The Gates of Tartarus

by Eventhorizon

The Gates Open

Twilight sat still watching from her vantage point the gates of Tartarus. The gates were guarded by the giant dog Cerberus, with three heads this dog sat down in front of the gates simply watching the tree's. Twilight felt a light tug on her tail, sighing she turned around to find Spike who looked bored. He began," Twilight, when can we go, I'm bored?"

Twilight sighing once again responded," We'll go home as soon as I'm done studying the behavioral patterns of Cerberus."

Turning back to Cerberus, Twilight went back to her almost trance like state of observation. Spike groaned and fell back dramatically onto his back in utter boredom. Twilight rolled her eyes at her 'number one assistants' antics and resumed her observations, occasionally pausing to write down some notes on her notebook.

After what seemed like hours of sitting there Cerberus suddenly jumped up and turned sharply around, looking at the doors of Tartarus. Twilight almost jumped with the speed of the turn, clenching her teeth to stop herself from exclaiming she looked quickly at spike who was sound asleep. Turning back to Cerberus who had started to growl at the gates, she watched this behavior wondering what it could mean. Without looking from Cerberus she started to shake Spike who quickly shot up muttering about his sleep or something of the sort. I turned my attention back to Cerberus who was now barking at the gate.

The only way Twilight could really describe the gate to Tartarus would be to say that they came from a nightmare. The gates had the twisted forms of ponies, griffons, dragons, and an assortment of creatures both real, unreal and indescribable. The gates showed wars, famines, plagues and massacres, As soon as Twilight saw that gate she knew that those gates were the only barrier between her and something horrible. The only odd feature on the gate was that it had a gigantic key hole in the center of the gate, the key hole was a golden color and when Twilight used her magic to probe the area she sensed huge amounts of power radiating off that key hole.

Suddenly, her thoughts interrupted, she heard Spikes voice start," Hey, Twilight whats happening and whats up with Cerberus?"

He asked groggily. I turned back, responding," I have no idea Spike but i want you to write a letter to Princess Celestia right now, okay? Don't send it until i say but just write it up."

Spike confused moved forward towards the bush that obscured his vision of Cerberus and pulled them down. He quickly raised them back up and rushed to the paper, ink and quill. He began to rapidly write down what was happening. Twilight looked back up at Cerberus who was still barking, his deafening barks were steadily getting louder and louder as he barked at the gates. Suddenly Twilight saw movement at the gates, no not movement a flash of light, almost unnoticeable if not for the quickness of the small flash. Looking closer Twilight noticed that the key hole which was usually golden was now almost a black. The light came from the key hole which was making pulses every couple of seconds.

Twilight confused leaned in a little as if she could get a better view of the key hole. Suddenly Cerberus's barks cut off. Looking back at Cerberus Twilight saw that he had gone back to his previous growling. Suddenly making her jump Spike exclaimed," The letter is ready Twilight!"

Not even looking at him Twilight raised a hoof up to silence him. Suddenly the light coming from the key hole suddenly became brighter and brighter. There was no sound at all now, Cerberus seemed to have gone quiet. The gate suddenly started to glow with a sickly green glow except for the key hole which still had the bright white light coming out of it. Then the gates slowly started to open up both sides of the gate slowly swinging open revealing a dark red menacing glow coming from the interior of the gate. Twilight held her breath just barely realizing that the gates have opened, that the creatures of Tartarus can enter Equestria. Turning to Spike, she began," Hurry! the letter, send it now, then run back to Ponyville!"

Spike took the letter and blew the green flames onto it which dissolved into the green wisp. Then Spike started to run but stopped when he noticed that Twilight wasn't running with him, turning he shouted out which was deafening in the quiet, Twilight quickly took note that all the forest creatures have gone silent moments ago," Hurry Twilight we need to go!"

"No Spike, I'm going to stay a little bit longer to see what happens." Twilight shout whispered to Spike, then continued," hurry Spike you need to get to start heading back I'll easily be able to catch up with you."

Not waiting for a response she turned back to Cerberus and the gates and watched. Spike spluttered for a moment then hesitating started to run in the opposite direction. Twilight on the other hoof watched the development. Cerberus was in what appeared to be a battle stance, ready to pounce on whatever came though that gate. suddenly a sickening claw slowly reached out and grabbed the side of the gate, slowly the claw grasped the side of the gigantic gate side and seemed to pull itself out of the red abyss of the interior of the gate. Then finally after what seemed like an hour of slowly growing horror the creature finally pulled itself out the gate.

The creature was pale, that was the first thing Twilight noticed, the creature had no eyes and no nose. A flat face which was dominated by a huge gaping jaw filled with razer sharp teeth. The body was long, at least six meters. Twilight noticed that it was bipedal, two long arms with six long claws on each appendage. Twilight forced herself to start breathing again, having stopped when she saw the creature, no demon fully reveal itself.

The demon took a tentative step forward then suddenly fell down. Twilight gasped a little, surprised she looked on as the demon started to shriek, this was no normal shriek, no this was the shrieking of some dying creature. Twilight backed up covering her ears with her hoofs and as suddenly as the screeches started they stopped, Twilight took a step forward again looking at the creature watching, waiting for it to get up and attack but it didn't. It seemed to have just come out and died. Twilight then noticed that another creature this one somewhat similar to the other was climbing out of the gate, instead of being bipedal it was balanced on three legs that seemed to help it in walking.

When it fully came out, it took a step forward seemingly looked at its fallen leader then roared, a deafening roar that caused Twilight to shrink into the bush even more scared now. Though Twilight desperately wanted to run she was rooted to the spot, she peeked back over the saw the creature start to charge forward towards Cerberus. With a resounding crash both monsters crashed into each other with a mighty boom that shook Twilight to the very core. Even despite the distance between her and the monsters she could still feel the impacts as both creature fought tooth and claw for ground.

After what seemed like hours the fighting suddenly stopped, with a might howl Cerberus's three heads looked up and shouted out his victory into the evening. Without wasting anytime Twilight scrambled up and started to run in the direction of Spike. Tears of horror and terror running down her face.

Author's Note:

This is my first story, so please be constructive in your criticism. Thank you for reading.