Note, a line of ~ means the transition between dimensions and perspectives.
We stared ahead at the..Thing, sitting in the path. It was large and it looked a little like a slug. It was bubbly in some spots and had a grayish goo dribbling down from its mouth. She turned back to us and ran back the watt we came. The thing at the end of the corridor sluggishly moved towards us. We looked at each other and ran after her.
Everypony got up, got dressed, and went out to the Canterlot gardens. There, Princess Celestia had told us, she would reveal a memorial to Thunder. We all walked out the door, our head bent down. We followed the long line of ponies up to Canterlot Castle and walked inside. There. we were greeted by Celestia and Luna and told us our reserved seats. We walked outside and sat down, all the while our heads bent down. I looked up when Princess Celestia cleared her throat. Everypony got quiet and watched her.
"My little Ponies, We are gathered here today in memory of our Dear Thunderstrike, who Vanquished the evil Mars's Shadow from the world forever, but sacrificing himself in the process." She said, starting her speech.
~~~~~~(|)~~~~~~
"Where are we going?" I yelled after her. She stopped and turned to me, sweat beaded on her brow. Her left ear perked up and she hid behind a pillar. She gestured for us to do the same. We did and a moment later three large guards came walking past us, leading the creature that had been previously chasing us. We waited a few more minutes after they had passed and I peaked around the corner. No guards. I sighed and stepped out. The rest of the group did the same and we started walking down the hall, me leading the way. We passed by a room with double doors in which above said; KEEP OUT. I stopped and walked over to it. I could feel a warmth coming from the inside. I pushed on the door and it smoothly opened inwards. Inside was a large window that looked over the outside. I quickly rushed over to it and gasped at what I saw. We were at the top of a large tower in a large city. The rest walked up besides me and shuddered at what we all saw. People being torn apart, creatures of indistinguishable nature, Suicides and murders everywhere. This was truly The Inferno, but not one in the Nine Rings.
"Where are we?" I heard Mercury ask.
"I have absolutely no idea." I responded. I heard a bang behind me and I spun around just to receive a punch to the face, thus rendering me unconscious. I woke up back in the ceil with all the other ponies. This time, all the ponies I was with were with me, all unconscious as well. I tapes the pony who was leaning on my shoulder, who happened to be the Pony from Night's Edge. She opened her eyes and looked up at me.
"What do we do now?" I asked, pushing her upright. She looked back at me before turning her gaze to the bars. I could see a single tear run down her face.
"I don't know. I came down here through a secret ritual that only the citizens of Night's Edge ever learned in an attempt to rescue you all. Now it looks like we're going to be tortured for all of eternity." She said, putting her ace in her hooves. I turned away from her and looked over at Mars and Pluto. Pluto was onto of Mars, who was propped up against the wall like I was. Mercury was on the floor next to the. I stood up and walked over to Mercury. I nudged him and he opened his eyes slowly. Once he recognized me, he sat up and stretched.
"Good to see your still here." He said. I nodded and walked over to Mars and Pluto. Mars opened one eye as I approached and then he opened the other. He looked down at Pluto, who was snoring softly. He lifted him up and placed him on the ground carefully. Mars looked up at me and frowned.
"I dislike The Inferno." He said. I chuckled and he joined in slightly. I sat back down and shut my eyes, heading to Dreamland
~~~~~~(|)~~~~~~
"Princess Celestia finished her speech and was giving an order to some guards, who flew off and went behind the small stage."And this statue is to remember him by." Celestia said, smiling a little. The guards pulled back on the cover and revealed a giant stone statue of Thunderstrike. The rest of the statues were made of marble, but only this one was made of stone. I wonder why? After the ceremony had finished and everypony had gone home, I sat on the pedestal of the statue, looking up at it, a few tears in my statues. I sat there for at least an hour before Marelyn came out into the gardens. She looked around and then spotted me. She trotted over to me and I looked at her sadly. She hopped up and sat next to me, staring up at the statue as well.
"I miss him as much as you do, Rainbow." She said without breaking her gaze.
"And why would you?" I asked coldly. She looked down at me like I had forgotten something.
"He was my brother you know." She said back, just as coldly as I had. Guilt built up inside of me as I remembered Thunder telling me about her and how she was his sister.
"I'm sorry, I forgot." I said, my ears drooping down and a few tears dropping from my eyes. Marelyn reached over and put a hoof on my back. I looked up at her, and she was smiling warmly at me, a few tears in her eyes. I looked back down and sighed.
"Why did he have to do that?" I asked aloud.
"it was the only way." Marelyn replied. I looked at her and smiled wobbly.
"Theres always another way." I said.
He just wouldn't stop coming. I kept running as fast as I could but he always caught up. I looked behind me to see those same white eyes staring at me through the trees and then quickly disappeared. I turned and ran through the dark trees, splashing mud and grim up into my face. I just kept running, never stopping, never breathing, never looking back.
I woke up with a jolt to find myself alone. I looked around, but only saw the empty ash floors. I turned to my right to see where Mars had been and saw that nopony was there at all. I tried to stand, but found it excruciatingly difficult. I looked down at my body to only see nothing. I now felt around me and felt invisible shapes. I felt the shape of Mars and Pluto and Mercury and other ponies. I slapped myself across the face and my vision returned to normal. I looked up only to see a small needle in a small hole in the ceiling, and the needle was empty. I turned back to Mars, who was now fully awake. He was actually next to the bars of the prison that overlooked the rest of the Inferno. I trotted over to him and stood next to him silently. When I spoke, I startled him slightly.
"I wonder what happens if we start a rebellion." I said. Mars looked at me with that look like 'Idea arising, listening'.
"As in, what were to happen if everypony in this prison rose up and fought against the guards?" I clarified. Mars looked back through the bars out at the massive lake of lava that was there. I turned out to face the lake when I saw two guards, asleep and leaning against the walls. I looked at a few more, who were drunk.
"I'd say it would be pretty easy." Mars said. Mercury walked up behind us and stood next to me.
"It does seem easy, but the hard bit will be telling everypony without alerting the guards." He said. We all looked over the landscape before somepony spoke.
"What you need is a messenger." A very young sounding voice said behind us. I turned around and saw a white filly pegasus with flat red mane and tail. She looked up at me with a sort of thieving look.
"How much did you hear?" I asked, looking at her seriously.
"Enough to know what your planning." She said with a shrug.
"Fine then, go tell everypony the news and do it quietly. Make sure no guards hear about it. And also tell them the signal is me walking to the door." I said, pushing her to the nearest crowd. She flew over there and talked to them in a half whisper. I saw them nod and she bolted to the next group. Pretty soon the whole room was quiet. I nodded and walked to the door. I knocked on it and a very drunk guard opened it.
"Hey you… Get back in der. No chocolate..cream-puffs." He said, falling over in a drunken stupor. I glanced behind me and shrugged. I then walked out the door with the rest of the prisoners following. I stepped over the guard, drawing my sword. I picked up his sword and tossed it to the nearest pony. He caught it and looked at me with a 'I do as you command' look. He was a light grey earth pony with a dark blue mane. His cutie mark was a hammer. I nodded and walked down the hall, the rest of them following. I saw Pluto leading about two dozen fillies and colts and I smiled. Pluto, already leading a group, how wonderful. I turned my gaze forwards and saw two buff guards running towards us. I turned around and nodded to the pony with the sword and we rushed over to meet them. I slashed at ones arm and felt skin and bone ripping. I then spun around and cut off the others hoof.. I then impaled the first one and spun around only to receive a mace in the arm. I grasped my hoof in pain and saw a sword slide out of the guards middle. I watched him fall over and in his place was the other pony. I nodded and ordered another two ponies to take up the guards weapons. A purple pegasus and a grey earth pony picked them up and nodded. I beckoned Mercury over and leaned close to him.
"Gather the unicorns and use them as a ranged support." I whispered. He nodded and turned back to the crowd.
"All unicorns over to me!" He yelled, waving his hoof around. several unicorns and about three alicorns walked over to him. I walked over to the alicorns and told the to pick up the next weapons. They nodded and stood in the crowd just like everypony else. I marched forwards, my army walking behind me. We gained a little speed and stopped at a are crowd of guards at the end of the corridor. They turned to us and raised their weapons, but out them down when an alicorn came out. he was wearing what looked to be a captains uniform. He stepped forwards to me. I was a tad bit taller then him.
"What do you want." I spat. He simply ignored my bad attitude.
"I would ask to know the meaning of this rebellion." he said.
"Freedom." I said blandly.
"Well, I'm afraid you can't have that." He said, turning back to his guards. "Guards, atta-" He started, but I stabbed my sword through his chest. He gurgled a little and slid to the ground. I looked up at the guards, and they were ready for attack. They leaped forwards and I simply stepped back.
"Unicorns!" I shouted. They walked out in front of the crowd and aimed their horns at the guards. "Ready. Aim. Fire!" I yelled. They released a mass of magical energy, literally turning the battalion of guard into dust. I flew up to the top of the guards. "Alicorns, take these weapons. The extras hand out to everypony." i said. The three alicorns stepped out and began to scavenge a few weapons. (Only the guards were turned to dust, not their weapons and armor.) They stepped back and revealed a small pile of weapons and armor. I grabbed am iron chest plate and slipped it on. At least I was as big as the guard that wore this. I picked up a few weapons and handed them out. I gave a copper chest plate to the pony who I had given the first sword to.
"Never caught your name." I said to him as he slid it on.
"Silver Lights, Sir." He said.
"Well Silver, You are my new general." I said. He smiled a little.
"Thank you, sir."
"Please, Call me Thunder." I said calmly.
"Then Thank you, Thunder." He said, trying to hide a smile. I walked over to one of the alicorns, who was slipping on some wing armor. He turned to me and smiled.
"So what do you have planned?" He asked, flexing his wings powerfully.
"I have absolutely no clue." I said honestly. He looked at me and smiled a sly one.
"Your just making it up as you go along then? He asked, chuckling.
"Exactly." I said, walking over to the next alicorn. She was moving a large mace around, inspecting the spikes and the handle. She looked up when I approached.
"Hello commander. Inspecting alicorns are we?" She said in a very british accent.
"Yep, and your the second one." I said. She glanced up at me, also putting on wing armor.
"Well, I can tell you this much; This is probably the most fun i've had in centuries." She said, smiling. I smiled back and walked over to the last one. He was, by far, the largest and meanest looking one there. He stood mush taller than I and had an eye patch on one eye and a bandana over his head. He was a dark olive green and he had a scruffy grey mane and tail. He had a beard and was smoking a pipe. He glanced down at me with his good eye and smiled.
"Why, if it isn't our great commander. What brings you over here?" He said. He had on a very heavy looking bronze chest plate and bronze wing armor.
"Alicorn inspection. Your the last." I said, my voice sounding slightly superior. He took notice of that and frowned.
"I can see why." He chuckled, his frown vanishing. He burst out into a small fit of coughing and quickly after regained his senses.
"i'll leave you to that." I said, turning around and walking into the crowd. I could see the two ponies who I had given weapons next. They were both wearing guard helmets and chest plates. I passed by them, only glancing at them, looking them up and down. I walked back to Silver and he turned to me.
"What now?" He asked. I turned to the crowd of Ponies and flew up into the air.
"Follow me!" I shouted at them. They all stopped talking and walked down the hall after me. I smiled to myself before finding Mars and Mercury. Mercury was wearing a chainmail vest with an iron chest plate over top. Mars was wearing a large iron chest plate and he was also wielding a giant bastard sword. I beckoned both to the front and they obeyed. I landed in between Mars and Silver. I glanced behind me to notice Pluto holding a knife in his mouth, and following him were about 40 fillies and colts.
"Pluto's got his own army." I thought. I turned back ahead to notice a pair of giant double doors. They were made of stone and I could see they used a pulley system activated from very high up. I looked at the massive amounts of guards surrounding the door and the control room. I flew up a little and looked behind us. I could see several guards galloping towards us.
"Back four rows! About face!" I yelled. They did so and instantly grew fearful at the amount of guards that had amassed behind them. There were about 30 of them. I turned back around and drew my sword.
"This is going to be fun.