//------------------------------// // Judgement Day // Story: The Games we play in Pony Hell // by FictionaryThought //------------------------------// The prisoners marched in a single file line towards their destination. None spoke, and some tried to avoid breathing. The prison warden, Soul Claw, was escorting them to their next prison. Not prison cell, but prison. The idea was pretty basic; rotate prisoners from building to building and they won’t feel so trapped. This is done once every month, and Soul Claw makes sure the prisoners all know their place. He looked like what you’d expect a jail warden from Pony Hell to look like. His entire left eye was gone, replaced with a glowing red cavity in his head that had several glowing cracks formed around it. His chest had a large glowing red scar running down it as well, showing that at one point his chest had been cut open, and the material between his ribs was cut with it. His right leg also had a slight glow from the inside of it, meaning there was most likely glowing cracks in the bones beneath the massive muscle in his legs. The muscles that covered his body were enough to make even a pony like Big Macintosh jealous. The prisoners obeyed him both because of fear and respect. Down in Pony Hell, glowing scars show the damage you took before death. The prisoners had glowing scars too, each a different warm color depending on the pain they suffered. Yellow meant the pain of being cut, but the death had to have happened in less than 5 minutes to stay yellow. Scars left from cuts were sometimes a dim orange that glowed brighter depending on how emotionally scaring the pain was. But red cracks meant agonizing pain and a slow death. A rare few prisoners had these kind of marks, and were left incurably insane due to their suffering in life. Sometimes ponies were let out of their cells if they got better at dealing with emotional pain, but it was almost unheard of for a pony with red markings all over their bodies be let free. The idea that this warden in particular was both mentally stable enough to work and crazy enough to make them suffer more if they step out of line, was something out of their worst nightmares. “HALT!” He shouted, making the prisoners stop immediately. Soul Claw looked to the skies, and watched a pony fall from the red clouds above. The other thing about scars in Pony Hell is that they connect the pony with them to the world. The worse the scar, the better a pony notices something new is happening, and Soul Claw new at that precise moment that somepony new had arrived. He also knew that the lava pool this pony was falling into was fairly far away from the admittance office. Somepony got Celestia angry. Getting her irritated was common, but Celestia must’ve really not liked this pony. Once the pony hit the lava, Soul Claw knew it was a pegasus filly. “Aw crack.” He said. He faced his prisoners. “LISTEN UP!! You are to escort yourselves to the NHR Correctional Facility. If I find any of you aren’t on the list of prisoners checking in, I will hunt you down, rip off your front right hoof, and beat you with it until I have to drag your unconscious body there. GOT IT!?” “Sir, yes sir!” They said in unison, fearing what they’d get if they didn’t agree on the spot. With no time to spare, Soul Claw galloped full speed towards the soon to be new resident of Pony Hell. The prisoners continued trotting to their destination. When he was sure the warden was out of hearing range, the newest prisoner asked the one in front of him a question. “How likely is it he’d find us if we ran away?” “He noticed a pony falling through the cloud layer above us at the exact moment it happened. Trust me, he’s in sync with this place to the point he could find you hiding in a secret cave beneath a pool of lava.” The prisoner in front assured. “If you want to have less pain in your after life, you’ll do as he says.” ... I was hot. Very hot. Chances are you could have cooked eggs on my flank. But at least I got out of that lava. Not that it mattered, since I still felt like I was in an oven set on fire. I have absolutely no idea how I had fallen asleep in a place this hot, but I hated that I was awake. I felt sick to my stomach, like I was on the verge of throwing up, but couldn’t. At first I thought that was just part of my suffering here in Pony Hell, but then I noticed I was moving. I was definitely on someponies back, and I could tell because I felt myself bouncing up and down. It didn’t help my stomach cramps. I was in too much pain to open my eyes at first, but after a while I decided I had to. I slowly opened my eyes to try and get a look at who was carrying me. ...He was definitely big and red. “I also have several scars covering my body.” He said, finishing my analysis for me. I nearly jumped off of his back, but my aching stomach had me curl up in pain. The red stallion kept walking forward, silently keeping track of me. “I can tell by your stomach pain you drowned. Wanna talk about it?” I just laid there on his back, not sure how to respond. “I hear that talking about that sort of thing helps make afterlife easier. I wouldn’t know. My name’s Soul Claw by the way.” Since Soul was kind enough to introduce himself, I did the same. “My name is Aurora.” “Nice to meet you Aurora.” He said. “So do you want to talk about your death or not?” I felt a little annoyed. “That was kind of rude you know.” Soul shrugged. “I’m not a very polite pony.” He said bluntly. I huffed, giving him the silent treatment for a few minutes while I waited for him to drop me off. After 2 minutes I got bored and decided to talk. “I was already sick and dying when it happened. I fell asleep in the middle of taking a drink and let myself drown.”. He hummed in thought. “So you could have saved yourself then? That would make your death count as a suicide.” I nodded in response. “Then it’s no wonder Celestia let you land so far away from the admittance office. She hates suicide victims, thinks they take too much advantage of the afterlife. Most of the time I agree.” I looked up at him awkwardly. “Do you agree with her now?” He shook his head. “Not entirely. You let yourself die when you were close to dying anyway. The suicide was more acceptable in your case, albeit still unnecessary, but I don’t think it was worthy of the typical suicide victim punishment. My guess is she got angry over something else.” I blushed. “I voted for Luna in the best princess election.” He grunted. “Why does Celestia still have those? By now she’s just looking for an excuse to punish ponies further.” He turned around to look at me. “I’m sorry for all that’s happened. If it helps, life here does get better. You said your name was Aurora?” I slowly nodded, trying not to stare at his glowing red eye. He smiled. “Then let me be the first to say; Welcome to Pony Hell.”