The Festival of the Dead

Author Notes: This is my first submission so feel free to be as brutal as you like, this will mostly be used to help get some experience in writing so don't bother saying anything is perfect, it most likely isn't and I can't improve from that.

Chapter 1: A Simple "Request"

An older overseer was busily napping through yet another cycle under his watch. "watch" was a slightly liberal way to describe the matter in which the demon determinedly ignored the cries around him so he could continue his sleep. He had become desensitized to the pleas of mercy since his first cycle and yet they never bothered to stop after realizing that nobody was going to help them.

"It must be one of those mortal quirks." Quipped a slimmer demon sitting nearby the overseer, disrupting the slumber that he had worked so hard to maintain. "They are so used to the better of their kind being there to help them with problems that they only brought on themselves." Pausing only slightly to grin as one soul almost escaped the pitch-black pit only to be pulled back in by a similar looking husk. "And now they can't function without someone being there to hold their hand... or in their case give them a piggyback ride."

He had dealt with this pest before. He knew that if he tried to go back to sleep that he would only be awoken on purpose mere moments after he lost consciousness. After weighing his options, he decided on trying to placate him with as little interaction as possible. "What do you want with me, Focalor?" Opening his eyes only long enough to catch the slight twitch of annoyance which brought him greater pleasure than most of his work ever did.

"Is it hard to believe that I came to you during some downtime for conversation?" He said absentmindedly, not particularly interested in this portion of the conversation, having gone through it all before.

"If you had come to make small talk, you wouldn't have simply woken me up. You would have kicked me off my cliff or blown me away and sat right where you are until I came back up to my spot. That is unless you did the other option anyway once I sat down again." The watcher replied with more boredom than actual sadness over his past experiences with this particular sea demon.

"And it is with that revelation that I make my point." Announced the slim demon, standing up and removing the hood of his silver robe, immediately having its shine matched by his own bald head. "Things have become too predictable around here. This is supposed to be the underworld! This is where people must pay their dues before they can move on, if they even deserve to move on at all!" The regularly quiet demon was getting a bit worked up at this point. Something that went suspiciously unnoticed by mortals was his temper, not a very difficult thing to miss when the only mortals that actually saw him angry tended to either die in a shipwreck horribly or drown when they suddenly find the water pulling them down like weights.

The overseer was suddenly much more attentive, he knew he wouldn't be much of a guardian if he found himself in the middle of an endless lake in a perpetual apocalyptic storm. Focalor tended to be much more hands-on whenever he was in charge of punishments and those punishments didn't always just apply to the souls he was placed in charge of. He found his apathetic demeanor very much broken and tried to stammer out reassurances to the irate low-level deity. "We-well why d-d-don't you try telling me whats... uh... wrong." He sputtered, secretly disgusted at himself for actually acting like he cared about a being he rarely saw and even more rarely enjoyed.

Focalor snapped out of his muttering over some "enraging sloth" by suddenly becoming very confused over where he was and what he was doing. "Oh! Right!" The slightly unhinged being of hell suddenly smiled to extents that would tear-apart most normal faces, demons tended to be able to break most bodily limits provided it looked weird or creepy enough. "I was thinking... why don't we try getting another trip out of this place for a little while?" His companion seemed like he was ready to dismiss his plans but he quickly cut him off. "I already know what you are going to say and don't worry about it. We aren't allowed to use the human's realm, too far covered and they would probably just think we were invading or something. No, what I looked for, and found, I assure you! Was a world similar. I even found good sources of magic there so we don't have to waste time trying to get too much assistance!" The god was practically foaming at the mouth at this point, trying to convince the poor overseer who would have gladly already accepted if only to escape this terrifying situation.

At last, the man's captive audience calmed himself down and settled back on his rock and tried to ask the only question he dared to ask. "Who else has agreed to help you with this?"

"Some minor lords and demons, a few spirits..." He suddenly grimaced violently. "and Andras." His new partner sputtered right before getting back to his position on a comfy patch of ground. "It wasn't ideal, but we will need a god's power for this to work."

Celestia was sitting in her dining hall with her sister, both idly conversing with Twilight and the other elements when a message appeared in the middle of the table. The elements were all staring at the message, obviously confused. Twilight looked behind her seat at Spike, the most likely person to send a message in such a manner, and found him idly sleeping on a cushion he was provided after he got tired of conversation and then quickly at her teacher, who only softly shrugged in return.

Twilight hesitantly opened the message and read it aloud. "Dear beings of world 'Equestria'" Twilight saw that the oddly beautiful flowing script was slightly scrunched up around 'Equestria', almost as if they only bothered to look up the name after they finished the letter. She dismissed the thought and continued reading. "This message is to inform you of the real message which will be appearing shortly so that it does not cause any undo confusion."

Everyone present was tempted to face-hoof, a temptation that a few indulged. Over a hoof covering her face, Applejack spoke up to break the awkward silence. "Ah' don't... reckon they thought this through all that well." Most of the room nodded in response.

"I just don't understand..." Everyone turned to face Twilight. "Why would they send a message about a message? I mean, it isn't THAT odd to magically send letters, especially to the princ..."

The statement on the messenger's sensibility was cut off as the room suddenly lost almost all of the color in it. Everything went monochrome, a fact that Rainbow Dash wouldn't have hesitated to complain about if a sudden noise hadn't stopped her. As soon as the sound was over, a small black portal opened in the middle of the room, sustaining itself briefly before starting to shrink again, but not before another, smaller message, contained in a small black envelope, left the collapsing tunnel with a small *put* and flew towards the princess at a tremendous speed. Celestia caught the letter in a short burst of magic and slowly unrolled it, reading it to herself silently before adorning a very shocked expression, something that very few beyond the elements ever saw. Luna, ever-worried for her older sister, tried to get a grip on the message to see for herself before Celestia regained her composure and calmly stated, "Relax, sister, I was merely surprised by the contents of the message... which I guess I was technically warned against." Everyone else in the room face-hoofed yet again at their ability to receive a warning and forget it again within two minutes.

"Well what in Equestria could have caused the princess of all ponies to stop in the middle of such a nice get-together?" Rarity asked, still slightly surprised from the reaction and trying her hardest to diffuse any awkwardness and failing.

Celestia simply tossed the letter to the middle of the table, still processing what was contained inside. Everyone immediately crowded around the letter, trying to read it as quickly as possible. The letter was rather short and, one at a time, each fell back into their seats more confused than they were before reading it.

Dear rulers of Equestria,

This is a formal greeting from the denizens of Tartarus stating that your land has been selected for a once-in-a-lifetime event unlike any other, The Festival of the Dead! We request that you provide an area large enough to hold the festival (A few square miles should suffice) In the event that an area is not provided, we shall simply choose an area ourselves to use as we see fit. The festival shall last a few days to a week at most and any and all citizens are welcomed to come and experience more amazing things than they could ever expect in their lives. This festival allows us to all let our hair down a bit and unwind from our usual routine, something that I am sure you can understand. I hope that you will try to enjoy the festival as much as we will. You will have one hour to choose an appropriate location and prepare for our arrival.

I hope for the best festival possible, Andras, god of quarrels