Something Sweet To Bite: Candy Mare Goes to Hell

Words fail to accurately describe the guttural noise that rattled up from the Candy Mare’s throat. It silenced the moaning of the nearest shades as their attention was suddenly arrested from their own torment by that terrible, sepulchral cry. Her every hair stiffened and her body tensed like a coiled spring.

That was all the warning that was given as the candified cannibal launched herself at Lemon Drop like a whirling dervish of gnashing teeth and flashing claws!

As enthusiastically violent as her efforts were, the lemon yellow unicorn remained almost entirely unfazed. It was with a look of boredom that he yawned as fangs and tendrils alike passed through him like the oars of a ship disturbing the surface of calm waters. Though he appeared better defined than the other wraiths that haunted this dismal place, he had about as much substance as they did, his form wavering briefly like heat haze on a hot summer's day. As the Candy Mare realized how ineffective the expression of her rage actually was, her attack subsided, and she settled for merely glaring at her unwelcome company with utter loathing.

“I see you are as impulsive and violent, as ever, dearest daughter” observed the stallion, returning the glare with a frigid stare of his own. “It’s almost comforting to know that after all these years you're still the same petulant, tantrum throwing child.”

“I’m not a child anymore.” growled the Candy Mare, baring her candy corn fangs. “And I’m definitely no daughter of a filthy degenerate like you!”

“Creation then, if you prefer.” conceded Lemon Drop, unfazed by the venom dripping from the Candy Mare’s every word. “As much as you may despise me, and believe me the feeling is mutual, even you can’t be so deluded as to deny my role in your rather unique nativity.”

“If you mean to say that you’re the one to blame for my existence, then sure!” hissed the undead pony, her eyes spiraling with barely contained madness. “I’m more than happy to let you bear that guilt!”

Lemon Drop scoffed. “Guilt? As if I’ve ever felt guilty for anything. Surely you know such trifles are beneath me?”

“Regrettably.” was the Candy Mare's bitter reply as she settled down on her haunches. As satisfying as it might be to hurl venom at her killer-slash-creator, it wasn't really conducive to her learning anything about her present situation. “Enough idle banter. You might be in love with the sound of your own voice, but I’d sooner rip out your throat than exchange any more ‘pleasantries’ with you. Where are we, and why am I burdened with your repugnant presence?”

“Impatient as always. Though at least you’re asking the right questions.” mused the haughty shade. “As I said my dear, welcome to Hell. That is the name of this infernal realm, and this is where we are bound to stay. You are familiar with the prison Tartarus, I'd wager? The prison to which the unicorn kings of old would banish those considered too dangerous to live in polite society? Think of this as that place writ large! The malicious and deceitful of an entire universe funneled down into one miserable pit at the bottom of creation."

“Hah, yes, I’ve been to Tartarus before.” a bark of laughter saying much about what the Candy Mare thought of the dread penitentiary. “Though as its liberator, rather than its prisoner. As I recall it was more an over-glorified zoo than a prison. If security here is anything like it was there, then I doubt I will be ‘bound’ here for very long at all!”

Lemon Drop simply shook his head and gave a long suffering sigh. “I’m afraid that thwarting your incarceration this time won’t be as simple as plundering a penal colony designed by mere ponies. This realm is vast, and there is much about it that you do not know.”

“Is that so? It seems I was able to escape from the last prison I was in without even trying! Speaking of which...” the Candy Mare’s predatory eyes roamed over their surroundings. “You didn’t happen to see any others arrive with me, did you? I should like very much to catch up with my former 'cell mates'. Those responsible for my brief time in limbo would make for excellent travel snacks on my way to freedom.”

“Your stay in limbo was not as brief as you might think.” the ghostly unicorn took a moment to clean a smudge of soot from his glasses with a handkerchief before continuing. “The reason for your egress is simple. The world your private 'limbo' was connected to has long since come to an end and true Limbo was deemed too good for you. This place, Hell, is a holding cell in the lower spheres designed to imprison the damned until their day of judgement. I’m certain anyone who sacrificed themselves to thwart you was probably called to one of the higher spheres, there to abide in one of the more heavenly realms until they might find their eternal home. Good and evil rarely come in contact with one another anywhere but on the mortal plain. More's the pity.”

“Oh please, I’ve seen worlds end before. Hah, in fact I’ve ended several, personally!” The cadaverous grin of the candy covered corpse widened as she remembered better times. “There’s no cosmic sorting bin for good and evil. At the end there is simply a mountain of corpses, rotting under pitiless stars, slowly fading into the ever lasting dark. If you’re trying to tell me there’s some cosmic sense of ‘justice’ out there, next you’ll be trying to convince me the tooth fairy is real.”

“I wouldn’t know, I’ve never met her. Although, as many children’s teeth as I inadvertently extracted in my time, you would think I would have caught a glimpse of her once or twice." if Lemon Drop's serious reply shocked the Candy Mare, she did not show it. “Never-the-less, doubt it though you may, I’m afraid your circumstances are as you described; Welcome to the celestial dust bin for all that is deemed evil, corrupt, and loathsome. I’m sure you’re not that surprised to find yourself here.”

“More than anything I guess that explains why you're here!” she snarled in reply. “I bet you just couldn’t wait to have the opportunity to torment me again, could you?”

“On the contrary my dear, your memory is confused. I never ‘tormented’ you. You were merely the by-product of my own brilliant experiments and the inevitable expiration of one of my many disposable test subjects. I never bore you any malice.” he paused, before grinning coldly and opening his vest to reveal a gaping hole in his chest. The exposed hollow in his shattered rib-cage extended into a deep cavity that was alive with maggots. “At least not before you ripped my still beating heart from my chest. That was rather rude of you.”

“You had that coming!” the Candy Mare shot back. “For everything you did. For everything you didn’t do! The simple acts of kindness and mercy you withheld that only accelerated the ‘expirations’’ of the children you stole and murdered! Not just them, but their parents too when they got in your way. Or do you forget feeding me pieces of my own father as part of your twisted experiments!?”

“Oh come now. You act as if all those deaths were intentional. You should well know I never cared if my test subjects lived or died, and the trivial lives of their parental units were equally meaningless to me. Besides, if you're so outraged by 'murder' as you call it, then why did you engage in so much of it yourself?” asked the incredulous unicorn with a smirk. “The Candy Mare! The sugar-coated cannibal corpse, scourge of Nightmare Night, feasting on the fat of babes and haunting their nightmares! You were every bit the monster you claim me to be. You tortured and tormented the innocent far more gleefully than one would expect of somepony filled with self-righteous rage at my actions and deeds. It's quite irrational.”

“If the ponies who wrote my legend knew half of the things you did stolidly and sanely to your ‘test subjects’, they wouldn't just call you a monster, Lemon Drop. They would know you for the incompassionate devil that I know you for. Removing your heart was not only just, but poetic given your true nature.” assured the Candy Mare, her words dripping with scorn. “My madness, my hunger, and my every misdeed can be laid at your 'rational' hooves, after all.”

“Unfortunately the powers that be seem to agree with you on that score.” muttered the unicorn, acting in an uncharacteristically morose manner for the dispassionate killer. “It would seem we are inextricably tied to one another, much as I wish it were otherwise. It would seem that just as the sins of the father might be visited on the son, so too may the transgressions of the daughter accumulate upon her father.”

“Would you stop it with the cryptic bullshit?” grumbled the perturbed pony with a curse. “Also, I already told you to knock it off with that ‘father and daughter’ crap.”

Lemon Drop ignored the Candy Mare’s crass recriminations. “In short, I’m responsible for you. Whatever fate might be in store for you, I am bound to share it. Hence why I have come to collect you. Those who rule here have instructed me to lead you into their presence. I'm afraid that we have a date with eternity.”

“...”

For the first time in their conversation the Candy Mare didn’t know what to say.

Lemon Drop was right in that she wasn’t entirely surprised that there was some kind of terrible punishment lined up for her at the end of everything. It was that creeping sense of dread that had always motivated her to snuff out the next life, and the next , and the next, all in an effort to stave of her own eventual dissolution. But that was just it - She’d always thought that it would be oblivion that awaited her. She had imagined her rage and hatred burning down to embers in a quiet, empty world devoid of life and souls to sustain her until all had faded away to nothing. The idea some greater punishment might lay in store for her was something she had no difficulty processing, but it wasn't something she had ever seriously considered. Frankly, a small part of her had been looking forward to an end to everything. To know that she was meant to continue in a state of suffering for ever and ever was a somber thought.

However, the idea that some fate just as terrible lay in store for Lemon Drop, her creator and the origin of all that suffering, well that did give her just a little bit of cold comfort.

Maybe there was something like justice in the cosmos after all.

“Well, as you said, enough idle banter, eh?” concluded Lemon Drop. Turning away, the dead unicorn walked back into the swirling smoke before pausing to look back over his shoulder. “Come along then. The Master says I am to give you a tour before our introductions.”