Sunset Shimmer Goes to Hell

by scifipony

"Miss Mean Pony Won't Let Me!"

The bit of light afforded by the twilight rapidly dissipated, causing the illumination from the mountain restriction zones to predominate. The wan light resulted in a ghostly pale colorless landscape of shadowy trees lit brighter than a full moon because of the reflective cloud cover, despite the drizzle.

I heard Cerberus growl and stones fly as he stood before I could see him. He'd seen Sunset Shimmer; couldn't miss her, lit up like an eldritch golden lantern by her aura and her eyes. I heard ponies shout. Two furiously flapping pegasi roared into the sky so rapidly that I heard their slipstreams whoosh by. I ducked down to the muddy road.

They weren't doing reconnaissance. They flew north and disappeared.

That left three earth ponies and Ice Arrow.

I waited long enough that I wouldn't be illuminated by Sunset Shimmer, then crept off the road toward the buildings. The filly closed on the dark Tartarussian dog, herself not larger than the lower part of a foreleg. Cerberus' growl grew ominously louder like a stampede rushing down the gully you happened to be trapped within. The bass rumble resonated uncomfortably in my body. A stallion and two mares yelled at Sunset Shimmer to stop, but lingered near the huts. The red stallion and the cyan mare showed the whites of their eyes, looking half-spooked. The other green one danced on her hooves ready to bolt.

Chthony could scare anypony. Sunset shoved the Chthon, legs racing, tentacles and trunks flying every which way, into Cerberus' face.

And dropped him.

Her aura flicked off. Its finality made me gasp, like the lights going out late at night during a ghost story. It was my cue.

Cerberus' angry triple polyphonic barks shattered the night. While Chthony could trumpet, the only sound he made were resounding thumps as he whipped the watchdog.

The red stallion and cyan mare spooked. They whinnied as they galloped past the little Big House toward the east south road and disappeared into the incipient night. The other earth pony had simply disappeared.

Cerberus yelped with eardrum-shattering effect. Having delivered blows that surprised Cerberus, Chthony backpedaled. The creatures looked matched in height, but not in their physical builds—the solid Tartarussian canine out-massed the antelope chimera. He made Chthony seem delicate by comparison.

As requested, Sunset Shimmer flared her magic and shoved Chthony back at Cerberus who now growled and barked again. It surprised me that she'd accepted the suggestion of letting Cerberus "pacify" the Chthon. I'd thought she had meant the word "pacify" as Celestia would have meant it, but, deep down, she must have hated the creature or was simply heartless.

Shoved over the line into the territory Cerberus protected, the dog finally attacked. It reared and pushed itself back from grasping tentacles and bashing trunks, stepped back, crouched, and leapt. It snapped its jaws viciously. Front legs held wide, he hugged his opponent. The collision shook the earth. Then he bit with all three heads, one-two-three.

A moan that could lift storm waves on the ocean echoed across the valley and off the hills. I feared for my ears more than I feared that one of the behemoths might misstep and leave me a puddle of goo as I raced into the melee.

I galloped around in the dark until I passed around Chthony and came up beside his bristly coal-black haunches. I reached out a hoof. I had to touch him. I needed to make it work immediately.

He dodged aside, suddenly pushing forward, barely missing my head with a back paw.

Of course he missed. He had to.

Keep telling yourself that.

Hooves dancing, I found another opening in the titanic fight and lunged. At the same time, Cerberus stepped back. The dark shadows of his bulk rushed toward, then past me. The wind of his passing, tainted more with a burnt latex scent than wet dog scent, whipped my mane and threatened my stance. Worse, another dark limb rushed directly at me. Toward my face.

I felt my heart beat hard, possibly for the last time.

Tentacles lashed out, barely missing me, to wrap the deadly leg that rocketed toward me. It whipped around again and again, with a rubber snap. Cerberus' foreleg shot up and away as my reflexes took hold and I hopped aside when it should have been too late.

Cerberus tumbled over, Chthony tangled around him, following him down. The ground jumped from the thunderous impact. I scrambled forward and touched the frog of my hoof upon the temporarily sundered dog's chest.

"Such a good dog. No fighting, Cerberus. You want to go for a walk, don't you? Don't you? Can you sit boy? Can you sit?"

Like that, Cerberus shimmied back.

A relieved Chthony unwrapped his bleeding limbs and collapsed on his haunches in an exact mirror of Cerberus. For her part, Sunset Shimmer stood a couple of pony-lengths behind, glancing from one to the other looking thoughtful, but not shoving them together, either. She had done precisely as I had suggested she do.

I looked at Cerberus. Dark eyes, reflecting the illuminated mountains behind me, focused on me as any dog might on his pony master. I glanced to Chthony. He sat gasping and moaning, his steel eyes also on me as he shivered. Some of his tentacles were bitten through. Gouged flesh hung limply torn from his forehead. Sunset Shimmer's turquoise eyes also focused on me, but seemed to be clearing. I stepped quickly forward, reaching out with my magic to say, "You've pacified the Chthon exactly as you wanted."

She smiled.

I let out a long breath. As I turned toward Chthony, he shook more. "I'm hurt, Brownie. I'm hurt real bad."

Why was my heart breaking? "You need to go home, Chthony."

He moaned. "Miss Mean Pony won't let me!"

I addressed Sunset. "Please let Chthony go home. He promises he won't hurt anypony, touch anypony, speak to or even get near anypony." I faced Chthony. "You promise?"

"I promise, Brownie. Ponies aren't toys, are they Brownie?"

"They feel just like you do. They can hurt, Chthony, just like you do now. They are not toys."

"Okay, Brownie."

"Go home."

"I will. I promise." He stood tremulously, shaking enough that I worried he might collapse. Were he, it would have been on top of Sunset Shimmer; my past guaranteed that wouldn't happen. He widened his stance, turned, and limped away.

In the sudden quiet—well, calm, but for the gentle panting of a dog behind me—Sunset Shimmer turned and watched his retreat. In that pause, as my heart rate gradually lowered and I began to realize that the hardest part was finally over, I also realized I hadn't seen Ice Arrow.

I turned and found somepony beside me. I gasped and jumped back before I realized that a cassock enveloped the stallion-sized shadow. I blinked. I would have sworn Lord Tirek had been shorter.

I said, "You are quiet."

"I cannot fault your bravery," he said in turn, pulling back his hood so I could see his face. Again, I got the impression of change. Fewer wrinkles. Less infirmity. A darker mane. Clearer eyes. Then again, I looked at him in the monochromatic light of evening.

"Ice Arrow?"

The centaur huffed and passed a necklace holding an amulet. The magic object didn't look exactly transparent, but it has ceased to be metallic. It resembled a tourmaline, clear in places but mostly dark. Undoubtedly, it was "disabled." I threw the cold silver chain around my neck. The amulet thumped in place across my heart.

He said, "I took care of a green mare, too. She had grabbed a weighted net and was about to throw it. Do not worry. The pony will survive. It's Tartarus."

"Thank you."

Lord Tirek pointed a claw at Sunset Shimmer who stood, hindquarters facing us, tail swishing worriedly as Chthony disappeared, climbing the east south road. "That female is incredibly powerful. She will cause problems if I do not drain—"

"No," I said, facing him. "She and I are—"

"What? Special someponies? Do not expect me to suffer another pony with us."

"No. She—" I could not explain the truth; he'd disbelieve, then there'd be trouble. "If I don't handle this right, the Equestrian authorities will realize what we've done and catch us."

"Is that so?"

"It is."

"Pity."

As Sunset Shimmer turned to face us, she began shaking her head. Her eyes didn't look as distant. She began saying to herself, "I came here to get help—"

Right. That was the other thing she wanted. "Yes," I said, walking up to her. I hadn't wanted to touch her before but now had no choice as I had to assure she had no time to remember me. I touched and pushed with that certain something that I knew engaged the intent of my special talent. I had to make her happy or at least satisfied with what I told her. "I can surely help you. How did you get to Tartarus?"

Calming, she said, "Twilight Sparkle opened a gateway. After Celestia closed it, I used a sulfur match and sympathetic fire magic to reopen it. I earned my cutie mark doing it."

I felt my eyebrow rise. "Congratulations. And you need to get back?"

"I do. Before the clock ticks down." She began to look very nervous, like an elder pony who'd realized she'd forgotten something very important. She brushed her front hoof before her, saying, "And, and, and something else." She blurted, "I need to get help—"

I gasped. "For Brandywine?"

She nodded, more and more dazed as my special talent worked its wonders through the frog of my hoof against her shoulder.

I said, "To get help, go as quickly as you can back through the gate. Once you pass through, find Princess Celestia. Only she can help you. Tell her that Brandywine needs help, but most importantly tell her—"

I choked on a sudden lump in my throat. I looked at Cerberus. I looked beyond at the gate. Despite the overcast that hid the moon, the bridge in the tunnel of warped reality receded into the distance lit by a moon under a clear Equestrian sky. The spiral glowed an ethereal blue-white, checkered by moonlight and its own shadow.

If I said the words, was my part holding together the fault in time over? Or was it done when I sent Cerberus on his way? If I said the words, did I cease to have a role to play.

Would I become vulnerable? Normal? Did I regain free will?

I had assumed she'd come here using some sort of gate. I now knew it to be a fact. If I did not act now, when it was obvious that I should do so, I suspected the warring past and future would find another way. I'd skirted death today. The dharg. Cthony. Him twice, actually. And who knows, Sunset Shimmer herself or perhaps Lord Tirek? He was no predictable pony.

I gulped. Best to be done with it.

I said, "Tell Celestia, 'Cerberus is running in the grim glimmering starlight toward Ponyville.'"

Sunset Shimmer blinked at me. The drizzle had stopped; strands of her mane had dried enough that they waved in a stirring breeze. Water dripped from the eaves of the little Big House. I repeated the phrase, then said, "What are you going to tell to her, yell at her if necessary, to make her help you?"

Her eyes locked on mine. Cold. Angry. Determined. She yelled, "Cerberus is running in the grim glimmering starlight toward Ponyville!"

I pointed past the outpost. "Take the west south road toward Central. It's shorter and less hilly than the east south road you took before. Go to your gate. Gallop if you can."

"I will," she promised in a shout. She took off at full speed, her hooves kicking up mud and stones as she rushed, her muscles rippling under her yin-yang solar cutie mark. She repeated the phrase. Within a minute, she passed beyond earshot and was soon lost from sight in the dark.

A gruff voice said, "I don't understand ponies."

I sighed and I looked at Lord Tirek. His skin seemed redder, too. Impressive considering the light. I said, "You never will."

"Probably right."

To Cerberus, I said, "You want to go for a walk?"

A tail, thicker than the hawser that tied a ship to a dock, started thumping.

"A walk, Cerberus? A walk?"

Thump, thump, thump.

"Go to Ponyville, Cerberus. Ponyville."

"Ponyville," Lord Tirek said, "Interesting." He looked the direction Sunset Shimmer had disappeared in. It made me think of the message Celestia's protégé would deliver; maybe he did, too.

Cerberus whined. He tilted his head at me and lifted his ears.

Yeah, what made me think the dog understood geography? How could I get him to go where he needed to go? I tried, "Canterlot. Cerberus, go to Canterlot."

He seemed excited, more from my tone than anything. He kept tilting his head. He was a dog. What did dogs understand?

Scent. The Tartarussian certainly had three enormous noses. What else?

His pony masters.

"Celestia. Cerberus, find Princess Celestia!"

He stood and barked. All three heads bayed like a pack of hounds. Their necks lowered his muzzles to the ground. Tail wagging like a windmill, it cut swaths through the air audibly, as deadly as a giant's whirling club. He began sniffing. He sniffed and snuffled while facing the gate; his motion moved him toward it.

"Go! Go!" Lord Tirek shoved me on the shoulder before running to follow. "I tried the gate already but it was locked. We need to go through with Cerberus."

He'd tried to escape without me? Of course he had. Stupid me to think he would not have tried.

I galloped after him.