9. Soul Hunter
In the night sky over Tambelon, Luna’s eyes shot open as she sensed a black presence she had not felt for nearly a thousand years – not since…
“Tirek,” she breathed, looking down. Until this moment, she had supposed herself to be making excellent progress against the shield that blockaded Tambelon – with aid from the cannons of Wingsong, she estimated that she only had a few more hours of work ahead of her to bring it down. It was far longer than she would have personally liked, but objectively, she knew that she was doing quite well.
But now, Tirek had been summoned. That changed – well, depending on what Grogar wanted from Tirek, that may very well have changed everything. Tirek could not be allowed to get loose from his prison, as no matter the state he was now in Luna had little doubt that, given free rein, he could recover his full power worryingly quickly.
Luna closed her eyes and teleported, appearing in a shimmering, midnight-hued flash on the deck of Wingsong. The crew were all dead tired – in addition to unloading virtually their entire supply of cannonballs at the shield as per Luna’s instructions, they had been keeping an eye open for a grudge-holding ancient wyrm that, while it probably couldn’t kill Luna, was certainly capable of bringing down a ship, even one as advanced as Wingsong. Nevertheless, Luna’s arrival was noticed, called out, and acknowledged with a bow from any who weren’t engaged in pressing tasks. Luna returned the acknowledgement with curt nods, but made her way straight across the deck and to the captain of the ship.
“Your majesty,” the captain said as he rose from his own bow. “What has happened?” It didn’t take much to read in Luna’s expression that the situation had changed.
“Captain, you need to get underway now,” Luna said. “Set course for Lariat at your best speed.”
The captain blanched. “Your majesty – we still have some shots left in our cannons. We can’t just abandon the Elements yet.”
Luna couldn’t hide her grimace as she shook her head, even as her horn glowed. From elsewhere on the ship, she heard a few of the crewmembers call out in surprise – overhead, the Stars were re-arranging themselves in the night sky, one in particular seeming to flare up and triple in luminosity. “Captain, I do not have time to fully explain everything. Suffice to say that your contribution, while meaningful, is over. I can take the shield down myself…but there is a strong possibility that I may now need the shield to remain up.”
The captain scowled in confusion. “What? Why?”
Luna looked back to Tambelon, and glanced up to the Star she had selected in the night sky. She readied several more. “Because if the worst happens, then it will contain the entity that has just been summoned onto the island long enough for me to destroy it.”
The captain’s eyes widened. “The entity?” he asked.
If that had been an option, Luna would have taken it thousands of years ago. She shook her head again. “The island.”
---
Celestia was more than a little confused.
Tirek was struggling against the chains that held him down. With great effort, he managed to free one arm, ripping the chain loose from the ground. The chain – which Celestia knew had been forged of orichalcum and in fires as hot as the heart of the Sun, seeing as she had in fact been the one to acquire the orichalcum and forge the chain – seemed almost a living thing, wriggling and twisting about and still pulling at his arm, trying to implant itself in the ground once more. Tirek managed to keep his arm free, however, and took a moment to collect himself. He pointed one finger at Grogar.
“I am the Lord of the Midnight Castle, the Shadow in the Soul, the Tyrant in the Pit, The Liar and the Thief, the Bringer of the Night That Never Ends – and I demand you send me back to Tartaros, necromancer!”
That demand was the part that confused Celestia – that, and the state Tirek was in, the haggard, emaciated look of what had once been possibly the most evil being in all the world, a being who’s sheer malice, if not power, may very well have surpassed that of Discord himself. Ever had he been a dire threat to ponies and the alicorn sisters both, and even when trapped in Tartaros the immortal demon had always seemed to find some way to spread his malevolence. Yet his thoughts when trapped in his native realm were always about escape – Celestia had never heard Tirek demand to be sent back to Tartaros before.
Celestia eyed the focus for the Element of Magic. Without it, in her current state, neither she nor her erstwhile allies she stood a chance against Grogar, let alone Tirek, who had always been Celestia’s equal in power. She tried to edge closer, out of Grogar’s sight and horn glowing very lightly as she tentatively reached out her telekinesis. Grogar noticed, however, and snorted, picking up the Element in his own telekinesis and repositioning himself, stepping closer to the calling circle within which Tirek was trapped. “Will you break this circle, Celestia?” he asked. “You cannot even face me. How would you fair against Tirek, once more free upon the world?”
Celestia grimaced. There was no small chance that attacking Grogar now, even if only as a diversion to try and get the Element, would break the circle. Tirek would be free, and there was a good chance that the demon was trying some kind of trick.
There was a small advantage as well, at least. Powerful as Grogar may have been, he couldn’t slay six ponies, one zebra, and certainly not the one alicorn instantly – if he got into a fight with Celestia or her allies, then there was a good chance that they might break the calling circle. Grogar would not want that any more than Celestia, as a free Tirek would have no reason to follow or aid Grogar. She stopped her advance, then, and looked up to Tirek, eyes narrowing. “You have seen better days,” she hissed.
Tirek lost his struggle with the living chain, as it lanced down into the ground and bound him once more. He struggled against it as he leaned forward, to the edge of the calling circle, glaring at Celestia with bile and hate that could have blasted the crust from the Earth had it been given physical form. “You should know, Daystar!” Tirek roared. “It was for use against you! Luna took my power – tore at my very soul!”
“You have no soul,” Celestia countered.
“I HAD THOUSANDS!”
Some aspect of Tirek’s former self returned to him as he stood fully, tearing the chains that bound his arms and horns loose. Celestia backed away, honestly not sure if Tirek was about to break free, but the demon only staggered forward, slamming a fist against the invisible barrier that the calling circle created. It probably would have been more intimidating had it not seemed to exhaust him so.
“The souls of countless creatures of the world, so many of them from your precious ponies, freely given for their own small gain!” He stamped his front hooves as he struggled against the chains, grabbing at them to try and keep standing. “Thousands…tens of thousands! Mine, all mine! And your sister STOLE THEM!”
Grogar’s blank, red eyes grew wide at that, as he glanced at Tirek. “What?” he asked.
Tirek lost his struggle against the chains again, and he was dragged back to where he had been previously, and the chains lanced into the ground and held him firm. He stopped struggling, and the look of pure hate passed from his face, replaced by one of exhaustion as the demon gasped for breath. “Luna stole them…took them from me. My property – my power – my souls! Took them and used them to fuel her battle with you, Celestia…” Tirek looked up at Celestia once more. “I saw, even after what Luna had done. I saw it all. It was beautiful.”
Celestia whickered and stomped a hoof at Tirek’s definition of ‘beauty.’ Whatever else her battle with Luna had been, it had broken Celestia’s heart to see her little sister corrupted and debased by the black magic of Tirek, and only her sense of duty had kept the pain from overwhelming her. It had not been beautiful.
“But then…the Elements,” Tirek said, lips curling. “I had so few souls remaining…so little strength…I could not recall what was taken from me, and when the Elements struck the nightmare that Luna had become to battle you…they were lost. Lost forever. Wasted, all of them, save a blasted piece of her own soul that used what little of my power she still had to become…love,” Tirek spat the last word like it was a vile curse.
One of Celestia’s eyes narrowed a moment, before she realized what Tirek was saying, and rocked backwards on her hooves, wings flaring high in surprise. “My niece!” she exclaimed. “She…she was born from you?”
“If only…” Tirek mourned. “I could have been free by now if I had such an ally on the Earth. No, alicorn. I provided nothing for the Alicorn of Love save a template that her nascent soul was forged by the Elements of Harmony to be as unlike as possible. As Discord is to the Elements, so am I to Cadenza.”
Grogar growled low as Celestia processed this information, trying to decide how she felt about it. The ram stepped even closer to the calling circle, but did not take his eyes off of Celestia for more than a few seconds as he did. “But what of my soul, Tirek?” he asked. “What of our bargain?”
Tirek tore his eyes from Celestia, looking down at Grogar. “The life-force of all of the donkeys in the city of Tambelon, and of one hundred ponies,” Tirek said. “I required one hundred ponies, not ninety-nine. I cannot be held at fault for your own inability to count.”
Grogar shook his head. “One had died the very morning of my spell. I had no way to account for that. And it does not matter – I bring you six ponies, a zebra, and an alicorn. My end of the bargain is now more than fulfilled. Give me my soul back. Or was it amongst those that were seized by Luna?”
Celestia glanced between the two, eyes narrowing. So – Grogar had sold his soul to Tirek, though what for remained a mystery. It at least said much about the demon ram – without his soul, Grogar’s emotions were largely deadened, explaining how he could be so calm when talking about the possibility of his very soul having been lost. His unusual size and build for a ram, as well, would come from his infusing himself via necromantic rituals to keep himself alive without his soul. Even with those rituals, however, Grogar should have had a much shortened lifespan without a soul; strange for a being that, if the imprinted memories that kept disturbing the isle of Tambelon were any indication, was making every effort to achieve immortality. Unless…
Celestia let out a derisive laugh as she realized. Grogar and Tirek looked at her, and she grinned humorlessly. “I understand now,” she said. “Grogar, thousands of years ago you summoned Tirek from Tartaros. You demanded the secret of power and immortality from him, and he offered it in exchange for your soul, the one transaction that has any worth to him, since one’s own soul can only be given, never taken. You agreed…and he told you how to become one of the living dead, didn’t he?” She leaned forward. “But not just any undead creature. A lich. Because of all the undead, it is the most powerful…and of all the undead, one who would become a lich needs the one thing you no longer had!”
“A soul,” Tirek said, smirking maliciously himself, for the first time since he had been called up from Tartaros – probably for the first time in centuries. “Grogar asked he be told the secret to unending life and unlimited power. I granted his wish.”
“You mislead me,” Grogar observed, eyes narrowing – his emotions were only suppressed, after all, not absent entirely. He looked to Celestia. “Though I should have expected no less from the Liar and the Thief. It did not matter. My necromancy was enough to keep me alive. All I needed was to make a new transaction – establish the price for the return of my soul.” Grogar looked again to Tirek. “Now, Tirek – do you still have it?”
Tirek’s grin dropped. “I will not bargain with you,” he said in no uncertain terms. “The souls in my possession are mine and mine alone. I will not surrender the few I have left!”
“But my soul is amongst them,” Grogar reasoned.
Tirek was silent. Grogar nodded, turning from the calling circle and horns glowing bone white as he faced Celestia and her allies, leaving the Element of Magic behind, just outside the calling circle. “I suppose I will just have to find out,” he decided.
---
Corona glanced to the ponies, spreading her wings wide, as Grogar approached, horns glowing bone-white. “Stay behind me – ”
“Forget that,” Lyra said, stepping forward and unslinging her lyre from her back, holding it before her telekinetically. “I owe this guy some payback.”
Corona’s eyes widened. “You – you stupid foal, Grogar is beyond any of you – ”
“And you’re not doing too good yourself, remember?” Trixie asked as she stepped up alongside Lyra, horn glowing azure with the gold flecks still dancing amongst it. “Maybe all of us together can at least put up a fight.”
“N – ” Corona began, but Grogar’s horn flashed then, as he said eradico, and a jet-black beam of magic lanced from the air in front of him and towards Lyra. She whinnied in fright, throwing up a shield of golden magic in front of her that was quickly reinforced by both Trixie and Corona. The lance of magic collided with the shield and shattered it, sending pain down the three’s horns, but it didn’t reach Lyra.
Corona whickered in annoyance. “Fine! Aid me if you can, unicorns.” She summoned up a golden orb and launched it at Grogar. He caught it contemptuously in his telekinesis, and seemed unsurprised when the orb detonated in a flash of light and heat. He threw up a shield of his own, protecting himself, but it bought Corona a few moments to look at the other four ponies. “This will be a spell battle. If – if – we three can batter our way past Grogar’s defenses, then you must act to keep Grogar off-balance.”
“How?” Carrot Top asked worriedly.
“Bucking him a lot, is my guess,” Raindrops answered, stretching her wings a little.
Grogar inhaled deeply, then exhaled, saying nebula ferio as he did. A black miasma appeared in front of him and rushed forward. Trixie reacted first, putting her apparent new fire-powers to use by launching a series of fireworks into the cloud. The fireworks, partially real fire thanks to Corona’s magic lingering within Trixie’s own, igniting parts of the cloud. Corona added her own fire magic a moment later, and the entire cloud burned away before it could reach them. Grogar grunted in annoyance.
Lyra’s hooves glided across her instrument, a staccato series of notes that manifested as sharp points of magic that surged towards the ram. Grogar grunted and stopped them with a shield, then stepped forward and stomped a hoof to the ground. Magic from his horns travelled down his hooves and into the floor, and the stone began to buckle and break as black tendrils burst out of the ground and reached for the ponies.
Lyra and Trixie scattered, running away the tendrils, but Corona held her ground. She sent out a solid plane of magic at her hooves that lanced through the tendrils, slicing them from their roots and causing them to collapse into black dust. The bases of the tendrils still writhed, however, and after a few moments the tendrils began to grow again as Grogar channeled more magic into them.
Trixie stopped running for a moment, setting her horn glowing and risking one of her most familiar spells. Thankfully, the fire-magic that seemed to have ingrained itself didn’t manifest as her eyes took on a blue glow. She glanced first to Corona, who was trying to strike at Grogar beyond the tendrils, but they served as a shield as much as a weapon, blocking incoming bursts of fire. The unicorn could, further, see Corona’s magical aura – it was white and gold, a blazing fire that almost hurt to look at – and had Corona been at her full strength, Trixie knew she would have been blinded by seeing the alicorn work magic.
Then again, had Corona been at her full strength, they wouldn’t have been in this situation in the first place.
Trixie looked to Grogar next. The glow of his horns may have been bone-white, but looking at Grogar casting spells, she saw that the true color of his aura was a malignant ebon hue, more a miasma than an aura that oozed forth from his being whenever he cast a spell. Her eyes narrowed a little as she tried to see past the blackness, look at how he was manipulating magic…
Grogar was not idle while she was studying him, however. Glancing at her, the necromancer raised a leg to his mouth and bit down with his fangs. Trixie started, then let out a yelp of surprise when he spat out a few drops of blood that seemed to grow to enormous proportions, washing towards her in a scarlet tide. She leaped out of the way, and the tide surged past her and splashed against a wall. She heard the stone sizzle and boil where it struck.
Lyra acted as Grogar looked to Trixie, stopping her own dash away from the tendrils, on the other side of Grogar from Trixie, and strumming a short riff as she channeled her own golden magic through her lyre. The notes came to life as a lance of pure sound, which she took into one hoof and threw at Grogar. Without looking at her, however, Grogar caught the lance in his own magic. Lyra smiled, however, drawing her hoof across every string on her lyre. The sonic lance detonated in a burst that was felt more than heard. Trixie winced at the sound, glancing away. Grogar should have been rendered all but deaf.
He wasn’t. A thin field of magic encased his body as Trixie looked back – the sonic bomb hadn’t even reached him. Grogar looked to Lyra and extended one hoof, muttering nullus facultas as he did. Lyra ducked and rolled away from the wave of black magic that came at her, but then had to swiftly get on her hooves again as Grogar’s eyes narrowed and the black tendrils redoubled their efforts at growth, surging up and launching themselves at Corona, Lyra, and Trixie.
The effort was what Trixie needed, however. Focusing power into her horn, she pulled and shaped her magic and cast it out at the tendrils closing in on her, overlaying Grogar’s spell with as precise a replica as she could manage under the circumstances, mixing it in with Grogar’s own. Trixie couldn’t duplicate Grogar’s spells – she didn’t have the power – but she could make her magic a part of them, and then pull at them as hard as she could. Like a sewn-in thread being yanked from a piece of clothing, her pulling her magic away from the spell dragged a good portion of the original spell with it. Unlike with a cape, however, the tendrils were rendered unstable by the missing magic, and the spell collapsed. By the time the tendrils had reached her, they had turned into nothing more than black dust.
Grogar seemed somewhat less concerned than Trixie would have liked at that. Corona, meanwhile, tried to seize an immediate advantage, charging forward with glowing horn at Grogar. The ram turned to meet her charge without concern, once more creating a miasma of death that swept towards the alicorn. Rather than burn it away, however, Corona’s horn flashed, and she disappeared in a burst of golden light, reappearing behind Grogar. Grogar’s own horns flashed as well, however, and before Corona could strike at him, a black shield rose around him. The alicorn gasped and retreated back several steps as the black shield suddenly grew spikes that would have skewered her if she had stayed in place.
The ram held up a hoof – the one he had bitten earlier – and muttered something under his breath as a few more drops of blood dripped from his self-inflicted wound. They fell to the ground beneath him, then split apart and expanded into a red mist that burned everything before it. He sent it swirling after Corona. The mist swirled around her first – putting itself firmly between the alicorn and the Element of Magic – before surging after her, driving her away from the Element and not dissipating until she was well away from it.
He turned to Lyra as the mint unicorn readied another spell, this one a long, held note that sent a twisting line of magic straight towards the demon ram, arching through the air like a crack in shattering glass. It struck yet another shield of Grogar’s, however, and Grogar launched a field of his own magic at Lyra. This one struck home, the first spell to do so, sending Lyra tumbling away. She tried to stand, but her right side seemed to have frozen up, locking in place so that she couldn’t move either right leg, and even her face seemed half-frozen. Her one good eye went wide, and Trixie cried out.
Grogar readied another spell to finish off the unicorn, but paused a moment, and instead conjured a shield over his head. A bare moment later, a torch landed on the shield and rolled off. Glancing, Grogar saw Ditzy and Zecora. The former had grabbed torches from their sconces and brought them over to Zecora, who threw another one. Grogar stopped it with ease, and Trixie wondered what the two were trying to do – and then realized that neither Cheerilee nor Raindrops were with them, a fact she realized only when Raindrops came at Grogar from the side, wings beating furiously to get as much speed behind her as she could. Grogar snorted in derision, horns glowing and firing a bolt of black magic. But somehow, Corona was there first, taking the blast of magic. The alicorn cried out in pain as she fell to the ground and black mist started seeping from her – but she was out of the way as Raindrops surged forward, Grogar’s eyes widening in surprise as the pegasus crash hoof-first into his face, then shot past. Grogar stumbled, but didn’t fall, surrounding himself in a complete shield to prevent further attack as he steadied himself again, teeth grit and glaring at Raindrops as she surged away. He lashed out with more black magic, but Trixie grabbed Raindrops in her telekinesis and pulled her out of the way, towards her.
Corona hoisted herself to her hooves, black miasma still surrounding her and looking like she was in a considerable amount of pain. Trixie looked to Raindrops as the pegasus landed next to her, though her wings stayed flared. They had managed to land a blow on Grogar, but he didn’t looked hurt at all, and after Trixie’s dispelling of his black tendrils spell, he kept switching the precise kind of shield spell he would summon up to protect himself, preventing Trixie from studying it too closely. Lyra had managed to struggle into a standing position, whatever spell that had paralyzed her right side gradually wearing off, but if Grogar focused on her, Trixie wasn’t sure what they could do to help her. Sheer numbers alone had been keeping them alive, and Grogar showed no signs of slowing or tiring. If they fought him for much longer, he would slaughter them.
Grogar eyed each of them for a moment, then grunted, looking towards the Element of Magic. He didn’t seem surprised – and nor, really, was Trixie – that he saw Cheerilee slinking towards it, though the earth pony teacher froze in place, eyes widening, when Grogar saw her, still a dozen feet from the Element. The ram snorted, horns glowing white.
“H-hold it!” Carrot Top exclaimed.
Trixie’s eyes widened, looking for the source of the exclamation, and finding Carrot Top quickly enough – standing at one edge of the magic circle that contained Tirek. Cheerilee had probably helped her sneak into place before going after the Element. She was, in fact, right next to the magic circle – and had one hoof raised, ready to bring it down on the circle.
Grogar’s eyes widened considerably at that, but so did Corona’s. “What are you doing?” the alicorn demanded as she struggled through the pain of whatever spell Grogar had placed on her. “If you break that – ”
“Tirek w-w-will be free,” Carrot Top stuttered, glancing at the demon, who was eyeing her himself. Carrot Top jumped a little in fright at the sight of the demon staring back at her, but then steeled herself. “B-but Luna’s right outside, isn’t she?” she asked Tirek. “Th…this shield Grogar made, it can’t last forever, can it? Luna will be here.” She narrowed her eyes and glared at Tirek, probably trying to intimidate him.
It worked. The demon flinched. Carrot Top seemed more than a little emboldened at that sight, standing up straighter. “So if I break this, you’ll just leave, right?”
“Yes,” Triek said without hesitation. “I will return to Tartaros. I swear it!”
“You can’t trust him!” Corona exclaimed desperately. “He is called the Liar for a reason!”
Grogar’s eyes narrowed as he glared at Carrot Top. “She is right,” he hissed. “He may return to Tartaros. But he will not hesitate to first slaughter all of us.”
Carrot Top withered under Grogar’s gaze, but didn’t move. “Maybe he will,” she said. “But it’s not much different from what y-you’re trying to do, save that this way, you don’t get what you want either, d-do you? S-so you’ve got two choices. Either…either surrender, Grogar…or I b-break this circle.”
Trixie paused a moment at that, looking between Triek and Grogar, then back to Raindrops, nodding towards Corona. The pegasus considered the alicorn – barely standing, surrounded by an ebon miasma, physically and magically exhausted – and grimaced, considering hard for several long seconds. At length, she nodded.
Trixie glanced to each of her other friends then, even as she conjured the illusion of a faint blue ball over Corona’s head to draw their attention and looked to Tirek. They each nodded in turn, Ditzy quickly putting distance between herself and Zecora as she did.
Trixie stepped forward once she had, steeling herself. “You too, Corona,” she said.
Corona’s eyes widened, wings flaring in shock. “Wh-what?” she demanded. “Treachery!”
“Yeah,” Trixie confirmed. “This little alliance of ours wasn’t going to last any longer than it had to. Well…” she looked to Carrot Top, then back to Corona. “We don’t need it anymore.”
Tirek chuckled from within the magic circle, grinning widely. Corona, meanwhile, sputtered helplessly. “You foals!” the alicorn cried out, stomping a hoof, though the action nearly made her fall over. “If you break that circle, Tirek will kill you all without a second thought!”
“And how’s that different from what you’d do once we’d dealt with Grogar?” Raindrops demanded. “Can you honestly tell us you were planning on doing anything different?”
“But – ”
“You threatened my daughter,” Ditzy spat, jabbing a hoof at Corona. “What did you expect us to do when this was all over? Just roll over and let you immolate us?”
Corona looked between the ponies with wide eyes, turning in place, wings flared. By now, the black miasma that had engulfed her was gone, and her mane and tail ignited into fire in rage. “Y…you cannot do this!” she exclaimed, turning and glaring at Trixie. “I helped you!” she looked at Raindrops. “I have taken blows for you!” She looked over to Carrot Top. “I saved you! I – I am your Queen! You must – you WILL obey me!”
For a few moments, there was only silence. Then Tirek chuckled again. Within moments, the chuckle had transformed into full laughter, the demon all but doubling over within the calling circle as he stared at Corona.
“What?” Corona demanded, stomping a hoof as she glared at the demon. “Why do you laugh?!”
Tirek’s chuckle died down, but his smile remained as he bowed low before Celestia, even getting on his knees to do so, and after another moment said, “All glory to the Tyrant Sun.”
Corona rocked back on her hooves as though struck, wings beating a few times in shock, though she lacked the strength to take to the air. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, but no intelligible sound came out. On seeing this, Tirek laughed again, throwing his head back as best he could with the chains around his horns.
Trixie eyed Corona, but the alicorn seemed frozen in shock, unsure of how to act or what to do in the face of Tirek, one of her most ancient foes, praising her – for reminding him of himself. Trixie instead focused back on Grogar, who had himself remained focused on Carrot Top and Cheerilee. The ram noticed Trixie’s scrutiny, however, and growled low at her.
Trixie matched his glare, somehow. “You want to live?” she asked. “That’s your thing, right? You want to survive for as long as possible. That’s not going to happen if Tirek gets free, is it?”
Grogar eyed Tirek, still laughing at Corona’s misery. But he looked past the demon’s mirth, and seemed to focus once more on Tirek’s emaciated limbs, his stooped posture – his weakness. He looked back to Trixie. “I do not think the demon is a threat to anyone anymore,” he hissed.
“He doesn’t have to be,” Lyra said. She seemed to have mostly recovered from Tirek’s rigor spell. “It took you hours to summon Tirek, right? How quickly can he go back to Tartaros – especially if you have to deal with us at the same time?” Lyra smiled. “He doesn’t have to fight you. He just has to run away. Then you’re left with nothing, save an alicorn outside who’ll be very angry if you hurt us or kill us.”
“Face it, Grogar,” Cheerilee said, speaking up for the first time since the stalemate began. She stood up straighter, eyed the Element of Magic and Grogar both, then began trotting towards it, eyes locked on Grogar the entire time. Very quickly, however, she had reached it, and picked it up with one hoof – Grogar doing nothing to stop her, instead keeping his eyes locked on Carrot Top. “Face it,” Cheerilee repeated. “You’ve lost – ”
The throne room doors were thrown open. Without thought, out of instinct, the ponies, Zecora, Tirek, and even Grogar turned to look at them – and saw, standing in the entryway, a donkey, wearing a turban with a blue gem – Bray. Flanking him were a dozen golems, though each one paused as they looking into the throne room, taking stock of the situation.
“Ma – ” Bray began.
Corona reacted first, surprising everypony as she let out a scream of fury, and charged towards Cheerilee, mane and tail once more igniting. The earth pony let out a yelp of fright, dropping the Element of Magic as she cantered away from the Tyrant Sun’s charge. She realized her mistake almost immediately and tried to dive for the Element.
Grogar acted next, making no exclamation but throwing his front hooves forward, at Carrot Top. A tidal wave of black magic launched towards the earth pony as her eyes widened in shock, and only Lyra desperately reaching out telekinetically and pulling Carrot Top away saved her from whatever spell Grogar had unleashed.
Zecora had acted at almost the same time, charging as fast as she could down the throne room and towards her queen, shooting past Grogar without a glance. Ditzy and Raindrops both tried to stop her, but the zebra was too fast on her hooves.
Grogar’s head whipped towards Trixie as he conjured a lance of black magic and sent it her way; she avoided it and fired off a series of fireworks, but Grogar caught them without effort in his magic and dispelled them.
Corona had reached the falling Element of Magic, skidding to a halt mere inches from Tirek’s calling circle. The demon had himself, at Corona’s charge, stopped laughing and let out a shout of terror, trying to back away from the charging alicorn, probably worried that the alicorn intended to slay him. She didn’t, however, instead grasping the Element of Magic in her telekinesis. She looked up at Trixie, a look of pure rage and hate, before a golden glow enveloped her and Zecora, and the two vanished – taking the Element with them, though it seemed like it had tried to linger for a moment.
Trixie’s eyes widened, as she looked back to Grogar, who was spreading his hooves wide, readying another spell. Trixie did the first thing she could think of – reached out with telekinesis and grabbed as many torches as she could, and threw them at the calling circle before shouting to her friends one word: “Run!”
Grogar’s eyes widened, and he aborted whatever necromancy he was about to attempt, instead reaching out with his own telekinesis to stop the torches from breaking the circle, charging forward as he did. By the time he had caught all of them and turned back, however, the ponies had all disappeared – turned invisible by Trixie, running past Bray and bowling over golems in their small stampede. Bray, himself, was also thrown to the ground
---
Grogar watched as Bray and the golems he had brought with him picked themselves up. Bray was groaning and sputtering as he did, while the golems dashed out in the hall, looking for any sign of the fleeing ponies. They must have spotted some sign of them, as they took off, leaving Bray, Grogar, and Tirek alone in the throne room.
Grogar growled low as he glared at Bray. “You idiot,” he hissed. “Celestia and Luna’s lackeys have escaped due to your uselessness.”
Bray’s mouth opened and closed a few times, before he threw himself to his knees and hocks. “F-forgive me, Master! I’ll go, I’ll go and get them and bring them back – ”
“Don’t bother,” Grogar intoned, turning back around to face Tirek, moving slowly up to the calling circle. “You will only fail me again.”
Bray bristled, but Grogar didn’t care as he reached the edge of the circle, looking up at once-proud, once-mighty Triek. The demon straightened, glaring down at the ram – at least until Grogar took a break, placed a hoof at the circle’s edge, and pushed it forward, smudging the paint that it had been drawn in.
The magic of the circle dissipated instantly, and Tirek roared – but not in triumph, but rather, fear. Beneath him, the stone floor of the throne room disappeared, becoming a jet-black portal to Tartaros, and the demon began to sink. His retreat, however, was arrested by a white telekinetic glow, wrapping around the chains that bound the demon and pulling.
“NO!” Tirek shouted, pointing a finger at Grogar and unleashing a lance of dark making. The magic, however, splashed harmlessly against a shield Grogar created. Tirek reached with his other arm into the portal, drawing forth from it a black, pulsing bag and trying to open it, but Grogar twitched his head and sent forth a magical burst of his own that struck Triek’s arm. The demon cried out in pain, dropping the bag and whatever it contained back into Tartaros.
Slowly, inch by inch, Tirek fighting every step of the way, Grogar pulled Tirek from the portal to Tartaros he had created. He created a lance of black magic, and jabbed it forward, into one of the demon’s arms, digging it in slowly. Tirek howled in pain.
Grogar advanced further, as he telekinetically pulled Tirek’s face down to level with his own, even as he created a second necromantic lance and slowly pushed it down and into the demon’s back. “I cannot kill you, Tirek,” Grogar hissed as he created another lance, and leveled this one with Tirek’s eye, “but I can make you suffer for as long as I have to. Until Luna gets here if I must.”
Tirek shivered in pain, eyes locked on the lance aimed at his eye. The demon clenched his teeth. “If I had the full breadth of my power – ”
“But you don’t,” Grogar hissed. “Give. Me. My. Soul.”
Tirek looked to Grogar, glaring at him for several seconds, before glancing back up, outside – at Luna, Grogar didn’t doubt. He reached out one fist, placing it over his chest, then pulling it away and opening the fist. Hovering just over it was a white orb, which almost immediately drifted forward and into Grogar. Even as this happened, Tirek seemed to grow a little worse for wear – his hair graying somewhat, his eyes sinking into his skull even more, his muscles atrophying further.
With Grogar, meanwhile, the change was much less profound – all that changed were his eyes, which gradually faded from blood-red and featureless, to turning into the normal, green eyes of a ram.
Grogar snorted, dispelling the lances he had driven into Tirek as he glared down contemptuously at the demon. “You have fallen so far, Lord Tirek,” he growled. “You have becoming nothing more than a wretched, pathetic coward.”
Tirek looked up at Grogar, then past him, at Bray. “The cowards survive,” he said, before looking back to the demon ram. “One day I will be free, Grogar, and on that day – ”
“You will do nothing,” Grogar interrupted, “for I shall have long been immortal. Now go and rot in your prison, demon.”
Tirek stared a moment, then smiled as he let the portal to Tartaros drag him back down. “Hubris,” he warned as he disappeared. The portal disappeared with him, falling in on itself like black ooze seeping down a drain, gone in moments.
Grogar took in a deep breath, then let it out, turning to face Bray and eying him. The donkey, for his part, backed away several steps in fear. Grogar growled, turning. “Follow,” he ordered. “There is only one final step before my…apotheosis.”
---
Celestia and Zecora reappeared in a forest clearing. Zecora turned to face her queen – and found the alicorn falling over, the flames of her mane and tail having gone out, the Element of Magic tumbling from her telekinetic grasp.
“Your majesty!” Zecora exclaimed, dashing forward and throwing herself beneath the alicorn, catching her before she could fall all the way to the ground, lowering her as gently as possible. When she got out from underneath her, she found that the alicorn was staring straight ahead with wide eyes, and…glowing slightly. Not with fire or heat, but rather from some internal source. She almost didn’t feel real to the touch, and her mane and tail both seemed to be pulled in a wind that wasn’t there – pulled east, the direction of the rising sun.
Zecora’s eyes darted over Celestia, unsure of what to do. After a moment, Celestia’s eyes came into focus, locking onto Zecora. “E-Element…” she breathed, one hoof feeling along the grass. Zecora instantly grasped the Element of Magic, and pressed it into Celestia’s hooves. The alicorn held onto tightly, as though for dear life, even as the pull at her mane and tail seemed to increase, and the glow of her body seemed like it was trying to follow it.
The zebra realized she knew what was happening – the teleport had taken almost everything out of her queen. Had she been a mortal pony, it would have killed her; even with her immortality to protect her, however, Celestia was being pulled back towards the Sun, her Sun, the power and glory of which Celestia could use to rest and recuperate.
Of course, that would lock Celestia way for some time – weeks, certainly, months, possibly, years…it was not out of the question.
“No, your majesty!” Zecora exclaimed, reaching out a hoof in supplications. “You have a part to play in what is yet to be! If you retreat to the heart of the Sun, then – then when the storm arrives, there is nothing that can be done!”
Celestia didn’t seem to hear Zecora, instead closing her eyes and holding the Element even tighter. “H…he lauded me…applauded me…” she breathed. “Tirek…”
“Surely you invest no belief in the proclaimed Liar and Thief?” Zecora asked desperately.
“They betrayed me, could see no difference…”
“What matter the ponies, your majesty? Their lack of faith in you is a travesty!” Zecora stepped forward. “You are the true queen of the Day! And I remain loyal, come what may!”
Celestia opened her eyes, but only to look down at the Element. Gritting her teeth and groaning, she forced herself to her hooves, accepting help from Zecora as she did. Her legs trembled like a new foal’s, her wings sagged, her head drooped, but she managed to remain standing as she glared down at the Element of Magic.
“It…it hasn’t been…been corrupted,” she said. “The…the bearers have been…but not as I had thought…” Celestia winced, closing her eyes and taking a few moments to breathe before continuing. “Th…they are not evil…they are not…not blackened by dark magic…” she looked upwards without raising her head, at the shield that encased the island, and at her sister beyond. “A…and nor has my sister been…”
“Your majesty…” Zecora began, reaching out a hoof.
A raised wing stopped her attempt, however. Celestia looked to Zecora, but seemed to be looking past her as well as she continued. “I…I have been going about this all wrong,” she said. “Th…they are misguided…like f-foals…raised by parents who know no better themselves…”
The glow and the pull on Celestia was stronger than ever. She seemed less real by the moment – almost transparent. Zecora opened her mouth to warn her queen at the danger, but Celestia seemed to realize it as she looked down at the Element, eyes narrowing.
“The…the throne is mine,” Celestia said, placing an unsteady hoof on the Element of Magic. “Mine by right…mine by responsibility. I am the rightful queen – and I shall prove it.”
Celestia’s horn glowed weakly as she wrapped the Element of Magic in her aura. “I am the eldest alicorn,” she said. “I am the rightful Queen…I am Celestia…I am the Sun!”
As Zecora watched, Celestia poured what had to be all of the scant traces of magic yet remaining to her into her spell, pressing it down and into the Element of Magic and somehow opening it. The Element glowed lavender as a beam of light shot straight up and into the sky, but the lavender beam was flecked with gold in increasing amounts – until, after only a few moments, the golden glow was all that remained.
Zecora retreated backwards several steps as heat began to rise from Celestia. The alicorn spread her wings wide as she stepped, or more stumbled really, into the light as it began to curl around her form. The grass beneath her blackened to a crisp, the air taking on an acrid smell of smoke. Celestia made no sound, however, not even when the light grew too bright to look at, the heat strong enough that Zecora had to retreat several more paces, then more, then more again.
And then, all at once, the heat and light disappeared – and, standing over the Element of Magic was Celestia. Her weakness had disappeared, her mane and tail ignited in bright orange and red flames once more, the regalia she wore shining with new light. The bruises and cuts that had adorned her body had disappeared.
Zecora stared in awe for a moment, before dropping to her knees and hocks, prostrating herself before her queen. Celestia, herself, inclined her head to the zebra.
“I did not seek thee out immediately, Zecora,” she said, slipping back into older Equestrian in the moment’s gravity. “I thought only of Grogar and his demise. This…was a mistake. Thou art my loyalist of servants. I shall not make the mistake again.”
“Never did my faith waver,” Zecora responded truthfully. “All I seek is your favor.”
“Thou shalt have it, now and forever.” Celestia turned away, and back to her sister in the sky. Zecora had little doubt that Luna was staring down as well, no doubt in fear at her sister’s restored power. “I have been acting in the wrong way, Zecora – if the throne is to be returned to me. I see that now. I was blinded by my own pride.” She looked back to the zebra, slipping back into modern Equestrian. “I should not have been gathering allies for a war. My retaking of the throne must be accomplished in one fell swoop. I must overwhelm my sister in Canterlot and Canterlot alone. I must take back the throne not in a burning crusade, but with as little damage as possible.”
She turned back to Zecora, stepping up to the zebra, magically keeping the flames on her body cool enough so as to not burn the smaller being. “The ponies don’t know any better. The bearers of the Elements don’t know any better. They are not at fault, not to blame. I should never have threatened their kith and kin, it will get me no closer to my goal.”
Zecora considered. “What then must be done, O queen of the glorious Sun?”
Celestia considered a moment, before looking through the forest, across the island, and to the city of Tambelon. “First, before anything else,” she said, taking the Element of Magic into her telekinetic grasp, “Grogar’s threat must be ended. Step closer, Zecora – and follow.”
The zebra did as her queen commanded, and couldn’t help but smile. “As you command, your majesty – so shall it always be.”
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WhoooHooo! Another chapter, and now Grogar has his soul. But what of his Phylactery?
And yet you're STILL doing his character justice.
I just hope no bargain is made with ol' Chrissy (if she even exists in this universe- I can't remember)
Raindrops came up to her own side?
hmm is corona getting better?? she seems to be slowly coming out of the crazy.
3829303 Just about to post that. Curse you for being faster than me!
*Ahem* Ditzy, you have all the win. I hope you continue to give Celestia 'reason you suck speeches' until the end of season three, because lord knows she deserves it.
Still not liking Tirek's situation. Very, very wrong to portray him like this IMHO. Great action, great spell-use. Celestia, so far to go you have.
One may argue the Element of Magic punished Sunset´s black heart by turning her into an ugly, crazy demon. She wasn´t exactly proud of herself once the Magic Rainbow cleansed her. Shouldn´t the EoM have done the same to Corona?
I'm.... still confused about Corona. Is she a good mare or evil? It seriously confuses me. I'm sorry if I'm sounding a little dumb but it is really agitating me.
It's always so lovely to see one big bad backstab another.
Now that is an awesome trick. Even if it didn't work, nice magic Lyra.
Oh good god, girls, that was not the time to break the alliance with Corona. I'm honestly disgusted with their tactical thinking and their sense of honor. For exactly this reason:
This was an opportunity to build an accord with her and they just threw it away before the fight was even won.
*reads to the end of the chapter*
Well, at least Corona took the shock of it as call to sanity instead of doubling down on her craziness. I'm a tad confused now, I thought this season was going to be Equestria building up towards a larger scale conflict with her? That seems odd if she just changed her overall strategy to not include that same large conflict.
3829821 She thinks she's good, but she does a lot of evil stuff.
3829961 Ah. See that makes sense.
So...what happened to the Element of Magic after Corona got done with it??
3831695
She probably took it with her; I'll edit that in.
3829864
It's building towards an attack on Canterlot; the point is to cement the fact that Corona isn't going to be launching a grand invasion of Equestria as a whole and campaigning province to province, etc. She's resolved to go for a surgical strike instead.
3829450
That's the idea.
3829821 she's just...complicated. Nuances and stuff.
Great chapter, RDD. It was pretty enjoyable and reads like how an action movie plays if that makes any sense.
Well that was certainly a crazy struggle. I really enjoyed Carrot Top getting to arguably be the biggest badass in the room. Sure she really contribute to the actual fight, but she still more or less talked down an ancient demon. It was also good to see Corona finally starting to understand; she's still too blind to see how far she's actually fallen for herself, but she now understands that her little ponies defy her not out of wanton rebellion or corrupt malice, but out of genuine fear.
3829566
The difference between Sunset and Corona is that for all her misguided methods, Corona's core intentions remain noble and pure. She wants to do good, she's just forgotten how. By contrast, Sunset's motive were purely selfish.
3829821 She's a good mare who's gone a bit nutters. Back In The Day, where in Maneverse Luna went nuts from nopony appreciating her, Celestia went nuts instead because she was so stressed out from the constant threats Equestria was under and turned into the most psychotically paranoid over-protective mother ever. Hence the "All Hail the Tyrant Sun" crack Tirek makes. So she's got good intentions, kiiiind of, but she has no idea how to actually protect ponies without smothering them to death, and since Lunaverse Luna from Back In The Day told her "woah you need to chill out because this is not okay" Celestia flipped out and overreacted and thought that Luna was trying to usurp her throne and therefore put all her little ponies in danger because Luna's not as strong as she was, blah blah TREACHERY, fight scene, Elements, banished to the Sun. When she first came back, all she saw in the Lunaverse Six were ponies working for Luna therefore ALSO TREACHERY therefore EVIL therefore FIGHT THEM, but as we see in this chapter she's beginning to understand that the LunaSix aren't really in the EVIL category since the Elements themselves aren't corrupted, but she still thinks Luna is TREACHERY, so the LunaSix have been upgraded to merely MISGUIDED FOALS.
Sorry if that was a bit tl;dr.
I love Lunaverse so, I can't help but want to explaaaaain.
3831976
Not entirely pure. While there is still a lot of Celestia under the surface, Corona is consumed by her pride and hubris: she is unable to see the ponies as anything else but children to be protected, ordered and punished. And of course she is the only one who can rule them properly.
3832294
"Pure" doesn't necessarily equate to "Good"; in fact, purity can go surprisingly well with insanity since it also often requires a sort of absolutist's uncompromising mentality.
Tirek:
- Demands Grogar´ soul in exchange for the knowledge to become a lich.
-Tells him he needs his soul for that.
U Mad, Gro?
I like how Celestia is getting saner everytime she is seen on action. Just a few more, Tia. You will get your sanity mended soon.
3832408 I'm imagining Tirek with a trollface and a ragefaced Grogar after reading this post.
She might not be preparing for an all-out war any longer but I know a Draconequus who is.......
3832132 Ahh. Now it's coming together. Thank you so much dude I totally get it now.
3829501
To be honest, I thought that he managed to come across as a badass. Bound and broken, he's still terrifying enough that Luna would rather colony drop than risk him escaping (and remember, Luna more than anypony else knows the condition he's in), he's established as the complete antithesis of Mi Amore Cadenza - in this universe, one of the nicest, kindest, most idealistic souls on the planet. His presence dominates the entire front half of the chapter, his release would cause enough problems to give pause to Grogar and Corona both, he manages to, with six words, all but break Corona, he apparently still has the Rainbow of Darkness with him in Tartaros, and all in all, I think he served as a great one-scene wonder that's just absolutely loaded with possibilities for down the line.
Ok, Tirek is Scared of the Elements of Harmony (that explains the fear, he is afraid to deal with them again. Especially in his current condition, what with him needing the souls of the dead to gain power if I was reading his lines correctly). I can deal with that.
I have a feeling Grogars' about to understand why you don't piss off Captain Atom/Dr. Manhattan Class beings (hint: they can F you badly even if they're not at there full strength. Half of infinity is still infinity). I mean, what fun is immortality if you can still in up in traction, age, starve, not heal fast or regenerate, get sick, or even get stuck in a coma that you can never recover from. And to top it all off, Tirek could could also strip him of his magic (all of it) and/or the ability to use magic as a final insult because Grogar pissed him off and didn't send him back. (yes I've though about being immortal a few times, and think it can be used as a punishment if done right, why do you ask?
)
I'm curious about Corona's constantly flaming mane and tail.
Psycho-magically speaking, how does that work exactly?
3833794
Well, in the Lunaverse it's been established that Luna's and Celestia's hair is, naturally, just normal hair. However when they first revealed themselves to ponies (they both significantly predate the pony species), they wanted to look all grand n' such, and so the two hit on the idea of making their manes and tails all animate and magic-y. Over the centuries they've just gotten "in the habit" of wearing their manes like that.
(It doesn't help that whenever Luna decides not to, everypony goes crazy thinking she's "losing her powers" or something, or at best think that Luna's trying to make a fashion statement and so all the nobles to emulate it stop doing up their own hair or in some cases even stop washing their hair, and in short it takes month for the smell to leave the throne room).
When she went mad, Corona changed her 'do, to the fiery mane and tail that we see most often.
It's an incredibly minor drain on their magical ability normally, but when de-powered, such as what Corona is like through most of this story, it's not with the investment and so she keeps her hair normal.
However, when Corona casts any fire spells, I think there's a kind of...let's call it a "blowback" effect that just makes her mane and tail ignite temporarily. It's a cosmetic effect. Also it looks cool.
3833851
Speaking of other ponies, why is so much about their perception of Corona still based almost entirely on myth. I'd have thought that Luna would have given the common pony the 411 on the actual situation by now.
Nice caster duel there I like the range of spells particularly Trixie's unravelling of Grogar's tentacles.
I guess Bray's just deciding on the best time to backstab his boss now, I wonder if he'll try to ally with one of the other factions, I don't think it'll work with Corona but the mane 6 might be desperate enough, although fool me once..
3832990 It's mostly his backstory, how Luna stripped him, left him a broken husk and used him like a magic mushroom from SMB. That's the big thing for me.
By the way, the only thing that angered me slightly in this chapter is that the L!6 have technically back-stabbed their ally. Now, I know that they are still enemies, but their alliance deal was to help each other in defeating Grogar. They ended it when Grogar is still not defeated with the excuse that Corona would also do it if she had a chance. From what I had seen, they are the back-stabbers.
3837416
Well, the excuse was technically that if Grogar was defeated Corona would immediately turn on them, so they felt it made the most sense to get the drop on her before then.
As for them being the backstabbers...well, yeah, they are. Because Corona really wouldn't have turned on them until after Grogar was finished.
3837727
Question: do damned souls go to Tartarus? because it would be quite the irony if Grogar´s, after Corona burning him into a crisp, ended in Tirek´s hands anyway "Well, well , well... look who is coming back"
3843446
The afterlife is something I'm not touching with a ten-foot pole. Tartaros certainly exists, but I don't want to define what, exactly, its role in the cosmology is beyond being just the place where Tirek is.
3843936
And what is Tirek, and why doesn´t have a soul and need to steal them from others?
3844055
Celestia may have been speaking in hyperbole with Tirek. As for what he is - he's a demon. What that means in the Lunverse, though, other than "a very bad thing," is going to be left as vague as possible.
And so Celestia is confronted with evidence even she cannot deny, and is forced to warp her worldview somewhere closer to sanity in order to compensate. Nothing says you need to reevaluate your choices in life quite like the local Satan analogue praising you. Personally disproving one of the key assumptions/justifications for why your enemies are, in fact, your enemies also helps.
Also, Tia did once bear the Element of Magic. Just because Trixie adjusted the seats and the mirrors doesn't make it a different car. This is probably why she hasn't been transformed into a demon who thinks a hypnotized teenage army is a good plan.
In any case, stupendous chapter. Eagerly looking forward to more. (And it's a shame you're not going to go into more detail regarding the wider cosmology or metaphysics. The planes are my favorite part of Dungeons & Dragons.)
3844285
Which is not necessarily saying that Tia doesn't think that a hypnotized teenage army is a good plan...
3846303
Wow this was an epic chapter. Sound magic does not get enough props in fantasy stories. Loved it
So Question: Celestia realizes that that neither the bearers nor the elements are corrupted, i get that. But Tirek explanation wasn't 100% clear on what went down 1000 years ago (possibly because it was from his own point of view). But Celestia Saw "Luna" infuse herself with pure evil. So my question is: Does Celestia yet realize that it was Luna's Clone that was corrupted and not her, or that at least she is "no longer" corrupted and so is just wrong, but not evil?
Wow, Trixie. Way to be a jerk.
... (hey, was that a Genesis of the Daleks reference I just read?)
3847551
Yes, she knows it now. However, Celestia was already in Tyrant Sun mode a thousand years ago, even before Luna decided to steal Tirek´s mojo. Her excuse is "ponies are misguided children".
3849792
As in:
"Everyone is wrong but me"
"I'm not mad. I'm the only sane one here"
?
3837727
Don´t forget Corona had throught Zecora, her most (and only) trusted minion under the bus to focus on Grogar. I imagine at the Six´s eyes (specially Lyra), the Tyrant Sun is not a mare who deserves any loyalty from her allies.
3897529
Don't worry, I forgive you.
Grogar, on the other hoof...
Sorry it took me so long to get to this just got my comp back form the shop and had to restore what I could.
Anyway that was pure awesome! Seriously, Tirek was in top form, even broken and drained he managed to convey an aura of menace and liquid malevolence. Grogar, and his background, were brilliant and his muted emotions and forcing Tirek to give him what's his was brilliant and shows just how adaptive of a villain he is.
Oh and the fight, also epic.
Wow, did not see that betrayal coming, that is gonna come back to bite them, even of it did help maker Corona/Celestia more sane. And that scene was utterly fantastic! Great way to get Corona back on track and to show her new goals and focus and showing off intelligence and positive traits by apologizing to Zecora and managing to absorb magic form the Elements. Great chapter!
An excellent chapter, much as I've come to expect. Tirek, even emaciated and chained, still impressively evil, with a way with words that manages to live up to his status as a Satan analogue. Excellent magical battle also.
And, yes, turning on Celestia/Corona was one of the more morally questionable calls on their parts, though all things considered it was undeniably the pragmatic thing to do. And it probably bears remembering that they were trying to extort Celestia's surrender, not necessarily looking to do something categorically worse, than delivering her to Luna. Nopony is perfect, as the Lunaverse so often reminds us.
And I thought it was a nice touch, that Trixie still turns towards Raindrops as her conscience, when it comes to these kinds of decision. With or without shipping goggles on, it shows how close those two are, and the level of trust they place in one another.
And of course, we got to see Celestia finally get hit up-side-the-head with the Truth-stick. It was nice seeing it build up to these revelations; some authors don't always pace themselves quite so perfectly with these kinds of things. Seeing her reassess the L6 the last couple of chapters, steadily starting to doubt her previous assumptions, and then hitting her with the fact that her ponies trust her about as much as they do Grogar or Tirek. That they, including her sister, outright fear her, despite her claims of just wanting to protect everypony. It hit strong, and does a good job of paving the way for more development from Celestia. Even if she won in the end, without any more of these personal revelations, she would probably still be better than she would have been, as the victor.
Ah yes, the mighty Triek; such a....misspelling.
I'm so sorry.
3832990
So, he is like King Sombra, once a very powerful villain that was a very legitimate threat, but now weakened and less dangerous. Of course, Tirek is more dangerous than King Sombra ever could have been. Damn, he is one hell of a threat...
Well then.
This is a new development.
I loved it every moment.
a being who’s sheer malice
1. Whose.