//------------------------------// // Prologue: You'd Think Hell Would be Hotter // Story: Tartarus Changes People // by Dashed //------------------------------// Beep Beep Be-SLAM A hand lifted from the top of the alarm clock and slithered back under the covers for warmth. Not a second later a groan could be heard from beneath them. 'Uuugh... I hate waking up at seven' The man forced himself to pull off the covers, immediately regretting his decision once the warmth of his blanket was gone and the cold air of the room sapped him of heat. Grumbling, he sat up and rubbed his shoulders in a poor attempt to keep warm. Standing up, he made his way towards the dresser on the far wall. Opening up one of the drawers, he pulled out clothes for the day; deciding to keep it simple with a pair of black socks, blue jeans, and a black long sleeve button up shirt with white buttons. 'Man, I really do need to organize this, but my god it's so boring to clean sometimes. Besides it's waaay to early to be up for me.' the man thought to himself. He looked back towards his unmade bed and the blanket haphazardly tossed aside. 'I'm sure a few more winks of sleep won't hurt anyone right?...Right? Aww who am I kidding, if I don't get going I'm gonna be late for work again.' With a quick change of clothes and a flushed toilet, the newly groomed man stepped out of the bathroom. Entering the kitchen, the man set aside a bowl of cereal for 'breakfast' and began preparing a meal for lunch. Walking over to his fridge he glanced at the small whiteboard on it. It had the words, "Remember Ethan, a smile a day keeps the bad guys away!" on it, prompting him to roll his eyes and pull the fridge door open. 'Man I really need to work on my motivational lines, if that's the best I can do then its surprising that my ass is still kicking.' Ethan sighed to himself while pulling out food from the fridge and closing it with his foot. He reached up into the cabinet after setting everything on the counter; grabbing the last of the things he needed for his meals. After several minutes, everything was prepared and he grabbed his lunchbox. It took a few attempts, and some cursing under his breathe, but Ethan managed to stuff a turkey sandwich, a water bottle, some barbecue chips, and a pudding cup with two ice packs inside the lunchbox; the zipper nearly bursting once he forced everything inside. A couple of chocolate donuts were put in a separate container for the morning before being set alongside the lunchbox on the kitchen table. Once finished with his bowl of cereal, Ethan went back towards the bedroom to grab his phone off the charger. Instinctively, he checked the time when he picked up his phone. '7:26? Little later than I thought, but I've still got some time, my shift doesn't start till 8 after all. But I do kind of need to work off that bowl of cereal... maybe a jog wouldn't hurt? Not the best choice of clothes, but I've had to run in worse so I'll just have to make do.' Walking back down his hallway towards the front door, he stopped to put on his shoes, a pair of black running shoes, and began opening his door to head to work. Only to stop halfway once he realized something felt amiss. 'Heh, almost forgot my food... and my wallet... and I need to water my cactus. Jeez, when did I get so forgetful?' He thought with a little concern. Quickly going back upstairs to complete the last minute tasks; Ethan went back towards his front door and closed his eyes as he stepped through to enjoy the feeling of the cool evening air hitting his face. Only to become confused when his body jerked suddenly. Realizing his foot never touched the ground, Ethan's eyes flew open before he quickly shut them again as a bright green light enveloped his vision. His arms and legs flailed as they tried to catch onto something, anything to stop his descent. After several seconds of struggling, he took a few deep breaths to steady himself. Getting his body under control, he slowly began opening his eyes to peer around him to calmly process what was going on around him. 'WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!?' He really was, but it was too much for the young man to process all at once. Steady waves of light green came from seemingly nowhere in front of him, and a weird chill surrounded him, with a pressure beginning to form across his body. Seeing something up ahead, Ethan noticed the green start to open up, revealing a dark stone pathway with an eerie purple light coming from deeper below it. Watching as the image became larger and larger, Ethan realized he was actually falling. Panic quickly filled him; flailing in the air to hopefully slow his fall, the only thing he managed to do was almost drop his food. 'Not like I'm going to be able to eat this stuff anyways, but fuck it. I want to eat those donuts, dammit.' He thought stubbornly before imminent death. Clenching his eyes shut, Ethan pointed his legs towards the ground to cushion the blow and, hopefully, not die. The wind rushed past him and further chilled the man to his core. Pounding steps went unnoticed, but when his body suddenly jerked to a stop he tensed further, waiting for the inevitable pain. Several seconds passed with no excruciating pain, making him wonder what was happening. He cracked one of his eyes open, expecting to see heaven... or maybe hell. Instead, he saw the ground a few feet below his dangling body causing him to go limp with relief, only to tense once again as he felt and heard several deep growls come from behind him. Turning his head to look at the source, Ethan saw his 'savior', a massive, black furred dog with three heads; with all six eyes glaring at him. One of the heads was biting onto his shirt; clearly having been the one to catch him. “Uh... Nice doggy?” said Ethan with a nervous smile. 'There's no way that works, I'm a dead man in the making.' he thought to himself. But to his surprise all the dog's heads whimpered and looked apologetic, causing Ethan's jaw to drop open. The head holding him set him down. It was a little rough, but standing was better than dangling, so he couldn't complain. Turning around, he watched as the dog, who stood a good ten feet taller than himself, rolled over and gave him the most adorable puppy dog eyes that a creature of such stature shouldn't be capable of pulling off. 'Hmm now that I think about it... Giant dog, three heads... Is this Cerberus? Guards the gates of hell or something like that? I think... It has to be, but I always pictured him more, oh I don't know, menacing? Not... cute.' Ethan thought as he watched Cerberus lay on his side while continuing to give the human looks that could nearly stop his heart. “Do you want belly rubs?” asked Ethan, surprised. His surprise only increased when Cerberus' heads nodded and whimpered. The man slowly walked closer to give the dog belly rubs, making sure to steer clear of his sharp claws. Once close enough to pet the dog, he began slowly rubbing Cerberus on the chest and gave the occasional light scratch, only to notice the dog's leg beginning to paw at the air, causing Ethan to smile. “You're all bark, no bite, huh bud?” He said before taking the time to look around at his new environment. Ethan noticed many empty cages, and a couple with beings he'd never seen before locked inside. Further away, Ethan saw a gigantic gate, the largest he's ever seen in his life. The gate stood at least sixty feet tall, with pink markings covering parts of the gate and what looked like a sun insignia in the middle. 'Pink isn't really the color I think of when I think of hell. I always pictured the gates and hell itself more... fiery, but there's no fire here. Hell, it's actually a little chilly' Ethan smiled to himself at his own pun and gave a light ba-dum-tss. Turning away from the gates, he saw a set of angled stairs that led to a higher platform with a strong blue hue, the walls of which seemed to be the sides of a mountain. In the distance, Ethan could see numerous places that looked like exact replicas of where he was currently. 'Jeez this place gives me the creeps. There's gotta be something here that can tell me where the fuck I'm at right?' Ethan thought to himself. Yet nothing around him could give a solid answer. Noticing the cages nearby, Ethan decided to take a peek at what other creatures could be inhabiting this place. He began walking towards the cages, inevitably causing Cerberus's impromptu rubs to come to an end. Cerberus, realizing his groomer left, flipped over and walked after him; hoping to continue getting pampered. 'Wow this place is just... wow. There's not a lot here but it looks pretty cool. I wonder what's making it bright here though? It's not like their lamps or anything; just mostly empty cages and rock.' Ethan came to a stop a couple of feet away from the nearest inhabited cage. Peering inside the large cage, he could see a bear looking creature with black and white fur like a panda but red eyes, disturbingly large claws, with yellow markings on its torso and what looked like a stinger at the end of its body. The creature simply observed the human as he curiously looked it over. After several minutes though, the bear got bored and huffed, causing his observer to look into his eyes. "Oh, uhhh... hi?" Ethan said with embarrassment and a small wave, receiving a yawn and slow wave back from the bee-bear-thing. Ethan took a step back in shock. 'Whoa, now that's weird. A cool kind of weird though. What else is there here?' He thought while walking away from the cage. Checking out some of the other cages with creatures in them: there was what looked to be a chimera, a red dragon headed creature with many eyes, and a giant gray bird. Not much, but they were some of the most mindboggling things Ethan had seen in his life. 'I wonder how long these creatures have been here for?' Ethan thought to himself, feeling Cerberus' breath rustling his hair as the dog followed him around. He headed towards the platform in the distance, only to stop once he reached the stairs due to a whimper coming from Cerberus. Looking back, Ethan noticed the problem; Cerberus was far too large to safely walk up the stairs. Coming back down, the man reached up and rubbed each of Cerberus's heads. “Hey now, I'll only be gone for a little while. So... how about this? If you can be good and patient while I'm up there, I'll play with you for a while,” he said, causing Cerberus to wag his tail and repeatedly nod his heads. 'There's bound to be a bone or something this dog gets to play with... right? If not, that's just cruel. Poor guy doesn't have anyone or anything to play with.' Ethan thought with a shake of his head. Turning back towards the stairs, Ethan quickly ascended them, eager to see what may lie above. Upon getting to the top he saw a lone cage in the center of the area. Walking towards the cage, Ethan watched as a silhouette turned to face him. He fought to keep his face emotionless, but he still felt a shiver travel down his spine. “My, My, what an unexpected visit from a... what are you exactly? I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like you,” asked the silhouette with a raspy, but confused, voice. Piercing yellow pupils glowed in the darkness and peered deep into his soul. 'Well that probably answers one of my questions. Now whether this dude is trustworthy or not... I don't really know. Chances are he's a bad guy since he's in a cage guarded by a huge guard dog, but at the same time... he's also the first being here who has talked so far... Aww screw it, I'm gonna die of boredom if I don't at least talk to someone here soon.' Ethan thought to himself. “I could ask you the same thing, but since you asked nicely; I'm a human and I have no clue how in the world I got here. What about you? Clearly you're more than just a silhouette in a cage,” he replied, he slipped his hands into his pockets to give off an air of casualness. Stepping closer, he finally managed a good look at the creature before him. Instead of a menacing hulking beast, it instead was a rather frail, pale red and black centaur with a white beard adorning his face. He looked to have a silver necklace, a nose ring, and a silver arm brace on each arm. The creature gave a small bow as he introduced himself, “Oh, how rude of me. I am Lord Tirek, a centaur if you haven't already noticed. What is your name, human? It is only fair,” asked the now named Tirek. Ethan paused just a couple of feet away from the cage and hesitated in answering. Ethan thought for a moment before diving off the deep-end. “You can call me Ethan." “Hmm... Quite a peculiar name for quite a peculiar creature. Tell me, Ethan, what do you know about Tartarus?” Tirek asked with a quirk of his eyebrow. 'Ah yes, that's what Cerberus guards. I totally knew that.' Ethan thought to himself as he responded. “All I know is that this is where the worst of the worst come to rot for the rest of their lives.” “Oh, but it's not that simple. You see, there is a problem with that, the magic here? It makes sure everything in here, stays here. Alive. Don't worry about food or water either, those princesses," Tirek spat, "don't want to waste their valuable resources on creatures like us, so the magic also freezes our need for anything... even power." At this Tirek got a near euphoric look on his face as he licked his lips. “W-wait, did you say magic? Like the kind of magic that allows for teleportation or flying and stuff like that?” Asked Ethan, completely baffled by the fact that magic seemed to be real here. It would make sense given the kind of creatures he had seen thus far. Instead of answering, Tirek gave Ethan a confused look for a second before thinking more on what he heard. “You are familiar with the lands of Equestria, correct?” “Equestria? I come from a planet called Earth. I've never heard of this Equestria.” Ethan stated with furrowed brows. “This certainly changes things,” Tirek mumbled to himself, smirking internally at his luck. “How about you come closer so I may... enlighten you on all things Equestrian?” asked Tirek, putting on his best smile as he gestured for Ethan to step forward. "Uhh, sure? I'm already pretty close though. So I'll just sit down instead how's that?" Ethan said while beginning to sit. Tirek rolled his eyes already feeling like a headache was coming on. “Very well," Tirek sighed before clapping his claws together. "Now then, the first thing you should know about are the beings that roam the surface...”