To Serve In Hell

by CoffeeMinion

Chapter 32: At Hell's Gate

Sassy watched with bated breath as Rarity and Rainbow Dash carried on a heated conversation with the thestrals guarding Nightmare Moon’s artifact tower. From her vantage point in the middle of the forty-or-so ponies who’d accompanied Governor Blueblood, she could see growing unease in the body language of ponies on both sides of the exchange: each of the eight thestral guards punctuated an increasing number of their words by shaking their heavy polearms, while Dash in particular seemed given to stamping her hooves and raising her volume.

“Now listen here,” Rarity shouted over the thestrals’ protests. “Governor Blueblood has come with a powerful artifact and crucial information for the Mistress! You will not deter our entrance to the vaults, and will instead go and see guest chambers prepared for him while we await her return! Overseer Saddles, do you concur?”

Sassy glanced at Rarity, then cleared her throat and pushed her way to the front of the group. The guards met her eyes with looks of offense and uncertainty, and Sassy felt growing concern that there might be some deeper reason. Granted, Rarity was not often prone to ordering guards around, and they might not feel that she had the authority. But Rainbow Dash was their superior in the chain of command, and the fact that they seemed resistant to her orders struck Sassy as worrisome.

But she endeavored to let none of her misgivings show in the stern expression that she fixed upon the guards, nor in her words for them: “Seneschal Rarity and myself have learned much that would be of interest to Mistress Nightmare Moon during our time in Canterlot. And the Governor has indeed come bearing an artifact that may help us end the madness now plaguing our land. So carry out your orders, lest I make note of your obstinacy!”

The guards shrank back a touch from her, despite their arms and armor. Several of them turned and whispered amongst themselves. After a moment, one spoke: “But do you wish for all of us to go, ma’am? Surely one or two would suffice.”

She glared at him. “A stallion of eagerness and enterprise, are you? Perhaps you and your colleagues would enjoy applying such fervor to the efforts of our Northern Coalition? Just because the Mistress has deemed it a conflict unworthy of wasting ponies’ lives, doesn’t mean we aren’t obliged to maintain a few representatives to help keep our allies in line.”

“N… No, ma’am,” the guard stammered. He glanced at his fellows again, and the lot of them set off away from the guard post, muttering loudly.

Sassy felt a light hit on her leg, and she startled, turning a quizzical expression on the tiny orange pegasus standing next to her.

“Nailed it,” Scootaloo said with a grin.

“That was way too close, though,” Dash said, pressing through the liveried ponies around them and encircling Scootaloo in a hug. “Now do you see why we gotta get you out of here? Even if we pull this off, there’s no guarantee—”

“I know,” Scootaloo said. Then she turned an intense gaze at Redheart, who was standing next to her. Sassy couldn’t fully parse the meaning of Scootaloo’s expression, but it culminated in Scootaloo giving Redheart a big hug as well. “Take care of her, okay?”

“I will,” Redheart said, returning the hug. “I promise.”

Lord Filthy Rich cleared his throat from behind them. “Time to go, Scootaloo. Kibitz is looking forward to meeting you, and we even have somepony your age whom you… might try to play with.”

He offered her a small metallic disc with his hoof. Scootaloo turned and took it from him. After giving what surely must be her very bravest smile to both Rainbow Dash and Redheart, Scootaloo tapped the disc with her other forehoof, then vanished in a quick burst of bright blue energy.

“Thank you, Filthy darling,” Rarity said, walking to him and planting an enthusiastic kiss on muzzle.

“It’s Ri—” he managed, before becoming lost in her embrace.

Sassy shook her head, and reflected once again upon how badly she’d misjudged the pale mare. Far from being an uncultured and amateurish pretender to the responsibilities of her station, Rarity had shown herself to be a mare of both deep character and tremendous guile, seemingly orchestrating even the tiniest details of their current mission—even down to finding what it would take to secure the ever-fickle Rainbow Dash’s participation. And yet she did it with a genuineness of affection, and an unwavering sense of hope, that Sassy couldn’t help but respect, regardless of her continued distaste for deception.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that Rarity had been the one to come for her. She’d still seen worth in Sassy when everypony else had been willing to leave her to rot. It filled Sassy with an inexpressible gratitude that, even after all she’d done to make Rarity’s life difficult, Rarity had still wanted to give her a chance. And for that, she was quite literally following Rarity into Tartarus.

Sassy remained in the middle of the group as they strode up the steep spiral of stone steps leading to the top of the tower, where the vault itself awaited. Hearing of their intended destination and purpose had been a shock, yet had also stoked her eagerness to cement her defiance of the Nightmare. Yet as she now stood at the cusp of fully throwing off her former Mistress once and for all, she felt fresh pangs of sadness as she thought of all the self-deception she’d fallen prey to, as well as the lingering guilt of serving a Mistress bent purely on domination.

Indeed, as she was now bereft of her armor, she felt not merely exposed, but naked. The three pins on her flank seemingly mocked her desire to “put a pin in” things she’d put to rights, and instead proclaimed how far she’d fallen from her path of precision and perfection in the name of mere survival. It struck her that she could’ve survived—even sought excellence—without stooping to such shameful depths. The truth of her vanity and pettiness was difficult to accept, but she felt no compunctions about facing it; it simply was.

She stopped short, suddenly finding herself behind a knot of liveried ponies who had come to a halt. Still on one of the stairs, she had to crane her neck to see up to the landing at the top, where Sergeant Dash, Rarity, Lord Rich, Governor Blueblood, and two of the hooded ponies who’d accompanied their group clustered around the door—likely Twilight and Limestone, who’d been introduced to her as the “Two Specialists” whom she’d originally been sent to Canterlot to find. Dash and Rarity seemed to exchange heated but quiet words amid a faint clinking of keys, punctuated by a few recognizable curses from Dash. Sassy couldn’t resist grinning at how a fundamentally small thing like trying to find the right key could hold up such a grand enterprise.

At last she heard the loud metallic squeal of the great vault door being opened, and everypony started moving again. Sassy idly wondered whether all of the ponies in their group would fit into the vault, but upon reaching the door, she realized that it was more than spacious enough.

“Celestia above, there they are,” said Limestone, in the midst of removing her cloak. As Sassy moved closer, she saw everypony clustering around a large display case. Within were five head-sized orbs of stone, which Sassy recognized from her studies: the Elements of Harmony.

Next to Limestone was Twilight, who gave Rarity the barest hint of a smile. “Trust is hard to come by when you cross sides as much as we do. I’ll be honest, I’ve had doubts about this whole plan from the beginning, even up to now. But finding the Elements here, now, just as you told us, speaks volumes about your trustworthiness. So before we get started with the rest of this, I have something of yours that I’d like to give back to you.”

Twilight lit her horn and brought a small, corked glass jar out from the depths of her cloak. Floating in the midst of it was an image of Rarity’s three-diamond cutie mark.

The cork lit up in her magic and popped out. Then Twilight’s horn flared, and there was a flash by Rarity’s flank, and the jar was suddenly empty.

Rarity staggered to the side. Lord Rich held out hooves to catch and steady her. “Oh, th… thank you. All of you,” Rarity said, sighing and smiling deeply. Then she bent her head around to look at the mark, and wiped at it with a hoof. Sassy watched with confusion as some kind of blue paint smeared around on Rarity’s flank, smudging her cutie mark but not fully obscuring it. Regardless of the curious ritual, Rarity sighed again, and seemed to choke up, as if she was holding back a large sob.

“Oooh!” Blueblood called from nearby. Sassy turned her head, seeing him raising the protective glass case that covered a pair of heavy brass goggles with his magic. “Hey, get a look at these babies!” He lifted them in his hoof, and angled them toward his head—

“Stop!” Twilight shouted. “These are ancient artifacts of untold power! There’s no way of knowing what those goggles might do without further study!”

“Killjoy,” Blueblood said, sticking his tongue out at her as he set them back down on their stand. “So Twiggy, when are you gonna help me get in touch with my second head so we can make the magic happen?”

“Pig,” Twilight muttered, turning away.

Limestone stepped between them, glaring at Blueblood. “You will treat her with respect, or I will ask her to connect with the head in your place. Do you understand?”

“Oh, fine.”

After holding Blueblood’s gaze for a few moments past what Sassy felt must be comfortable, Limestone turned back to Twilight. “C’mon, you’d better get started.”

Twilight nodded, planted her hooves, then lit her horn in brilliant, blazing purple. And Sassy’s jaw grew slack as she watched Twilight quickly cast a series of spells with dizzyingly complex weaves that defied anything she could map back onto her own magical experience. It was enough for Sassy to simply watch Twilight’s masterful performance, and to try to ignore the tingles of static and other, more ephemeral feelings that washed over her as spell after spell settled over the chamber.

As the series ended, Twilight staggered. Limestone was at her side in an instant, catching her before studying the gaunt, exhausted look on Twilight’s face.

“Are you all right?” Limestone asked.

Twilight nodded in reply, and waved her away, gesturing back toward the display case with the Elements. Sassy watched as Limestone stepped up to the case, reared-up on her hind hooves, and drew back with a heavy punch that shattered its glass. Then she turned to address the room: “We’ve gone too far to turn back now. Our movements have been seen by too many others. And the Nightmare will take notice of what’s happening up in Canterlot sooner, not later. We’ve talked through the couple of scenarios that would lead us to abort the mission, but with Twilight’s wards in place, there’s not much that can go wrong outside of Tartarus. So: candidate bearers, step forward; everypony else, get ready! We go down and seize the sixth Element now, or we die trying!”

The group barked their affirmation, or signified it by raising their weapons. At least, all those who must be with the Resistance did so. Sassy noted that this turned out to be all but a dozen of them, which surprised her—she’d been certain that there had been a stronger representation of the Governor’s ponies amongst their number when they started. But her mind played back what details she could recall of their descent down the mountain, and she vaguely remembered a few moments when they’d stopped and certain members of the group had broken off. She hadn’t been offered an explanation after they returned; neither had she asked for one. She’d simply assumed they were the same ponies returning as had departed, though the full-length livery and face-enclosing helmets on most of them made it impossible to be sure.

“They must’ve been swapping out the Governor’s ponies for more Resistance members,” Sassy thought aloud, letting her attention wander as the stone orbs were removed from the shattered display case and hoofed out to several of the liveried ponies. “They didn’t want the party to be too big, but there were certain ponies whom they wanted to include in it…”

Sassy continued to pick at the thought as she watched the ponies around her make various preparations for their descent into Tartarus. Rarity and Rainbow Dash moved toward the long set of smaller wall-safes keyring-first, presumably to retrieve the Hellshard. Twilight and Blueblood huddled together with lit horns over the disquieting stone head that had been brought from Blueblood’s desk. And Limestone moved through the great vault at a canter, forming-up the gathered ponies with weapons drawn, all facing one of the less-adorned side walls of the great vault. Sassy guessed that this must be where Twilight intended to open the portal.

“Lord Rich accompanied us,” Sassy said under her breath, still trying to figure out what aspect of the situation was leaving her ill at ease—beyond the very prospect of Tartarus itself. Something about Lord Rich’s presence seemed tied to the feeling, though. She paused and dwelled upon it. As she did so, Rarity returned, holding the Hellshard in her magic. The hair on the back of Sassy’s neck prickled on instinct upon seeing the slick, obsidian, coffin-shaped “key.”

Just then, Sassy realized that Rarity and Lord Rich had something in common: they weren’t wearing the Governor’s uniforms. Her brow furrowed as she contemplated how the Governor’s offer of aid had initially been one of outright military support, but in the end, his true donation to their cause was much more heavily skewed toward the uniforms themselves.

“All right, everypony,” Twilight called to the group, approaching Rarity and taking the Hellshard in her magic. “I expected the head would take a while to wake up, but it was already ready.” She turned a tight-lipped smile on Sassy, and gave her a nod. “Thanks to Sassy Saddles’ instructions, I’m about ninety percent certain that I can activate the Hellshard without suffering any adverse effects. It’s a powerful artifact, though, and it’s usually wielded by an Alicorn, so we shouldn’t dismiss the possibility that I might be overwhelmed. But even if that happens, you should continue the mission as long as my wards hold. And they’re set at a frequency that shouldn’t interfere with your teleport charms, in case we end up needing to execute the contingency plan.”

“Always prepared,” Limestone said, smiling and lightly cuffing Twilight’s shoulder.

“Whoaaaa,” Blueblood vocalized, drawing the group’s attention. He staggered about on his hind legs as if he were drunk or disoriented, and he regarded his outstretched forehooves with an expression that seemed part perplexed, and part surprised. “This feels really weird…”

After sighing loudly and rolling her eyes, Twilight flared her horn again, channeling a steady flow of magic into the Hellshard. Soon, lightning danced across its surface, arcing between it, the floor, and Twilight’s horn. Twilight jerked as the surge intensified, making her gasp and twitch. “S—Stand back, everypony!”

Twilight's back arched. There was a huge burst of electricity that made the air stink of ozone and caused much of the fur on Sassy’s body to stand up straight. Then Sassy watched with the same horrible fascination that she always felt as a crackling silver line appeared before the wall, then rotated, darkened, sank into impossible distance… and at last, the light of fire became visible behind it.

Ponies all around gasped, clearly shocked by the stony, flaming, yet unnaturally dark sight of Tartarus itself laid bare before them. Uncertain shapes writhed in the red light of the middle distance, and eruptions of lava shot forth from mountainous terrain beyond. Almost immediately, a strong wind kicked up, bringing with it the scent of brimstone.

A moment later, a floating, bestial silhouette descended into view on the other side of the portal. Sassy felt her heart flutter at the sight of the Guardian.

But a commotion near the entrance drew Sassy’s eyes away from the portal. Twilight had collapsed on the floor, her horn was no longer lit, and she seemed to be unable to rise, even with Redheart’s and Limestone’s aid.

“Is that… Blueblood, did it go to the right place?” Limestone shouted.

Blueblood took slow, uncertain steps toward the portal. His jaw hung slack, and his eyes were fixed on the Guardian. The expression on his face was one of sheer awe.

“Blueblood!”

“N… No,” he said, raising a hoof and gesturing at the portal. All at once, the image behind it shifted to one of pure, raging, white-hot fire. Flames licked out at the room, and the heat gusting forth was so great that the gathered ponies—Sassy among them—all shrieked and ducked for cover.

“Sorry!” he shouted, gesturing again. In an instant, the heat faded into something uncomfortable but bearable. And the landscape shifted as well. It was no longer full of fire, but of bleak brown stone beneath an angry red sky that roiled with clouds of acrid oranges and yellows.

It was also full of cages.

They were of many shapes and sizes. Some were empty, but others held strange and otherworldly things that gibbered and barked and made Sassy’s eyes hurt to look upon them. And so she tried not to, and instead found herself focusing on the cage nearest the portal entrance. Sassy couldn’t quite make out the shape within, but it seemed small and inert.

Rarity gasped. “That must be the sixth Element!”

Limestone left Twilight’s side and walked up next to Blueblood. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

“Hm?” Blueblood seemed almost surprised that she’d spoken to him. “Oh, um, sorry. Right. Uhh…” He quickly turned his head back toward the group of liveried ponies. “This… I think this is it. “

The form in the cage moved.

“No, that can’t be right,” Limestone said. “Blueblood, we’re looking for the last cage that something of immense power ended up in.”

He turned wide eyes at her, then glanced back at the others again. “Um, yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s it. Are we still, ah…?”

Limestone followed his gaze with a confused glare. “What are you looking for?!”

“Isn’t that just one of life’s great questions?” shouted a high, intense male voice from the back of the group. “What are any of us really looking for, in the end?”

Sassy’s eyes went wide with shock, and she gasped, as she recognized the voice of her shadowy attacker from Blueblood’s mansion. But the effect of his voice on the rest of the group was even more drastic. Multiple ponies immediately started shouting words like “Contingency!” and “Abort!” while others whirled to and fro, brandishing their weapons, seemingly seeking the voice’s source.

Amid the group, one pony hoofed out their teleport charm and activated it, disappearing in a flash of blue light.

“Wait wait wait!” shouted the voice again. Sassy turned and saw a seemingly random, helmeted guard holding up a glowing, silvery, egg-shaped charm his forehooves. “You gotta stick around and let me finish the joke! It’s… Blueblood, do your line.”

Sassy saw Limestone’s expression darken into full-on rage. Limestone whirled on Blueblood with flaring nostrils and hammered a hoof into his barrel, knocking him prone. “NO! How could you sell our chance to save the world to the likes of this monster?!” But despite the strong and angry mare bearing down on him, Blueblood merely stared with fascination at the portal, and at the starless, crimson sky beyond.

Meanwhile, other ponies in the group hoofed out their teleport charms and activated them—but this time, instead of yielding a flash of blue, the effect was more like a shower of black bubbles banded with purplish distortions that overtook their bodies.

Sassy stood aghast as the ponies attempting to teleport shrieked wordlessly, thrashed about seemingly in pain, and dissolved into nothingness.

“Blueblood?!” The attacker ducked a Resistance-pony’s spear thrust, swept their legs out from under them, grabbed the spear, then skewered another Resistance member in mid-charge. “Blueblood! C’mon, you’re killin’ me here!”

“Twilight!” Limestone left Blueblood’s side, dashed back to Twilight, and began slapping her unconscious face. “Twilight, it’s him—and whatever he’s doing is disrupting the teleporters!”

The attacker punched two more Resistance members to the ground, then shook his helmeted head. “All right, fine. I guess we don’t have to go off the joke we talked about. So much for the big dramatic moment…”

He turned his back to Sassy and began fiddling with a pouch at the side of his livery. Seeing an opportunity, Sassy took off at a gallop toward him, shouldering other ponies aside as she went. But as she was about to leap and try to tackle him, he jerked a hoof—

There was a loud bang, a bright flash, and Sassy’s momentum faltered as everything suddenly went green. Sassy felt fire in her eyes and lungs as they were filled with a stinging smoke, which poured through the not particularly well-ventilated room instantly, engulfing everypony. She coughed and held a hoof up to her muzzle as the cloying green gas crowded out the air.

But then a new series of screams started.

Ponies everywhere began to shriek and wail as though they were having the life torn from them. Sassy’s pulse raced and her skin prickled as she stumbled forward, coughing violently. Was she suffering from the same effects? Panicked though she was, the pain was manageable—

All at once, she blundered into the back of a pony who had been obscured by the smoke. They turned to face her, shaking and writhing.

Sassy recoiled.

They were melting.

The livery that they were dressed in had pulled tight around them, and it showed pockmarks like acid or some other corrosive substance all over. Beneath those marks, the decay in the livery had transferred to the pony wearing it as well. They shrieked with a muzzle ruined by their helmet, and continued to stagger and flail despite numerous dark rivulets flowing from the angry wounds that wracked their body.

“The uniforms!” Sassy tried to shout, though her voice only came ragged and raspy in the null air.

“Ohhhh, now there’s somepony I’d like to see again,” said the attacker from somewhere in the smoke. His voice seemed almost tinny, somehow, but it was still much clearer than Sassy would’ve expected from somepony stricken by the green gas. “Where’d you go, my second-favorite useful idiot?”

Sassy tried to stay wary for his coming, but another fit of coughing wracked her, and she dropped to the floor, struggling to stay conscious amid her growing lightheadedness.

She spotted a faint glow moving through the gas. It soon resolved itself into the wickedly smiling face of an orange-brown coated pony with a large, curly brown mane—but his head was lit up in some kind of glimmering bubble. And something about his gait seemed off, as if he were walking on only three legs. Sassy’s skin itched with fear; she tried to back away, but bumped up against the wall.

“How ’bout a different joke? Knock knock!” His smile widened into a dark, toothy, humorless rictus, and he held up a knife in one forehoof. Its long blade reflected the glimmering bubble that somehow must’ve been providing him breathable air. “See, now you’re supposed to say, ‘Who’s there?’”

Sassy tried to suck in a breath, but only ended up coughing more forcibly.

“All right, fine! Apparently I have to do everything myself—” He stumbled a few paces in front of her, then stopped and bent down. “Hey, whaddaya know, I’ll take that back. Just gimme a sec here.” He reached down and began working his knife against something shrouded by the thick smoke. “All right, close enough… knock knock,” he said through gritted teeth. “Who’s there? …Cheese.” He winced a bit. “Cheese who?”

He glanced back up at her with harder eyes, and his awful grin took on an evil cast. But then, to Sassy’s horror, he slowly raised a pony’s head in his forehoof. He pointed it toward her and shook it, saying:

“Cheese Sandwich!”

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

As if there were any doubt... unless Sassy was somehow identifying the features of the head in his hoof.

In any case, I do have to wonder what this joker hopes to achieve by disrupting the efforts to unseat the Nightmare. Or maybe he's just gone so far around the bend that he considers this justifiable self-defense. Or he thought they were tossing in the other Elements for some reason...

Eh, trying to fathom the motivations of the mad can easily add you to their ranks. We'll probably learn his irrational rationale soon enough.

[Hillbe]

My hero will save me! or maybe not....

All plans are moot after first contact

I am your sunshine , Your only sunshine - Shining brightly under ground, I was an omelet but turned into an orb sun......I'm just hanging around,,,,

[CoffeeMinion]

9352714
Chapter 33 reveals much, but still not everything. Stay tuned...

9352995
Regrettably, heroes are in short supply here. Or—perhaps more accurately—all available heroes have just been crammed into a tiny box together, and a fuse has been lit. This is a very bad thing.

[Aegyptius]

This story didn't happen to take any influence from this, did it?

[ZanarNaryon]

WELP, THINGS ARE GOING TO HELL

I'm holding out hope that miss royal guard can manage to fight at least one assassin, that's her job isn't it

[Cloak Background]

And now I feel like I know even less about the mysterious stallion Cheese Sandwich than I did. I guess I may not have been wrong to lump him with Blueblood after all.