The Equestrian Inferno

Galaxy and I had been walking along for some time before we reached the next circle. She stopped quite a ways before reaching the actual edge. Since I didn't notice, I continued forward until I was peering over. For some reason, only then did I notice the foul odor emanating from its depth. Gagging, I hurried back to Galaxy who was leaning against a tomb at the end of the cemetery of heretics. When I reached her, I sat upon it and clutched my stomach to keep from vomiting. For a while, we waited in silence. Finally, she spoke.

"The atmosphere of the lower circles is rancid indeed. We must proceed slowly to acclimate ourselves. Let's wait here a while to get used to the smell."

"Well", I replied, "Can you tell me a little about the lower circles while we wait so we can be a little more productive?" I asked.

"I like the way you're thinking", she said, "In fact, I was just getting to that."

I straightened myself up as I prepared to listen closely.

"The lower levels of hell are divided into three circles. These each have divisions of their own. In the circle right below us is the violent, however you must know that ponies can be violent in three ways: to each other, to themselves, and to Celestia. The first division of the seventh ring is for those ponies who were violent to each other. It goes without saying that they never learned the magic of friendship. Therefore, many soldiers who fought just to fight are there, along with all robbers, evil unicorn duelists, and everypony else who attacked and fought their way throughout life at the expense of others. The second division contains those who were violent to themselves. They never were comfortable with who they were and through their whole life, caused themselves emotional or even physical harm for it. In addition are those who did violence to their possessions by gambling them all away. Finally, in the third division are those who were violent against Celestia herself. These are the people who made a conscious decision to disrupt friendship and extinguish harmony wherever they pleased.

The last two circles are reserved for the fraudulent. Fraud is a great enemy against friendship, but there are two types. First are the average everyday charlatans. And then of course you have those who blatantly betrayed someone they were familiar with. The first kind gradually spreads mistrust and causes ponies to be wary of each other. This makes it harder for friendships to form. The later kind however actively destroys existing friendships. Therefore, traitors who perpetrate it dwell within the ninth and last circle."

"It seems to me that these ponies must have it pretty bad", I said, "why are they punished harsher and separate from those in the higher circles?" I asked.

"Well, if you recall the teachings of the great philosopher Peach Blossom, you'll know that there are three sources of discord in any form, spiritual, physical, political … it doesn't matter. The first is incontinence. This means giving in to your lower selfish desires. This results in various forms of self-centeredness that prevent one from making friends. Since this is a passive sin against friendship, those who perpetrate such sins are punished to a lesser extent. The second type of sin is hatred, which leads to active acts against friendship. For this reason, haters are punished in the lower circles. Those who perpetrate the third kind of sin, insane brutality, get tossed through a mirror to another universe. Princess Celestia wants nothing to do with them. It's a very rare occurrence, and it's also probably what would happen to Pinkie Pie if death itself weren't so terrified to approach her."

Images of cupcakes suddenly danced before my vision.

"But then again, not every story you hear about her is true you know. In fact, she's probably not even half as evil as some tales might portray her. It's just that she can teleport, do sonic pinkbooms, defy gravity, and has unprecedented levels of psychic ability and no one has any idea how any of that is possible. Either way, we've waited long enough, let's get going. We don't have unlimited time you know."