Luna was gone, as was Courage's spider-like body. She was panting hard and staring at the rip between Lust and Tartarus. "Wait!" Shooting a wing forward, Courage grabbed Corignis and pulled her back from the spell portal. "This is all wrong. Oh, Luna, why didn't I see it?!"

Corignis didn't fight Courage's restraining wing. "Let me guess, another vision? What happens?" She waved a hoof at the fading portal. "Is the Lord of the Pit waiting for us to go through so he can do something nasty?"

"No… Well, yes actually. But it isn't just that. I have tried getting Tartarus right a few times now, and each time it just got worse and worse. The last time a new voice started to talk to me." Courage wanted to pace and rant about everything that had happened, but with Corignis' wing around her, she managed to relax a touch.

"Okay… so is this a vision?" Corignis gestured at the Circle of Lust around them. "Am I just a figment of your dream, and when you wake up again I will be gone?"

For nearly half a minute Courage stared at Corignis before her friend finally cracked and giggled. "Cor! This is serious. It was Princess Luna all along. The dreams… I should have guessed from the start that she was trying to send me messages."

"Oh, sure. While I am all worried about you, just go gallivanting off on adventures with a princess." Corignis had to sit down she was laughing so hard. Straining, she managed to keep talking. "Oh no, Your Majesty—"

"Stop it, Cor!" Courage was laughing along too now. "Besides, for a princess you say, 'your highness.' " A lot of stress poured from Courage with the laughter, but when it was done with, she still had her problem. "Princess Luna said I can't get out of here without destroying something I care about, unless I do it as a pony."

"That explains a lot, really. So how did she say we zap you back to being a pony?" With a wing around her sister and lover, Corignis studied Courage's face for clues to the half-pony's emotions.

"I have no clue!" Courage threw her forehooves up and plonked down. "It was a lot easier becoming part demon than it was getting back to being a pony. All I had to do was listen to you." She poked Corignis with a hoof.

"Thank you." Corignis nuzzled the hoof until Courage pulled it back. "But think, there has to be someone who would know how to restore you to a cute and bangable pony, or something!" Waving a wing out, she vaguely implied all of the Pit. "Think. Did this princess of yours show you anything in the dreams that was odd?"

Courage thought back through all the Circles she had seen, and then the return to each in her latest nightmare. "Sir Thunder Hoof… but we both know about him. Nothing…" She trailed off with a blush, only to glance at Corignis and see her friend smiling. "You too?"

"Of course. That colt could buck!" Both mares nodded to Corignis' summation. "Anything else?"

"The snake lord in Treachery… no." Courage worked from the bottom up. "Star Swirl the Bearded in—" She cut off suddenly, flapping her wings in excitement. "That's it Cor! Star Swirl the Bearded!"

Corignis searched her extensive memory for the name, but came up dry. "Never heard of him. Where is he?"

"The Lord of Fraud." Courage had the satisfaction of seeing Corignis actually stunned silent. "Guess you didn't know the lord of the Circle you toiled in was a pony, huh?" Having pulled more than just terror from the latest dream, Courage remembered the spell Alphias had made use of.

Weaving the magic just as she remembered it, Courage felt the effect actively blocked. She tried again and finally a third time. "I don't get it. In my dream Alphias could cast this and travel from one Circle to any other. What gives?"

"Huh? No demon magic can connect non-adjacent Circles. Not unless the Lord of the Pit allows it." Corignis quickly realized where the thought would go. "Oh no. Not through all that again!" She backed away from Courage, but not too far.

"You would follow me if you thought it was important. But that's the thing. You said demon magic can't do it. Then how did I get myself into the bottom circle right from the start?" She had a pretty good idea what to do. All Courage needed was a moment to transpose the spell from one method of casting to another. "No demon magic, but what about pony magic?"

Corignis stared in wonder as Courage recast the spell, but this time it actually ripped a portal open. "Wait! But that…"

With her pure pony magic still trickling from her horn, Courage turned to her sister. "That's how a pony casts, or had you forgotten Learned spent a lot of time with me?" Courage laughed at Corignis and bounced through the portal, her voice trailing off. "Come on, slowpoke..."

"Now you are on the right path, my little pony." The voice was obviously Princess Luna's now, in Courage's head. "We wish we could give you more hints, but some things must be done by oneself."

Unlike with the demon-powered portals, the pony one was practically calm and serene. Trotting forward, Courage landed on the street in Fraud. "Cor?" She turned, only to see her lover tumble out too. Courage did a happy little dance. "It worked, Cor! It worked!"

Corignis laughed and pressed her hoof to Courage's snout. "Courage, uh… calm down… we are making a scene." Pony magic practically swirled in the air, emanating from the now dissipating portal. All the demons nearby stared at Courage and Corignis.

"Oh buck them. If they try to do anything, use your Balefire." Courage waved a hoof at the crowd, who at mention of the deadly flames took a few steps back from the sisters. "Okay, where is the Lord of Fraud?"

"That's the Councilman, Courage." Corignis heard hooves pounding the moment she mentioned the word "Councilman." Turning around, she spotted a demon making a run for it. Stretching her wings, Corignis took the air and after briefly losing sight of them, quickly spotted her prey again. "Come on, Courage!"

Two sets of bat wings were soon beating over the city as Corignis and Courage were led on a merry chase by the runner. Courage remembered the dream, and watching Corignis weaving through the city then, too.

"At the next intersection, let's just grab her." Corignis pumped her wings, pushing herself to get ahead of the demoness below and landed in the end of the alley.

Smiling, Courage flew back to the other end of the alley to trap the demon between them. Walking along the tight gap between buildings, Courage made sure to overturn everything to make sure her target wasn't hiding. "Bejal." Courage dredged the name up from her memories. "Bejal et Secrat li Solon!"

"How did you learn her name?" Corignis, upon hearing Courage's challenge, trotted up the alley. Their target was standing in a doorway, frozen. "Anyway… why did you run, little snack?"

Bejal threw a sneer at Corignis, but her look turned to pleading when she faced Courage. "Please don't hurt me…"

"Shut up. I am not going to hurt you." Courage pushed Bejal into the building and entered behind her. "I just want to talk to your father. Tell me where he is." Shock and panic played out on Bejal's face. It was what Courage expected. "Bejal et Secrat li Solon, where is your father? Where is Star Swirl the Bearded, Councilman of Fraud?"

"He…" Bejal cursed her cambion nature. The compulsion of her name was irresistible, and she felt herself already starting to blurt out the truth. "He is underground. There are four entrances to his location, and one leads from here."

Courage froze and before she could think, reached a foreleg out to pull Bejal against her. The cambion was crying, and the moment Courage hugged her, Bejal started to bawl. "Calm down! Relax! Look, I am not here to hurt him, or your mothers."

"How do… how do you know so much about us?" Bejal knew better than to try to get away, and with Courage hugging her, she couldn't even try to round up the confidence needed. "Dad kept this a secret for over a thousand years!"

"Duh. Courage is a prophet. She sees things in her dreams. I bet she dreamt of coming here and kicking plot!" Corignis looked around the building they were in. It was a huge warehouse, but it was completely empty. "If he is underground, where is the entrance?"

Bejal glared at Corignis. "I don't have to answer you—"

"Answer the question, Bejal et Secrat li Solon." Courage saw defeat register in the captive mare's eyes.

"Over there. A hidden trapdoor and a staircase leading down." Bejal pouted and tried to look away from both succubi.

"Corignis, burn the door, then burn anything on the other side." Courage kept her foreleg around the name-yoked cambion, and stepped back a little.

Stepping up to where she thought the door was, Corignis relaxed her grip and let the fire pour from her. For her, it was like taking the first breath after being choked, or eating the first meal after starving for far too long.

White flames first found the illusion that kept eyes from noticing the door. Growing hotter, the fire licked at the now obvious door, and the moment they touched it, magic flared for a moment then died. "The door was trapped." Corignis held one hoof dangling over the trapdoor, dripping more of her flame onto it.

Bejal watched in terror as the alarm spells on the door burned up in the flames. "What are you?" She couldn't look away as the white flames danced from the demoness and onto what remained of the door. "Please don't hurt us, we are trying to do the right thing here…"

"I know." Courage tightened her grip, fearing Bejal would run ahead and warn Star Swirl. "And I know it isn't worth anything, but you need to trust us."

"You're right. Your trust isn't worth anything. So far all you have done is coerced me and threatened everypony I love." Bejal struggled and got free of Courage's grip.

Stunned at the summary of her actions, Courage stared at Bejal. "Ah, buck!" She slumped to the ground as if struck down. "I am messing this all up, and I haven't even found the pony I am looking for." She looked up at Bejal with pleading eyes. "Please. I am sorry for this, but I am desperate to become a pony again."

Staring at her captor, Bejal started to take a step away from her but halted. Courage didn't use her name, nor did she threaten Bejal with Corignis. "You want to become a pony?" Her eyes widened. "But… you're a demon!"

"Half demon." Courage stared at her forehooves. "Everything was… All of this… It was all to corrupt me, but leave me whole enough that I could open the gates to Equestria and let the Lord of the Pit leave with his army." She lifted her head and looked at Corignis. "If we had gone to Tartarus he would have captured both of us, then used us to coerce Learned. From there… it got dark, Cor." Her voice quivered at the end, and Courage's eyes grew wet with tears.

Corignis rushed to her sister, even with the Balefire dripping from her fur. Pulling Courage into a hug, she squeezed her tightly. "We are going to do this, Courage. I don't care what happens, but we are going to get you back to how you want to be, and get you out of here."

Bejal watched in shock as the two mare's hugged, each ignoring the deadly fire. "F-F-Follow me." Inside her head, Bejal screamed at herself. She could have run away from them. She could have raised the alarm. Calm on the outside—schooling her features to not show her inner turmoil—she waited for Courage to stand back up before leading the way down to her father.

"It's hopeless. Just look at me!" Courage sniffed sharply. "I can't stop acting like a demon. Luna was wrong!" Courage nuzzled against Corignis' neck, sinking her cheek into the soft ruff.

Helping Courage until she could walk on her own, Corignis kissed her sister on the cheek. "No, Courage. A demon wouldn't have broken down and cried like a virgin mare to an incubus when she realized she had done bad things." She kissed Courage's cheek again. "Buck up, you still have a pony inside you, and the Councilman will either help dig her out… or have us both tortured for a few thousand years." Corignis just shrugged.

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)

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