Dark Iron Kingdom

I sat staring at the charred corpse of some mare that was foolish enough to run through a portal to Tartarus. And while the results of such were obvious to behold, what was bothering me the most was not her corpse, but her final words. Words that had struck me hard for some reason as I kept uttering them out loud. "The world shall tremble at our wraith, my love," I said again as if attempting to find some hidden meaning in them. But in the end my search of everything proved to be fruitless other than discovering she was a vampire. For anything else that could have given me even a modicum of insight into her plans had been mercilessly burned away.

But regardless of this fact my horrid stubbornness refused to quit until I felt a hoof on my shoulder. "You've been staring at those bones for twenty minutes. Whoever she was I'm afraid she's long gone," I heard Twilight's voice next to me.

I reached over and put a hoof on hers in response. "I know I know. I was just hoping there was something we were missing. A clue of any sort. Because all that I seemed to have discovered was that this poor fool was a vampire and that her Tartarus crystal she was using had most likely disappeared from existence," I replied before letting out a deep sigh and adding, "However, regardless of my sub-par detective work, how is the clean up coming along? Little to no casualties I hope."

"Well Life told me her and Death are scrambling to figure out anything on their end. As for ponyville and our castle luckily nopony was killed, but we've got numerous wounded. Whoever attacked us only wanted to delay us I think," she said in a concerned tone.

"Hmm well that would appear to make sense. They were probably trying to-" I began to say before being interrupted.

"HEY DAD!" I heard somepony yell not far off. And upon turning my attention I realized it was my son "Decay" as we ended up calling him. And to my surprise he, along Blaze Runner, and Growth were dragging somepony towards me...or should I say somegriffin.

"What do we have here?" I said with a mild curiosity and a raised eyebrow.

However before either my children or Blaze Runner could state anything the now apparently tied up male griffin shouted out, "I ain't tellin' you royal bastards nothin'! We were paid too much to squawk!"

I merely grinned as I walked over the tied up griffin. "Royal bastards hmm? Heh, I have heard far worse. However, may I ask whom I am addressing?" I said after sitting down in front of them.

Their only reply however was, "Stick it up your ass!"

A small laugh left my lips before I said, "Well mister stick in ass, may I call you Mr. Ass for short? Well Mr. Ass I do hope you realize the gravity of the situation you helped commit here. As such perhaps I can request some leniency if you cooperate."

However his reply again was as useful as one could expect as he snarled out, "Read my beak! Stick! It! Up! Your! Ass!" and leered at me.

In turn it did not take a scholar to realize that we were getting no where with this quite belligerent griffin. And to make matters worse I had to admit that I had a small shortfall in these type of situations. For among my long list of ineptitudes, interrogation was not really my strong suit if you will. Luna and her general Black Wing had attempted to train me in such things in the past, but I never seemed to have the spark for it as some would say. And while yes, I sometimes could get information if I got angry, this tactic however did not always work in my favor.

In turn with little other options I decided to make an unusual request of somepony I knew quite well in hopes they could give me some aid. 'Hello Death. Do you have a moment?' I said in my mind as I reached out to him.

'I am sorry Blood Moon. I am quite indisposed of at the moment,' He replied in haste.

'Well if that pertains to this whole Tartarus portal business I may have a way to get some information on that,' I said back.

Silence reigned for a few seconds, before he said, 'You do? How so?'

'Well that is where I may require your assistance. You see there is a certain tied up griffin next to me that I believe to have been involved in all of this. However, he has been...less than cooperative with us. I was wondering if there was something you could do to perhaps loosen his tongue if you will,' I said somewhat hopeful.

Death gave me a cold chuckle in response before speaking again. 'You desire me to torment some poor mortal hmm? Yes, I believe I can do that. However I shall just require your body for a few moments please for said task,' Death replied in an amused tone.

I ultimately agreed to his request in the end, but just before Death took control I said, 'What are you planning on doing? Use your voice and scare him?'

To which Death only replied with, 'Oh Blood Moon...you do not truly scare a mortal by talking to them...' before my vision went dark. And while I could honestly say I did not like the implications of those words, again I had little other option but to let him do his thing if you will.

Needless to say not but a few seconds later I felt a moderate amount of pain coming from my back. Confusion and uneasiness soon took hold afterwards when I realized that it felt like something was trying to force its way out of my shoulder blades. However in no time at all that bizarre observation was immediately wiped from my thoughts when my jaw began to open up to a nearly painful level before the most bone chilling death rattle came out of my throat.

And while I truly wish I could say that was the extent of all this, unfortunately the worst was yet to come. Because to put this into perspective, all that happened previously could have easily been considered tame compared to what delightful sensations I began to experience. For the only way I could describe it, was that I was somehow tasting everything around me even though I could feel my tongue was still my mouth.

In turn these...sensations... soon evolved into tasting what I believe were feathers and metal. Then not long after that I heard the poor griffin next to me squawk in primal horror right before I had begun tasting something far more revolting. And to not delve too deeply into specifics let me just say that it became abundantly clear that this poor griffin had not only vomited, but had also heavily soiled themselves.

But to my fortune this horrid experience did not last long before Death said, 'Alright, that should loosen them quite a bit for you. And please do notify me of anything of import after you are through,' and released his control on my body.

I only said 'Yes...umm certainly,' before my vision returned to me.

And there directly in front of me was the poor tied up and quite rank griffin staring at me with eyes as wide as dinner plates. Additionally, this...unusual sight...was also complemented by the fact that while yes he had indeed vomited and soiled himself, he was also covered from head to talon in some sort of translucent unidentifiable slimy goo.

The sight of this was unnerving enough to say the least but I quickly noticed that Twilight, Decay, Growth, and Blaze Runner were also staring at me various levels of "dinner plate" sized eyes as well. A knot soon formed my stomach as a result. But after a minute or so of awkward silence I pushed through such...delightfulness...and said as I readjusted my jaw, "Sooo...more willing to talk now hmm?"

Then in nearly an instant response the tied up griffin began to violently shake before blurting out, "By the fur on my dead mama's ass I'll tell you anything you want! Just please...please don't...don't do that tentacle thing again...please..."

And just like magic the griffin whom went by the name "Icarii" began spilling everything like a good little stool pigeon if you will. So much so that I never had to make any additional threats. And while this was indeed strange it did make for an easier time prying what follows out of Icarii.

First, Icarii belonged to a small mercenary group called the "Swift Feathers". And their main goal in all of this was their desire put themselves back on the map as it were. For you see they were running low on coin and new recruits did not join unless more coin was obtained and offered. So in a desperate effort to expand they decided against better judgement and take on a job that was more unsavory than their usual missions.

Second, they did not have a great deal of information on the mare they were working with. Due to their previously mentioned desperation they did not ask many questions, but they did at least do so some research on her. But in the end all they discovered was that her name was "Gloom Orchid" and that she was some sort of flower shop owner many moons ago before she closed up shop for some unknown reason.

And Lastly, Icarii mentioned that strange things started happening when Gloom Orchid hired them. At first, several of their young recruits began to get lethargic and appeared to have odd bite marks on their bodies. Next undetermined moans and groans could regularly be heard coming from Gloom Orchid's tent as if the voices were far off somewhere. Finally Gloom Orchid would only conduct any business dealings at night, never the daytime.

I mulled the information over for a few minutes before I had the royal guards take him away. It all seemed so troubling to say the least, but much of it did match what little knowledge I had discovered myself. However again, I failed to find the main motivation as to why said "Gloom Orchid" would have done what she did.

In turn I continued to sit pondering until my focus was broken by an awkward sounding cough. "Umm Dad?" I heard Decay say.

I shook my head in response and looked at him. "Yes?" I replied.

"Alright...as nopony else is brave enough to ask. Why...why'd you clean that griffin's pipes?" Decay said clearly perturbed.

I was taken back for a second before I stated, "Hmm what do you mean?"

Decay then took a deep breath through his nose before croaking out, "Tentacles...all the holes...scrub scrub...all that slime...why...how did you...what?"

My face scrunched up quite quickly from his jumbled sentence. For it did not take a scholar to determine what he was truly describing. And to be honest it would explain why Icarii the griffin was so free flowing with his information. Death had used my body to horribly violate that poor soul...with tentacles...and slime... A horrid shiver took hold of me, but just as I was about to explain myself a large hum of energy emanated from behind me.

"X-x-x A-ax-ax-axis-is L-l-l-ocked" a familiar disembodied voice called out as the outermost ring slammed to an ungraceful halt on the Gateway to Paradise.

Unfiltered terror quickly spread over me like a bucket full of molten metal as I blurted out, "WHAT?!" in response.

Twilight, Growth, Decay, and Blaze Runner all scrambled to my side as I spun around to gawk in terror at the now activated Gateway to Paradise. A hard swallow soon followed before I yelled out, "THIS IS BAD! VERY VERY BAD!"

Fearful and obviously dumbfounded everypony else just all looked around at each other readying their weapons until Twilight nervously piped up, "I...I thought that thing can't be opened without...without a crystal of some sort."

I in turn fumbled around summoning my scythe and let out a increasingly frightened laugh before I replied with, "You normally cannot! Hahaha! The ooooonly thing haha that can even dream of doing this is hehehe something or somebeing that is incredibly powerful! It is like an Ursa Major tearing off the front of your house hahaha to get inside hehehehaaaaaa!"

Madness soon became not far off for me as my mind began cracking from the sheer stress of the situation. And for those that are still unsure why I reacted in this matter please let me put things into perspective. Anything that is powerful enough to rip open a closed gate FROM THE OTHER SIDE has the power to do unspeakable things to you and everything else once they arrive. In other words we did not have a hope or a prayer of defeating what was coming to meet us.

Nopony made even the slighted peep in response to my statement. In fact everypony including myself were visibly sweating and shaking in our armors as we waited for whatever horror that was coming.

"Y-y-y-y A-a-axis-is Loc-c-c-cked-d-d!" the now terrifying disembodied voice soon called out from the Gate as the next ring locked into place. And my heart skipped several beats at the sound of it. I had little doubt in my mind that everypony around me probably had a similar reaction. But before anypony could regain our senses the gate spoke again.

"Z-z-z-z Ax-ax-x-axis-xis-is is Lo-o-o-c-c-ck-ed-ed" The voice said as it began to crackle and distort. And shortly afterwards bolts of black, green, and white lightening flickered outwards from the gate as the extreme amount of energy began overloading its stabilizing enchantments as the second last ring locked into place.

Small whimper left my lips in response as I waited for the final doom bell to toll. And to my absolute terror it did not take long.

"D-d-d-d-dimen-n-n-n-nsi-i-i-ion-al-alal an-n-n-ch-or-or loc-c-c-cked. G-g-gat-t-teway-a-yay ac-c-c-tiv-v-v-vat-ed-ed." The voice finally spoke before it sputtered and buzzed with static and then abruptly cut off. Then whatever portal had opened afterwards it was clearly unstable. For reality itself warped and twisted and forced all of us to take cover behind some rubble.

But as the world around us turned to pure chaos I did seem to discern something in the reality distortion. For three large glowing orbs of white, green, and black respectively, and a little over half a dozen white specks bolted from the portal in various directions. Then as quick as it came the unstable portal slammed shut with a thunder crack before reality reasserted itself. A uneasy silence soon took hold afterwards as we all waited with bated breath.

But when no doom and gloom came I got incredibly confused, greatly thankful mind you, but confused none the less. So after drawing the short straw if you will in these situations I popped my head to view what was happening. This however made my jaw drop and that feeling of dread I had before returned with a vengeance.

"See anything Blood Moon?" Twilight piped up.

"The...there...wha...how...how are we not all dead...how is it possible?" I stuttered in reply how barely able to form a proper thought.

Twilight must have gotten confused by my answer because I soon saw a purple hoof wave in front of my face with the statement, "Equestria to Blood Moon."

I in turn did not even face or utter a single word before I grabbed her head with my magic and forced her to face the same direction I was. This resulted in her stuttering like I was while lacing it with many more "colorful" words.

A hard swallow soon followed that seem to have gotten stuck in my throat. But with a quivering hoof I grabbed my scythe and said, "T-T-Twilight...c-come with m-m-me. The r-rest of y-y-you s-s-s-stay here..." Decay, Growth, and Blaze Runner tried to put up a protest as a result, but when I looked at them with my fear filled eyes the fight was ripped right out of them.

Then with a great deal of caution me and Twilight walked over to the three figures that lay motionless at the foot of the Gateway to Paradise. And it did not take long before what I was gazing at before to be full explained. For the three figures were none other than Death, Life, and Paradise in their material forms.

In turn the dread I felt before immediately amplified before I whispered out, "This...is not good."