Chapter 63

The Daedalus crashed through more rock as Strong Shield continued to drive, Odio floated aimlessly around the carriage and Dave sat silently at the back of the train, his eyes staring at the mark on his arm

Strong Shield yawned as he continued to stare at the view outside, a few odd coloured rocks went by but nothing interesting besides the grey stone that the Daedalus had been traveling through for the past few hours

Odio floated over to Dave as his burning eyes stopped near his head. “Hey Dave, you alright?”

“No,” Dave moved his glare to Odio as he pulled his sleeve back down. “What do you want?”

“I just want to let you know that I have your back when we go into Tartarus,” Odio smirked. “Together we are unstoppable!”

Dave stood up, “You aren’t coming in with me”

“W-what?” Odio gawped. “I only saw a fraction of the pain that gave you that mark and you will need me if you intend to survive ten seconds in Tartarus”

The human walked through the fog as he went over to look through the viewport. “I was marked, not you”

Strong Shield sighed as he looked over at Dave. “I suggest you take Odio, you may need his help”

“I don’t need anyponies’ help,” Dave frowned. “You want me to find the vault then fine, I will”

Odio and Strong Shield exchanged nervous glances as they avoided looking at Dave. “When you find the vault, do you know what to do?”

“Put the key into the vault activation slot, wait for hatch to open then quickly remove key and throw it in,” Dave remained monotone as he continued to stare out the viewport. “I know what to do”

The Daedalus suddenly lurched upwards, sending Dave flying to the back of the train. The human used a hand to stop himself as he was about to hit the wall. He sat down as he kept his glare focused on the floor

Odio moved closer to Strong Shield, “this is definitely not good, Dave is completely… not Dave”

“I know,” Strong Shield shook his head. “I should have seen this all sooner and maybe we could have stopped all this”

“Also Dave seems to be more… repulsive,” Odio hummed

Strong Shield frowned, “I don’t think Dave’s personal hygiene has any relevance at the moment”

“No I mean his magical resistance,” Odio whispered. “When he walked through me I felt like I was being pushed aside rather than the normal feeling when he just seems to move through”

As Strong Shield was about to reply, the Daedalus raced upwards, and broke through the rock and ground, the midday sun beating the dead ground as the Daedalus levelled out and turned to face a huge black building on the other side of a wide ravine

The fortress stretched up to the sky, various spiked towers seemed to form one large canopy that were being held back by huge smooth black walls. A large archway led onto a round courtyard, a huge three headed dog sat chewing on the tail of Adamas

The diamond dragon slept as he hardly felt the smaller dog’s teeth try to bite against his hard diamond scales. He rested on top of one of the spiked buildings, his breaths slow and regular as he stood out against the pitch black background

On the other side of the courtyard was a triangular engraving with a small dot in the centre. The Daedalus slowly approached the ravine before slowly crossing the track that strung the two sides together

Strong Shield sighed as they passed under the black arch and brought the Daedalus to a halt. “I guess you would like to get some fresh air before we go in”

“And you can speak to Adamas,” Dave muttered as he walked over to the hatch and opened it, stepping out into the hot sun as Cerberus noticed the new creature ad began to run over, snarling

Strong Shield reached the hatch to see the Cerberus charging at Dave, “Look out for the blasted dog!”

Dave tilted his head to the Cerberus, his frown deepening as he saw the saliva that frothed at Cerberus’ mouth. “SIT!” he bellowed and the dog came to a halt, pausing slightly as each head looked at the human in confusion, finally sitting down

“I know the Cerberus was a pushover but I never expected it to… not actually be a threat,” Adamas yawned as he arched his head over to look at Dave. “How are you?”

“Alive,” Dave removed his trench coat as he threw it back into the Daedalus, revealing the mark that covered the back of his left arm. Adamas narrowed his eyes before sniffing slightly

“Is there something wrong with your healing?” Adamas hummed as he saw the smooth branding that was drastically unexpected for the dragon to see on the human

Dave glanced up at the dragon, “Nothing is wrong, this is just my identity tag in Tartarus”

Strong Shield sighed as he walked over to Adamas and began filling in the details of how Dave got his mark, the conversation was short lived as Dave climbed back into the Daedalus and sat by the hatch

“Are we going now?” Dave called to the black unicorn as he stared at his mark again. “I intend to get this done and out the way”

Adamas nodded to Strong Shield, “I will wait out here and will tap the roof if I see any problems”

“Thank you Adamas,” Strong Shield sighed. “I just wish it could be this easy to get Dave to forgive me”

“He knows you never wanted to get him involved,” Adamas smiled. “He is protecting you and the rest of your family, just know that he loves you really”

Strong Shield shook his head, “Maybe I should have never adopted him… I have only brought misery to him”

Adamas dipped his head as he looked at the human that sat in the Daedalus, “I wish you a good hunt during your search”

Dave waved his hand out the hatch and waited for Strong Shield to step in before stretching to pull the handle and close the hatch. Cerberus barked as the train moved slowly towards the engraving and slowly began to slide through, the wall opening as the Daedalus moved to ensure there were no gaps between the train and the wall of Tartarus

The Daedalus reached a U-turn and came to a stop, the hatch opening a final time as Dave stepped out, with Strong Shield and Odio close behind. “So… this is Tartarus?”

The outside fortress was like a giant dome that stretched across in every direction, only the dry ground beneath Dave’s feet was any sign that he was still in Equestria. A large black cube sat in the middle of the huge dome, it still dwarfed the Daedalus as it stretched higher than a church tower

“Yes it is,” Strong Shield sighed as they walked over to the smooth surface of the cube. “I have no idea how we get in”

“I thought you told me you did know something about this place,” Odio frowned

“We only got rumours that were passed around by reliable sources,” Strong Shield shuddered. “This is as close as I have ever been”

Dave felt his mark burn painfully as he looked at the large black cube. “Look after my coat, I’ll be back in a day”

“One of our days,” Strong Shield nodded. “We won’t move until you come back”

“See you in a day buddy,” Odio smiled as Dave gave a half-hearted smirk and wave before he placed his left hand onto the cube. His vision went black before restoring, revealing a black door in front of him and a black wall behind him

Dave sighed as he went through the door and instantly stepped onto a long black bridge, the void below almost seemed enticing to Dave before he pulled his gaze away and looked across the short bridge to a desk, a sheet of glass stretched around it as a humanoid figure appeared to be working

The bridge was a smooth stone with no railings to stop anypony from falling off the edge. Dave kept his cool as he walked across the bridge and over to the reception desk, a red, bird-like humanoid was tapping away at a typewriter as Dave neared the glass, the usual hopes had been drilled through so Dave could speak to the creature

“Hello?” Dave said calmly as the creature turned to face Dave, its plumage moved to reveal an almost skull head, the skin appearing to be the only thing that held the feathers to the frail body

“Can I help you?” The receptionist turned out to be female as she stared at Dave

“I uh… am here to be imprisoned,” Dave cleared his throat as the bird-lady nodded. “My name is Dave, what’s yours?”

“Eskala da’ shankrikosdalaphinskav,” The creature replied, rolling her black eyes at Dave’s gawp. “Or Esk for short”

Dave nodded as he held up his mark to the window, “So Esk, is there a door or a jailor that will take me to my cell?”

“No,” Esk looked at the mark before rummaging through a few folders below her desk and pulling out one that shared the same letters as Dave’s brand. “Alright, a little bit of paperwork… who are your next of kin?”

“Oh Noxporta is my son,” Dave nodded as Esk wrote down his answer

“Ok, what is the name of your world?” Esk rubbed her beak as she waited for Dave to respond. “And who is the ruler or rulers?”

“Equestria,” Dave awkwardly placed his hands into his pocket. “It is ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna”

Esk hummed as she wrote, this obviously was just a job to her. “Ok and what is your crime?”

“Crime?” Dave scratched his neck. “I didn’t do one, I am here to look for something”

The bird squawked as she looked at Dave, “You are volunteering? You didn’t commit genocide, create a disease, or enslave the world?”

“N-no,” Dave shook his head. “I am actually trying to protect ponies and other creatures but I am mainly here to protect my family”

“A genuinely good being coming into Tartarus?” Esk tapped her beak. “The warden would like to see you at some point… anyway, how long is you imprisonment?”

The human placed his hand back into his pocket, “One day”

“Of your days?” Esk pulled out some form of calculator but the device was a sphere and had random symbols. “Ok that equates to one year, now if you don’t mind stepping into…”

“HOLD IT!” Dave held up his hands. “Did you say one year?”

Esk nodded, “It is the lightest sentence yet, the next shortest has still got another twenty million years to go”

Dave took a step back from the reception desk. “Yeah I’m gonna go now”

“You can’t,” Esk shrugged. “You have been marked so you must serve your time, or we can add another ten years if you decide to run”

Dave glared at Esk as he considered attacking the frail looking beast. Finally the human groaned and walked back over to the desk. “Fine, where do I go then?”

“The analysis chamber,” Esk pointed to a black door to the side of the reception desk. “It will record your body and will open out onto Tartarus prison”

“Okay,” Dave took a deep breath as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. One of the walls turned red and illuminated the room in a dark glow. Two holes opened in the roof and two large pipes poked into the room

Dave stepped under one of the pipes and looked up, the dark tunnel was wide enough for Dave to fit his hand in. Moving slowly, Dave placed his hand into the pipe, feeling around for a lever or switch. Instead he felt something land on his hand, so he carefully removed his hand from the pipe and saw a small beetle crawling on his palm

“Well hey little guy,” Dave moved his hand so he could see the horned bug in better light. The beetle wasn’t much bigger than a poker chip and it had a small horn in the middle of its head. Its head separated to reveal a few small barbed tentacles that rubbed against Dave’s skin

“Oh no, don’t you dare think about!” Dave yelped as the bug bit into his hand, attempting to burrow under his skin. Dave pulled the bug off and squeezed it between his fingers, allowing the dead bug to fall to the floor

A low rumble made Dave’s heart skip as he looked up at the pipe above his head and a swarm of beetles landed on his head, some bugs poked around Dave’s hair whilst some began to burrow into his ears

Some took opportunity of Dave’s shouting to crawl into his mouth, some pulled back his eyelids and found their own way in from there. The pipes began to regularly spew out more beetles that crawled over Dave, analysing every part of his body as his attempts at brushing them aside proved futile

Dave’s body felt full of fire and pain, as every single beetle either bit his skin or tore away at his muscles. Some grouped in his stomach as they found the key in his belly, they deemed it as a foreign object and began to push the sharp metal out of Dave’s body

The human fell the floor as he shook, the key being forced out of his body as more bugs crawled in through the new wound. Biting, tearing, chewing, stabbing, cutting, crushing, analysing