Impossible Mission - Sealing Tartarus

Twilight Sparkle read the scroll aloud to her friends:

My dearest Twilight:

I have an important mission that I need you and your friends to undertake effect of immediately, although it pains me to assign such a task to you on such a special day, I am afraid this simply cannot wait.  An ancient foe of Equestria has made his way into the gates of Tartarus and I fear he may be planning to unleash the evil creatures we have kept imprisoned there for so long.

You and your friends have shown flawless control over the Elements of Harmony time and time again, and your newfound allies proved their potential when they discovered the Elements of Order.  With the powers of Harmony and Order on your side there is little doubt that you will defeat this threat and bring peace to Equestria once again.

Signed, Princess Celestia

Everyone looked at one another, they had been on their fair share of dangerous adventures, even plenty of times when they were together as a whole group of twelve, but never in their lives had they believed they’d be called upon to do something on this scale before.  Tartarus was a vile and corrupted land that housed evils of every shape and form, and the princess was asking them to enter this land and deal with a foe that could potentially be the greatest threat they have ever known.

Fluttershy cringed and she began to slowly skulk away into a corner.  “I don’t know girls; maybe this is too dangerous for us.”

Shortcut nodded in agreement.  “I’m with Fluttershy, this is way too big for us, this is something the royal guard should handle…”

Twilight shook her head.  “No; it’s not.  The Princess is right, we represent not only Harmony, but also Order, and with all of us fighting together there’s no power in all of Equestria that can beat us!”

Ravewind jumped at the opportunity to rally his friends.  “Besides if we can’t do this no one else will!  We’ve been given a chance to bring true peace to Equestria for a long, VERY long time!”

Twilight’s eyes widen as an Idea occurs to her.  “You’re right Ravewind!  This isn’t just about catching some bad guy; this is about bringing peace to Equestria!”

Mono’s attention shifted immediately to Twilight.  “What are you thinking Twi?”

Twilight’s face grew a confident smile. “We’re going to seal Tartarus!  Permanently, and all of the evil in side it too!  We’re going to make sure that nothing evil ever escapes from that place ever again!”

Several of the ponies mouths dropped to the floor, they couldn’t believe what Twilight had just purposed; still, a chance to bring true and permanent peace to Equestria was something the group just couldn’t pass up.

First one to step up was Blazing Trail the eccentric sky-blue unicorn trotted in place, his flame colored mane wavered with excitement. “I’m up for it!” he stopped trotting and struck a pose as though he was going to go rushing out the door on his own.

Next up was Rainbow Dash who did a backflip through the air and ended in the air just above Blazing Trail.  “If BT’s going, then so am I!”

Apple Jack stepped up next followed immediately by Joe-Buck the tall, statuesque, dark purple colt shifted his hat and brushed on his black mane, his wings, which were larger than average size flapped out then quickly retracted to their normal position which completely covered his cutie mark and most of his flank.

“I’m not about to let those two go anywhere without me” exclaimed Apple Jack.

“Eyup, and I’d follow Apple Jack to Tartarus and back anyway.”  Apple Jack and Joe-Buck bumped hooved and shifted their hats back behind their ears.

“As dreadful as a place as Tartarus sounds, I’m not about to let my friends go it alone.” Rarity ran her hoof through her hair as she was prone to doing.  “Who knows, maybe something good will come out of this little outing.”

Diamodozen was the next to speak up, like all of his other friends; the bright white, blue haired; earth pony was excited at the opportunity he was provided with.

“Tartarus supposedly has lots of lava in it, and where there’s lava there’s Obsidian, and Obsidian makes gorgeous gems!”

Diamodozen pulled out his hat and placed it on his head, unlike the large cowpony hats that Apple Jack and Joe-Buck wore, Diamodozen wore a small simple black artist’s hat, perfect for his job as an appraiser.  “I’m all for this!”

Pinkie Pie bounced up and down excited and full of energy as she always was. “If you’re all going IM going!”

“I second that” Ravewind called out.   “You couldn’t use the Elements of Order or Harmony without me and Pinkie anyway.”

Everyone’s gaze shifted to Fluttershy and Shortcut, Twilight Sparkle walked up to Fluttershy and hugged her.

“Come on, we can’t do this without you.”

Fluttershy squeaked out something incoherent, but then took a deep breath and look at Twilight with newfound, if not feigned, determination.  “Okay…I’m going…”

Everyone cheered; Twilight looked at Shortcut who nodded in agreement.  “I guess that means I’m going to.”  With their affairs in order and everyone ready to go, the group met in the center of Ponyville, and after a quick sign off and goodbye wave from the mayor they headed off to Tartarus.

Upon arrival, the group was met with a rather ominous sight.  Tartarus was every bit as grim as they had read and been told in stories, and even grimmer still.  The skies above the ground with jet-black ominous clouds that swirled around in a constant circle, from what the group could tell the clouds were moving on their own, just like the clouds of the Everfree Forrest, thunder and lightning rang out from the clouds, yet they were just too dark to see any silver linings.  Tartarus itself seemed to be a big cave like area carved into the side of a massive and long mountain chain, but almost the entirety of it was blocked; by a massive golden gate larger than anything the ponies had ever seen before which was blocking the entrance.

“WOAH!” Rainbow Dash stared at the massive shining gate mouth agape she quickly shook her head and pointed at it.

“How did anypony get past THAT?” No doubt every other pony was thinking what she just shouted out, the wall was massive, and from what they could tell all but impenetrable, there was no way anyone could have gotten in, let alone out.

Twilight having looked over the massive gate once in her life already had been wondering about the situation since they left Ponyville, suddenly the answer came to her.

“What if nopony did?”  The group looked at her with a combined “Huuuh?”

Twilight rolled her eyes with an annoyed look on her face.  “Think about it for a second, what if the issue isn’t that somepony got in, what if somepony had already been in there to begin with.”

Monochrome caught up to Twilight before anyone else.  “That would explain how creatures leaked into the Everfree

Forrest, and how evil can exist in Equestria despite the presence of the Elements, it’s because there’s Somepony-”

Twilight cut Monochrome off “Or something, that has been opening the gate letting creatures out.”

“It’s our job to find out whom or what is doing this, but first we need to get past this gate.”  As the ponies conversed with one another they slowly made their way closer to the wall.

“Look over there!” Rainbow Dash pointed in the direction of a massive lever.  “That has to be how you open the gate.”

“I’m on it!”  Without a second thought Blazing Trail’s horn erupted in fire and he sped towards the switch expecting his speed magic to provide him with enough force to push the leaver, BT dived head first into it, only to connect with it with a loud BONG!  Blazing Trail slid down the lever, shaking off the stars and butterflies he pulled on the leaver as best he could but it was just too massive to budge.  “This is way too heavy, how does anypony open this thing?!”

“Uh, I don’t think it’s a pony that opens it!” Twilight pointed to a massive black creature that was headed their way at an insane velocity, the ponies readied themselves for a confrontation, but were quickly interrupted by a cry from Fluttershy.

“Cerberus!” Fluttershy raced past the group and ran straight into Cerberus who quickly doubled over on his back, all three heads panting as Fluttershy petted him.  “Who’s a good boy? You are, yes you are, I haven’t seen you in a long time have I boy?”

Cerberus barked loudly and quickly began assaulting Fluttershy with a flurry of licks.  Shortcut watching this went into a bit of a panic and rushed over to them.

“Are you alright Fluttershy?” Shortcut called to her.

“I’m…o…oka..ay” Fluttershy tried her best to respond to Shortcut but she was too busy giggling and laughing from all the face licks she was getting, this was the most affectionate any animal had ever been to her.

“Fluttershy do you think you can get Cerberus to let us in?!” Apple Jack yelled up to her friend

Fluttershy whispered to Cerberus who quickly let her down, head was covered in dog saliva and her mane draped down completely covering her face.  Shortcut couldn’t help but laugh.

“Oh wow, I’m gonna have my work cut out for me after this is all done.”

Fluttershy giggled and looked up and Cerberus who nodded and went over to the lever, all three heads bit down on it and pushed.  Slowly the lever started to move down and the gate let out massive creaks and complaints as it opened.  The ponies cheered and ran through the gate as they did Twilight turned back noticing Fluttershy and Shortcut were not there.

“Fluttershy, Shortcut lets go, we need to hurry!”

“Oh…I just can’t leave little Cerberus all alone, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other.” Fluttershy had fixed her mane and had gone back to petting her giant three-headed friend.  Twilight put her hoof to her face then looked at Shortcut who shrugged.

“Sorry Twilight, just go one without us, we’ll make sure the gate’s still open when you get back.

Twilight let out a sigh and ran off catching up with the rest of the group.