The Equestrian Inferno

Galaxy and I continued along the circumference of the circle until we found ourselves at a large wall. Above the gateway was a long pillar shaped crystal. Galaxy's eyes glowed red before secreting an indigo smoke. Concentrating, she blasted the crystal with a beam of shining black light. The crystal itself also secreted it's own cloud of sinister indigo smoke before the gate opened. "Whoah, you can do that to?" I asked. "With all the fighting going on back in my day, I was forced to learn some rather dark arts to defend myself. For one thing, it is always a good idea to know your enemy. And then of course you never know when such knowledge can come in handy in a practical way."

Galaxy and I walked through the gate into the next zone of the circle. The gate close behind us. This circle was filled with the usual screams of pain and violence reminiscent of the fifth circle. Now, I saw all around me ponies jousting in an enormous free for all. Ponies were being flung into the air or impaled with lances everywhere.

One of them landed right beside me. "Twilight?" I asked incredulously, "No wait, it can't be." "That's Amethyst Star" said a pony lying beside me with only a helmet on. She fell in love with her father and seduced him. She learned changeling magic to disguise herself. Technically, she's not supposed to be here but everyone's given up on this section."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, she's actually supposed to be in zone 4, but the gates dividing the zones have broken quite a while ago so everypony just sort of wanders around. The magic controlling our punishments has mingled too but alas, any punishment is just as bad as another. Look at me. With every decrease of my desire for a nice hayshake, I get wacked with a mace more often. Oh well, at least it's a change."

"Interesting. And you are … ?"

"Flim" he answered, "Not sure where my bro Flam is at right now but I reckon he's around here somewhere. I'm here for trying to pass off garbage as good apple cider. Celestia actually likes apple cider and did not approve of our schemes. For exploiting the thirst of fellow ponies, I must be tormented by it forever. Or rather I would have been if all this magic wasn't mingling and changing. Of course I'm allowed to conjure up one of my own apple ciders anytime I wish but I wouldn't drink that stuff for the whole of Sweet Apple Acres. Oh, hey, there's Flam right over there talking with Arpeggio."

I looked over and saw a unicorn with a breastplate talking with another holding his head between his hooves.

"Random" I said, "What did he do now?"

"Oh, just lied a lot to Celestia. He often lowered people's scores out of meanness. He's still sore about not getting into her school himself."

Flam began walking over to Flim with Arpeggio following. When he walked, he held his head with one hoof and ambled along with his three others. "Say brother, don't you think …"

He stopped when he looked at me. I was finally beginning to get used to it.

"Hey, aren't you one of them bronies?" he asked me.

"Sure am" I replied with a look of disgust.

"Well, what do you make of that?" he asked Arpeggio.

"Humph. If they can't do magic, why should I bother with them?" replied the judge.

I turned to look at him. "Actually" I said, "The magic of friendship is out there for anyone to use, unicorn or not. In fact"

"DON'T SPEAK TO ME ABOUT THE MAGIC OF FRIENDSHIP!" he shouted.

Flam laughed. "Why?" he asked, "Cuz you never learned it?"

"Oh and you did?" sneered Arpeggio.

"Yeah, I have Flim, that's one more friend than you ever made."

"He's your brother. That doesn't count."

"Of course it does!"

I listened to them arguing with bemusement until I felt a harsh kick to my thigh from Galaxy. "Why are you wasting time with this crap?" she asked. "If you want to see pointless arguing, go onto any MLP forum and find a thread debating who the best of the mane 6 is. Or just find any MLP related video on YouTube and watch the flame wars in the comments over whether or not the show is gay. But don't waste your time with that here. Come on, we have to move."