//------------------------------//
// Hell 
// Story: Living Flame 
// by Random Gamer 
//------------------------------//

	With a white flash of light, Twilight found herself in a mysterious place. It looked like a large cave, full of lava rivers and rarely rocks or boulders that could be walked on and a red sky which gave the impression of murder while it's sulphuric smell gave the idea of explosions. Looking down to her hooves, she saw that she was standing on a small rock. She gulped, since no rocks were seen around her to jump on and the one she was on appeared to be sinking into lava. Quickly using her newly-learned levitation, she kept herself in the air before the rock the sunk and much to her luck, about seven more rocks appeared on the lava's surface. She levitated in it's general direction but before she could safely land, the levitation stopped, causing her to land on her back.

"Ow... what... what is this place?" she asked herself while getting up. A rock larger than the rest suddenly emerged from the lava and she was confident in making it across to it. After her first jump, she smelled something burning and when she looking behind her, her tail was on fire. In a fit of panic, she quickly stomped it with her hooves, ignoring the burns she caused. She then saw the reason for her tail being charred - a jet of lava appeared to burst once in a while between the rocks. Suddenly, the rocks started sinking and so, she had to do watch for both her timing and her hooves. In what seemed to be more luck than skill she crossed the lake and jumped on the large rock, collapsing from exhaustion. She knew she had to go on, but for the sake of having at least some energy, she needed a break. Suddenly, she heard a faint whisper and got up to look around.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" she asked, hoping the denizens of this cave were friendly. Fortunately, she got a reply from someone nearby.

"What do you want here, mortal?" Twilight looked around, hoping the speaker meant no harm. It was another demon, looking exactly like the one she released, albeit muscular and by the sound of its voice, male.

"I'm... I'm looking for something" she replied, stil hoping the demon meant no harm. "I've summoned and released a demon." The demon smiled and looked at her passionately.

"Oh, poor thing." said the demon. "Don't you know no one has ever returned from Hell? Maybe you should go home to your mommy and pretend this never happened. Here, I'll help you." The demon opened a portal which seemingly led back to Equestria but Twilight declined by shaking her head.

"No?" said the demon. "Very well mortal. I'll see how long you can persist." With a sound akin to an explosion, the demon vanished from sight and massive structures emerged from the lava, one more twisted than the other. Their only common trait was that they were made of stone and were mostly spikes.

"I'm not scared." she said as she looked at the spikes and attempted to destoy them with her horn. Obviously, that didn't work since this was Hell and all things there were considered dark magic. Instead, her blast of magic reflected off them and into the lava. An "ow" was heard shortly after and something climbed out of the lava. It was once again the demon she had seen before, this time with a bulge on his head.

"Can you please be more careful?" he asked. "You can get someone hurt, you know."

"Why are you following me around?" she answered his question with another question. "Don't you have better things to do?" She didn't know much about demons but following ponies around in hell was probably not something they were supposed to do.

"Actually, I do." he asnwered. "It's just entertaining for me to watch you, a mortal, traverse Hell. Plus, you're kinda cute." Twilight blushed and a worried smile appeared on her face. Of course she's cute! All demons look like, well, demons.

"Ehm... heh." said Twilight, blushing. "Thanks, I guess." The demon aproached her, as if wanting to accompany her.

"You must be looking for Malbolge." he said. "Right?"

"Who?" she asked. "Who's Malbolge?"

"It's not a pony or demon but a location. A plane of Hell to be exact." he answered. "Full of information about demons but written in complete rubbish."

"Can you lead me there?" she asked. "Please..." Maybe complete rubbish to demons but to her, it could mean something.

"Are you crazy?!" he responded. "You can't ask a demon for a favor, he'll ask for all sorts of evil things like sacrifice, blood and-" Twilight rolled her eyes and interrupted his ranting with putting her hoove infront of his mouth.

"So much for helping." she said and tried ascending the spikes. The demon appeared to be offended but after seeing her trying so hard and not giving up, he decided to help her. Besides, with one good thing, no one's gonna portray demons as good guys, right?

He grabbed her using her magic and put her down on the rock. "Hey, what are you-" Twilight didn't finish and instead, lost words when she saw the spikes bend and form a bridge across the lava.

"I... I..." stuttered Twilight, unable to comprehend the impressive use of magic.

"You're welcome." said the demon and the two of them started crossing the lava lake via the bridge. Truly, it is an extremely rare sight to see a demon help a mortal in need.