"Why won't this bucking buckity buck-buck enchantment stick?" The yelled words echoed around the village, coming from the edge of town. Everypony knew the source without even having to hear the mare's voice.

Courage Fire turned around and bucked, kicking the staff of mahogany across her work-room and knocking down a shelf. "Why didn't it work? That bucking enchantment should have stuck like glue! Now I am down a hundred bits in resources…" The orange-coated mare tossed her orange-brown mane to the side and was ready to line up another kick at something else.

A knock came from her front door and the mare reined in her temper and composed herself enough to answer it. Using her magic to unbar the door, Courage pulled it open to reveal a big, white-coated mare. Courage's mood turned as she saw the pink-maned blacksmith—her perfect white coat spotted with black burn marks—hold up a jug of cider. "Need a break?"

"Hammered, you know I can't say no." Courage backed up, making room for the bigger earth pony. "You heard, huh? I was trying to fit one last enchantment on this staff, just one more, and while I was binding it I lost my grip on it and the whole enchantment evaporated off."

"The whole town likely heard what happened, as for it, how many bits are you out?" Hammered Fine took a swig from the jug and offered it to Courage. Soft yellow-orange magic plucked up the jug and hefted it right to the unicorn's mouth. Closing her eyes, Courage started taking a long pull from the jug.

"Whoa, that is distilled, hard-" Hammered sighed as Courage came to the conclusion of just how strong the hootch was herself. "Liquor…"

Courage coughed and spluttered, barely managing to save the bottle from spilling the fiery applejack everywhere. "What… what did you put in that?" She peeked down the neck of the jug cautiously before lifting it back up for another swig.

"I call it Randy Bugbear." Hammered grinned widely, her expression daring the unicorn to ask about the name.

Putting the jug down, Courage blushed a little from the warmth of the drink and the innuendo of the drink's name. "You aren't going to let me get away without asking about it, are you?" The earth pony's grin only got wider. "Okay, she asked, what is with the name?"

"Well, when a randy bugbear comes at you, it hits hard at first, but after the shock wears off you realize it is better to just let it keep humpin' your leg." Hammered reached for the bottle and took a swig herself, giggling like a filly at her joke.

"You are the worst." Courage shook her head, the effects of the drink quickly making her head tingle and face go a little numb. "Damn, I still need to finish the staff, too." She walked over to where the partially enchanted item lay, picking it up and walking back to her workbench, although not in a terribly straight line.

Watching Courage place the staff back on the cradle, Hammered blinked a few times. "Are you going to try again now? You might want to wait until you have sobered up a bit."

"I only had two sips. Besides, this needs to be done by tomorrow." Courage fastened the staff down tightly and began lifting out reagents. "I am fine, look." She held up a bottle with her magic and it floated steadily in place.

"If you say so, Courage." Hammered took another swig of the applejack and sat down on a nearby chair to watch. "Me? I am done for the day. You might have a new customer bringing in a pole-arm tomorrow, he asked about enchanters in the area."

"Tall stallion, white, big horn?" Courage started mixing substances together, grinding some powder in a mortar and pestle. When she saw Hammered nod, she grinned. "Yup, was asking after prices today. Hold on, gotta get this right."

Courage reached for the jug again and took one more pull. "Okay, now to combine the reagents…" she began working her special magic, magically adding the substances together, hovering them over the staff on her bench. Then she started to channel her magic. "It's working!" She kept going, kept pouring the enchantment onto the staff.

But something was off. Just as she thought she had it all done, when the staff had most of her magic thrumming in it, Courage hiccuped. "Oh buck…"

Jumping to her hooves, instantly sobered, Hammered reached out for her friend a moment after the magic did. An explosion rocked her back on her hooves as purple-red flames boiled up from where the unicorn had stood a moment before.

"Wake up, pony."

The voice was harsh and loud in Courage's head. She wanted to kick whoever it was for waking her. "Shaddup." She waved a hoof without looking.

"If you don't wake up now, you will be dead in ten seconds."

The voice sounded so sure of the statement, so calm about it, that the mare snapped her eyes open. From her vantage point she could see over a huge ramshackle town of broken and tumbling-down houses. Everywhere she looked she could see bright points of light. "The buck…?" She lifted her head and felt her words catch in her through.

"Five. Four. Three..."

"Moving!" Courage pushed up and forward, stumbling off the large platform she had been asleep on. Looking back, she saw what it really was. "A throne?" She turned in a circle, eyes wide as she took in the blasted landscape and fire as far as she could see. "Where in Tartarus…"

"Close, but to find Tartarus you would need to go up. Welcome to the Pit, this is the ninth circle." The voice sounded smug and proud. "Nothing has clawed its way out of here since before ponies came to be. The monsters down here don't see pony flesh often, look, they hunger already."

Sure enough, Courage could see that there were "things" moving among the town, creatures that looked like the melding of a pony and a snake. "Help… please…"

"Just what I wanted to hear. I will hold you to a boon later, little pony, and for that I will protect you… somewhat."

Detecting humor in the voice, Courage spun around again to see where it came from. "What do I need protection from?" Even as she spoke, she knew at least two creatures she certainly needed it from. The lamia that had spotted her slithered toward her on impossibly long tails. "Alright, whatever. Just-" She didn't get any further as pain seared her flanks. Dropping to the ground, Courage turned to look back and widened her eyes. "M-M-My cutie mark…" She stared in shock at her mark. Formerly it had been a sword with a half-halo of fire, but now it was adorned in chains, with a background of black flames.

"MINE!"

The word echoed out, slamming against the two lamia, who cowered down until it stopped ringing. The first to reach Courage was clearly a mare by the shape and look of her face. "Our master is gone, but what's this? A pony or a snack?"

Courage had dropped to her belly in the shock, the pain in her head setting her mind afire worse than a hangover. Pain lanced down from her skull and focused in the middle of her back. A ripping sound heralded yet more pain, and as the mare turned to see what had happened, she saw two big bat wings attached to her back. "What did you do?" New muscles and nerves called to Courage's brain and as she mentally touched them, the wings flapped.

"A snake snack!" The other lamia slithered up and circled around Courage. "Or does it wish to play?"

"I'm not going to play or be a snack. I am getting out of this bucking hell hole!" Courage reached under her cloak for the dagger she kept there, her magic flaring bright as she tried to back away from the two monsters.

"If you run, they will kill you. If you fight them, they will do a lot worse. Play their game and win."

Courage was apparently the only one of them that could hear the voice now, she narrowed her eyes. "What game do you want to play? Cards? Dice?"

"Riddles. The truth is your prize, your life the wager." One of the lamia slithered right up to Courage and circled around her; the creature's tail was so long that when it stopped before her it was circling her completely. "Your first is this. What walks on four legs in the morning, two during the day, and three in the evening?"

"Uh… um…" Courage's mind raced and the alcohol still in her didn't help matters. "It… uh… a griffon?" She saw the snake-pony's snout curl into a grin.

"Wrong, a human."

"What's a-" Courage didn't even see the lamia move as it bit her shoulder. Pain flared, but the real sting was the venom now coursing through her body. "Get… off me!" She reared back and kicked out, knocking the creature away. Weakness spread through her, but she fought against the lethargy the venom inflicted, keeping her hooves.

"Will it fight now? Will our little mouse struggle?" The second lamia lashed its long tail but wasn't quick enough to stop the pony's blade from coming in low and fast. Green blood started to flow the moment the little blade yanked free. "You think that little poke would stop-"

Courage smiled as the wound quickly seemed to change color and texture. "With the essence of a cockatrice in the blade, yeah I think it will do."

"Oh, I like this. Why not offer them another riddle? I am sure they won't betray you with something you could not possibly know anything about this time." The drollness in the voice was plain.

"What's the matter, you don't want to play with me anymore?" Courage's attention was on the monster, not that her tail was changing, her dock lengthening out, scales creeping over it and shedding her tail-hair.

"Nasty pony, if she plays one more time, then I show the way out." The lamia narrowed its eyes a little, causing a pattern of colors to shoot across them.

Courage had heard, vaguely, of the pony-snake's abilities. "No you don't." She closed her eyes, snapping them closed before pulling her trusty cloak up and over her head. But even the moment looking at the colors made her tremble a little, a need to see them again clawing at the edges of her mind.

"Come out, little snack. You had your fun, now relax in my tender coils." The lamia wasn't stupid enough to try to engage the pony, not until it had her under its sway. "Just look into my eyes again, you know you want to look at the pretty colors."

It was a losing battle and Courage Fire knew it. Her foreleg trembled where it held her cloak and she hated the moment when it pulled back, revealing her face to the lamia. The colors were everything she hoped they would be and more. Her mouth opened and a relaxed groan came from her as the patterns of the colors pushed thoughts aside, shoving them from her head.

"Put your little knife down, pony. You don't need any weapons anymore." The lamia slithered toward the mare, reached up a hoof and poked her horn. The magic snuffed out.

"One… riddle…" Courage stared deeply into the colors now, letting them cloud out even that strange voice that kept talking to her. All she could hear now was the lamia's words. The colors flashed brighter for a moment, then faded.

"A lamia's word is its honor. Very well, one more riddle before you are mine forever." It coiled itself around Courage, even wrapping a coil over the mare's back, before squeezing. "An iron pony, a flaxen tail. The further they run, the shorter their tail. What is it?"

Courage's mind grasped and clawed at her thoughts, winning each one back with great effort. "Iron pony, train… no. Flaxen… shorter…" She grinned up at the lamia. "The pony is a needle, their tail the thread." No sooner did she answer than the monster's eyes started flickering with colors again. "But… I won…"

"Just relax, settle down. You lost when you looked at me, now accept the consequences. Where are you, pony? What is the name of the deepest part of the Pit?" The lamia kept staring into the mare's eyes, felt her relaxing in its coils more and more. "Give up your protection, whoever granted it. Tell me I am your master."

"Go on, give up, submit to them and prove how worthless you are. If you really must know, the name of this place is the Ninth Circle. This is Treachery."

"I will do whatever you say." Smiling up, her eyes drinking in the relaxation the colored eyes gave her, Courage threw her thoughts into the patterns, watched them unravel one by one until just one was left. She sensed the moment the lamia hissed in happiness again, felt the coils around her relax just a fraction.

The snake creature didn't see the dagger, barely felt it until it was sliding past its scales. "No…"

Courage was wrapped in the embrace of the lamia as it turned to stone, each coil growing heavier before she was apparently trapped within it. "Get. Off. ME!" The powerful tail Courage had grown lashed and whipped around, smashing the stone creature around her. Panting, her anger nowhere near spent, she saw as a blue stairway seemed to shimmer into being.

"Well done, little pony."

Author's Notes:

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