Author's Note

This story really requires me to be in a dark place mentally, so it's hard for me to come back and write for it. I'll try and have another chapter up in a week or so, but it's difficult to write the story comparatively to her other one.

Happy Holidays.

New Arrival

The residents of the pits peered out from their network of tunnels and caves at the sounds of the new arrivals. Gryphons and dragons cheered as some of those arrivals were family, friends, and comrades in arms. Many rushed to show their affection, all the while Grogar and Tirek watched from their cave, with Innocence clinging to the crimson quadruped’s neck, her eyes watching the elevator retreat up.

Panic?

Tirek growled deep and loud, catching the attention of the residents, both new and old. Some looked eager to fight, while others looked about in fear. The reactions put a smile on Tirek’s face. Grogar stepped forward, a slight grin on his face. “Good Morning, scum of the world. Welcome to The Pit. You have two options today, starting now. Survive, or die. Depending on your choice, you will proceed to follow my instructions from here on out. I’m not one for orders often, but I-”

A surprisingly young dragon leapt for Grogar, snarling. “I’m not gonna follow your orders, you old goat!” The tyrant’s eyes flashed, and caught the youngling mid air. “Hey, What the hell is–” Their head snapped around 180 degrees and was pulled off, spine and the entire nervous system torn from its scaly hide. The head screamed for only a moment, before it was frozen in rigor mortis.

“Food?” Innocence asked, her eyes looking over the floating corpse.

Grogar nodded, and set the corpse by their cave, before turning to the rest of the group. “You may ask any question of me, as I am and will always be the oldest one here.”

A petite gryphon, covered in scars, stepped forward. “Who are you? I’ve never heard of a goat going to any form of prison.”

“I am the ancient tyrant, Grogar, and before you ask, this is Tirek, the Devouring Centaur.” He gestured to his companion, grinning. “He is my other half. His word and my word are one and the same.'' The gasps through the crowd made Grogar’s smile match Tirek’s. “Lastly…” He looked up to Tirek’s shoulder, before scanning the area. “Hm.. Where did she go?”

Innocence was hooking her daggers firmly into the ribcage of the dragon’s still bleeding corpse, beginning to drag it towards their den. A pitch black gryphon slunk towards the pink haired girl. Her head whipped up, locking onto the newcomer. He froze in place as her glaring eyes locked with his. “Uh, h-hi, uh..” The gryphon who was noticed far before he intended suddenly stammered, beginning to back up.

“Food.” The gryphon barely spread its wings before her claw-covered fingers ripped into them, her scale suit giving her the weight to pin the avian hybrid down as she shredded their wings, ripping out flesh, blood, and feathers to the music of the birds screams. The sound of claws scraping futilely on her stolen mail slowly died as the crowd watched in horror, all the while Innocence giggled.

Tirek and Grogar nodded to their blood-covered human in unison, who was trying to pry off the wings. “And that is Innocence. Our charge. As you have seen so vividly, she can and will identify you as food, kill you, and then will eat you. If you have any further questions, we will be in our den behind us, and will be glad to answer your questions about this place. You have until the end of the day to ask questions. After that, you will be on your own.” Tirek nodded to the new arrivals, before carefully walking over to the blood covered girl. “Innocence, take your food inside.”

The twin displays of violence cowed many of the new arrivals. “So uh.. What are your rules?” One blue tinged gryphon asked, watching his once-comrade be dragged into the den behind the twin masters of this domain.

Tirek grinned. “One, you are responsible for your own choices. If you kill someone, that’s your sin to deal with, and any consequences. Two, No one is responsible for you. If you need help, you must ask. If you give help, refer to Rule One. And Rule 3, and I swear to the creators if you break this one…” His horns crackled with energy. “If someone starts climbing those fucking stairs, leave them be.” He pointed to the stairs that reached each level of the pit, leading to the edge of the shield. “There are magics down here that will tell if you deserve to leave. You will be able to see through the shield above us. As a result, whoever breaks Rule 3 is Kill-on-Sight. If you want to be able to leave when you deserve it, leave those leaving alone.”

A flurry of questions were asked in quick succession, ranging from who’s who, creatures to avoid and things that can be done to make themself safe, to if there’s a trade system down here.

Innocence didn’t acknowledge the new bustle. Her gaze was focused on the much larger cage being carted onto the shield. “Grogar… Big cage? Big Scale?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The large cage was being rolled over to the curled up black dragon, with all hooves up and getting ready for dropping the black dragon.

“Captain Ligios, They’re on the trolley.” one of the soldiers said, as the scowling captain fixated his gaze on the large convict.

“Good. Drop them as soon as possible.”

“What about the other inhabitants? Isn’t this one larger than most of them?”

The captain turned to look at the soldier. “That depends entirely on them.” His eyebrow arched as one of the wings stretched. “Positions, Everypony, This is not a drill. Threat level Delta convict. Battle Mages, Flame Cloak spells engage.” Ligios amplified his voice with a quick spell, sending orders out as the on site soldiers began to scramble into position.

The black dragon’s amber eye opened, and the clamps screeched as the captive slowly pushed their limits. “Ponies… I hate… you oppressive little shits.”

“Good. Continue to hate us.” Ligios waved his hoof up, and the black dragon was dropped below the shield.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grogar looked up at Innocence’s comment, his brow furrowing. The pulley’s shrieked suddenly. “Scatter you fools!” his voice boomed, as the train car-sized cage landed, killing a few of the new arrivals. Clamps and shackles fell away, littering the floor with more metal. The black dragon spread his wings, arching his back as he began to flex his claws. “Welcome to the Pit.” Grogar’s glare caught the dragon’s, who began to laugh hollowly. “I’m glad you find this funny.”

“Oh, I’m not laughing at you, I’m laughing at how the Ponies think I can be contained..” The newcomer continued to chuckle, his eyes scanning the walls and seeing previous arrivals in various states of reaction.. Until his eyes fell upon Innocence, and he visibly flinched, his mirth gone. “What in the Great Dragon’s name has happened to her aura?”

Grogar grinned. “So you can see it too. Good. Glad to see the facade breaks easily." The old goat waved him to follow. "I’m Grogar. This is Tirek. She’s Innocence. Let’s talk.” Grogar turned his gaze to the rest of them. “You lot, git. Find a hole, dig one out. There’s enough spatial expansion here to accommodate everyone.”

The black dragon hesistantly followed the old goat retreating into the large den. “So uh… are you that…y’know..”

“I am, and I’ll have you know that all those legends are fairly true. Only difference between then and now is that I have an appreciation for others now. Sit boy.” Grogar turned back to the entrance. “Tirek, grab the abandoned shackles and such. We can finally repair our kettle. Now, where was I… Oh yes. You. Name. No titles.”

“I’m Calibrus.”

“Good to meet you, terrible it had to be here. What’d you do?” The sound of the pulley’s squeals signaled the cages leaving the central floor, which in turn meant scavengers could collect the corpses as they needed.

“I killed an Elder.”

“Hm. Admiral. Sparring match gone wrong?” Grogar pulled his kettle from his improvised shelf, and set it over the flame to heat. It’s large crack made him scowl, but he knew it would be fixed soon. Tirek’s hooves and the sound of rattling chains told him so.

“He stole my mate. Broke her down. Enslaved her mind.” a low growl accentuated by a lick of black flame at his fangs highlighted his anger.

“So you murdered him, rather than simply did the dragon’s dominance ritual?”

“I extinguished his entire flight’s flame.” Amber eyes glimmered in the shadow of the flames.

“Ooh, Genocide of a bloodline, delightful.”

“How are you so unfazed by this?” Calibrus asked, confusion replacing the lingering embers of vengeance.

“You must remember, I am old, and I am storied about some of the worst crimes against this world. A little bit of genocide is nothing. Besides, you’re a lot more likable when you’re not trying so hard to be scary and draconic.” Grogar shrugged. Tirek stepped back in, with the pink menace wrapped around his neck in a playful hug. “Tirek dear, you think you can stoke the flame a bit more, I’m not sure it’s quite hot enough.”

“Dear?” Calibrus asked, getting a hearty laugh from Tirek.

“Oh dragon boy, You’ll see stranger pairings and groupings here in the pit than the two of us. What was your name?”

“Calibrus….” He was stunned into silence. Two of the most storied monsters of his youth simply talking to each other as old lovers. “And uh.. .what about the soulless one on your shoulders?”

Tirek turned and looked at him in a mixture of amazement and frustration. “As Grogar had mentioned before, her name is Innocence. She’s human..” His attention turned to her. “Fire hot. Down.” His hand pointed at Calibrus. “Not-Food.”

“Not-Food…. Friend?” Innocence asked, getting a nod from Tirek. She slipped down, and approached the black dragon slowly, only to retreat to Grogar’s side.

“I’ll tell you her story another time. Just know that she’s our problem to deal with. If you keep interacting with us, You’ll be seen as friend proper by her.” Grogar nudged her. “Go nap in your den. I’ll get you when Food is ready.” Innocence gave a quick hug to Grogar, before disappearing out into the gloom once more.

“So, Calibrus. Let’s cover a few rules. The other newcomers heard them already. Rule one…”