Together, Tirek, Grogar, and Twilight traveled deeper into the bowels of Tartarus, passing through large caverns, across bridges, some built over great chasms and others over blazing rivers of lava, beyond wide plains of burning red sand and rock, and even a few steep canyons here and there.

Twilight had never been told much about what Tartarus was actually like back when she was alive. The only real explanation she'd gotten was from her mother back when she was even younger than she was now. She'd told her it was some kind of dark prison for monsters and ponies who did bad things. She'd told her the prisons were guarded by all kinds of nasty demons who would devour you or suck out your soul.

While she'd gotten the part about demons right, Twilight now realized how little her mother had really known about Tartarus. Now that Twilight herself was actually here, she was amazed at just how vast a place it truly was.

"It's like a completely different world," Twilight had muttered in awe as the group passed through a dense forest of twisted, leafless white trees, "everything is so... weird looking."

The soil beneath Twilight's hooves was a deep maroon color, and the air around them all was thick with a mist she could barely see through. Every once in awhile the undead filly thought she spotted large shapes darting in and out of the trees they passed. At this point she'd more or less accepted the fact that she'd probably be fine if she got attacked, but all the same she stuck close to Grogar as they trotted along.

"In many ways, it is a different world," Tirek explained, "it's said that untold eons ago, when the universe was yet young and the True Gods walked among mortals, Tartarus was an infernal prison meant to contain and torture for all eternity the Gods who'd fallen to corruption and attacked their kin.

"Somewhere along the way, a catastrophic event caused an anomaly that warped time and space. The anomaly somehow twisted and expanded a simple prison into what you see before you now... or so the story goes," he shrugged, "I personally think it's nothing more than a myth myself."

"Wow," Twilight muttered, fascinated by the tale, "what are the 'True Gods'? Who were they?"

"No one really knows for certain," Tirek replied disinterestedly, "supposedly beings of nearly limitless power and boundless wisdom. I doubt they truly existed; I'm sure they'd still be around if they were as almighty as the stories say."

"Who's to say they aren't?" Grogar added with a small smirk, "I am not overly fond of humans, but in taking some time to learn more about them, I stumbled across a saying I rather am fond of."

"Pah... humans," Tirek snorted in disdain before raising an eyebrow at the ram, "and what intriguing little nugget of wisdom did the humans have to offer?"

"Truth is hidden only to the masses who are not inquisitive," Grogar replied, "what you believe to be a myth may in fact be a truth that exists beneath your very nose. You need only search hard enough and in time, you may find not all is as it seems."

"...There is some merit in that statement I suppose," Tirek conceded after a moment's thought, "after all, Tartarus is a world with its own rules and secrets. To those who know and obey those rules, such a place can be merciful," the centaur turned and gave Grogar a challenging look, "but those foolish enough to break those rules and covet those secrets don't tend to last very long."

"So you say," Grogar replied evenly, "but given the current state of Tartarus, I doubt there are very many rules left to break. I see little harm in seeking out the hidden truths of this land so long as one is sufficiently prepared."

"Grogar my friend, as long as there are demons that roam said land, there will continue to be rules and secrets," Tirek replied easily, though he gave a defeated sigh a moment later, "but you're not entirely wrong either. These days naught but the wildlife wander the infernal planes of Tartarus, and they outnumber us demons by a fair amount," he shook his head sadly, "things most certainly aren't what they used to be."

Listening to the two adults, Twilight once more found herself feeling slightly left out of the loop. She could follow along with the discussion well enough, but felt she had nothing meaningful to contribute. Even if she had, she also felt as though she'd just be intruding like some unwanted guest at a party.

It left a bitter taste in her mouth, but she consoled herself with the fact that Tirek and Grogar seemed to have a lot of history together. That, and she'd gotten to hear a bit more about the 'humans' she'd been so curious about before. Apparently the centaur had also been aware of their existence, but if Tirek had been around as long as Grogar had, then it may not have been that much of a surprise.

"That reminds me," Grogar mused, his red eyes tracking another shadow as it shot out of the trees and zipped past his line of sight before vanishing back into the trees once more, "the creatures of this land, they were all spared from the attack of this Voracious Nightmare?"

"The fauna of Tartarus hold no sapience and have little capacity for the type of complex emotions needed to sate the Nightmare's hunger," Tirek answered, "they are—or rather were—a meal that held no interest for it," a wry smile crossed his face, "...that, and we kept the abomination rather busy. It spent most of its time either feeding on demons, destroying everything in its path, or trying to flee while fending us off."

"I see," Grogar replied, "and without the demon population to keep them in check, the creatures no doubt slowly began to take over the upper levels of Tartarus."

"It seems so," Tirek agreed, "but that hardly poses any real problem, and it's something we can deal with once our own affairs are in order."

"My mom told me once that Tartarus was full of horrible monsters, and I've seen a bunch of them," Twilight said as they finally moved out of the strange misty forest and towards a narrow, twisting pathway with a large drop off on either side a little further ahead. She looked behind her to see several pairs of burning green eyes past the treeline, watching them go and frowned, "but none of them tried to attack us so far."

"Contrary to what you might believe," Tirek replied with a passive look towards the disappearing gazes of the unseen beasts in the forest, "many of the beasts that wander the depths of Tartarus are opportunistic cowards who only attack those that are weaker than they. If they sense someone or something more powerful, they'll keep their distance."

"Oh," Twilight muttered, "I guess that makes sense."

"Count yourself lucky that Grogar is here to keep them at bay, filly," Tirek chuckled, "without his presence, I'm afraid you and I would see no end of trouble from those creatures."

"Wait," Twilight replied, looking up at Tirek with a bemused frown, "so does that mean they attacked you on the way to where we were? How did you—"

"Enough," Grogar exclaimed with a hint of annoyance in his voice, "Tirek, despite what you've told us, this trip has taken well over a few hours. Where is this portal to the lower levels?"

"Oh, not far now," he replied, nodding towards the upward sloping path, "in fact, it's at the end of this path. At the peak of this slope is a ruin. Inside that ruin is the portal we seek," he sighed wistfully, "it was a rather grand structure once, you know. Designed by some of the best architects demonkind had to offer centuries ago."

"Really?" Twilight asked curiously, "what happened to it?"

"The Voracious Nightmare happened," Tirek answered bitterly, "demolished the entire thing in its rampage across Tartarus."

"Oh," Twilight's ears drooped as she looked from Tirek to the rising path ahead, "I'm sorry about that."

"It doesn't matter," Tirek replied with a dismissive wave of his withered red hand, "what's important is that the portal to the lower levels within is still intact and usable."

For a time, no one spoke after that, each lost in their own thoughts as they made their way up the winding slope. Throughout their trip, Grogar had occasionally sought out potential souls for future harvest. While he'd found plenty scattered about, there were still far less than he'd been expecting or hoping for.

Still, what he did find would suit him well enough. There were plenty of powerful demon's souls amongst the weaker ones, and if he played his cards right and gathered the proper materials, he could use those souls to create equally powerful thralls—loyal undead grunts, shades, and golems just to name a few.

With some time and a great amount of effort, he'd be able to create more undead creatures similar to Twilight, but remaking Twilight into what she was now had been no easy feat. Aside from that, Grogar wasn't sure creating another lich like Twilight would be a good idea. Many ages ago, Grogar had seen firsthoof what came of having too many liches in one place at once.

It was utter madness of the worst kind, and the demonic ram had no desire or intention of bringing that upon himself. No, even if he were to make more creatures similar to the filly, Twilight Sparkle was a special case, and he'd make sure the filly remained his most powerful asset.

It wasn't until they were all about halfway up the path that Twilight saw their destination. She could see the beginnings of what looked like a small temple surrounded by marble pillars. Tirek hadn't been lying about the state of the structure, much to Twilight's horror and amazement.

The entire temple—or what remained of it at least—was made of what looked like polished white marble, with many of the pillars surrounding it either broken or missing completely. The roof of the building had been wholly destroyed and lie in pieces around the structure.

To Twilight, it looked a bit like a citadel rather than a temple, but it wasn't nearly large enough to be called such. Looking at the structure, she reminded of the ruins of ancient Álogoan acropolises she'd seen in photos and sketches of history books. She was no historian, but the filly found her academic curiosity piqued by the ruined temple all the same. She thought about the portal within and wondered what it would look like.

That in turn led her to think about what lie at the other end of the portal. She frowned as she thought about the remaining demons that lived in the lower depths of Tartarus—wondered and worried about what they would be like. Eventually her curiosity and concerned pushed her to ask Tirek a question that had been at the back of her mind for awhile now.

"Hey, um... Tirek?" Twilight began, only speaking again when she saw she had the centaur's attention, "you said there was somepony... someone that wanted to meet me before. Who was it that wanted to see me? It's not someone I know is it?"

"I very much doubt that," Tirek replied with a hint of amusement in his tone, "she's a demon with a particular interest in ponies, and even among the vast variety of demons that exist—well, existed, she's a rather... unique character."

"Oh?" Grogar said, raising an intrigued eyebrow, "how?"

"Well... how to put this..." Tirek paused and hummed in thought. After a moment he chuckled and shook his head, "I think it's best you both see for yourself. Just know that despite her appearance and... mannerisms, she's not at all what she seems."

Twilight looked towards Grogar with a bemused frown, but the ram seemed lost in his own thoughts as he trotted along besides the centaur. Another long moment of silence followed as the group made their way up the rest of the slope. As they neared the temple, Twilight could see that the damage was far more extensive than she realized.

From the look of it, there'd been a double door attached to the entrance, but that now lay in pieces off to one side, and the wall around the entrance had given way, making a wider hole for the group to enter through. Much of the left wall of the building had crumbled and was nothing more than a pile of rubble. Twilight could see the actual interior through several gaps where the stonework had been destroyed, and all of them had to step over or around the debris of crushed or fallen marble.

As they passed into the ruins, Tirek grimaced at the sight, but said nothing. Grogar looked around with mild interest, and Twilight simply counted herself lucky she hadn't encountered whatever had done such drastic damage. The inside of the ruin was far more sparse than either Grogar or Twilight was expecting.

The entire floor was made of what appeared to be the same polished black stone as the strange door blocking the entrance to Tartarus. As Twilight trotted across the room, the stone echoed oddly beneath her hooves. She didn't know how, but Twilight knew this wasn't any ordinary stone—not obsidian or onyx or any other kind of dark stone the filly could think of. There was something otherworldly about it, even here in Tartarus where everything seemed otherworldly.

Though there was no longer any roof covering the interior, the atmosphere inside was horribly different than that of the world outside. Something in the air made Twilight's horn tingle uncomfortably, and she had a sneaking suspicion it was the stone beneath her that was the source of this eerie aura that pervaded her senses.

Aside from some more debris that had fallen inside the temple, there were a few steps leading up to a large raised square altar in the middle of the single room. The whole set up reminded Twilight of the Ritual Chamber in Grogar's castle when it only had the altar placed within it. The biggest difference aside from the setting was the massive rectangular slab of black stone standing upright near the back of the altar.

At first glance there seemed to be nothing atop the platform, but as they neared the altar, the filly could see several runes forming a complex circular sigil carved into both the upright stone slab and the platform below. Though the magic circles looked somewhat crudely etched and the entire altar itself simplistic in design, Twilight could feel the raw power emanating from it.

"So this is it then, is it?" Grogar commented, eyeing the altar with an inquisitive frown, "this is the portal that will take us to our destination?"

"It is," Tirek replied, moving ahead of the other two and making his way up the few steps to the altar, "it may not look like much—especially now given the circumstances, but the portals scattered across Tartarus have been enchanted so heavily that nothing short of the complete annihilation of Tartarus itself would be enough to destroy them, and even then I still have my doubts. It'll still get us where we need to go just fine, no need to worry about that."

"How does it work?" Twilight asked as she and Grogar joined the centaur on the altar. She eyed the carved runes below with a curious eye, then turned her attention to the surrounding floor about her, "does it have something to do with this weird black stone the floor is made of? It doesn't feel... normal," she turned back to Tirek, who stood between her and Grogar, "are you using it as some kind of catalyst or conduit for the magic needed to activate the portal?"

"An astute observation," Tirek answered with an impressed nod, "the entire floor is made of a stone that was once only found in the deeper pits of Tartarus. Though I'm unsure of how the outerworld was exposed to it," he paused, humming in thought, but shook his head and continued on a moment later, "in any case, I'm sure you're familiar with the nullstone you ponies use to use to create the horn rings that cancel out a unicorn's ability to channel their mana?"

Twilight nodded and Tirek swept a hand across the room.

"Here in Tartarus we call it manastone, and it functions quite differently," Tirek continued before turning to the large slab of stone, "magically, manastone is similar to demons in that it doesn't take too well to Equus's thaumic field. When it comes into contact with it, its reaction is to reject the field entirely, thus voiding the mana around it within a certain range."

"If that's the case," Grogar asked with a slightly bemused frown, "why not harness the power of this manastone to aid you in traversing the outerworld? If it negates the thaumic field, then it should be no problem."

"We've already tried," Tirek replied, shaking his head slowly, "in theory it's plausible, but the execution has proven difficult. For one thing, the manastones are much less effective as nullstones than they once were in the past, most likely due to the drastic shift in the thaumic field over the ages."

"This is true," Grogar agreed, "the mana has become something else entirely from what it was in the past, so that may very well have caused some problems."

"It has," Tirek explained, "we've tested the effects of sending a demon out into the deadlands with a manastone," his expression turned grim, "whereas a normal demon would dissolve in a near instant from exposure to Equus's thaumic field without a manastone—or nullstone in this case, having one no longer completely prevents that."

"What happens then?" Twilight asked worriedly, "is there some other effect?"

"In essence, with the nullstone in hand, the demon suffers in a manner not dissimilar to dying a slow and painful death from a fatal poison... as the demon we sent out into the deadlands found out," Tirek answered with a disappointed sigh, "my guess is that over the many years we've been asleep, the thaumic field has shifted to something much closer in nature to what is found in Tartarus, but it's not enough to ensure our survival."

"So..." Twilight surmised, "does that mean if you waited long enough the mana would change enough for Equestria to be habitable?"

"Indeed," the centaur replied, "but estimates show that would not happen for another few thousand years or so, and none of us desire to wait that long."

"A pity," Grogar commented idly.

"Indeed," Tirek replied.

He sighed again, trotted forward, observed the slab for a moment with a slight frown, and placed a hand on a small section devoid of any runic carvings in the middle of the stone. As he did so, Twilight felt something in the air shift slightly. One of her ears twitched at the sensation and she looked around in bemusement, but Tirek seemed to pay it no heed—all his attention focused on the stone in front of him.

"And while we're still on the subject of the manastone, I'm guessing it has a more beneficial effect here, correct?" Grogar guessed, watching the centaur's actions with interest, "from the feel of it, it seems as though the stone is absorbing the ambient mana of Tartarus..." he looked over the runes, the carvings on the platform and stone slab now glowing a soft red in color, "...and all these runes are meant to redirect that stored mana to the sigil."

"Partially correct," Tirek replied, speaking a little louder over the growing hum of the activated runes, "the runes below are meant to power the portal, and as you'll witness in a moment, these runes above are meant to activate the 'gate' to the lower levels of Tartarus."

As he spoke, the circle of runes on the slab flashed bright red and the hum became a roar. Tirek removed his hand and stepped back just the glowing circle of runes on the slab began to spin with gradual rapidity. A moment later the circle began to expand until it stretched past the corners of the slab. After a certain point it stopped expanding, and with another bright flash of light, Twilight found herself looking into another landscape altogether.

The complex runic circle had become a gateway, and beyond that Twilight could see the gate led to another altar made of black stone. Rather than another temple however, the altar stood at the top of a large, steep rocky hill dotted with blackened, withered trees. A bit of the ground past the altar was made of the same black stone, but further ahead the black stone gave way to a dizzyingly long set of winding stone steps. The steps led down to what appeared to be a small village or hamlet of some sort.

Twilight had to squint slightly from the light of the burning red-orange sky above, but she could just make out something odd about the collection of buildings far below. The filly having long been used to the constant pitch blackness of the sky over both the upper levels of Tartarus and the deadlands that had once been Equestria. As if to make up for this, the clouds—something Twilight hadn't expected to see—were black, flat and lifeless.

Like everywhere else Twilight had been, there was no sun, moon, or stars to speak of, only the black clouds and burning sky. Further in the distance was a tall mountain range that cast part of the hamlet in front of it in a somewhat eerie shadow, the origin of which confused the filly, as there was no sun behind the mountains to cast the shadow.

The clouds drifted lazily over the buildings below, and Twilight let out a gasp as she finally noticed what had felt off about the hamlet. Like the now destroyed temple they entered, the structures in the hamlet were made of stone, though she could see some wood and brick houses as well. As a whole, the design of the buildings were also reminiscent of ancient Álogoan architecture, adding a bit of fascination and curiosity to Twilight's initial shock.

Another thing some of the buildings shared in common with the temple was that more than a few had been utterly leveled by some horrible force of destruction. Upon closer inspection, the undead filly though she could also see a few shapes moving about between the ruined buildings, but couldn't tell for certain from such a far distance.

Without a word, Tirek stepped through the gate and into the world beyond, Grogar quickly following after. Twilight hesitated a moment before following them both out a moment later. The air was noticeably warmer here, and looking above, Twilight wondered why the skies of the lower levels of Tartarus were brighter than that of the levels above.

Looking back down at the hamlet, Twilight was reminded of the view of the ruined city of Tambelon from the cliff near Grogar's castle. Now that she thought about it, there'd been many things in Tartarus that had reminded her of Grogar's fallen kingdom. Before she could read too deeply into that, her thoughts were interrupted as Tirek spoke, the centaur turning slightly to face his two guests and sweeping a hand across the valley below in a grand gesture.

"Welcome the both of you, to Lýkos Valley, our base of operations here in the depths... for the time being at least."

Sorry for the delay, I had the ideas for the chapter, but was having trouble executing those ideas properly due to a bit of writer's block. Also, for those who were wondering, Álogoa is the pony equivalent of ancient Greece (Álogo being the Greek word for 'horse').