Chapter 9

The Tartarus trek

On the other side of the portal Twilights eyes were met with a barren red wasteland peppered with charred trees, fire, and small pools of tar as far as she could see. “Yeesh, no wonder nopony wanted to go here” she muttered. She walked out into the ravaged area and looked around; there was nopony anywhere in sight. Further on she trekked looking for something, anything that could remotely help. By now she had completely lost her way, her only option was to finish her quest before she died of starvation, “this may be awful, but I suppose starving is a better way to go compared to what Saber and the stone alicorn will do” She thought to herself, “no, I’ve come too far to look back now” She trudged on. Hours later she had to stop and take a rest, “it’s been hours” she griped, “where is the point that I can break the barrier” her thoughts were interrupted by a low growl coming from nearby. Twilight let out a short gasp as she frantically searched the area for somewhere to hide. “I don’t know what that is, but I’ll never be able to beat it” she remarked for she knew full well that here an ursa would be the least of her troubles; she had no choice but to run. Eventually she found a sheltered place to rest. “ok, I think I’ll be safe here” she sputtered as she gasped for air, she had no idea of where she was, or what time it was but as far as she was concerned she needed to sleep or she would faint from exhaustion. She found a small concealed alcove and she brought out her sleeping bag. “It’s not home, but it will have to do” she sighed before drifting off to sleep.

Her sleep was anything but peaceful; she kept on having nightmares of what might happen if they failed. After a large series of these nightmares she finally woke up, stretched and packed up her stuff after having an apple as what she supposed to be breakfast. When she walked out of her shelter she looked around at the wasteland, she didn’t know why but after that sleep it all seemed brighter. She sighed to herself as she looked around, for some reason she felt more alive doing this than reading, but regardless; Twilight marched out onto the red ground and continued on. A while later she stopped and perked up her ears, she heard something, the same low growling as earlier. She wanted to hide but for some odd reason she stood her ground and readied her magic.

Soon she heard the growl right behind her, she spun around and her jaw dropped at what she saw. Right in front of her was the most hideous and threatening creature she had ever seen; it was 23 feet tall with pale grey skin and 4 long thin arms which were weaponized by sharp fingernails as long as a croquet mallet, it had 6 large green eyes and its teeth were thin and as long as an anaconda. Twilight backed off slightly but was near frozen by the sight of her adversary. She readied her magic as the beast lunged, but she didn’t feel any pain, when she opened her eyes she was in an entirely different area from earlier. She suddenly heard something behind her again, but this time it was a voice, and a very familiar one at that.

It said “ah, Twilight Sparkle, How odd of me to see you here”.