//------------------------------// // 1: Well, that escalated quickly. // Story: Volcanic // by Uberdeathninja //------------------------------// "Ergh... come on..." A boy said, sitting in his room, trying to fit the last piece onto his greatest masterpiece yet. It was almost complete, the object, but to the untrained eye, no one would even know what the twisted, metallic thing even was. It had boots, but that was all anyone could make of it, besides the pauldron he was fitting onto what appeared to be a two-piece chest piece that looked like some kind of toothy maw. "Come on, just a little... There we go!" The teenager said with excitement, having finally fit the oddly-shaped shoulder plate onto the main body after several long, strenuous minutes. At last, it was complete... whatever "it" was. At first glance, it appeared to be a mess of horn-laden pieces of metal, but to the kid, who's name was Andrew, it was anything BUT a mess: It was a close, if not perfect, replica of the body of his second-favorite boss in all of Dark Souls 2: The Smelter Demon. Indeed, the plates put into a haphazard pile did seem to make up some kind of armor upon further inspection, but not anything conventional. First, the helmet, if it could be called such a thing, was bulbous, with no discernible face or eye-holes, save for one large crater in the center of the "face", which allowed for at least some sight, and two gargantuan horns protruded from either side of the thing's head, making it heavy and awkward. The main body, which looked like a twisted face with a giant, toothy mouth and one eye, was pretty much useless, as the armor only covered the chest and groin, leaving the abdomen completely open to the elements, and the two were connected by a segmented spine-like structure, making it very hard to put on, much less move around in. Then, there were the bulky, unwieldy leggings, which, along with the gloves and pauldrons, were the only conventional part of the armor. The leggings, along with the gauntlets, were large, bulky pieces, with many plates, but the leggings had small joints, and they were really, really heavy, making it hard to walk in them, along with the long, clawed toes at the end of each boot. But, despite the many flaws in design, it's creator, Andrew, loved his creation very much, for it was in no less the spitting image of the Smelter Demon's armor itself, and it was going to earn him first place at the con's costume contest, of which the grand prize would DEFINITELY help him recuperate from his financial losses while making his winning armor. But, that would be later. "Now... let's see how you look! Wouldn't want the judges finding any flaws, would we?" Andrew said to himself, picking up his unwieldy armor set, and struggling to get into it, some parts more than others. His chest piece was the hardest, but he soon slid in through the bottom of the armor, and the rest was no problem for him, seeing how he was a rather thin boy, around 17 years of age, so his metabolism was in full swing, resulting in his thin, rather tall stature. Still, he made the armor fit, though his whole abdomen was exposed, resulting in mild discomfort for him, but he sucked it up. His body wasn't the definition of well-built, but it wasn't fat or too thin, either, so it was all fine in the end. So, after getting the heavy suit of armor on, he took a quick look in the bathroom mirror to see the appearance himself, and to find any flaws. Needless to say, he found none, making him all the more proud he'd taken metalworking in high school. Naturally, he was a prodigy at such a thing, and his learning in the fine art seemed to have paid off. All he was missing was the sword to go with his set, but it didn't matter, anyway; He was so good at this anyway, that the guards might not even let him in for it being so effective as a weapon. "Wow... I love myself, sometimes. Look at you, big bad Smelter Demon. Ai'ight, let's go crush some casuls. To the convention, away!" Andrew said at last, after a moment of speechlessness at his own abilities. Upon finishing his sentence, he thrust his fist into his open hand, resulting in a loud 'klang!', and he moved to walk out the door, eager to get to the con before the contest started. As soon as he left through the door, though, he could feel something going wrong as he thought about it. As he walked, the air around him began to feel thick, and gravity seemed to be getting stronger as he walked away from his house. Of course, this would not be so odd, considering his armor WAS kind of on the heavy side, except that, even when he stopped, the feeling didn't. "So... it's going to be THAT kind of morning, huh?" Andrew said warily, and he tried to move again, but he began to panic immediately after: he couldn't feel his legs. In fact, he soon couldn't feel ANY part of him, and he quickly began to enter a state of fear he'd never felt before in his life. He'd heard rumors, well, more like the news, talking about cosplayers going missing under abrupt and still-unknown circumstances, never to return... and now, these odd circumstances... Could it be happening to him?! It couldn't be, not him! Not like this! Andrew tried to move, to scream, to do ANYTHING, but to no avail, alas. Soon, Andrew tried one last time to get loose of the force that held him, but failed, as expected, and he soon found himself drifting away, into what could be called sleep... if falling asleep included a deep sense of fear and panic akin to fleeing a murderer. Meanwhile, Twilight's Home, Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle, former protege to Celestia herself, was pacing about her library at this time, unsure what to do. A threat was coming, she was sure. She'd only ever faced it a few times, but when the tide faced it's way toward her, she never had time to prepare before it struck, fiery and random, tearing at her home and sanity with a fury Tartarus hath no knowledge of. She always tried to prepare for it, tried to act, but sooner than she acted, it was already here. Twilight, obviously, was in a panic: She's taken no precautions, for she'd forgotten, and she was destined to pay for her lack of vision. Indeed, all seemed bleak now, for even though she was now an alicorn herself, she could not stop the coming tide, no more than she could stop the flow of time and space itself. Indeed, now, all was lost, and only one thing was responsible for such need for panic... Celestia was coming to visit. Celestia was normally busier than ever at this time, seeing that she was giving over her rule to Twilight, but she always held demonstrations at Twilight's house, to see if the newest princess was ready for the burden of her new power. And, every time, Twilight was caught off-guard, scraping every barrel in her mind to try and impress her former teacher, and usually succeeding, but leaving her stressed and worn-out every time. And this time, the stakes were higher than ever: Twilight had to summon a being from another realm of existence. Such a feat would be normally deemed impossible by modern laws of magic to even CONSIDER such a thing, but Twilight knew it had been done before, she'd read old books on the matter concerning it, and Celestia seemed convinced it was the easiest thing in the world next to breathing, so Twilight had to at least try... or risk pain of horrible failure, or worse. Currently, Twilight has gleaned all she can about summoning imps and spirits and the like, even odd entities called "phantoms", though she stopped summoning them very quickly after the first few left odd, glowing writings everywhere that she couldn't get rid of, no matter what she did, and the next few kept running around naked, slapping their rears with random weapons, mostly bows. But, reference aside, one thing still eluded Twilight Sparkle, risking her slimming chances and passing the presentation greatly: What was she going to summon? As said, she wasn't going to summon another phantom ever again, and imps seemed too trivial, and tended to be really mouthy. Twilight, in order to pass her presentation, needed something new, something fresh, something awe-inspiring... But what could such a thing be? Twilight thought on this extensively, prodding every book in the room, and every nook and cranny in her brain, searching for the answer to this plight. "Ugh, come on, think, think... I... I think... I got it!" Twilight cried out, struck with sudden inspiration. Perhaps spirits and imps were too trivial, but she was a princess, and she had the power to, at last, step it up a notch. Now, she was convinced, it was time to go to the next level of summoning: Demons. It was risky business with demons, Twilight knew this well: She could instantly recount all the stories she'd ever heard about ponies summoning demons, and the summoning going sour. Sometimes, they were passive, and simply made a snide remark about the summoner's weight or looks before vanishing, sometimes they stole something like a jewelry box or a left sock beforehoof, but it wasn't always that harmless with demons. More often than not, horror stories are heard about a summoning gone wrong, and the demon usually destroys everything in it's wake, or devouring everything and everypony until it grows tired and leaves, or is forcibly exorcised. And sometimes, exorcism doesn't even work. Yes, Demons were a big leap from imps and spirits, who, at their worst, could set a curtain on fire, or break a few vases, but Twilight was sure of her abilities this time. She had time to practice, thankfully, before Celestia showed up, and she had the resources to make the summon work. "Ah... I'll start with a small demon, something more malleable. Yeah, this'll help me pass for sure! Okay, let's do this..." Twilight muttered to herself as she gathered the books, putting them back on the shelves to give her room and prevent damage to them. Then, she began to gather supplies. "Okay... I need some wormwood, got that... some sulfur and ash... Now I need salt." Twilight said, and she moved for the kitchen, when Spike came downstairs, clearly curious about what was going on with his friend, unaware of the danger the actions being taken as of now presented to him or to Twilight. "Hey, what the heck is all this? Twilight, why is there a giant star of ash on the floor? Are you doing something stupid again?" Spike asked, worried for his friend and her "Mishaps" involving unknown experiments in magic, especially after the 'noodle incident' last week. "Don't touch that, Spike! Listen, go back upstairs, I'll call you when it's over." Twilight called back from the kitchen, bringing in all the salt from her storage for the summoning ritual. Spike, upon hearing this, immediately heard his red alerts go off, and quickly took the initiative to save Twilight from herself, before the whole town gets covered in four feet of living, carnivorous pasta... again. Shuddering at the memory of the 'noodle incident', Spike quickly regained his senses, and intervened as Twilight came in with the salt. "Twilight, I know this is going to end up like last time! just wait for Celestia to get here first, so she can at least stop whatever comes out of that star, before we have a repeat of the noodle incident!" Spike declared, but Twilight seemingly did not listen, and she continued on, hell-bent on finishing what she started before Celestia came, for whatever reason. "Spike, don't worry about it, all this stuff is to contain it. I'll just summon one quick, send it back, and then I'll know how to do it for the presentation. Don't worry, Spike, I can handle this." Twilight said, full of confidence in her abilities, though her assistant seemed to have an entirely different point of view. Still, even he realized that once Twilight set her mind to something, however convoluted, there was no dissuading her. So, albeit reluctantly, the little dragon sat at the top of the stairs, if only to keep watch on Twilight from the safest minimum distance possible. So, without further interruption, the ritual began, forty minutes before Celestia was due to arrive, and all was going well, as Twilight Sparkle predicted. Indeed, using the ritual, she could imagine the demon she wanted; something small, not very powerful, but still enough to help her pass this demonstration of her abilities to Celestia. And since nothing happened so far for a while, even Spike had gotten curious, and had gone downstairs to watch the spectacle take place. Indeed, all was right so far, the calm, red glow of the star-shaped drawing in the center of the room signifying that nothing bad was happening, and all was calm... except for a creeping, eerie feeling, like when something bad's about to happen. "Ugh... Hey Twilight, are you getting chills, too?" Spike asked, shuddering briefly at the aura of impending doom permeating the room. Immediately, Twilight snapped around, eyeing her assistant sternly. "Not now, Spike! I need absolute concentration to make this work..." Twilight said, and she resumed to her work, unaware of the impending harbinger of demise slowly creeping up on the two, ready to pounce at any moment... "Alright, almost got it... Just a little more..." Twilight said, all her attention focused on the drawing of ash surrounded by salt, adn completely drawn to it and it alone... when a sudden, pink face popped right in front of hers, and both her and Spike screamed at the intruder's appearance, leaping back several feet before sprawling to the floor, and looking to the sudden visitor, only to find... Pinkie Pie, much to the two's chagrin. And then, no sooner than she'd scared several hours off their lives, Pinky then began to blubber off ramblings, as was akin to her nature. "Hya, guys! Watch'a doin'? Playing a game? I wanna play, I love creepy games! Why, just the other night, I played hide-and-seek by myself, and the doll almost found me, can you believe it?" Pinkie rambled, oblivious to not only the angry looks from her friends at her impudence, but also to the waiting disaster behind her, as she stood right in the middle of the pentagram, and was messing it up. But for now, nopony noticed that, and instead, all eyes were on Pinkie, and when she finally stopped blubbering, Twilight gave her a piece of her mind: "Pinkie! What the heck are you doing here!? You're going to ruin my presentation!" Twilight exclaimed angrily, and Spike merely got behind the chair, noticing now what Pinkie was standing on. "Oh, my Pinky senses were just going off, especially in my left eye and right ankles, meaning that someone was doing something demonic around here, so I decided to check on you!" Pinkie explained, continuing to mess up the pentagram by walking around ponderously, and at last, Spike found the courage to speak up about Pinkie's folly. "Uh, guys..?" He started, but he was quickly interrupted by Twilight, who proceeded to chew out Pinkie Pie for her insolence. "Not now, Spike! Pinkie, I appreciate the gesture, but you need to leave! I'm doing something very, very important here, and you're distracting me! I need you to go." Twilight scolded, but Pinkie's smile never faltered, and she then started jumping up and down on the ruined pentagram, further marring it and causing an angry, red energy to rise from it as it neared destruction. Clearly, the ritual did not call for a half-ton of stupid, and the new ingredient was not sitting well with it. Still, Spike noticed this, and tried to call the two again, but neither listened, once again. "Oh, but why? I wanna know what you guys are doing! Please let me in on it? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease..." Pinkie Pie ranted on and on, continuing to jump on the now-unrecognizable symbol on the ground, which, at this point, couldn't be destroyed any further, and Twilight tried to tell her to stop and leave as best she could, but pinkie wouldn't listen, and soon, the two were arguing pretty heatedly, which seemed to aggravate the mangled pentagram even more, as if it possibly could get any more fed up with the pink spaz's lunacy, and it soon began to flare streams of red energy, which somehow went unnoticed by Pinkie and Twilight, but not by spike, who had since given up on trying to break the two up and show them the real problem, and had resorted to hiding behind the table. Finally, as the now-completely-ruined-symbol-that-once-was-a-beautiful-pentagram's rage-o-meter went full into the ten thousands, about on par with a calm angry marine, it began to flare, sputter, throw sparks, and then, finally, it burst into rage-flames, causing spike to grow a pair, and finally call out once more during the lull in their argument, catching their attention at last: "PINKIE, TWILIGHT, STOP FIGHTING AND LOOK AT THE DRAWING!!!" Spike practically screamed, and the two then stopped, shocked and confused looks on their faces, as they first looked to spike, who looked terrified out of his poor mind, and then, at last, to the floor, to the demolished, raging was-a-pentagram-at-some-point. "P-Pinkie..." Twilight started, and, for once in her life, Pinkie was terrified for her life, as she stared at the symbol below her. "Oops..." Pinkie started, but before she could jump off the exploding symbol, it did just that: exploded. It shot a beam of red, wrathful energy up into the ceiling, and Pinkie Pie was instantly pierced by the beam, shuddered, and before anything else happened, the world seemed to stop for Twilight, and she reached for Pinkie Pie, to grab and pull her to safety, but, before she could even do so much as touch her, time sped back up, and Spike only had time to duck as Pinkie instantly exploded into gory bits and fine pink mist (pardon the pun, we all know this is hard to accept at the moment.), and Twilight screamed and was launched backwards as chunks and stains that once were her friend coated her entire front half, and all that was left of the once-blubbering, but now very dead, pink pony was a column of fiery energy, which quickly expanded past the ruined symbol on the ground in radius. Soon, the column engulfed most of the room, forcing a sobbing, terrified Twilight and equally-traumatized Spike to quickly retreat as far backward as possible, in hopes of escaping the opening portal of death. Thankfully, the now-giant column of death and red light stopped expanding soon enough, though the two were now backed against the wall, and just as they'd given up hope, the column exploded outward, pressing them further against the wall, but doing no further harm, save the fact that most of the room was now vaporized along with Pinkie Pie, as well as on fire, and in the center of the room, on the unaltered (but still marred) remains of the ruined symbol, stood a massive suit of twisted, demonic armor, reaching up to the ceiling. The armor, as the two watched it, did nothing, merely standing in a pose like any suit of armor on display would be in, but with no sword. The suit itself, though, almost didn't need a weapon to kill, as it looked like whatever was supposed to dwell in it could level a city block with a single solid stomp. It had two massive horns upon it's head, a crater for a face, hoof-like boots, and a maw-like chest plate, as well as it stood on only two legs... and that was all Twilight cared to notice of the metal monstrosity. Twilight, now finally calmed, stared at the armor that claimed her best friend, and just stared, unable to comprehend the emotions brewing and bubbling within her, threatening to blow her up from the inside out; anger, resentment, sadness, loss, all these things, but no appropriate outlet for them, so she remained silent, and stared at the armor, which almost seemed to mock her with a faceless, heartless stare of it's own. Finally, she couldn't keep it in anymore as she stood, and she let one tear fall, then another, and then, as if on que, a handkerchief was passed to her from the left of her, and Twilight quickly accepted it, blowing her nose, and then passing it back, uncaring of the taboo of that action. "T-thanks, Spike." Twilight said, still staring at the colossal suit of demonic armor. However, as she said that, Twilight heard a noise to her right, looked, and she saw Spike sitting there, finally passed out. Then, shocked and confused, Twilight heard a playful giggle from where the handkerchief came from... and saw Pinkie Pie standing there, not a scratch on her. "Oh, is MY name Spike now? What happened to the other Spike?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently, and Twilight herself slumped to the floor, unable to cope with the situation playing out before her. Finally, Pinkie offered Twilight a hoof, a cheerful expression on her face, and Twilight accepted it, still bewildered about the ordeal that just played out in a matter of seconds. Then, as she stood, Twilight finally found her voice, and questioned Pinkie Pie outright, right there: "Wha..? B-but... How... did you...? I-I watched you... You BLEW UP! H-how are you h-here..!?" Twilight exclaimed, and Pinkie Pie only giggled, and poked Twilight on the nose with her right forehoof jokingly, and answered: " Why, I got out, silly!" Pinkie Pie finally said, giggling, and Twilight finally slumped to the floor, unconscious. Pinkie Pie, though, was fully awake, and she was already up to the massive suit of armor before Twilight even hit the ground A curious expression on her face. So far, this thing, whatever it was, caused a LOT of damage as soon as it got here, and Pinkie Pie wanted answers, and she was about to pry them out of this giant chunk of metal... That is, until the thing woke up.