The six mares huddled together in Twilight’s library, surrounding an antique oak table piled high with books.
“So you’re saying that some ghost or whatever stole my wings?” Rainbow Dash asked doubtingly.
“Yes. This book Zecora gave me, the journey of an early settler pony describes the same events happening about a thousand years ago! In fact, it even says why your trees aren’t growing, Applejack.”
“Wah? Did they go n’ steal their ability to make apples or somethin’?”
“Actually, it says here that earth ponies have a special magic within their hooves, that brings life to the world around them simply by walking and letting the magic flow into the ground. Back then, their crops wouldn’t grow either.”
“What? Yer sayin’ Bucky McGilligutty and Kicks McGee here are magical?” Applejack said, shocked, looking back at her rear hooves.
“Yes. I’m surprised I didn’t learn about this sooner. It seems like something I’d have learned in Canterlot.” Twilight said, continuing to study the book. “The pony who wrote this said that a group of eight brave ponies journeyed to the gates of Tartarus, which was located on an island at the time.”
“What do you mean, at the time?” Rarity inquired.
“Well, the location of Tartarus shifts across Equestria as modern civilization does. Back then, it was on an island to the east of what is now Caneighda and now that the princesses have settled in Canterlot, it’s off in a mountain in the Everfree forest.” Twilight explained. “Anyway, out of the eight, six had lost their abilities. Only three ponies made it back.
“So this is dangerous… Sure we’ll be able to do it? I mean, with three of us handicapped, it’ll be a struggle.” Rainbow dash asked, worried.
“Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and I can’t to this alone, so we’ll definitely need you. Tartarus isn’t that bad, I mean, I went there once to return Cerberus, but none of the greater evils had escaped. I just walked him to the gate and he jumped straight through the iron, as if it were air. Maybe this time he fell asleep or ran away again, and he let loose a whole horde of monsters?”
“Could be. Maybe.” said Rarity.
“So what exactly does that book say?" asked Applejack.
"I’ve only skimmed it so far, here, I'll read it out loud." Twilight cleared her throat, and started.
“It's been three weeks since it started. For some reason, ponies are losing their magic. Unicorns losing their horns, pegasi their wings and earth ponies like me our fertility. We can't stomp our farming magic into the earth any more. The pegasi can't control the weather. The unicorns can't find any solution and day by day, more and more ponies are losing their power. Us Earth ponies, we're a hardy group of workers. We take our problems head on, headstrong and stomp down and buck anything that gets in our way. We work hard to earn our food and to bring food to others. Because of this curse or whatever, we can't farm. But that don't mean we’ve lost hope. We will fight to bring back Equestria. We will destroy whatever evil lurks in these shadows, and ain't nopony, NOPONY GONNA STOP US.
It's now been about a month. Food reserves are near running dry, there are only two unicorns left in our settlement and one pegasus. The river bank's flooded since we can't control the rain, everypony's just about lost faith that we will ever be able to continue, but I've seen a glimmer of hope. Last night a strange creature walked into town, black with white stripes, or white with black stripes. I don't know. Anyway, I was keeping night guard and I asked this creature, 'Who are ya?' nutjob claimed to be a shaman. Said he'd heard that our village had been struck by curse. Came to investigate. I told him about all that was going on. I was desperate that someone would be able to help. He told me that evil spirits had escaped from Tartarus, determined to steal the powers of unsuspecting ponies. He said the only way to fix things was to go back, take them down, grab our stuff, get out and seal them gates. He wished me luck, then disappeared into the blackness of the night. I don't really know what to do. We have no other options, and if we do nothing we'll all end up useless then starve or freeze to death. It's our only lead, so I'm gonna grab a group of strong fighters, and bring this to an end.
It has been a week since my last entry. Ponies thought I was mad. They didn't want to go down to a hellmouth, they just thought that it would all blow over soon and they'd be all right. Idiots. All I need are a few courageous ponies to go with me; a few brave souls to increase our chances of doing this. If not, I guess I'll go alone.
Yesterday we finally ran out of food, and the crops are still dead. One of the unicorns lost her horn too. Poor girl, cried all night. Some ponies had the sense to realize we had to take action. Seven ponies have agreed to come with me, my brother, the last Pegasus and unicorn and a mixed up bunch of powerless ponies. This is gonna be one hell of a trip. We leave tomorrow.
It's our first night out, we made camp and one of the hornless unicorns wandered off. His name was Dust Mite, he a real bookworm. Anyway, he walked away from camp and we searched for hours trying to find him. We followed his tracks to a ravine, where it looks like he lost his footing and fell in. Darn fool. Anyway, we're down to seven ponies and spirits are low. We've made good distance though, we're about a quarter of the way. I'll make another entry should anything interesting happen, or when we reach the gates of Tartarus.
Dangit dangit dangit! I was a fool. I forgot, the gates were on an island. We don't have boats, three of us can't swim and I doubt that any of us could possibly swim that far out. Now we're stuck on this beach and we don't know what we'll do. I think we can chop down a few trees, make a couple crude rafts and pray that they hold.
Dangit, we've messed up bad. We made a couple rafts, set them out to sail and they fared pretty well. Until the storm came. Without pegasi regulating the weather, this stuff appears spontaneously and hits hard. A couple of sapped ponies went under, our Pegasus did his best but could only save one. The unicorn was busy trying to keep the boats together, or at least stop the logs from skewering anypony. Everyone else was panicking, it was so disorienting and confusing. It was dark as the storm clouds blotted out the sun, the waves rose high and crashed hard. We're lucky that we only lost one. Shame we weren't luckier. The pony we lost, True North. He was our navigator. It's gonna be hard getting around now. Everypony's distressed, we don't know what we're going to do now. If another storm comes, I doubt we'll be as lucky. We need to think.
It's been a few days, and I think we're going to try the boats again. Dang, we're taking too long. The ponies back home, I hope they're okay. When we left them, they were scavenging fruits off of the trees around us. I hope they don't touch anything poisonous. I hope my family's alright. They're a tough bunch, they aren't going to give up easily. As long as they fight, I'll fight. We will all fight, for a better tomorrow. We will restore our powers, and seal the gates. Nothing will stop us.
We're on the island. Thankfully, the weather's been calm. The unicorn rigged up some sort of pedal-motor thing with some leaves and sticks, fixed it to a raft, and it worked incredibly well. It didn't take nearly as long as I expected, we got there in a few hours. Everypony's a bit shaken up, I don't know if it's because of our past trials, or the knowledge that what we will find in that cave will be a thousand times worse.
Sweet starswirl, we found it! It's a monstrous thing. Huge iron clad doors, twisted dark metal practically screaming damnation. The smell of brimstone is strong, possibly because it's seated at the base of a volcano. We're as ready as we'll ever be for this. May we find the strength to take this challenge on, bring back our powers and go back home to our families. This may be my last journal entry. Into the belly of the beast, the hellmouth, the abyss of flame and death. This isn't going to be pleasant.
The writing here gets really shaky and there are dots of red on the paper" said Twilight "a lot of it's illegible, but I'll read what I can. 'The... Demon... Did it... Dead... Pegasus just fell... Burned... Dying... Made it... Never again... Sealed... Sacrifice...'
Oh good, it clears up.
It's been two weeks since we left Tartarus. I'm just barely recovering and I'm writing this to let it all out. My wife says it'll help my nightmares some. So, as expected, it was Hell. As soon as we opened the gates, we came across a sleeping three headed dog. We made sure not to wake it up. We journeyed further in and there was a pony, charred black and blazing, racing toward us, but missed and exploded into ash on a nearby wall. We kept pushing on. The Pegasus was flying over a lava lake, when all of a sudden his wings just disappeared. He fell into the lava before we could do anything to save him. He burned to death. The unicorn was shaken up, scared. She started firing magic bolts at the demons. They didn't like that. A horrible beast with a snake's head, four gigantic purple arms, and a stomach made of a twisted mouth with rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth grabbed her and he... I don't want to describe it. It's too gruesome. The rest of us ran, the four left. My brother, a former guard Pegasus, a farmer and I. We ran like, well, hell. The beasts following us lost interest, going back to whatever it is that demons do. We reached a pedestal, surrounded in flame. Upon the pedestal was a glowing white orb. The shaman had told me that this orb needed to be shattered in order to restore our abilities. We took the orb and I stood on my rear legs, holding it high in my forehooves as I prepared to smash it. Before I could though, I was pushed by some invisible force. The orb fell into the guard's saddlebag and I barely kept myself from falling into the flames. I guess the spirits didn't like getting their stuff smashed. For the guard pony, all these deaths had hit him hard. His whole life was about keeping others safe and he had been helpless to save the four we had lost. He started screaming, completely insane, about how he was damned and deserved to live here for all eternity. He threw himself into the flames, burning himself alive. I can still hear his screams in my nightmares. It's horrible, what that place can do to somepony. It's a miracle I'm still here. After he burned to death, the orb was still intact, sitting in his pile of ash. We took it, then under our hooves, stomped it into oblivion. As it shattered, wisps of silver shot up and flowed into our bodies. My brother and I felt the magic return to our hooves, solid as stone and ready to buck up some demons. The silver wisps surrounded our last companion, a trick flyer named Barrel Roll. The wisps of silver surrounded his back, forming a wing shape and solidifying. We had our abilities back, and the remaining silver wisps started to flow away. We chased after them, hoping it would lead to an exit. Thankfully, Tartarus's occupants were too busy with eternal damnation to try and stop us. We made it out alive, relatively unchallenged, which I am thankful for. If we ignore the damned, they tend to ignore us. We were so relieved to be out of that hellhole. We shut the gates, but then we realized it still needed to be sealed. The gate needed blood. Real, fresh pony blood. I took my forehoof and slit it against a sharp rock. I smeared my blood across the entrance, bringing forth a bright red glow that stemmed from the carvings my blood had touched. Every groove was alight with that demonic glow, outlining the twisted and horrible inscriptions about what lay inside. It finally raced up and down the gap between the doors, making the gate seamless. It just looked like a big wall with a bunch of weird engravings once the glow subsided. We bandaged my hoof with what few supplies remained in our bags and returned to the mainland on our raft. The trek home was uneventful and seemed to go by quick. Maybe it's because of what we saw that made it feel that way. I don't know. We arrived home to find our people well again. They were celebrating, pegasi soaring in the air, the unicorns shooting out fireworks, the earth ponies dancing. For the first time since I'd left, I smiled. I know I'll never be the same. The terrors of that hellhole are too innumerable to count. A mad pony could ramble for eternity on the horrors of that place, had he lingered there for mere seconds. I don't want to remember. I want to forget. I want to forget that place even existed. I will remember the sacrifice of those ponies who came with me, but died valiantly. I pray they've gone to a better place than what we saw. I don't know how to end this journal, after all of that. I'm just venting it out, the horrors of this journey, to get it out of my system, but that's it I guess. I have nothing more to say. I need to rest, and after all that, I'm pretty damn sure I deserve it."
Twilight set the book down and looked grimly at her companions. Having been kept silent and captive as she spoke, they just stared back.