The Equestrian Inferno

After trying to keep up with Galaxy for an hour, almost losing sight of her, and skinning my knee after tripping, I found myself at the entrance to the second circle of hell; a small arch within one of the walls of the labyrinth. Before the door way stood a Tirek, albeit smaller and older than I last remembered him. A considerable crowd of ponies and other assorted creatures had gathered before him. As each faced him, they knelt and confessed to him all the sins of their lives. Listening intently, the gargoyle signaled his judgement by striking the cold stone floor beside him with his tail. The specific group of tiles were cracked; dented in a way that conformed to his tail. The raping of his itself tail was swift, but slow enough to distinguish each individual strike. Upon seeing me, his eyes widened.

"Young man! Just what do you think we are doing? Is it curiosity that brings you to this door? Leave at once."

His voice was harsh and raspy, like the sound of sandpaper on coarse wood, but considerably louder. I assume he had not spoken in quite some time. As I struggled to respond in some fashion, he turned to my guide and spoke once more.

"And you as well…? What brings you here? Surely you know better than to aimlessly wander from your region."

"Let us pass!" my guide spoke. "Our journey has been ordained and ordered by she whom all ponies must obey. Will you not obey the orders of our highest princess? Make way!"

Seeing that my guide spoke with the authority of Celestial herself, he motioned for us to pass through.

As I did so, a sudden gust of wind nearly blew me back into the labyrinth. Grabbing Galaxy and using her as a wind breaker, I entered the second circle. We found ourselves on a cliff, the ground consisting of dark and slightly moist dirt with sparse sickly looking weeds scattered about. A sudden crack of thunder made me jump and once more grab for Galaxy. Looking up, I saw a massive whirlwind of dark storm clouds. At the edges of the whirlwind were pegasi, three or four times large than average. Once again, their eyes glowed with fire as they sustained the storm with their disproportionately large wings. Within the storm was another multitude of condemned ponies; forever blown about like leaves.

Galaxy began speaking. Actually, it was more like shouting. Even then, it was difficult to hear her over the screaming winds around us.

"Within the winds dwell everypony who gave into their lust during life; the adulterers, the polygamists, the sexually immature. They must remain forever in the storm, eternally attached to those whom they cheated with."

My head grew dizzy from the sheer thought of being tossed, turned, and whipped with fierce winds forever. As I saw watched the crowd battered about thus, still holding onto Galaxy for support, I caught sight of a particularly large crowd of ponies all bound together. Galaxy apparently sensed my curiosity about them.

"Call to them. Invoke them in the name of their love. Speak and ask them what you will. Celestia sent you on this journey to learn, and that is what you will do."

Thus, raising my voice and ignoring the sand being blown into my mouth, I called to them. "Hey! Shades within that large group currently spinning counterclockwise while barreling east…"

Struggling, the ponies turned to look at me.

"Yeah, you. Do you guys think you could come to us for a moment so we can chat?"

Magically, the winds around the group seemed to subside, allowing the much weaker wings of the normal pegasi contained therein to steer the group toward me. As they did so, I saw that they were all handsome looking ponies wearing the tattered remains of what were at one point fine suits. In the midst of the group however, was something different. As the group neared me, I saw that she was female. Although her mane was dusty, dull traces of purple still showed through. Her fur, at one point, was probably white, though it had been stained a variety of shades by her eternal fate. Something about her face struck me. Despite the dust, it still seemed pretty; though there was something more. Her eyes gleamed of a specific type of haughtiness: one I had seen before.

"Rarity?" I asked.

"Oh my" she spoke. "You recognize and remember me. The rest of the world has surely forgotten by now. For that, if Celestia were still my friend, I would praise you to her. Alas, I am stuck here forever with no hope of salvation."

"What happened to you?" I asked. "You seemed pretty well off in life. How have you come to a fate such as this?"

"Well, you see, I ended up marrying one colt at one of the higher levels of Canterlot society. He was a businesscolt and his coworkers often came to our house. Before long, I knew all of them rather well. A little…ummm…too well if you know what I mean. And so, in consequence of my actions, I must remain here forever with quite a large chunk of Canterlot's elite class from my time."

I looked once more at the crowd. All these ponies, who had been so well off and proud in life, were reduced to miserable creature who spent their days whipped around by the winds of the second circle. As Rarity spoke, they hovered around her crying. Some were inaudible. Others bawled their eyes out. One, however, was particularly loud. Turning to examine him, I saw he had a dusty blonde mane and a dirty blue suit on. I wondered what his occupation had been in life. Maybe a successful entrepreneur or manager of some sort? He couldn't be a prince since he wasn't an alicorn. Actually, if I remembered correctly, some of the royal ponies that were more distantly related to Celestia weren't alicorns. Maybe this was one of them? Wait, somehow, I felt he was…

"Ummmm, Rarity. Is that Blueblood?" I asked.

"Actually…well…it's a long story but yes" she replied.

"Dude seriously?" I asked. "The heck…?"

"Like I said, it's sort of a long and convoluted tale, but we did end up together somehow alone at one point. Trust me, I'm not normally…"

I didn't hear the rest of her words as I was rolling on the ground laughing. It was just too funny. As I was doing so, I was beginning to struggle to breathe. Really, how on earth did something like that happen? Blueblood was the last person I would expect Rarity to have an affair with. My vision began to blur and my mind felt dizzy from lack of oxygen. Despite this, I couldn't stop rolling on the ground laughing. Moments later, struggling to breathe, I passed out.