//------------------------------//
// The Eternity Zone 
// Story: Now Ponies Play Doom III 
// by obake 
//------------------------------//

	"Eww..." Scootaloo's gag reflex went into overdrive at the sight of another glob of grimy confetti being put into a garbage bag. Part of her punishment was helping clean town square. The place had been a war zone, and looked the part. Despite consisting only of slime and paper strips, the carnage was daunting and gross enough in its own way. Scootaloo regretted her actions.
Alongside her were volunteers from the town, mostly stallions. The only of the Mane 6 to join in was Dash, mainly because she was too angered by Scootaloo to properly rest.
"I hope this is a lesson to you." said Dash, chucking another glob of confetti into a trashbin, "I won't be saving you next time."
"Yeah, yeah." Scoot's mumbled. She had had a terrible day. First, she barely learned anything from the few codes she tried. Then, she got chased by a Lost Soul. Then scolded by Rainbow, who had used a lot of choice words, too. Scootaloo would never forget her idol's outrage.
Now she was helping clean up icky piles of paper, all so the town could prepare for another battle soon afterward. Was it going to be the final one? She could not even remember. 
A stallion held a garbage bag open for her to toss another glob of confetti into. Bits of paper and dirt stuck to her gloves. Usually Scootaloo was all for dirt and gross things, but this was another ball game.

Meanwhile, at Canterlot Castle, the rest of the Mane 6 and Spike met with Celestia, Luna, and Discord. They chatted awhile over their plans for defeating Betruger. Discord, despite being antagonistic, provided a somewhat helpful blueprint of the dimension Betruger was going to send them to, called the Eternity Zone, or E! Zone for short. 
The Mane 6 inquired how he knew all this. 
"I'm a 4th wall breaker," said Discord, "I travel all around different dimensions. Do you really think I only hang around Equestria all day?" 
"No need to be rude," said Pinkie, "we just want answers."
"I gave you mine." said Discord. He snapped his fingers. A comb appeared in his hand. He ran it through his eyebrows. "The E! Zone is a neutral realm. Rules that govern dimensions don't necessarily change when entering. You will be the same there as you are here, as will Betruger." 
"What in the hay are you even talking about?" said Applejack. 
"Everypony, calm down." said Twilight. "We can't argue like this, it's what Betruger wants."
"She's right," said Spike, "I propose that Discord gives us a tour of the E! Zone before battle."
Everyone went silent. Discord dropped his comb in genuine surprise. It fizzled into the ground, leaving only a puddle.
Discord leaned down. "You want me to bring you to the Eternity Zone, so I can tour you around?!" 
Spike thought only a moment. "Well, yeah."
"Do I look like a tour guide?" Discord asked. He was now wearing a tour guide's uniform. He quickly transformed it into golfer clothes. 
"You just said you travel dimensions-"
Discord interrupted brashly. "Traveling between dimensions is not as simple as teleporting, you know. To take an entire group out of this world to another realm would be to put everyone at risk." He swung a nine iron and lost grip. It smashed through a window. Celestia and Luna glared. "That can get fixing later." he said.
A moment passed. Spike looked down. "I don't know much about dimension stuff." 
"Hold on!" said Luna, flying up to Discord. "I think you're just being lazy. Rarity and Sweetie Belle traveled to Hell with no problems-"
"Yes, but that's-"
"NO MORE BICKER-ing." said Twilight. She realized how much yelling she had done lately. "I know for a fact that Betruger's listening."
"I already knew that minutes ago." interrupted Discord. He was shushed.
Twilight continued. "If we keep arguing, we won't be able to properly prepare. Spike," she put a hoof around his shoulder, "I'm afraid touring the Eternity Zone beforehand is out of the question."
"But-"
"No buts. We have to prepare our ponies here. All of Ponyville, no Equestria, is counting on us to prepare them."
Spike gave a weak smile. "I understand." he said.
Everyone but Discord felt moved with emotion. "Ugh. Enough mush," he said, "I've given everything I know about Betruger's plans, and I'm tired. Fluttershy, if you would kindly take me back to the cottage so I could rest, I would be very grateful."
"Certainly..." said Fluttershy.
Applejack and Luna were about to argue, but Twilight signaled to let it go. 
A stallion entered the room. "Good news, all of Rarity's armors have been produced, and sent out!"
Most gave a sigh of relief. Fluttershy tried taking Discord by the hand, but he instead jumped on her back. 
"Flutters!" shouted Pinkie. 
"I'm fine." said Fluttershy, struggling. "I've done this before. I'll be back...soon." she carried him out of the room. 
Applejack raised an eyebrow towards Twilight. "Fine," said Twilight, letting her chase off after Fluttershy. 

Two hours, and town square was still only halfway clean. Scootaloo was granted a ten minute break every now and then, but Dash was assertive in getting her back to cleaning the second each break was over. Scootaloo wished she could just go home. Her thoughts ranged from what she would be doing had she not broken the rules, to what revenge she could exact. Her ideas of revenge, by the way, were simply pranks.
Cleaning up a disgusting mess for hours was too much after getting so little information from the codes. To be fair, she only tried two, but what did they even mean?
She thought to the messages. Despite the voice being shifted to sound squeaky, she started thinking it sounded familiar. Another aspect rang recognizable: the chew toy sounds. Perhaps, not sped up, they were chewing sounds, like ambience in a restaurant. Only louder. That begged so many more questions of what the messages were that her head began to hurt. 
Dash landed next to her. "I see you goofing off!" she said, "Am I going to have to yell more until you move?!" 
"No!" said Scootaloo, angrily grabbing another glob of confetti and tossing it towards an open bin. She missed, the glob landing on the ground next to it. She went to pick it up, then thought to ask "Rainbow, do they have restaurant's in Hell?"

Betruger switched channels from Canterlot Castle to town square. He was delighted at the sight. Poor ponies, he thought, laughing. The last swarm had been a success, even after last minute changes. He was originally only going to use Trites, but realized they did not have air capabilities. He added Lost Souls to make things a little more interesting, and it worked, magnificently. 
He heard his apartment door swing open. "Doctor?" said the voice of Dave. 
Betruger grimaced. His moment reveling in joy was interrupted. 
Dave walked into the room. "Doctor," he said, idling forward. "I don't know what it is, but there's a constant buzzing in my ears."
"Mine too," said Betruger, grumpily. He could not wait to fight the ponies, and win himself a promotion in their defeat. Moving away from his annoying neighbor was a bonus.
"The buzzing goes on and on," said Dave, "You need to look in my ears and see if my phone's been left in there, or something."
Betruger was not fond of the idea of looking into another person's ears, but he had little choice. "Get down," he said, forcing Dave to turn his head. 
He shined a lamplight into his ears. Out popped a mosquito, who despite having a brain one thousandth of the size of Dave's, still seemed smarter. Dave looked at the bug with a form of wonderment. "Was that all?" he said, catching it in his hands. "I knew I lost Milton somewhere."
Betruger was too tired to even ask questions. Dave left, hands clasped around the mosquito. All of Betruger's cheer was down the drain. He failed to notice the rest of the Mane 6 returning on screen. That, and the shipments of armor arriving in a dozen carts. The townsfolk rejoiced. 

Later that night, as Scootaloo lay in bed, her dreams turned to a nightmare. A flash of lightning, and she was in a strange limbo, a blue, purple, and black sky set over a mess of hexagonal tiles. Some made up the floor, others the ceiling, some flickering in diluted light. Music, possibly orchestral, played faintly. 
Scootaloo felt weighed down, each step causing her to stumble left or right out of her control. She fell nearly off of the edge of a tile. 
In panic, she looked up, and saw someone thin in silhouette staring back. "Help!" she said, then realizing the figure was not going to be friendly. She held tight onto the platform, but was gradually losing grip. 
Holding as best she could, she asked "Are you behind the codes!?" 
A squeaky voice answered. "Yes!"
Scootaloo lost grip and began descending. She tried swimming up as if she were in space, but gravity pulled her down. The voice continued as the darkness swallowed her. "The only way to make both worlds happy is to finish the codes."