//------------------------------// // Making Things Right-ish: Soul // Story: Imbalanced // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// [Choking's Entry] I know now. When I retrieved Void's soul it all became clear. His experience and wisdom is something so vast that I can't understand even a fraction of what he truly means by everything he says and I never will. But what's done is done. We're leaving now and hoping we can get to the Crystal Empire in time. I'm not sure what help I can be but I'll just have to do what little I can in the conflict between magic and natural forces of Equestria. Or we might arrive a century in the future and I'll get a glimpse of what the immortals see when the world changes completely in front of them. [End Entry] "Tell me again why is there no mention anywhere that Tartarus is a holiday resort?" I ask Void. "That summation is very incorrect, it just seems like one to you right now." "No it doesn't. That pony and that, " I stare for few seconds at what looks like an offspring of an octopus and a street lamp, " tentacle thing are playing tennis. I repeat - they are not lost souls burning for their sins, they are not being tortured, they are playing tennis. The fact that the pony can't physically win thanks to the tentacle guy using three rackets isn't what I call eternal damnation." "Ah yes, Ur'Gash the Soul Eater. Fun guy, cannot handle his drink though," he waves at some souls who answer in kind. We keep walking. Void seems to know the way but the horror tales about this place are completely beyond me. If this place is a prison then lock me up and tie me down. "Okay seriously, I was expecting lakes of lava, souls screaming in pain and demons torturing one another." "Well, the movies get here a bit later after release so you have to wait for new Roboguard remake so that waiting is hard to bear for some. As for lakes of lava, or magma to be precise, it is called lava only when it cools down, there is one in the building to the left." I look inside through large window and see ponies, naked or in swimsuits, lying around a glowing orange pool. The sign above the building proves to me that this is not some kind of torture facility. "That's not what I meant, that's a tanning salon!" "You can get seriously burned if you stay for too long." "VOID!" I exclaim, increasingly annoyed. "Yes?" he asks calmly, pretending not to know what I'm talking about. "What's so bad about this place? You almost started crying when we were at Scream's place and Tartarus was mentioned." "I do not want to explain it. You have been here not even an hour and the souls you see around have been here for a century at most. This place is where sinners go from different realities, not just Equestria. The ones who were not sent here for doing something terrible will find this place a paradise because they will be able to have everything they could ever want for few years and then they will disperse and disappear." "And what about the really bad guys? How is giving them company, free food, all sorts of fun estabilishments punishing them?" "Let me ask you something different. If there are souls from all creation imprisoned here then why do you think there is such a small amount of them here?" "It's Sunday?" I joke. The answer is avoiding me though as we keep walking. If the good guys come here to have fun for few years until they're ready to move on then why are the baddies here as well when they can enjoy themselves for all eternity? ... eternity. Watching the newcomers have fun and then leave. I shake my head and the idea falls out of my ear. "How far is the place your soul is at?" I ask. "Fairly far. We can take a carriage if you do not want to walk all the way. I was just thinking while walking." "What about?" "My past mistakes. Being out of here only for few weeks and then coming back makes this place even more horrible than it feels when you are here." "I still don't get it." "No, you do not." Sighing, I don't continue and just keep walking and looking around to see the evil of this place. My hoofsteps stop when I see what looks like an outside orgy of ponies, tentacles, plants and other unidentifiable beings. "You can't tell me THAT is some sort of punishment," I comment, suppressing the urge to join. Void stops, suddenly fuming through his gritted teeth. "It is too bad Blazing Light is not here because he understood the problem with this place immediately. Yes, you can have anything you want, anything you imagine. Yes, you can have it forever. FOR EVER. How long do you think it would take your little pony mind to run out of ideas? How long would it take for you to hide inside one of the small apartments of this place so you did not have to look at those with a chance of leaving this place, a year, a century, a millenium? I was supposed to be locked here for the rest of time. You cannot die here. No matter what you do, you will NEVER leave this place. You can pass some time by tanning, bucking the entire population or watching movies that come here from other worlds but then what?" "I'm sorry. I just..." He calms down and closes his eyes. "No, it is me who should apologize. You were in no position to understand and I should have known that and explained instead of blowing up in such way. It is just that everypony, everything eventually leaves when their punishment is enough. The only exception was supposed to be me. Celestia's judgement was to let me rot here forever." His outburst left me shaking. Not out of fear but out of a small spark of realization growing in me. No amount of empathy would make me feel even a fraction of what Void must be feeling while being back here so I make my decision. "Can we take a carriage then? I don't want to be here more than necessary and we have to hurry in case the different flow of time sends us where we don't want to be after leaving." He just nods and with a small wave of his hoof a carriage appears, driven by another inhabitant of this place. We get out and Void pays the rabbit-bird-octopus with some bits he pulls out of nowhere. I recognize the building in front of us. Well, I recognize the type and the feeling around it. It's an apartment building similar to ones in some of the shadier parts of Canterlot. One where single ponies try to drown themselves in drink in hope they leave this day behind them and wake up tomorrow or not at all. When the door opens I don't even have to look inside to know what exactly I'm going to see. The grey peeling wallpaper, the wobbly table and one chair, the small dresser lacking clothes inside, said clothes thrown over the chair, the bed which hasn't been made in ages with a body pillow featuring Scream in some lewd pose, although her simply standing and breathing can be considered an invitation to bed, and the cracked window with makeshift curtain keeping the light out. Okay, the pedestal with black, pulsating orb in the corner is something I didn't expect but it is there. "Is that it?" I point at the orb and Void just nods and keeps staring blankly at nothing. When I touch the darkness... Barren land, black alicorn standing alone between rivers of molten rock being drenched by acidic rain. The black alicorn, chasing an older, light-brown one with dark-brown mane and an hourglass cutie mark. The two of them talking to a pure white female alicorn with red mane and watching white alicorn foal with blonde mane slowly toddling towards them. An adult black alicorn with massive wingspan and golden eyes glowing with interest in the small creatures gathering around him. Much like him, they have four legs but none of them has got both horn and wings, some of them have neither. The black alicorn along with a blond-maned one with the coat of white snow, both with small lights around them with the black one talking without a break and the white one performing what seems impossible just by force of will. A golden alicorn, booping the black one's nose with her hoof and brushing her platinum mane. The golden mare, playing with a small, dark blue filly with little lights glittering in her mane who is seemingly interested in everything. Both of them, being watched by another mare with the cutie mark of the sun. Hungry, ragged masses of ponies. Thousands upon thousands, wounded and scarred, gathering in front of a huge temple made of obsidian. All of them thankful for the black fire which takes their pain away. The golden alicorn, passing a three-headed dog and looking around what seems to be an underground city full of ponies and other creatures. The black one, raging, destroying buildings but eventally just sitting down and staring out of the small cracked window with a bottle in front of him. "Huh?" I mumble and try to touch my wet cheek which unfortunately causes the black orb to drop on the ground. "Aaaah!" I desperately swing my forelegs to catch it but fail miserably. "What?" I just tilt my head when absolutely nothing happens as the orb hits the floor. "Physical contact does not matter," says Void and I pick the orb back up and present it to him. No burst of magic, nothing. Just like in one of those pictures of a vase and a face, where a small, feminine and slim Void was a second ago there is now his full form which I remember from Scream's dream realm. "Is this enough?" "I do not know. It will take very long time for me to regain my full power but we just have to do what we can against half of the Elements of Harmony." "Let's go then." Void looks around one final time and then we disappear.