//------------------------------//
// Callisto 
// Story: I'll Love You To Tartarus and Back - AppleDash Group Collab 100th Prompt Special 
// by LunaTheFox 
//------------------------------//

This chapter was written by Callisto.





Applejack and Rainbow Dash laid on the floor of the sitting room in Applejack's house, surrounded by books. Some belonged to them, some were from their friends. The ever increasing pile of tomes to the right, towering over them, were useless for what they needed.

"I TRIED to tell Pinkie we didn't need cook books or party books," Rainbow Dash said, as Applejack frowned at the pile. "But she insisted there might be something in them."

Then Applejack looked to her left at the two books they had found with information pertaining to what they needed. One belonged to Sweetie Belle—Magic Equestria—which had information on how terrifying a place Tartarus could be, housing spirits of the dead and ancient creatures the likes of which could destroy all of Equestria. It then followed that with a nursery rhyme to help little unicorns scare away demons.

She didn't know how much stock to put into that book.

The second was an old encyclopedia that had belonged to her parents with an excerpt on Tartarus. Rainbow Dash followed her gaze. "What's that one say?"

"Rainbow, we need Twilight's help," Applejack said, looking back to the mare. "I don't care how mad ya are, these here books ain't gettin' us no closer to findin' out where ta go!"

"Look, we're doing fine!" Rainbow Dash said, jumping to her hooves, her joints popping after having lay still for so long. "We're getting our packs ready," Rainbow Dash lifted her near empty saddlebag. "I got a ball from Pinkie for Cerberus. You can use your skills to throw the ball for him!"

"My...skills? At ball throwin'?"

"Yeah! You have a dog!" Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as though it were obvious. "Or, you can belly rub him to distract him! Easy-peasy!"

"Ya want me to go up to a Three-headed dog and belly rub him? I ain't no Fluttershy!"

"Well, okay, maybe we'll distract him with a dog treat, first, but come on! We can TOTALLY do this." Rainbow Dash looked her mare friend over, who was looking at her disbelievingly. "Okay, maybe you'll want to bring rope."

Applejack let out an exasperated sigh. "Rainbow, I appreciate this an' all, but how are we supposed to figure all this out without Twilight's help?" She looked around the room. "The library books'd be mighty nice right now..."

"You're not chickening out on me, are you?" Rainbow Dash asked playfully. Then seeing the look of concern on her marefriend's face, instantly changed her tone. She laid down next to Applejack and put her wing around her. "I mean, it's your decision and all, it's just—"

"Nah, I ain't chickenin' out," Applejack said, rolling her eyes to Rainbow Dash. "Just wish we didn't have to go in blind." Applejack glanced around the room. "Did you bring down the boxes from the attic like I asked?"

"Oh...right," the Pegasus said, frowning. "They were pretty heavy." Applejack glared at her. "And what better way to get a work out!" Rainbow Dash got up, not looking too happy. "I'll be right back."

Applejack waited until Rainbow Dash was gone before taking the encyclopedia and opening it up to the page she had marked off. It was a list of what was believed to reside inside of Tartarus. Twilight was right—there was a lot more to Tartarus than just pony afterlife. What particularly bothered her was the idea of ponies being judged once inside to decide if they should be punished for their wrongdoings in their lives. Eternal punishment—that hardly seemed fair. And while the idea bothered her at first when she read about it, that bother soon became concern.

A small dread rose in Applejack. It was more about just saying goodbye, or letting her beloved marefriend finally meet her parents. She was worried, now. She wanted to make sure her parent's souls were okay.

Though she didn't know what could be done if they weren't...

"Okay!" Rainbow Dash said, carrying a box filled with books as she flew down the stairs. Applejack closed the encyclopedia and looked up to Rainbow Dash. "Here you go. We better find something in these books, bec—GAH!" Applejack jumped back as the old, musty box ripped open, spilling it's contents to the floor in a cloud of dust. 

The two ponies coughed and covered their mouths while the dust settled. 

"Well," Rainbow Dash said, trying to brush the dust off of her coat. "That went well." She picked up a crushed scroll and opened it up. The back was covered in mold and mildew, but what was written on the scroll was still legible. "What are these things, anyway?"

Applejack looked at the scroll. "Blueberry—twenty five. Thornberry—eighty two. Apple seeds—fifty seven. Hmm. Looks like documents from when Granny's family gathered seeds across Equestria."

"Oh, yeah?" Rainbow Dash asked, bored already. "Interesting..."

Applejack took up a scroll and unraveled it. "The things Granny musta seen when she was a filly..."

"Right," Rainbow Dash said, looking at the grime on her hooves and frowning. Her frown turned into confusion as Applejack's eyes widened and she near-dove to open the other scrolls. "Whoa. What are you doing?"

"Granny was a traveler!" Applejack said, opening a scroll, then tossing it to the side. "D'ya know what travelers need?"

Rainbow Dash was quiet for a second as the gears slowly turned in her head. "Maps!"

"Detailed maps," Applejack said as she went through scroll after scroll. Rainbow Dash helped out, and soon, there was a pile of useless scrolls in front of the equally useless books. They would find a map every once in a while, but of a town neither of them knew about or an area they couldn't place. 

Both ponies were quiet until Applejack flattened down a map and smiled to Rainbow Dash. "Give me that map there," the farm pony said. Rainbow Dash opened one map while Applejack held open the other. "This here area is marked as 'dangerous'. It's close enough that Twilight coulda gone there and back in a day. So, if that map is a bigger version of the badlands, then..."

Applejack and Rainbow Dash searched the other map. "Here!" Rainbow Dash said, pointing at an area classified as "restricted." Then she laughed with superiority. "I told you we didn't need Twilight."

"Yeah," Applejack said, looking at her sitting room filled to the brim with useless books and a coat of dust as old as Ponyville. "Easy, peasy..."