SINS

The next morning Princess Celestia opens the curtains and windows that overlook the balcony of her bedroom, ready to start a new day.

She looked tired. Just a little bit more. She thought. A thought that had been spinning over in her head for over a millennium. First born to be able to endure her sister's long banishment, and now that she had her back, for the long-awaited moment when they could both retire from government and live their lives free and unburdened by the responsibilities of being Princesses.

A flame of anger grew deep within her. After what happened yesterday at the castle, she thought that the situation couldn't get any worse, only to be immediately followed by reports of what happened at Manehattan Central Hospital.

Even if it could be considered nothing more than a peculiar theft of a large amount of medical and laboratory equipment, the fact that it occurred at the same time as the attack on the castle and that this reports mentioned the presence of several unique creatures never before seen in Equestria, were too great of a coincidence to consider the notion that the two events were in any way unrelated.

Still, the fact that they mention the sighting of a tall, bipedal bird-like creature among those responsible for the heist made her raise an eyebrow and demand information on Captain Celaeno's whereabouts and current situation, wanting to know if she and her sky pirates had anything to do with it.

Part of Celestia hoped that wasn't the case, happy to know that her avian friends who had helped them so much during the events of the Storm King's invasion and his forces had stayed on the straight and narrow path ever since; or at least as straight and narrow as one could expect from sky pirates.

On the other hoof, if the Captain and her Parrots were somehow responsible for this, at best it would be an event that could be downplayed in the heap of her current worries; and, if somehow the matters were indeed related and the Captain was part of it, this could at least mean access to information related to Pride's plans, obviously aware of the price she would have to pay when it came to dealing with pirates.

Just a little bit more. Taking a deep breath, Celestia mentally blows over that flame and reduce it to mere embers, and stepped out onto the balcony. Then she raised her head once more towards the sky, making her horn to glow gold, linking herself with the sun, beginning the process of its ascension, giving birth to a new day.

She was ready to release the sun and let the star move at its own pace when, suddenly and unexpectedly, a bubble of green fire materialized and exploded in front of her, dropping a scroll, startling her, causing her to jerk back, with the sun tumbling and cartwheeling across the sky, mimicking the Princess's movements in her room.

After quickly putting the sun in its correct position, Celestia steels herself and makes sure to flash her well-practiced, confident, and caring smile before turning the corner and entering a hallway where two guards dressed in golden armor greet her before opening the doors that lead to the dining room.

In her letter, Twilight had requested that the meeting she called be held in the Throne Room, but after a brief debate, it was agreed by most of those involved that whatever the Princess of Friendship was going to tell them would neither gain nor lose importance no matter where the meeting took place, and therefore, the middle of breakfast was where it would take place.

Luna was already there, tired bags hanging under her eyes, a hoof tapping impatiently on the table's surface, and a steaming cup of coffee on the other. This sad image of her little sister was undoubtedly painted by the events that occurred the day before, which seriously increased her workload fighting the nightmares caused by these dangerous beings. Twilight was there too, tracing circles around the table, stopping once she saw her coming, greeting her with an apologetic smile.

Seconds after sitting next to her sister, exchanging honest smiles that did much to raise their spirits, calm each other's nerves, and greatly help the Diarchs face whatever challenges the day had in store for them, the doors on the other side of the room opened, and through them entered the rest of the Elements of Harmony, accompanied by Discord.

Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack all seemed fine and ready to take on the day. Rainbow Dash was showing off her sleepiness by letting out a loud, stretched-out yawn, floating slowly and lazily, rubbing her eyes with one of her front hooves. Rarity, for her part, was shown to have the remains of a light green facial mask smeared around her cheeks and some curlers tightening her mane and tail.

Much to the chagrin of Twilight and Luna, who wanted to start right away the discussion regarding the urgent discovery, they were once again over-voted, pushed to wait for the food to be served. And only when breakfast was over and the dishes cleared from the table, and after coughing to clear her throat and get everyone's attention, was Twilight allowed to give free rein to her explanations.

"I've called you all here to share that thanks to Pinkie's input," Twilight pointed at the aforementioned girl, who was beaming with pride under the mix of appreciative and amazed glances from her friends. "The translation spell I cast on the paper has finally managed to decipher part of what Pride has written."

With that, Twilight placed the paper on the table, passing through the hooves of everyone present, eyeing the result with varying degrees of interest and curiosity, until the sheet reached the middle of the table again.

"Uh... Twilight, darling, I believe you forgot something with your spell," Rarity pointed out.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm sorry," Twilight said sheepishly, finally noticing the confusion on the rest of her friends' faces (minus Fluttershy and probably Pinkie Pie) at the "backwards" writing. "Let me fix that," she exclaimed. Lighting up her horn and pointing it at the paper once more, she cast magic on it, causing the writing to appear properly legible.

Once again, and after the flash of light, everyone at the table crowded around to read what was written on the sheet of paper.

Lord of Hell AH!
Hell Spawn

"'Hell'? What the hay 'Hell' means?" asks the blue Pegasus, scratching her rainbow mane in confusion.

"And why would this so-called Pride find that appellation hilarious enough to write down the laughter it brought upon him?" Luna followed up.

"I'm guessing it must be a place, or perhaps a state; but I've never heard of anything like that," Celestia contributed. "How about any of you?" She asked her sister and the rest of the Elements of Harmony, receiving negative head shakes.

"Oh, I can't take this anymore!" Discord proclaims loudly, sounding irritated, gaining the surprise and attention of the rest of the present ponies. "This one I know I've heard before and I'm already annoyed of not getting it. I'm pretty sure I have something that talks about that."

Rolling up the skin of his lion's paw arm, the Lord of Chaos stretches it into a small portal that appeared in front of him. Shaking it as if he were searching for something, within seconds he retracts his paw holding a book with a cross on it, looking at it with reverence.

"Nope," the Draconequus shakes his head, throwing it away, clearly not what he was looking for, the book disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Repeating the action, Discord again thrusts his lion's paw into the portal, this time removing an even older book with the symbol of a six-pointed star.

"Not this one either," he said, giving it the same treatment.

For a third time the Lord of Chaos thrust his limb into the portal, extracting another book. It looked ancient, older than anything in Equestria. A face could be seen on its cover, formed by the wrinkles of the brown leather it was made of. The rusty iron that surrounded it, rather than being there to help maintain the integrity of the book, gave the appearance of a cage with the important task of keeping it closed.

"This one definitely not!" The chimeric being exclaimed in a mixture of apprehension and discomfort, laughing nervously, promptly returning the ominous looking tome back into the portal.

On this fourth occasion, Discord pushed his body against the portal, introducing his arm up to the shoulder, showing the effort and determination to obtain what he was looking for.

"AHA!" He celebrated once it felt that he had grabbed what he was looking for. Pulling his arm and unleashing a whiplash with it, Discord placed a new book on the table, in full view of everyone. It was grayish white, with a clean and futuristic appearance; on the cover was the image of a sphere formed by puzzle pieces and on each piece a character of a different language.

Twilight touches it with her hoof and the book magically opens, its pages turning at high speed, stopping until they reach the one dedicated to the word they were looking for.

"Hell is a place of punitive suffering as punishment for the wicked." The Princess of Friendship begins to read. "Hell is usually depicted as a deep and cavernous place full of fire and flames. It is said that its oldest prisoner and ruler was one of the greatest evils that plagued the land..."

Suddenly, at the sight of one of the images displayed, Twilight lost her voice. The tension in the room had risen as quickly as the temperature had apparently dropped. Even Pinkie and Discord's cheerful and carefree attitude diminished noticeably, replaced by a sense of dread and a feeling of imminent danger.

"No way..." Rainbow Dash whispered in disbelief, looking over her friend head at the contents of the book.

"It can't be..." Fluttershy followed, trembling at her side, genuinely frightened.

"It look a lot like..." Applejack pointed on her other side, concern growing in her voice with each word that left her lips.

Next to the description was an image of a bipedal creature, with hooves instead of feet or claws; at first glance it could be mistaken for a Minotaur due to its broad shoulders and robust build, its horned head and even the nose ring it wore, but what chilled their blood and turned their worries into fear was the red tint of its skin, its yellow eyes and its evil and threatening smile.

Swallowing, Twilight continued reading, hoping that their shared assumption would be contradicted:

"Hell is known by many names around the world, one of the oldest being..."

Tartarus.

It gates flung open with such violence that they were nearly torn from their hinges, the echo of the impact reverberating to the farthest and deepest corners of the cavernous prison.

The Sin of Pride is the first to set foot inside, passing through the rapidly dissipating curtain of smoke caused by the sudden opening of the giant wooden doors.

Wrath and Lust crossed inside behind him. In what could be considered the middle of the cave, a rather wide and flat space, a large figure jumps out from behind a wall of stalagmites and stands in their way.

This enormous beast that even dwarfed them was a three-headed black bulldog with red pupils and a spiked collar on each neck.

It was Cerberus, who with its three jaws growled and barked menacingly at the intruders simultaneously.

Rather than being intimidated by the presence of the gigantic guard dog, Pride lets out a dry, odd-sounding laugh filled with amusement.

"HA! Of course they'd have one too," he says, more to himself than for his companions, his grin widening. Then, tilting his head in the direction of the most beastly-looking of the three Sins, he orders: "Wrath, go play with the pup while we two go pick up what we came for."

Wrath growled and, moving ahead of his companions, huffed and puffed, and with each snort his form grew and grew, becoming even more beastly and demonic than when he charged into Canterlot Castle, until he reached a size and shape equal to that of Cerberus.

All three heads of the guard dog showed surprise when the transformed Sin rushed at it; to their credit, they all regained their composure and reacted in time to also launch themselves into the confrontation against the attacking opponent.

Taking advantage of the fact that the only security measure was busy playing with Wrath, snapping and lunging at each other, tumbling and somersaulting around the cave, Pride and Lust began to climb up some narrow and steep steps.

As they reached the top of that plateau, the sight of two lonely cages came to their eyes, one containing a drained Centaur of gray and battered appearance, the other housing a small Pegasus filly with a pink coat and a mane and tail made of blue curls.

If the racket that Wrath and Cerberus were making down below was not enough to make their presence known there, the echoing sound of the two approaching Sins' footsteps must have done it, as both Centaur and Pony already had their expectant gazes on them and were waiting for those who, for lack of any other prisoners locked in that place, had burst in there with them clearly in mind.

Lord Tirek keeps his surprise and curiosity about these visitors hidden behind a hard look of caution and distrust, the fact that they feel so comfortable at home within the oppressive, crushing and demoralizing atmosphere of Tartarus told the Centaur that these creatures were not good guys; that did not mean that they were bad ones that he could or should trust.

Cozy Glow masks her true curiosity for these individuals approaching them, curiosity to know who they are, what they want and curiosity to know anything she can exploit about them to her advantage, under a false and apparent curiosity of a filly in front of something completely new and never seen before. Maybe there was a bit of genuine curiosity covering the mask Cozy was showing, after all, no matter how much her actions painted her differently, she was still a little filly. That doesn't mean that one should underestimate her for that.

"Look, Tirek! We have visitors!" Cozy Glow says with insincere, syrupy sweetness, high-pitched childishness, pointing with her tiny hoof through the bars of the cage to Pride and Lust once they reach the top and are in full view.

Suppressing the strong desire to correct in front of his two guests his cage neighbor for constantly forgetting his title, Tirek takes the initiative and starts the conversation.

"Who... what kind of creatures are you?" Having eyed them up and down, the Centaur asked in his growly and nasally voice.

"Why, hello, hello! We are SINS!" Pride replied, bowing politely, his top hat up and down in a practiced and perfected motion, presenting himself as if he were reciting a sales pitch. "I am Pride and this lovely here beside me is Lust."

The Sin of Lust strode forward, her dress and hips swinging with each step. Setting her gaze upon them, the draconic-looking Sin took them in, and once her eyes fell upon the small Pegasus, they shone imperceptibly and her pupils dilated, and she smiled. With some effort to maintain the charade, Cozy returned a cheerful one, having to ignore the uncomfortable sensation she had suddenly felt, as if someone had gazed deep inside her, far beyond than her thoughts.

"They definitely are," having returned to Pride's side, Lust whispered confidently once she was sure of what she had sensed deep within the filly.

It was at that moment that the third of the Sins flies over them, having been violently thrown by Cerberus, quickly leaping, roaring in fury, back into the fray with the three-headed dog.

"And the one distracting the pup is Wrath," Pride clarified.

"And what do you want?" From us, Tirek pushed, crossing his arms, trying to look as intimidating and dignified as possible, even inside a cage.

"Ah! To the point. I like that. Nothing less can be expected from the Centaur who stopped at nothing to get all the magic only for himself, and the filly who saw friendship as a means to an end and the most determined to prove she was the best at the game. Both of you should take pride in this," Pride praised them before continuing, the noise of the Cerberus and Wrath brawl doing little to disrupt their conversation.

"Someone made a deal, a contract of sort, with us, one of great value," Pride continued with his explanation. "The only condition we need to fulfill is to create a spell, a ritual to bring our patron to your world. That is why we are here, and where you two come in to perform the ritual."

A smile formed between Tirek's nose ring and beard.

"Then I think you two are in luck. Between me and my little protégé, there are no creatures who know more about spells and rituals than the two of us. If you grant us our freedom, nothing would give us greater pleasure than to help you perform whatever ritual you have planned." And when the right moment comes, betray you and take all of your power for myself. Tirek offered, knowing that Cozy Glow must have the same idea, since she was playing along.

"Oh yes, Golly, we are! And we would be delighted to work together, with you. And maybe, once this is all over, we could be the best of friends! How about that?"

"Oh, it seems you've misunderstood," Pride replies, his grin slowly widening, revealing that his teeth had morphed into fangs. "When I said 'where you two come in to perform the ritual,' I wasn't referring to the technical aspect of the ritual, but the practical. You are not going to be the engineers behind it, rather its power source."

Before Centaur and Pegasus could say or do anything in response, threads of purple magic wrapped around their necks, creating stone yokes around them, instantly knocking them down; so large and heavy that neither of them were able to lift their heads off the floor of their cages.

“Hay, what gives!?” Cozy Glow whined, struggling to pull out her head out of the yoke, her childish demeanor all but forgotten.

“What is the meaning of this?” Tirek growled through his futile attempts to lift his impossibly heavy burden, his sight only reaching as far as Pride’s shins.

His response was a laugh as Sin and all of Tartarus faded from its view, the space in front of him occupied by a reflection of his own image in its exact, pitiful position. His and Cozy's cages transformed into inward mirrors rooms, their complaints muffled by their magical reflective walls.

Outside these cages made of mirrors, a red wave of imps crawled and climbed across the surface of the plateau, proceeding to put locks and chains around them, hauling them out of Tartarus.

"Wrath, we have secured what we came for. It is time to leave," the Sin of Pride commanded once his feet left the steps behind and landed on the wide path.

Tangled in a standstill, Wrath hands held by the powerful jaws of Cerberus' side heads while the central head tries to bite his, with a display of effort, the bestial Sin lifts and pushes with all his might the guard dog off of him, throwing it through one of the deepest holes of Tartarus.

Puffing hard, the Sin of Wrath gradually returns to his original form, placing himself, sore and bruised, behind Pride and next to Lust.

"Did you have fun playing with the dog?" Lust asked.

"It was a nice warm-up," was the succinct reply Wrath gave her.

"Oh, I'd say that was more than a warm-up; from my point of view, it was mangling you."

"Fine! it was better than I expected. That stud is worthy of being called Cerberus," Wrath admitted, wearing a slight smirk, appreciating the battle.

Then his good mood took a nosedive when he heard Lust struggling badly to contain a laugh.

"What are you laughing at?"

"That Cerberus wasn't male, but a female," Lust replied, flashing a grin formed by robust, sharp fangs.

"So what?" Wrath asked back, wondering where the Sin of Lust was going with finding funny and necessary to bring up this piece of information, which they both knew was not at all interesting, Cerberus came in different races and all sexes.

"A bitch almost made you her bitch," Lust finally replied, bursting out laughing.

The Sin of Wrath just groaned and rolled his eyes at what the Sin of Lust found hilarious.