Prologue - The Gates of Tartarus*

The heavy blizzard that swept across the land created a fog that made it almost impossible to see any further than a pony could stretch out their hoof. A truly strange phenomenon to even the most talented of scientists and professors, the lands further north of the Crystal Empire were constantly shrouded in harsh blizzards, making any chance of being inhabitable completely impossible. Any efforts to get through were deemed fruitless and quickly dismissed, leaving it to forever be one of the mysteries of the planet.

Trudging through this dense cold, a lone figure was making its way further north. It was tall and only used a simple shroud and hood as protection against the violent winds that would send any Pegasus plummeting back towards the snowy ground. Despite this, it seemed completely unphased and oblivious to the cold lifelessness that seemingly stretched on forever that surrounded it. It only walked on at a steady pace, never faltering.

For hours it walked until it came to a stop in front of a cavern. As if inspecting it, its shrouded head rose slightly. By now, it stood upon the very northern pole of the planet. The winds were vicious and the cold would have long killed any normal being by now. It showed no signs of relief upon entering; only continuing its journey into the blackness and away from the wasteland that the sun had never seen.

It slowly walked deeper inside. Despite the blinding darkness that surrounded it, it seemed to know where it was going. Before long, clusters of crystals began appearing on the walls and on the ceiling which emitted a natural light that was just bright enough to show the way through. As well, with each passing step a distant sound could be heard. It sounded not far different from the sound of someone or something letting out a soft, constant exhale into your ear. The sound never seemed to grow any louder, but still felt closer with each step.

The size of the cavern came to a sudden expansion. The walls stretched high up before leveling out and continuing down further inside. Greatly resembling a bottle, the walls and ceiling came to a sudden halt, reaching back down to form a dead end. However, upon this wall was the source of the sound that had been calling to the one that entered.

A great gateway took up nearly the entire opposite wall. It shimmered like disturbed water, swirling into variations of dark colors.

A harsh growl cut through the near-silence. A great beast began walking from the shadows, blocking the path to the gateway. Its three heads glared at the intruder, eying it curiously. It wondered why this intruder looked so different compared to the other beings to the south who walked upon four legs and even flew. This one was taller and only stood upon its hind legs like some kind of monkey or minotaur. Each head began baring their own sharp rows of teeth, determined not to let this strange creature inside the gateway.

The intruder showed no signs of being intimidated by the hound of hell. Instead, it only pulled back its hood to reveal a head with colorless hair. It opened its eyes, they too sharing the same colorlessness. It spoke no words, only glaring back at the beast, as if expecting that it would be the one to back down instead.

The beast replied with a thunderous bark, shaking the very foundation of the mountain that nature had carved this cavern from.

The intruder seemed to let out a soft, almost inaudible sigh. From under its cloak came an outstretched arm, the palm facing outward. Black smoke began forming around its hand, extending out both ways and splitting apart towards the top. It wrapped its fingers around the smoke, solidifying it upon contact. The smoke turned to metal, forming a three-pronged trident.

Before the beast could make the first move, the intruder dashed forward at incredible speed, easily closing the gap between the two. With a powerful leap strong enough to rival the takeoff of any Pegasus, it jumped high into the air and came face to face with the guardian of the portal. Taking it as easy prey, the beast opened its mouth to devour the intruder. As the mighty jaw was coming down, the intruder put up its trident, piercing the roof of the beast’s mouth and keeping it open. Jumping outward from the menacing jaws, it grabbed onto the beast’s snout and used momentum to backflip onto the bridge of its nose. With a sweeping kick, the intruder kicked the beast right in its eye.

It let out a howl in pain before bucking its head up, sending the intruder back into the air. He was quickly swatted out of the sky by the beast’s paw. It landed on the on its feet with no signs of being worse for the wear. The center head’s left eye quivered in irritation and pain. The intruder held out its hand again and the trident dissipated back into black smoke, returning to its master where it reformed in the shape of a sword. It sprinted at the beast, which responded by pulling its three heads back and inhaling deeply. Upon lashing them back down, swirling tunnels of fire shot from their mouths toward this strange challenger. It dodged to the right, traveling along the narrow pathway between the two streams of flame. Its cloak became scorched, blackening as pieces fell off and turned to ash.

The intruder threw its blade forward, piercing the thick hide of the beast between the two heads. Using it as a foothold, it leaped up from the blade and onto the back of the beast. The beast began shaking itself, trying to throw the small flea from its body. The sword, still planted at the base of the neck, faded into smoke, quickly surging back into the intruder’s hand in the form a scythe. It ran forward, planting the blade just behind the skull and holding on tightly in order to keep a foothold on the shaking monstrosity.

With a tight grip, it held itself down. “Enough! OBEY ME!”

The beast suddenly stopped its shaking. The whimpering it was making from the blade stuck in its neck ceased, and it calmed rather quickly. The intruder kept its grip tight out of precaution.

The beast lowered itself onto its stomach, laying its center head on the ground to allow its new master the ease of a softer landing. The scythe returned to smoke, this time disappearing completely. The master leaped off of the beast’s head casually as if it had not just fought a battle of life or death. The master patted the beast’s nose, “Stay.”

The beast obeyed, not moving an inch. The master walked past the beast and towards the portal. It stopped just before, looking up and the massive gateway. Carefully, it touched the shimmering wall. From its touch, the wall rippled and sent its disturbance to the very corners of the gateway. It slowly passed through, becoming enveloped in the wavy wall of ether.

It was like walking into a wall of water without ever getting wet, and the sensation left as quickly as it came. When the master next appeared, it was on the opposite side of the gateway. The colorless eyes began to take in the sudden change of scenery.

Far behind it were the beast and the cavern and the harsh weather. Now, it stood upon a large cliff inside an even larger cavern, suspended high above a swirling vortex of green and white. The cliff itself was as wide as the gateway which the master had passed through and narrowed to a point as it came just above the center of the vortex.

There was no ceiling, only darkness. There was no floor, for the vortex seemed to stretch down forever. This was Tartarus, the home to the dead. Appearing to care little, the master marched forward. It took almost a full minute to reach the precipice, and from there it looked down into the vortex itself.

It swirled slowly like a whirlpool. Millions of white dots were scattered all throughout the pool, spinning at a slightly offset rate from the rest of the vortex. The cold eyes moved from dot to dot, searching as if it could distinguish one from another. Finally, its eyes came to a halt on one dot in particular. A smile crept across its lips. It held out its arm, palm facing downward into the shimmering expanse. From the pool, a single dot rose up towards the cliff. It was not white like the others. No, this one was black.

It glided upward towards the master’s palm, which turned in response as it rose to give a platform for the black soul in its hand. It hovered just inches above the palm, looking like a ball that was eternally lit aflame. The master caressed the small field the soul emitted with its other hand as if it were the head of a young child.

“These ponies have grown too soft, too weak… they need to be strengthened once more.”

Author's Note

Found a "he", which was properly fixed. Expanded a few paragraphs to help the flow of the chapter.