Present Day...

The fire had died down for a mere moment - but the embers would not be cold for long. With her magic, Twilight Sparkle re-ignited the fire that the group sat around, and warmth to the conversation.

"I still can't believe it..." Zipp shook her head, blankly staring at the night sky. "So, the whole prison was just built on some kind of giant, huh...? Talk about a really weird architectural plan, huh?"

"Well..." Applejack laughed, scratching her face, and trying to avoid the old gash that ran right across her face - a painful reminder of one of her attempts to kill a God. "It ain't all that simple, the Gods have... had their own way of doin' things. Prison like that would be hard to run away from, y'know."

"And you could do worse!" Rainbow said. "Sparta has some really bad prisons, y'know. You're lucky to get a piece of bread like, per week - and your only source of water is rain, so have fun with that."

"So..." Atreus turned to Twilight. "You mentioned my father made some kind of mistake, right? Or that at-least you thought he did. You mentioned that something had gone wrong, and he had to make his way to the prison. Was that the first time you saw one another since he...changed?"

"Since his skin had become ashen?" Asked Twilight. "No, actually, no. Actually, when it came to meeting him in the prison, it wasn't something he had planned on. He sent us away before he made his way there, he thought that it'd be too dangerous for us, and the plan was suicide. However, if you're asking about what happened before that..."

"The, um...Village of Kirra." Fluttershy spoke up. "We found Kratos there - we weren't sure what had happened, but we were looking for him for a long time. All we heard is that a God - most likely Ares, had sent him somewhere on a mission, and that something had gone wrong. Then all we heard were rumors that Kratos should have been killed if he's seen ever again..."

"That's terrible..." Sunny Starscout said, pausing her own work as she had been repairing her sword, which was terribly chipped and rusted from blood. "...So, then, what had he done? I don't quite get it..."

"I do not wish to talk about it unless he approves of us doing so." Twilight said. "All I can tell you so far, however, is that he was tricked into doing a bad deed that no one should ever do - neither while in a sober and conscious mind, nor while incapable thought. We hadn't learned the details - and we hadn't asked until later."

Sunny frowned at her friends. When the older women retraced their steps, it was a fact that they had left out a certain conversation that happened right between their encounter with Megaera, and what happened in the sewers they had descended down. An uncomfortable mood permeated between everyone, all deep thought over what could have been done.

Yet, Twilight and her friends shared a somber look - none wanted to think about such a thing. Too depressing and unfair - and something that the thought of had slightly poked at their Spartan Rage, and their desire to invoke it.

"How did you all meet Kratos?" Pipp smiled, trying to lighten the mood.

"Ah, darling..." Rarity smiled as she knitted the warm clothing for the boy, her hands moving with grace and dexterity, despite the fact that she had been missing the tip of her pinkie finger - an injury from years ago. "You know nearly everyone, were you to be born in Sparta."

"We also did alotta fightin' and sparrin'!" Pinkie Pie beamed with a large grin. "In Sparta, everyone's gotta tussle - either with the enemy, or with each other! When we met Kratos, pheeeew boy, that was something else! I used all the best wrestlin' techniques I'd learned, and he still refused to budge! I tried everything, and mind you - I was able to out-wrestle really any guy in town!"

"Also never beat 'im at arm wrestlin'." Applejack tipped her hat and hid her face in shame. "Guy holds a record on that too. We all stuck 'round 'cause, if you wanna learn how to fight better, then you better learn from someone who always beats ya and never lets you get the upper hand!"

"Yeeaaah..." Rainbow Dash softly chuckled, reminiscing. "Those were the days..."

"Then, uhm..." Twilight sighed. "He left on a campaign against some Barbarians, and we heard that he almost died. He returned to us, but...He was so different. He didn't tell us what he did back then, but he said that he had to leave for a long time..."

Applejack grit her teeth and balled her fists, standing up. "It was Ares. That good for-nothing, conniving--"

"Applejack!" Twilight cried out to calm the muscular woman. They exchanged a look, and both sighed. Applejack sat, but now a little further away from the fire, hoping that the cold would calm her down.

"Ares..." Applejack continued. "He made a deal with Kratos. He was allowed to survive the onslaught of the Barbarians, but he was forced to become somethin' of champion for 'im...He made 'im do bad things and...ah...let's not talk about it, aight' sugarcube?"

Through the silence, Izzy was the first to speak up. "Sooooooo, before you guys went to a spooky prison, where the whole thing was built on a crazy giant dude thingamabob, what did you seven do before you went there?"

"As I said..." Twilight continued. "It all started in the Village of Kirra. We found Kratos there - he was lost and fighting with some kinds of illusions - the Furies seem to have tried to trick him, making him believe that he was still there - with his -...well, with the better times of his life. Thankfully, we found him, but it wasn't just us there."

"Oh?" Sunny's eyes sparkled with deep curiosity. "There was someone else there? But...who?"

Twilight smiled, and chuckled. "A certain Demi-God by the name of Orkos had come to greet us."

Author's Note

This is just the sneak peek of Chapter 2, or the prologue for Chapter 2. I will bring out Chapter 2 soon. Just hang tight.