This is a bad end, leading on from the previous bad end, just as Celeph attacked Mistress.

Courage's eyes widened as she watched Mistress die at the tender mercy of Celeph's icy magic. She swung her head to look at Corignis. "We need to leave, quickly!"

"Aww, but it would be so cozy in here. You could become Queens of Lust." The voice sounded quite amused at the idea.

Blanching at the thought, Courage stared sightlessly as Corignis started to give orders around her. She heard her sister order the "pack" to move forward and hunt more succubi that wouldn't surrender Mistress' ways. "Cor?" Her voice wavered, she wanted to tell her sister all about the voice, but something was stopping her again. "Cor… please Cor, we have to leave. Let Celeph take control back."

"What's wrong? I kinda like this… how things are going." Corignis did stop and pay full attention to Courage, particularly since she had suddenly started acting afraid.

"We would become Queens in here. We would be bound to Lust and never get free." Courage stepped closer and nuzzled Corignis. "I want to be free again, I want… I want my life back." She knew she was whining a little, but she had been fighting so hard for this one thing, and she didn't want to give it up to be Queen of anything related to the Pit. A small part of her rebelled, claimed it wanted to be Queen, but she slammed down on it.

Corignis closed her eyes and smiled, nuzzling her sister back. "This was always your journey, Courage. I will walk it with you wherever it leads." She kissed Courage on the lips and lifted her lids to stare into Courage's eyes. She practically drowned in the pools. Breaking the kiss, she gave a little lick. "Screw Lust. Let's get you back home. I have no idea how we are going to get out of Tartarus, but I don't think even Cerberus will stop you now."

"So how do we get out? We need to go 'up' to Tartarus, right?" Courage stiffened when power started to flow into her, an entirely new kind of power. "W-W-What is that?"

"That is your new pack feeding you. A few more moments of this and you will become the Queens of Lust. Such a shame, you really deserved to be free."

Fear filled Courage—along with memories of half-experienced dreams—and so she rejected the energy, flinging up shields and throwing it back to its source. "Leave us alone!" She poured more power into the shield, strengthening it with reserves she had only just regained. "Cor, get us out!"

Corignis had no clue what exactly would be the trigger for this realm, but she shoved the mental trigger and poured magic into it. A sucking sensation built, and Corignis knew it was working. "Come on, Bale," she put emphasis on Courage's fake name, "let's blow this place." Wrapping a wing around her sister, she felt Courage grip back tightly as the magic ripped them out of the Circle and wreathed them in Corignis' balefire.

Welcoming the flame, now her namesake, Courage plunged through the void with Corignis at her side, and when they slammed into ground again, she smiled and spoke just one word, "Tartarus."

Unwilling to surrender her sister's grip, Corignis looked around the threshold Circle. The ground was not rough dirt, but fine stone tiling. The Circle seemed to be a wide, winding path that led into the distance, and was flanked by a deep drop into lava. Off to the sides were pillars of rock, standing tall but distant from the path. On each of the pillars was a cage, and in each cage was a being—except one. "Wow."

As one, the two mares took a step, then another. Courage gestured with a wing at one of the pillars with a pony-sized shape in it. "Tirek…" Courage blinked at the impotent-looking creature, but kept walking. The one empty cage drew their attention, and the gate that consisted of one side of it stood open. "Whose was that?"

"The Lord of Chaos." Corignis walked a little closer to the edge nearest the empty cage. "Even Cerberus cannot open these cages, the keys are held by one creature—a pony." Stopping, Corignis pointed with a hoof. "It is said the cage waits for its owner, hungry to have him inside." She waited until Courage was about to ask again, before answering her question. "Discord, Lord of Chaos."

"Oh, he is free in Equestria, now." Courage giggled. "I met him once, he turned my fur yellow for a gag. I didn't laugh at first, but he changed me back."

"You have met him? He is free?" Staring at Courage, Corignis' jaw hung open. "That… that is—"

"Madness? He seemed nice, and had quite a sense of humor." Courage kissed Corignis' nose and giggled. "Now, let's get out of here before—" She was interrupted by a crack of thunder, and a loud voice.

"Ah, finally made your appointment. Are you doing well, little pony?"

It took a moment for Courage to realize the voice wasn't in her head—she heard it with her ears. Spinning around, she looked at the source of the voice and her blood ran cold. She had heard names for the beast that slowly flew down to the ground before them. He had huge horns, lightly curled and arcing back from his head. Great burning wings flapped, the flames looking to have no core that was visible. But the huge scales that covered the pony-like creature gave it away. Courage stared at the draconic head of the kirin. "Y-Y-You!"

"You know the Lord of the Pit?" Corignis looked at Courage and was half in a panic. She saw terror in her sister's eyes—a terror that went beyond the being before them just sending the two all the way back down to the depths.

"You can tell her now, if you wish." Lord tipped his head to Courage, as if granting her a great boon. "You can tell everyone that all this time you were my agent." He paused a moment, before continuing. "This was such a grand struggle, and look at you! You could have been a queen!"

"I don't want to be a queen! I want to go home!" Courage felt tears touch her eyes. "Just let me leave! I don't want to be here. You promised me—"

"I said I would help you leave, but I have your name, and there is more than enough demon in you now to have such a thing bind you." The Lord of the Pit paced around to the side of the two mares, his eyes tracing them. "Two powerful succubi; the most powerful succubi."

"What is he talking about, Balefire?" Corignis was looking at her friend, but caught a slight look of surprise on the Lord of the Pit's face at the word.

"When I arrived, I fell on a throne—a huge one. A voice thundered and told me to move, told me that if I accepted his aid I would only have to grant a simple boon to him." Courage's heart was beating fast, she dared not take her eyes from the Lord of the Pit. "He-He changed my cutie mark."

The Lord of the Pit ruffled his big flame-wings. "Courage Balefire." His eyes held Courage's, but he saw no flash of recognition that should have sparked if he had spoken her true name. "You have tricked me?"

Corignis shook her head. "N-N-No, Your Lordship. You cannot ask a demon for its real name." When the kirin turned to look at her, she dipped her head a little lower. "Balefire," a real thrill ran through her, and she pulled Courage to look away from the Lord of the Pit, "let's run."

Not wanting to think, Courage struck her hooves on the polished stone and took off after Corignis. "Where are we going?" She gave her wings little flaps to gain more speed.

"The end, to the gates!" Corignis didn't even register the titanic monsters in their cages on the pillars, she ignored everything but the huge set of gates in the distance.

"You are going nowhere!" Dropping down before the mares, the Lord of the Pit planted his scaled legs firmly on the path. "You are mine, Courage…" His face screwed up in rage at the lack of owning Courage's name. "There is always another way to get the name from a demon."

Corignis stepped in front of her sister, called her flames and lashed out at the Lord of the Pit. "Leave her alone!" In her head, though, she was cursing herself for an idiot.

The Lord of the Pit laughed and lashed out with a wing at Corignis. "Fire? I was born of fire!" When his wing lashed out and slashed at Corignis, he screamed and pulled it back. Some balefire still clung to his own wings of flame. "What is this?"

"Where do you think she got half her name from?" Corignis was putting on the best bravado she could. His wing had connected with her, and unlike Corignis' balefire, it had burnt her. "Leave us alone and let us leave!"

"NO!" the Lord of the Pit's horns lit with power and formed two huge burning lashes. When he brought them down—one after the other—they left scorch marks on the stone ground, burning runnels into it. "Give me my pet!"

Her eyes flaring bright, Corignis had to dance for all she was worth to dodge the lashes. Each one seared the air itself as it whizzed past her. When one struck even closer than ever, she tried to shift more out of the way of the second, and turned to look for Courage. "Run!"

Courage watched as the second whip came down across Corignis' back left leg, slicing through demonic flesh and bone. She didn't get even a moment to respond before the first lash came down again and severed Corignis' limbs just below her hips. Anger and fury poured into Courage, the wolf form of her time in Violence shoving its way through her body. Fury consumed every thought, and Courage rushed forward and caught the second whip in her mouth.

The Lord of the Pit froze at the sight. Nothing should have been able to stop the whip short of the near-impregnable stone of Tartarus. "What… what are you doing?" A cold chill seeped into his magic, and he watched as Courage's dark fur started to turn a chill white. He dispelled his lashes, having felt the one that the succubus held actually draining him.

"You attacked us!" Courage's anger was loose, and she rushed forward, only to collide with a wall of force. "No, you won't escape me! I will kill you!" She shoved that ice-blade of magic into the shield.

The Lord of the Pit raised his wings and pumped them hard. "I should have killed you when you first sat on my throne!" As he got a few pony-lengths into the air something crashed into him. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"

Corignis' face was screwed up with pain, but her wings still worked quite well. "Some buckin' clopper cut my buckin' legs off!" She dove at the Lord of the Pit again, and wrapped her wings around his hindquarters.

Screaming in agony, the Lord of the Pit felt the balefire burn him deeply as Corignis wouldn't let go. Flying as fast as he could for a pillar, he tried to ram Corignis into it to dislodge her. Turning to line up the mare with the unyielding stone, he never saw Courage coming at him.

When Courage landed on the Lord of the Pit's neck, she called up another of the monstrous forms and though she lost her sight, she had many more limbs to grab him with. She didn't have her ice to stab him, but she had magical webbing that she began to wrap around the arch-demon.

Struggling in the grip of the huge spider-pony, the Lord of the Pit knew real fear as he felt energy leeching from him. The more he writhed and fought the magical webbing the tighter it got, and the faster it drained him.

"Shhh. Shhh." Courage nuzzled against her prey. "Just relax, you don't need to see, you don't need to think." She petted over the Lord of the Pit's face, smoothing out his features and leaving him sightless. Sealing his mouth up, she drained more and more of his destiny—his power.

Corignis was shocked by what she was seeing, as Courage started to burn with power. "C-C-Courage? What are—"

Courage turned to stare sightlessly at Corignis. "He took your legs." She leaned forward and kissed her sister. "Have them back." She couldn't seem to give her sister an equal measure, but she poured as much of the power into Corignis as she could.

Shoving away from the suddenly tumbling body, Corignis beat her wings and stared down at her hindquarters. Two blazing limbs replaced the ones she had lost, burning with hot balefire. Reaching out to Courage, she laughed. "Come on. Back to succubus for you!" She caught the giant spider as Courage changed, and together they both spiraled up and landed on the stone above.

"He's gone?" Courage looked down, her eyes somehow cutting through the smoke around the lava and watched as the Lord of the Pit impacted with the liquid stone. She watched him burn for a while, before standing back up straight. "Let's go!"

"Courage, you can't." Corignis gave a sigh. "Look at yourself."

Courage cast a spell to create a mirror, and saw three proud horns leaving her head. Turning her oddly sharp eyes to her own being, she gasped. "But… how can I rule the Pit?" Her fur was chill-white, and her eyes were completely black pools of power.

Courage's eyes widened as she watched Mistress die at the tender mercy of Celeph's icy magic. She swung her head to look at Corignis. "Buckity, buck-buck! Okay, we can't do that again..."

Author's Notes:

Not the end, just what might have been if Courage fights to protect her sister with every ounce of her soul, burning it up in the process.

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So I do this "Ask x" thing, x can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and I they will definitely hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories and of course, I they will answer the best question(s) in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer, try and keep it to one answer per post! I They will pick one question per chapter. (note, the commissioner will answer questions in the comments, since this is their OC)

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