The Hunter and The Hunted

Episode One

'The Red Ball'

"Pinkie, do you have a ball I could borrow?" Twilight hesitantly asked the pink party pony.  Pinkie darted towards a hole in the nearest tree a reached in, pulling out a colorful red chew ball for a dog.

"I have balls scattered all over Ponyville, incase of a ball emergency!" she laughed as Twilight magically levitated the ball over to herself.

The large, three headed dog, Cerberus had gotten out of his post at the Gates of Tartarus, and since Future Twilight had come to warn her of something very bad happening on Tuesday, it was her duty to bring him back.

Twilight still had no idea how far the Gates of Tartarus were, she only knew that they were up north, but they couldn't be as that far, could they?  There could also be an epic pony war at stake on Tuesday, but the gates containing all the most evil of demons was being left unguarded, so Twilight really didn't have a choice.

"I'll be back after I return Cerberus to the Gates of Tartarus!" She said, galloping of into the outskirts of Ponyville, towards the Everfree Forest.  She all on her own, besides the dog, which towered over her.  If anything counted as a threat, she was sure Cerberus would take them out.

After all, it was his job to protect the world from evil, no matter how big and ferocious he was.  This was going to be a piece of cake, and by the time Twilight had reached the Everfree, Cerberus started calming down and lightening up around ponies.  He seemed pretty angry when he arrived in Ponyville, which was a mystery.

"What got you into such a big fuss, Cerberus?" she asked.  She knew that he could understand her, but him still being a dog, he could only communicate like a regular one.

He whimpered, all three of his head did.  That couldn't be good, it would have to take something pretty powerful to even nudge this age old beast, let alone scare it away from its home.

As they trekked through the forest, which was easily done because of Cerberus toppling all of the trees over, Twilight was trying to recall if she read any books on the Gates of Tartarus in her vast memory.  She was taught how to memorize extreme amounts of data by using magic.

She thought of it as a 'magic storage closet' filled with the most important things any unicorn as high in the royal status as her would have to know.  That was why she wasn't too sure if she could pull anything up on the Gates because they were never an important part of her studies.

"Cerberus, slow down!" she said.  He took the ball with him and was frantically rolling around, destroying the ecosystem.  He was going to be a lot of responsibility that was just bestowed onto Twilight like it was nothing.  She stopped for a second to get a bit of self confidence back into herself.

She hadn't had a pet before her owl, but that was nothing like this.  The only sense she could feel was a sense of dread, not knowing what would happen on this trip, but every pony was counting on her back home.  Who knows what would be happening Tuesday morning.  Only time would tell the tale.

Cerberus stopped to examine the magical mare.

"Cerberus, what's wrong?"

He barked loudly and it made the ground shake.

Then, Twilight found something in her vast mind on Cerberus.  A key tip to having your own guardian of the underworld, and something that would help Twilight, but at the same time, lower the standards of an easy trip by a million.

"If Cerberus is extracted from his post at the Gates of Tartarus, his immortality is relinquished and his size is reduced drastically if he is away for more than fifteen days."

"Fifteen days?" Twilight gulped ferociously.  A panic overtook her, but she was able to relax before totally loosing her cool.  Cerberus wasn't shrinking, which means he could have only been gone for for a few hours, she was jumping to conclusions to fast.

Cerberus lied down in front of her and stuck his middle head out and dragged his large tongue across her just like the manticore did wild Fluttershy.  Twilight thought of it as an act of compassion, but instead, it was to get her attention.

Twilight examined the large dog and noticed that the collars on the left and right heads had something lodged in between them.  One had a scroll, but it was to hard to notice from a distance, which is why only Twilight could see it when she got close enough.  The other had a quill and a small enclosed vial of what appeared to be ink.

She levitated the scroll over to her and opened it up.

Thy dearest reader,

Thus have partaken in the retrieval of the Guardian of The Gates of Tartarus.

Please return thy beast to his post be'ith any time, safely.  This pact must be signed under oath that thy reader may not abandon Cerberus in case of his shrinkage or mortality.

It is of absolute importance that my pet be returned home to his post.  I'm sure thy reader will understand.  Please sign below.

Discord, The Spirit and Lord of Chaos

So this was Discord's... Dog?  Twilight was having some second thoughts on this again and had to analyze the outcomes.  First off, the date on the scroll was over a thousand years ago, so it must have counted as a failsafe in case of this ever happening.

Secondly, Discord was is stone, so he wouldn't be a problem, and Cerberus needed to protect the world from monsters.  Even if it sounded like it was coming from a filly's bedtime story.  That would be one dark and depressing bedtime story, but she would digress.

All things pointed to her signing that pact, and it was a pretty straight forward message; don't leave him alone and bring him back home.

She grabbed the quill and ink and signed her name.

She would soon regret that after she saw the scroll roll up and disappear out of thin air.  The ground started to shake... And was it just her, or did Cerberus seem to be getting a little thinner?