Sweetie Hell

It was slow going as Sweetie Belle crawled through the hole. The space shrank in places to such a degree that Sweetie had to really struggle to move forward, and she had been forced into a bipedal stance to make any forward progress. Her chest was often compressed painfully when she had to navigate a particularly tight space, and she had gone mostly numb from the number of cuts and scrapes marring her flesh. What never got old was when she would catch her horn on the low ceiling or on a stray piece of stone. Each time this happened it caused Sweetie Belle to hiss and sometimes cry out from the sudden stabbing pain that raced down her horn directly into her brain. Tears carved muddy tracks through the dirt that had accumulated on her face. Multiple times she got stuck in the wall, a few of them in quite uncomfortable or painful positions, but she pushed onward in spite of it all. The lethargic mist curled lazily around her hooves, taunting her with the fluid ease by which it navigated the crevice. It made Sweetie want to find the source of the mist and stomp it into pieces.

Then, as she pushed past a sharp wedge of rock and got a long scratch on her stomach for her effort, light split apart the darkness. The sight of it filled Sweetie Belle with new energy. She pulled herself hurriedly forward, ignoring the number of new cuts she was buying with her haste, until at last she fell forward out of the claustrophobic crevice onto flat open ground. The first thing she did was suck in a full breath of air as if reminding herself how it felt to have full lungs again. Then she examined her injuries. None of them were serious, but for the open cuts there was nothing to be done. Sweetie Belle did not have access to bandages or disinfectant, which meant her only choice was to just leave them be to heal on their own. This could possibly have a negative impact on her progress through Hell given some of the more sensitive locations of her injuries, but she was determined to push onward anyway.

With the field examination taken care of, Sweetie Belle could at last treat herself to a view of the deplorable environment she now found herself in. A sickly orange haze pervaded the Circle of Gluttony, and storm clouds drifted lazily throughout the sky to occasionally douse the land below with putrid yellow rain. Dotting the landscape were rolling hills and small mountains of muck and offal that steamed like little volcanoes. Streams and rivers of bile cut a network of meandering paths throughout the landscape, occasionally coming to a head in large ponds or lakes. The souls of the dead bathed in the vile liquid, wailing pathetically and tormenting one another through frenzied acts of cannibalism. Heat and humidity combined with the stench of sweat that made the air feel thick and heavy, and stuck in the lungs like tar. It caused all of Sweetie Belle's hair to collapse under the unfavorable conditions. She made a displeased noise as she wrestled her hair into numerous positions before finally settling on pushing it all back behind her ears.

"Behold; the Circle of Gluttony," said the voice of Virgil, who appeared before her a moment later.

Sweetie Belle wrinkled her nose at the sights and odors she was witnessing. This place was absolutely filthy in nearly every sense of the word. Where Asmodeus's palace had been disgusting on a spiritual level, this was an exclusively physical feeling of filthiness. The young unicorn felt as a maggot crawling through a giant rotting carcass, surrounded by heat and decay and humidity.

"So what's going on here?" she asked as the pair got underway.

"The retribution of the gluttonous," the shade answered. "In return for the gifts bestowed on them by God, these sorry creatures gorged themselves on food and drink, and left only filth in their wake. Their sin makes them as waste in the eyes of the Lord, and so they do penance in this great refuse pit." To add to their torment, the sinners were constantly harassed by ravenous worms which swam through the water and feasted on them like piranha. Land was no safer, as hulking beasts were lumbering about that would dig through the trash heaps searching for souls to stuff down their enormous gullets. Infighting occasionally broke out between the obese creatures, which amounted to a lot of bellowing and brief bouts of tug-of-war, but otherwise they were rather docile.

The ground trembling underfoot threw a blanket of silence over the land as something monstrous thundered its way through. Even the clouds withheld their torrential dumping as the great nightmare approached. Farther ahead the dead began screaming in abject horror, worms leaped from the water searching for safer shores, and the larger demons moaned in terror, some even waddling away at the greatest velocity they could achieve. Then, it came howling into view. A terrible monster with scarlet flesh that bulged with barely contained muscle and throbbing veins. Its paws were best described as hands that each wielded five thick fingers tipped with razor-sharp claws. Instead of one head the beast had three; each a long sleeve of coiling muscle that was adorned with a tall bony crest, and ended in a great slavering maw filled with gnashing teeth. The towering leviathan raged back and forth in the fetid swamp, its heads darting this way and that with impossible speed to snap up anything unfortunate enough to be caught within striking distance.

"What...is that thing?" Sweetie Belle asked in a hollow voice, her eyes wide and pupils shrunken in fear of the abomination ahead of her.

"Cerberus. He is the physical persona of gluttony itself," Virgil answered. "See how relentless he is in his hunt for nourishment. Be it flesh or stone, solid or liquid, Cerberus's ravenous appetite makes no distinction."

One of the beast's heads abruptly ceased its grazing, its lips twitching in what could have been discomfort. The head lurched twice before unleashing a torrent of sickness that contained nearly everything Cerberus had previously eaten. The other two heads went on feasting in spite of the mess, and soon thereafter the third resumed feeding as well.

"The great worm does not, cannot stop," Virgil remarked, "for gluttony is the absence of restraint."

"It's awful," Sweetie Belle said. She observed Cerberus reach down to consume what had just been expelled, and felt her stomach churn at the sight of it. She'd always been told that eating or drinking too much of anything had a deleterious effect on the body (and on a person's self-image, as her sister Rarity would often assert). But to think that such activity could condemn someone to as cruel a fate as this was horrendous. Before long Cerberus exhausted this location and moved off to hunt for more sustenance elsewhere. The Circle of Gluttony trembled with the beast's every step, and once he was far enough away general activity resumed its previous course. Rain fell again, the dead went back to being miserable, and the worms and obese demons continued terrorizing them.

Virgil glanced down at his smaller companion. "Shall we proceed?"

Sweetie Belle nodded and followed alongside him, having grown numb to her fears and reservations about descending deeper into the bowels of Hell. Each new experience, each monster encountered or atrocity witnessed, though still fearsome and horrible, only hardened her resolve for what future sights and obstacles lay ahead. The road bore them further into the fetid bayou of Gluttony. The ground squelched underfoot from when the yellow rain had passed through and turned it into sludge that clung stubbornly onto Sweetie Belle's hooves. Along the way they noticed signs of Cerberus's passing; massive footprints, rocks of varying size thrown around haphazardly, large craters from where he ripped at the ground, mountains of refuse completely destroyed, and massive chunks ripped out of the wall isolating this place from the rest of Hell. It was an intriguing metaphor for the destructive impact the sin of gluttony had on one's world.

The atmosphere of the Circle had an organic feel to it, like being inside the stomach of some immense beast. Sweetie Belle's fur dripped with moisture, and her tail dragged lifelessly through the mud behind her. She could hear her older sister's voice in her head complaining about the unfavorable conditions and worrying over her appearance. She could see Rarity fussing over her mane and trying to maintain her balance while touching as little of the mud as possible, all with a sincerely distressed look on her face verging on an outbreak of tears. On the other hand it was possible that Rarity would be braving the filth and sweat and flat hair alongside Sweetie Belle, certainly unhappy with Gluttony's climate, but willing to face it head-on like she met the trials of the Sisterhooves Social. The thought of her sister walking at her side made Sweetie Belle smile.

Time marched laboriously on in much the same way Sweetie and Virgil marched through the Circle of Gluttony, but the end seemed no closer. It was impossible to know exactly how much time had passed since entering this unpleasant bog, but the throbbing ache in Sweetie Belle's legs and the worsening stitch in her side were very apparent. Her hooves were numb, every breath felt like a cord of thorns tightening around her lungs, her throat was unbearably dry, and her sweat-soaked fur felt like it was getting heavier with each passing minute. She had been on the move since King Minos dismissed them from Limbo and was in desperate need of a rest. They had briefly stopped over in Asmodeus's palace, but Sweetie Belle had been tense throughout their short stay and had not been able to get a true rest in.

Soon her own body made the decision for her. Sweetie Belle slowed until eventually she collapsed onto her side. Her mouth was slack and her chest moved with her rapid breathing. "I'm sorry, Virgil," she said between breaths, "but I have to stop. I'm so...so tired. I have to stop."

Virgil's anxious expression implied his thoughts on this course of action, but he was forced to relent given the state of his young companion. He nodded his head and kept a watchful eye for danger. So far the beasts of this Circle had paid the two no attention, but he was unwilling to push their ignorance too far. It would only take one of them doing something unexpected before all of Gluttony would be baying at their heels. Of course Virgil had nothing to fear from them. His being a ghost protected him from all harm; it was Sweetie Belle he was worried about. They needed some form of protection in the event of an attack. The poet knew exactly whom to seek out for this task, but he was not looking forward to this next encounter. He moved to kneel beside his young ward, who was already showing signs of improvement.

"I'm afraid I have to leave you for a time," he said regretfully. "I will return as soon as I can with someone who can provide us safe passage through the Circle."

"Okay," was Sweetie Belle's breathy reply. She was still too tired to mount any protest against his leaving.

Virgil looked around one last time to make sure his companion was safe before vanishing into thin air. Sweetie Belle remained on her side for a while longer until she felt well enough to sit upright. Her pains were gone, but she could still feel that her body had not yet regained its full strength. So she spent her time observing the "biology" of this place going about its routine business. The worms, when visible, were not too dissimilar from the ones that lived in the soil of Equestria, except for a few notable differences. Thin pinkish bodies averaging nine inches long and another two in diameter, their mouths perfectly hidden until preparing to feed, at which point the blunted head would split open to reveal two rows of triangular teeth designed for ripping and slicing the flesh of sinners. The worms always swam through the murky waters alone until it was time to feed. At those moments it was as if some unknown signal triggered to summon every worm in the vicinity to the scene of the feast. Then the unfortunate victim would disappear within a writhing ball of some thirty to forty creatures, the frenzy beginning and ending in seconds.

Sweetie Belle shifted her gaze to the obese demons rooting through the garbage. Their flesh for the most part was pale and stretched painfully taut around the belly, thighs, arms, and neck. Their feet were rounded like an elephant's, but instead of hands they bore small vertically-aligned mouths with flat square teeth on the end of both arms. Their heads were large with rolls of drooping flesh, blank gray eyes, long ears, small noses, and wide jaws incapable of closing. Their prey was devoured whole and horribly aware. They moved slowly, were not very bright, and seemed utterly oblivious to pain. Sweetie Belle had observed a couple of occasions when the beasts came under attack from ravenous packs of worms, and gave no indication they knew what was happening to them even as they gorged themselves on the souls of the dead. It was a rather poignant analogy for the selfish nature of gluttony.

Time moved forward as Sweetie Belle remained stationary, patiently awaiting the return of her guide and doing her best to avoid entertaining the notion she had been betrayed. Such thoughts nagged at her from the back of her mind like a persistent itch that refused to fade until it was scratched, steadily growing until it would become all she could think about. The young unicorn forced herself to think of her friends and what they might be doing at this moment. Would they be in school, or off on some adventure helping ponies better understand their cutie marks? Did they know she was missing? Did anyone in Ponyville know? There was a troubling thought which had not come to mind until now. Had a search been organized to find Sweetie Belle? Were police and detective inspectors hunting for clues and asking pointed questions? Were her parents bolted up in their house, begging the Powers That Be for the return of their youngest child? Was Rarity with them, or at home on her couch surrounded by a graveyard of empty ice cream tubs while she mourned the loss of her sister? No, Sweetie was certain Rarity would be spearheading the search. She would likely be threatening to mutilate anyone who did not provide some measure of useful information, be they statesman or civilian, or even the Princesses themselves. She would turn all Equestria upside down and inside out as many times as it took to find her sibling. The images her mind conjured of such things brought warmth to Sweetie Belle's heart.

Maybe no one's looking at all.

"Shut up!" Sweetie surprised herself at her sudden outburst. Had someone actually spoken to her, or was her doubt nagging at her again? Regardless, her abrupt outcry put her square in the sights of a demon. The obese creature looked in her direction and stared for many long seconds. Then it started forward, wading through the fetid water and moaning hungrily with arms outstretched. That is until it ran into the bank. It seemed confused and tried walking again, but found itself unable to move another inch. When this failed it simply reached out with the gnashing mandibles on its arms, but Sweetie Belle was far outside of its range. The dimwitted beast moaned sadly with each failed attempt to seize its prey until at last it stopped and pondered the landmass in front of it. By using all of its quite limited mental powers, it deduced that the only way to catch the food was to climb onto dry land. As a sea turtle will grudgingly drag itself onto a beach to lay its eggs, so too did the demon strain to haul its considerable girth out of the water and finally collapse onto the muddy soil.

Sweetie Belle decided it would be best to move elsewhere, but her legs would not respond to her commands. She tried to force herself up by her forelimbs only to have them buckle and drop her back into a prone position. Her strength had not yet fully replenished, a fact which distressed the young unicorn as she watched the demon, through impressive effort, push itself onto its feet, and then advance on her. It stomped relentlessly forward, arms outstretched and gaping maw soaked with saliva, desperately eager to devour the unicorn foal in its ceaseless quest to sate the ravenous hunger in its belly. It was close enough now that Sweetie Belle could practically feel the beast's desire radiating from it like a heatwave.

"No!" It was not entirely command, nor was it entirely a plea for mercy. Her fear of death had blossomed from an instinctual emotion to an impulsive jolt into action. Sweetie's horn came abruptly to life in a surge of magical energy that burst outwards and shoved the demon back a few steps. She was stunned at the realization that she was not dead yet, and the demon looked sadly confused for a brief moment before coming for her again. Sweetie Belle's terror peaked again at witnessing her assailant's second attempt on her life, and again her magic halted the beast. The struggle repeated itself twice more, with the devil advancing on its prey only to be denied by Sweetie Belle's magical defenses, but a horrible reality had begun to set in for the victim. The demon's persistence was taking its toll on her mind, and the strength of her magic was waning. Every time it was forced backward, the beast gained another step forward before each defensive push. And throughout it all, Sweetie's legs continued to fail her. Soon the best she could manage was a hard magical beam that simply held the demon at bay, but even that could not spare her for very long. Her brain was wracked by an almost unbearable stabbing pain, but she refused to relent even as her doom drew closer.

Then, it was suddenly gone. Sweetie Belle's defensive beam cut out, but the demon was no longer present. She cautiously lifted her head to see something new standing in the beast's place with its back to her. It was larger than the other demon in height as well as girth, had split-toed hooves and leathery skin the color of iron, and carried an enormous club born of bone and sinew. Sweetie already knew she lacked the strength to fend off this new monster. Strangely, though, it made no move to attack her; only continued to stand between her and the pale devil.

The gluttonous beast bellowed in outrage at its challenger, who remained unmoved. The demon charged forward, mandibles snapping and spittle flying, but the second creature did not move. That is until its foe was within range, and then it spun sideways while bringing its weapon up into a lateral swing with quite unexpected grace and speed. The great club crashed into and even caved in the side of the demon's skull, the impact actually lifting the beast off its feet and sending it tumbling through the air to land several meters away.

Its work done, the creature rested its weapon on one shoulder before turning around to look down on Sweetie Belle. Now she beheld her savior's face, which resembled that of a wild boar. Its eyes were a blazing orange color, and it wielded a pair of savagely sharp tusks in its grizzled muzzle. A cloud of flies surrounded the great hog to constantly nip and bite at its hide, sometimes even ripping their way out from beneath the flesh to join the swarm. The creature's posture indicated an impatience for action, and its expression was one of disinterest bordering on indignant. It was clear this thing would rather be anywhere than here in this moment doing whatever business it was here to perform.

Virgil stepped out from behind the massive creature to join Sweetie Belle. He offered his hand to her, a seemingly futile gesture until she placed a hoof in his ethereal palm. A wave of energy washed over the young filly and almost completely rejuvenated her. She could stand and walk again, but her head still throbbed dully from the intensive effort of staving off her attacker. It would be a while yet before she could call on her magic again.

"Thank you," Sweetie said, those two words conveying her gratitude for more than just the energy boon.

Virgil nodded his head, but his young ward did notice that he appeared visibly diminished. He was more transparent than before, and his color had faded considerably. "Do not concern yourself with my health," he said as he observed her countenance shift. He stood before she could comment on the matter, and gestured his hand to the boar-creature. "This is Beelzebub; Lord of Flies, and crown prince of Gluttony."

Beelzebub grunted impatiently. "Let's get a move-on already. You two have mucked things up in my wallow bad enough as it is," he growled. He spun on his heel and started walking away without so much as a backwards glance to see if his guests were following. Sweetie Belle and Virgil rushed to catch up; not once did he look at either of them. "I'm told you want to know my thoughts about the rebellion and whatnot," Beelzebub said as soon as they were near. "Be quick about it, because once we're at the border I'm done with you."

Virgil was first to begin the interrogation. "Who were you before the fall?"

"Angel of Temperance," was Beelzebub's clipped response. "Next question."

"Were you Lucifer's friend?" Sweetie Belle asked.

The porcine beast shrugged his shoulders. "Not really. I knew him, sure, but who in Heaven didn't know Lucifer? For the most part I was pretty ambivalent towards him. Never gave him much thought or consideration."

"What part did you play in the war?" Virgil inquired.

Beelzebub snorted in contempt. "You mean, 'Did I participate in the slaughter of my kin?' Yes, I did. I butchered a good number of brothers and sisters with this very club." He shifted the immense cudgel on his shoulder to indicate his point. "Of course it looked a bit different back then."

"Why did you fight, if not because Lucifer turned you to his side?" the poet insisted.

"Something to do," the boar said with a shrug. "I knew from the moment of my creation that I was not meant for Heaven. Too clean, too wholesome, too..." Beelzebub rolled a large grey paw as he searched for the proper word. "Pure. That's the one. Heaven operates on the principle that wrongdoing is...well, wrong. The only way to live up there is by God's rules. Any form of originality or free-thinking is strictly forbidden, and punishable by expulsion from paradise. Lucifer demonstrated that fact rather succinctly, I think."

"You like it down here?" Asmodeus had said something similar about not belonging in Heaven, as Sweetie Belle recalled. It was quite bizarre to hear people say with total sincerity that they would rather be in Hell than to have retained their positions in Heaven. If this place was already so horrendous and miserable, then just how bad could life in Heaven be?

Beelzebub nodded with a grin. "As they say; better to rule than to serve."

The wall forming the border between Gluttony and the next Circle was close now and drawing swiftly nearer as Beelzebub increased the pace toward it. "Why did Lucifer rebel?" Sweetie Belle asked in a rush.

The Lord of Flies slowed to a stop to think over his answer. "He was power hungry," he decided with a nod, and then resumed walking again. "Yes, that was it. Being firstborn of all life granted him incredible power. More even than the seraphim, some say. But it wasn't enough; he had to have all of the power. Problem was he had to go through God the Almighty to get it." Beelzebub shook his head in disappointment. "He was a moth trying to tame a forest fire, and in the end he got burned. Well, frozen, actually."

Finally the group arrived at the border wall. Beelzebub nodded his head once in satisfaction. "Right. Well my job's finished. I brought you to the other side, and I answered all you're questions. Now get the hell out of my wallow before I really get sick of you and feed the both of you to Cerberus."

"We thank you for your cooperation," Virgil said before ushering Sweetie Belle towards a hole in the wall that was large enough for both of them to traverse together. Beelzebub watched them for a few seconds to be sure they would not be coming back before turning on his heel and returning to the heart of Gluttony without sparing either of them a second thought.

"He seemed kind of in a hurry to make us leave," Sweetie Belle observed as she climbed around a protuberance of stone in the wall to her right.

"The Lord of Flies is not keen on visitors in his realm," Virgil replied candidly. "That, and he was also under the impression that severe consequences would befall him should something happen that would prevent you from advancing along your journey."

Sweetie Belle looked up at her guide with a disapproving expression. "You really need to stop lying for me, Virgil. I know you're trying to make things easier for me, but I'm worried about what it's going to do for your place in Limbo."

"I told no lies, dear child," the poet said. "I merely implied that your death in the Circle of Gluttony would alert God to the presence of an innocent in Hell, which would have severe consequences for Lucifer because he did nothing to prevent your demise, and then he would take it out on Beelzebub."

"So you tricked him," reasoned the young unicorn.

"Not as such. The possibility exists that such events might transpire in the event of your death. All I did was bring the matter to his attention."

Sweetie Belle pondered the poet's words and tried to decide whether or not she approved of his actions in manipulating Beelzebub. On the one hand, she was grateful for being taken safely through Gluttony. On the other, it had required Virgil doing something rather underhanded. His intentions may have been good, but his repeated forays into deviance could potentially expel Virgil from his comfortable life in Limbo. After careful consideration, Sweetie decided she wasn't exactly pleased with what her guide did to help her, but she would be ever grateful for what assistance he could provide.

"I appreciate your concern for me, but please waste no time on me. As I am dead and confined to Hell, my fate should be one of the farthest things from your mind," Virgil said.

Sweetie Belle was prepared to launch a very stern argument to the contrary, but her thoughts were interrupted when she finally exited the crevice. Unlike the previous Circles which had appeared to be open environments, this place was an immense enclosed cavern of gold, pyrite, sulfur, and obsidian. Juxtaposed within and around the rock were immense gears and cogs and other machinery that ticked, clanged, and groaned like the inner workings of some inconceivable mechanism. It was as if the engine which powered the world were laid bare, with metal organs and golden blood visible for the young unicorn to see. Such a sight was beyond mere mortal words to justly convey how awesome a spectacle it was to behold.

Yet somehow, over the sounds of the great cavern's mechanical actions, Sweetie Belle heard the soft padding of feet against stone drawing near her location. Then a stranger appeared out of a dark patch in the stone. It was a man with a thin, almost fragile bearing who had a stooped posture due to the cloak of iron he wore on his back, and his head was heavy from a gold crown of finest craftsmanship and bejeweled decoration that had been melted to his skull. The gold had seeped down low enough to completely cover his eyes, yet the man appeared to have no trouble with navigation. His flesh was entirely bronze save for his golden hands and lead feet, and when he opened his mouth to speak it could be observed that he had a silver tongue and ivory teeth.

"Greetings and good tidings to thee," the stranger said in a rich youthful tone. "I am Mammon. Welcome, weary travelers, to the Circle of Greed!"