way Courage was thinking. "Now that would be a grand solution. Let him face off against one of the big ponies, Celestia or Luna, and then stab him in the back."

"There would need to be a lord." Courage nuzzled Alphias, trailing her lips up his neck until she found his lips. Kissing Alphias, Courage felt all the confidence she needed, and melting against his lips, she hoped he felt the same.

"What are you two doing?" Corignis pointed a hoof back at the gathered ponies and demons. "You know what is going to happen now there is no lord here?" When her two lovers continued their kiss, Corignis flapped her wings at them. "Hey, I'm talking to you!"

Courage laughed as she broke the kiss with Alphias. "Cor, what do you think. Do you wish to control Wrath?" She looked back to Alphias. "I only met one other in Wrath, on the Styx. Is the ferrypony the lord there?"

"Courage, if you don't tell me what you are talking about I am going to bop your heads together!" Corignis was more than a little impatient, and while she would have gladly carried out her threat, she wouldn't do much more than that.

"Being the lord of a Circle breaks the hold the Lord of the Pit holds over a demon." Alphias held up a hoof to ward Corignis' anger off. "So we were trying to work out what Circle to claim for you."

The words cut Corignis' train of thought in half. She blinked at Alphias for a moment, then looked at Courage. "What? No! No, no, no! I couldn't!"

"You already did. We took Lust together, and you already helped me kill ol' Lordypants already." Courage reached up with her forelegs and hugged Corignis. "He knows your name, the only way to break that grip easily—"

"Is to trap me in a Circle?!" Corignis wanted to pull away, to deny everything and run… run back to her master. In a moment of clarity, she recoiled from her previous thought. "Which Circle?"

"What about Gluttony? They were begging for us to send them a succubus. Why not send them back their queen?" Courage remembered the dream that foretold Corignis' rule there. "It wouldn't take much. You just have to do a little feeding."

"They do have a lot to give, and it could be a good calling for a succubus." Corignis gave Courage a counter hug, squeezing her sister a little. "And I think he was totally a hunk under all that… energy." Her thoughts roamed back to Sir Thunder Hoof, remembering the way he moved in combat. "Alright, but we still need Wrath, and Lust."

"What about Tartarus?" Courage looked to Corignis, nuzzled her cheek, then cast her gaze to Alphias. "Who is the lord of Tartarus?"

Letting out a sigh, Alphias shook his head. "Cerberus will not take his place as Guardian of Tartarus. He bowed to a different lord long ago."

"Wait!" Courage pulled back from Corignis. "So Cerberus is a demon? How did he escape?" She felt a touch at her side, and turned to see an incubus there, nuzzling her. There was a connection between her and the demon, a strong connection that firmly put him as her servant. So caught up in feeling out the bond was Courage, that she missed Alphias' reply. She shook her head and looked at her husband. "Sorry, what?"

"Princess Celestia ripped Cerberus from the Pit herself. He was the first to go missing, followed by Discord. The Lord of Chaos, however, broke free himself." Alphias watched more demons approach Courage and bow down to her, and he smiled. "Your host is assembling."

"My…" Courage knew there were a hundred things she should be focused on, but gathering an army from among her demons was not one of them. "I will go alone. White wouldn't have been expected to bring an army, and neither will I."

"We want to fight for you!" Insepheral bowed his head and spread his wings out and lowered them before Courage. "Master, please tell us to come?"

"No! This," Courage gestured to the ponies and demons around her, "this is wrong, and a heresy of the natural order. Demons are supposed to use and abuse ponies, but here we live together." It was the first time she stated her intention for the Circle, that it continued what Corignis had started was just convenient. "I will go alone; this is my fight."

"She's right." Corignis had finally gotten her head around the madness that had been planned, and despite her need to follow her master's commands, she felt she could do it. "You need to feed her more power. If she takes you from here, you will not be giving her the energy to fight. I put you here because you helped me in the past with ponies, and now you have proved that despite what we are, you can be a community together."

Courage watched as some of Heresy's pony residents clung to their own kind, but the others found a demon, or in some cases more than one. Power poured from the very situation that the creatures of her Circle were in. Thinking back to her dream, it wasn't as much as she could get if she actively harvested—like White had—but she liked the taste of her way better. "You stay here." She turned back to Alphias, not giving Insepheral a chance to argue further. "We need to move on to Wrath."

"Come then, Mistress of Heresy, let us find the ferrypony, and then to fetch our lovely wife a Circle of her own." Alphias began working the ritual that would rip a hole from Heresy to Wrath. "Corignis, come and face your future."

"You're both mad." Corignis stepped up beside Alphias, and put a wing over his back. A memory came back of her last time in Wrath. "We have to get three tickets through this time."

Courage laughed as Alphias finished the spell, and tore their way from Heresy.

Author's Notes:

Not the end, not even an end... yet. Next week Pt4 will arrive, and we will see what the unified forces of the Pit, led by its lord, can do.

~~~~~+++++~~~~~

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)

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