As he opened his eyes, he found himself in a dungeon. While he has never been to Tartarus, and Faust willing would never want to, it was enough to get a general idea. His hearing became tuned to his new environment, and the sounds were one to match. He heard screaming of a prisoner down the hall, getting louder as a couple of soldier goats carried a struggling Diamond Dog pup away. The sight made the Hipparion droop his ears.
Cosgrove turned his head to the muffled yelling behind him. Stretching his legs, he leapt onto the barred window and had a good look at what he is getting into. A chimera and a manticore were fighting each other to the death. The manticore would have an easy advantage if it didn't have it's wings clipped. The snake tail subdued the mixed part lion while the smilodon head clenched deep into it's mane. The manticore became limp in a short moment. Dropping its fallen opponent, the chimera roared into the sky to the cheering crowd.
Suddenly Display was snatched from behind and flung out of the cell. He looked up to see a large goat.
"You're next, colt!"
Display looked down the hall before being shoved.
"Move it! Or do I have to make an early disqualification?"
Dying then is better from dying now. The Hipparion ran down the hall and into the bright light. Once his eyes became adjusted to the light, Cosgrove found him in the middle of a large arena. Looking around, he saw the crowd jeering at him.
"That little thing?!"
"He's smaller than the Diamond Dog!"
Speaking of whom, the little biped yelped loudly as he tried to get away from the chimera. Cosgrove cocked his head in confusion; why doesn't the Diamond Dog just dig his way out? Scrapping the sand, he found that foundation of the arena was in fact metal. The Diamond Dog was cornered, the smilodon and snake heads cutting him off.
Cosgrove let out a bray several times. Catching the attention of the goat head, it tugged against the main body.
"No, we must finish this mutt!" Said the feline
"But tha-aa-aat one wants to be eaten too!" The goat head said
"If we kill two at once, the audience will rejoice us even more." Hissed the snake tail.
The feline turned her torso to the striped pony and started bounding towards him. Cosgrove lowered his ears, regretting the idea. Applebloom wasn’t kidding that her encounter with a chimera was quite scary, now that the beast’s true size became more noticeable. Cosgrove dashed to his right, dodging the chimera’s pounce. The diamond dog saw from the other side of the arena with a surprised look on his face before drawing his ears back.
The Hipparion looked behind to find that the Chimera wasn’t behind him. He then caught a glimpse of a blurry object colliding with him. The colt was sent flying through the air and slammed against the wall. He slowly open his eyes to the blurry silhouette of the three part beast approaching him and got into a crouching position. The colt tried to get up quickly, but was subdued by pain in his body. The last thing he saw before closing his eyes was the Chimera’s Smilodon mouth fully agape.
Or so he thought when Cosgrove heard a sound of pain. Opening his eyes, he found the Chimera chasing it’s snake tail, now with the Diamond Dog clenched hard. Suddenly, swords, spears, and maces were thrown onto the arena. It wouldn’t be long before the Chimera would get the Diamond Dog. Clenching a scimitar sword in his mouth, Cosgrove rushed over and sliced the base of the snake tail. The Diamond Dog landed on the ground and shook the severed snake tail like a rag doll.
The remaining two heads of the Chimera roared in agony and attempted to charge at the colt only to flop over when the colt dodged her. While losing the snake head tail was one less voice to listen to, the tail was important to balance the heavy body during a chase. The Diamond Dog leapt onto the side of the Chimera, knocking her over. With the blood oozing out of the stump of the tail, the Chimera began to tire. Their remaining ears drew back in defeat as Cosgrove walked to the Chimera.
“kill!”
“Kill!”
“KILL!!”
“KILL!!!”
This one word echoed all over the arena. Wherever this city was, it was a savage one. Cosgrove looked around the arena before focusing at an elaborate chair. Sitting on it was a much larger mountain ram with dark blue fur, red glowing eyes, and a harness with a silver bell dangling at the center. The ram gave a grim smile before thrusting his head up. The colt’s ear flicked at the sound of a knife impaling into flesh. The Diamond Dog had killed the Chimera. The bipedal mutt then looked at the colt before emitting a little cackle. The colt bit down hard on the handle again as the Diamond Dog approached him. The colt closed his eyes anticipating a swing as the Diamond Dog pounced at him.
When he opened his eyes, Cosgrove was back in the dungeon. Just how he did not know. He wanted to look out the window again, but the pain forbade him to make another leap. Trying to ignore the roar of the crowd and the screams of the prisoners, the Hipparion slowly curled into a ball and went to sleep. Unknown to him, a light violet figure was floating above him.
After raising the moon, Luna began her search for her missing subjects. If not found manually in the physical world, she could certainly find them in her dreams. With Cosgrove and Zecora now reported missing, this would now be an easy search.
Her first search was within Cosgrove’s mind, but all she could find was relative darkness. She made another search and found herself in the mind of an Escher style room. Tempting to think this was Discord’s mind, Luna instead found that she was inside the mind of a Baku. While she has heard that they can devour dreams, it’s a safe bet that this being can.
“Leave… Before it’s too late.”
“Wait! Thou must know of thy missing subjects?”
“Tambelon." The beast flailed his trunk "Now go! Before-”
The dreamscape suddenly vanished with Luna going through a wormhole. The Princess of the Night was suddenly warped to a container. In desperation, the alicorn tried to blast the prison, but her horn couldn’t charge up. Laughter was heard in the room. She looked around as the large ram approached her.
“Ah… The Princess of the Night… What a surprise…”
“Who, who are you?”
“It seems that your sister haven’t told you. I am Grogar, Emperor of Tambelon.”
“I was banished to the moon before I ever got the chance to see you’re hideous face." - Luna stamped on the glass -"Release the foals that you have kidnapped at once!”
“So… My enemies know of my search parties, yes. And I apologize, yes." The large mountain goat turned around "But the foals are doing so well in my arena, I can’t afford to lose them, no.”
“They are fighting for their lives! And in the end they will have to kill each other!”
“Yes. A simple noble cause to keep my kingdom from conquering Equestria. And the other worlds I have seen fared much better. But I now have a game changer.”
“What does thou say?!”
“The tournament may have started, but there is room for late comers… Nightmare Moon…”
Luna’s eyes widened as Grogar’s horns illuminated. Far away at Canterlot, Princess Celestia awoke to the sudden distress of her sister. She hastily rose from her bed and to the balcony.
“My dear sister…” Said the Sun Princess as she hung her head.
Unknown to Cosgrove, a swarm of rats were stalking him. The cold wind seeped through the window and the wound from the Chimera was still bad, if not worse, making him hard to breathe easily. One rat tried to nip the colt, but is kicked aside, assuming it was a bug bite. The sunlight slowly crept to the dungeons, forcing the rats that live there to seek darker shadows.
Cosgrove awoke and slowly crawled into the light for warmth. He has to get himself in a “good” condition by the next time he is selected to battle. The hall was joined with a joyful laughter. The Hipparion’s ears pricked up; to him this was a voice too familiar. Above him was a pink cloud that swirled itself into a filly with swirls instead of usual eyes.
“Screwball…”
“Long time, no see, Cosgrove! I’m surprised too that you were selected to partake in the Tambelonian Tournament.”
“I wasn’t chosen,” Cosgrove said with a groan. “I was captured, along with my friends. Were you…?”
“Oh no, I am a regular combatant here. In fact I won the tournament 500 years ago.” The chaos pony said while holding a picture of her ecstatically shaking hooves with Grogar.”
“Then you can…" Cosgrove strained himself "Get us out of here?”
“Hey my magic’s still not that powerful, if it were I wouldn’t get the invitation.” Screwball playfully landed on the floor, holding her head up with both hooves. “So… How was your first battle?”
Cosgrove gave his answer by coughing out some blood. A few drops landed on the tips of Screwball’s hooves. The filly was unamused.
“I suppose healing me is against the rules.”
“I can’t break rules…”
A long pause among the screaming prisoners and yelling outside before a clop of hooves joined the soundscape. Cosgrove’s eyes widened as he inhaled deeply without strain. Screwball walked up to him from his left.
“But I can bend them…”
Screwball floated up and with a chuckle disappeared in a pink cloud. A few moments after, a mountain goat walked by and opened the cell. The Hipparion walked out of the cage and began trotting down the hall and into the light. When he got out, his eyes widened again.
Piles of sticks litter the arena, shuffling around as the ground shook. Schnookums just finished taking down the Timberwolf King and starting rampaging down the rest of the pack. While there is now a tense line between him and his surrogate son, having a large companion in a bloody arena is not a bad idea. Cosgrove charged right at the Brobdingnag. Dodging the flying timberwolves, the colt managed to reach the tail.
Believing that he was attacked, Schnookums flailed his tail around. Cosgrove heaved himself from backplate to backplate. Around climbing the second plate on his shoulder blades, Schnookums changed tactics by colliding himself to the arena walls. The spectators cheered at the action while a few jeered because the collisions spilled their drinks. Upon reaching the armored head, Cosgrove attempted to coax Schnookums to attacking the rest of the Timberwolves.
Grogar, hearing the increased cheering, rose up from his chair.
“You have spoken, my people! Bring out more entertainment!”
Eight soldiers charged out of the arena and surrounded the two. The battle is going to get bloody, but Cosgrove thought of one even more bloody. Looking at Schnookum’s bloodshot eyes, the colt gave a smirk.
“Food…”
The Brobdingnag opened his mouth and slowly let loose his tongue. Apparently the goats starved the more ravenous members and now they would earn their own pounds of flesh. Schnookums charged at the goats, ignoring the injuries from the spears they threw. When he gobbled up one whole, armor and horn included, the other goats looked at each other before dropping their weapons and began running towards the gates. But even the soldiers that came in to the fight were not granted safety. Schnookums at his own pace gobbled up each goat. One brown colored goat rammed at the bars, but not even a dent was made.
A shadow loomed over him; Cosgrove and Schnookums looking right at him, the former with a deadpan stare in his emerald green eyes. Schnookums bellowed at the frightened goat, who slowly closed his eyes, waiting for the action to be done. However, when he opened his eyes, the goat found them walking away towards the center of the arena. The bars opening, the goat quickly ran inside.
The crowd jeered at the two beings for not finishing the job. Grogar looked to his left and right. Rising from his chair again, Grogar motioned his audience.
“This little foal has proven himself well beyond his age. He has defeated anything we threw at him and now has tamed a beast. But fret not my people! Tomorrow we will have one that will end his and the rest of our combatants.”
“Rest? My friends?” The colt thought to himself.
“An all-on-one match:" - Grogar pointed to the remaining combatants -"Them against the Ruler of the Night herself:”
Cosgrove furrowed an eyebrow at the goat as blue smoke appeared at his side manifesting itself to a black Alicorn with blue armor and predatory eyes.
“Nightmare Moon!”
The colt’s eyes shrank at the sight of her.
“Luna?!”