Hell's Dungeon

It had been roughly four days since each of the girls had arrived in Canterlot. Each of the six elements had woken up shortly before sunrise. Through their discussion with Celestia and her sister, a plan had been set up in place to surprise Dragus and rid Equestria of its current predicament and banish the dungeon before anyone rose for the day.

Everyone now stood on a balcony, preparing to channel their energies together.

“I still think this is a bad idea,” said Rainbow Dash.

Twilight scoffed at the notion. “This again? We’re talking about powers of Harmony against powers of Destruction. Honestly, I don’t see why you’re apprehensive about using our powers to get rid of the castle. Princess Celestia and I both came to a conclusion that it should banish Dragus from our realm, considering Harmony seems to be strongest in Equestria as opposed to Destruction and Chaos. At least that is the general idea.”

A high pitched resonating sound could be heard all throughout Canterlot. Six brightly colored lights quickly formed along the balcony around Twilight and her friends, quickly releasing energy in a rainbow beam towards the floating castle. Pieces of the structure started dissipating all across the sky, leaving nothing but a floating cloud of powdered stone and metal. Ponies all over the city shouted in delight at the now absent danger in their sky. As quickly as the dungeon was destroyed, it reformed almost as a whole, minus a few bits missing from its exterior.

“Who DARES to try and destroy my dungeon?!” thundered a deep voice.

A large form of Dragus now levitated above the dungeon. He turned his head in the direction of the six ponies put to the task of banishing him. “YOU SIX! Do you have any idea how long it took me to come up with themes for each floor, MANUALLY cut pieces of worlds, and how annoying it was to fill each up with creatures?! Not to mention you just OBLITERATED all my hard work. Granted, I can just rebuild MOST of it within a few seconds, but my point still stands! Thanks for wasting my time.” He let out a long sigh of disappointment. “Every time I try to find a replacement for my position, everyone either dies or quits halfway through the first floor. Well, not this time! You six are now players for my game! Oh and about the month? You guys have until the end of the week to find more contestants, or I’m taking random sapient minds from this world myself! Think of it as a punishment for literally breaking my house into smithereens.”

With that, Dragus once again vanished from sight.

“Well great! Just great! Not only have we managed to piss off an overgrown gecko, but now we have no choice but to go inside his damn castle! This is your fault, Twilight!” screamed Rainbow Dash.

Twilight sputtered from her friend’s accusation. “My fault? You wanted to go in anyway and fight him hoof to hoof, which is stupid, considering he’s a GOD! I didn’t want anypony to just up and die like before, so I thought our Rainbow Powers were going to be enough. How was I supposed to know he wouldn’t be affected by them!?”

“My idea was a lot easier! We could have been done and over with this already if we had just gone in anyways! Now we’re forced to compete in some stupid game!”

“You’re idea would have gotten is killed!”

“Girls! We don’t have time to argue, so quit fighting like foals and buck up,” Fluttershy asserted, tears streaming from her eyes. “I know we’re in big trouble, but that isn’t a reason to be m-mean to one another! We should be working together as friends to get through this. Oh dear, I hope I didn’t upset you all by my yelling.”

After a brief moment of reflection, Pinkie Pie spoke up to try and cheer up her friends. “Fluttershy is right. Yeah, the silly dragon guy is a big ol’ meanie, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be happy! We get to hang out again together! And if words won’t cheer you girls up, then only one thing will.” A big smile stretched across Pinkie’s face. Her friends all looked confused at what the pink pony was implying, completely oblivious to her hints.

“We need a PARTY!” Pinkie cheered while bringing out her party cannon from within her mane, firing it off in random directions at the gates of the castle. Confetti gently descended towards the ground and the smell of freshly baked goods emanated from a nearby table that appeared out of nowhere.

“Pinkie, how did you plan all this out?” asked Rarity.

Pinkie bounced over to the marshmallow unicorn, hugging her by the neck. “Easy, silly! I had a feeling something bad would happen last night, so I stocked my cheer-up-your-friends-with-a-party-in-a-cannon party cannon while you all were sleeping. Not to mention having twelve pots of super-duper sugar filled coffee to keep me awake. Speaking of which, Nighty-night!” Pinkie passed out of the ground. Drool leaked from her mouth into a small puddle, making her friends laugh. Even in a disaster, she never failed to bring a smile to their faces.

The end of the week had come in almost no time at all. Princess Celestia had waited for as long as possible and could not bare to send away one of her ponies to a death sentence. A few griffons and a diamond dog had shown up at Canterlot castle to offer their services in conquering the dungeon itself, albeit for the greedy reason of becoming a god themselves. A small platform appeared below the dungeon itself and hovered over to the center of Canterlot. Dragus perched on a decorative chair up above.

Dragus directed his attention to Princess Celestia, who stood fairly far away. “So, Princess Celestia. How’s it hanging? I assume you’re doing fairly well? You get those other contestants like I wanted?”

Aside from the main six he had forced into participating, all Dragus saw were the griffons and the lone diamond dog. Maniacal laughter escaped his scaled snout. “HAHAHAHA! You call THESE contestants?! They’re just greedy fools going to their deaths! I gotta say, it’s real embarrassing to have strangers offer their help and not your own people or guards.” Dragus let out cheerful sigh, followed by a cruel smile. “Looks like I’ll have to find contestants myself.”

Celestia stood fearfully, aghast by what she had just heard. “Y-you said to find contestants. I couldn’t bear the thought of sending one of my little ponies into harm’s way.”

Dragus slithered through the air, stopping directly in front of her with a smile. “You brought me volunteers, not contestants. You call yourself a leader and you can’t force anyone into doing something to keep your country safe? Talk about being a wimp.”

“Hey you! Don’t bad mouth the Princess!” shouted a guard from nearby.

*poof*

The guard who spoke back was now a pile of dust on the ground, causing the ponies around to scream in terror, fleeing every which way. The few volunteers once brave exteriors crumbled like cheap crackers. Even Applejack and Rarity fainted.

“Fuck this! I didn’t apply to be some crazy god’s toy!”

“I thought we would be rewarded for simply showing up!”

“I-I think I just wet myself…”

“Run fer yer lives!”

“S-squaaak!”

Dragus seemed unfazed by the fleeing creatures. “Alright, I’m done separating the curds from the whey. Now, allow me to do the honor of-”

Rainbow Dash flew after the nearest griffon to her, fuming at the deserters. “Cowards! And you all call yourselves griffons!”

“Uuuugh, are you all seriously going to interrupt me? Was that guard not a good enough example for my treatment of disrespect? Or am I going to have to like, burn your wings off and make you eat your own skin or something? Because I can and will do that, just so you know.”

Celestia’s once great facade was near shattering. She wanted to run away with her subjects, scared of the malevolent god. But she remained stoic, even with a frown. “I was wrong to think of you as nothing more than a monster. You’re much worse than that to strike down innocent lives. You’re no god, you’re a devil.”

Rolling his eyes, Dragus shifted around in his seat and summoned a staircase leading from the platform down onto the ground. “Yeah yeah yeah, like I haven’t heard that before. God of Destruction isn’t just a title, so it’s not like I’m doing anything wrong. It’s literally the nature of the Gods of Destruction to be either heartless or sadistic, so quit your bitching. Now, are you all going to step up here or what? I’m extremely bored and want to get this underway already. I have other things I need to do.”

“What about the other contestants? We’re the only ones here now.” said Twilight.

“Well, if you must know, I already took the liberty of ‘inviting’ some others to take my challenge about five seconds ago. At least I think I did. They should be inside the lobby of the dungeon. Got really drunk last night, so I might have to teleport them in a bit after I check. Never really was good at it though. Teleporting others than myself I mean. Might be a few of them missing limbs. It’s no big deal, re-”

“No big deal?! You just said some might be missing limbs! How is that not a big deal?!”

A yawn escaped Dragus snout as he reached over and flicked Twilight’s muzzle. “EXCUSE ME! You don’t see me interrupting you when you talk, so why are you doing it to me? Talk about rude.” Puffs of black smoke jettisoned from Dragus nose as his expression shifted. “You know what, screw this. I’m just going to the top of the dungeon myself. At least there I won’t get interrupted by stupid ponies. You have five minutes to step on the platform or you’re REALLY going to see what I’m like when I’m angry.” Dragus floated gently up into the castle and fazed through the material like it was thin air.

Rainbow Dash tried chasing after the kobold, but was held in place by Twilight’s magic. “Hey! Let me go! I’m gonna go right up there and show this asshole who’s boss!”

“Easy Rainbow! We’ll handle him when we get to the top. You know what happens if you fly near the outside of the damnable castle.”

“But we can’t just let him get away with killing ponies left and right! It goes against everything we stand for as Elements!”

Celestia stepped forward next to Twilight, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “Let me handle this, my student.” She turned her attention to Rainbow Dash. “You’re right, Rainbow Dash. But we have no other options than to participate in his cruel game. You six are not only Equestria’s greatest weapon, but it’s most valuable asset. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid of sending you all into danger, but I’m confident you all will succeed.”

“She’s right, darling. We’re no strangers to a tussle or two. We needn’t worry about the specific of the danger. Our friendship is more than strong enough to overcome our current predicament,” Rarity added, elegant as usual.

Applejack removed her hat and held it over her chest. “Aw shoot Rare, that does mah soul good to hear you say that about us. But if Ah’m honest? We’re all more scared than a bunny in a pit full of snakes.” A long sigh escaped her lips. “Kinda makes me feel like Rainbow’s right about friendship not bein’ enough for this.”

“I don’t want to hurt anypony. M-maybe we could try t-talking this out and not need to go inside...” suggested Fluttershy, earning her a depressed look from the other six present. They may not want to mention it, but each of them were feeling a depression that had spread like wildfire. Very little hope remained, but what little did was strong enough to propel them onward and protect their fellow pony from further cruelty.

The group said their goodbyes to their beloved solar princess and climbed over the steps leading onto the stone disc that was their elevator. Their hearts filled with dread the moment each stepped hoof onto the center. The further it levitated from the ground, the bigger their depression and fear grew. And a certain pink party horse had made it her mission to bring them out of their pit.

“Don’t feel bad, girls! This’ll all be over faster than we can say ‘giant-floaty-castle-thingy-filled-with-spooky-scaries’! Then we can all go home and throw a big victory party! With ‘congratulations for beating the big meanie’ cupcakes!” said Pinkie Pie as she grabbed each of her friends in her signature (and patented) Pinkie Hug, smiling as wide as could be to hide her own sadness. “No matter how bad it gets, we still have each other! So don’t let some silly dragon monster drag you down!” It wasn’t long before the other five ponies joined Pinkie in her smiling. With their resolve renewed, they faced the oncoming castle with determination.

As the six neared the bottom of the castle, a trap door opened near what they all assumed to be the front. A small gust of steam billowed forth from the entrance, giving a strangely relaxing feeling to the frightened ponies.