//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 - I walk through a mirror wall. -Percy 
// Story: The Heroes of Olympus: The Other End of the Pit 
// by Surprise Pie 
//------------------------------//

Falling is getting boring.

That's what I was thinking as Annabeth and I fell for what seemed like for ever. All the way down, we held hands, because we're in this together. We both knew we were going to end up in Tartarus. Arachne was a foul creature, but that much, she didn't lie about. So our friends saved the statue. Yeah, okay, but what about us? I bet in her brainiac head, Annabeth was calculating our fall speed and force of impact for when we reached the bottom, or something like that. All I knew, was that we were falling fast enough to go splat when we reached the bottom. If there was one that is. It was times like these I wish I had Jason's power to fly. Man that was cool, even if I didn't want to admit it. Or maybe Leo's freakish building talent, so I could build some kind of mini-helicopter or something to slow our fall before impact. After about five minutes of falling, we kinda gave up on screaming. I really didn't want to end up in Tartarus with a broken voice. All the monsters would make fun of me, and I wouldn't even be able to kill them, because that's where they reform. After about an hour, according to my watch, a faint glow could be seen down below, and it was coming fast.

"Oh gods, here we are." squeaked Annabeth. "You ready Seaweed Brain?"

"Nope." I answered.

"Me neither." 

Great.

Then, just as we were gonna hit the bottom, an invisible force catches us. Awesome, now we actually have to fight monsters down here. I was kinda hoping the fall would spare us a painful death at the hands of a vengeful Minotaur, or any other monster I killed since I got to Camp Half-Blood, all those years ago, for that matter. Looking around, all i see is this huge cave, with lava pits here and there. Okay, so it's Hell, kinda expected that. 

"Um, not that I'm an expert on monsters or anything, but shouldn't Tartarus be crawling with them? I mean they come here when they're killed right?" I asked Annabeth. "The place looks kinda empty..."

Thinking about it for a second, she said: 

"Well, yeah. But then again whenever we kill monsters nowadays, they just re-from instantly, right? So maybe they don't come back here when we beat them." 

As we walked across the stone plains of Tartarus, I couldn't help but feel as if I was being watched. The feeling got more intense as we walked. After about fifteen minutes, something weird caught my eye. Squinting to see it better, i notice there's a small tunnel with a silvery light emanating from it. Pointing it out to Annabeth, she says:

"I dunno, Percy. What if it's a trap? Wouldn't be the first time that happens." She had a point, but I really had to see what it was. Just as we reached the opening of the tunnel, a voice boomed behind us:

"Well, well... If it isn't Percy Jackson and his girlfriend, Annabeth Chase. The two pesky demigods who caused us so much trouble a couple years ago."

Whirling around, I see faces I'd hoped to never see again: Dr. Thorn, the manticore, Queen Sess, the dracanae, Kellie, the cheerleader empousa, and each of them had a group of their own kind with them except a group of Telkhines, sea demons, with Thorn. Even the Minotaur was there. These were all old enemies from the Titan War against Kronos. Frankly it reminded me of a scene from Dragon Ball where Goku was sent to Hell and he met all of his old foes from previous seasons, but that's beside the point.

"If you're all down here, that means Gaea isn't pleased with how badly we beat your sorry butts." I retorted. I know, giving them attitude wasn't going to save us, probably was gonna get them even angrier, but Gaea probably had a plan for us, and she'd obliterate these thugs to keep them from interfering. She'd done it before, when I was with Hazel and Frank on the way to Alaska.

"Percy, what are you doing?" hissed Annabeth. "Provoking them where they're at their strongest? We can't kill them down here!"

"You should listen to your girlfriend, Jackson. In Tartarus, we monsters are as immortal as the gods themselves." growled Thorn. (He still mangled the J in my name with his horrible French accent, too. Just like old times.)

"So maybe we can't kill you, but we can still hold you off. Notice how you seem to keep a distance from this tunnel? What's so scary about it?" I reply. It was true. The monsters were spread out around us in a perfect semi-circle, all while leaving the tunnel perfectly accessible for us.

"A strange artifact sits at the end of that tunnel," explained Thorn, "and we dare not go near it. All who did never returned."

"What kind of artifact?" asked Annabeth, curious.

"Oh, nothing. Just a dumb old mirror." replied Kellie.

"The mirror is said to lead to another world. But seeing as no one has ever come back, I decided to let you the choice either of dying at our hands, or facing eternal exile via that portal." added Thorn.

"Gaea wouldn't let you kill us. She needs the blood of two powerful demigods, a boy and a girl, to fully awaken at Mount Olympus." replied Annabeth.

"But she'd also see our valor if we put two of her primary enemies out of commission." retorted Thorn. "Besides, the son of Jupiter and the daughter of Aphrodite will do just fine for the Earth Mother." 

I couldn't let them hurt Jason and Piper, they needed to live to succeed in our mission. And as my friends, I couldn't let these monsters get to them. Turning to Annabeth, I whisper:

"Should we go in? maybe there is a way out, just not here."

With a worried look in her eyes, she nods and we turn our backs to the monsters, slowly but surely walking towards the mirror. Pausing just before we cross through, Annabeth grabs my hand, and says:

"Just in case we don't make it." And she kisses me. On the lips. My brain melted right there, and I knew everything would be fine. We would find a way out of this new world, and we would reach the Doors of Death, close them, and help the others in beating Gaea. Nodding, I turn towards the portal and, taking a deep breath, we jump in.

Traveling through a mirror portal reminded me a lot of shadow travel. In this case, loads of bright colors everywhere, but it still felt like I was going so fast my face would peel off. I saw Annabeth there too. She seemed as excited as I felt, with a big wide grin on her face as we traveled to another dimension. Then feeling ended as quickly as it began, and we were in a tunnel much like the one we just left, only the colors emanating from the mirror were orange, not silver. Touching the mirror, I find that this side of the portal was solid. It was like Thorn said, there's no way back from this point. Walking out of the tunnel, my first impression was: Okay, so a new world, only, it looks exactly the same as the one we just left, with swapped colors. The Tartarus we were in before was made of brown stone and orange light from lava pits. The stone here was deep blue with silvery light coming from nearby pools of... Silver lava? 

Second thing I noticed: Monsters everywhere. Most are curled up sleeping, others just walking around without a care. As Annabeth and I walked between them, they ignored us, if they even noticed us at all. I throw Annabeth a quizzical glance.

"Maybe they think we're monsters too. Or they just don't hate demigods." offered Annabeth.

"What if there are no demigods in this world, so no fighting against monsters to start the hostilities. Remember how the monsters back in our world hated us, because we killed them all ourselves?" I suggested.

"Exactly! And because they don't hate us, they just don't care that we're here!" exclaimed Annabeth. 

Awesome. Now we don't have to worry about monsters, right? Right?

Wrong. Just as we neared the middle of this section of cave, a loud growling came from above. A giant three-headed dog stared down at us from his perch, where we could clearly see a gateway.

"Cerberus?" I asked, because this wasn't the first three-headed dog I'd seen. Heck, this one even looked similar to the guard of the Underworld, minus the semi-ghostly appearance. The dog started barking, whining, and making all kinds of noises and movements. He seemed more worried and agitated than mad at us. That's when a crystalline voice resonated from somewhere past the gate.

"Oh hey Cerberus! Have you been a good boy?" The squeaking sound of a rubber ball could be heard, and the dog's attention was diverted, though only for a little while. Before long Cerberus had destroyed his ball and started yipping at us.

"What's wrong, boy? Something unusual down there?" 

Squinting to see, I see a small purple shape appear next to the dog. I point it out to Annabeth.

"I see it too. Wonder what it is." she said. 

Then the shape jumped down from the rock shelf above and, deploying it's wings, floated down to us, before landing right in front of us. That's when I recognize the lavender alicorn standing there.

"You two shouldn't be here." said Twilight Sparkle.