Chapter 37 - Tartarus, 3rd Movement
Posey could work almost anywhere, but these were the times that she needed to retreat to the tranquility of her home in the Palace of the Earth to efficiently perform her duties as the leader of the Democratic Republic of Gaea.
She could, within her power, completely bar anypony from requesting an audience with her, but Posey always upheld, or least tried to uphold an open-door policy for anypony, poor or powerful, to voice their concerns of their beloved Republic. Mindfully, her personal security force had always vetted her potential audience should they ever be an assassin or, on a few occasions, a bachelor stallion hoping to win her widowed heart.
But what transpired today was anything but cordial or peaceful. Hooves pounded on her office doors. Without looking up from her paperwork, Posey answered, and Matron Harshwhinny stormed in with a quartet of Clone Guards towing the butler Time Turner and Governess Cheerilee inside.
"Is there something wrong?" asked Posey with a twinge of indignation on her face.
"I apologize for the rude entrance, Honorable Chancellor," said the deep-orange mare, "but these two have committed not only a grievous crime against the state, but one against the sanctity of motherhood."
"Did they commit abortion?"
"That would certainly be a grievous crime, but no, they haven't. This daydreaming Trottingham native and this Governess have allowed your daughter to vanish from underneath our eyes."
The Chancellor's eyes widened, and she quaked in her seat as if body and mind attempted to find any semblance of falsehood in Matron Harshwhinny's words. Posey bit her lip so hard that it bled. For her, the whole world tumbled apart. The opulent living, the lock-step loyalty of her subjects, and the positive progress of the recent arms buildup--none of that mattered now. Posey violently cleared off her entire desk of all the papers she had been signing and their paperweights. Slamming her front hooves on the desk's surface, she fired out her Eyes of Wrath, rendering everypony, including the Clones, into a sniveling shock.
"DO NOT JOKE WITH ME!" Posey yelled. "WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER? TELL ME OR I'LL HAVE YOU EXECUTED FOR TREASON!"
"She's gone!" bowed Turner. "I ran into in one of the basement access halls, and I thought she was just going in another pretend camping adventures in the Palace."
"We searched the entire palace, but we couldn't find her!" Cheerilee cried.
"Enough! Guards! Lock down the palace. Nopony enters or leaves. Matron, gather a list of staff who worked here since my daughter's disappearance. Search the palace! Leave no stone unturned! As for you two, I don't ever want to see your faces again!"
The guards roughly pulled Time Turner and Cheerilee out of the office under Harshwhinny's watch. The Matron did not want to stay to await further orders, as she sensed that the Eyes of Wrath was still upon her. As far as Posey was concerned, she too was just as responsible for Winter Tulip's disappearance, and she sat down on her executive chair sighing in a panic.
So Matron Harshwhinny sealed Posey alone in her office. Here, the Chancellor dropped to the floor, and she fumbled frantically for the phone that she pushed off the desk to dial for somepony, namely Lancer.
"I need you to recall every available force, Clone, Robopony, Hollow Shades Militia, Buffalo Guard, anypony. What do I need them for? Winter Tulip is missing! I know the pegasi are up north! This is my daughter we're talking about!"
"You shouldn't risk an entire nation's safety just to find your daughter," slithered a voice from the shadows.
A crimson shadow crept across the floor and pressed upon the phone's hook. Then the shadow crept back towards the black cloak of the unicorn Trixie, who floated upright like an eerie wraith.
"Not that Trixie would care, but we unicorns would rather put up with a planet full of earth ponies instead of a horde of brutish pegasi."
"Get out of my muzzle, unicorn. I have a crisis on my hoof."
"Trixie guarantees that your daughter will be safe. Whether she ran off her own or have been kidnapped, there aren't anypony dumb enough to threaten her life. Besides, you have yet to receive a ransom notice."
"She might be out there, alone and scared."
"Your maternal instincts are quite admirable, but know this that if you veer from your plan, Pegasopolis will take advantage of the chaos for a full-scale invasion the likes of which you have never seen before. It is they you should be worried about, because should they take over your country, your daughter will be systematically exterminated along with countless foals."
"You are right, but I can't seem to do anything if I don't know where she's at."
"Trixie has a hunch that Winter might be searching for clues for her long lost sister."
"Impossible. I made sure that she is well aware of the sordid legacy of the Apple Family."
"Do not discount the fact that her meeting with Rebel Applejack had awoken something from within her."
"But she ran to me in tears when the Rebel and her friends broke in."
"You shouldn't rule out all possibilities, Miss Posey. Perhaps you should send out your Changeling forces to search for your daughter without causing a scene. Trixie's certain that they already got the gist."
"How--"
"You gave Trixie an Alicorn Amulet. How could she possibly ignore the Changelings hiding in this room in plain sight? Now if you'll excuse her, Trixie has to resume her hunt for one Twilight Sparkle. Adieu."
Trixie's cloak turned crimson, which then wrapped itself around her and teleported her away like burning embers. Posey's eyebrow twitched at the mere fact that she allowed another pony, a unicorn no less, telling her what she should do. Posey had been emotionally frantic as of now, and she finally realized that she wasn't at her mental peak or had the ability to stare down upon anypony in order to influence their actions.
She rose up to place herself back into her executive chair. Posey then unlocked one of her refrigerated desk drawers and pulled out a green vial that she drank down to the last drop. She made a quick call to President-Adviser of Information Control, Teddy, and ordered him to put out a media blanket on Winter Tulip's disappearance. It was a wise move. Winter would be a lot of safer if nopony knew of her current status.
"Changelings, come forth," she said aloud.
From the ceiling, six pony-like insectoids de-cloaked from their invisibility spell, and flew down to bow before the Chancellor. One of them, their leader, donned a black military vest and an officer's beret.
"What is thy bidding, your Ladyship?" asked the deep-voiced Changeling Commander.
"Search for my daughter, but make sure nopony suspects that you are looking for her," said Posey. "You have my full authorization to use whatever means necessary."
"Understood."
The slow breathing of the dragon made the air almost unbearably humid. He circled around Twilight and her friends' cage, and on occasion he poked it with his spear-like fingernail for the sadistic pleasure of making them squirm in fear. Already he affected Fluttershy's fears. The pegasus shivered and quaked in Sunny's protective embrace, and she even wet herself in the process.
"Pinkie," Twilight whispered. "Hide your Element. Everypony, don't look directly at his eyes. Adult dragons can hypnotize you without you ever knowing it."
Still garbed in her camouflage-colored commando outfit like her friends, Pinkie quickly pulled up her shirt up to hide her Element of Pleasure, and just in time. The dragon narrowed his reptilian eyes at the pink pony, who instinctively backed away to the other side of the cage with the others.
"This is quite a rarity," he started. "Not only I get two earth mares, but a stray pegasus and what seems to be an extinct unicorn."
"Who are you?" Twilight asked. "And what do you want from us?"
"Who am I? I am but a dragon captured long ago by the earth ponies and imprisoned here to guard their countless spoils of war. They refer to me as Emerald Verde, keeper of the Cavern of Treasures, once known as Tartarus 03. And as for what I want... Why, to eat you of course, and I'll certainly experience a thrill of feasting upon a unicorn. Perhaps you'll be the spice on top of the slop Gaea has been giving me thus far."
"Oh, you don't want to eat me," said Twilight. "I probably don't taste good, and unicorns aren't exactly the most active of all the pony races."
"If that is true, you'd be no different from the veal they occasionally give me."
"I'm sure the four of us put together won't fill your stomach, and I'm sure you can wait for the delivery of your next meal. But can you please let us go? We're sorry that we intruded into your caverns."
"I think not. I am rarely allowed to eat ponies, and when I do, they are usually the ones Gaea has condemned to death: criminals, rebels, terrorists, captured pegasi, and the like. While the regular diet of mammals and gems keep me alive, I have grown bored of my several hundred years of imprisonment and took up the hobby of playing with my food.
"I shall be brutally frank and honest: I get off at the sight of ponies struggling to fight in all futility to survive one more day or even an hour in my caverns. Lover fought against lover. Parents fought against their children. Friends fought against friends. I made them commit horrible acts to one another in Bloodsport, and I reward the victors with a quick and painless death."
"Have you ever considered letting one of them go?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently.
"No. My captors dictate that those who fall into the Cavern of Treasures are to be killed or devoured, be it a mere parasprite or an Ursa Minor."
"Then what about Spike?" asked Twilight.
"Spike is my dragonkin. I am not as greedy as you ponies think I am as to not share my abode with another of my kind. Hiding him will be easy since he is still a growing whelp, and he will be tasked with an important mission of helping me escape."
"If you're planning to escape anyway, why not let us go?" asked Twilight. "We won't tell anypony. We're against the Government too."
"You may be a unicorn, but it is your kind's magic that allowed Gaea to slaughter most of kin during the Central-Asia Conflict. Are you even aware of the destruction they caused us?"
"I have read about it."
"That is not enough. You must see why you ponies are the vilest creatures to walk this earth."
Emerald Verde snaked his massive and wingless body beside the ponies' cage, and then breathed a red flame that coalesced into a large and floating circular form almost half as wide as the sealed cavern. Moving images appeared in the large white-hot center that played back a propaganda-style film complete with scratches and sepia.
The scene that appeared was a stormy dogfight in a rocky valley surrounded by a snow-capped mountain range. Hundreds, if not thousands of dragons zipped and burst through the clouds as they clawed, chomped, and ignited the thousands upon thousands of Gaea's incoming fighter planes. Tanks rolled in like ants firing shell after shell, but these weapons barely dented the armor and the nigh-impenetrable scales of the dragon warriors. The dragons responded by crushing the tanks with their feet, and few gleefully pulled apart the machinations to slurp up their equine adversaries into their ravenous jaws. Soon, scores of dead ponies lay in ruin in their vehicles or in piles across burning battlefield. In contrast, only a few dozen dragons had been killed.
The fighter planes and tanks suddenly retreated, and the dragons let out a cry of victory. However, their focus turned towards the four wide and black-winged bomber jets making their appearance as black dots high up in the sky. These four bombers launched four seemingly ordinary missiles onto the dragon horde, and at the same time they detonated in a blinding flash.
Four mushroom clouds sent out a shockwave blew many dragons off their claws. The ones who stood their ground were either vaporized or their scales melted in the most horrific manner. Gaean soldiers who did not flee in time also suffered the same gruesome fate.
Before the flame-film dissipated, the lasting image of this war was a plaguing image of radioactive pestilence and death that rendered all living creatures ghoulishly famished. The sight was so sickening that Fluttershy immediately fainted and Twilight threw up. Pinkie's hair had deflated to the point that she almost appeared to be another pony.
No creature, not even dragons, deserved this.
"The last great war of the dragons," said Verde. "Defeated by a cowardly weapon the ponies built out from the relics of the Before Times. You think we're monsters? Look at yourselves in the mirror!"
"I'm sorry," said Twilight.
"You apologize as if you were one of them, unicorn. So be it! We shall commence with the Bloodsport preparations!"
Verde shot a green fire breath that engulfed the ponies. The brightness of the flame blinded Twilight, and she nearly suffocated from the searing heat. The heat was only temporary, and when Twilight came to she found out that her friends had vanished without a trace. She thought the dragon had incinerated them, but when she found no evidence of ash or scorch marks, she felt relieved. If her hunch was correct, Verde teleported them using the same dragonfire Spike possessed. But to where?
"This is peculiar," said Verde.
"The unicorn is wearing some kind of black crystal ring that prevents her from using magic," said Spike.
"Or any kind of magic being cast on her. No matter. Spike, take her to the combat staging chamber."
"Yes, sir."
Verde opened the cage's gate with the force of his claws, and he reached in to clasp Twilight like a little rat. His grip nearly pierced her skin, and she almost wanted to squirm to worm out of his fingers to make a run for it. She did not in the end. Either she was still too high up or the dragon had his large and sharp eyes poised at her. Once at the ground, Spike poked the unicorn's behind with the sheath of his short sword, and he forcefully gestured her towards another large set of doors at the other side of the massive cavern.
She finally felt a bit safer once the giant doors sealed behind her. Spike continued to accompany her with scornful eyes, and whenever she slowed down one bit, he jabbed her again with the sheath of his sword.
"Don't bother trying anything funny, pony," said Spike. "Emerald Verde has cameras installed in almost every inch of the Cavern of Treasures. Some of them even have machine guns hooked up to them."
He was right. At every interval of ten feet or so, she saw a moving surveillance camera fixed at her, and she did see one with a machine gun mounted underneath it. Twilight had to take in everything about the Cavern of Treasures to plan her escape. This place was not naturally formed upon her initial observation. Whether rock was plastered on or metal walls built around the rocks, the Cavern of Treasures was an artificial formation, but the ancient language written at some of the doors and walls indicated that this place was not pony-made. It reminded her too much of the secret underground labs in Gaeaopolis.
Yet there were no magical creatures imprisoned here. This was a treasure hunter's paradise, and Twilight passed through chamber after chamber filled with ancient riches of gold, silver, and platinum. There were even non-metallic artifacts and antiques worthy of an archaeologists' adoration. Twilight felt almost certain that one of these chambers would be filled with items left over by her ancestors.
As wondrous and educational this cavern was, she could not enjoy them, let alone sneak out an artifact underneath her outfit. Her pony friends were elsewhere, and her dragon protégé had apparently betrayed her.
"Spike," Twilight asked. "Why are you doing this?"
"Isn't it obvious?" said Spike. "You ponies are the most vile creatures on this planet."
"Those images you've seen might not have been real."
"I saw the original, unaltered film. I always knew that ponies can be cruel, but this? I could have been killed in the war like my dragonkin. My parents might have died during that battle. Twilight, how can you possibly sympathize with these Earth Ponies?"
"I don't believe that the guilt of a few is representative of all ponykind. Spike, how could you say such things? What about the kindness you received from Dr. Octavia? Or your parents? Or us?"
"You're only taking pity on me because I'm still a baby dragon.”
"Look at me Spike. This isn't you. Emerald Verde must have hypnotized you. Is this what you really want? To see the ponies who love you die before you?"
The baby dragon turned away from his teacher and caretaker, hoping to suppress any emotional sympathies that might have remained within him. His internal conflict made his face twitch, and his eyes almost water. Then he took a deep breath, and resumed his scornful stare towards Twilight.
"Over there," Spike pointed. "The staging chamber. Fluttershy should be in there as well."
She did not have much choice. Twilight trotted in and beheld a chamber filled to the top with medieval weapons and armor that were pony-made for ponies. Many of them were worn out, chipped, or both. There were even some that had left blood residue that had been dried from who knew how long.
In the center on a high pedestal stood a large green-glowing orb that looked almost exactly like the hoof-sized Tele-Orb Dr. Octavia had given Spike. If that was the case, then Twilight circled around the orb's pedestal to find Fluttershy still unconscious from her fainting. She roused her to waking, but the pegasus, upon seeing so many deadly weapons surrounding her, fainted again.
"Are you done panicking, my little ponies?" said Verde through a nearby speaker, which was mounted underneath a focusing surveillance camera. "I have split you off into teams, with earth ponies on one, and the pegasus and the unicorn on the other. Each group should have arrived into separate staging chambers upon which you have two minutes to pick and choose whichever weapons and armor to use in the Bloodsport. When the two minutes are up, you are to leave the staging chamber. If you fail to leave the chambers in time, the doors will close by themselves, and I will fill the room with deadly gas to render all of you unconscious in preparation for long hours of torture. Once you have exited the staging chamber, you can no longer go back inside to retrieve more weapons or change them. Any attempts to do so will result in both teams' disqualification, and all four of you will die under my claw.
"The rules are simple: each team must kill the other within thirty minutes. If the time runs out, or if both teams refuse to participate in the Bloodsport, then they shall be recaptured and then devoured in the most painful way. Trust me, many ponies I have captured preferred to kill one another than be ripped apart limb from limb by my claws.
"Be wary of the traps that lay dormant in the Cavern of Treasures. Many are hundreds of years old, and some I have set up myself. My dragonkin Spike will act as an observer of the Bloodsport, and I shall be watching through the cameras. If I feel that the game is progressing slowly, I shall motivate you with the machine guns and by setting off a few of my traps.
"Now, do I have every pony's consent to participate in the Bloodsport? The white pony known as Sunny has confirmed. The pink one known as Pinkie Pie has confirmed."
"I consent to participate in the Bloodsport!" Twilight cried out, against all logical judgment. She could not back out anyway, but she might be able to figure out a plan during the thirty minutes that would be given to her and her friends.
"What of the pegasus?" asked Verde. "Spike my boy, wake her up."
"Get up," said Spike as he prodded Fluttershy's flank.
"Mister Verde," said Twilight. "Fluttershy is indisposed. She is not well enough to make a decision."
"If that should be the case, she will be recalled and eaten immediately," answered Verde.
"You can't! What I mean is, I am her friend, and I know for a fact that she too would like to participate in the Bloodsport."
"A friend, huh? Last I recall it was the pegasi who abandoned the unicorns during the Siege of the Diamond Hills. And from what I have seen so far, this pegasus is not warrior material."
"Please, you can't eat her yet. Don't you want to at least see how a pegasus fights?"
"Hmmm. It has been about a hundred years when a captured pegasus fell into my claws with his wings intact."
"I guarantee that she'll put up quite a fight."
Twilight heard Verde sigh. "Very well. Prove me wrong unicorn. I hope that there is a ravenous beast dormant in that pegasus. Begin your weapons selection, my little ponies."
From the old books she picked up in the underground river of her home, dragons were living war machines capable of leveling entire towns and devouring any witnesses along their way. Their strength and magical power grew exponentially as they increased their plunder, but despite a lack of information on their biology, Twilight believed that they were not completely invincible, especially in light of the gruesome horror she had witnessed in the flame-film. She truly felt sorry for Verde for surviving while his kin died horribly in battle, but that was no excuse for what he was trying to put the ponies through.
The unicorn set to work and equipping Fluttershy with lightweight mythril chain mail and plate armor shin protectors. Anything else added to her body would prevent her from flying, a survival trait Twilight sought to preserve in this situation. She had hoped that whatever she equipped on her shy friend would easily be removed in the heat of battle.
Twilight also attached to her a harness to carry what she knew for sure was a dragoon lance, a weapon that was said to be capable of piercing the underbelly of a dragon. Yet the weapon itself had not aged very well. It felt sturdy, but many if not all parts of it were tarnished, and some chips appeared on its main blade.
One minute had passed before Twilight could even think about performing repairs on her friends' armaments. Twilight added to herself the same type of chain mail, but also stuffed a set of saddlebags' worth of caltrops, throwing knives, and bolts for her newly acquired crossbow. A sheathed short sword completed her choice armaments. Finally, she dragged the unconscious Fluttershy by the tail and out of the staging chamber.
A pleasant bell-like chime rang throughout the Cavern of Treasures at the end of the second minute. As expected, the remote-controlled doors to the staging area immediately closed right behind them.
"It looks the ponies are armed and ready," said Verde. "Now commence the Bloodsport!"