//------------------------------//
// In the end 
// Story: Hell is for children 
// by dragenfire68 
//------------------------------//

With Tirek hot on the heels of the ambulance, and Gilda being stabilized by the paramedics, they finally had time to talk to the millennium-old ghost of strife, and for the Element to finally give Twilight something that Girls her age wore in the current day and age.

"Your name is permafrost, and you're a wendigo, why are you here and why did you help Gilda," Twilight asked, brimming with both suspicion and questions.

"Alright, let's start at the beginning, with the pillars, as everypony knows they fought monsters, but instead of killing them, they banished them to where we would do the least amount of damage, but what they didn't account on, was that magic creatures retain their magic, so when I was dumped on to this world when humanity was just starting to evolve, I found I could sustain myself on the suffering of humanity but after a few hundred thousand years, after seeing all manners of atrocities and more, I found that the evil I fed on made me sick, but I didn't want to starve, instead I only gathered what I needed," permafrost explained.

"But wendigos don't have physical bodies, in Equestria, you are held together by magic, your magic should have dispersed even with the feeding since there is no natural magic here."

"Ah yes, that is true, by the time I found this body, I was almost completely faded, but you see she had strung herself up because her family had been burned alive after being accused of being affiliated with a witch, this young girl had come back to find her house burning, and all windows and doors barred, so not wanting to meet a fate worse then death, she hung herself, I took her body and then covered her village in a deep biting cold, nothing survived that night."

"A-ah, well what was the job that was asked of Gilda," Twilight asked after composing herself since a total possession hadn't happened in Equestria since before the pillars, and it being a village decimated, promised double digits.

"A hit, someone to take out anon-a-miss, and they were interested in employing Gilda, but she turned them down, said that a hit like this was too low, said that Sunset here was innocent and she knew it"

"who was it that tried?"

"Rarity's little sister tried to give Gilda and her crew a bag of equestrian gems, I don't know how she found them, but none of them wanted them."

"ever since the spring fling, she's been planning this since the spring fling, she would always follow me around, waiting for me to mess up and now when I let my guard down, someone gets hurt in my place protecting me, and its all my FAULT," Sunset said, glaring down at her hands.

"You're wrong, this is not your fault, this wickedness is the fault of someone beyond saving,"  Luna said from the back.

Sunset sat in silence her thoughts swirling with guilt, rage, and regret despite everyone telling her it wasn't her fault she still felt that she could have done something and that it should have been her, maybe she should have hung, permafrost retched as soon as the dark energy emitted reached her mouth, the vile taste of pain covering her mouth and nose, forcing her to hang her head outside the window, breathing in the fresh air.

"Survivors guilt tastes abysmal, I can taste it eating you alive, as something that has lived a very long time I can tell you, your death would not have made it better, in fact, it would have been worse," Permafrost said, after pulling her head in, everyone in the car looked at her strange though, something that she hadn't seen in a very long time, Curiosity.

While Gilda's body was in fast transit, her mind and soul was elsewhere, Somehow she had ended up in an endless desert, the churning sands blinding her, but even among the sands, an indented path lay before her, tread on by thousands of feet, however contrary to popular belief she read books, and while not educational textbooks or regular fantasy, she read about the various mythological gods and their exploits, from Zeus' shameless adultery to the brutal rituals that were performed in the name of Mictlantecuhtli, and right now her best guess was that she was in the endless desert at the beginning of the Egyptian afterlife, and the steps ahead of her was the path that all lost souls take when they die.

"I believe a different path is set for you, your meeting with Ammit doesn't come until far later, unless you're brave enough to cross the endless sand, your choice," A deep baritone voice challenged Gilda, causing her to turn and bow her head, a tall man with the head of a jackal stood above her, holding forth a glowing golden Khopesh, but Gilda knew better, Egyptian tales usually punished the lazy and inattentive.

"Lord Anubis, I refuse the easy way, I accept your challenge to cross these desolate sands, see you at the Temple of Maat," Gilda Answered, looking into the dark sand storm, missing Anubis' smile of pride.

"Very well, but be warned, these churning sands hide more then you could know, there are things even our most devoted left out," Anubis answered, leaving in a swirl of sand, leaving Gilda alone with the sound of screeching winds and grinding sand.

"Now, let's follow.... crap I knew it wasn't gonna be that easy," Gilda said out loud until she saw that the path she originally saw had disappeared under the sands, and if she didn't get her butt in gear the path wouldn't be the only thing buried in the sand.

Squinting to ease the winds violently blowing course sand in her face, she could almost see an indentation in the sands at her feet, a gut feeling told her that this thing beneath the sands is necessary for survival, so on her knees in the rapidly climbing sand she dug, and dug before finding a pair of Goggles, but not just any goggles, these were ones that she wore when she was much younger, when she and dash were still besties, shaking off the nostalgia, she stood knocking off the accumulated sand, and donning the goggles against her better judgment, since the lenses were probably etched from the sands plus the dark tint would make it even harder to see, but something in her mind told her that they would protect her, her instincts were correct because at first, they were dark, but soon the path lit like a beacon, and dash's words echoed in her mind, 'I'll be at your side where ever you need me', with that Gilda put her hood up, and trudged through the sands, sure that as long as she stayed on the path, she would make it back.