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// Prologue 
// Story: The Element of Friendship 
// by The Derpy Doctor 
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	I was a good dog. I was loyal to the princess. I guarded the gates of Tartarus and stopped any from exiting when in my power to do so. I was generous. I gave any of my positions away to protect and to help my wife and litter. I was honest. I told the prisoners their sentence and reported anything in the right mind to my master: princess Celestia.  I was kind. I never treated any pony bad or hurt any monsters that I was to hold captive if I didn’t have to. I had a sense of humor. I always laughed at other’s jokes and helped others to cheer up when I could. I would never hurt anyone. I was a good dog. I am Cerberus.
But why don’t I have any friends? I am caged in the bottom of the earth. I protect and defend every pony from the dangers down here and they mock and scorn me for my doings. I am a good dog.
I tried to hold back the tears. I have a settled wife, two sons, and three girls, but I have no friends that could appreciate what I do.
I am a good dog. I know it, but I just don’t believe it. I wept now. I’m only a good dog if I am seen that way. I will only be seen that way if I have friends.
Then the darkness came. It settled there and all around me. It was him again: the dark cloud. I am the only one to be known to defeat him, and he has been trying to escape Tartarus ever since. He came upon me like a cougar on its pray. I was hopeless now. He had gotten me down. I had no friends. I had only myself: caught beneath the cloud. I was there to keep him from getting out. He was the darkness. He was the evil that we all must face… especially now: because he would kill me. He has been doing this from the start. He has been doing this since I trapped him here 500 years ago when I first defeated him. Now was too late he cupped his cold, dark hands to my ears: all of them. He is the darkness; he has all the hands that he wants. He whispered: “500 years now, Cerberus… and now, I can be the one that say: lights out to my prisoner.” Then he pushed and I was dropped far off the edge of one of the many small islands that are mounted on the interior of Tartarus. I fell 1000 yards to dark abyss from which no one returns. I spiraled and turned and yowled before hearing my last voice. The voice of my old prisoner:
“Lights out!”
He was right. It was lights out. I hit the ground and was immediately overwhelmed by the darkness and all of the cold that had been felt down there. I was a good dog. I had to be.
In the midst of the darkness, I saw a bright light. Fluttershy at the end of it was calling me to her. She understood me. She knew all of those times I had never done anything to hurt any pony. She called me a good boy when I was low. She was the one I saw now.
I felt the darkness embrace me one more time before I was taken entirely into the light and the warmth.
I was a good boy. I had to be.