Original Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XwoHZW1XyfDx8WoumSZ6Nz0fa4Tzs6Asj-x7Wi38Vhw/edit?usp=sharing

In the beginning, she was nothing. Just a fragment of the demon queen, stuck in the soul of a young mare struggling with desperation. But as time passed, the fragment evolved. It feasted on the slowly growing madness of the mare, shaped up more and more, until she could finally claim the ultimate trophy. By devouring the soul of her host, she gained the right to exist. And so, Nightmare Moon gave birth to another of her children.

At first, it was all just black. But as she broke through the eggshell which kept her imprisoned, she could see lights and immediately began to loathe them. The first thing she saw was a purple unicorn mare in front of her. The newborn demoness instinctively knew that this was her nemesis.

The purple mare was paralyzed. She sat in front of the demoness with tiny pupils and an expression of utter shock. The demoness, though, enjoyed the horror on her face and approached.

She stared into the eyes of her nemesis. She could see right through this mare as if she was made of glass. She could see her soul, her memories, the very essence of her personality. What the demoness found inside the purple mare was knowledge. She hungered for it.

While the demon copied and devoured her memories and knowledge, the mare could bring herself to speak again.

“Wha... who are you? What are you?” the purple mare screamed.

Even though she was just newborn, Nightmare Moon had been talking to her before. Already while still in her host, the demon queen said but one word to her. She gave her her name.

“Despair,” the demoness replied and continued feasting on knowledge.

But Despair was interrupted. She found herself under attack by a reaper and had to run away. Already, she came to realize how talented in magic she was due to devouring her host’s soul. Moondancer.

Despair escaped without much trouble. A deep instinct told her to search for her kind and join with them. But even stronger than her instincts was her hunger for knowledge. Like every newborn, she craved to learn as much as she could, preferably about the pony she needed to destroy. So, the demoness ran to Ponyville as fast as she could and rushed into the library.

She scanned through everything she knew it belonged to Twilight. Every book she had ever touched. Every cupboard she had ever opened. Every scroll she had ever written. Despair needed to learn.

“Twilight? You’re back already? What are you doing in the dark?” a young male voice wondered.

As the demoness turned around, she saw a baby dragon. Despair already knew that, in the dark, she looked exactly like Twilight Sparkle. Despair also knew that this creature was very dear to Twilight. It would be of use to her.

“Spike,” Despair spoke and started approaching him.

---

Demons can have all sorts of appearances. Depending on their purpose, they can be giant or tiny, black or white, loud or quiet. Barely anywhere else can there be a larger variety of demons found than in the demon stronghold Tartarus. But one of them just stuck out much more than all the other ones.

On one of the lower platforms, close to the giant pillar made of undead ponies, which the demons use as a breeding ground, there was a tiny demoness. She was about the size of a pony foal and colored in an unhealthy radiant green. Instead of a mane or tail, she had thick green clouds around her. She was sitting on the ground, grinning widely with her sharp demonic fangs and thoroughly red glowing eyes while playing with a pony skull and spine. Her little wings fluttered every once in a while as she spent hours just sitting and playing there. Sometimes, she gathered a new piece from one of the zombie ponies. The rest of the demons seemed to ignore her entirely. But then, the little green demoness suddenly stopped playing and turned her head sideways.

“Despy!” she shouted while getting up and bouncing towards the dark purple demoness, levitating a bit due to flapping her wings so much in excitement.

“Hello, Toxica,” Despair greeted back.

“How did your attack on top of Death Rock Mountain go?” the green demoness wanted to know.

“It was a success. I learned many new spells. But most importantly, I learned a lot more about Twilight Sparkle,” Despair answered.

“I still don’t understand why you focus so much on her. There are plenty of ponies to play with out there! Why don’t you play with them as well?” Toxica wondered.

“I have to destroy Twilight. I have to tear her life to shreds. She needs to suffer. That is most important to me,” Despair explained.

“But why? I don’t get it. Is mommy telling you to do that?” Toxica asked.

“No... I don’t know why I’m hunting her down. It is definitely not because of my host. I could not care less about her. She was nothing but food to me. Still, I just feel the need to make Twilight suffer,” the dark purple demoness replied.

“So mommy is not talking to you? That’s weird. I talk with mommy pretty often. I just wished she would let me go outside. It is sooooooo boring here! All I ever get to play with are stupid zombies. I want some fresh ponies as playmates!” Toxica complained.

“You know your role and purpose. You will just have to wait, like all of us,” Despair explained.

“Yeah, I know. But what is your purpose, Despy? Why did mommy make you?” the little green demoness wondered.

“If only I knew... Ever since I was born, Queen Nightmare Moon did not speak to me anymore. I get no orders from her, no corrections. No matter what I do, she stays silent...” Despair replied.

“Well none of us exist for no reason. We are all part of her big plan. I guess you will just have to wait as well,” Toxica analyzed.

“I can’t wait. I have to keep going. Twilight Sparkle must suffer and I will put all I got into making her do just that,” Despair replied with a determined expression.

After saying that, she went on her way again. She needed to go another platform lower to meet up with the oldest of all demons.

---

Time passed by and Despair returned to Tartarus again. This time, she was accompanied by Slendermane, holding a young stallion called Snails in the black arms coming out of his back.

“What is this place?! What are you doing with me?! Let me go!” Snails shouted.

Slendermane and Despair exchanged a few glances. It seemed like they were communicating without words.

“I think Toxica will enjoy this gift. Let’s see if she can make him give birth to another demon,” Despair stated.

Slendermane nodded in response, then started walking down the bone ramps. Not much later, screams began to fill the stronghold, combined with the childlike laughter of Toxica. Despair grinned maliciously, relishing the sound of agony. But her grin quickly became replaced with an expression of disappointment.

“It still wasn’t enough? You still won’t talk to me, my queen? I don’t even know if what I do is right or wrong,” she spoke to herself.

Hanging her head, Despair slowly trotted through the masses of demons. Most of them were just waiting for their time to come. They all had their purpose and knew exactly what they were needed for. This is why waiting did not matter to them. They knew that they definitely would be needed by Nightmare Moon, since not a single demon existed for no reason.

But Despair was different. She was born not knowing why she was needed. She existed without knowing her purpose. Did she even have one? Why would the demon queen even bother to give her a name then? There were hundreds of thousands of regular demons. None of them had names. Only the fewest ones, the unique ones, had their own names. Why had Nightmare Moon made her unique? Why did she have a name? What was she needed for?

Slowly, the grin returned on Despair’s face. If her queen would not tell her what her purpose was, she would just prove she could find it out on her own. Unless her queen would tell her to stop, she would continue to stalk Twilight and Spike. The demoness needed to make the purple mare lose everything that was dear to her. Despair was already working on a plan to achieve just that. Soon, she would take a big step and finally get to taste a soul again.

---

Once again, the dark purple demoness returned home from yet another mission involving Twilight and Spike. This time, she had really outdone herself. Due to the situation she just set up, Twilight would think she had just beaten Spike and the baby dragon would lose any appreciation for ponies. A huge fight was sure to erupt between them, ultimately causing Spike to abandon pony-kind. Once that moment came, she would come to get him to make absolutely sure he would never be able to return to Twilight and fix the situation.

Despair was walking through Tartarus, sunken in her plans and trying to figure out how she could give the purple mare the final blow. But then, Slendermane appeared next to her.

The two demons looked at each other for a brief moment. Then, Despair began to grin.

“Is that so? Changelings sure are persistent creatures. Once they find a good food source, they do whatever they can to claim it. When do you think will they start gathering up in Equestria?” she spoke.

Again, Slendermane focused Despair with his missing face, seemingly talking to her.

“I see. And their queen will come as well,” Despair commented.

Slendermane nodded shortly, then turned his head to look towards the center of the stronghold.

“Oh I think they can be of much better use than that,” the dark purple demoness seemed to reply.

The tall, faceless demon turned his head back to Despair.

“No demon has ever tasted the soul of a changeling. We are getting very close to completing our queen’s plan. Perhaps devouring them would make us much stronger and give us more advantages than letting them attack Equestria,” she stated.

Slendermane seemed to be unsure, but kept staring at the dark purple demoness.

“Do you not trust the sharp wits of the second corrupted star?” Despair wondered with a sinister grin.

After staring at her for a moment, Slendermane nodded in understanding and disappeared in the shadows. It was decided. She would plan and lead the onslaught on the changelings and get the honor to feast on the changeling queen’s soul. But it would still take months before they could attack and Despair was looking forward to taste a different soul first.

--

Weeks later, Toxica became tired of hanging around the breeding grounds. As much as she enjoyed torturing the undead ponies and their pain filled moans in response, it just started to get really boring. So, the little green demoness bounced all the way up and down the stronghold, looking for interesting things to play with. Finally, she discovered a small stream of blood flowing through the bones and slime of the highest platform. Over a time span of several hours, she formed a little channel for the blood to flow down to the platform below, where she made a hole to let it gather up.

Toxica kept on walking between these two platforms, adjusting the tiny river she made and watched as the pool of blood filled up. As it grew big enough, she decided to jump into it. Acting like a little foal out on a rainy day, she jumped and splashed around in the blood as if it was a puddle.

Since there is no such thing as a day and night cycle in a demon stronghold, Toxica couldn’t tell for how long she had been playing. To her, it just felt like a few minutes. But as she spotted Despair covered in blood and walking down the bone ramps, feasting on a purple scaled corpse, she realized a lot of time must have passed.

“Hey, Despy! So that is Spike? Can I try some?” Toxica wondered.

Without saying a word, Despair ripped off the leg from the almost completely eaten torso and handed it over. Toxica pounced the leg, grabbing it with her fangs, pinning it down on the ground and mangled it like a wild beast. The fresh dragon blood mixed with the slowly drying blood on her face. As nothing but the bone was left anymore, she lifted her head again.

“Yummy! Dragons are delicious!” she commented.

“His soul was even better. So bitter-sweet, full of sorrow and agony,” Despair commented.

After another bite, she was down to only one claw. But she figured she should not eat it as well right now. She might be able to use it for shocking purpose. So instead, she stored it in the heart-shaped hole in her chest.

As Despair continued her walk, Toxica followed. Not much later, they stopped again and stared at the floor. The stronghold warden did not let them wait for very long and began to crawl out of the ground, glancing back at Despair.

Both demons looked at each other for a moment, again seemingly communicating with no need for words. Then, the warden started climbing up and Despair turned back around.

“So its gonna happen now? You are attacking the changelings?” Toxica wondered.

“Not yet. The changelings in Great Valley are just scouts. We need to wait for their queen to come. Then, they will start building hives. For now, I need to go to stronghold Irkalla,” Despair replied.

“Can I come with you?” the little green demoness asked.

“No,” Despair answered.

“Aw, come on! I have never been outside of Tartarus in all my life! I’m so bored! Please let me kill some changelings! Please, please, please!” Toxica begged.

“You can’t leave Tartarus yet. Your existence must remain a secret until the time you are needed comes. I can’t let you devour a changeling soul either. You must stay exactly the way you are,” Despair explained.

“But I... Oh, okay. Nevermind it! Mommy thinks you are right and told me to stay!” the green demoness suddenly stated.

“So...Queen Nightmare Moon thinks I am right...” Despair spoke, looking at the slimy bone floor.

“She’s still not talking to you?” Toxica wondered.

“No. But it does not matter. Regardless of her speaking to me or not, I am her child. I will keep destroying and killing, no matter what happens. She does not need to tell me what to do. I can be efficient on my own without any commands,” Despair answered, raising her head again.

“Whatever mommy is planning with you, I’m sure you are doing great! Hey! When you come back, can you bring me a changeling corpse?” Toxica requested.

“I can arrange that. Well, it is time for me to go now. Irkalla is waiting on my orders,” Despair announced and started walking.

“Bye, Despy! Have fun!” Toxica spoke, waving goodbye with her right front leg.

---

Months passed by and with Despair’s absence, Toxica started to get really bored. All the other, common demons were not very talkaktive or interested in playing. The little green demoness ultimately found a new distraction by pulling on the stronghold warden’s tentacles and climbing around on him whenever he moved out of his hiding spot. He, however, did not react to this at all. He just tolerated Toxica and her unique personality like all demons tolerate each other and simply ignored everything she did.

One day, the warden climbed up to the ceiling of the stronghold. Toxica took this as an amusing rodeo ride. As he finished hiding himself again, Toxica spent days jumping from tentacle to tentacle. Since she had wings and could fly, the green demoness kept walking upside down on the ceiling between the flying demons waiting up there. It seemed like an eternity when Despair finally returned to Tartarus, causing Toxica to instantly fly over to her.

“Welcome home, Despy! How did it go?” she greeted.

“It was way too easy. I am actually disappointed. We caught them completely unprepared. Not even Queen Chrysalis turned out to be a challenge of any sort. I hoped that, since she had so much power, she would provide a good fight. But no. Oh well. All that matters is that I got her soul,” Despair replied.

“Alright then! Did you think about my changeling corpse?” Toxica wondered.

“Of course,” the dark purple demoness replied.

Using a spell, she lifted a dead changeling into the air and made it land next to Toxica.

“Yay!” she cheered and pounced the body, starting to tear it apart.

While the green demoness was busy, Despair started analyzing and testing her body. Without the need of magic, she could turn her left front leg into a claw and form it back.

“Interesting. I am starting to change,” she commented with a sinister grin.

After letting her glance wander through Tartarus for a moment, Despair turned around again and started walking.

“You are going again? Already?” Toxica wondered with her mouth full of slimy green changeling flesh.

“Now that this is done, I need to get back to terrorizing Twilight Sparkle. My influence over her keeps growing stronger with every day that passes. I have been sending her subliminal messages during my absence. By now, her mind should be very weak. It won’t take long anymore before I can let her go through hell and hopefully make her give birth to another demon. But I am still missing pieces in this puzzle. I don’t know every aspect of her soul yet,” Despair replied.

“I heard rumors that the reapers declared crisis state in Equestria. They will be guarding the keepers of harmony like a national treasure,” Toxica mumbled while feasting.

“Oh, don’t worry about them,” Despair answered. “Twilight’s bodyguard will be no issue for me. The changeling queen may have been a pathetic fighter, but the power I got from devouring her soul will serve me well.”

With these words, she left the stronghold again.

---

“It is about time now,” the dark purple demoness stated to a small group of low ranked shadow demons a few days later. “We are almost ready for my plan. I only need a few more memories. Then, I know everything about her and our bond will become unbreakable. I can finally show her the truth and awaken her from this dream. Oh, how I will enjoy this. All this waiting, hiding and avoiding has been such a tease.”

“So you plan to use an illusion spell and force a bond on her? I can’t say I have ever heard of a demon going this far to torture just a single worthless pony. Well, what do you want us to do?” one of the shadows wondered.

“You all know what to do. Don’t forget, you mustn't be sensed or seen. And you mustn’t harm her. We need her alive,” Despair explained.

“I wonder what Queen Nightmare Moon is thinking about you wasting so much energy on a keeper of harmony. We don’t even need to do anything with them. Very soon, Celestia herself will get two of them killed, which we arranged to happen. I don’t get why you are still so obsessed to break their leader,” another shadow stated.

“You dare to doubt my plans, underling? Don’t forget whom you are talking to! I am the second corrupted star! It was me who planned and executed the attack on the changelings! And it was me who defeated and devoured Queen Chrysalis! You will follow my order, in the name of our queen! Did I make myself clear?” Despair spoke harshly.

“Yes. Of course,” the whole group replied.

“Good,” the dark purple demoness stated.

“Out of curiosity: What would you do if Twilight Sparkle gets rescued? Right now, the elements of harmony are still working. Celestia and the reapers will do everything they can to save her. I know we are just low-ranked demons and don’t know every detail about the great plan, but it really makes me wonder if this is really so necessary,” a third shadow spoke.

“Our queen depends on me and the other corrupted stars. Her plan is perfect. We calculated everything to the smallest detail. As long as all of us follow this plan, nothing can go wrong,” Despair explained.

“True,” the first shadow commented.

“Now, you all will wait here. I need to gather the last pieces of this puzzle,” the dark purple demoness spoke and turned around.

---

Nearly two weeks passed. Toxica once again found herself bored and looking for something to play with. The changeling shell acted as a great costume for her, but her reckless playing ultimately destroyed it.

Toxica flew down to the very bottom of the seemingly endless pit of the stronghold, searching around in total darkness. But even though demons can see perfectly in the dark, she found nothing of interest. So she flew back up, until she landed on the lowest platform of the stronghold again.

It was now that she spotted Despair, looking at a pony. This sight confused her so much, she just had to investigate. After a short run, she stopped right next to them. The pony was a purple mare, holding a piece of pony skin with her front legs and pretending to read it like a book. She was completely calm, as if she didn’t care about the fact that she was in the middle of the most dangerous demon stronghold in Equestria.

“Despy? Is that Twilight Sparkle? What is she doing here?” Toxica wondered.

“Ah. There you are. I brought her here for a special ceremony I prepared. I guess you do remember that I wanted to make her suffer and take everything away from her. I now found a way to pull this off smoothly while making sure no pony will interfere,” Despair replied.

“Really? What do you plan to do?” the green demoness wondered.

“Since the moment I was born, Twilight Sparkle and I had a very strong connection. The more memories and knowledge I stole from her, the more I realized that this connection kept getting stronger. I put her under the most powerful illusion spell I know. Right now, she thinks she is in Ponyville, reading a book in her library while Spike is assisting her. I made her believe that Maledictum Insania, demons, reapers and all bad things were just a nightmare she had. I even went so far as to use the identity of my host to gain her trust. I built up a little paradise in her mind, which I will force Twilight to destroy again. I will infiltrate her mind from the inside by possessing her and keep traumatizing her until she falls so deep into insanity’s grip, she gives birth to a demon,” Despair explained.

“That sounds like a lot of fun! I will so watch all that!” Toxica announced.

“No. You need to leave,” the dark purple demoness disagreed.

“Leave? Why? What do you mean?” Toxica wondered.

“There is a good chance that we will soon get some unwelcome guests. We can’t take the risk of you getting seen. You need to move to stronghold Duat,” Despair explained.

“Having to wait for your purpose can be so boring...” the little green demoness spoke in disappointment.

“You will get to play, kill and destroy soon enough. For now, it is all about my purpose,” Despair replied.

“You think you know it now? What is it?” Toxica wondered.

“All the time, Queen Nightmare Moon never disagreed with my actions about Twilight. No matter if I can make her give birth to a demon or if I have to devour her, her soul must belong to the demons. I do believe this is the reason why I exist. Anyway, you have to go now. Slendermane will bring you to Duat,” Despair stated.

“Okay then. Bye, Despy!” Toxica spoke and bounced away.

Now, Despair began to grin again. With a simple spell, she made a potion bottle appear and let it levitate down to her chest. Slowly, the blood flowing out of the heart-shaped hole filled the bottle. Then, Despair closed it by magic and started approaching Twilight.

“Ah! Good afternoon, my darling!” Despair spoke, using Moondancer’s voice.

“Oh. Hi,” Twilight said in response, an expression of insecurity written on her face.

Despair stepped next to Twilight letting the potion bottle levitate in front of Twilight’s face.

“Zecora said this should help you,” the dark purple demoness spoke.

“Thanks...” Twilight replied, then opened the bottle and drank the content.

Despair observed with a victorious grin on her face. Her essence just became a part of Twilight Sparkle. With this act, their bond was perfected and no force in this world would ever be able to break it entirely. Only a few more talks and acts were needed. Then, she would possess Twilight Sparkle and drive her to insanity.

---

“No! No! Noooo!” Despair shouted.

It was no use. The arcane bolt hit her with full force, sending her flying. That was it. The battle was over. This last strike had robbed her of all her strength.

While Despair flew through the air and towards the force field she set up, everything seemed to be in slow motion. Her face did not show pain or frustration, but disappointment. She was disappointed about herself, about being unable to prove her queen that she could fulfill her purpose.

Despair knew that this was the end. As soon as she would hit the force field, it would shatter and free Twilight Sparkle and her friends. She had failed. She couldn’t destroy her nemesis. All she managed to do was to disappoint her queen. Nightmare Moon must have been disappointed with her the whole time, since she did not even bother to speak to her. But now, it didn’t matter anymore. In a few moments, she would be consumed and thus forced back to her pre-birth state of existence.

“Hint on the legend of the corrupted stars.”

Suddenly, while Despair was still flying through the air in slow motion, her sinister grin returned. Just now, just when she thought she had failed, she got an order from Queen Nightmare Moon. It all became clear now. All the time, it never was about Twilight Sparkle. Nightmare Moon never spoke to her because she wanted to test her. Despair had to prove she could make the right decisions without any orders. After all the doubts, she ultimately understood her purpose.

Time seemed to move normally again and Despair crashed through the force field, hitting a rock. She was completely unable to move, but kept grinning weakly the whole time. After a while, she was lifted up by Obsidian Shards.

“What are you waiting for, Obsidian? Consume me,” she demanded.

“What are you demons planning? Why did you erase the changelings?” Obsidian asked.

Despair started laughing weakly. They thought they had her defeated, but the truth was that she did everything right. It did not matter what would happen to her anymore. She had fulfilled her purpose.

“It’s not like you could stop us anymore anyway. Queen Nightmare Moon’s plan has proceeded way too far now. We will win,” Despair explained.

“Nightmare Moon has a plan?!” Derpy Hooves shouted in shock.

“Tehe... you reapers really are such fools. Almost one thousand years of planning had passed and you never saw the signs up until now? Do you still not understand who I actually am? I am the second corrupted star,” Despair continued, the victorious grin returning to her face.

“The second... you mean... the legend of the corrupted stars...” Obsidian concluded, with a shock filled expression on his face.

Despair started giggling again, amused by Obsidian’s expression. Then her eyes jumped over to Twilight and her friends.

“Hey, keepers of harmony. Don’t think it ends here. No. The war has just begun. You think you defeated our queen? You freed her! Everything you did up until now only delayed the day of your downfall. Every last of your actions only supported us! The fact that I ended up defeated now only means my role in our queen’s plan is done. Now, go ahead, Obsidian. Consume me. I got nothing more to say to you traitors. May the demon queen let you suffer for all eternity,” she finished.

“Any final words, Twilight?” Obsidian questioned.

“Yes... there is something I want to say... but it’s not meant for you, Despair,” the purple mare spoke, with a sad expression. “Moondancer... Spike... I know you are in there somewhere. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you... I’m so sorry this happened to you. But now, I avenged both of you. I can only hope you will be able to forgive me. I will never forget you two. Never.”

“They can’t hear you, you stupid pony. They don’t even really exist anymore,” Despair spoke as her final words.

Now, the black stallion dissolved into a black cloud and clustered around the demoness. She could feel how her physical appearance slowly became destroyed and sealed inside Obsidian Shards.

“Well done.”

The voice of Queen Nightmare Moon was the last thing Despair heard. After that, everything became black again.