A Celestial Comedy

Canto 3: Tartarus, Fear

The barge floated across the river of souls towards an impenetrable darkness that hide the far shore. The silence -- save for the moaning of the river's souls -- was getting to me, and so I decided to ask Discord a few questions.

"Say, Discord?" He turned, giving me his attention. "What all does it take to be sent here?"

"Ah, a question of the ages. It varies from brony to brony. Some did as little as enjoy the wrong kind of YouTube video, others went as far as to write clop fics." The last two words he said as if they left a bad taste in his mouth. "However, as it is written, 'the wages of sin is death', so no matter your sin, if you do not repent you will be condemned to all of eternity here."

"Ouch." I grimaced, thinking of the damned on the shore. "So, what kind of ... punishment is faced here in Tartarus?"

"That depends on the Circle," Discord replied. "There's the first Circle: Fear, which we are about to enter. Wait for it ... wait for i-i-i-i-it!"

I looked up, and indeed, the great darkness loomed above us like a tidal wave of shadow just about to swallow us up.

"What gulp what's in there?"

"One's darkest desires..." Discord whispered dramatically, "...and worst nightmares."

I gulped again.

There was relative silence outside the darkness, but then, as we passed into the shadow, screams and wails and sinister laughter resounded in my ears. It reminded me of a haunted house, where ghouls and goblins would torment those mortals foolish enough to enter there.

The ferrycolt struck a light and gave a lantern to Discord, who held it up over our heads to light the way. Soon we reached the dock on the far shore, and as we departed I could here the ferrycolt muttering about being set behind schedule as he shoved off again.

Discord kept the lantern and started walking inland, me close behind. We came upon a rundown looking mansion riddled with broken windows and holes in the walls. I was about to say something, but then a human soul leapt from a fourth story window and fell to the ground with a bloodcurdling scream.

He hit the ground with a sickening crunch, but even as I flinched he got back up and tried to shamble away, his broken body giving out from under him. He fell, twisting so he fell on his back.

I rushed over to him, my better nature wanting to help him, but as I came up to him I saw his face.

It was so pale that calling it white wouldn't quite give someone the right idea of how ashen it looked. His mouth was agape in horror and agony, and his eyes were so wide that they seemed that if they were any wider that they would roll from his sockets. He also wasn't breathing, so I assumed he was dead.

Then he screamed again, long and loud, his face further twisting from terror.

"What have you seen," I asked, "to be so afraid?"

He stopped screaming and, slowly turning his head to face me, began to whisper.

"I see all that I was afraid of in life: the dark, monsters under the bed, death, heights, spiders, first days of school, being alone, things that refused to let me take a side. I had friends that were bronies, I had friends that were not. I was too afraid to take a side, for fear of not having friends or being made fun of.

"So I am damned to forever be in fear of everything, no longer what might be, but what is!" Then he resumed his shrieks and began to writhe in pain.

Discord came over and stood beside me over the victim of fear. "Have you ever been afraid?" he asked.

"Yeah, I am human after all."

"Of what?"

"Well, when I was little I was afraid of mummies, still kinda am."

"Not that kind of fear."

"Oh," I thought for a moment. "Yeah, I was afraid that I wouldn't be accepted by my friends if they knew that I was a brony."

"Were you not?"

"Some still did, heh, I even got a few to join the herd. Others told me that they lost respect for me."

"Did it really matter?"

"I guess not, they are still my friends. If it really bothered them that much, they wouldn't have been real friends, would they?"

"That's up to you, we've never had that problem."

"True that," I muttered as another leapt from the mansion only to fall so far. "What is that place?"

"That is where those consumed by fear go to face their worst fears. They never get far though."

As if on cue, creatures that looked equine came out of the doors of the mansion carrying poles with nooses on the ends. They were ponies in form, but they had no faces or other distinct features. I couldn't help but think "Slenderpony" as they caught the souls by the necks and dragged them back inside kicking and screaming.

"Not many come here," Discord continued, "but personally this might be one of the worst of the Circles."

"How many Circles are there?" I asked.

"Eight. There's Fear, then Lust, and then Mockery. Then there's Spite and Anger, um ... Intolerance and then Deceit. And last, but not least, Disloyalty."

"So those sins make bronies come here?"

"Pretty much."

"Wow." I couldn't help but wonder how many of those sins I had committed to have come here.

"Well, there's not else to see here," Discord sighed, "Shall we continue?"

"Might as well," I said, "I don't want to spend too much time here, if you know what I mean."

"Same here."

We resumed walking leaving the screams behind us.