Chapter 0 - For the Monster of All Monsters
Deep Within The Infernal Prison, Tartarus.
I flexed my long, clawed fingers. Before my arrival on Equus, they had been made of flesh; long and skinny, with stubby fingernails on the end of each digits. They might still be for all I know, but I had no way of knowing, as each hand was covered in a gauntlet of sorts. Like the rest of the armor that covered most of my body, the gauntlets were made of a metal I could only describe as otherworldly; Although unable to remove any single piece for too long, I could still feel though it, as if the armor weren't even there to begin with. Although it weighed next to nothing, the armor was, and still is, extremely durable, and even if something did manage to damage it, the armor simply regenerated within the next several minutes. Thinking back, I should have been thankful; I don't think I'd have lasted long if it hadn't been for tiny little details like that.
Smiling slightly, I roll my shoulders, listening to the symphony of pops and cracks echo around me, as they are accompanied by the rattling of the numerous chains binding my within the confines of my cell in Tartarus.
Ah, Tartarus. Black walls of thick granite plunging deep into the earth, prison cells made of exceedingly durable iron, maintained by the the minotaurs patrolling its winding corridors, wielding huge weapons and sweating profusely. Runes, wards, and other anti-magic arrays and devices littered the infernal prison, stripping most of the inhabitants of Tartarus of their most potent weapon; magic.
If that weren’t enough, the temperature of Tartarus would switch form boiling hot to freezing cold at random intervals, the drastic changed in temperature crippling even the strongest of beings that called Tartarus home, exceptions being the guards and myself. In recent years, the Celestia and Luna had even seen fit to make some new additions to this hellish hole in the ground, adding crystal golems, cannons, and even trained monsters to Taratus's repertoire of armed guards. All in all, it was truly impressive.
But what I found most interesting about Tartarus was not it's elaborate design, or the multitude of traps fail-safes, and safeguards, but the system they'd put in place for judging just how dangerous prisoner of Tartarus was. It seemed that, the worse your crimes against Equestria, and more difficult it was to stop you, the further down into Tartarus you were cast. Some offenders, though their crimes were severe and were a serious threat to the safety of Equestria, were given the upper levels, as most lacked the power to carry out their plans alone. Still others, like Tirek and the Slendermane, whose crimes not only threatened Equestria, but had the physical, mental, and magical strength to back their plans, were given the lower levels to ensure they never.
The lowest level, dubbed by the inmates simply as “The Pit”, was reserved for the most sinister and diabolical of monsters, whose plans not only threatened Equestria, but all of Equus, and had only been thwarted by nothing short of a miracle. Its occupant would be the monster to end all monsters, wielding such wild and fantastic power, even the Royal Pony Sisters could handle the creature on their own.
Would anyone like to guess where I was?
Bound in place, I was held down by more chains than I could count, each heavily saturated with Celestia and Luna's magic. Restrictive weighs had been placed on any exposed flesh that shackles did not already occupy. All around the cell, a pack of no less than twenty murderhounds lie in wait, blood seeping from their fang-filled mouths as they waited patiently,
Holdovers from Discord's reign, murderhounds resembled horse-sized Doberman Pinchers without skin, and were constantly excreting blood in some form, whether it be as sweat, drool, urine, or other bodily fluid. So as to not die of excessive blood-loss, murderhounds had to survive by killing and drinking the blood of other creatures to replace their own. They were known to be are extremely dangerous, territorial, and would attack in response to any perceived act of aggression. Sometimes, if they were low on blood, they would even attack on sight.
Taming them was supposed to be a near impossibility, yet here they were, either sitting, drinking from the moat of blood built around my cell, or stalking around the perimeter of the cage itself, snapping at me and eying my like a brand new chew toy placed just out of reach.
My cell sat on an island of sorts, a crumbling stone path barely one Celestia-sized pony wide connecting the island to the stairwell at the end of the narrow walkway, and was suspended over a pit so deep, if I were to look over the edge, all I'd see was an endless void of pure black nothingness, blanketed by the emptiness on all sides. There was definitely a bottom, since the path was built up from somewhere in the abyss below, but it stretched so far down that the rock gave way to nothingness, and I wasn't willing to try my luck and see just how far down it went.
On the opposite end of the walkway, eight of the biggest crystal golems in Tartarus guarded the only way in or out of “The Pit”; a staircase, spiraling up into another level of Tartarus.
The whole set-up was elaborate, deadly, and spoke volumes of just how much Celestia and Luna wanted to keep me here.
Psh...like any of this could stop me. At most, it would slow me down, and not by much.
Chuckling to myself, I used my magic, magic that Celestia and Luna couldn't account for, to cast a simple sleep spell on myself. I would escape, of that I had no doubt, but now was not the time. As the spell took affect, and I fell into a strange, trance-like state, I felt my thoughts turn to the past, before all...this...began.
Back to the convention, and everything that happened after.
