The Frozen gate of Tartarus

by Optimistic Pessimist

The Plains near Tartarus

The burning Hydra fell to the ground, molten rock pouring from its' wounds. Rainbow Dash looked down at her kill. She watched as its' allies simply climbed over the corpse of their comrade. The pegasus grimaced and gripped her foreleg. There was a deep wound where the hydra had almost taken her leg off. She flew quickly, avoiding flying demons and succubi. She quickly retreated back to the treeline where Fluttershy and Rarity were giving support from the back.

"Fluttershy, a little help here?" The other pegasus turned and gasped at the bleeding wound. Quickly Fluttershy waved her staff over the wound, and slowly, it healed. Rainbow tested her recovered arm. "Thanks. If we didn't have you, we probably would've lost a long time ago." Fluttershy blushed. Rainbow Dash swept up her pole-ax and flew back into the battlefield.

The weight of her weapon did not hinder her agility. If anything, it helped. The sheer weight of the mighty weapon could propel her forward while in midair, catching flying demons off guard with unprecedented speed and accuracy. If that wasn't enough, the weapon itself sparked with life and electricity. She could generate a large static explosion at will.

But even that wasn't enough for the seemingly endless amount of demons pouring out of the cave of Tartarus. They came in all shapes and sizes, ranging from a small hell hound to a mighty dragon. She could never handle them on her own.

All sorts of strange and evil creatures came out of the seemingly bottomless pit that was Tartarus. Demons and imps were the least of their worries. Anything and everything that came out of the cave were either on fire or setting something on fire. Gremlins riding burning manticores came pouncing out. Minotaur three times her own size carried huge hell steel axes and wearing bony shoulder plates marched out. Dragons and Hydras came out relatively often, and always pushed the Elements of Harmony back closer towards the treeline.

Applejack was busy knocking gremlins and imps off their mounts, and smashing skulls into the ground. Pinkie Pie and her shadow, however that worked, were busy cutting and ripping open the enemy, spilling out the molten rock that pumped through their body. Rarity stood far from the front lines, in the tree lines, picking off the aerial enemies with deadly accurate arrows of pure magic. Fluttershy provided replenishment from the back of Cerberus, the three headed guard dog. She managed to convince the dog to stay and help keep the demons back.

A loud explosion caught Rainbow by surprise. She turned to find a small area cleared out with the ground blackened by the explosion. Something was flying towards her. Rainbow stared in surprise as Berry Punch soared slowly over her. "Oh hey, Rainbow! Come on! These things aren't gonna kill themselves!" The Pegasus stared as the earth pony fired her 'bomb shooter,' and watched as several demons blew up. Berry pulled a bottle off her belt and took a drink. "Ka-BOOOOM!" The strangest battle cry Rainbow had ever heard.

But despite all the effort that they were putting in, they were still being pushed back towards the treeline. If they lost that, the demons could scatter throughout the forest and wreak havoc on all of Equestria.

Rainbow Dash swung her pole-ax in time to down another succubus. "These things just don't stop, do they?" She held out her pole ax as it began to crackle to life. Lightning sparked down from the night sky and struck the blade. With a powerful swing, she sent a bolt of powerful lightning towards the mouth of the cave, illuminating the battlefield for a split second.

She knew what little she did wasn't going to help.

"Hurry up Twilight. I don't know how much longer we're going to last out here..."