//------------------------------//
// Trip Down Below 
// Story: Continuing the Dream 
// by Blue Breeze 
//------------------------------//

Author's Note: Here it is, chapter one hundred and the start of the highly anticipated Taurtarus arc. Thank you to all my fans and supporters for helping me reach much farther than I ever thought I would. This is for all you guys. Now, as the saying goes, on with the story.

It is another one of those days in Ponyville. Oh, do you think I'm talking about the crazy kind filled with crazy shenanigans and us getting hurt? Nah, I'm talking about one of those nice, quiet days where it's a perfectly nice day out and not much is really going on.

Right now Spike is doing his daily chores in the library while Dark is being a lazy flank by lying on a couch and reading a book off one of the shelves.

While Spike dusts the top shelves of the books and stands on a ladder, he huffs at Dark. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to help out. You do live here, and these harder to reach places would be easy for you, you know, because you can FLY."

Dark smirks. "Yeah, but then I'd be doing something nice, wouldn't I?"

Spike takes the feather duster and throws it at Dark. "How's that for being nice?"

Dark coughes from all of the dust. "That's it! You're dead!" he jumps up and goes over to the ladder, taking it in his hooves.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Spike takes hold of the top step tightly.

"Oh, I'm just gonna shake this ladder. It's fun. Like ride at a fare." Dark starts jerking the ladder back and forth, going faster and harder as he goes, but Spike still clinges on to the top. "Back and forth! Back and forth! Back and forth! Back and for-"

Before Dark can go on, Spike belches out a scroll that drops on Dark's muzzle, making him drop the ladder with Spike still on it.

"WOAH!" Spike screams before crashing down.

Dark grabs the scroll and unrolls it. "What's this?"

Having heard the crash, Twilight steps out from her room. "What in Equestria is going on out here?"

Spike groans, trying to talk, but the pain is too much at the moment.

"Oh, Spike just belched out a letter and lost his balance. You know how clumsy he is." Dark lies.

"A letter? Is it from the princess?" Twilight comes over and takes the letter in her magic so that she can read it. "Dear Twilight, I hope this letter finds you well, but sadly, I cannot say the same. This letter deals with a matter of the utmost importance. I cannot tell you now, for I would prefer it to be in person. I request that you bring along all of your friends to Canterlot immediately. Yours truly, Princess Celestia."

"Matter of utmost importance? Canterlot? What's all this about, Twi?"

"I don't know, Dark. But what I do know is this is extremely important. We better gather up everypony and head to Canterlot right away."

Dark gives a salute. "I'm on it."

Dark goes on to gather everyone up and take us all down to Ponyville Train Station(really creative names here), only giving us all vague details. And when I say everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Ice, Zephyr, Drax, Vine, Orion, Rhino, Fern, Sunny, Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Vinyl, Spitfire, Octavia, Fleur, and myself. Geez, this group is getting REALLY big. 

Now at the train station, we all gather around Dark and Twilight. "I'm glad you're here, everypony. I have something very important to share with you all."

Everypony exchanges confused whispers before I step up. "What's going on here, Twi? Why'd you have Dark bring us all down here?"

"I just said because I have something very important to tell all of you."

I facehoof. "I mean, what is this very important news?"

"Princess Celestia sent me a letter saying that something is happening and she needs all of us down in Canterlot right away. I'm not sure as to what the reason is, but what I do know is it must be something VERY important."

(Do you understand this is important yet? Good.)

I shake my head. "I should've known. Well, we know the drill. To Canterlot!" I say dramatically, raising a hoof in the air. Everypony else nods in agreement.

"Good. I already went ahead and reserved a train car for us, rather than just buying over a dozen tickets."

Clever girl.

The whistle of the train goes off, signalling it's about to leave. "ALL ABOARD!" the conductor calls out.

We all herd onto the train before it starts chugging it's way down over to Canterlot. The trip goes well for the most part, except Sunny gets motion sickness on the way there. But besides that, everypony is mostly quiet besides trying to think why Celestia has summoned us all.

Pinkie thinks it's some kind of huge party, but everyone else quickly dismisses that. Dark thinks she finally plans to give us rewards for everything we've done, but I'm pretty sure if she was gonna give us rewards, she would've done that a LONG time ago. From what Twilight was saying, this doesn't sound like it's going to be anything good.

After a few hours of riding, the train comes to a stop at the Canterlot train station. As it stops, we all head out and make our way to the castle to meet up with the princess.

Outside the castle, we are stopped by some guards. "Ah, welcome back, Ms. Sparkle." one says to Twilight.

"Thank you. We've come here to see the princess about the urgent news." she says.

"Ah, yes, of course. Follow me and I'll take you to the throne room to see her."

The front doors are magically opened up for us so that we can make our way through. We walk through the halls of the castle, most of us taking in the sight of it as most of us haven't been in here. Having been in here with Ice a few months back, I'm not so surprised by everything inside.

We reach the doors of the throne room and walk inside, Princess Celestia sitting in her throne as she waits.

"Ms. Sparkle and her guests are here to see you, princess." the guard says.

She gently nods. "Thank you, lieutenant. You can go."

He bows. "As you wish." he then leaves without another word. Man, do these guys always act like such robots?

We all turn to the princess, ready to hear everything. "Welcome, everypony. I'm sorry for such a sudden summoning of you all, but this is very important."

"What's this all about, princess?" Twilight asks.

"You all remember how I released Dark Lightning a few months back?" we all nod, looking at Dark for a second first. "Well, before this, one of my guards had the brilliant idea of getting drunk one night while on duty. While on duty, he found a pony he thought to be Dark and captured him. He banished this pony to Taurtarus without my even knowing of it."

"I hope that guy was fired." I say.

"He was. Anyway, since then, I have tried desperately to save the pony trapped inside, but with the magical spell casted on Taurtarus' gates, I have no way to simply teleport inside to get him. I've also tried sending in highly trained guards, but the results have been... unfortunate."

"Who is this pony?" Twilight asks.

The princess uses her magic to levitate a picture to us of a pegasus stallion with an icy white coat, a red and white mane and tail, and wearing a black suit with a white vest.


"Ooh, I know him!" Pinkie says with excitement. "That's Razor Graze. He lives in Ponyville."

"Pinkie Pie is correct." Celestia says.

"But, how could someone confuse this guy for Dark? I don't care how drunk they were." I say.

"Well, like you, he has magical abilities. His abilities consist of tribal, black flames that come from his wings, mane, tail, and hooves."

"Oh, now I get it." I examine the picture more. "So, another elemental, huh?"

"Yes, but I haven't even told you the worst of it yet."

"Oh great."

"Taurtarus is watched over by a mysterious and evil clan of ponies called the Grave Ponies."

"Did you say "Grave Ponies"?" Vine asks.

"Indeed, Ms. Lutin. They could tell right away that Graze was not evil, so they feared he would try to escape from Taurtarus. The Grave Ponies intent is to make sure no one escapes Taurtarus, so they captured Graze and dragged him to down to the very bottom floor, where he is closely being watched by their leader, Grim Blade."

She levitates us another picture, this one of a unicorn stallion with a dark bluish-grey coat, mane and tail that's a mixture of black and neon blue, wearing a black cloak with matching shoes, and a pair of red shades.


Vine stares at the picture, a mixture of anger and bitterness on her face. Um, tell if I'm wrong, but Vine seems as though she may know something about these Grave Ponies.

Twilight steps forward. "Well, I would be happy to volunteer to save Graze."

"I'm sorry, Twilight, but I cannot risk losing you or any of the other Elements of Harmony. You are all far too important to lose in case there's a time where we'll need them again."

Twilight's ears droop. "Well, then why did you call us all down here?"

"Blue Breeze, Ice, Zephyr Verve, Drax, Vinetion Lutin, Dark Lightning, Orion Starchaser, and Rhino." we all look at each other in confusion before stepping forward. "You have all proven to show acceptional skiill and strength, overcoming many seemingly impossible situations. I ask this of you all: will you volunteer to traverse the fiery pits of Taurtarus to save Razor Graze?"

"So, you're asking us to do it because we're not just powerful, but also expendable?" I say.

Celestia looks back, slightly embarassed. "Well..."

I chuckle. "Just pulling your leg, princess. Of course, I'll go. I don't fear anything."

"Me too." Ice says.

"Really, Ice? You can barely stand a hot Summer's day. How are you gonna live through a place filled with fire and lava?"

"Ah, I've planned for this. I went a learned how to control my body's internal temperature so that hot temperatures don't effect me so much." he explains.

"Wow. That's pretty sweet."

"Thanks for not saying "cool"."

"I'll go too." Zephyr says. He turns to Octavia. "Tavi, you know I love you, but I can't leave my friends hanging."

She looks down. "Just please promise me you'll come back."

He gives her a heart-felt smile. "I promise."

"I'll go too." Drax says.

"I'm going no matter what." Vine says with seriousness.

"Buck yeah! This sounds awesome!" Dark cheers.

"Even though I'm not one for violence, I'll gladly go to help a pony in need." Rhino says.

"And I'm coming too." Orion says.

Celestia smiles down upon all of us. "Thank you, all of you. Your help is most appreciated. We shall leave for Taurtarus first thing in the morning. But for now, you may all have dinner and rest up."

We nod before leaving the chambers and going to eat over at the dining room where a big meal had already been made for us.

Thank you, Celestia! There's chimicherrychongas! We all take seats and begin to dig in on our food. Despite our current situation, we all have a great time eating and hanging out together. Surprisingly enough, Dark doesn't even act like a jerk or anything. But throughout the entire dinner, Vine just sits there, looking deep in thought about something.

After dinner, we say our good nights to each other as each couple went off together and the four loners shared two rooms each.

Dash and I lay together in bed, both of us thinking the same thing. "So, you're really going through with it?" Dash asks a bit worriedy.

"Yeah, I guess I am." I say.

"Please come back. I don't want to lose you."

I see a tear come down her face, which I wipe away. "I promise. You already know nothing can kill me."

She starts smiling before clinging to me tighter. "Thanks, Blue. You go kick flank while you're down there."

I chuckle. "You know it, Dash."

We spend the rest of our night together, as a couple should. Before you ask, yes, there was sex.

The next morning

I get up and out of bed, strangely much more awake than I usually am when I wake up.

Dash gets up, looking at me. "So, today's the day, huh?"

I smirk. "Yep."

She grins slightly. "I know you won't let me down."

I go over to her and hug her. "Just know that I love you, Dash."

She hugs me back, gripping me tightly. "I love you too, Blue."

After getting ready and not even gettig any breakfast, we all head outside to the front of the castle where Twilight told us the princess wanted us to meet.

We go there to find Celestia as well as a bunch of carriages strapped to a bunch of guards. "Good morning, everypony."

"Good morning, princess." we say. That felt kinda weird.

"Are you all ready to go?" we all give our undoubted yesses to that. "Are you really sure? Taurtarus is filled with indescrible monsters and demons you could never possibly dream of. If you go now, there will be no backing down." we nod, not even saying a word this time. "Very well. Everypony climb aboard."

We all go into the carriages, Celestia coming with us. We all remain quiet for a majority of the jouney, Vine in particular. During the entire time, she's completely silent, almost like a statue. Okay, there is DEFINITELY something going on with her.

After a few hours of flying, we see some very large, omnious, stone gates off in the distance. We also see their watcher, the three-headed beast, Ceberus.

Okay, looks like we'll be getting some action even before we go in.

The carriages land a few dozen feet away from Cerberus, everypony piling out as they do. As we come out, Cerberus wakes up from a nap and growls at us. The more normal members of the group back up and take cover.

I step forward and crack my joints. "Okay, Ceberus. Let's see what the guardian of Taurtarus is made of."

Celestia steps forward. "Please, allow me." her horn grows brightly as she starts charging magic in it. She fires a beam of energy at the giant dog, putting it to sleep in an instant.

"Well, that was anti-climactic."

"No need to make this journey any harder than need be." Celestia says.

Touche.

"I shall have guards posted out here for when you return. Now, we should be going."

After saying our final good byes to our friends and lovers, we follow Celestia up to the gate. She uses her magic to open the huge gates, a huge wave of heat shooting out as they do.

We all take steps inside, turning back to Celestia before the gates close. "Good luck, my little ponies. You have my blessings." with that, she uses her magic to close the colossal doors.

I look back to see the sight before me: mountains of fire and brimstone with fire raining from the skies and many condemned ponies all around.

We step forward and look over the edge to see a giant hole that leads down.

I gulp for a moment. "Well, let's do this."

And we all descend down, Ice using his ice slide and Drax carrying Rhino.

I don't care what this place is supposed to be like, I'm not gonna lose.

Author's Note: Aw shit! It's about to go down! Razor Graze comes from KillJoy and Grim Blade comes from Iron Clad. Dis gon b' gud.