Tirek sat annoyed silence as the pink filly babbled on. His fingers tapped the metal surface of his cage, waiting for the pony to be done.
“I was soooo close to defeating them, but then they got rescued by the Tree of Harmony, and stopped my vortex from sucking the magic into another realm. Can you believe that?!”
“All magic is a little excessive, don’t you think?” He gazed blankly towards the entrance of Tartarus.
Cozy shrugged, curling her hooves around the metal bars. “Eh, I think big. But seriously, that was annoying! I almost had it.”
“Yeah...sure...” the centaur groaned, plugging his spindly fingering into his ears. He just wanted to die right there on the spot.
If only Tartarus would let him.
Cozy Glow shook out her blue curls, letting a growl escape her throat. She peered around her new living space, her red eyes glaring at everyone she looked out.
Tapping a pink hoof to her chin, she hummed. “Hey, Tirek?”
“Lord Tirek. What do you want.”
The filly looked out of the metal cage, confusion in her eyes. “How do you eat? Does somepony come in a feed you?”
“Eat? I haven’t eaten anything for well over a millennia!”
Cozy’s eyes grew wide. “Wait...so I’m gonna starve to death?”
Tirek cocked an eyebrow. “What makes you say that?”
“Well, I usually eat three times a day...two if I sleep in late, and if no one is coming to Tartarus do give me food, I’m gonna starve, right? Hm...I wonder how long I can go without food....”
“You are not going to starve.”
“But-“
“You aren’t going to starve,” Tirek sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “You’d think that someone would explain this, ah well. Tartarus won’t let you starve, it won’t let you die.”
Scratching her head, Cozy took in the new information. Her wings fluttered as she ran possible reasons in her head, turning her head towards the red centaur.
“Why does that work?”
“Magic, how else will it work?”
“No, I mean why does it not let you die? Wouldn’t it be a huge relief if the biggest threat to Equestria just died from starving in a cage? Or is this some sort of mercy?”
Tirek let out a burst of howling laughter, his two ribs cages heaving as he gasped for air. The filly that sat in the cage looked confused and offended.
“What? What’s so funny? Was it something I said?”
“‘Is it a form of mercy?’ My dear, it's a form of torture,” he said, his teeth gritted. His orange eyes narrowed, ears flattening. “You’ll feel the hunger. You’ll feel your stomach cave onto itself. You’ll feel your bones get weak. It tortures you until you are begging for death. There is no mercy in Tartarus.”
His hand clenched, the bitter hatred seething into every word he said. He coughed, lungs rattle if in his chest.
The filly had wide eyes, then looked at the place around her. The dull reds and greens that made up Tartarus looked sickly then that had been, realizing the fate that she would live through.
Her ears perked, sitting onto her haunches. “Golly jeez, so I’m gonna be here until I’m an old old lady?”
Silence filled the cavern, only the sound of faint growling from the other monsters could be heard. The pegasus tapped her hooves on the metal floor, uncomfortable silence gnawed at her confidence.
“The magic that keeps you from dying also stops you from physically aging,” Tirek commented, stretching his forearms. Cozy tilted her head.
“Wait, but I thought you were super old?”
Tirek bared his teeth, obviously taking offense to that statement. “I am over three thousand years old, but since I can’t technically age, I would still be about forty-five.”
“Holy Celestia, you’ve been here since you were forty?”
“When you are older, you can tell the next creature that gets banished that you are twelve when you came here.”
“I’m thirteen, but wow. I thought you would be much older than that.”
Frowning, Tirek retreated into a curled position, tired. A rattled sigh weigh heavily onto his upper chest, not wanting to continue the conversation.
This filly didn’t seem to get the hint.
“Wait so I’ll continue to age after my banishment right? Will they ever let me out? Can they do that? Or am I subjected to eternal suffering forever-“
“AGH!”
Weeks had since passed, and Tirek was getting tired of this pony’s tangents. Is this how ponies are? Or is it just this hyperactive filly? The pink party pony also fits up there, but seriously! How can anyone go hold onto a single breath for this long!
“So since I can’t eat, I don’t have to go to the bathroom, right?”
“YES! That is pretty obvious if you ask me.”
“But...what if Tartarus has this really weird thing where-“
“NO! I know this place better than you and suffice to say, it’s never happened.”
Cozy pouted, running out of questions to ask. If Tirek hadn’t been penpals with this filly or knew or her deeds OR listen to her rambling for the past three weeks and a half, he might have felt sympathy.
Long shot, but could’ve been possible.
Instead, he felt utter annoyance and honestly craved death. By the suns! A filly is making me wish I could die.
The centaur carved a line into the bottom of the cage, counting the days he had spent with pink pegasus. Usually, he would have slept for most of the day. Tartarus doesn’t give you much to do except mope and sleep. It’s not like anyone can waltz in and offer a board game to play.
If only that were the case. Maybe then this filly will shut up.
Until a new system gets put into place, Tirek had to deal with this nosy girl’s tirades.
Speak of the devil, the curly-haired pegasus turned her large, doll-eyes towards him. She blinked innocently.
“Why are there so many creatures in Tartarus? What did they do?”
“Hell if I know,” the centaur scoffed, laying down onto his stomach. “It’s not like I can speak Manticore or Cockatrice.”
“Yeah, that’s more of Professor Fluttershy’s forte,” the filly agreed. She hummed slightly, rubbing her chin. “But aren’t they less sentient than ponies? I mean, no offense, but ponies are the superior species, we have a judicial system and everything! So isn’t locking up a creature with less brain function than us kinda like animal neglect? You are subjecting them to eons of torture because they might roared at somepony. That’s a little messed up, don’t you think?”
Tirek will admit that he was slightly unsettled by this filly. Despite being hundreds of years younger, the pegasus brain seemed to function at a higher rate than average. It even rivaled the prissy purple princess brain rate!
Though he still took offense to that statement.
“Not so much less brain function, more of driven by instincts.”
“The difference...?”
“They can still think for themselves, just have less control over their actions because of animalistic instincts.”
“So...less brain function.”
Tirek sighed, facepalming. Cozy started to frown.
“I mean it. They have less control over their actions because part of their brain is telling them to do the things they need to do to survive. I mean, when I’m hungry my instinct to go eat something. If I had less brain function I would probably either find grass to graze or hunt for food. But since I have higher brain function, I can hold out my hunger until the class is over or until I can find the next place I can eat at.”
“Your brain is making my brain bleed.”
The pink pegasus shrugged. “I get that a lot.”
Tirek was about to lose it. It has been three months, and this filly still hasn’t run out of ways to talk.
Sitting in his cage, he scratched another line into the floor. He didn’t mind the scraping noise of metal, it was a better noise than the constant babbling that the pony gave off.
“Psst, Tirek!”
The red centaur glared at the filly. “It’s Lord Tirek, and what is it now?!”
The filly gazed innocently at him, her red-pink eyes begging to be gouged out. “I just wanted to make sure you could see my best friend rock sculpture from over there!”
He looked down at the colorful rocks, all put together to make a picture of them. He groaned, rolling his eyes.
Looking back down at the engraved lines on the metal floor, he frowned. He wanted to get out of here, and now.
As if the world had heard him, he disappeared into nothings as black flames engulfed him.
Cozy Glow sat there, dumbfounded before the same flames took her as well.
Author's Note
Mostly me devolving Tirek and Cozy Glow’s relationship. I see them as annoyed/clueless roommates that can’t get along.
Hopefully I was able to portray that.
I also wanted to explore how Tartarus worked, since it isn’t all that explained in the show.
