The Descent

Laughing hysterically and uncontrollably, the mare on the other side had trouble speaking through her maniacle cackles.

"Y-you should have seen your face! HAH!" She said, slapping her knee with her hoof. "I'm just messin' with ya!"

The trio stood still in confusion and horror as the crazed mare approached them, giggling. Now that she was closer, Ametrine managed to get a better understanding of just how disfigured they were. Saying they were standing upright was a bit of a stretch - They were standing on their hind legs, sure, but her back was terribly arched. The closer the hunched mare got, the more malformed they seemed. Their elongated body was attached to their four excessively long limbs, nearly twice the length of Bridges' legs, and he wasn't exactly short. After an eternity of her slow, echoing steps, she was now just a couple meters in front of Ametrine.

"So, what are you guys doin' here?" The tall mare asked, stretching out one of her "arms" for a hoofshake. "We don't get a lot of outsiders."

Hesitantly, Ametrine reached her hoof out, accepting the gesture, only to recieve possibly the most violent and vigorous hoofshake of all time.

"Are you the queen, by chance?" Asked Burning Bridges, as dully as usual.

"Nope!" The mare replied, turning her head towards the flaming stallion. "I'm Princess Dewdrop. Nice to meet ya!" She said, as she gave Bridges a just as forceful hoofshake.

"Do you know where we might find the queen?" Asked Ametrine.

"The queen?" Dewdrop responded with excitement. "Well, why didn'tcha just ask earlier? That's me!"

The three shared looks of confusion over the mare's sudden change in persona. As Dewdrop turned around, walking towards the throne as she beckoned them to follow, Ametrine noticed something. Dewdrop was an alicorn. At least, kind of. They had one large, skeletal wing protruding from their back. The left one seemed to be missing. How come there was a sixth alicorn she had never heard of before?

"Excuse me, Dewdrop?" She asked as she followed. "Are you an alicorn?"

"What's an ally cone?" They asked in return, without turning their head. "And Dewdrop isn't my name. You can call me Gehenna."

"But you just said-"

Halfway through her sentence, she noticed that the walking contradiction wasn't paying attention. Instead, she turned around and did a backflip, landing in her throne upside-down.

"So like, who are you guys?" They asked, with a fanged ear-to-ear grin.

"Well, I'm Es-" Began the mecanical pony, before immediately being interrupted.

"No, no. Don't tell me." Gehenna said, rubbing her chin before pointing at Burning Bridges. "Hothead."

She then proceeeded to point to the visibly annoyed Eswyn. "Chrome-Dome."

Lastly, she pointed to Ametrine, before shrugging and continuing with whatever she was talking about.

"So, why are you guys here?"

"We're from Frostvale Academy, Equestria." Burning Bridges stepped forward and said. "We are on an expedition to an ocean trench not far from here."

"Our ship hit heavy weather." Eswyn continued. "Most of our crew have passed and nearly all our fuel is gone. We need help getting back on our hooves."

"You're already on your hooves, silly!" Gehenna replied, not understanding the metaphor.

"I- Ugh, can you help us or not?" Replied Eswyn, gradually growing more irritated by the second. "We're stranded here until we can get more coal."

Gehenna rolled her eyes and sat up straight in her throne, looking at Eswyn with a bored expression.

"You guys are no fun." She said, disappointedly. "But fine, I'll do it. But y'all are gonna have to do something for me in return."

"Like what?" Asked Burning Bridges.

"I dunno." The queen replied, once more rubbing her chin. "You have a horn, you probably know some magic. Show me something cool and I'll give you whatever you need to get back into the ocean or whatever."

He simply nodded in response, backing up a bit before signaling for his two companions to take distance.

As they did, the stallion suddenly combusted into a mess of chromatic fire, shrouded within a tornado of pure flames. About ten seconds went by before the fire settled, leaving a severly burned Bridges in it's wake.

"Is that cool enough?" He said, through harrowing, deep breaths.

Gehenna was resting her head on her hoof, seemingly unimpressed.

"Fine." She said, rolling her eyes before once more standing up from her throne. "I guess it'll do. Follow me."

As she started walking towards the door, Eswyn looked like she was about to explode from pure frustration. Despite her burning rage, she and the two others followed. As they approached the throne room doors, Gehenna practically kicked the door open and fell down the stairs. Seeing the mare she despised helplessly tumbling down a stairwell seemed to calm Eswyn a bit.

Once they had all climbed down the stairs, Gehenna once again started to walk, impatiently. Despite her obviously awful balance, she seemed insistent on walking on only her hind legs. This time, they got back to the pier much quicker, as they now had someone who knew where they were going.

As they approached the docks, they once again saw the information booth. Gehenna slammed her hoof down onto the table as she leaned on the counter, looking disappointedly at the sleeping worker inside. It was the same headless stallion from before. He woke up with a jolt and nervously looked at the mare towering in front of him. Eswyn, Bridges, and Ametrine almost felt bad for the worker as they heard Gehenna berate him in a language they didn't understand.

Eventually, she did a gesture signaling the stallion to follow. As she did, the stallions body grabbed ahold of it's head and held it against his chest as he walked on the other three legs. His sickly white coat along with his frail build made him look almost dead as he stepped out of the booth.

"And then there were five." Muttered Bridges under his breath.

"And back we go!" Gehenna shouted with glee, in a complete change of personality from the short-fused overmare she had been moments ago.

"Why?" Eswyn asked, whilst facehoofing.

"Because I said so." Gehenna replied, staring the mechanical mare down. They were clearly not intimidated, yet complied anyways.

And so, they began to walk back to the castle for the second time that day. All the way, Gehenna was rambling about old stories that sounded like complete bullshit. Celestia forbid this mare had actually built her castle by herself.

Once back at the castle supposedly build by one pony, they returned to the throne room. Though four of the five in the room were exhausted from all the walking, Gehenna seemed just as energetic and spasmatic as before.

"Alright!" Gehenna said, wrapping her arm around the headless stallion beside her. "This is Mausoleum. He's in charge of trade goods and all that economic jargon."

The stallion nervously waved to the three impatient ponies in front of him, as Gehenna's horn lit up. She summoned some kind of a contract and a quill.

"Alrighty! Now you guys just need to sign riiiiight here!" The mare said, pointing at three dotted lines on the paper. The trio were barely listening and too tired to actually read the contract, so they just signed to get it over with. "Great! Now scurry off, Mausoleum! You have a ship to fuel."

Without a second thought, the stallion trotted out, not saying a word.

"Well, I think we're pretty much done here then." Said Eswyn impatiently, and started walking towards the door. The two others followed her. When they were nearly at the door, happy to finally be able to get of this damned island, the mare behind them spoke again. This time, she sounded a lot more strict and formal.

"Wait."

The three ponies sighed as they once again turned around, surprised to see that Gehenna was standing straight with her hooves behind her back, gazing out that one intact window of stained glass. In a serious tone, she continued.

"Why not stay here?"

"Well, we have-" Ametrine began, but was interruped.

"Not you." Gehenna replied, tilting her head slightly in her direction as she pointed her large and bony wing straight at Ametrine. "You don't belong here."

"..."

"Now, I was told you two were from Frostvale?" She continued, now turning around fully, facing the three. "Not the mechanical one, I know who you are."

"Yes. We are volunteers." Ametrine replied astutely, feeling accused by the regal mare.

"You are. I've seen every scenario imaginable. Something tells me this is no different." Gehenna replied eerily, slowly moving towards the three. "Something tells me... He didn't volunteer."

Ametrine, dumbstruck by the mare's words, looked over at her friend in disbelief. He did not return the gesture, quietly looking out of one of the missing windows. He sighed deeply, before finally speaking.

"It's true. I didn't volunteer."

The words stung within Ametrine. Bridges had always been her very best friend, and they did everything together. Through wet and dry, they would always be together.

...Right?