Ponies in Tartarus

by ff0000

PiT 18: Travel

The six ponies could hardly believe they were finally returning. Just how long had they been underground? Was it days? Weeks? Maybe years? The last one was unlikely, unless they spent far longer in the River of Forgetfulness than they realized. Seeing the sun again would be marvelous. Experiencing the breeze running through their manes again was something they couldn’t wait for. The feel of grass and soil under their hooves would be great after all the hard rocks and metal.

A low rumbling noise shook the area as the great doors were opened. Reaching out before them was the River of Hate. It was located within a massive cavern with blue tinted stone that was studded with great gems. The river was a long bridge with a deep channel in the middle where water could flow. Currently, the channel was empty. Off the side, several whirlpools could be seen churning in the lake below.

“Well, looks like you’re stuck here,” Sticks muttered dully once they reached most of the way down the bridge. Several segments were still shattered from when she had battled with Rarity, leaving a large gap. “This repair job looks like it’ll take a while.”

“There must be something you can do,” Rarity asked politely. “Please?”

“Hmph.” Sticks sat down at the edge, watching the shattered pillars sticking out from the water.

“I won’t apologize,” Rarity stated. “I did what I needed to in order to rescue my dear friend.

“I don’t expect any apologies,” Sticks mumbled. “What do you want me to do? You’re the one with magic. Go magic yourself over.”

Twilight eyed the large empty space. “I guess I could give it a shot.”

Before she could do anything however, Arch Rune walked forward. Arch Rune tapped her fellow guardian forcefully on the back of the head. “Stop moping and get us across, unless you want to hang out with us for the time it takes to repair the bridge.”

Sticks looked back with a glower. “Fine,” she spat. “TALOS, bridge.”

The massive bronze rose up from beneath the lake. Water cascaded over its armor and through its interior in heavy sheets. The pony cut through the whirlpools as if they were nothing. When it was under the gap, TALOS rose up, making a way for them to go over his back. “SPINE CHIROPRACTIC STRAIGHTENING, STRAIGHTEN.”

The ponies started over the bridge. As most of the guardians were moving over TALOS without any hesitation, Twilight and her friends did so as well. The bronze giant had slid its armored plating around in such a way that left no gaps, making for an easy trek over its back and onto the other side. Sticks, being the guardian of the River of Hate, had not moved from where she was sitting. This was as far as she would go.

“Thank you,” Rarity said as she passed. She tried to smile at the guardian.

Sticks only gave her a sideways glance before turning back to the ground. “Whatever.”

Cool Cestus left the pairs of weapons on the ground next to the guardian of the River of Hate. Sticks nodded once.

The group, minus Sticks, proceeded onwards to the River of Forgetfulness. Before entering, Lace had the skeletal attendants bring everypony a mask of bone. Even the other guardians got one. Only Lace still had her face exposed.

“These will prevent you from being affected by the river’s fog, so don’t worry.” Lace gave a sultry smile to everypony. “Come on then, follow me if you don’t want to get lost. I don’t mind if anypony wants to be real close.” She batted her eyelashes.

The River of Forgetfulness was actually underneath them. They were walking on a grate some distance above the rushing water. A thick fog filled the area, making it difficult to tell just how high up they were. Sticking down from the ceiling were twisting iron structures, mostly lamp posts or girders.

“Lace, Lace,” Pinkie Pie chirped as she hopped over next to the guardian. “You’re coming with us right? I promised to invite you to our celebration party. Now that Spike is coming back with us, I’ll throw the best party ever.”

Lace looked over with a sad look in her eyes. “I want to, Pinkie, I really do. But you said it yourself, a party is best with friends.” She motioned towards the other guardians. “I highly doubt Princess Terranea would let all the guardians have time off at the same time. At the very least, we need three to make sure everything is alright, one of which has to be Cool Cestus. That pony hasn’t taken a break in all the time I’ve known her.

“I would love to go to a party, but I want all my friends to be there too.”

Pinkie looked disappointed but nodded with understanding. “If you can’t come to the party, I’ll come back and bring the party to you!” She jabbed a hoof into Lace’s chest.

Lace stopped for a moment. She held Pinkie’s foreleg with both of hers. “I can’t wait to see you again. Come back soon.”

“You betcha.”

Lace remained behind in the River of Forgetfulness as the group moved on. They left their masks behind as well.

As they continued on, Twilight found that her eyes wanted to wander. They went left and right, trying to see all the way behind without her turning around. It was quiet back there, as if no dragon was following them at all. As she stole glances, she noticed that her friends were also having the same nervous eye movements. The remaining guardians and Ferry Merry were not revealing anything with their body language. Their gaze never focused on anything trailing behind them.

The silence didn’t last long as a loud gnashing shout could be heard. They must be nearing the River of Wailing. This time, the huge black space felt much less overbearing with more ponies around. A long channel, with water flowing through it, was suspended over a large empty void of darkness. Located underneath them was the prison of Tartarus, where ancient monsters were kept contained. It was their roars and wailings they heard all throughout the area.

A large, furry dog with three heads excitedly bounded towards the group.

“Cerberus!” Fluttershy said happily. She flew over to greet him by rubbing his heads. She had to move around, giving each head the same amount of attention. “I hope you weren’t lonely when Cool Cestus left.”

Cerberus let out a bark and licked the pegasus with his large tongue.

“Cerberus is actually pretty tough,” Cool Cestus said. “He probably does more than me for keeping this river in line.”

“You’re such a good boy,” Fluttershy cooed.

Cerberus responded with a lazy wag of his tail.

As they continued onward, the channel had two bridges branching off to the sides. They led to floating islands. On each one was a large doorway, one simple and homely, the other grand and ornate. They led to the place where souls rested.

“You aren’t going to try and go through again, are you?” Cool Cestus asked Applejack.

“I promised I wouldn’t, and that promise still stands,” Applejack said. Her head was pointing straight ahead, not even looking towards the gates. “Besides, I was never going to go through, you know that.”

“I do. I can’t say I understand what it’s like losing close ones, but you are certainly still pushing forward, in whatever you do.”

“My family grows apples. The best apples you have ever tasted this side of the mountain,” Applejack advertised with a confident drawl.

“An apple farm, huh? That must be relaxing.”

“Yeah, it can be when we’re not working hard, trying to take care of all the orchards.”

Cool Cestus closed her eyes, uncaring that the path they were on had no guard railings. “I think it would be nice to meditate under the apple trees. I’ve always wondered what the surface world was like.”

“You should drop my. My family and I will show you a hooting good time.”

The guardian tilted her head. “I can’t tell if a hooting time is my thing or not.”

“It will be once you experience it.”

“I can’t though. I must remain here, guarding the River of Wailing. Thank you for the offer, however.”

“You’re sure? I’m certain you can take some time off,” Applejack insisted.

“We’ll see. The future is ever changing and uncertain,” Cool Cestus said with a mystical wave of her foreleg. “But our time has ended for now. Please be safe on your journey.”

They had already reached the end of the River of Wailing. Odd how on the first trip, the river seemed to extend on forever, but on the way back, they had arrived at the entrance without even realizing it. Between talking amongst themselves and Fluttershy playing with Cerberus, the trip seemed much more fun.

“Alright, you take care of yourself now.” Applejack tipped her hat towards the guardian.

Coming up was the massive heat of the River of Fire. It was a massive chamber filled with flowing magma. Built into the wall was a town that ran vertically upwards. A complex series of mechanisms drew up magma to be poured down pipes in the wall. What they were used for was a mystery. Floating around the magma were rafts of bone. Minotaurs, diamond dogs and other residents used those to get around.

This time, Twilight didn’t need to cast a cooling spell. Fleckle Sun provided them a large raft made of bone, crewed by her band mates. Two blarrgs, reptiles that lived inside the magma, pulled the raft against the current. It must have been enchanted as stepping on the boat immediately made them feel cooler.

“This is so much easier than what we went through last time,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked out at the River of Fire. “Wow, I didn’t even notice that the rafts were made of bone when we were here before.”

“Come back again, and I’ll give you a tour,” Fleckle Sun said. “I’m sure the minotaurs and diamond dogs would want to meet you. All they’ve been talking about since you left is how awesome you were.”

“Well, I am awesome.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself now. I’m still the most awesome around here.”

Rainbow Dash had an evil smirk. “We’ll just have to let the residents decide, won’t we?”

“Psh, go ask them. I’m not even worried.” Fleckle Sun gave a large, exaggerated shrug. “But that means you need to come back.”

“Yeah, I’ll drop by when Pinkie does.”

“Hot,” Fleckle Sun said.

The two of them gave each other a hoof bump up high. Then down low. They went into a forward slap followed by a back slap. Climbed the wall. Slid down the drain pipe. Blew it up. Rewound time, fixing it. And ended with another, more solid hoof bump.

“Alright,” Fleckle Sun said. “One more river to go now. Don’t let curiosity send Spike back to us if he isn’t already.”

“I haven’t even thought about looking,” Rainbow Dash said hoarsely. She turned to face the entrance to the River of Pain.

As Twilight and the others left the River of Fire, Fleck Sun let out a loud, “Awooooooooooooooh!” that reverbed through the glowing red cavern.

Finally, they had returned to the River of Pain, the first one the Equestrian ponies had been to when they entered Lot D. This time, the had to take the walkway next to the river as there was no boat for them. This river travelled down a long tunnel. Dangerous creatures lived under the surface, but they wouldn’t bother anypony as long as anypony didn’t bother them. Massive skulls hung from the ceiling, held in place by two thick chains.

Up ahead, there were the twinkling lights of the dingy docks. It was a mixture of festive joy and old abandonment. Several damaged ships were moored there.

“We’re finally back here,” Twilight said. “We’re almost out.”

“You don’t have to sound that excited about it, Twilight,” Ferry Merry muttered.

“I didn’t mean we wanted to get away from you. We just want to get home.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said. “And nothing against this place, it’s great and all, but I’m a pony of the skies. I need the wide open space to fly free.” Her wings shot out with bravado.

Ferry Merry walked over to the six ponies, her eyes wide in preparation for asking something. “Can I come with you? I want to see the above ground world. I heard all sorts of stories about it, such as the thing behind Princess Terranea’s throne growing everywhere.”

“You mean trees?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Trees,” Ferry Merry said in awe.

“Uh,” Arch Rune mumbled, “maybe next time Ferry Merry. Big sister isn’t quite ready for you to go running off on your own yet.”

“Aww, sis.”

“Don’t worry. I want to go too. See? We’ll make plans later.”

“Promise?” Ferry Merry’s large, round eyes twinkled hopefully.

Fluttershy walked over to the two sisters with soft steps. “Um, you really should come up sometime. There are a bunch of amazing things up there, and I would be glad to show them to you.”

“Definitely. You better be ready to show us a good time, Fluttershy, because if you don’t I’ll have to hurt you.”

“She’s kidding,” Ferry Merry said when she saw Fluttershy nervously lean back. “I think. Sometimes, my sister’s feelings are like a dark cloth wrapped around a strange box. You can’t tell what it is, and you don’t want to dig deeper.”

Arch Rune just grinned.

Fluttershy cleared her throat and said strongly, “I will do my best.”

“Uh,” Twilight cut in, “I hate to ask, but how are we supposed to get out of here? When we came in here, we fell down a long water slide.”

“Seriously?” Arch Rune opened one eye larger than the other. “You took that archaic way in? We have an elevator that travels between here and the surface. See?”

“What?” Twilight said flatly. “Are there any other easier ways around that we could have taken but didn’t?”

Arch Rune innocently looked around while scratching her ear.

“Come on, I’ll show you dames the elevator,” Ferry Merry said.

The guardian of the river stayed behind, leaving them with a warning to watch out for scorpions. If Ferry Merry heard, she didn’t give any indication as she was already in the process of shuffling off.

Instead of going back towards their original entrance point, they went down large tunnel. It was unadorned, not even with light sources. Cobwebs filled the area. Hundreds of spiders, with red glowing eyes, skittered away when the ponies arrived. Twilight and Rarity provided some light from their horn.

“I guess it’s been a while since anyone has used the elevator,” Ferry Merry said. “Don’t worry, I’m sure it still works.”

The ponies pushed their way through the long, dark tunnel. Constantly, Fluttershy was apologizing as she tip toed around, trying not to disturb any of the spider’s homes. They watched the ponies from all sides with many eyes, but they remained far away.

At the end of the tunnel was a large room. It had no ceiling and no floor. The room extended vertically into darkness on both ends. One half was a platform of stone, the other half was a large pit. Huge chains were tied onto the four corners of the elevator without guard rails. The under ponies sure didn’t believe in any safety compliances. A massive rusted lever was on the wall nearby.

“This is it,” Ferry Merry said. “They way up to the surface. Good luck, dames. Come back soon.”

Fluttershy smiled brightly. “We will.”

One by one, they stepped onto the elevator platform. None of them turned around, for they were still within Lot D. That meant Ferry Merry had to pull the lever alone. She grunted repeatedly as her small body clung to the elevator lever.

“Just a minute,” the filly said. “I’ll get it.” She had stuck herself to the wall, above the lever, using the under ponies ability to transform into shadow. Her forelegs were pushing downwards on the switch with all her might.

As the lever shuddered, flakes of rust fell off. A long screeching sound filled the shaft, and the lever budged downward. After a certain point, it snapped the rest of the way, flinging Ferry Merry to the ground.

Somewhere high above, the sound of chains rolling across something rang out. The platform jolted upwards, to the surprise of all on it. Soon, the ride smoothed out, somewhat. The six Equestrian ponies began their steady ascent back towards the surface.

Comments

[twilight11]

Yay!