Lavender Orpheus
Chapter 16
Lavender Orpheus
The four princesses lingered in a circle around the spot where Sunset had last stood before the Furies had taken her away.
“The Furies,” Luna muttered. “I never would have dreamt they’d be so bold.”
“I never would have imagined they would have the power to do such a thing again,” Celestia said. “When we banished them I was certain that we had stripped them of their power.”
“You know who they are?” Twilight asked frantically. “You’ve met them? Do you know why they took Sunset?”
“They had been tormenting her in her dreams,” Luna said softly and with leaden solemnity in her voice. “I should have told one of you.”
“It’s okay, Princess Luna,” Twilight said. She looked down at the ground. “Sunset didn’t say anything to me, either.”
Cadance put one leg around Twilight’s shoulder. “Sunset probably didn’t want you to worry. But who are these Furies?”
“Relics of a harsher time, a different world,” Luna said. “Spirits of vengeance and justice, they exist to punish the wicked, particularly those who have escaped all forms of mortal punishment.”
“There was a time, a time before Luna or myself, before even Discord, when the worlds of ponies and humans were far more closely connected than they are now,” Celestia explained. “Creatures wandered from one world to another almost at will, which is why the humans tell stories about manticores, griffons or even unicorns and pegasi which are unknown in their world but commonplace in our own. Both worlds were riddled with corruption: everywhere the poor were at the mercy of the rich and mighty, who abused their authority without mercy or fear of ever being brought to account. People and ponies alike cried out for aid, for some power to take their part and punish their tormentors. Out of that despair were born the Furies, and from the first,, they worked to bring all those who, in their opinion, had sinned or transgressed to justice.”
“But the times changed, and the Furies would not change with them,” Luna’s voice was solemn as she took up the tale. “When Celestia and I, by agreement with powerful beings in the other world, sealed off Equestria from the human world – save for only a tiny corridor, intermittently accessible – the Furies were trapped here, with only ponies to prey upon. Though the world became a gentler place, and harmony and equality replaced power and injustice, still the Furies continued to seek out those they considered wrongdoers, to torment them or even, in some cases, destroy them.”
Twilight gasped. “Sunset…have they...?”
“I doubt it, they liked to have their sport with their victims first,” Luna growled. “For avengers and protectors they developed a streak as cruel as any they had pursued. It was for that reason that Celestia and I sought them out and banished them to Tartarus.”
“Bound by their code, they could not harm us,” Celestia said. “And so we were able to drain their power and leave them so weakened and cut off from civilisation that they would be unable to escape, nor catch the scent of anypony they might wish to hunt. I am afraid Sunset must have done something to awaken them.”
“She did disappear into the Everfree Forest one day,” Twilight said. “She never would tell me what happened, but when she came out she was covered in injuries.”
Luna nodded. “The forest is exactly the place where Sunset might have stumbled upon some means of arousing the Furies, releasing them from their bonds.”
“But we can save her, can’t we?” Twilight demanded. “I mean, we have to.”
“It will be very dangerous, Twilight,” Celestia warned. “To rescue Sunset would involve journeying into the depths of Tartarus itself, to places where even Discord would fear to tread, and with good reason. There are creatures there who are pure evil, and should you avoid them and find your way to the nest of the Furies…by the code that governs their existence they had the right to take her; they will not give up their prize easily.”
“I don’t care,” Twilight said, tears welling up in her eyes as she started to sob. “I know that it will be dangerous, I know that it won’t be as easy as asking those monsters to give Sunset back, I know that I might not come back either. But I have to try, I can’t just leave Sunset down there. I love her!”
Celestia smiled. “And that resolve is why I have every confidence in you, Twilight.”
Twilight blinked. “Was that…were you testing me?”
“I told no lies regarding the difficulty of your quest,” Celestia replied. “But I did want to gauge how committed you really were to rescuing Sunset Shimmer. To brave Tartarus is not a task that should be undertaken lightly. But you have a pure heart and an iron will, and I know that if anypony can do this deed, it is you.”
Twilight smiled weakly. “Thank you, Princess, for having faith in me. But…I don’t even know how to begin.”
“I will lead you to the entrance to Tartarus, and open the way for you,” Celestia said. “After that, it will be up to you to find the way; I know you will.”
Twilight nodded. “Right.”
“Does Twilight have to go alone?” Cadance asked. “Couldn’t I go as well?”
“No, you should stay here, Cadance,” Twilight said firmly. “It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, or that I wouldn’t like the company, but it’s best that nopony else gets put in danger down there. You stay here and make sure that none of my friends follow me. And…and if I don’t come back, take care of Spike.”
Cadance nodded. “Of course.”
“And tell Shining Armour…tell him that I’m-“ Twilight was silenced by Cadance’s hoof on her lips.
“You’ll come back to us, I know it,” Cadance said softly. “You’ll both come back. And you’ll be happy.”
They hugged, Twilight burying her face into Cadance’s shoulder. “Will you wait up for me?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
Twilight stepped away, and looked Celestia in the eye. “Okay, Princess. I’m ready now.”
Celestia nodded. “Then let us go.”
Twilight and Celestia spread their wings and flew, passing over the broad fields and the dark forest until they came to a spot on the far side of the Everfree, where a rocky hill loomed with all its soil stripped away, exposing the grey stone beneath.
Celestia was the first to land, Twilight’s hooves touching the ground shortly after.
Twilight had been here before, when she had returned the wayward Cerberus to Tartarus after his escape, but she was still glad of Celestia’s company on this journey. She had not passed through the gates then, after all, she had merely opened them and told the overgrown dog to get inside and stay there. Now she would be descending into the darkness herself, and she wanted one friendly face waiting for her in the light.
Celestia bowed her head in front of a particular patch of stone, and the glow of her magical aura intensified. The rock-face shimmered and was transformed into a great, black gaping maw, barred with gates of iron and brass decorated with eerie visages of ghouls and demons. Smoke issued from out of the dark tunnel, together with eerie cries and the howling of deranged beasts all slipping through the bars in the twin gateways to assail Twilight’s nostrils and her ears.
“As cosy as I remember it,” Twilight muttered.
“Indeed,” Celestia replied. “Twilight...the gates cannot be left open.”
Twilight shivered in spite of herself. “You mean you’re going to shut me in there?”
Celestia nodded grimly. “I am afraid so. When you return with Sunset, I will open the gates again.”
Celestia’s horn lit up with magic once again, and the gates of iron and the gates of brass swung open with a grinding and a groaning sound.
Twilight walked to the very threshold and then paused. The chill issuing out of the darkness and the deep chilled her to her bones.
“You do not have to do this, Twilight,” Celestia said quietly. “There is no shame in fear.”
“I know,” Twilight replied. “But there is shame in yielding to it. Wait for me, Princess Celestia, with luck I won’t be long.”
So Twilight walked into Tartarus, and did not look back as she heard the gates slam shut behind her.
Twilight walked down the corridor as light died and time warped around her, as she passed from silence to cacophony and back again. Sometimes the tunnel was so silent that even her hooffalls dared not disturb the peace, other times she could hear them echoing upon the cold, damp stone, the echo of them mingling with the drip drop of water falling from the stalagmites down onto the floor. And then there were times when a whole host of sounds enveloped her: clanking chains, crashing sticks, the moans of poor lost souls, savage bestial growling and the screams, the screams.
Twilight was almost grateful when the screaming was obscured by the cacophonous noise of drums and symbols, horns and flutes playing louder and louder to block out all other noise. But then she remembered what the badly played music was hiding and wished for silence again.
It was so dark. Twilight tried to use the magic of her horn to light the way, but her lavender glow could not penetrate this blackness. Sometimes her throat felt so dry it was though she had gone without water for days. Sometimes she was sweating and her legs trembled as though she had walked from Canterlot to the Crystal Empire. Sometimes it hardly felt as though she had gone anywhere at all.
A part of Twilight’s mind, the part which remained ever the scholar, detached from the more immediate concerns ahead, recognised some power of magic at work in this place, and consented to be impressed by it. The greatest unicorns in the history of Equestria could not have wrought an enchantment such as this. It was old magic, a legacy of an elder world; a world that ponykind had left behind.
Twilight had no idea of how long it had been by the time she emerged from the tunnel, but eventually she did emerge, to behold a river of black and brackish water flowing in front of her, the strong current poised to sweep away anypony unwary enough to jump in.
Twilight spread her wings to fly over, but the ceiling of the cavern suddenly seemed much lower than it had been a moment earlier. Twilight’s horn was nearly scratching it; there was no way that she could fly: there was no height to gain. Twilight considered trying to fly practically at ground level, her hooves skimming the surface of the river; but then she saw something large and serpentine moving in the river and decided against it.
So she walked along the riverbank – keeping a careful distance from the water – until she came to a wooden jetty where a dirty old boat was moored, and beyond the jetty a giant tree stood. Its branches seemed big enough to encompass all of Equestria, and beneath its eaves lurked a whole host of ponies: unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, night ponies, Twilight could even see one or two alicorns. They were all grey and dull, their eyes unseeing, their voices nothing more than croaks and groans, withered and hoarse. Under the giant tree they made their home, staring with longing out towards the far bank of the river.
Twilight trotted down to the jetty, where a pony in a black hood and cowl stood silently and still, watching her.
“What are they all doing there?” Twilight asked. “Are they waiting for something?”
“Before anypony may cross the Acheron they must first remember all the days of their life, from their first memory to their last breath,” the hooded pony replied, her voice a harsh and rasping sound. “It is better done in life, but it can be done after. Either way, a recounting must be offered up to Crona. Those souls there have forgotten who they were and what they did when they walked beneath the sun and moon, and so they must wait under the eaves until, with good fortune, they will remember again.”
“And if they never remember?”
“Then they will wait under the branches of the tree until the sun fails and the moon dies, until the stars go out and the earth crumbles, until time stands still and the world comes to an end,” the hooded pony replied. She chuckled. “But you are not here for them, are you? Another purpose brings you down into the darkness and the deep.”
Twilight swallowed. Her mouth dried up again almost immediately after. “Can you take me across the river?”
“I can,” the hooded mare said. “But I will not. Why should I? It is not for the living to enter the lands of the dead before their time. Go back to the light, frolic under the stars; when we meet again at the appointed hour it will be soon enough.”
“But I have to get into Tartarus,” Twilight said. “It’s urgent.”
“Always urgent are the quests that bring the living too me,” the hooded mare spat. “What is it that you seek? Glory? Some fantastic prize?”
“I want to save the mare I love!” Twilight shouted, tears springing to the corners of her eyes. “The Furies dragged her down to Tartarus and now she’s all alone and I have to save her. Please, you have to help me. I need to get across this river.”
The mare was silent for a moment. “Turn back, sunlit mare. Nopony should enter Tartarus lightly. Certainly not for a love that will be as the breeze: dead and gone as swiftly as it came.”
“Sunset isn’t like that,” Twilight said firmly. “Nor am I and neither is what we feel for one another.”
“I thought as much myself, a long time ago,” the mare replied scornfully. “Now I am here, and she is in Elysium.”
Twilight shook her head. “I’m sorry, really I am. But just because you got hurt and betrayed doesn’t mean that Sunset would ever betray me. It certainly doesn’t mean that I should abandon her. Sunset wouldn’t leave me down here and I won’t leave her.”
“Pretty words, to be sure, but is there meaning behind them?” asked the ferrymare. “I will make a bargain with you, the same bargain that I made when I was a foolish young mare. I will ferry you across the Acheron and, if you return with your beloved I will take you both back to this side. And I will wait for your time to end, and when you come to me again, you will give me the tale of your life. If you have lived with her in love for all your days – or all of hers, if she should come to the river before you – then I will concede that I was wrong, and bear you over the Acheron a second time. But if I am right, and she has abandoned you and broke your heart, then you will take my place upon this boat, and spend the long count of years ferrying souls over the river. And you shall carry me across, and I shall enter Elysium at last, my heavy charge passed on to another poor lovesick fool. Do we have an agreement?”
“Yes,” Twilight said without an instant’s hesitation. “I accept your terms.”
“Do not be so rash!” the ferrymare spat. “Oaths made in this place cannot be taken lightly.”
“I take nothing about this lightly,” Twilight replied through gritted teeth. “I accept your terms. Now are we leaving or not?”
The hooded ferrymare stared at her, or at least Twilight thought that was what she was doing. She turned away. “Come, then!”
Twilight followed her into the little boat, and the ferrymare pushed off the pier and began to pole them both over the Acheron. The waves did not disturb the smoothness of the journey, nor did any of the creatures Twilight saw below. Clearly, this was the one permitted way to cross the river.
“Can I ask you something?” Twilight said when they were halfway across.
“It is too late to have cold hooves.”
“I do not have cold hooves,” Twilight replied loudly. “Not in that sense anyway. I just wanted to know…how did Cerberus get across the river in a boat this size?”
The hooded mare laughed. “He did not. He swam, the great stupid lummox. The guardians of the river did not trouble him, large and ferocious as he is. The other, though…” she shuddered.
“The other?” Twilight asked. “What other?”
“You will find out, in due time.”
The boat touched the far bank, and Twilight leapt out. The ground was cold and hard beneath her hooves.
“Thank you,” Twilight said. “Will you wait here until I get back?”
“I cannot, who knows when somepony may require the boat,” the ferrymare said. “But if you return to this place with your marefriend I will see you, and I will come.”
“Thanks,” Twilight said again. “What’s your name?”
The hooded mare hesitated. “In more than a thousand years nopony who ever journeyed on my boat has asked my name. My name…my name was Sun Song.”
“I will remember you,” Twilight said solemnly.
“Perhaps you are different,” Sun Song said. “Perhaps you will prove me wrong after all. Do you know the way?”
Twilight shook her head.
“Then go straight ahead, always straight ahead, until you reach the golden laurel tree. Take a bough from that tree, and continue on to Lady Crona’s banquet table. Do not sit down nor eat or drink anything she offers you, but demand to know which is the door to Tartarus. Once you pass through the door, Cerberus will know by the golden bough that he is to let you pass. But how you are to find the Furies’ nest…I do not know.”
“I’m sure I’ll figure it out,” Twilight said. “You are nicer than you seem.”
Sun Song laughed. “Don’t tell anypony, will you? Good luck…?”
“Twilight,” Twilight said. “Twilight Sparkle.”
“Good luck, Twilight Sparkle,” Sun Song said. “Take care.”
“I will,” Twilight promised, turning around and beginning to run straight ahead.
The mist around her was thick and cloying. It surrounded her, a blue-grey mass, nearly impenetrable to her eyes - thicker than any fog Twilight had known before, tugging at her coat, pulling on her tail. Twilight knew that if she stopped, if she allowed her steps to falter, then she would lose the way so she kept on going, the clip-clop sound of her hooves upon the stone was reassuring, a point of familiarity, of sanity in this place.
What she could see through the mist was not reassuring. Monsters reared up all around her: hydras and chimeras, giant boars and monstrous lions all surrounded her, snarling and growling. Twilight stopped, her legs trembling. A hydra stood square across her path, a boar pawed the ground to her left, but they had left a space for her to escape them on the right.
If I turn away, then I will never find the golden laurel, and without the laurel bough I cannot enter Tartarus, Twilight thought. But if I enter don’t turn, then how can I pass?
The hydra growled, all its mouths opening at once to show her their spectral fangs.
I cannot turn away. If I do then Sunset is lost. Twilight’s eyes narrowed. The hydra, the chimera, the boar, the lion, she could see through all of them. She had not been able to say the same of the creatures she had glimpsed in the dark water of the Acheron. These were not real monsters, these were but their shadows, set to frighten her and turn her from her path. Somepony or something was trying to keep her from Sunset with shadows on the wall, as if that were enough to make her tuck her tail beneath her legs and run.
“I will not say that I am not afraid,” Twilight murmured. “But I am fear’s master, not its servant.”
The hydra roared, but Twilight looked it in the eye and took one step forward.
And all of the great beasts who had surrounded and harassed her vanished, like clouds blown away by a sudden gust of wind. Twilight could see a gleam of gold dead ahead of her. She ran on, and saw a magnificent golden tree before her, gleaming in the darkness and the mist. Smiling, Twilight dashed to it and reared up onto her hind legs to take a low hanging bough in her mouth. It took but a sharp tug to pull it free. No sooner had she pulled the branch out than a new one grew in its place, and the golden laurel looked as pristine and beautiful as it had done before.
The bough glowed in Twilight’s mouth, brighter than the light of her horn in this dark cavern, and the cloying mist around her was dispersed by the golden light, driven back as if pained even by the presence of Twilight’s key.
Hold on, Sunset. I’m coming.
She pressed on, past the shades of dragons and basilisks, through the mists that retreated from her, until she came to a long stone table, richly laid out with cakes and punch and salad and sandwiches and every manner of food imaginable. Though there were seats for at least a score of ponies at the table, none of them were filled. Two mares, a unicorn and a pegasus, were standing nearby, but neither of them had sat down. In fact, from what Twilight could make out of their frenetic speech, they were arguing about who should sit in one particular seat. Twilight couldn’t see why it mattered when there were plenty of other chairs.
“They are poets,” a weary voice called out. “There is one seat reserved for the greatest of versifiers and they are arguing over who should get to sit in it.”
Twilight looked up towards the source of the voice. At the head of the banqueting table, slouched upon a throne of graven ebony, sat a black alicorn with eyes of icy blue, eyes that were half hooded by her eyelids as though she was about to fall asleep at any moment.
“They have been arguing for the past five hundred years,” she said. “It was amusing for the first century but now I am bored by it. I don’t suppose you would care to settle their dispute?”
“No,” Twilight replied evenly, dropping the laurel bough out of her mouth and suspending it above her with her magic. “I don’t think I have the time.”
The alicorn laughed. “Time is something I am not short of. I am Crona, and for my sins I rule the underworld in Celestia’s name.”
“I’m-“
“Princess Twilight Sparkle, yes, I know,” Crona replied. “I have heard you hollering up above. The ceiling is not as thick as you might think. The Princess Twilight cometh, behold, behold. How very banal.” She sighed, resting her head on one hoof.
Twilight sighed with impatience. “Can you tell me the way to Tartarus?”
“Certainly,” Crona said.
Twilight blinked, waiting for her to continue. “And?”
“Don’t be so impatient, where are your manners, Princess?” Crona said. “Sit down and drink with me.”
Do not sit down nor eat or drink anything she offers you, Twilight recalled. “I would rather not. I’m in a hurry.”
Crona snorted. “For a princess you are being very rude. I insist that you sit down and share food and drink with me.”
“And I refuse,” Twilight snapped. “I don’t have time for all of these games, these attempts to frighten me, these tests. Sunset Shimmer is waiting for me and I intend to find her and bring her back. Now stop playing with me and tell me what I need to know. I demand it.”
For a moment Crona was silent, her expression stern. Then she sighed in resignation. “Ah, well, you can’t blame me for trying. It gets very dull down here with only these numbskulls for company. All the interesting ponies go to Elysium. Nopony wants to live in the shadowlands, even if it means talking to me.”
“What would have happened if I had sat?” Twilight asked.
“The stone would have encased your legs and trapped you here for all eternity,” Crona said casually. “Unfortunately, you managed to avoid that.” Crona’s horn glowed, and an archway of ivory and horn appeared on the far side of the table. “The gate to Tartarus. You already have the laurel bough. If you get what you came for, then leave by the gate of gold that you will see on the other side: it will take you directly to the river.”
“No tricks?” Twilight asked.
Crona shrugged. “I’m not a bad mare. I’m just bored and lonely.”
“Hmm,” Twilight murmured. “Thank you for your help.” Her tone was chilly as a winter wind.
As Twilight walked around the table, Crona said, “Tell Rainbow Dash that there is a seat at my table for the greatest flier, if she wants it.”
Twilight looked at her. “Is there a seat for the greatest farmer, too? Or the greatest vet?”
“No.”
Twilight smiled. “Then I think Rainbow will pass.”
Crona sighed again. “Such a pity. One last thing: ask Pinkie Pie if she can’t keep it down a little, sometimes I worry she’s going to bring the roof down on my head.”
Twilight chuckled. “I’ll mention it.”
“And tell Celestia she’s a terrible pony for sticking me down here,” Crona said.
“I will,” Twilight murmured inattentively as, holding the golden bough before her, she passed through the gate of horn and ivory and entered into Tartarus itself.
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And then Twilight kills everypony.
And then Twilight kills everypony.
Awesome chapter. Crona's funny.
4923686 double post.
it remember me of hercules somehow, the Cartoon....i like it
Somehow i thought it maybe would be a bit too dramatic....it would not be bad, i just don´t like it at the moment.
I don´t know if i said it already, but if the story has an end after that tartarus thing, i would like a sequel, maybe let them adopt two foals, maybe a filly and a colt. Maybe the colt could like Twilight more and the Filly want´s to be more like Sunset or the opposite. even if i don´t want Twilight to force anyone, i see her already trying to force both children to like Sunset as much as herself. I would hate it if she gets the control freak in the relationship or parenthood.
Continuing to read stuff when I'm supposed to be sleeping, I read
as
New OC?
4924335 The Awful Continuity Giraffe and her fearsome companion, the Shaggy Dog, Story. They enter stories with their plot hole generator to cut the plot threads, steal the Chekov's Guns, and eat the Red Herrings. Afterwards, they escape into their castle built of missed Brick Jokes and Writer's Blocks.
It's sort of a legendary quest, isn't it? The sort of thing that will prove Twilight's relationship with Sunset beyond any possible doubt - that she brought her back from Hell itself.
4927872
I'm a big believer in big climaxes for rom-coms, and since I can't have Topher Grace running to the airport in the rain you get Twilight walking into hell instead.
Next chapter will be the last one? In this part, you mean? Because this story just won't do without a sequel.
Sunset's sister wedding, announcing, that princess is officially taken, all the everyday shenaningans, all the good stuff.
I would be a very sad pony, if one of the best SunLight fics were to end...
Crona is so awesome,
Crona is now my favorite. Anyway, awesome story! Though I am saddened that next chapter will be the last...
4983820
In the song 'A True, True Friend', Applejack says to Pinkie, "The townspeople need you, they've been sad for a while..." so I think that makes it canon; and sometimes I just think it sounds better than it does to say -pony.
Alright Dante, let's semmer it down there.
Ahhh.... Twilight's a badass, cannon or not
Now go after Beatri- I mean Sunset!
The mythology geek is me is squeeing so hard.
Twilight, you dope! You set the price and paid the ferryman! Why does Chris De Burgh even bother!?!
after watching season finale.
this is painful.
even if it's cooler.
i can only think it's percy jackson's ripoff