I walk up the ramp to the exit of Tartarus. I can feel the air turn from melting to nicely cool. The fifty Chaogats walk behind me, with only one of them walking next to me. Blue has been left to get every demon under control, and start up the economy once again. I see Chaogat wipe the brow of his mask, “It’s been ages since we’ve been this cool. Tartarus made us feel like we were submerged in fire every second of the day.”
I look over to him, currently covered in fire. I sigh, “You ever think that’s because you are actually covered with fire?”
He looks down, and sees the green flames licking around him, “Oh, you thought this was actually fire? No, of course not. Otherwise our robes would be constantly burned.”
I let my curiosity take control of me for once, “Then why the fuck does that green fire exist?”
He manages to communicate a smile with the fire, “Oh, who would we be if we repressed the representation of our minds? We simply allow them to express themselves however they want.”
I cough a tiny bit in the fresher air, away from all the smoke from the fires, “You’d think they’d put airholes in or something.” I get rid of the fit, and look at the gate as we approach it, “So, what if Pony Satan is there?”
Chaogat shakes his mask, “No need to worry about that, we would’ve detected his presence a long time ago if he was at the gates. No, last time we felt him was a week ago in his office.”
I laugh a tiny bit, “He has an office?”
Chaogat points over to a rock that has two chairs and a desk on it, “Depends on your definition of office.” He takes out his staff, and waves it in the direction of the desks, “It’s Celestia we need to worry about, for she is powerful. However, we do believe that you could take her. Never been a demon with the power of every Lord before. Weren’t even Lords before Celestia came, just regular ponies that did wrong and repented.”
I smirk, “And what about all of you? What’d you do wrong?”
The fire once again conveys a grimace, “We seemed knowledge in a world where knowledge can be made illegal. One of us trained with crystal magic under a King named Sombra, crystal magic is apparently a knowledge great enough to warrant Tartarus. One of us dared to become an apprentice under the Storm King. We had the audacity to learn changeling magic under Chrysalis. The gall to be an apprentice to Nightmare Moon. The bravery to dare to learn from Ordirus. The guts to know chaos magic from Discord. All of them are apparently offenses great enough for Tartarus. Glad we arrived here anyway, else we wouldn’t have learned the magic of Terratus.” He reaches out and grabs a glass of whiskey he levitated over from the desk. He douses himself in it, “Interesting flavor. Tastes like that shockwave. Wait... oh... that’s concerning now that we think about it.”
I face him as he stops in his tracks, “What do you mean?”
He throws the glass back into Tartarus, “Nothing, we simply are worried about what might be beyond the gates.”
I turn to face the gates, and see a lock on the gate. I hold it within my hands, crumpling it up before throwing it to the side. I open the gates, only to be met with three black dog heads, all of which are growling right in my face.
I can hear the flames around Chaogat switch, before it runs up next to me. He holds his hand right in front of one of the dog’s heads, “Hey, hey, Cerberus, it’s us. Remember us? How we trained with Pony Satan? How we saw you back when you were a pup?”
Cerberus takes a sniff of his hand, before licking up the entire body of Chaogat. Cerberus moves to the side, allowing us through the gates.
We move through quickly, and move into a dark cave, with bright light at the end. Chaogat laughs as he rushes towards the light with all one hundred legs, “Haha! We can see the sun once more after a millennia!”
I rush after him, similarly excited to get to the surface. Earth wasn’t exactly that different from Hell when we turned it into our battlefield in Armageddon. To be able to finally breath air without the fires of war or torture in a century would be wonderful. To think it’s 2140, and the last time I breathed fresh air was 2049.
We both stop right outside the cave, and take a deep breath of the forest we find ourself surrounded by. I stretch my limbs out, “Well, you wonder how our endurance might improve without all that smoke?” I lower myself into a runners position, and see a path right ahead of us, “Whoever reaches the end of the forest wins!”
I take off down the path, and can hear fourty nine demons chase after me. I turn around to see fourty nine Chaogats carrying a single one who lays on top of the mass, eating from some grapes he found.
We rush all the way through the forest in less than five minutes. The forest is very big, but our speed carries us through it in a blur. I smile as I turn to the side, and dig my heels into the dirt. I can see the Chaogat’s all jump into the air. They spin around, holding themselves in a chain and they throw the one at the end like a dart.
Dirt flies up in front of me as I slide into the open land. As soon as the dirt all settles down, I can see the Chaogat that was thrown flying into the distance. It seems like he is heading right for a mountain at the speed of a jet. That is, until he opens a portal and ends up eating shit as he creates a trench in the ground with his head. I smile as he picks himself up, and spits a flower back up. He takes out his staff, and waves it around, “Well, that was fun, but we really should hide the other versions of us.”
They all minimize, and rush into Chaogat’s open pocket.
He smiles as he sees a cottage right nest to us, with a yellow creature outside of it, “Well, why don’t we ask for directions?”
I shake my head, “A castle shouldn’t be that hard to find.”
He doesn’t listen, and walks right up behind the pony, “Excuse us, miss?”
The pony jumps in a tiny bit of shock, before seeming to disappear and reappear behind Chaogat. Before he could even comprehend that she moved, her hoof was wrapped around his neck. The next five seconds are very awkward as Chaogat’s flames communicate his shock, before the yellow pony lets go and backs up, “Oh, I’m sorry, you snuck up on me. I wasn’t expecting visitors.” She coughs pretty roughly as one of her legs almost give out, “Can I, uh, help you?”
Chaogat is still filled with shock, “We didn’t know ponies could move so fast...” He then recovers, “Uh, yes, you can help us. Where can we find the nearest ruler of these lands?”
She smiles, “Oh, well, Princess Twilight and Prince Chem are in the palace. You see the giant crystal tree, it’s that. Do you... want me to lead you there?”
He shakes his head, “No, we can find our way there. Thank you, miss.”
She nods, “Fluttershy.”
He nods right back, “Chaogat.”
She turns back to her work on her garden, and we walk down the path leading to the giant crystal tree.
We eventually make it to a town filled with ponies of all sorts of ridiculous colors and shapes. We both easily tower over them, and my intimidating form stops any from approaching. Still, a few do wave and smile.
We walk through a protest, and Chaogat gets curious. He speaks to one pony holding up a sign, “What’s happening here?”
The male turns to face him, “Oh, there’s a mare that won’t hire any stallions. We’re boycotting the business and suing. This discrimination may have flown a month ago, but no longer.”
Chaogat nods, “Well then, continue on.”
We walk through the protest, and start to near the center of the town. We approach the giant crystal tree, and walk up the steps to it’s door. I knock, almost denting the crystal. The door opens, and a small purple and green reptile in strange glasses looks up to us, “Hello there.”
Chaogat sends out a smile in his flames, “Yes, very much a hello. We are here to see the Princess or Prince.”
He shakes his head, “Sorry, can’t. Twilight is off at Canterlot and Chem isn’t accepting visitors with the state he’s in. I could schedule an appointment for later this week if you want.”
I step forward, “Let me rephrase what he said. We will see the royal, even if we have to force our way in. It’s a risk of war or peace here, we can’t delay.”
The reptile takes out a clipboard, “Wait, no need to force your way in. He actually said that if anyone came who was ‘tall, red, and had four arms’ to let them in.” He looks up at me, “You seem to fit that description. Follow me.”
I step in after the reptile, and Chaogat follows in after me, “Thank you, it must be exhausting to be an apprentice under royalty.”
The reptile laughs, “Yeah, it really is. Name’s Spike. And believe me, you don’t want to know how exhausting it can be.”
Chaogat lets out a single laugh, “Oh, believe us, young Spike, we know. It is, after all, the position we currently find ourselves in.”
Spike suddenly stops, and turns around to look at the both of us, “Wait, you mean you aren’t the leader? You’re the muscle and he’s the leader?”
He nods, “As counterintuitive as our appearances might be, that is true. Although we wouldn’t say ‘muscle’ just ‘assistant ready to kill’ or ARTK for short.”
He shakes his head and turns around, motioning to a door, “Well, he’s right through there.”
I walk up to the door, and fling it open. The room is simple, with six thrones around a single table the projects a map. A pony sits on one of the thrones, facing right towards us as we enter.
His fur is grey, offset by bright blue hair tossed in every direction with a horn rising through it. His body is covered by purple, wizard looking robes. On his neck is a golden necklace with an amber jewel shaped like a whiskey bottle in the center. His eye looks right at us, blue with an amber glow behind it. His other eye is covered by a metal device. It has a blue bar in the middle with a white orb passing from side to side within it. It casts a blue glow on everything ahead of it.
He lifts a whiskey bottle to his lips, taking a deep drink, before slamming it back down. A smile reaches his face as he looks at the both of us, “Hello there, fuckers.”