Overcomplicating the Complicated.

Lorewriter had curled himself up as best he could. He was silently sobbing to himself. He had no clue as to how long he had been there. He did not care.

He heard a grumble, but ignored it. He'd been keeping away from that... thing. He'd tried screaming for help, but nopony came for him. He was all alone. All alone in this monstrously horrible place.

"Can we please just talk?" the demon piped up. "I can sit here forever, but that doesn't imply that I want to. I have somewhere to be."

No answer.

Dargon sighed. "Look, either I leave you for the other demons, or we talk. And they are a lot less lenient than me."

Still no answer from the ball of fur.

"Fine, you wanna spend the rest of eternity here, or do you want out?"

Lorewriter sniffed. Some of those words got through to him, and the thought of being out of here was sounding great. He slowly lifted himself to sit on his haunches. He did not raise his head, however, preferring to not look at his conversational partner.

"S-so I'm really d-d-dead?" he managed to choke out.

Kergan stood up. "Unfortunately, yes. And for the third time, you're in Tartarus. The Black Pit. Whatever you wish to call it, there's a few hundred names for it."

The pony's blank expression showed no emotion, like it had been drained of all life. "I-I dont get it." he said, shaking his head.

"You're in something like the afterlife." Kergan pointed out casually.

Lorewriter kept his head down, eyes fixated on the ground. It seemed as though he was trying to fit the pieces together.

"Look, I'm sorry that this happened to you. But everypony has to meet their end eventually. Yours was just in the form of a rather large bookshelf." He walked over to the maroon pony and crouched.

The stallion finally looked up and locked eyes with the Demon. His eyes were red from crying, the area around them darkened. It was then he noticed the yellow eyes of his captor. They were large and yellow, with reptilian irises that cut down the middle. Oddly enough, the look he was giving was rather comforting.

"Why am I in Tartarus?" he questioned.

Dargon rubbed the back of his neck. "Uh, well, you see.... Um.... you bucked up."

"This pony must have an endless supply of confused faces" thought Kergan.

"W-What...?"

Dargon cleared his throat for a lengthy explanation. "Well, when you die, some scales are weighed. Now, these scales weigh how bad or how good of a person you were in life. If you're bad, you get sent here. If you're good, you go up there." he pointed upwards. Lorewriter looked up, but only saw rock.

It took a couple of moments for the pieces to fall into place.

"B-But I'm a good pony!"

Dargon sighed. "You obviously aren't, seeing as you're down here. Try to think about something you've done when you were alive."

Lorewriter looked to the ground for the moment. He began to murmur to himself, recollecting moments in his life. His eyes suddenly widened in realization. "Oh...."

"Yeah, that."

"That... That was just one night! One night!"

"Someone must have hit the cider. And sorry, but it still counts."

"So I'm stuck down here!? I-In Tartarus!?" He yelled. His eyes began to water.

Oh buck.

"NO! Nonono. O-Only for a certain amount of time. Eventually, you'll move on.

"To where?"

Whew! Crisis averted.

"Up there." he nodded upwards. "Way above the surface."

Lorewriter looked up. After a few seconds, his head snapped back to Dargon.

"Hold on. We're underground?"

"Well, yes. Very, very far underground." he looked skeptically at Lorewriter. "Do you know nothing of these things?"

The pony gave an uncertain nod. "My mother told me of Tartarus when I was small. I thought It was just an old foals tale!"

"Old foal tale my hide. As you can see, it's pretty damned real."

A silence began to grow after those words. Dargon began to open his mouth, but Lorewriter interrupted him.

"What are you?"

The demon cocked an eyebrow. "Sorry? I thought I explained this."

"It's just, I've never seen one of you before."

Dargon snorted. "Of course you haven't. We never go to the surface."

"Huh... So, "

The two continued on their conversation. As more time began to pass, Lorewriter began to relax, feeling more and more comfortable around the demon. It was all idle chatter, mainly with the pony asking the questions. He was intrigued by this creature, including as to how he required no sustenance whatsoever, and did not age. "If only I had my notebook..." he thought.

"Why are you down here?"

"Well..." Dargon gestured with both of his arms, "...this is were I live, in short."

Lorewriter was utterly shocked. "You live here?"

For a pony named Lorewriter, he's a bit slow.

Dargon nodded. "I am a demon and Tartarus is where all demons reside. We begin and remain here, for all eternity..." He seemed to trail off with those words, and looked into space for a moment. He shook his head and came back into focus. "I don't necessarily live, just exist. And I exist to torture."

Lorewriter gulped nervously. "Torture...?"

"Ease up, I'm not going to... and besides, if I was going to, I would have already."

The pony visibly relaxed. "Oh. That's good."

"Heh." Dargon sat back down on a large rock. "Yeah, it is..."

Lorewriter saw an uncertain look on Dargon's face.

"Is something wrong?"

Dargon sighed. "Sort of... it's just..." he buried his face in his hands. "I'm not such a good Demon."

"I have tortured ponies before. And I hated it."

"You have?"

"Demons exist to torture. It was all I knew! It came to me as breathing may come to you!"

"I.. tortured ponies. Males, females, young, old... and I continued on for some time. I'd torture until it was deemed that they had suffered enough. They would move on, and I would do the same." He looked directly at Lorewriter. His eyes were full of untold sorrow.

"I stopped after a while. I'm not sure if I felt bad or I simply became bored. But I stopped. And for once, it felt right. I didn't torture them, I helped them move on. You didn't have to make them suffer." His expression shifted to one of frustration.

"Most anyway. Some ponies are just too evil to go untouched..."

There was a short silence.

"But most were fine. Hay, I'd even get a good few hours of talking with some. But I had to keep it all discreet. If I was to be found out, I would suffer unimaginable damnation. Imagine that, the damned being damned! The irony of it would be enough torture!"

Lorewriter chuckled.

'I would help them on there path. Some were easier than others. But I would guide them. Until they accepted it all. Until they were at peace."

"But..." he hung his head. "I did those things. All of it, All of the atrocities I committed in the name of Tartarus. They will haunt me for eternity and beyond."

Dargon felt a hoof rest on his right shoulder. He looked over at Lorwriter, who was smiling. Not a smile of joy, or excitement, but comfort.

"It's okay. You are a good pon... uh, Demon. You may have committed horrible acts, but you have done what you can to make things right. It was all you knew, and yet you swayed from that path. You acted with kindness and compassion. You did all that you could, and that's good in my books."

Dargon was astounded. "Wow. That was... I mean, before you seemed like you were too slow to understand the concept of being dead, and now you seem wiser than me!"

Lorewriter yelped as he was enveloped by two massive arms. He was being hugged.

"Thank you."

Lorewriter smiled. He began to feel his eyes water

Dargon put the pony back down. He noticed the pony was becoming emotional.

"Hehe, you got me welling up"

Lorewriter noticed Dargon's eyes  suddenly widen in astonishment.

"It's happening."

"Huh? What are you..." A light just below Lorwriter caught his attention. He looked down, to see that the light wasn't coming from below him, it was coming from him.

"What's going on?" He looked over, to see the demon with a big smile across his face.

"You did it. You're moving on."

"Woah, I am?"

Dargon chuckled.  "Last time I checked, this is what normally happens. You're on your way to the top."

Lorewriter began to rise off the ground. His legs waved around beneath him. He was studying himself, as new sources of light began to appear all across his body.

"Wait, what's it like up there?"

"No idea, you're the one going."

The light emanating from the pony began to intensify.

"W-Will I see you again?"

"Maybe. I hope to see you again, because you were probably the best pony I had talked to. Anyway, I need somepony to keep me entertained."

Lorewriter smiled. "Thank you, for everything."

"All you Lorewriter, all you. Better get a move on, you don't want to keep them waiting."

Lorwriter gave one last, solemn smile to him, then, in a blinding flash of light...

He was gone.

Dargon moved his hand away from his face. There was no trace left, as if the pony had never existed. He sighed through the smile he still had across his face, crossed his arms, and stood in space for a moment. As he thought, his face soon changed to one of horror.

Better get a move on, you don't want to keep them waiting.

Don't want to keep them waiting.

Keep them waiting.

"Oh buck."