Author's Note
I added the gore tag due to the description of torture in this chapter.
Chapter 2
Within one of the mouths of the three headed dog, Cozy could feel spit all over her. She shook her mane, getting some of the drool off of her.
Cozy shouted, “If you give your magic to Tirek, he will take revenge!” The young filly wasn’t sure if Tirek would help her escape but she did want revenge. She hoped that the other creatures had the same idea. However, Cerberus only blinked before returning to his station.
Tirek coughed, “Cozy Glow, you can’t speak dog.”
Cozy rolled her eyes, “Whatever. That’s not even important.” The older creature rolled his eyes before turning around so that his back would face Cozy.
Cozy hesitated, “Tirek? Last time when Discord gave you magic, you were able to absorb others without permission right?”
Tirek turned around to face her again, “...Yes?”
“This isn’t smart of me but... If I willingly give you my magic, would you be able to absorb the rest?” She asked, staring at him.
Tirek hesitated, “Are you trying to get both of us to escape or just me?”
“Both of us,” Cozy said, knowing that Tirek already knew the answer, “But if you get out and wreck revenge, especially on the school of friendship, I wouldn’t mind. Then, with Equestria’s magic, you can still get us out of here. You do know how bad this place could be.” Her cutie mark glew slightly.
She continued, “Besides, this is a terribly lonely place that the princesses should experience. It would serve them right to throw us in here. Look at Discord, he was taken out and reformed yet no creature here was given a chance. Tirek, we can do it. If we get out, we can have a chance. I am willing to do it, even if I won’t be able to fly until you return my magic.”
Tirek finally nodded, “Fine.”
“How do I send my magic?”
“Envision it and throw it to me.”
Cozy nodded. She closed her eyes and began to envision a ball of magic. Being a pegasus, it was hard to see it as magic but eventually, when she thought about her anger when she was trapped from escaping, her anger when she realized that the CMCs, her first friends, were trying to stop her from her brilliant plan. Her anger pooled with her magic and a ball of magic was formed. She threw all of it to Tirek, who was always by her side through letters, who she had expected to betray her from the start.
Tirek ate the magic quickly and grew a bit taller and stronger. It wasn’t as powerful as conquering Equestria but it was enough to absorb some of the magic from the lesser monsters, and then from the more powerful monsters. One by one, they had turned grey. Even Cozy’s useless chatter was gone. Turning, he saw the grey and seemingly lifeless pegasus. Tirek destroyed his cage with the magic then with some hesitation, Cozy’s.
Tirek returned Cozy’s magic, “I’m only doing this because you know Equestria and will be able to blend in more than I can. I refuse to alert the princesses of my presence until it’s too late for them. I don’t think that Discord will betray Equestria again and if he finds out...”
Cozy nodded, “Yeah! And we’re friends now, right? We only managed to escape with teamwork!”
“You’re lucky that I freed you,” Tirek grumbled, “Because we are definitely not friends. I only did it because you will be useful in Equestria and they hate you too so you have a lot to lose like I do if they catch us.”
He turned to Cerberus, “As for this mutt... he doesn’t have magic anymore... but tried to eat around every creature around here. I think he deserves to suffer. If we get captured again, and I doubt we will, I don’t want that stupid dog to be alive.”
Cozy asked, “Are we going to make him eat metal?”
“Worse.” Tirek began charging up magic between his horns. A whip appeared and wacked the three headed dog, creating strips of blood that trailed to the floor. The dog whimpered as it tried to run.
Tirek taunted the hurt dog, “How does this feel, huh? This is for trapping us for thousands of years.” Charging more magic, Tirek made the whip disappear but created a torture spell instead. It was hard to cover the dog’s body due to the size and the limited magic Tirek had, but he managed to break all of its bones besides the ones in the brain. Tirek also made sure that the dog was conscious for all of this. Cerberus howled in pain as each bone was bent and broken.
The centaur said, “You’re lucky that I’m not at full power yet, Cerberus. If I was, there would be a lot more to pay. Cozy, any ideas on torture?”
Cozy said, “Friends are supposed to forgive each other! We should forgive-“
“Yeah, well, I’m not friends with my torturer.”
“We can’t stay here forever.”
“Our ages are frozen inside this prison so we actually can stay here all of our lives. However, I have been trapped here long enough so I suppose that we should go. However, there’s one more thing before I leave this place.” He formed an electric shock collar on the dog. It began shocking the dog.
Tirek explained to the confused filly, “Each second Cerberus doesn’t move, he gets shocked. The voltage increases by 30 each shock. It should pop all three of the heads off soon.” True to his word, the dog shrieked, making Cozy shrink back in sudden fear. The three heads rolled off and the body became entirely limp. Tirek loosened his magic hold on the collars and zapped the door.
Cozy clapped her hooves in excitement as the doors fully opened. Tirek trotted forwards, leading the way out of his prison. Cozy followed next to him, happy to be back outside. No one ever guarded the place besides the now dead dog,
Tirek turned to Cozy, “Is there anywhere we will be able to rest at nightfall?” It was currently afternoon so there was some time to travel.
Cozy thought for a moment before nodding, “Yeah. I think I know the perfect place in Ponyville.”
Cozy Glow was a young filly locked in Tartarus. No joke. The princess decided to lock her in the jail after she attempted to conquer Equestria through the means of friendship, as if she was the first pony to attempt that. Cozy noticed that there weren’t any other pony villains in Tartarus. She could see her old pal, Tirek, sitting in his cage. While Cozy had attempted to make some small talk to try to erase eternal boredom, Tirek merely grunted and ignored her.
Cozy had been there for around five hours, even though it felt more like a decade, trying to kick the cage open. Regardless, she knew that magic was needed to open up the cages, and the inside of the cages were magic repellent, probably by some ancient magic. If only they had some temporal magic to give to some creature with absorption power to blast the cages open...
She glanced at Tirek, knowing that if some creature willingly gave up part of their power, Tirek had the highest chance of getting out. Cozy might be young but she was certainly intelligent and manipulative. Otherwise, she would’ve never come as close as to become ‘Empress’. Cozy knew that she made a filly’s mistake; she had been too rash in front of the audience and had put all her eggs in one basket quickly, thinking that she had won already. There had been flaws and she was determined to not make any mistakes again.
Now, Cozy was no expert in actual magic. Most of her ideas had come from Tirek through mailing. The mailing system was actually an old book she had found in Twilight’s office when she was there. Now, it didn’t say how to talk to Tirek but it did give some pointers to Tartarus and eventually, through a few more books, Cozy was able to figure out how to get a message to Tartarus. She had to steal a few artifacts and had sent a message. Tirek had soon told her how to set up a small power base and how to close it to communicate. The rest, of course, was history.
Cozy glanced at the other creatures. While the cage might prevent from flying for whatever reason, Cozy should still be able to use her diplomatic ways to manipulate the creatures. After all, that was how she earned her cutie mark and she still had her cutie mark. And cutie mark magic was... undiscovered, even though there were a few attempts to research it.
The filly could see how the place could tick creatures off. She felt her already strained sanity being tugged even more. The worst place was a place of isolation. Cozy hit the sides of the cage angrily before sitting down, the bruise of her hoof already beginning to form. She couldn’t even die here. There wasn’t any food in Tartarus but the atmosphere made the creatures semi-immortal in the sense that they can’t die by hunger nor age. Otherwise, Tirek would definitely be dead by then.
Cozy asked the creatures, “What did Twilight promise you? She shouldn’t had been able to get out without an extra boost of magic.”
Tirek huffed, “Something about never being able to recover Equestria magic again. It doesn’t matter- I was an idiot for believing her for a second.” Finally, a reaction from Tirek.
Cozy started, “Well, it is awfully rude of them to not keep their promise, especially since it’s the Princess of Friendship. Now I want to get out of here even more, not only for myself...”
Tirek asked hesitantly, “What are suggesting?”
“I can’t wield magic myself so I can’t blow this cage apart. Tirek, you’re a natural magic absorber- in fact, that’s how you get stronger, according to Princess Twilight anyways.”
“That’s correct. I still don’t understand what you’re trying to suggest though.” In return, Cozy gave him a small wink.
Cozy continued out loud, “I can’t open the cages either, I will be truthful. Only the princess’ alicorn magic can get prisoners out, unless there’s some other way I don’t know about.” Cozy had inferences that it needed a lot of power, even though it could be entirely wrong. Still, each creature was hanging on her words, as if it might be one of her last ones before she would fall to the boring place from before.
The filly said, “However, Tirek can get out of this cage and get me out of mine- our cages are close so one blast should destroy both- and have enough magic to open the door.” Tirek turned to her, finally catching on. Tirek gave a pointed look to the 3-headed dog, which the filly immediately recognized as a potential threat. The dog must’ve been fueled by Loyalty to continue guarding faithfully every single day.
Cozy called, “Cerberus! I know that you are loyal to Equestria.” The dog turned to her, all three of them looking very angry with looking at a prisoner. Tirek backed away a bit, not sure about what the dogs could do to them. Tirek was practically traumatized by the dog.
He had once tried to annoy the dog because he was that bored (most of them were traumatized after attempting this) and Cerberus had decided that the cage might be fun to play with. One thing that he never wanted to experience was dog spit. He could still remember the gums and the rotten teeth that the dog had, which made him wonder about his own condition. Tirek could see Cozy’s matted coat already, even though it kept its bright color for some unknown reason. Most of the prisoners became dull after one hour. Tirek had to admit that the filly was stronger than he had originally realized.
Cozy tried again, “Cerberus! You may be my guard and myself, inferior to you at the moment, am not able to do anything... but... what have I done to personally wrong you?” The three headed dog stepped closer to her cage. Tirek winced as its jaws snapped at the cage.
Cozy backed up in fear, “Listen... Just please give me a moment. Isn’t that common courtesy?” The dog bit down the cage and drooled all over it.
Cozy finally shouted, “Put me down right now!” Confused, the three headed dog out her down and blinked at her. Cozy gulped, knowing that she would have one chance for the dog to listen.