Prologue: You'd Think Hell Would be Hotter

Beep
Beep
Be-SLAM

A hand lifted from the top of the alarm clock and slithered back under the covers for warmth. Not a second later a groan could be heard from beneath them.

'Uuugh... I hate waking up at seven'

The man forced himself to pull off the covers, immediately regretting his decision once the warmth of his blanket was gone and the cold air of the room sapped him of heat. Grumbling, he sat up and rubbed his shoulders in a poor attempt to keep warm. Standing up, he made his way towards the dresser on the far wall. Opening up one of the drawers, he pulled out clothes for the day; deciding to keep it simple with a pair of black socks, blue jeans, and a black long sleeve button up shirt with white buttons.

'Man, I really do need to organize this, but my god it's so boring to clean sometimes. Besides it's waaay to early to be up for me.' the man thought to himself. He looked back towards his unmade bed and the blanket haphazardly tossed aside. 'I'm sure a few more winks of sleep won't hurt anyone right?...Right? Aww who am I kidding, if I don't get going I'm gonna be late for work again.'

With a quick change of clothes and a flushed toilet, the newly groomed man stepped out of the bathroom.

Entering the kitchen, the man set aside a bowl of cereal for 'breakfast' and began preparing a meal for lunch. Walking over to his fridge he glanced at the small whiteboard on it. It had the words, "Remember Ethan, a smile a day keeps the bad guys away!" on it, prompting him to roll his eyes and pull the fridge door open.

'Man I really need to work on my motivational lines, if that's the best I can do then its surprising that my ass is still kicking.' Ethan sighed to himself while pulling out food from the fridge and closing it with his foot. He reached up into the cabinet after setting everything on the counter; grabbing the last of the things he needed for his meals.

After several minutes, everything was prepared and he grabbed his lunchbox. It took a few attempts, and some cursing under his breathe, but Ethan managed to stuff a turkey sandwich, a water bottle, some barbecue chips, and a pudding cup with two ice packs inside the lunchbox; the zipper nearly bursting once he forced everything inside.

A couple of chocolate donuts were put in a separate container for the morning before being set alongside the lunchbox on the kitchen table.

Once finished with his bowl of cereal, Ethan went back towards the bedroom to grab his phone off the charger. Instinctively, he checked the time when he picked up his phone. '7:26? Little later than I thought, but I've still got some time, my shift doesn't start till 8 after all. But I do kind of need to work off that bowl of cereal... maybe a jog wouldn't hurt? Not the best choice of clothes, but I've had to run in worse so I'll just have to make do.'

Walking back down his hallway towards the front door, he stopped to put on his shoes, a pair of black running shoes, and began opening his door to head to work. Only to stop halfway once he realized something felt amiss.

'Heh, almost forgot my food... and my wallet... and I need to water my cactus. Jeez, when did I get so forgetful?' He thought with a little concern.

Quickly going back upstairs to complete the last minute tasks; Ethan went back towards his front door and closed his eyes as he stepped through to enjoy the feeling of the cool evening air hitting his face.

Only to become confused when his body jerked suddenly. Realizing his foot never touched the ground, Ethan's eyes flew open before he quickly shut them again as a bright green light enveloped his vision. His arms and legs flailed as they tried to catch onto something, anything to stop his descent. After several seconds of struggling, he took a few deep breaths to steady himself. Getting his body under control, he slowly began opening his eyes to peer around him to calmly process what was going on around him.

'WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!?'

He really was, but it was too much for the young man to process all at once.

Steady waves of light green came from seemingly nowhere in front of him, and a weird chill surrounded him, with a pressure beginning to form across his body. Seeing something up ahead, Ethan noticed the green start to open up, revealing a dark stone pathway with an eerie purple light coming from deeper below it.

Watching as the image became larger and larger, Ethan realized he was actually falling. Panic quickly filled him; flailing in the air to hopefully slow his fall, the only thing he managed to do was almost drop his food.

'Not like I'm going to be able to eat this stuff anyways, but fuck it. I want to eat those donuts, dammit.' He thought stubbornly before imminent death.

Clenching his eyes shut, Ethan pointed his legs towards the ground to cushion the blow and, hopefully, not die. The wind rushed past him and further chilled the man to his core. Pounding steps went unnoticed, but when his body suddenly jerked to a stop he tensed further, waiting for the inevitable pain.

Several seconds passed with no excruciating pain, making him wonder what was happening. He cracked one of his eyes open, expecting to see heaven... or maybe hell. Instead, he saw the ground a few feet below his dangling body causing him to go limp with relief, only to tense once again as he felt and heard several deep growls come from behind him.

Turning his head to look at the source, Ethan saw his 'savior', a massive, black furred dog with three heads; with all six eyes glaring at him. One of the heads was biting onto his shirt; clearly having been the one to catch him.

“Uh... Nice doggy?” said Ethan with a nervous smile.

'There's no way that works, I'm a dead man in the making.' he thought to himself. But to his surprise all the dog's heads whimpered and looked apologetic, causing Ethan's jaw to drop open. The head holding him set him down. It was a little rough, but standing was better than dangling, so he couldn't complain.

Turning around, he watched as the dog, who stood a good ten feet taller than himself, rolled over and gave him the most adorable puppy dog eyes that a creature of such stature shouldn't be capable of pulling off.

'Hmm now that I think about it... Giant dog, three heads... Is this Cerberus? Guards the gates of hell or something like that? I think... It has to be, but I always pictured him more, oh I don't know, menacing? Not... cute.' Ethan thought as he watched Cerberus lay on his side while continuing to give the human looks that could nearly stop his heart.

“Do you want belly rubs?” asked Ethan, surprised. His surprise only increased when Cerberus' heads nodded and whimpered. The man slowly walked closer to give the dog belly rubs, making sure to steer clear of his sharp claws.

Once close enough to pet the dog, he began slowly rubbing Cerberus on the chest and gave the occasional light scratch, only to notice the dog's leg beginning to paw at the air, causing Ethan to smile.

“You're all bark, no bite, huh bud?” He said before taking the time to look around at his new environment. Ethan noticed many empty cages, and a couple with beings he'd never seen before locked inside. Further away, Ethan saw a gigantic gate, the largest he's ever seen in his life. The gate stood at least sixty feet tall, with pink markings covering parts of the gate and what looked like a sun insignia in the middle.

'Pink isn't really the color I think of when I think of hell. I always pictured the gates and hell itself more... fiery, but there's no fire here. Hell, it's actually a little chilly' Ethan smiled to himself at his own pun and gave a light ba-dum-tss.

Turning away from the gates, he saw a set of angled stairs that led to a higher platform with a strong blue hue, the walls of which seemed to be the sides of a mountain. In the distance, Ethan could see numerous places that looked like exact replicas of where he was currently.

'Jeez this place gives me the creeps. There's gotta be something here that can tell me where the fuck I'm at right?' Ethan thought to himself. Yet nothing around him could give a solid answer.

Noticing the cages nearby, Ethan decided to take a peek at what other creatures could be inhabiting this place. He began walking towards the cages, inevitably causing Cerberus's impromptu rubs to come to an end. Cerberus, realizing his groomer left, flipped over and walked after him; hoping to continue getting pampered.

'Wow this place is just... wow. There's not a lot here but it looks pretty cool. I wonder what's making it bright here though? It's not like their lamps or anything; just mostly empty cages and rock.' Ethan came to a stop a couple of feet away from the nearest inhabited cage. Peering inside the large cage, he could see a bear looking creature with black and white fur like a panda but red eyes, disturbingly large claws, with yellow markings on its torso and what looked like a stinger at the end of its body.

The creature simply observed the human as he curiously looked it over. After several minutes though, the bear got bored and huffed, causing his observer to look into his eyes.

"Oh, uhhh... hi?" Ethan said with embarrassment and a small wave, receiving a yawn and slow wave back from the bee-bear-thing. Ethan took a step back in shock. 'Whoa, now that's weird. A cool kind of weird though. What else is there here?' He thought while walking away from the cage.

Checking out some of the other cages with creatures in them: there was what looked to be a chimera, a red dragon headed creature with many eyes, and a giant gray bird. Not much, but they were some of the most mindboggling things Ethan had seen in his life.

'I wonder how long these creatures have been here for?' Ethan thought to himself, feeling Cerberus' breath rustling his hair as the dog followed him around. He headed towards the platform in the distance, only to stop once he reached the stairs due to a whimper coming from Cerberus.

Looking back, Ethan noticed the problem; Cerberus was far too large to safely walk up the stairs. Coming back down, the man reached up and rubbed each of Cerberus's heads.

“Hey now, I'll only be gone for a little while. So... how about this? If you can be good and patient while I'm up there, I'll play with you for a while,” he said, causing Cerberus to wag his tail and repeatedly nod his heads.

'There's bound to be a bone or something this dog gets to play with... right? If not, that's just cruel. Poor guy doesn't have anyone or anything to play with.' Ethan thought with a shake of his head.

Turning back towards the stairs, Ethan quickly ascended them, eager to see what may lie above. Upon getting to the top he saw a lone cage in the center of the area. Walking towards the cage, Ethan watched as a silhouette turned to face him. He fought to keep his face emotionless, but he still felt a shiver travel down his spine.

“My, My, what an unexpected visit from a... what are you exactly? I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like you,” asked the silhouette with a raspy, but confused, voice. Piercing yellow pupils glowed in the darkness and peered deep into his soul.

'Well that probably answers one of my questions. Now whether this dude is trustworthy or not... I don't really know. Chances are he's a bad guy since he's in a cage guarded by a huge guard dog, but at the same time... he's also the first being here who has talked so far... Aww screw it, I'm gonna die of boredom if I don't at least talk to someone here soon.' Ethan thought to himself.

“I could ask you the same thing, but since you asked nicely; I'm a human and I have no clue how in the world I got here. What about you? Clearly you're more than just a silhouette in a cage,” he replied, he slipped his hands into his pockets to give off an air of casualness.

Stepping closer, he finally managed a good look at the creature before him. Instead of a menacing hulking beast, it instead was a rather frail, pale red and black centaur with a white beard adorning his face. He looked to have a silver necklace, a nose ring, and a silver arm brace on each arm.

The creature gave a small bow as he introduced himself, “Oh, how rude of me. I am Lord Tirek, a centaur if you haven't already noticed. What is your name, human? It is only fair,” asked the now named Tirek.

Ethan paused just a couple of feet away from the cage and hesitated in answering. Ethan thought for a moment before diving off the deep-end.

“You can call me Ethan."

“Hmm... Quite a peculiar name for quite a peculiar creature. Tell me, Ethan, what do you know about Tartarus?” Tirek asked with a quirk of his eyebrow.

'Ah yes, that's what Cerberus guards. I totally knew that.' Ethan thought to himself as he responded.

“All I know is that this is where the worst of the worst come to rot for the rest of their lives.”

“Oh, but it's not that simple. You see, there is a problem with that, the magic here? It makes sure everything in here, stays here. Alive. Don't worry about food or water either, those princesses," Tirek spat, "don't want to waste their valuable resources on creatures like us, so the magic also freezes our need for anything... even power." At this Tirek got a near euphoric look on his face as he licked his lips.

“W-wait, did you say magic? Like the kind of magic that allows for teleportation or flying and stuff like that?” Asked Ethan, completely baffled by the fact that magic seemed to be real here. It would make sense given the kind of creatures he had seen thus far.

Instead of answering, Tirek gave Ethan a confused look for a second before thinking more on what he heard.

“You are familiar with the lands of Equestria, correct?”

“Equestria? I come from a planet called Earth. I've never heard of this Equestria.” Ethan stated with furrowed brows.

“This certainly changes things,” Tirek mumbled to himself, smirking internally at his luck.

“How about you come closer so I may... enlighten you on all things Equestrian?” asked Tirek, putting on his best smile as he gestured for Ethan to step forward.

"Uhh, sure? I'm already pretty close though. So I'll just sit down instead how's that?" Ethan said while beginning to sit. Tirek rolled his eyes already feeling like a headache was coming on.

“Very well," Tirek sighed before clapping his claws together. "Now then, the first thing you should know about are the beings that roam the surface...”

Chapter 1: Can't Escape on an Empty Stomach

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“So... do you think I should eat it yet?”

“I don't see the point. You gain nothing from doing so."

Ethan gave Tirek a disbelieving look. “You've never had pudding before, have you?”

“If 'pudding' is what's inside the small brown cup, then no.” Ethan felt his jaw nearly drop. After several seconds of silence he shook off his disbelieve and a look of resolve graced his features.

“New plan, we are sharing this, and since I am oh so generous, I'll let you have the first bite, Tirek,” Ethan said with a smirk, only receiving an annoyed glare in return.

“How many times must I tell you? It is Lord Tirek," said Tirek as he rubbed his forehead with his claws.

“Lord, shmord, it's all the same to me and besides, I think I've hung around you long enough to drop the title. I don't even want to know how long I've had to look at your ugly mug," Ethan responded, smirk still on full display.

“You think I enjoy looking at you? HA!" Tirek scoffed, "I don't force you up here. You could always play with your glorified drooler down by all the other creatures," he said with a dismissive wave of a claw.

“Yeah I could, buuuut while they're cool and all... they can't exactly hold a conversation like you.”

Tirek deadpanned, unamused by the human's antics. “...Be glad I find you presence amusing, otherwise you wouldn't be given the honor of talking to me."

“Oh I feel so honored speaking to someone of your stature. Tis but a shame that you seem to squander your rule on one who completely ignores it," Ethan jested with a rather silly medieval accent.

Tirek sneered in contempt, "You have no idea how easily I could force you to submit once I absorb some magic from those stupid ponies."

Ethan just rolled his eyes, “Sure, whatever you say, dude. Let's just go back to the pudding... Do you want to try some? It's really good, I've been saving it for something special as a kind of... celebration I guess, but seeing as you've never had any, I think I can make an exception,” Ethan reached behind him and brought his lunch box into his lap. Sitting cross legged on the ground in front of Tirek's cage, Ethan looked at Tirek, who was laying down about as well as one thinks a centaur stuck in a cage can.

Opening up the box, Ethan reached in and pulled out the pudding and searched for a spoon, only for his face to blanch when he realized he forgot to pack one.

'Just how forgetful was I that day? I'm surprised I haven't forgotten how to breath... yet'

“Okay, so, I forgot a spoon,” admits Ethan, “but you can just use the lid to eat your half and I'll eat mine with my fingers,” he said while wiggling his fingers in front of him with a slightly sheepish grin.

Tirek, who remembered he was dealing with an idiot, facepalmed and dragged his hand down his face. Looking at Ethan, Tirek relented, if only to shut him up, “Fine, I'll try some of this pudding you speak so fondly of.”

Ethan fist bumped the air and hissed out a, “yes,” in response. Quickly peeling off the lid, Ethan wiped the pudding off it with his finger. He then proceeded to stick his finger in his mouth to get off the dessert, causing Tirek to grimace slightly at the grossness of the act. "There is such things as manners, although I think you lost those quite some time ago," said Tirek as he looked away.

Ignoring the centaur, Ethan began folding the lid in a way to create a make-shift spoon, before handing both the make-shift spoon, and the cup of pudding to Tirek.

Taking the handed items, Tirek gave them both one last inspection before putting the spoon in the pudding and pulling out a decent sized portion. Moving the spoon closer to his face, Tirek smelled the "food" and was pleasantly surprised to receive a wondrous smell in return. Throwing caution to the wind, he put the spoon into his mouth, before suddenly becoming rigid.

Seeing this, Ethan became slightly worried for his friend and began trying to get his attention. The best way he could come up with? Slapping the bars of Tirek's cell with his hands and shaking the cage. Neither heard the protests coming from the bars, nor did Ethan realize the bars seemed to give more and more to his abuse. After several more seconds of trying to get his friend to respond, Ethan stopped when Tirek finally came to...

In the form of him quickly scooping up the majority of the pudding and eating it before going to clean out the cup. Ethan, too shocked to respond properly, could only gape as Tirek cleaned out the only cup of pudding that he had. Realizing the grave mistake he made when giving Tirek the first half, Ethan sulked, closing his eyes in the process to take deep breaths.

'Well... at least I still have my turkey sandwich and my chips. I could care less about the water though' Ethan thought, trying to salvage the situation.

Suddenly feeling a weight lift from his lap, Ethan's eyes shot open, before widening more in shock as he witnessed the destruction of his sandwich and chips. Even his water wasn't free from the assault. Tirek finished by licking the remnants of his massacre from his claws and giving a quick belch.

“That was marvelous, simply delectable,” said Tirek while rubbing his stomach. Instead of responding, Ethan gave Tirek the stink eye for a few seconds, then smirked, getting a mischievous glint in his eyes that caused Tirek to raise a brow.

Reaching back behind him, Ethan grabbed the last container he had brought with him, thankful he had separated it from the lunch box, out from behind him. Opening the container, it revealed two pristine looking chocolate covered donuts. Now originally Ethan had planned to share one with Tirek, but with all his food taken by the centaur, and said centaur being stuck in a cage, he decided to have a little payback.

Grabbing one of the two donuts Ethan slowly brought it to his mouth, making sure Tirek's gaze was on him as he does so. Ever so slowly he began to eat the treat, throwing in some delight filled moans and even pausing at one point to confirm that Tirek was still watching. He quickly noticed that Tirek had began sulking himself due to being forced to watch as Ethan ate.

After what felt like years to Tirek, Ethan finally finished one of the donuts, giving a satisfied “ahhh” before reaching for the second one, only to pause just before reaching it.

“Oh, did you want one Tirek?” asked Ethan, making sure to keep an innocent look on his face.

“What do you think, you incessa- I mean, of course I would like one of those circle treats,” replies Tirek, catching himself halfway through his insult. Gaining a thoughtful look, Ethan decides to cut the centaur some slack, not to say he won't get anything out of this.

“Okay, I'll give you the last donut... on one condition, I get to call one favor from you, it can be anytime, anywhere, deal?”

“Yes, yes, I'll do anything you so desire within reason. Now give me that donut,” said Tirek, too busy with eyeing the donut to fully process the request.

“Shake on it, I need to know you will keep your word when the time arises,” said Ethan, making sure there were no loop holes or surprises from this, admittedly one-sided, deal.

“Fine,” sighed Tirek, reaching one of his claws between the bars of his cage, quickly watching Ethan grab his claw with his own appendage before giving it a firm shake. Releasing their hold, Ethan gave Tirek the remaining food he had, watching as the centaur devoured the poor pastry.

Once finished, silence hung thick in the air between the two unique creatures before rustling from the stairs broke the silence. Letting out a sigh, Ethan grabbed one of the bars to the cage and begins pulling himself up when suddenly the bar gave under his weight and a piece broke off causing him to fall onto his ass. Ignoring the sharp pain in his tailbone, Ethan and Tirek looked at one another disbelievingly, then smirked.

Ethan grabbed the remaining pieces of the broken bar and began pulling, hard. The bar creaked and groaned, but eventually gave in and left a sizable gap, almost large enough for the human to slip through. Grabbing another bar directly to the right, Ethan repeated the process, the same thing occurring. Doing so once more left a gap big enough for the centaur to squeeze through.

Tirek took his first steps out of his cage, stumbling slightly before composing himself and standing at his full height, barely over taking the human. Speaking of the human... Tirek looked at Ethan.

“And here I thought you were taller," said Tirek with a smirk.

Ethan deadpanned and slowly shook his head while cracking a smile.

“It's not my fault I was born 5'10 instead of 6'5.”

Stretching out, Tirek took his time walking towards the stairs. Looking down, he observed the, now many, creatures with them and Cerberus. Pondering what to do, he looked back at Ethan, who had began to step up beside him. While thinking, Tirek's gaze wandered to the large doors that kept all the creatures in Tartarus.

“Have you tried to open those doors yet?” asked Tirek, looking at Ethan with a raised brow.

“Not yet, I spent most of my time so far with you or Cerberus. Figured I'd get to it eventually,” said Ethan while rubbing the back of his neck. Rubbing his chin in thought, Tirek started walking down the stairs to where Cerberus lay. Ethan, realizing Tirek wasn't waiting, picked up the pace to walk side by side with Tirek, who rolled his eyes in response.

“Must you always follow me?” The centaur asked with a sigh.

Ethan shrugged his shoulders, “Well you're the most entertaining thing in this place, without you I'd probably have died of boredom already.”

“I don't care what you think, but since you're so insistent on being near me, I want you to do something,” said Tirek, hiding none of his charming personality.

“Okay? Gives me something to do anyways I suppose,” replied Ethan before he rushed ahead to beat Tirek to a sleeping Cerberus, who awoke at the sound of something approaching.

Seeing that Ethan was coming closer, Cerberus's tail began to wag and he exposed his stomach, hoping for some belly rubs.

Obliging the dog, Ethan gave Cerberus belly rubs until Tirek passed, continuing his voyage to wherever it is recently freed centaurs go. Not wanting to be left behind, again, Ethan stopped rubbing Cerberus's belly and walked towards Tirek, in turn Cerberus followed Ethan until eventually all three made it to the large doors that marked the entrance and exit to Tartarus.

“You broke those bars fairly easily... I tried for years to break them myself but was never able to, for that you have my gratitude, but I still think you're hard to look at,” said Tirek, causing Ethan to smile yet again.

“Well I could say you owe me, but I see you as a friend at this point so see it as a friendly gesture.”

Tirek mulled the word “friend” in his head for a few seconds, before nodding his head.

“Very well, but it will take much more than that for me to call you anything close to a 'friend'. Now try to open these doors; I have a theory and you're the perfect and only test subject for it,” replied Tirek while distractedly thinking on the recent events since this 'human' showed up. Ethan looked up at the massive set of doors and whistled.

“You actually think I'm going to be able to open these door?” asked Ethan, skepticism clear in his voice as he shot a look over to his companion.

“These doors are powered and opened by magic, and without the right magic, will never open. I think you were capable of breaking my bars because you are able to block magic. You said your world doesn't have magic, yes?” At Ethan's nod Tirek stepped aside to allow Ethan to come closer to the doors and give an attempt at opening them.

Deciding to humor the centaur, Ethan placed one hand on each door and gave a small push.

“Even if I can apparently 'block magic' these doors must weigh a ton when... they are... this... big?”

As Ethan was saying this, the supposedly 'heavy doors' opened with relative ease causing Ethan's jaw to drop while he looked at his hands in a whole different light. Tirek only smirked and began stepping outside when he and Ethan were suddenly pushed to the side by a massive black mutt making it's presence known by rushing outside. Cerberus, who was seeing the outside for the first time in a very very long time, began to run wild while Ethan and Tirek recuperated, eventually Cerberus made his way back towards the duo as they closed the gates to Tartarus again. A large locking sound radiating from inside the doors once they were fully shut.

“Huh, I figured it would be a lot harder to get out of there...” said Ethan with mild shock as the realization that he could easily have left ages ago set in. Not wanting to brood over time lost, he shook his head rapidly and looked at Tirek, who had been silent thus far.

“Hey Tirek, what do you plan on doing now that you're free?” asked Ethan. At first nothing changed, but after a few moments Tirek's claws slowly formed fists.

“I'm going to take revenge on those stupid ponies for what they did to me, but for now we must bide our time,” replied Tirek in a menacing tone, which almost sent a chill down Ethan's spine had he not been used to Tirek's darker side already. After hearing the centaur go on and on about ponies of all things, a person tends to get used to it.

'I'll let him have his fun for now, Lord knows I'd be pretty pissed in his situation too.' Ethan thought.

“Why wait though? I thought you wanted revenge as soon as possible?” asked Ethan, slightly confused.

“The best revenge takes time, and I am pitifully weak. Until I have the strength to use my magic we will have to wait.” Ethan nodded his head in understanding before deciding to give a little warning.

“Well that's all fine and dandy, but try not to kill anyone, I'd rather not be seen as a criminal in this weird world,” Ethan admonishes while giving Tirek a stern look.

'If all else fails, I always have my last resort. I'll probably end up using it on something stupid though.'

“Oh don't worry, I can promise you, no one will be killed. A dead pony can't be farmed for magic anyways,” replied Tirek, who already began walking to find a location to lay low for a while. Ethan shook his head slightly before following, hearing and feeling the steps of Cerberus chasing after them.

“Hey you wouldn't happen to have a bone Cerberus can use, would you?” asked Ethan. After several minutes of silence he deflated a little at the lack of response.

'I'll take that as a no...'

Chapter 2: Home Sweet Home

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“So... where are we exactly?” asked Ethan as he threw a stick into the nearby treeline, only for Cerberus's pounding steps to follow. Tirek brought a hand to his chin and lightly pulled on his beard while looking around.

“Judging from the nearby mountains and trees, I would have to say we are near the Smokey Mountains,” he replied.

“Okay, but where are we going exactly? I've just been following you for the last few hours.”

“Yes, I'm well aware of your presence, it is quite suffocating,” said Tirek with a smirk causing the human to feign hurt. “But we are going towards Canterlot, it is the city of unicorns after all. I get my power from the magic found within creatures and unicorns are abundant there.”

“Wait so how do you do that though? Do you like... grab them or something and perform some weird centaur ritual?" Ethan said while gesturing wildly with his hands. "And what about the unicorns? Will that kill them? 'Cause you know I draw my line at killing.”

Tirek rolled his eyes, “Once my magic returns, I will be capable of taking the magic from them. Doing so will not kill them, but instead leaves them incredibly weak and incapable of defending themselves. There magic would eventually return over time, but it would take years for them to get the same amount of magic again without me returning it myself.”

"And you're sure that there is no other way for you to absorb magic without targeting living creatures?" Ethan asked with a cautious glance towards his companion.

“I could take magic from the surrounding areas and plant life, but I would need to wipe out forests worth of trees to get the same amount of magic as Canterlot's unicorn population," he explained with a wave of his arm.

Ethan hummed in response and watched Cerberus come out from the treeline. The three headed dog, now carrying a dead tree with his heads came to a stop in front of Ethan before dropping his new 'stick'. The tree hit the ground with a boom and Ethan felt the ground shake. Looking into the dog's eyes, he could only deadpan and sigh before turning back towards Tirek, who took the time to stop as well.

“So how long do you think it'll take until you can use your powers?” asked Ethan, causing Tirek to think while nodding his head side to side in contemplation.

“I do not know, it could take weeks, months, maybe years. Until then we will have to wait. Although... how about you do something useful and look for a suitable area to make preparations for when the time comes to invade Canterlot?”

“I guess one of us actually has to do something, and I know it's never going to be you. Your arms are thinner than toothpicks,” Ethan said while walking towards the trees, which caused Tirek to look at his arms and silently agree. 'Without some magic I am pretty weak, and not nearly as handsome either.' Tirek thought to himself.

Several hours later...

“Hey, you think this'll work!?” shouted Ethan to the lounging Tirek, who took to resting against a tree in the shade while the human looked for a good temporary 'home'.

'I can't believe I'm even thinking of considering this creature worthy of finding a home suitable for us... us? No no, just for me, he's just an annoying parasite.'

Sighing, Tirek got up and moved towards Ethan, who waited patiently by the treeline. Once Tirek was close enough, Ethan turned around and waved for the centaur to follow. Leading him through the forest, Tirek couldn't help but admire his surroundings, the trees were so close together that one would be lucky to see one-hundred hooves away.

Moss lined many of the trees, with thick grass and bushes covering the ground. Tirek could imagine that a pony would be terrified to be in a forest like this alone, especially at night, but the duo found it peaceful, both enjoying the solitude and calm the forest brought.

Looking straight, Tirek saw a break in the forest. Getting closer he noticed that it was a somewhat circular clearing with a river running through the trees and into the open area. The nearby trees were large enough to provide some cover from the elements too, but the waning light of day and coloring sky could be seen through a gap in the treeline in the middle of the clearing. The clearing wasn't very large, probably able to hold a small two story home on either side of the river, but it would have to do till his magic came back.

“I'm surprised you found something worth while, I almost thought you weren't going to return after the second hour passed,” snarked Tirek as he walked towards the small river to get a drink of water.

Ethan rolled his eyes, “You'd like that wouldn't you? Oh by the way... Have you seen Cerberus anywhere? I saw he wasn't with you, and he didn't come with me...” asked Ethan with some concern, that dog had been growing on him from his time in Tartarus. It would suck for him to up and leave.

“That mutt is probably just looking for a bone. Good riddance I say, but he might come back, unfortunately he can't seem to resist those belly rubs you give him with your hands,” said Tirek in a semi-consoling way, getting Ethan to nod in return.

With Cerberus

Cerberus had his nose to the ground, sniffing like no tomorrow, having caught a wonderful scent while waiting for his owner to come back. Not being able to resist, Cerberus started trailing the smell and had been following it for the last hour.

No longer was the dog in the forest. Instead, he was now in the open planes. Feeling the smell getting stronger, Cerberus picked up his pace before suddenly stopping. The scent had grown to be almost overwhelming, and knowing what needed to be done, he began to dig.

Piles of dirt were tossed back with every massive paw, before long one wouldn't have been able to see the dog from eye level. This continued on for a few more seconds before a loud Clang sounded throughout the area and a chest was tossed into the air and landed haphazardly on the ground.

Cerberus jumped from the hole and went towards the chest. For several minutes he pawed at random spots, trying to figure out how to open it. Getting lucky he pawed right at the lock and with his great strength accidentally ripped it from the chest.

Once it opened fully many gold coins and jewels of all kinds could be seen. Ignoring the useless junk, Cerberus knocked the chest on its side and went for the real treasure. Digging his head in the valuables he bit down on his prize with one of his heads and pulled out a massive golden bone.

Kicking the chest and most of the items back into the hole, Cerberus covered the open chest back up with dirt till the hole was filled up and began heading back in the direction of his owner.

Back at Camp

The night was beginning to reveal itself to our favorite pair, who were trying to start a fire.

“It is quite sad to see that you are much too weak to do something so simple. You have to have at least a little bit of strength to back all that talk you spew,” mocked Tirek, causing Ethan to huff irritably, but he still tried to rub faster. After a few more minutes of nothing, the human shouted out a curse and threw the sticks onto the ground, giving up. Tirek, who watched this happen, began laughing deeply, enjoying the failure of his comrade.

“I'd like to see you give it a try Tirek,” said Ethan with venom dripping from his tone and a burning glare from his eyes. Tirek smirked at the human, not finding him intimidating in the slightest. He then stood up and made his way over towards the pile of sticks and leaves they've been trying to turn into a fire, small stones making a circle around it to prevent the fire from spreading.

“I will show you just how much better I am,” said Tirek picking up the tossed sticks and going back towards their makeshift fire... well... soon to be fire. Cracking his neck, Tirek began rubbing the two sticks aggressively to make as much heat as possible. Several minutes passed with nothing happening, the self-proclaimed ruler of Equestria began building a sweat and not a minute later did the exact same thing as Ethan.

Who was on the ground, rolling with laughter, and gasping about not being able to breathe.

Tirek snorted before simmering in anger and shame from not one-upping the human. Looking away, he crossed his arms and huffed, though before long both looked in the direction of sudden rapid pounding, with the human quickly composing himself and standing up. A few tense moments pass, but both released their held breaths at the sight of Cerberus. A smile grew on the human's face as he looked at the massive bone in one of Cerberus's jaws, it had to be the size of his leg. Walking closer to the guard dog, Ethan's jaw went slack when he got a closer look at the bone.

'Is... is that thing GOLD encrusted?'

Ethan turned to Tirek, who was trying to light the fire again, his claws a blur. Surprisingly, the human watched as light smoke began to come from the sticks.

With a growing smirk, Tirek quickly placed both sticks and some dry leaves on the fire pile and the five heads watched as a small fire started from the small leaves and dried grass. The centaur fist bumped the air and taunted the human, who grumbled under his breath about 'beginners luck'.

“I, Lord Tirek, do not need mere luck to accomplish such a measly task as starting a fire!” Shouted Tirek in triumph. Rolling his eyes, Ethan grabbed the other longer and thicker sticks from their stick pile and began making a wooden tent for shelter. Using thin, flexible pieces of bark as makeshift rope to tie the ends of the sticks at the top so his new residence doesn't fall apart in the middle of the night.

Once his foundation was done, with Tirek shadowing him some feet away, Ethan grabbed some of the brush and leaves they took as well and placed a layer of each, with the leaves on the outside to prevent too much water from getting in if it rained.

The tent was shaky and a mere breeze would knock some of his roof from the intertwined sticks that serve as walls, but it was the best they could do with the things they had. Ethan went to grab the finishing touch, his pillow, aka, his lunchbox, before remembering he forgot it in Tartarus next to Tirek's cage.

'Dammit, I feel like I have amnesia with how often I forget things.' Ethan thought, exacerbated with his own ignorance.

Getting comfy, well as comfy as solid ground with no pillow or blanket can get, Ethan closed his eyes and tried to will himself to sleep. Instead of sleep, the only thing both Tirek and Ethan received was the loud crunches from Cerberus as he chewed on his newfound bone. Attempting to ignore the sound, they both went back to empty thoughts, only for that too to be broken when loud growling and low barks from Cerberus caused them to groan and poke their heads out from the tents.

The sight that met them was confusing at best, the two outside heads of Cerberus were pulling on either end of the bone trying to have it for themselves, with the remaining head gnawing on the middle of it. Seeing this, Tirek felt the veins on his head get ready to burst as he climbed out from under his tent and grabbed part of the bone himself before yanking with all his might, shouting all the while.

“You stupid mutt! We're trying to sleep and all you want to do is make noise! Give me the bucking bone and lay the buck down!”

Ethan could only snicker to himself and watched with amusement as Tirek somehow managed to pull the bone free and hurl it as far as his thin arms could manage. All three of Cerberus's heads watched the bone fly through the air before disappearing over the treeline. Once out of sight, the heads glared and snarled at Tirek, who shrieked and dove under his tent in response.

The, now boneless, dog put his nose to the ground and sniffed attempting to find the scent of his bone. As soon as the scent hit his noses he quickly began going in the direction of the lost bone. Ethan smiled as he watched Cerberus leave and once out of sight he turned to watch the fire for a few moments before laying his head on his hands, closing his eyes to get much needed rest.

With Cerberus... again

Cerberus sprinted through the trees for his bone, but could never seem to catch it. Every time the trail would get strong, it would suddenly change directions. Running towards the scent after yet another change in direction, Cerberus found himself back outside of the forest and in the distance could see a timber wolf making off with his prize. Barking loudly, Cerberus gave chase, pumping his stubby legs as fast as he could.

The timber wolf though, with it's more athletic body, was easily able to outpace the giant, three headed dog. For the next few hours both ran, one, back to it's pack after barely catching the smell of the bone on the breeze, the other, in an attempt to take back what was rightfully his.

Cerberus watched as the wolf ran into a different forest than before, and attempted to follow through the narrow trees. He managed to topple a few before being halted and forced to come to a stop. Cerberus growled near deafeningly, only to whimper when he realized he had no clue where his owner was now or where his bone went. He attempted to smell the air, but could only smell wolf, nature, and manticore. After a while Cerberus laid on the ground, but kept his body awake and ready to defend himself, not wanting to be caught off guard while asleep.

Soon enough Cerberus began getting droopy and rested his heads on the ground. Slowly closing his eyes, the guardian of Tartarus fell into a fitful sleep, lost and upset, unknowing of what the next day held for him.

Chapter 3: A Chance Encounter

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Sunlight streamed through the leaves of nearby trees. One of the stray rays pierced a set of closed eyelids, causing their owner to stir. Slowly a pair of eyes opened revealing the red irises underneath. Cerberus's middle head craned up and blinked away the sleep from his eyes, looking around from his position in the forest.

The few trees that he knocked over last night were still in the same place, but a noise on the wind caught the guard dog's attention. Listening closer, Cerberus heard what sounded like laughter dancing lightly through the wind. Nudging awake the other heads, both of which groggily opened their eyes. The middle head growled lightly to catch the attention of the other two heads and motioned to listen.

After a few more seconds all three heads we listening to the sounds coming from the distance. They looked at each other, silently conversing with one another before Cerberus began getting up, his body creaking and joints popping as he moved.

Once fully standing, Cerberus began making his way towards the trees previously toppled and stepped into the open. All three heads looked right to follow the distant sounds. Sticking close to the trees, he stalked his way toward the sound at a rather casual pace, not worried about what could be making the sounds.

As Cerberus began getting closer he realized how much the noise, that was getting louder by the second, reminded him of his owner, the one he couldn't find. Thinking on it, he started getting angry. Angry at the fact he can't find his owner. Angry at the wolf for stealing his prized bone. Angry at himself for acting so selfishly.

Red began filling the dog's eyes as shouting from the nearby town started irritating him further. Growling loudly, Cerberus picked up speed and begun bounding towards the town. Seeing a gap between some houses, he snarled and jumped, landing roughly in the middle of the town.

Ponies stared at him in shock as he snarled again. One pony in particular—a pink one with a poofy pink mane and tail that was a few shades darker than the rest of her coat—shouted something to the rest of the ponies surrounding Cerberus before screaming.

The many ponies around the 'monster' proceeded to follow her lead, only confusing the dog, whose anger slowly drained out of him at the ridiculousness he was witnessing. Looking around he saw what looked like red chew toys on top of a building and wandered his way over in the panic. Each head went to a different 'toy' and gave them a quick sniff before biting onto their individual one.

Chewing for a few seconds, a sudden urge came to Cerberus. Letting go of the toys, he made his way to another building before turning and lifting one of his hind legs.

Suddenly a shout from his left caught his attention, looking over, he saw a lavender pony with a purple mane and tail, with a pink stripe running through both. Finishing up, Cerberus let his leg fall and watched the pony as they got into a battle stance, the horn on their forehead glowing. Seeing the threat, the guard dog walked up to the pony and ROARED.

Ethan, hearing something off in the distance, snorted awake in his tent and brushed off the leaves that fell onto his face throughout the course of the night. Grimacing as the light from the sun caught his eyes.

Poking his head out of his make-shift tent, the human gazed towards his friend's (even if the centaur won't admit it) tent. He snickered to himself as he saw one of Tirek's claws twitch outside the tent. Clearly he was still asleep, if his snoring didn't give it away, and Ethan didn't feel like dealing with his bitching.

Crawling out of his tent, the resident human stood up and stretched his hands as high up as he could, standing on his toes in the process, and felt his back pop multiple times. Relaxing himself, he turned his head sideways to crack his neck, getting a few satisfying sounds and sweet relief for his troubles. Looking around, Ethan frowned as he noticed Cerberus wasn't anywhere to be found.

'Now where could that mutt have gone off to? String-bean didn't exactly throw the bone that far from the looks of it...' He contemplated to himself on where exactly the giant dog could have gone.

Shrugging to himself, Ethan grabbed a large stick and began twirling it in between his fingers, occasionally arching it in a strike. After getting some practice in and managing to twirl the stick for twenty seconds in one go, one handed, the human heard his stomach give a low growl. Looking at Tirek to make sure the centaur didn't hear, Ethan released a low sigh when he saw he was still asleep.

'Really need to get us some food. I think Tirek can eat meat, but we might have to deal with fruits for the time being till we can get some actual weapons. I don't even know what's edible here... Guess I'll just have to grab anything I find.'

Ethan went towards the campfire and grabbed one of the sticks with a lot of charred wood. Making his way towards the treeline, he looked up towards the sun, seeing it sitting just shy of halfway through the sky. Deciding to come back a little after noon, he marked a tree with an arrow pointing towards camp using the charcoal stick and began his hunt for food.

Several hours later.

Ethan grabbed a few blue berries that looked edible enough and looked at the sun. Seeing it a decent ways past the highest point Ethan decided to call it a day. Adjusting his shirt-bag—just his shirt sleeves tied together and thrown over his neck—he looked at all the fruits inside. There were plenty of what looked to be apples, blueberries, and strawberries.

'Well hopefully some of these are actually edible. I wouldn't wanted to have wasted my time out here.'

Glancing around showed only trees, bushes, and the occasional rabbit or squirrel. Both of which gave the human the creeps with how animated their faces seemed to be as they watched him. One would think they were trying to communicate with the strange creature.

Although looking closer, Ethan could swear he saw one of the rabbits wave a paw at him from a ways away. Choosing to ignore it, the human noticed the trees seemed to thin out to his left. He marked the tree next to him and made his way towards what looked like the edge of the forest.

Ethan stepped out into the open area and took a deep breath enjoying the sun beating down on his skin. After a few moments of standing still a loud howl filled the air and Ethan could feel a slight vibration through the ground. Instead of being scared, he simply smiled to himself and looked to his left expecting to see the big lug that he's grown attached to. Instead he saw an oddly colored pony racing towards him with a floating ball behind her.

Realizing what was racing towards him, Ethan quickly dove back into the treeline and hid in a bush, making a hole in the leaves so he could see what was going on. Several seconds passed, with the shaking of the ground getting more intense as they neared his position before he watched Cerberus and the mystery pony begin running past him. Cerberus though, ground to a halt and sniffed the air around him before looking at the bush Ethan was hiding in.

The pony, realizing Cerberus stopped following the ball, screeched to a halt and called out while shaking the ball in the air. “Cerberus! Ceeerbeeeruuus! Come on, we still have a ways to go before you're back home,” said the pony as she (Ethan hearing the tone of voice assumed the pony was a she) began walking towards the dog.

Said human meanwhile began to slowly panic inside as Cerberus walked right up to the bush and one of his heads peered into the hole he was looking through. Ethan, realizing he was screwed if he didn't get Cerberus to go away, quickly began whispering to the massive dog. “Nonono, please go boy. Now's not the time. Let the pretty pony lead you back home, then I'll follow and immediately let you out, okay?" pleaded Ethan as he pat the head looking at him.

His stomach began forming a knot when he heard the clop of hooves getting louder. Thankfully, Cerberus understood the desperation in his owner's voice and whimpered slightly but backed away and closed the distance to the pony. Who at this point was only a few yards away from the bush.

“Finally! Here come get the ball now,” said the pony, before a sound in the direction Cerberus was facing caught her attention. Ethan on the other hand was screaming internally at himself. The sound in question was the loudest growl his stomach could have made, and at the worst possible time.

“Is anypony there?” asked the pony as she stepped closer to the treeline. Ethan immediately held his breath and prayed to whatever god ruled this world that she wouldn't follow through with her curiosity. After a few seconds of complete silence the pony mumbled under her breath, with Ethan catching what sounded like "don't have time for this”, before turning around to the dog currently chewing on a ball.

Ethan watched as the ball begin levitating in front of Cerberus's heads causing him to try and snag it from the air, but the ball always floated just out of reach at the last second. Soon enough they took off at a fast pace in the direction of Tartarus.

Ethan, knowing he'll have to follow them, quickly reached into his shirt and grabbed some probably-blueberries before devouring them and racing to catch up to the speedy duo.

'Risks be damned. I'm way to hungry for this shit.'

Back at camp

Tirek, who had been up for a while now, tapped his claws against his chin as he thought about where
the human could have gone.

'That fool is probably doing something useful and getting us food. Even perfect beings like myself need sustenance ever now and then... Still, it's pretty boring without him around. He can at least take insults and throw some back.' Tirek thought to himself as he began to poke out the charred sticks from their firepit.

Looking around, the Centaur tried to find something to cure his boredom, with minimal success. Minutes passed and Tirek's mind began to wander while laying in his tent.

'It should only be a few months before I get my powers back fully, but the question is if the human would truly follow my rule. I did promise to follow through with his no killing rule. So maybe he will. Might as well keep him around for a while regardless. He could be useful in the future.'

He tapped his claws together as he sneered. 'Those ponies on the other claw—especially those princesses—are going to be a real problem if they catch me early. Eh, worst comes to worst, I throw the fool at them and make a break for it. Cerberus seems to have taken a liking to him as well, so the mutt might actually have some use.'

Tirek chuckled darkly to himself at the prospect of using the princesses own guard dog against them. Suddenly, Tirek's stomach rumbled deeply causing him to grunt. The centaur shifted his gaze around hoping to catch sight of his fellow escapee.

After a few seconds, he slouched down with a sigh. Standing up, Tirek started wandering towards the treeline to go scavenge for nearby fruits.

Ethan

Ethan panted as he leaned forward to catch his breath. The sky was beginning to turn slightly orange as the sun neared the horizon. Having lost track of both Cerberus and the pony a while ago he relied on them sticking close to the forest they passed.

Once he caught his breath, Ethan slowly jogged only to pause as he hardly saw a purple blob on the horizon. Knowing it was that purple pony he went towards the trees and picked a particularly wide one to hide behind. This time around the pony seemed to be taking her time. Ethan almost wanted to peek out to check if she passed yet, but thought better of it.

Eventually the light clopping of hooves could be heard as she began passing him while mumbling to herself. Ethan took a risk and poked an eye around the tree to watch the pony. Her head was drooped slightly. She was no doubt tired from running for miles, and soot covered her.

'Huh wonder how she got so messy?'

Slightly debating to himself about whether or not to follow her for a while. Ethan nodded to himself and chose to follow, curious to see if what Tirek said about the ponies of Equestria had any relevance. Making sure he wouldn't be stepping on any leaves, Ethan started trailing a little ways behind her, silently hoping for something to happen.

The mysterious purple pony was still walking.

By this point the sun was half past the horizon, and Ethan was beginning to get tired. The pony seemed to finally notice how late it was (thank god) and stopped. She looked around before the human noticed her ears fall slightly and the pony trudged towards a nearby tree before laying down against it, resting her head on her hooves.

After a while of watching the pony, the stars were out and the moon glowed in the sky, Ethan slowly got closer to the pony and circled her to try and see if she was asleep. Noticing her eyes were closed, and her chest rose and fell at a steady pace.

Ethan was about to turn around and head back in the direction Cerberus was so he could get back to camp (No doubt Tirek is having a hissy fit about me being gone all day), but sudden movement from the pony caught his attention. She had curled into herself more, with her tail resting across her body now.

'That's kinda cute.' The human couldn't stop himself from thinking it, but a sudden gust of wind caused the pony to shiver slightly. Ethan looked on in disbelief as she continued to shiver and squirm. 'The irony right now is unreal. How is she the one who's cold? She has a coat of hair for crying out loud!'

Shaking his head, the human peered down at the shirt wrapped around his neck, then fruit he had inside it. Grinding his teeth slightly, Ethan took off the shirt and placed it on the ground before removing the now small amount of fruit inside. He undid the knot connecting the two sleeves and walked over to the shivering pony then put the shirt over her body, covering most of her, with her head and part of her butt the only things uncovered.

The pony seemed to somehow get even smaller as she turned her head and rested it on part of the shirt covering her. The human swore he saw her nostrils flare, but with the light from the moon being blocked by him, it made it hard to be entirely sure.

Ethan watched the pony for a few more minutes till she stopped shivering. Rolling his eyes and huffing loudly, he turned and started towards the fruit on the ground. Grabbing two apples, he placed them in front of her and began his trek to retrieve Cerberus.

Tartarus...

Ethan arrived at the massive gateway to Tartarus. Thankfully being able to take the same trail that led him away from them in the first place. Unlike pushing it open before, this time there seemed to be a weird hole in the middle of the gate to grab onto. Putting his hand inside, Ethan tried pulling the doors, but they didn't budge.

'Hmm seems that pony actually locked the door this time.'

Stepping back, the human looked at the weird symbols that surrounded the hole in the wall. Four diamonds made themselves apparent. Each one slightly raised out from the gates and on their own corner of a bigger diamond, with a hole in the middle of it. Ethan reached out a hand and touched the top diamond, attempting to push it inwards with no luck.

'Maybe if I turn it? Lefty loosey righty tighty, right?'

Turning the diamond left caused it to shift till it rotated one-eighty, then it glowed a blinding white. Smirking in triumph, he did the same with the rest of the diamonds and upon turning the last one the gates clicked and creaked open, forcing the human to take a step back.

Before the gates had even fully opened Cerberus was through the gap and tackling the human. Who shrieked at the massive dog taking him to the ground and covering him in slobber from rapid licks. “Okay! Okay! I get it! You missed me! I was pretty bored myself without someone to keep me company,” Ethan exclaimed in exasperation. Shoving the heads off him, he stood up and wiped off most of the saliva. Once cleaned, he made his way back through the gates to grab a particular something.

Once back inside Tartarus, Ethan looked around and saw the same creatures that him and Trek left behind yesterday. The human waved to a few of the creatures, getting a wave back from a couple, as he made his way towards Tirek's old cage. He reached the raised platform and started to search for a particular item that was forgotten on their initial leave.

Seeing the lunchbox next to all the broken bars on the ground He walked over to pick it up—checking to make sure his ice packs were still inside—and went back to the gates. On the way back out Ethan couldn't help but feel bad for the creatures he left in the cages. "I promise to let you guys out someday, but if too many of you are missing it could cause the ponies to start searching for Tirek. So please, just be patient. I'll try to be as fast as I can," He said to the locked up creatures, many of which nodded or roared in assurance.

Cerberus, who had, surprisingly, waited patiently by the gates, ran over to the human and lowered his heads to be easily pet. Ethan smiled at the gesture, but as he looked at Cerberus's slightly hunched form he couldn't help but notice just how large Cerberus was and how easy the dog could carry him. Wanting to give it a try, if only because Cerberus was much faster than the human, Ethan went ahead and asked. “Hey Cerb you uh, think I could ride you? I'm not exactly fat and you got some muscle on you so it shouldn't be too hard right? What d'yah say?”

Cerberus seemed to think on the request, all three heads looking towards one another. Ethan was slightly confounded by how expressive each head was, only reminding him just how different this world was from his own.

'How long have I been here anyways? It hasn't felt like too long, but Tirek did say Tartarus's time was warped. Who knows? I could've been here for thousands of years already and I wouldn't even know it. Come to think of it... I haven't really thought much about back home. I wonder how mom is doing... Man, I sucked at keeping contact with any of my family, but still, she probably misses me. It had been a few months since I last visited.'

Not wanting to get depressed thinking about his world, Ethan blocked the thoughts. Focusing on Cerberus, whose heads looked back to him, he watched as the guard dog turned and lowered himself. The head closest to him beckoned him towards his back.

A giddy feeling overtook him and Ethan closed the gap between them. Carefully grabbing the middle head's spiked collar, he got on slowly, so he didn't choke the middle head on accident, and threw one leg over Cerberus's back. Ethan kept his grasp on the collar and got comfortable.

“There we go. Okay, I should be good to go. You good Cerberus? I'm not digging into you at all am I?” Asked Ethan in concern. Cerberus just shook his heads and glanced back at his new occupant while taking the time to get adjusted to the foreign weight on his back. Said occupant waited patiently. He assumed this was the first time anything had rode on his back before.

After a couple more moments Cerberus was good to go, already beginning to walk in the direction of camp. Instead, Ethan decided to nudge him towards the path he took to get to Tartarus originally by giving a light pull to Cerberus's collar. The human had one last thing he needed to do before they returned to camp.

Ethan kept Cerberus along the forest where their camp was located, searching for something. As Cerberus continued forward Ethan barely managed to see what he was looking for. Pulling on the collar to get his noble steed to stop, the human hopped off and turned around to see the three heads of Cerberus looking at him curiously.

"Stay here for a sec. I just have to grab something quick,” said Ethan before he began moving further up the treeline, lunchbox in hand. Coming to a stop. Ethan gazed down in the low light and saw the berries he had left laying on the ground, some of them having gone missing. He shrugged and gathered what was left, placing everything but the couple of apples near the pony into the lunchbox, which was becoming slightly damp inside without the cool air of Tartarus preserving the ice packs.

After zipping the lunchbox back up. Ethan looked up and caught sight of the pony he had covered with his shirt. Walking closer, he noticed she had changed positions in her sleep. Somehow laying on her back with her hind legs splayed haphazardly. Her forelegs gripping the shirt covering her body in the crook of her legs. The apples he had placed earlier were still untouched.

Taking a moment, Ethan looked at her—actually looked at her—in the moonlight. Ignoring her lady bits, which were currently out on display, he saw the horn sticking out of her forehead.

'Tirek did tell me unicorns are a thing here. I wonder if he doesn't know of some of the creatures here... He did say he was locked up for a long time.'

Shaking off the thoughts, he continued his evaluation of the pony, now confirmed unicorn, in front of him. Besides the obvious size and color differences, it was fairly easy to tell these ponies were nothing like the ones on Earth. 'She probably reached just under half my height, maybe my chest if she was on her hind legs' Her muzzle was too short, and her mouth was a lot smaller. Her eyes were huge too, but the weirdest part was the weird butt tattoo that could be seen when he nudged one of her hind legs to cover herself. It looked like a pink star with a large white star hidden behind it, and a few more smaller white stars surrounding them.

'Maybe it's a cultural thing? Definitely isn't a branding, there's hair still over it. Its almost looks like it was printed on her ass. So definitely a butt tattoo then. Kinda kinky, but I'm not one to judge.'

Ethan giggled lightly to himself at his last thought before frowning when the purple unicorn suddenly shifted slightly, his shirt sliding off her partially. This made him all too aware of his shirtless status, it still wasn't very cold to the human, but that was his only shirt.

Moving forward, Ethan went to snatch the shirt from the sleeping unicorns grasp, but when he pulled on the shirt lightly he found her grip on it was much tighter than he'd think possible for one without hands. Giving slightly more effort only caused the sleeping unicorns face to scrunch up slightly in a cute way. Only for Ethan to panic as he noticed her eyes slowly beginning to open.

Thinking fast, he quickly but silently went around to the other side of the tree and peered around it at the unicorn, who now was beginning to sit up, the shirt slipping off her and piling by her legs. The unicorn yawned widely, before stiffening suddenly as she seemed to remember where she was sleeping.

Ethan held his breath as her ears shot up and swiveled in every direction possible while her head darted around as she searched for a non-existent predator. Ethan thanked god (again) that she wasn't in the mindset to think of looking up as she looked around, or else she would've seen the human's eyes peering at her.

After a few minutes of searching for nothing she seemed to relax and slowly laid back down. When she fully laid down she noticed the two apples in front of her causing her head to dart around one last time. Suddenly her stomach growled lightly, and if Ethan had more light, he would've seen the fiery blush that overtook the unicorn's cheeks. The human almost cracked up, but managed to hold it together, if barely.

The unicorn looked back towards the apples in front of her and a faint pink aura, almost imperceptable, came over the apple and the unicorn's horn, levitating it closer to her face. She gave the apple a quick look over and a sniff before taking a small bite. A small whinny was heard, if it wasn't quiet besides the natural sounds of night creatures, he easily would've missed it. A small smile came to the human's lips as he watched her enjoy the apples he left her.

Once she finished, the unicorn curled back up, causing the shirt by her legs to move slightly, catching her attention. Her horn glowed again, but this time nothing seemed to happen. Ethan couldn't see the unicorn's face from his position, and was too nervous about making noise to move, but he could assume she looked confused at the very least.

He watched as she tried again with the same results, and on the third try she huffed and gave up. Instead opting to grab it by hoof, causing Ethan to smirk at her laziness. Bringing it closer to her face the unicorn looked at it intently from all angles, trying to figure out why her magic wasn't working on it. As she began turning it around, a loud yawn cut her off. Ethan saw her give what looked kind of like a shrug and laid her head down, using the shirt as a blanket again. The human saw her nostrils flare as one of the sleeves settled near her muzzle, and saw a small smile come on her face as she snuggled the shirt more before falling asleep.

'Oh boy, I think I might've hit it off a little too well with her; even if she doesn't know it yet. Tirek would never let me live this down if he found out about this. Even ignoring the fact he hates ponies with a passion. Although I guess he did get imprisoned by them, regardless of whether or not he deserved it. Which he totally did, I was a little surprised he told me about his brother and all that other crap. The stuff about the ponies being disgusting power freaks doesn't seem to be very true so far... Although I am curious who those two princesses are, cause if he's as powerful as he said he is then I can only imagine how powerful those two are to be able to imprison him in the first place.'

Realizing he got lost in thought, Ethan focused on the sleeping unicorn before slowly reaching for his lunchbox and removing the berries he had left. Setting them all in a small pile in front of the unicorn.

Ethan made his way back towards Cerberus, who seems to have wandered off. Shrugging, the human walked back towards the direction of Tartarus hoping to see Cerberus nearby. Thankfully the guard dog only seemed to have found a small stream just a ways away, where all three heads were currently drinking out of. The stream in question made Ethan curious if it was the same small river that passed through their camp. If it was... then they just found their lucky break.

Deciding to take the risk, he got Cerberus's attention by patting his side. "Hey I think we just found a shortcut back to camp. What do you say we try it out?” asked Ethan before yawning, the high amount of running today was finally catching up to him. Cerberus shrugged in response and lowered himself for the human, who quickly got on.

Ethan pointed in the direction of the river moving away from Tartarus. “We should go that way since our camp is pretty far from Tartarus. I think you'll be okay to squeeze through the trees if you walk over the stream until it gets too wide to walk over,” he said while giving a slight pull to Cerberus's collar, who began walking in that direction.

The two had finally arrived at camp. Ethan was surprised to see embers from a recent fire still lit in the campfire. Even more surprising was Tirek—who was fast asleep in his tent—had gone out and gathered enough berries to last the two of them for days.

'Eh I probably shouldn't get my hopes up. He'll definitely be pissed when we talk tomorrow.'

After dismounting Cerberus he wandered over to his own tent, but heard murmuring coming from Tirek's tent. Getting curious, Ethan moved closer to hear what was being said. Only to crack up at hearing Tirek mumbling about, "Gram Gram”.

Shaking his head, he slipped underneath his tent, suddenly wishing he had his shirt because the grass was slightly itchy. Putting up with it, Ethan thought back onto all that had happened that day and couldn't help but smile and shift to get a better position. Only for his eyes to suddenly shoot open and a horrified look plastered his face.

'Oh my god... I just stalked a pony. Jesus I'm such a fucking weirdo.'

Chapter 4: A New Addition

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“So Tirek, I know you said that dragons are a thing here but uh... are there supposed to be that many in the sky at one time?” Asked Ethan, sweat gathering on his face as he watched hundreds of dragons fly over the opening in the tree line of their temporary home.

“Hmm? Oh, that. That is just the migration for them. They go off to the distant volcanoes to do whatever giant, smelly creatures like to do in their free time. Though you should already know what that is, given that you are one.” replied Tirek, who was laying next to their new food basket and eating a few of the berries inside.

Upon hearing volcanoes Ethan's interest suddenly peaked, ignoring the jab sent his way. Sitting up from his lounging position on top of Cerberus–who was quietly napping–he looked towards Tirek. “So you're telling me, dragons migrate like birds and that we could follow them and potentially see some volcanoes?” He asked with wonder and mischief coloring his tone.

“If one was so inclined to, yes.”

Ethan's face formed into a wide smile, “Hey, Tirek. I think I know what we're going to do today.”

Tirek glanced at the human and grunted, “If you are implying we chase down a bunch of fire breathing lizards then you're even stupider than I thought.”

“Aww come on, dude! Where's your sense of adventure? We've done nothing but gather berries and wood. Don't you get tired of that? I figured you especially would wanna do something after being locked away for god knows how long,” said Ethan while trying his best at puppy eyes, failing spectacularly. Tirek just rolled his eyes and shook his head causing the human to huff heatedly.

“Fine be that way then. I'll just go without you. So, don't be sad if I never come back or you miss out on something really cooool~.”

“I think I'll survive.” Tirek said flatly, not even bothering to look in Ethan's direction.

“Whatever you say dude. I don't know how long I'll be, but just in case I'm going to bring a few days worth of food.” Ethan jumped down from Cerberus's back and made his way over to the food basket, grabbing his lunchbox on the way. Filling it with the various fruits they found, he zipped it back up and went towards Cerberus.

Once next to the giant dog, Ethan attempted to awake him. At first he tried to nudge the dog awake, but that only caused him to roll over. Switching tactics, the human began shouting at Cerberus, “Hey Cerb! Come on! It's time to go on an adventure!” Instead of getting up, one of Cerberus's heads peeked at Ethan with bloodshot eyes. Ethan smiled and waved. In return, the head sneezed and covered the human's head in dog snot. Tirek, having watched the whole exchange, laughed at Ethan's misfortune.

“So, that's how it is, huh boy?” Ethan said with closed eyes. Making his way towards the small river, he dunked his head under the surface of the water to clean his face. After a few seconds, he brought his hands underneath the surface to vigorously scrub his face. Once clean, Ethan stood back up and brushed his hair out of his eyes; giving Cerberus the stink eye all the while.

“Fine, fine. I'll go alone. I needed some alone time anyways.” Ethan justified. “Well that and Cerberus is a little too noticeable,” Ethan mumbled to himself. He thought about his plan for several more seconds before looking towards the dragons in the sky and deciding it was time to go.

“Well I'll be off then. Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone 'kay?” Ethan said while beginning to walk in the direction of the migration. Just before hitting the tree line he turned back to give a mini-salute to Tirek who–having decided to be generous–gave a slight nod back causing Ethan to stumble as he turned away, a smile on his face.

'I can't believe he actually did something back. If this keeps up he'll be calling me a friend in no time. Cause damn do I need one right now...' Ethan sighed deeply, feeling his muscles relax as his shoulders dropped. 'It's just not the same unless he calls me his friend. Even if I already consider him one.'

Tirek

'Hm yes, let him think that I am beginning to warm up to him. As if I Lord Tirek am someone who calls lesser beings friends! Allies possibly but never friends. Friendship is for those ponies. Those ponies who will get what is coming to them soon enough... I just need more time.'

Tirek chuckled darkly to himself as he thought about his plans for the future when a traitorous whisper was heard in the back of his mind. 'But what if things changed?'

Tirek paused. Disgust began to fill him as he thought more on the whisper. Disgust in himself for thinking such things. He promptly squashed the thought and chose to ignore what was undoubtedly heard. 'There is no hope for change. Everything will eventually fall into place beneath my hoof as it should.'

Peeking into the food basket, Tirek estimated it to be half full at most. Deciding to fill it for the future, Tirek got onto his hooves and began wandering towards the tree line on the opposite side from where Ethan left. Feeling the cool late-morning breeze lightly ruffle his hair, he took a deep breath and slowly released it to clear his head of any more intrusive thoughts.

The moon shone brightly over a hill. The multitude of stars in the sky helped to illuminate the night. Suddenly, a hand shot out from the top of the hill and desperately grasped at the ground. A few moments later the gasping face of Equestria's resident human popped over as well. After several days of travel, Ethan almost couldn't believe he was still alive. He had traveled through all types of weather: rain, snow, blazing heat and yet his journey still continues.

'If I had known it was going to suck this bad I would've stayed with Tirek back at camp. The fact I survived that snow storm... thank god those mountain goats were warm because I surely would've been a popsicle. Thankfully it wasn't very large. I figured I'd be stuck there for at least a day but it only took like two hours if I had to guess. Or maybe my sense of time is warped... who knows?'

After catching his breath Ethan began walking down the mighty mountain(in reality a small hill) and saw what looked to be volcanoes in the distance with a trail leading through a forest in their direction.

'Hmm well that's pretty convenient. Might as well go through the forest to get a better view then head out. No point in risking staying here for too long in case one of those volcanoes decides to erupt.' Walking down the path Ethan looked around to keep himself entertained, humming slightly when he noticed what looked to be a bird nest in a tree with two birds watching him.

'Wow those are some of the prettiest birds I've ever seen' Ethan thought to himself. The birds were a fiery shade of red with orange accents on their wings and head. The smaller of the two, a female if the extra pink coloring on her wings was any indicator, kept an especially vigilante eye on the passing human. Looking into her eyes Ethan frowned slightly when he saw her eyes narrow.

'Jeez, didn't realize I was breaking the law just walking past a nest. Night or not.'

Shaking his head, Ethan looked ahead and kept walking away from the nest, not wishing be attacked by a bird. But before he could get too far he heard shouting coming from the direction of the nest. Stepping off the path Ethan made his way through the bushes, making sure to avoid making too much noise, and pulled open a hole through a bush to look towards the shouting.

The first thing Ethan saw was a small purple dragon with a pale green underbelly and green spines throwing a decent sized rock at the nest. Only realizing his mistake when the male bird peeked over the edge with a welt forming on the top of his head. Turning around, the small purple dragon started running in the opposite direction of the nest, screaming when the two birds gave chase, their wings ablaze. Ethan went to step out of the bush and follow but before he could, three dragons just slightly taller than him flew out of bush across the clearing from him and towards the unguarded nest.

Being unable to see what they were looking at, and having no way to fight flying creatures, Ethan was forced to wait for a good opportunity to reveal himself. He listened in as they talked between one another.

“What the!?” One voice said in confusion.

“The eggs have hatched,” said another nasally one.

“What do we do now?” A final deep voice questioned.

The first voice replied, “We take the hatchlings, of course.”

Having heard enough Ethan immediately stepped out of the bush and opened his mouth to shout but paused when instead of seeing three dragons attempting to take baby birds, he saw the birds making a fool out of a muscular red dragon. They easily avoided his grasps and even managed to tangle him in his own limbs, causing him to fall into the nest. Flying a few feet away, they—to the shock of Ethan—stuck their tongues out at the dragons then raced off.

With a shout of, “GET THEM!” from the now untangled red dragon, a fat brown dragon and a lanky purple dragon with blonde spines gave chase. The red dragon standing up and joining them not a second later, but not before ruining the nest and knocking a hidden egg from it. Ethan, seeing the egg falling, sprinted to the tree and managed to catch it a split second before it fell into a bush.

Ethan sighed softly and looked at the small two colored egg in his hands. Suddenly, a bright flash of light through the trees caught his attention and he looked in the direction of it, but the human couldn't see what was going on. Before he could figure out what was causing the light, it was over and Ethan caught sight of the two birds from earlier and three hatchlings flying away.

'Oh no...' Feeling a sense of dread build up in his stomach he looked back down at the egg and knew what needed to be done.

'I'm sorry this happened to you little one. If it weren't for those dragons you might've been able to live a normal life. But alas it is not to be. Don't you worry though, Papa Ethan will take care of you.' As soon as he finished the thought Ethan could hear the sounds of footsteps approaching and he began sprinting in the opposite direction. Ethan sprinted for several minutes, adrenaline keeping him going for much long than even he thought possible.

He only stopped sprinting once he managed to make his way back up the small hill he used to get to the forest in the first place. As soon as he stopped, Ethan fell to his knees and panted to catch his breath while keeping the egg close to his chest so it would remain warm in the cooler night air. Sweat dripped from his eyebrow and slightly stung his eyes forcing the human to reach a hand up to wipe them off.

Eventually, Ethan managed to stand back up and after checking his surroundings to make sure no one was watching him, began making his way back the way he came, legs aching in protest with each step, but fully intent on making it back to camp before the egg hatched.

'Could be any day now that this little buddy will hatch. Although what's a good name for a bird? Actually what type of bird even were those? Certainly nothing I've seen before. Maybe a type of macaw? But then what was that flash of light? There was also the flaming wings from the parents too. Hmm... just more things to ask Tirek when I get back from this little vacation, if I can even call it that anymore.' He thought with a sigh.

The Next Day

Ethan was walking through the desert hills in the blazing sun when he felt it, a slight twitch. His eyes shot down to the egg in his hands and waited. Seconds passed before the human both saw and felt the egg move. Looking around Ethan couldn't find much of anything that could be used as a make shift nest. Panic began to set in as the shakes got harder and harder to handle safely.

'Come on, Come on. Think! There has got to be something to use. It doesn't even need... to be... oh...' Feeling like an idiot Ethan looked down at his jeans. There were dirt spots on them and some holes from all the rough treatment, but it was better than nothing. Slipping off his shoes Ethan quickly unbuttoned his pants and worked them off his legs with one hand. Once it was off he immediately set to making a make-shift nest.

Once up to snuff, Ethan set the now almost violently shaking egg into the nest and waited. The shaking continued to get more and more rigorous before cracks began to form on the surface. They spider-webbed across the shell before suddenly the shaking stopped. Fearing the worst, Ethan began grabbing at some of the looser pieces and helped break the shell. Soon enough a large hole was made in the shell and a soft chirp sounded through the hole.

Ethan's hand froze just shy of the hole and he watched as a small orange head poked out and looked at him with bright yellow eyes. Ethan licked his lips and gave a slight smile at the new arrival. Seeing this, the chick chirped again and slightly nuzzled his hand. Ethan's heart couldn't help but melt and he brought his other hand up to the shell to break off the rest of the pieces and slowly take the chick into his hands. Bringing it up to his face, Ethan got a good look at his new companion.

The chick had touches of pink on the ridge of her beak and circling her eyes like eye liner. He glanced at her body and wings seeing the fiery orange covering most of her head, upper neck and chest. Her lower chest had an almost minuscule line of pink feathers wrapping around from the back of her neck, almost looking like a necklace, with red feathers encompassing the rest of her body down to her claws and tail, the ends of both were also bright pink. The edge of her wings had the same bright pink coloration running against them with red feathers trailing before they faded into a dark orange hue.

'Given the pink feathers I think it's safe to assume this is a girl, right? But what's a good bird name for her? PeeWee? Nope. Flamewing? Too obvious. Ah whatever, I'll name her once I know more about her.'

“Hello, little one,” Ethan said gently. The chick looked at him, her eyes twinkling in confusion as she looked at the mysterious creature before her. “How would you like come with me?” He asked.

Silence lingered for a moment as the chick thought. Suddenly, she seemed to get brighter and chirped before nodding her head repeatedly. It still kind of freaked him out that the animals here seemed sentient but he was working towards accepting it.

'Besides, it's kinda cool knowing that the animals here are actually sentient and can understand me.' Ethan thought with a smile.

Bringing his hand towards his shoulder so his new rider was level with it; Ethan then nudged the chick who quickly understood what he wanted and walked onto his shoulder. Ethan could feel the press of her small talons on his skin but dealt with it as he felt her rubbing he head slightly on his facial hair.

With her now out of his hands, he was able to brush the shells covering his pants off and threw them back on along with his shoes. With his legs now recovered, Ethan glanced at his companion who nuzzled his cheek causing him to smile.

“Welp, I think its about time we got back on the road to get home, huh?” Ethan asked with amusement lingering in his voice as he began walking back up the mountain he previously climbed days before.

Later...

Ethan felt miserable.

It was the simplest way to put it. After traversing through the heat he now was faced with the cold. It hadn't bothered him as much as it should have though, especially since he was still shirtless. He still shivered though.

He had brought his chick into his arms when they first began to travel through the cold. She had resisted at first, much to Ethan's confusion, but thankfully she gave in and quickly took to spreading out her wings against his chest. It helped at first, oddly enough. Yet after over an hour of walking through the snow, and roughly an hour left to go, the extra contact just didn't seem like enough. There were times though when the snow around them melted for no apparent reason to the human. It was at these times when the little chick would seem to glow.

Ethan was no fool and could tell some kind of connection was there, but he didn't know what it was exactly. He would just need to ask Tirek more about this world and his affect on it.

'The snow outta be melting due to heat, but I can't feel anything besides the slight chill in the air. This chick though, she seems special, her glow coincides with the melting, making me think she is getting hotter. Reminds me of Phoenixes from my world. Well... at least the mythological kind. I don't think Earth ever had actual phoenixes flying around.'

As Ethan finished the thought, he watched as the little one in his arms grew brighter than ever, almost forcing Ethan to look away from how bright she suddenly got. He could see wisps of what looked to be flame begin to come from her outstretched wings and her pink accents glowed like a fire.

'I'll be damned if I don't acknowledge what I am seeing right now. She, She was burning! She was literally on fire! Just like a Phoenix would. You know maybe that would be a good name, Pheonix. Wait... no, that's too masculine. Ugh at this rate I might as well name her after a god or something...' Ethan thought, before pausing mentally.

'You know? That doesn't actually sound like a terrible idea. Way to go Ethan, finally putting that brain to good use. But who? I don't know too many gods besides Greek or other popular ones, much less goddesses. Hmm... Well I know Athena, Iris, Aphrodite, Artemis... What's with all the names that start with A? Besides those maybe Persephone? Hmm... That has a nice ring to it actually. Persephone. I like it.'

“Persephone...” said Ethan, causing the bird in his arms to look up at him, confused. Ethan smiled slightly, “I was just thinking of names for you. I think she was the goddess of spring or something like that. Ushering in the warmer weather for crops and stuff to grow.” Ethan shot a side long look at the snow rapidly melting around them. “Almost like how you're melting the snow around us. Married to a badass too.”

Hearing a slight caw, Ethan looked back down into his arms and watched her smile and nod, getting him to smile too. “Persephone it is then sweetie.”

'Well one problem down, now to just fight my way back home. Remember, this is the hardest part of the trip after this it'll be smooth sailing.' With renewed faith in himself, Ethan shook off the slight chill he felt and moved faster, hoping to get home as soon as possible.

Three Days Later (Tirek)

'What is taking that idiot so long? Its been days and he's still not back. Hmm... maybe he finally went and died? It would save me the future planning at the very least, but then Cerberus might not follow my orders over the princesses' Tirek thought as he sent a small glare over to the three-headed dog, all three of which were asleep near a small tree they had ripped from the ground at the treeline.

Seeing his glare have no effect, Tirek sighed and looked at the fire pit he had put together with larger stones he found. Some of the thick sticks inside were still smoldering from the fire that had been alive not five minutes prior to light the camp.

'I forgot how boring it was without Ethan's presence. That magic blocking-absorbing-nullifying thing at least made it easy to ignore the fact that I was very much alone for hundreds of years. It sickens me just thinking about it, but even all-powerful beings like myself can get a little bored without company.' He thought to himself absent mindedly.

Tirek continued to let his mind wander for some time before his attention was grabbed by a rustling sound coming from the nearby treeline. Looking towards the bushes in the direction of the sound, Tirek slowly rose from his sitting position and stood tense. The sounds got louder as whatever was making the noise got closer and closer to the camp. Eventually a small creature popped out from the bushes and it only took the centaur a split second to recognize it before his eyes slammed shut and he turned away.

An adult cockatrice had jumped out of the bushes and had Tirek looked for a second longer he would have seen it didn't hold the usual fearsome look of a predator that can turn anything that looks into its eyes to stone. Instead it's eyes held fear as it scrambled towards the nearest place to hide, which happened to be Ethan's tent.

Several quiet seconds passed before Tirek finally took a peak and heard the clucks of the creature inside the tent. A moment later, significantly louder and faster rustling came from the bushes the cockatrice came from and Tirek nearly dove under his tent to get away from the monster that could scare a cockatrice.

But instead of a monster, a familiar biped shot out of the bushes holding a small stone chick in his hands with a manic look on his face.

“WHERE IS IT!? I'M GONNA KILL THAT MOTHERFUCKING CHICKEN, I SWEAR TO GOD!” Ethan shouted at the top of his lungs. Tirek blinked a few times and pointed at his newly arrived pal's tent. The human began smiling, but instead of happiness it was a smile of pure malicious intent, as he began to slowly walk towards his tent.

“Oh well, looks like it got away. Such a shame too, I just wanted to say hello and give it a nice gift,” Ethan said as he got closer to the tent. Coming up to it's side, Ethan took notice of the shaking his tent seemed to be doing. “Well Tirek, I'm really tired now so I'm just going to sleep inside my empty tent. The tent that certainly won't have any soon-to-be dead chickens in it or anything right?” As soon as Ethan finished his sentence the tent noticeably jumped and a choked sound could be heard from inside.

Ethan slowly started yawning and methodically raised both his arms above his head, with the chick held securely in his left hand. After a moments pause he let his right arm swing down as hard as it could, knocking away all the branches and leaves that made up his tent revealing the shaking cockatrice.

The human glared and his smile turned near psychotic, freezing the cockatrice in it's place. He looked into the chicken head's eyes and reached out gripping its neck tightly and rose it to eye level; with the cockatrice screeching and flailing all the while.

“I'm only going to ask this of you once. Turn back my chick or else you will become tonight's dinner.” Ethan said in a deathly calm voice. The cockatrice's eyes only widened in fear at his 'question'. “And I don't know about Tirek over there, but I've never had chicken-dragon-thing meat before so I'm willing to give it a try,” Ethan held up his left hand which still held the stoned chick. “Turn her back right now.” The cockatrice rapidly nodded it's head and deactivated the stoning on Persephone, who fell over as soon as she was released.

“Good chicken. Now, I am a man of my word, so here,” Ethan set down the cockatrice and faced it back towards the tree line giving it a few nudges on the rump just to be sure it got moving. “You have a five minute head start to run away before I come and eat you alive. And it started two minutes ago when I came to camp. So you better get going because I'm pretty fast when I wanna be.” The cockatrice nearly jumped and took off, almost faster than the eye could see, through the tree line of their camp.

Ethan smirked, but it was quickly dropped when he felt movement from his hand. Looking at Persephone, who struggled to stand up for a moment before regaining her balance, he rubbed along her back causing her to give him a questioning look.

“Oh don't worry, nothing really happened except that we arrived while you were asleep.” Ethan stated as he gave a pointed look at Tirek to make sure he didn't cause her to freak out about almost getting eaten. The centaur rolled his eyes but gave a subtle nod. Ethan smiled in thanks and brought Persephone up to his hair so she could catch a ride.

“So Tirek... Do you know what type of bird Persephone is?” Asked Ethan as he gestured towards the chick on his head; who slightly glared at Tirek and snuggled into Ethan's hair further.

Finding amusement in the bird's attitude, Tirek smirked as he walked closer to inspect her.

"Hmm... Interesting. Very interesting." He rubbed his chin introspectively. "Where did you find such a fine specimen like this?" Tirek asked with a glance towards Ethan before going back to his inspection of Persephone.

Ethan raised an eyebrow quizzically, "What do you mean? I found her nest in a forest near the dragon's volcanoes. She had two parents guarding the nest but some dumbass dragons came and fucked with the birds. She was a late bloomer, so her siblings hatched and managed to get away. Thankfully, the dragons were too busy chasing her siblings back towards their parents so they didn't notice her which must've been more hidden." Ethan said while giving Persephone a light scratch on her neck, causing her to coo and puff up her feathers.

Watching the interaction, Tirek reached out, attempting to touch the bird lightly and gauge her reaction. But just as his claw was about to reach her she focused on his claw and huffed, causing her feathers to glow momentarily. Feeling the sudden heat, Tirek yanked back his claw and nursed the slight burning feeling. Glaring at Persephone as she cooled off, the glow leaving her body.

While he didn't get to touch her, he did pick up on the fact Ethan was completely unharmed. Further reinforcing his belief in Ethan's immunity, or blocking of magic.

The human huffed, amused with Tirek and Persphone's first interaction together. Knowing that the two would keep life here interesting for as long as they're together. She may have been in his life on Equestria for a very short period so far, but she was already growing on him.

'Maybe she'll be able to keep him in line... Now if only I could figure out who his gram gram is, she'd be able to straighten him out real-' A yawn cut off his train of thought. Ethan looked back at the remains of his tent and cringed. Realizing his theatrics cost him his shelter.

'It was damn worth it though.' He thought with a smirk as he began collecting what he could to rebuild the tent. The process was slow going though since he kept making sure Persephone wouldn't fall from his hair.

"She's a pheonix. Very rare species of bird, capable of fire and light magic to a certain degree and almost completely immortal age wise," Tirek said as he started making his way over to his tent to rest for the night and to avoid being burned again. "Though, I'm surprised her parents haven't attempted to find her, they are very territorial, but if your story holds true they might think she was killed by the dragons."

Ethan could feel Persephone hug the top of his head with her wings. Her claws slightly poking his scalp, almost making him yelp. He reached up and held out his hand in front of her. Feeling her walk onto his hand he brought her down to eye level.

"I want you to be honest with me," Ethan said seriously. Persephone got the message as she straightened up and focused completely on him. "Do you want me to take you back to your nest?" He asked, a small selfish part of him hoping she would say no.

She looked down in contemplation, several moments passed before she took a noticeably deep breath and her feathers glowed slightly. She looked up with a razor sharp look in her eyes and shook her head firmly.

Ethan felt a smile tug at his lips and he brought her to his chest to give her a pseudo-hug since he didn't want to crush her. "Just what I wanted to hear. Welcome to the family, and don't mind the giant drooling animal, we have Cerberus from Tartarus keeping him in check," Ethan whispered, getting a smile from Persephone.

He looked at his rebuilt tent. It was a little more than some twigs barely keeping themselves held up, but it would do for tonight. Climbing in, he laid on his back to allow Persephone to sleep on his chest. It wasn't his preferred means of sleeping, but he didn't want her sleeping on the ground.

"Survival tip. Don't catch the tent on fire. It's not much but it's better than nothing at all." Ethan teased lightly, with the pheonix nodded softly in response as she got comfortable. It wasn't long before Ethan closed his eyes and he got the first real rest since leaving for the dragon migration, Persephone following him quickly after.

Neither him nor Persephone felt the piercing gaze of Tirek as he watched them fall asleep, yet another plan formulating in his head as he let a malicious smile pull at his lips.

Author's Notes:

Yes, I'm alive. No, I don't have any excuses besides being lazy, but I was working and reworking this chapter and the first four for a while now, making adjustments here and there, fixing the pacing etc. Some of you might have noticed. I changed up my routine and now am able to work on writing a lot more than I was before so it won't take me another year *cough*three*cough* for the next chapter. Hopefully.

I do feel bad though leaving the story on hiatus for so long. I was pretty active on the site still and I read some of the more popular fictions right now that update every few days or weeks and thought to myself, "man these people do this like its nothing and here I am nearly leaving my story to die" so I decided to shape up and batten down the hatches so to speak.

Chapter 5: The One with No Emotions

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Several months have passed since the dragon migration and the overall mood of the group currently residing in the forests of the Smokey Mountains has only gotten better since Persephone joined. Better for the only resident human in Equestria that is. Tirek, on the other hand, has only been subjected to torment far worse than his time in Tartarus.

Fortunately, today seemed to be a relatively calm day, to the joy of the centaur, who was currently leaning against a tree while eating an apple. He watched as Ethan performed various stretches with a self made body length wooden staff. One would almost call him graceful as he shifted from pose to pose, controlling his breathing all the while.

Persephone and Cerberus were currently keeping themselves busy by attempting to draw on the ground in an area Persephone had previously burned on accident. It also happened to be the old location of Ethan's tent, but the human had yet to elaborate on the sudden moving of his tent overnight.

The day had yet to have anything interesting happen, as was the same with the majority of their days. But with each passing day, Tirek could feel his powers slowly beginning to reveal themselves. The most recent of which was his magical awareness, because what was the point in being able to take magic from things if you couldn't tell how much magic something had? He could feel the large amounts of magical power from both Persephone and Cerberus, which was expected, but the amount they had still gave him pause.

Ethan though, was another conundrum entirely.

Tirek knew he wouldn't get the same feel from Ethan as the rest of the creatures in Equestria, given that his body doesn't react at all with magic. Yet, the general lack of any magic whatsoever on his body took a while to get used to. If Tirek closed his eyes, he could feel general magical presences and accurately guess their location. Whereas the human he could pinpoint exactly where he was at any point within his range of magical perception, simply because of the sheer lack of anything magical where he stands.

Even when Persephone was in his hair, her magical aura would shift around the human completely, but no magic seeped into his form. Tirek had hypothesized about the potential benefits this could have. The most prominent of which was using him as a magical shield, one that, most likely, wouldn't be capable of breaking. The only issue with that plan was having Ethan's consent with using him in such a way, since magic wouldn't be capable of subduing him. Not that that would stop him from trying if he was against the idea.

"Hey, Tirek? Did you also get a weird feeling just now?" Ethan asked, having come to a stop in his stretches to peer through the hole in the tree line, with Persephone and Cerberus joining him. Unfortunately, the trees were too tall to really see anything other than things directly above their clearing.

Tirek focused on his surroundings, attempting to find what Ethan was asking about. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and pushed his magical sense outwards as much as he could. Sweat accumulated on his brow as he focused for several seconds, nothing seeming out of the ordinary. Just as Tirek was going to tell Ethan off, he suddenly felt a very large magical influx occurring from the direction of Canterlot.

"Holy Shit!" Ethan shouted, causing Tirek to open his eyes and look up towards the sky. A massive purple wave of magic was shooting across the sky, carrying along with it hundreds of black figures. Several seconds passed before the wave of magic dissipated, but the black figures continued to be blasted away from Canterlot.

'It seems those Changelings have reappeared in Equestria. Tirek thought, continually amused by the Changeling's repeated failures at taking over Equestria throughout the years, having heard many stories of the creatures when he was growing up.

Cerberus's pounding steps could be heard coming in his direction and Tirek looked down to see Ethan coming closer with Persephone resting in his hair like usual. A headache started to form in preparation for the questions he was bound to be asked.

"That... was something else. What the fuck is strong enough to launch all those things that far?" The human asked as he got close to the centaur, curious and slightly concerned that there are things so powerful in Equestria.

"Knowing those ponies," Tirek spat. "It probably had something to do with the power of 'love and friendship', bah" Tirek sharply waved a claw.

"They have an ultra powerful weapon that uses love and friendship to work? That's... kind of lame actually, and really cliché too," Ethan said, disappointed by the reasoning behind such powerful looking magic.

'It couldn't have been some ultra powered technology or one of the princesses letting loose... No, it had to be love and friendship, because of course it is.' Ethan thought to himself as he stopped near Tirek, sitting down on the ground in front of him. He reached up to his hair and held out his hand, feeling Persephone step onto his palm. Pulling her down to his lap, he let her jump from his hand and get comfortable. Cerberus layed down just behind Ethan.

"You know... from my world the power of friendship is a more grounded concept. Its simply used as an alternate means of saying work with others is easier than work on your own. The better you work with others, the better you'll be overall," Ethan sighed. "It's still a lot to adjust to, yah know? The fact that friendship is actually the reason things are defeated. Or that upholding strong virtues of self gives you access to the most power weapon on this planet. Those 'Elements of Harmony' you briefly mentioned back in Tartarus," he finished as he gently pet the phoenix in his lap.

Tirek stared at the human for several seconds. "I might as well explain what they are in more detail. You may be a buffoon, but at least you can be a knowledgeable one," Tirek said with a smirk, causing Ethan to flip him off.

"The Elements of Harmony are quite literally the jewels of the ponies. They are one of the most dangerous things in Equestria; capable of defeating any creature, no matter how powerful. They only have two weaknesses: one being that they must all be used together, even just one missing leads to the jewels being just that, jewels. While the other is that the individual or group must embody one of the elements. It matters not whether one of them imbodies only two of the elements and four others embody only one. It just matters that they're all shown. At least... that is what my brother told me long ago, before he betrayed me and helped those princesses imprison me," The centaur finished his explanation and just before Ethan could ask another question their attention was taken by a sudden buzzing sound in the distance.

Quickly standing up, the group all turned to face the sound as it got progressively louder with each second. Cerberus started growling and Persephone began to glow on Ethan's shoulder, preparing for a fight. Several seconds passed but just as suddenly as it came the buzzing sound stopped.

Tension filled the air, the silent standoff stretching on as they waited for any kind of sign as to what was coming.

*CRACK*

Everyone whipped around to face the nearby tree line behind them. Tirek couldn't feel any magical fluctuations though, which meant that the creature could either hide it's magical presence or that the creature was so weak it was near indistinguishable from the magic given off from the environment. He knew which he would prefer now that he was at the front of the group instead of the giant guard dog and the pheonix.

Tirek continued to slowly scan the tree line, looking for any kind of movement. Multiple scans of the tree line resulted in nothing though. Taking the opportunity, he motioned for Ethan to step up next to him. The human making sure to hide the sounds of his footsteps, so as to not make the creature aware of his and Persephone's presence getting closer.

After stopping next to Tirek, the human glanced questioningly at the Centaur, who took a few steps backwards while gesturing him forward. Ethan gave Tirek the stink eye and rolled his eyes as Tirek shrugged his shoulders with a smirk.

Getting an idea, Ethan looked at Persephone, who was watching the tree line like a hawk. Giving her a slight poke, she looked at him. Ethan brought his hands together in front of them and made and explosion motion with his hands, with a silent boom on his lips.

Understanding what he wanted, Persephone cracked her neck and glowed brighter, feeling excited about what was to come. Flapping her wings a few times, Persephone suddenly shot off of Ethan's shoulder and beelined through the trees, hoping to catch the intruder off guard.

It only took a few seconds for Ethan, Tirek and Cerberus to hear a girlish scream nearby and rapid movement coming towards them. A black figure, which Tirek recognized as a changeling, burst out from the bushes near the tree line with a fire lit at the end of it's fibrous tail. Before any of them could make a move towards the creature, buzzing could be heard as the creature took flight straight towards the river. The group watched as it dove straight underneath the water to quickly put out the fire on it's tail.

Persephone gracefully flew out from the tree line and landed back onto Ethan's shoulder, joining the group as they walked close to the edge of the water to greet their new guest.

The changeling pulled up from the water, coughing and gasping for air, only for a throat being cleared to get their attention. Looking up, the changeling felt it's heart sink as six pairs of eyes bored through their chitin.

"I surrender!" The changeling said as it threw it's front legs into the air.

Ethan let out a snort, amused by the changeling's action and dropped his guard.

"Well... that was quick." Ethan clapped his hands together. "First things first then. What is your name and what are you?" Ethan asked the changeling. "Oh, hold on," Ethan said and turned to Tirek. "Tirek?" The centaur raised a brow in response. "Go grab some vine to tie them up with," Ethan ordered, Tirek tsked but did as he asked, silently agreeing that it was a good idea.

With Tirek walking away, Ethan turned to look at the changeling, one of the creatures Tirek had told him about in their time together in Tartarus.

"Please continue. I have questions and you're not exactly in a position to not answer them are you?" Ethan rhetorically asked as he gestured to Cerberus and Persephone, with the changeling rapidly nodding it's head in response.

"M-my name is Pupa (Pew-Pa), sir. I'm a ch-changeling," The now named changeling answered shakily.

"I already knew that, the changeling part at least. I simply acted like I didn't know what you were to see whether or not you'd lie, even when captured," Ethan explained as he waved off Cerberus and ran his hand down Persephone's back to get her to cool off.

"Well, Pupa, it seems that it's your lucky day. You're not gonna get killed anytime soon, because quite frankly, it's boring in this clearing we call home and you seem like an interesting individual," Ethan said with a smile. Pupa gazed at him with her large solid blue eyes, taking some time to process what she was just told.

"Why?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

Ethan gave her a strange look, "What do you mean why? I just told you the why."

"No no no, you don't understand... I'm a changeling. Insect pony that feeds off of emotions? I can even show you," Pupa said as she stepped out of the water, walking closer to Ethan. Opening her mouth, a green mist reached for Ethan, but before it connected to him it sharply turned upwards and towards Persephone instead. The pheonix let out a panicked chirp as she felt the mist hit, feeling her emotions getting slowly drained.

The mist cut off near instantly. Persephone gave a harsh breath and shuddered as her emotions returned to her. The changeling looked as shocked as the human.

Ethan turned his head back to Pupa, giving her a harsh glare as he quickly picked Persephone up off his shoulder and brought her to his chest. "That was probably one of the worst things you could have done. You better have a good explanation for that or maybe you'll become Cerberus's new chew toy," Ethan said as he thumbed towards Cerberus, who gave a growl deep enough for the changeling to feel in her chitin.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I don't know what happened," Pupa anxiously tried to think of an explanation. "I could feel the amusement coming from around you. I didn't know that it was the bird that was giving off the emotion instead. I tried to suck a little bit of emotions from you, not her! You've got to understand! I swear on my chitin that I wouldn't try to do that after being shown mercy!" Pupa shouted, getting more and more desperate by the second.

Ethan silently watched as the changeling started shaking like a leaf. Pitying her, he gave her a second chance to make a good impression. It helped that, according to Tirek, his current magic expert, that magic wouldn't act correctly when he was involved. The same could not be said for Persephone, who took to making herself as hot as possible without burning the grass or leaves nearby. Ethan noticed this but let her safeguard herself since it reduced the risk of him being attacked as well.

"Fine, I believe you," Ethan said causing Pupa to sag in relief.

"But!" The changeling tensed. "You must follow some ground rules while you're here. Rule number one: You ask before you take someone's emotions in the group. If what you and Tirek have told me about your species is true, then you can't be sustained by normal food, correct?" Ethan asked with a raised eyebrow. Pupa nodded her head.

"Figured as much. Second rule: If you're going to be gone for longer than a day be sure to let one of us know. I don't really care where you go, and I know for certain Tirek could give less of a shit whether you're dead or alive. It's more of a precaution in case you decide to stick around and join our little group. Final rule: Don't be a rat. Nobody likes rats and we, and by we I mean Tirek, have some future plans that would get wrecked if the wrong ponies heard about it too soon. Now, make yourself comfortable and feel free to ask any question that's on your mind," Ethan said as he turned around and walked towards his tent, content with wasting the rest of the day away.

"Persephone, go find Tirek and bring him back to the camp. I doubt we'll need those vines anymore." The pheonix looked hesitant at first to leave but slowly nodded her head and flew away in the direction of Tirek, being sure to heat the changeling up a little on her way out to keep the bug in line while she was gone.

After ducking under Persephone's pseudo-attack, Pupa could instantly feel why she couldn't suck the emotions from the weird monkey creature. He was not giving off any emotions at all. It was like she was talking to a brick wall. In all her years in the hive, she had never seen or heard of such a creature. Some creatures lacked certain emotions, like how many primal creatures lacked empathy, or dragons the ability to love. But never the lack of any emotions at all.

She continued to stare at the strange creature as he laid down next to a tent and appeared to just stare into the sky. The last few days had been rather busy for Pupa, between preparing for the invasion of Canterlot, to their eventual defeat yet again at the hooves of those ponies.

They were so close this time too, with Celestia having been imprisoned in a cocoon and Queen Chrysalis having been more powerful than she had been in centuries.

It was a roller coaster ride being one of Chrysalis's minions in the hive. Full of a few highs and many lows, with each loss hurting the hive even more than before. Most changelings stayed true to the hive ways, trusting the Queen to eventually lead them to salvation in Equestria. Yet, for the last few centuries they have remained pitifully weak, the entire hive retaining the holes on their hooves and tears in their wings and tails from a lack of nutrition. This led to some beginning to question the hive ways, and if their Queen was truly the best thing for the hive.

Pupa was one of these changelings; having been one of the original changelings to come out of the rotten tree alongside her Queen all those years ago. She had been there through all the highs and lows, unlike the majority of the hive. She was the only one of the originals with these questioning thoughts, not that she had asked. It was highly forbidden to voice these thoughts, or else the changeling would expect to be personally reprimanded by Queen Chrysalis. For the lucky ones, they were exiled from the hive entirely to fend for themselves. It was a risk none were willing to make. But Pupa knew she couldn't be the only one with these thoughts.

So her current situation presented her with a few rather unique options: To stick around and see what happens, or to find Queen Chrysalis again and go back to the same self-destructive routine that the changelings had found themselves in.

The choice was rather obvious.

Walking over to the lounging creature, the changeling could feel Cerberus's footsteps behind her as he followed, causing her to gulp. Stepping up beside Ethan, her shadow partially covering his face as she waited for him to open his eyes. She held her patience for several minutes. It wasn't until Cerberus walked away that she decided to just wing it.

"Um... sir," Pupa softly called, getting no response in return.

"Sir," She said more firmly, giving him a light poke on the shoulder to get his attention. Ethan didn't flinch in the slightest.

"I have a question to ask you. So stop ignoring me and look at me... please." She poked him harder and yet he might as well have been dead. Starting to get annoyed, Pupa huffed. What floored her even more was that she swore she saw the human's lips fighting off a smile.

"Fine. Don't say you didn't ask for this," Pupa said nonchalantly. Walking back towards the river, she brought her muzzle to the water and sucked in a mouth full of water. She made her way to Ethan and hovered over him, giving him a few seconds to stop ignoring her. She saw the slight glistening of his eye as he cracked an eyelid open. Steeling her resolve, she blew all the water in her mouth onto his face.

Ethan shot up, banging foreheads with Pupa causing them both to lean back and grab their heads in pain.

"Do you have a death wish or something?" Ethan asked as he rubbed his forehead with a hand. The changeling in front of him groaned as she struggled to massage her headache away with her hooves.

"No. I-ow... I just wanted to ask you a questi-ow," Pupa tried to say as the pain in her head persisted, making her feel light headed. Whimpering, she laid down, trying to will the pain to go away.

Ethan saw that she was struggling to get her head to stop hurting. Sighing, he crawled next to the changeling and nudged her hooves away from her head. She cracked an eye open to look at the human as he reached for her head.

"W-what are you doing?" She shakily asked as her nerves flared when she felt the human's hands grasp her head.

"Helping you. I'm sure those hooves aren't too good at massaging and I've been told I'm pretty hard headed," Ethan smirked as he started to gently rub Pupa's head. Feeling the smooth chitin under his fingers he maneuvered around the horn on her head while making sure not to press too hard. Going right under her horn, he felt a slight crack run underneath his thumb.

Moving his thumb, he leaned in to get a better look at the damage, noticing the small crack where he must've hit her. Tsking, he went back to rubbing her head, trying to avoid the crack on her head.

Ethan's fingers worked magic on the pain pulsing through Pupa's head. Relaxing her body, she let her head drop onto his lap so he could have easier access and to relieve some extra pressure.

"You'd probably like to know that you've got a crack on your head now," Ethan said casually, hoping she didn't freak out while her horn was so close to his body.

Any relief Pupa was feeling immediately vanished into thin air and she tensed, feeling her head throb again but ignoring it in favor of quickly getting up and flying over to the river, her wings having dried off enough to allow her to fly again. Looking into the stream, she attempted to see her reflection, but the water was moving too fast for her to get a solid look at her head. Hearing footsteps walking towards her, she turned around and watched as Ethan awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck with a hand.

"How bad is it?" She bluntly asked, her tone leaving no room for jokes. Ethan took a moment to lean in and inspect the crack more, he guessed it wasn't that bad.

"It's... not the worst?" Ethan half smiled in sympathy. "Maybe like an inch long but I'm not seeing hardly any separation, so it shouldn't kill you. Do changelings have the ability to heal that?" He asked.

Pupa nodded her head slowly so as not to aggravate her injury more than she already has. "We can, but we need emotions for that and I definitely don't have enough love to spare for a healing pod. Explains why my headache won't go away at least," The changeling said, trying to look on the bright side. Only for her vision to literally get brighter as Persephone dove in between the two of them, her wings alight with fire. Both Ethan and Pupa leaned back in surprise from the pheonix's sudden appearance.

Hearing a groan, they looked towards the sound and saw Tirek entering the clearing with a half burned piece of vine and multiple spots where smoke was coming from his fur. The centaur walked up to Ethan and shoved the vine into his chest, not waiting for Ethan to grab it before he let it drop to the ground.

"If you send that chicken to get me one more time, I'll make sure I absorb all the magic from her first. Got it?" Tirek said with a glare while patting out the last of the embers on his body. The human nodded and Persephone blew a small amount of fire in Tirek's direction in challenge.

"Now, I'm taking a nap and if any of you think about waking me I would be delighted to show you just how hard i can kick my hindlegs," Tirek threatened as he went towards his tent, promptly collapsing and crawling his way underneath. Snores coming from him not a minute later.

Ethan stared at Tirek's tent for several seconds. Taking a deep breath, he slowly released it and turned to face Pupa, who had silently edged herself into the water to deter the pheonix from attacking her yet again. Said pheonix took the opportunity to land on Ethan's shoulder, cooling off in the process.

"You guys are some of the weirdest creatures I've ever ran into," Pupa commented. Ethan couldn't help but agree that to any creature native to Equestria, their little band of misfits was quite the sight to behold. An alien from another world, a power hungry centaur, the guardian of Tartarus and a sadistic pheonix; quite the sight indeed.

"Well, you best get used to it 'cause from the looks of it, you'll be hanging around us till you can heal that crack of yours," Ethan said as he pointed to the middle of his forehead. Persephone tilted her head, curious about what he was talking about. Looking at the changeling sitting in the water she focused on her head and saw the crack forming on her head. Believing she had something to do with it, she cawed quietly and jumped off of Ethan's shoulder to fly over to Pupa.

Pupa flinched back as she and Ethan watched the bird fly directly overhead of her and slowly land on top of the changeling's head. Who froze at the potential threat being so close to her recent injury.

"Persephone."

Hearing her name, she looked at Ethan, seeing his stern gaze, she smirked and winked at him before beginning to heat up. Pupa felt the heat beginning to build on her head. Resigning to her fate, she closed her eyes and waited... and waited... and waited. Scrunching up her face she opened her eyes after not feeling more pain, but rather slight relief, this time from Persephone. She watched Ethan sigh with a small shake of his head and a smile.

Persephone was using Pupa's horn as a stabilizing point to wrap her wings around it and cover the crack with her wings, making sure not to get too hot so she doesn't burn her again.

"What are we going to do with you girl?" Ethan rhetorically asked while pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Uhm... Preferably keep her away from the crack in my carapace," Pupa said, causing the pheonix to huff and fly back to Ethan. The changeling stepped out of the water, kicking her legs to dry off, and walked over to the firepit that was currently out. Cerberus, who had laid down on the other side of the firepit after determining her to not be a threat, gave her a glance. Just as he did so the changeling's stomach growled, and she hissed quitely. Getting three growls in return from Cerberus's massive heads.

Hearing Ethan chuckle at their interaction, Pupa felt her face heat up, glad she could not blush like the ponies.

Ethan slowly made his way over to the changeling and sat down next to her. "Hungry? For emotions, yeah?" He asked.

"Yes; our latest mission of storming Canterlot failed, and we were already starving. Unfortunately it's not exactly easy to get a good food source when everyone knows everyone, so taking ponies isn't really something we can do often." Pupa sighed. "We make due with animals and some lone travelers that no one would miss, but it's just not enough for everyling. Many of us go hungry for weeks," she said, reminiscing over the hardest times for the hive.

"Jeez, that sounds rough. Back ho-" Ethan paused and took a deep breath. "I've seen similar issues before, but that was just because of poor food distribution, not a lack of food entirely." Pupa noticed the sudden pause but decided not to question it.

"Sounds like you had it easy then if that was where your problems came from," Pupa said, causing Ethan to scoff. Tilting her head in question, he explained.

"Basically if you aren't one of the top dogs, metaphorically speaking that is, in either power and or money then you have essentially no say in any major decision. Well... theoretically you could, through a revolution to make the words of the people have meaning, but it would take a very well spoken individual, with many assets, to fire up a whole country to fight back without getting secretly killed." Ethan rolled his eyes, "And let's just say there are a lot of issues that could be solved if the top dogs weren't so fucking greedy and learned to set egos aside. So if this land hasn't really had any crazy issues like that in over a century that's a win."

"Wow... that does sound pretty bad," Pupa admitted. "Celestia, Luna and the Princess of Food are the rulers in Equestria and they certainly don't keep everything for themselves. There's a reason the ponies have prospered for so long after all. I just wish things were different. I'm sick of hiding in the shadows and being bossed around by little miss prissy," the changeling hissed out. Another stomach growl came from her, getting another round of hisses as she dealt with the standard hunger pains as Ethan watched in concern, both for her and himself.

"Does it matter what emotion you eat?" Ethan asked, a plan forming in his head. Waving Cerberus over, he watched as one of the heads noticed him and got the attention of the other two before he walked around to their side of the firepit.

"No, love is the best, but any emotion would help right now," Pupa said, feeling her nerves flare as she had an idea of what Ethan had planned as he brought Persephone in front of him.

"Cerberus, Persephone. I've got a huge favor to ask of you both." Both focused on what he was saying, "I need you guys to allow Pupa here to feed of of your emotions, she's starving and hurt. I know you guys aren't the cause of either, but my options are limited right now and we need as many hands, hooves, paws and claws as we can get. I would do it myself but magical stuff just doesn't work on me here for whatever reason." Cerberus and Persephone continued to stare at him. "I have that favor with Tirek still... I'm sure we could make something work to make it worth your guys' time. Plenty of belly rubs and me time to sweeten the deal," Ethan practically begged, upon hearing that, the two decided it would be worth it.

"You... You don't have to do this. I can manage," Pupa weakly defended as her stomach growled yet again, but this just further solidified their decision to help the changeling.

Nodding their heads, Ethan smiled at their confirmation. "That's what I love to see. This means more to me than you guys realize," Ethan said sincerely before turning to Pupa.

"Now, with us doing this I just have one thing to ask. Don't lie to any of us, if its something you don't want to say or talk about, say so. We're not in a position to judge you. Tirek is constantly preaching about power. Cerberus is currently doing a terrible job at guarding Tartarus. Persephone is definitely growing to be a menace to society, and I'm... well... let's just say the less you know the better. Shit has been really complicated for me for the past... how ever long to say the least," Ethan said with a soft shake of his head.

Pupa nodded, "Doesn't take a scientist to figure that out. It's kind of the changelings' job to know every creature in Equestria and I can easily say nothing quite like you has ever been seen before." With that another hunger pain hit the changeling causing her breath to hitch. "I don't want to rush you, but can we get this over with so I can not be in pain and you can go back to being weird."

Ethan raised an eyebrow in mock question, a smirk ghosting his lips.

"Okay, weirder," the changeling corrected herself, getting a laugh out of the human.

"Yeah sure, we can get started. Though you're gonna have to walk them through what to do. Not exactly like they hand their emotions out to everyone they see after all," Ethan said while walking a fair distance away to watch, just in case anything unexpected happened.

Pupa took a deep breath and looked at Persephone and Cerberus. One towered over her, making her already weakened body feel like mere dust in the wind to his might. The other's yellow eyes pierced through her soul, glowing even in the light of the sun, searching for any deceit in her actions and promising immense pain to her if she finds any.

It was intimidating to say the least.

"Uh, r-right. So, I suggest getting comfortable, it can be pretty unpleasant even when you're expecting it," Pupa warned, giving them time to do so. Cerberus layed down on the ground, but kept his heads alert. Persephone opted to stand on top of Cerberus's middle head, not wanting to be on the ground at such a vulnerable time.

"Good. Now, just think about something that makes you happy, or something that you love. The stronger the feelings the quicker we can be done," The changeling stated, waiting for the spike in emotions.

It started slowly at first, but like the breaking of a seal multiple ample emotions filled the air around Cerberus and Persephone. The most prominent one was happiness mostly from Cerberus, followed by satisfaction, and finally a subtle amount of love coming from Persephone. Pupa eyed the pheonix knowingly, a small smirk on her muzzle. Persephone could only tilt her head in response, confused by the changeling. Pupa felt Persephone's change in emotions as the love slowly began ebbing away, confusion taking it's place. Knowing it was now or never Pupa exhaled and began to suck the emotions out of Cerberus and Persephone.

Despite both knowing and expecting it, the feeling of their emotions being drained away still brought a shock to their systems, causing them to jolt, with Persephone nearly having fell off the top of Cerberus's head. But just as quickly as it had started, it was over; Pupa having cut off the flow of emotions into her maw.

Relief instantly filled both creatures, followed closely by an all demanding tiredness forcing them to become limp.

Ethan's voice suddenly pierced the quiet air, "Woah. That... was a lot quicker than I was expecting." Walking back to the group he crouched in front of Cerberus's heads. At first nothing changed, but slowly his eyes opened, revealing his blood red pupils. Reaching out, Ethan began to pet each of the heads gently as comfort.

"You deserve the best bone in the world after that buddy. I promise you that we'll get it for you as soon as possible, yeah?" Ethan promised, watching as one of the heads licked his hand before Cerberus rested them all on his paws; planning to take a nap.

Persephone on the other hand was out like a light. Ethan methodically picked her up from Cerberus's head and made his way towards his tent where his lunch box was located. Gently setting her on top of the lunch box, her watched her slowly squirm in her sleep before curling up and becoming still. The only movement coming from her being the soft rise and fall of her wings as she breathed.

Smilingly at the sight, Ethan looked at Pupa, who was on her back in a near comatose state near Cerberus.

Rolling his eyes, Ethan called out, "You good?"

A half kicked hindleg was his only response.

Shrugging, he assumed that meant she was.

Tartarus Changes People

by Dashed

Prologue: You'd Think Hell Would be Hotter

Chapter 1: Can't Escape on an Empty Stomach

Chapter 2: Home Sweet Home

Chapter 3: A Chance Encounter

Chapter 4: A New Addition

Chapter 5: The One with No Emotions