Luna stood to the side while Twilight, Rainbow and Applejack stood just a few feet away from the gates of Tartaros. For a slight change, Luna was going to operate the camera equipment. She would also be accompanying them into Tartaros. Twilight breathed in slowly and exhaled just as slowly, calming her nerves. Did Luna know why they were here? Yes. Did that make it any less nerve wracking to have one of her superior Princesses about to watch her actually get eaten alive? No. No it did not at all.

Twilight calmed herself and lit her horn. The Alicorn spell turned the giant key in the gate and swung them open.

The last time Twilight had seen Cerberus, he’d looked like a mostly normal giant dog with three bulldog heads. He was very different on his side of the gate. Absolutely massive, he dwarfed every cage he stood guard over. His heads were also quite different. While the middle head did retain its bulldog like features, its eyes were pure red and actually on fire. The lower jaw jutted out just a slight bit and the teeth poking out of it were at least as long as Twilight herself.

The head on the right looked more wolf like. A long, pointed, snout with razor sharp teeth from front to back. A single horn jutted out of its nose. The eyes staring at them were deep black pits of rage and terror. It also had two curling horns wrapped around its ears, which were flaming at the tips.

The head on the left looked much like the head of a Doberman dog, also long and pointed. The top of its head, however, was covered in what looked like bone with two long horns coming off of the back and two long fangs over its own mouth. The eyes couldn’t be seen. The lower jaw looked normal, for the most part.

“H… hello Cerberus. I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. Headmare of the School of Friendship. We are… we are here to do a documentary that will be both educational and informative. I… we need you to…” Twilight paused. Cerberus was far more terrifying than he had been back in Ponyville. She had to steel her nerves. There was no telling how her magic would react in Cerberus’ stomach while he was in his natural form. She didn’t even know if her magic would work at all. Was she dooming herself and her friends to an agonizingly painful death in the belly of the Hound of Hell?

Luna finished her sentence for her. “Cerberus. They need you to eat them.” Twilight’s eyes went wide as she turned her head to her elder for a split second. Was this really Luna or had Chrysalis switched places with her somewhere? A quick scan confirmed. It really was Luna. She just knew that Twilight had lost her nerve in from of Cerberus’ true form. “Tis for a documentary, as she said. Do be gentle, and no chewing. I will teleport them to safety when Twilight gives me the cue. Twilight, tap thrice on the screen of your drone and I shall teleport you all out of Cerberus’ stomach.”

Twilight stared at Luna for a moment longer before swallowing her fear and nodding. Turning back to Cerberus, she and her friends were greeted with large gaping maws descending on them. Teeth clacked but there was no pain. Cerberus had drove its three muzzles into the ground around the mares and chomped. Dirt and all. Three equal sized bulges disappeared down Cerberus’ wide gullets and Luna accompanied the large hound to his place at the intersection of the three cages.

When Cerberus lay down, Luna did as well. The camera in front of her let her see exactly what was happening to her friends. The drone flew out of its case and wriggled its way into the middle heads mouth, soaring down the wide throat before finding the three mares in a pool of gastric juices normally strong enough to melt bone to soup. They weren’t even bubbling. Much like many other creatures native to Tartaros, Cerberus had the capability to decide if what he ate was food or a prisoner. Or in this case, guests.

Watching her three friends, Luna noticed they huddled close together. The camera had no audio, but she could see Twilight’s lips moving. She was both consoling her friends, who had been terrified out of their wits to this point, and dictating notes. Luna picked up the scroll and quill and did her best to write the notes for Twilight, but the smaller purple alicorn was diligent in her descriptions. They were treading “water”, that much was obvious. Cerberus’ true form was just that much larger than a normal pony. Even Celestia could “swim” in his stomach.

Thinking to have some fun with her friends for a moment, Luna picked up the screen she used to view them and took a stroll around Tartaros. There weren’t many places she could actually go. Tirek’s cell to ensure he was still trapped. Conversation with him, while unpowered and weak enough to pose no threat, was never dull. She conversed with him for some time after explaining Twilight’s experiment and why she let herself and three of her friends get devoured.

Moving on from Tirek’s cell, she went to the only other occupied cell in Tartaros. The third was reserved for… someone special. “Hello lover.” She said, her voice taking on a hint of Nightmare Moon’s.

“Ah… dearest Night… you aren’t Nightmare Moon.” The creature in the cell said as it stood up. Four legs that ended in deadly clawed paws. A maw containing razor sharp teeth meant for tearing flesh from bone. Eyes as red as blood. Fur as dark as the deepest night. “What do I owe the displeasure… Luna?” he said her name with such venom she felt the urge to wash herself when she returned home.

“I merely came to see how you are adjusting to your several thousand life sentences since we last saw you,” Luna said as the wolf slowly walked over to her. His red eyes looked over her and she resisted the urge to shudder.

"Thousand seems a tad light, don't you agree? After all, I am the one who slaughtered thousands of ponies under your dear parents rule while they stood by and did nothing,” he said, chuckling at her. “Many of those ponies were your dear friends, were they not? They were quite delicious. Would you like a taste?” He asked, flicking something at the floor of his cage with a claw. It clicked away from him and clacked against the bars. She looked down and flinched. It was a bone. A pony’s jawbone.

“How did…”

“Oh relax. As you said, I have several thousand life sentences. I couldn’t escape from here if I tried. They’re old. It’s this places magic that keeps them mostly fresh. Besides… the bars of this cell will likely rot away long before I do. Once they do… I’m coming for your lovely sister, Luna. Your sister… your friends… your subjects… all of them will bleed and die while I burn your precious city to the ground around you. But not you. No… I have something special planned for you beloved. I am going to make you scream for me before I tear out your throat and…” his voice went silent as Luna struck the cage with a hoof.

She returned to the center platform in silence and sat next to Cerberus. A whine from the large dog caught her attention and she smiled at him. “I am well, Cerberus. Thank you for your concern.” She said before looking at the tablet again. Her friends were well, but they were slightly panicking and yelling, likely at each other. Luna was supposed to get them out. Instead she’d chosen to go and visit him. Of all creatures… why him?

Teleporting her friends out of Cerberus’ belly, she helped them gather the equipment in silence. The trip to the gates was silent, as was the flight on the balloon. Twilight went over the footage they’d gotten, as well as the notes she took once they were on the balloon. She could use everything, but she had to condense it down to something that could be broken up into fifteen-minute videos for the schools. Luna sat in silence. She barely noticed when the blimp touched down in Canterlot. Barely noticed when her friends bid her a good day. Barely noticed when her Guard Captain greeted her. Barely noticed when she’d reached the door of Celestia’s room.

Not even her own room. She gone to her big sister’s room. Why was she here? Celestia was in court, seeing to problems that nobles had. They had so many problems. They could have so many problems. So many had no problems any longer. All because of him. All because she had been young and stupid and rebellious, and he’d promised so much. He’d promised her power. He’d promised her happiness. He’d promised her love. He took it all away with a flick of his claw.

Walking into Celestia’s room, Luna walked over to the large bed and climbed into it. Her sister wasn’t even that much bigger than her, but the bed felt massive. It reminded her of them. Curling up, she dared not close her eyes. She worried she see him again. She worried she’d see him in her dreams, her nightmares. This was how he got to you. This was how he twisted your heart and your mind. When you were close to someone so dark and so evil, it made you question yourself. She needed her sister. More than that… she needed her mother.

Squeezing her eyes shut and curling up into as tight a ball as she could, she tried to hide her face. “Mommy…” Luna called out softly.

No answer came.

Author's Note

So... little bit of heart wrenching there at the end. I hope I made my original OC a little... terrifying. I'm kinda reworking him into a "end game" style villain as we speak in my main storyline because I want to use the Wolf Clans I thought up but I don't want to just... put them in the story.