The impact was swift, and painful. I basically was flung face first into solid rock, and as I got up, tried to shake the fuzz from my vision, to no avail.

I could barely make out the sound of panicked chirping over the bubbling lava around me, and slowly turned towards the source, no sooner do I turn too see I was being rushed by several chains quicker than I could react. They wrapped around my neck and yanked hard, pulling me towards where they came from, before they finally stop dragging me across the floor.

“So this is what Hell is like.”

“Chi, is that you? Can you help get these binds off?”

I turned towards the source of Ribbons voice, and found her tied up and blindfolded, the same chain around her neck. Mirage trying to gnaw through the ropes, but her tiny fangs weren't doing any good.

I dragged myself across the floor to reach Ribbon, thankfully that the chain was long enough. “Lemme see what I can do.”

The first thing I begun working on was the blindfold, Which actually ripped pretty easily after I got a good grip on it in my mouth. I recoiled in shock upon seeing that the color had faded from Ribbons eyes. “The hell happened! who did this to you?!”

“The same that happened to you, apparently. You look kinda bald.”

I turned around to confirm that yes, my mane and tail had indeed gone missing… magic hair, how the fuck does it work?

“I’ll have time to complain about it later. Right now, I kinda need to focus on getting you untied.”

With that, I begun working on gnawing through the ropes, trying to ignore the taste.

After about an hour, I had gotten the last of the ropes off Ribbon, and was now hugging her tightly, glad she was uninjured.

“I’m so glad you’re not hurt, you do not know how worried I was when I couldn't reach you at first!” I was letting my tears run free, not caring if I made a fool of myself.

“I’m glad you’re alright too. I was afraid they were going to kill me or use me or send me off to who knows where.” She begun crying into my shoulder, leaving me cursing how I was unable to protect her.

“I’m here now…” I slowly wrapped my wings around her, letting her hide herself from the outside world, as I faintly sobbed alongside her. Mirage managed to squeeze herself in between me and Ribbon. When a thought occurred to me, and nearly made me break down into a crying wreck.

“Ribbon? I-if you can’t use magic, h-how are you going to feed?”

“I-i don’t know.”

“At least we’re together.”

“Togwether!”

“Sweet tap-dancing raptor Jesus on a stick, Mirage just said her first words!” I needed that, got me out of my funk. She really did have a knack for distracting people at the best of moments.

“Aww, That’s right, we’re all here. All three of us.”

=====Three Days Later=====

The sound of screaming grabbed my attention from my musings, just in time for me to watch Celestia, Luna, and Cadence impact the ground, watching as they got up, I could tell they had been drained as well.

“Nice of you to drop in.”

I saw Celestia’s eye twitch at my pun, clearly I was doing something right. “How can you be making jokes at a time like this!?”

3… 2… 1… cue the chains.

Fun fact, It turns out the Royal Canterlot voice isn't magic, because Luna damn well near burst my eardrums.

“So, Tirek got you ponies too?”

“Yes, however, we planned ahead, and gave Twilight our magic.”

The sound of chirping interrupted any retort, and left me snickering at the confused looks on their faces.

“Hey Ribbon, they haven't met Mirage, have they?”

“Nopony has, she hasn’t even left the hive until now.”

“Oh yeah.” It was that moment Mirage decided to poke her head out from behind Ribbon, and chirped happily upon seeing our new guests.

“she does somewhat resemble you, Chitsuki, care to explain?” I could tell Luna and Celestia were just poking fun at me, but Cadence seemed genuinely curious.

I had to resist the urge to cackle madly, and shout ‘I HAVE NO IDEA!’, instead, I just held my forehooves in front of me, making a damned good poker face, and told them my theory on it. “Magic.”

“Magic?”

“The hell if I know.”

“Why does nopony say she looks like me?”

“Because everypony thinks that since you’re the Queen, EVERYLING is related to you.”

“We aren’t all related, we’re a community not a family.”

“Queen, changelings do kinda resemble insects, I think you can see where most ponies trains of thought go from there.”

“I hate pony brain trains.”

“Be thankful they thought that way, and not the whole ‘laying eggs inside them’ route. That would not have gone over well.” Aaaaand now I have that image stuck in my head. Just great. And from the twitch in her eye I’d say she has it to.

“Yeah… shutting up now.”

I watched as Mirage walked up to Luna, and held her forelegs in the air, giggling. “Woooona!” The look on Luna’s face was a cross between ‘dawww’, ‘wat’, and ‘brain.exe has stopped working’

“I think she broke you sister, Celestia.”

“I think so as well.”

“...Why is Cadence making baby noises?”

“She does that…”

“...So why does Tirek want to take over Equestria anyway?”

“Revenge.” Revenge? for what?

“Revenge, for what?” Way to read my mind, Ribbon.

“For events from before Discords original appearance, events that predate even us.”

“He’s older than you?” Stop reading my mind dammit!

“There are few who are, but yes, he is.”

“No wonder he had everything planned so well.”

“Is there anyway out of here? Mirage and I can’t feed without our magic to help us.”

“Not without magic, or a force strong enough to break these chains and get past Cerberus.”

“So our only choice is to sit here and hope for rescue.”

“It’s all we can hope for.”

=====One week later=====

I couldn't take it any longer, watching Ribbon and Mirage writhe in pain. Damn this place… it turns out it’s impossible to die here, meaning Ribbon and Mirage were forced to constantly feel the pain of starving to the point one should have died from it, and the princesses were feeling it too. at yet, I hadn't felt the slightest pang of hunger or thirst. Luna had taken to trying to calm Mirage, so she wouldn't constantly cry in pain.

I pulled Ribbon up against me, trying to help lessen the pain, to no avail, when I felt it. Looking up, I noticed several wisps of energy floating towards us.

“So. Tirek has been defeated, and our magic has finally slipped through the doors of Tartarus.”

The wisps seemed to pause in midair, before rocketing towards us, and flowing into us.

As they did so, I felt a familiar strength return to me, as well as the comforting presence of my connection to Ribbon. When I looked back to her, I noticed her staring at me with a look of hunger in her eyes.

As soon as a green beam of energy hit Ribbon, I was on the floor With her on top of me, feeling the sensation of her feeding off me, except much more intense. When the feeling finally stopped, I felt exhausted, and couldn't even will myself to get up, a dopey grin on my face as I realized we might just make it out of here. My magic still felt incredibly weak, but it was there.

Lunas labored breathing alerted me to the fact that Mirage must have latched on to the nearest source of strong positive emotion she could find, which just so happens to be holding her.

I felt Ribbon slump down on top of me, somehow managing to latch onto me in a way that left me pinned to floor, before she seemed to fall asleep, more than likely from finally being full after starving for so long.

I was perfectly okay with that.

“So wait, you said the doors to tartarus had been opened?”

“Its possible. Our magic may have been able to slip through regardless.”

“Uh… does anyone else here smell burning fur?”

That was the moment I saw a flaming Cerberus come running out of a side tunnel, followed by a loud roar, as Dovah, the rest of Tenchu squad, the Elements, and the remaining members of the legion of exiles, come out of that same tunnel. It was who was leading them that caused my jaw to drop.

Motherfucking Scootaloo, riding Gary motherfucking Oak who got very, VERY BIG! as in, manticore sized!

-Ribbon, wake up!-

“Nah, leave… Leave your... queen alone.”

-Our rescue is here, and you won't believe who appears to have spearheaded it. No seriously. wake up!-

’Fine, I’m awa- what?’

“That right, we came here to kick flank and take names!” holy shit, Scootaloo's a badass.

Twilight, still supercharged from the Princesses, teleported the non changeling or pegasi members of the group over to our little island, where to my shock, Gary actually bit through the chains.

Is my badassery contagious or something?

“You're okay!” I promptly took an orange projectile to the chest, as scootaloo glomped me.

“how did you guys get in here anyway?”

Impulse was the one to answer that. “Remember what happened to the training field? we made a bigger one.”

“So you’re basically saying, you bombed the gates of hell open. Michael Bay would be proud. Still, was setting Cerberus on fire really necessary?”

Flint stepped out from behind the rest of the group, holdin- is that a jury rigged flamethrower!? “What else was I supposed to test this on?”

I then heard the simultaneous delighted squeal of Dovah, Fluttershy, and Pinkie. “Its sooo cute!” ah, they found Mirage.

“Ah, I see you've met Mirage.”

“It?” Ribbon is growling? Wow, never call Mirage, it.

“Celestia? why is Luna passed out on the ground?” way to point out the obvious, Twilight.

“Let me answer that, one does not simply cuddle a starving changeling, and not expect to get fed on.” It was around then that I noticed something on Twilights back. It was the rifle Ribbon had made. “Twilight, where did you find that?”

“Somewhere between the hive and Whitetail Woods, why?”

-Ribbon, we have a problem.-

“The hive!” Ribbon turned her attention to Celestia “Did you inform the guard about the griffons?”

“Yes, but by the time they had gotten there, the hive was deserted, and the group that went to check the Whitetail Woods hadn't been heard back from when Tirek attacked.”

Oh shit… Ribbon’s pissed! “That was a large scale attack on us, and they just get away with my whole hive?!”

“Fucking tunnels! they were in cahoots with the diamond dogs, remember? They more than likely got away underground!” Yeah, I was pissed as well, very pissed. “Fucking birds just signed their death warrants…”

“Chitsuki, I hardly think that such ext-”

“Can it.” everypony gasped at my blatant disrespect. “Do you even know what happens to captured Changelings?”

“I’m afraid to ask. No, we don’t.”

“Sex slaves. you heard me right, sex slaves. and the worst part? It is entirely possible for a changeling to feed off of lust.” The look of horror on Celestia, and everypony else for that matter, showed that they now understood just how bad it was for them.

“And it will take forever to find them all, even with the hivemind. It’ll be too late.”

“Those bastards took the Whole. Damned. Hive. I swear, I will make them pay...” The amount of malice in my voice caused everyone, pony and changeling alike, to rear back in fright.

“We shall, Chitsuki. But first, we must leave this place before Cerberus returns with his owner.”

“Owner?”

“Lord Malice, And I would rather not be here when he arrives.”

“And knowing my luck, he’s already waiting for us… Fuck my life. How do we take him down?”

“You don’t, you beat him in a challenge.”

“Well… might as well get this over with. hit it Twi.”

With a flash of lavender, we were all deposited on the shore of the molten lake.

“So what does this Malice guy look like, anyway?”

“We’ve never actually seen him” Said Celestia. “He only ever asked to be told what’s happening in the rest of the world.”

After half an hour of walking, we finally reached the exit. “Finally!” Yet we hadn't seen a single sign of this Malice guy. Walking right up to the hole in the ironically wooden gates to Tartarus, I walked face first into a barrer.

”You aren’t leaving just yet.”

“Oh. Hello! Who might you be, oh mysterious voice?” Who almost broke my nose.

”I am the master of this place.”

“Lord Malice I presume?”

”Indeed, Princess Luna.’

“If you know who we are then you will let us leave!”

”I can not. But I can offer a deal. A demon had escaped with Tirek, find him and bring him back to me.”

“How are we supposed to find him out in the wide, wide world.” I asked. How are we supposed to find one demon.

”He is attracted to violence and you will know him by his murderous intent.”

“You have my attention.”

A bright red light caught my attention and made me look down. A glowing sigil had appeared on my chest. ”Return him to me and I shall remove my presence over you. Fail, and I will drag you back.”

wait a minute… demon… that explosion… Now I know where I’ve seen it before! “Akuma… how did he get here!?”

”He was sentenced here for his crimes”

“Not what I meant, how did he get to this realm? I know I was dragged across dimensions, but what’s his excuse?”

“Do you know him?” Asked Ribbon

“Street Fighter. Not to mention he has a way to kill me permanently...” The shocked silence that followed my statement was almost painful. “Resurrection based immortality isn't going to save you from an attack that destroys your soul... and thats not even getting into what could happen if he was consumed by his own power…”

”That is why he must be returned to this place. I am not a judge nor jury, but a warden.” The sigil on my chest faded, but I have a feeling it’s still there, and the barrier keeping us here vanished.

“Great… We have to fight a guy who has fought the God of Wrath to a standstill.” Annnd Fluttershy just fainted. I’m surprised she made it past the ‘getting your soul destroyed’ part. “At least finding him won’t be much of an issue. He would never turn down a challenge.”

“You’re not really going to fight him are you?”

“Ribbon, I don't have much of a choice.”

“But, you’ve already died once. I don’t want you to die again. Permanently.”

“Don’t think you want me spending the rest of eternity in hell, either.”

”Tartarus.”

“To-may-to to-mah-to, same difference!”

“Fine, if you’re going to fight that guy you are NOT playing fair!”

“Ribbon, have I ever played fair? I freaking nut shotted Discord for petes sake.”

“I… think you’ll need to do better than that.”

“As long as I avoid that one attack, I should be fine.”

“Regardless, it would make me feel better if you let me outfit you with some new tricks.”

“Like?”

“Needles, hidden blades, duplicates, some flight tricks, and I’d like to make some armor pieces.”

“Armor? Can’t I already do that with my miasma?”

“Good point, you can probably make that yourself.”

“But yeah, the other stuff sounds like a good idea.”

“Are you girls just going to stand around in Tartarus or can we go? Pinkie wants to throw a ‘we escaped Tartarus’ party!”

“And a ‘we beat Tirek’ party, and a party for Mirage.” Dammit Wendy! Ribbon glanced at me in concern. Understandable, that’s three parties at once. With Wendy, and Pinkie.

“Thats why I still have my party mecha!” Oh god, I completely forgot about that. This is gonna be good.

“A wise man once said, ‘one does not simply party, one PARTYS HARD!” I’ve always wanted to say that, and judging from the look in Pinkies eyes, I just gave her an idea.

-So we have to take that bugger down, find everyling, and try to prevent a goddamn war.-

’If he’s attracted to violence the war would bring him out.’

-I hate mondays.-