"Welcome to Tartarus, Enjoy your Stay..."

by Dleifragcat

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Dark, Comedy
Length: 6989

The Mane 6 embark on a quest to reseal the magic within Tartarus. Conspiracy clouds their path as they adventure through the hellish land to save Equestria and themselves.

After receiving a scroll, Twilight and her friends embark on an adventure into the depths of Tartarus to reseal the magical bonds that hold its creatures and convicts locked in. They meet the eccentric Hades and discover that they weren't formally invited and are forever trapped within the underworld. Conspiracy unfolds for the main six, as well as for the Ruler of Tartarus. Given a deal to complete their original mission, they have a chance to leave, but dark forces shadow their path as they journey through the depths of Tartarus.

"I hate to be informal, but… welcome to Hell."

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-17 07:29:21 UTC

Chapter 1: The Letter to Save Equestria?

Ponyville was a quiet and peaceful small village, perfectly blissful, and easy-going (with random events keeping everypony on their hooves from time to time). Life in this sleepy town was relaxed and comfortable for everypony living in it. At least- for most ponies…

A purple unicorn was frantically moving from bookshelf to bookshelf in her library tree house home. Sweat beaded down her forehead as a brilliant aura of purple light erupted from her horn and covered the books in front of her within a veil of magic. Instantly, they parted from the dusty shelves and circled around the equine. The books rearranged themselves in various patterns with speed and precision before being put back into place on the shelf.

The unicorn wiped the sweat off with a hoof and gave a sigh of relief before levitating a checklist to herself along with a quill.

“Reorganize the entire library for the third time… CHECK!” She said it with a happy smile before rolling up her checklist. A thought went across her mind and she quickly shouted through the house, “SPIIIIKE!”

“Argh, come on Twilight… I’m trying to get some sleep… you’ve been doing this since yesterday!” A tired purple dragon said with annoyance from the slumber of his bed basket.

“Oh, sorry Spike, I was wondering if you could help me with taking this list to the piles of completed lists on my desk,” she said while levitating the piece of paper towards Spike.

He grabbed it in a grumpy slumber, “Yeah, yeah… I’ll get it later…” He yawned. “Besides… why are you cleaning so much… now?”

“Well, you know that having a clean working space leaves you free of distractions to do work. So by cleaning up every single thing in the library and making sure every object is where it belongs then I can maximize my efficiency to not be distracted by unneeded mess. As Princess Celestia herself said, ‘A good workplace is a clean workplace.’ Organization is key, Spike, and I think you should pay more attention to it—”

Her eyes glanced over to him, but found out that he was way passed consciousness when she began. She giggled quietly under her breath and silently made her way outside, careful not to make a noise to wake up the grumpy dragon. As soon she had the door closed firmly behind her, she trotted away from her home and further into town.

A small shadowy fog crept through an open window of the tree house. It materialized in a small circle until a dark figure loomed inside the empty house. A dark ragged cloak shrouded it from its head to the ground, it was impossible to tell if it was a pony or some other creature. Its face was obscured, but it could see fine. In fact, it didn’t really prefer the brightness of the sunlight and stealthily made its way over to a table. An arm from the figure reaches inside the chest of its cloak and pulls out a sealed royal scroll before placing it in the centre of the oak furniture. Its job was done, all it had to do now was wait. It turns away from the scroll and chuckles sinisterly under its breath before dematerializing into a puff of smoke and vanishes from sight.

Twilight came into her home in a huff and slammed the door behind her. Nothing interesting had happened to her all day. She had gone across town to see if there was anything new, but nothing! She met some of her friends and told them about her plan to maximize work and study time. She received a ‘You’re working too hard’ from Applejack and being called an ‘Egghead’ by Rainbow Dash never was a good thing for Twilight even though she sees it as a harmless joke. She didn’t meet Rarity or Fluttershy since they were likely at their homes and Pinkie… well— Pinkie was doing… Pinkie Pie things…

Twilight wasn’t going to press into that any further than she had to.

Overall, minus her achievement in eliminating any speck of dust in her home, her day generally was normal. She liked the daily similar routines of her life, but sometimes they were just TOO similar. After the Changeling crisis, the Crystal Empire returning, AND reforming Discord, there was nothing exciting happening. Not even though famed ‘Ponyville Random Animal Attack moments’ didn`t happen as often, and usually had more bunnies instead of three-headed dogs running around.

She remembered that she didn’t much like the random animal attacks, and figured the peaceful life she was living in was for the best. She trotted around the room and noticed that Spike was still sleeping. It’s been nearly a day and he’s still out like a light bulb. Twilight was about to turn in for the night, but she could sense there was something about her home when she took her first step up the stairs. In fact, she felt it the moment she came back. Something was out of place.

By some magic Twilight radar she determined the source of the disturbance to be coming from a table. Her purple hoofs trotted across the floor towards the wooden structure, which turned into a speedy gallop once she seen what was lying on the table.

“Oh my gosh! It’s a note from Princess Celestia!” she shouted in surprise.

Twilight always loved receiving letters from her mentor, so no doubt she had a large grin on her face when she carefully undid its rolls to see what message the Princess of the Sun would’ve sent her. As her eyes scrolled down the page, her face turned from joy, to a scowl, and finally to horror and shock.

“Oh no! Oh no no no no no! This is not good, this is not good!” She turned to her sleeping friend and tried to nudge him awake. “Spike! We have an emergency! I need you to send a message to all our friends, NOW!”

The dragon kept sleeping; he was s unconscious that he wasn’t likely going to wake up until the sun rose.

“Darn it!” Twilight said to herself before turning to her thoughts. Maybe I can send it first thing in the morning! I think we’ll still have enough time until then! A hoof landed on her forehead as she noticed a small problem. Oh no… how am I going to sleep? I’m going to be staying up all night with this going on in my head! I need to be rested. But how? HOW!?

Twilight was over-thinking things too much and soon she became dizzy and she could see the room spinning. A small bolt of magic went up from her horn and exploded in the air while spraying a delicate powder over her. In her confusion, Twilight couldn’t tell whether that was a sleep spell or a mustache spell.

She fell onto the floor with a thud. It was definitely the sleep spell.

Twilight awoke with a gasp. The morning rays hit her eye and she quickly shielded it with a hoof to avoid any sun damage. She could smell the fresh scent of pancakes in the air.

“Oh well look who’s awake! How are you sleepyhead?” A cheerful Spike said next to her as he arrived with a plate of pancakes drenched in syrup and butter.

“I’m the sleepyhead?” Twilight said sarcastically.

“Meh, it was a tell-tale sign that dragon hibernation is coming closer. Anyways I made you some breakfast,” he said while putting the plate down next to the rising unicorn.

“Spike! We don’t have time for that!”

“What!? Why?”

Twilight presses both her hoofs against Spike’s cheeks and said with a shouting importance, “EQUESTRIA IS IN DANGER!”

“Ooooh, alright. No need to shout,” Spike grumbled. “So who is it this time? Discord turned bad again? Sombra came back to life as a zombie? Oh! Maybe this has something to do with your coronation—”

“NO! None of those things!” Twilight said with concern. “Spike, I want you to send a letter to all our friends and tell them to meet me here as soon as possible.”

“But your pancakes—”

“I’ll eat them. Thank you Spike… now, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!”

After Spike had made five note copies to send and Twilight had finished her pancakes, her friends periodically showed up to her home with concern plastered on their faces.

“Twi, we got your letter. What’s happening?” Applejack prodded her. Twilight gave her a grim expression as she quickly levitated the scroll she read the night before in front of her to read in front of her friends.

“Dear My Faithful Student,”

“It is required that you and your friends’ services and skills are to save the land of Equestria from danger once more. I trust in you all from your prior experiences that this task I’m about to give you will be completed without consequence or failure. It is imperative you solve this dilemma before things get out of hoof. The matter in question lies within the underground world of Tartarus. Tartarus is mainly used for departing souls to seek a place of sanctuary, but Tartarus is also used to safeguard Equestria from many dangerous ponies and creatures that had threatened the land before by keeping them locked in.

Every few centuries the magical locks put in Tartarus slowly deteriorate. Before it used to be for thousands of years, but as the number of inmates grows over the course of time, the more demanding the work has to be to maintain them under guard. I suspect it will be soon before the locks will break and Equestria will be in danger from dark forces.

You and your friends must head into the depths of Tartarus and seek out its ruler, Hades. From there he will tell you how to fix these seals. Usually only souls can pass through the gates, but I’ve made special arrangements with him to meet you. Remember, the fate in Equestria rests in your hoofs.”

~Princess Celestia~

“Tartarus… wow… That was one place I never had planned to visit,” Rarity said with a nervous voice.

“Y-you mean whe-where all those [size=8]horrible and scary[/size] things live in? T—Tartarus…” Fluttershy was shaking when she uttered that word and was going to faint if not for Applejack to help comfort her through this fear.

“Don’t worry sugarcube; it won’t be so bad with all six of us headin there together. It’ll be like being in a big safe herd, nothing will get by us.”

This made Fluttershy relax more, but she still had most of the jitteriness that everypony felt in the room. Tartarus, as the legends have told it, was not a very nice place to be in. Full of boiling lava and crazy apparitions of tormented souls and hellish spawn; it was the perfect place for a vacation… if you never wanted to come back alive.

“Well… It’s up to us to protect Equestria from the urgency of our mission! I guess we should be on our way then… TO TARTARUS! …everypony?” Twilight still sounded unsure and frightened within her fake cheer, but who wouldn’t be?

They were all going on a trip to a destination none of them wanted to go to.

“Are we there yet? Because we’re still walking and that usually means that we aren’t there yet, but we might be soon! So when are we there yet? Are we there yet now?” Pinkie happily jumped next to the group of nervous ponies as they walked further into the Everfree forest.

“We should be in a bit. The entrance to Tartarus is a cave, hopefully there we’ll be able to work our way through it and speak to Hades,” Twilight replied as she trudged through some sticky green vines.

“NEAT-O! A spooky cave, ooooooo, I wish I brought my flashlight, we could’ve acted like ghosts and scare Hades! Oh, before I forget! Twilight, what’s a Hades?”

She let out a grunt; she could barely walk through this forest, and having Pinkie yammering in her ear all this time was getting on her nerves. At least she could hopefully humor the pink pony long enough until they arrive at the entrance.

“HADES. Is a pony, much like Celestia due to his age and power, yet he’s also unlike her in many ways. He’s existed probably for just as long as Celestia had, and he’s the fearful ruler of Tartarus. Many ponies describe him as some sort of demonic being with a large range of godly powers and manipulation. That’s somewhat true, but no pony knows for certain what he actually looks like and what he does other than... well… rule an underground land full of condemned criminals and boiling lava.”

“Basically the main point is this—” Twilight emphasized. “— don’t mess with him.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie said with a grinning smile. Somehow the group could feel in their minds that Hade’s encounter with Pinkie would be… interesting.

“He sounds like some big shot, I hope he can back it up,” Rainbow Dash said with an unimpressed smug look on her face.

Twilight rolled her eyes and changed the subject, “We need to fix the spells that had kept this place working for years, or else all hell could break loose. Literally!”

This made any nerves of steel they had before, melt into a jelly of fear.

A few moments later and their small trek through the forest led them to a dark and eerie lit cave. A sign overhead read, “Tartarus Entrance! If there are any complaints, please file a letter to Hades. Thank you for visiting, have a nice day.”

“Well, this place is creepily friendly,” Rarity said with a nervous chill going down her spine.

“Alright girls, we can do this, together!” Twilight raised a hoof.

More hoofs joined in an explosion of colour.

“TOGETHER!”

With that rousing war cry, they descended straight into the cave.

It seems this eerie cave went on for miles. The group had lost track of time, and the amount of light behind them was diminishing faster and faster to the point when Twilight had to cast a light spell for them to continue further down into the dark abyss, it's black rock walls compressing the space around them. None of them had claustrophobia, but right now they weren't so sure.

None made a noise; they were all too scared of the lurking shadows, afraid if one of them will pounce on them. Sweat poured from the heads of the ponies.

“Is it just me or are things getting really hot?” Rarity asked rhetorically.

Soon they found their answer when they reached the bottom of the cave as it opened out to a large underground landscape behind solid golden gates. Twilight’s light wasn’t needed anymore as the place was lit up by orange and red glows. They were amazing at all this light didn’t come from Celestia’s sun, but here they were. Right in front of the Gates of Tartarus.

“Wow,” was all they could manage to say. There was a charm to the light-red rock walls and floors they were standing on, and it was considerably warmer.

Twilight led the group in front of the looming gate which towered above them by metres.

“Don’t tell me we have to open THAT!” Rainbow shouted in dismay.

AS the group approached closer, the gates suddenly flung open and welcomed the arrival of the ponies.  They were taken off guard by that sudden movement, but they quickly regained their composure with a gulp and trotted right through. As soon as Applejack, the last pony, walked through the gates, they slammed shut behind them with a loud echoing metal clang which sounded loudly through Tartarus’ soundless void.

Applejack looked at the ponies in front of her with a nervous expression and gulped, “I have a real bad feeling ‘bout this.”

Suddenly, the ponies could feel the ground beginning to shake. It grew more violent and intense, it wasn’t an earthquake.

Something was moving, towards them.

They didn’t even move a hoof forward before a large black three-headed dog appeared before them in a clumsy heap of pure muscle.

“AAH! CERBERUS!” Twilight shouted in terror. The rest of the ponies with her also frightfully shouted.

The dog scrapped its paw against the ground, the three heads it has were arguing with each other in barks and growls. All three then focused their attention on the ponies in front of them, petrifying the colourful ponies in their tracks.

Twilight could only do what her instincts told her. She couldn’t run anywhere. She and her friends would have to fight this beast.

The dog finished scrapping his paw and immediately rushed towards them in a blind fury. There was no way they could stop this thing. They closed their eyes when the beast approached them; none of them imagined this would have been their last moments.

Twilight could feel the running steps approach her, go over her, and then behind her.

What…?

She peeked through her eyes and saw that the dog was gone; she turned around and saw that it had grabbed hold on Fluttershy.

“FLUTTERSHY!” Everyone shouted.

The beast opened its mouth; it was going to eat her! OH THE CRUELTY! None of them could have imagined that after all her time feeding animals that SHE was the one going to be fed to Cerberus!

A tongue rolled out and… playfully licked the side of Fluttershy’s mane.

“Oh, whose a good puppy, you are, yes you are!” Fluttershy said with a smile, all her fear before of this place was erased in that one moment.

It seems Cerberus wasn’t really after them; Fluttershy’s animal communication has saved the group yet again it seems. Some of them couldn’t help, but smile and laugh at this display of affection from the three-headed dog.

“DOWN BOY! HEEL! That is NOT how we treat our guests!”

A very suave voice had sounded from behind them. Cerberus reluctantly put down Fluttershy (whose mane was completely lopsided) back safely on the ground and panted in excitement towards the sound of the voice.

The figure that stood before them was dressed in a burgundy red suit with a large v-cut starting from his neck down to about half his chest, his fur was pale blue, and his mane was shortly cut and a burning fire orange colour. His face was adorned with a goatee and a chin strap and he had a very quaint look on his face as he reveled in the sight of the newcomers.

“I am terribly sorry, my puppy gets so excited every time when he meets new ponies! “ He trotted up to his ‘puppy’ and rubbed a hoof against its head.

“Puppy!?” Rarity whispered to Fluttershy who was still in high spirits and didn’t notice her.

“Ah, but where are my manners…” The pony said before striking a pose. “I’m Hades! Let me just say you are all going to have a FABULOUS time here!”

“Wait, don’t tell me. THAT’S Hades!?” Rainbow said with shock at how unimpressive he was quietly to Twilight. “He’s the ‘great and fearful’ ruler of Tartarus? He looks like any other normal pony! What a joke!” Apparently, Rainbow Dash had expected more from this god of the underworld.

“Hush Rainbow,” Twilight turned to her with a glare before looking back at Hades. “Hi, I’m Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia. Me and my friends here—”

“OH CELESTIA! I haven’t heard that name in years even though we write to each other every other week. I really should invite her down here for some espresso and lava biscuits,” he said as he clapped his hoofs together with a smile.

The six could feel it in their head. The Princess, coming here!?  That doesn’t seem likely.

“So how about, I’ll give you all a quick tour of my 'home', by home I mean what you are currently standing on, and also place of ruling power, and we can talk about anything you want to talk about! It’s always fun to hear from ponies above ground compared to the usual screaming and wailing of suffering pain I have to sit through every day.”

They went silent. Rainbow Dash was still unimpressed.

“Great! So let’s start the tour… OH! And before I forget…” The ruler of the underworld cleared his throat.

“WELCOME TO TARTARUS!”

Chapter 2: A Hellish Tour of Hell

The group of colourful ponies followed the prancing figure dressed in his burgundy clothes as he took them on the welcome tour into Tartarus’s hellish landscape. Steam rose from the red rocks underneath their hooves as they trotted next to a pit of bright orange liquid. This was lava. Sweat matted the six ponies’ manes to their heads from the intense heat given off by this place. The pit of molten rock flowed its way down a river and eventually it ended up being thrown over the edge of a cliff, making a spectacularly hot (but deadly) waterfall of lava. Never had the group have seen these wonders, their eyes were in astonishment, but they were also filled with fear.

Asides from the pools of lava floating everywhere and the jagged overpasses of dark brown-red rock land, there was a rock ceiling they could see which covered the sky,  and strangely enough, a combination of brown dust and ash filled the heights with clouds, Tartarus’s own sky.

Steaming, gloomy, and brightly foreboding: these are the best ways the six could describe their initial encounter of the underworld land.

Hades turned his neck backwards to see the ponies looking in awe at his land of ruling, he's gotten used to seeing a pony's first visit enough times to not completely be less modest about showing off... not completely.

“Yep, Tartarus sure is a wonderful place to be in. What’s not to love?” He asked rhetorically, the six ponies drew nervous looks. Hades started to point in various directions, “You got hot boiling lava pools, no glare from Celestia’s sun, nice gloomy places to sulk in when you want to think or write poetry, long endless walks around Tartarus’s wastelands of lung-choking dust, shrieking souls of the convicted echoing through the night… day… well whatever, and of course the giant carnivorous bats.”

Instantly, a large swarm of pony-sized bats rushed through over Hades’ head, the group behind him ducked to the ground to avoid being hit by any of those creatures while Hades himself stood nonchalantly until the swarm flew off.

“Nasty little buggers aren’t they?” he said with a devious smile to them as they raised themselves from the warm embrace of the ground.

“Hades, I don’t mean to be rude, but could we get this going faster? We want to get started soon right away,” Twilight said with a thoughtful smile. Secretly the group didn’t want to spend an extra minute in this place if they didn’t have too.

“Wow!” Hades exclaimed with a loud laugh of vigor. “It has been a long, LONG time since somepony was so eager about entering my domain! This is truly fabulous!” He noticed their manes drenched in sweat and dirt and clapped his hoofs together, “The tour shouldn’t last that long anyways. I’m sure this will help convince all of you to have a more enjoyable stay to see through the end of my little meet-and-greet.”

In a poof of smoke a blue aura surrounded the six ponies, instantly their manes dried and they could find the heat of the air to be the same as around a cool spring afternoon. They all let out a sigh of relief and the blue aura dissipated into each pony’s body.

“Well, now that that’s settled, ON WITH THE TOUR!” Hades began to happily trot back on his path.

Rainbow flew by Twilight’s left side and whispered in her ear, “How did he do magic? He isn’t a unicorn. He looks like an earth pony.”

“I don’t know, maybe we can ask him later--”

Hades turned back again; the two quietly shut their mouths and wondered if he overheard them.

“Oh rude of me! I nearly forgot the most important part of the tour! You already know me as Hades,” he gave a bow. “But I don’t seem to recall asking for your names.”

Twilight stepped up and was about to answer, but suddenly pale-blue hoofs grabbed her belonging to Hades as he closely examined her face.

“You must be…" He examined her face closer, his eye nearly touching hers. "TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

She was shocked, “How did you know my name!? Unless the Princess told you—”

Hades gently put her down and sighed as he rolled his eyes, “The Princess usually never tells me anything these days. I knew your name, and the ones behind you, in order: Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy—” They too got scared by his knowledge, Fluttershy let out a meep. “—And I know because anypony who enters Tartarus has their name placed inside one of my most important items.”

Hades reached into the large ‘v’ of his suit and pulled out a small black book and opened it slightly, “This book details every single resident or visitor into my realm, as they pass through the gates, their names get recorded.”

True enough a name appeared from small orange embers and turned into ink inside the book. “Since I’m escorting you I think my assistant will likely handle that case, sometimes we do, sometimes we don’t. It’s all about scheduling.”

Pinkie was about to reach her hoof to touch the book, which was immediately, slammed shut by Hades.

“Alright, that’s enough standing around. Back to the tour! This time I mean it!”

After more endless treks past lava pools, spiky rocks, and stories of the wastelands from Hades, he stopped on a hill and quickly turned back with a crazy look in his eye.

“Now this is always one of my favourite spots to show visitors, cue to big unveil!” He stepped out of the way and held his hoofs out to show the six ponies what was lying in front of them. It was a small little town. From up there, they couldn’t see any details other than that the place looked just as ominous as the landscape around it.

“OOH! Can we get a closer look?” Pinkie jumped up with excitement.

“Of course my charming pink pony! Next on the list, the town of Brimstone! Full of the most positively gloomy atmosphere of civilized ponies you can find in this hellhole of mine!”

Hades once again trotted cheerfully down into the town followed by the group, they still can’t realize why Hades would be such a cheerful and eccentric pony. After all, most viewed him as a tyrant of mad power and fearful will that a ruler of such a terrible place would be.

The buildings they passed looked similar to the ones they seen in Ponyville, except in this case all the rock built for houses came naturally up through the ground (there is a rather large library was made purely by stalagmites and rising rock which Twilight wanted to check out later) and most of these houses looked rather old. The streets were filled with dust and shadows hovered next to walls providing a gloomy feeling to this town. Some ponies caught in the corner of their eye as they walked about, fearful and pale looking ponies poking their head out from behind buildings and quickly darting back into cover.

“Oh don’t mind them; they are a little shy to newcomers. They’ll get used to you, but never really used to you if you know what I mean.” Hades continued on track.

Soon as they neared the centre of the town, they began to hear distant noises. It sounded like shouting.

Hades facehoofed, “Argh, he we go again.”

The rest of the ponies were left looking confuse, yet continued to follow the ruler into the centre of town. There stood a beautifully carved fountain spewing out lava as it laid on decayed grass. Next to the structure was an old pony, white shaggy mane, pale ghost-white skin and with a red cloak draped across it’s body.

“—AND TO HEAR WITHIN, THE MADNESS! THAT IS OF WHICH WHAT YOU CALL YOUR KING!” The pony was shouting up into the sky, speaking to no pony else, he was in fact, crazy. They walked up to him but he continued to spout out words without any care.

“BEHOLD WHAT IS TRUE MIGHT! YOUR SELVES AND CONSCIOUSNESS NEED TO BE PURE TO PASS THROUGH THE GATES OF PURE, OR YOU WILL END UP IN A PRISONER’S TRAP, FOREVER! HADES CANNOT TAKE FROM YOU WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE! BUILD IT UP AND SOON WE CAN PUT OUT IDEALS OUT FOR A GREATER VIEWING THAN WHAT HE COULD DO. TOGETHER WE WILL CUT HIM DOWN OR DIE TRYING! GODS CAN’T DIE, BUT THEY CAN STILL BLEED—”

“—I think that might be enough,” Hades interjected and the crazy prophet stopped and looked at him with an angry gaze. “Enough with your destructive philosophy, Socratos. Go home!” Hades shouted with a wave of his hoof.

“YOU HAVEN’T HEARD THE LAST OF ME HADES! I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE!” the pony shouted in a terrifying grunt as he turned and grumbled under his breath as he went away.

“Quite an interesting fellow, I don’t know why he hates me so much. Doesn’t matter! Most ponies do, and I don’t care!”

“That’s not a healthy attitude to being verbally abused by everyone,” Twilight started to say but Hades held a hoof up to commander her silence.

“The fact that I have to deal with this roughly ten times a day with roughly 200-400 newcomers coming in by the hour, translates that this is a lost cause. At least for this eternity.”

“So shall we continue?” He delightfully asked with an eager smile.

“Umm... well… if this is the safest part of Tartarus… them maybe we should stay here--”

“Continue on? EXCELLENT IDEA FLUTTERS!” Clearly, the lord of Tartarus was either partially deaf, or cruel. The second one would make more sense.

As they went into town, buildings began to look more businesslike and foreboding. Past a few sturdy-looking houses they arrived at the front steps towards a large courthouse. This courthouse was large, very large. Each step leading up to it was roughly half a pony big.

“This is our famous judging courthouse. It’s where all the souls who enter Tartarus get processed into the categories of bad and good. The good ones get a nice life and retribution inside Tartarus’s Neighlysium fields, the others…”

The door to the courthouse slams wide open making an audible cracking noise against the wind. A pony is flung through them and sails across the sky over the heads of the watchers below and eventually lands in a series of black buildings.

“That would be Tartarus’s main reason for existing, the holding cells.”

On arrival, the holding cells were truly horrific for the six ponies to witness. Screams and echos of wails exploded from the jails and caused their ears to ring in pain. Every door they passed they see bruised, beaten, and rib-caged ponies, probably from the lack of food they were getting. Each one was crying out in agony, pleading for release from their pit of misery.

“HELP ME!”

“I’M NOT A KILLER!”

“HADES, CURSE YOU, YOU DAMN PONY DEMON!”

"I WILL BURN YOUR HOUSE!"

“LET ME GO!”

"PLEASE, I CAN'T STAY HERE ANY LONGER!"

They screamed and screamed, their shouts bounced off the walls and amplified louder with each shout, each cry. The six ponies who were following behind Hades were nearing their breaking limits and beginning to cry.

“P—Please, Hades… we can’t stay here.”

He noticed how distraught they all looked and carefully moved them away past a soundproof barrier which separated the jails from the outside world of Tartarus. His facial expression didn’t change the whole time he was there, and seeing some of these ponies weeping before him, didn’t faze him at all.

“How--,” Pinkie sniffed. “—how could you not feel how sad they were?”

“Oh, I can feel it. I can feel it every day. Remember that I’ve been doing this job since roughly Celestia started doing hers. Eons and eons… listening to their shouts, their cries, begging for retribution when they clearly won’t get any. Over the years I simply lost interest.”

Ponies like Applejack and Rainbow Dash who managed to keep themselves from breaking down before during the tour of the holding cells, were filled with rage by what the red suited pony said.

“YOU. LOST. INTEREST?” Applejack shouted in a rhetorical burst of anger.

“You’re a MONSTER!” Rainbow shouted at him.

Hades merely shook his head, “Call me what you like, they’re still damned for eternity. Believe me, that was only one jail, you should see the ones who are held in our maximum security, certainly not as loud, but just as crazy. I’ll always have to listen to the musical sound of wailing and screaming one way or another.”

“MUSIC!?” Rarity joined in, her mascara was running down her face. It was just a traumatizing experience for her as it was for everypony else.

“YOU’RE A CRUEL PONY! A FALSE RULER!”

“Oh, is that so?” Hades gave her a raised eyebrow then turned his attention to the rest. “Did you know that all of those ponies in there have committed crimes? In fact we don’t just limit Tartarus to ponies, but generally anything that has caused a crime to nature. Our system examines each and every single pony through a deep process of examining their lives from start to finish. All of ponies that are in there deserved to be locked away. They were murderers.”

They gasped.

This was just too much for Hades to take in as a sinister smile spread across his lips. “I can tell what you’re thinking; how could Equestria, the world’s most ‘lovable and kindest place of friendshipping magic’ could have so much evil tainting her landscape?” Hades shot his hoofs out towards the jails/ “Well, surprise surprise, I wonder where those ponies and creatures have originally come from,” Hades said sarcastically, completely shattering the idea that Equestria really was a haven of sorts for ponies and anything that lived.

“At least those who are convicted stay here and not ruin your ‘precious’ princess’s land,” he said with spite. “A land run only through a population of dead ponies who are mostly criminals and convicts, in a place that was meant to be a bad place to go to for the start. It definitely doesn’t help out any of our tourism.”

Once everypony finished contemplating their thoughts and wiped their tears clean, Hades looked at them with an apologetic smile, “I’m terribly sorry for my behaviour. I just wanted to show you a peek of what running this place for eternity feels like. Maybe when we get to my house, which is the last stop of the tour, I can make you all feel more comfortable.”

They sighed with relief knowing that this tour would end soon and that their original journey would finally begin. Though they will never forget those horrified expressions they’ve seen, and will never forget how those ponies ended up being trapped for eternity,

They walked a short distance back into town. The cobblestone floor clapped beneath their hoofs as they made their way onto a large bridge sturdily placed over lava. Hades’ home had a moat, it was of pure boiling lava. The thought of someone accidently falling in shivered the spines of some of the ponies. As they crossed over they see in front of them a courtyard with green grass and square hedges which ran along the outer edges of the land mass connecting to the lava.

Further past that was a large incredible mansion, grey stone walls, and metallic trims ran along it’s pointy rooftop and past it’s gothic columns.

“You live THERE!?” Rarity shouted in disbelief.

“Of course, it’s my home after all. My home inside the land which I call my home. So it would be the home of my home? Bah, I’ll come up with a word for that later.”

They trotted through the soft feeling of fresh grass beneath their hoofs. Their hoofs felt better standing on something so familiar compared to the amount of rocks and rubble they had to venture across. It was odd to see something alive and growing in this wasteland. Most thought that Tartarus was a place of the dead, it’s ironic to see how much life there is here.

“Tartarus isn’t just all about lava and rocks, though those are some nice qualities.” He raised a hoof and pointed to the flowers and plants that had grew from the ground, “These gardens here are beautifully worked by my dear wife. Never before have I met anypony who could do things like she could. I think you will all like her,” he looked back at them with a wink and continued onwards.

Rarity went next to Twilight and whispered, “He has a wife? I wonder what she’s like.” The two giggled and chatted amongst themselves about the possibilities.

They strode up the ebony steps to the large double-doors of his home. Next to it was an address plaque which read, “666 Drive, House of the Mighty Crown of Hades.”

“I used to wear a crown, but I didn’t really like the whole ‘medieval’ look, I think my snazzy suit is more eye-catching and professional in this day of age, don’t you think?” He wasn’t about to let them answer as he heaved the doors open in a warm red glow with his invisible magic. He casually walked in with the Twilight and the others nervously entering the lair of the ruler of Tartarus.

“Welcome to my home, make your visit comfortable. Food is in the fridge, tea is on the counter, I think my assistant is still outside and it seems my helpful worker isn’t back yet from his collection duties either… hmm…”

The inside was not what they were expecting: there was wonderfully placed home décor, hoof-stitched carpets, modernized furniture, and even a lava-lamp standing on a table to complete the centrepiece of the room. The walls were painted in calming blue and red colours which blended together beautifully to give a relaxed feeling to the viewer.

They settled themselves down onto the pristine white couches (which were adorned with zebra-print pillows) of the living room while Hades stood up lost in thought. The sound of hoofs was heard coming down steps and every pony’s attention shifted towards a large spiral staircase in the middle of the mansion.

A dark-purple unicorn wearing a lighter-blue shawl dress stepped down from the foot of the stairs. Her long red mane glimmered in radiance, she was a pony of beauty and some of the six couldn’t help but just say ‘wow’. She looked at Hades with her seductive azure eyes, their gazes locked and Hades couldn’t help but get a huge smile spread across his face.

“OH HONEY!” He ran up to her and gave her a large hug.

“HADES!” She smiled in return as she embraced her husband.

The ponies in the room could see how strong their connection for one another is. It would even rival the one shared between Cadence and Shining Armor possibly.

Time stood still for them as they looked into each other’s gazes.

“I missed you.”

“So did I…”

She pressed her head into his chest, “I worry everyday that you won’t come back. Tartarus isn’t as safe as it once used to be all those centuries ago…”

“Don’t worry honey, as long as you’re here and continue to be the mare who captured my heart, not even Death could tear us apart. That, plus he owes me after that bet about reaching the bottom of the bottomless pit,” he said with a cheeky smile.

“Oh you,” she said with a cute giggle.

It was getting very tense for the ponies who were casually observing on the couches, things started to get a bit… awkward.

At that moment, those two embraced each other tighter and started making out right in front of them.

Things just got even more awkward. Very awkward. Very. Awkward.

They just went on like that for minutes, moaning and aah’ing as they made out, each satisfied to be in one another's presence. They surely weren’t having any relationship issues. It appears that Hades has a soft spot for his wife. It would seem much more caring that a cruel heartless pony like Hades can find true love, if only it weren’t the amount of prolonged kissing that was blocking this thought from passing through.

“How long do you think they’ll do this for?” Rainbow asked. Everypony shrugged.

“Looks like we’ll have to wait…” Twilight said with a disturbed fake-smile, Rainbow urghed and tried her best to block out this amount of awkwardness from her ears.

They just went on and on, the room was beyond past awkward, if this was what normally happened on a daily basis then the group would never get started on their mission. They might not be enjoying it, but Hades and his wife don’t seem to mind. They were still too… busy.

The awkwardness continued to echo like a broken record disc, and then finally in a lip-smack they parted their mouths for a brief moment.

“This might take a while longer, do you feel uncomfortable?” Hades asked them, his wife giggled.

“YES.”

They didn’t catch their word (or at least pretended not to) and began making out again.

Rarity was right. Hades, is a cruel, cruel, pony…