Crazy, Clever and Cunning

by Fresnor

Tirek

It was a rather nice day which was made even better due to a visit from Derpy. I had finally gotten a reply from Professor Do and I was quite eager to see what she had to say. I had tried finding information about Sionnach but there wasn’t even a hint of where it was or who ruled it. Even the names of the two other rulers named on the stone yielded nothing. I would have thought that I would have found some hint at the least of one of the three names that I learned but instead I found nothing. Even the language that I was prevented from speaking was an unknown which led me to believe that either the information I was seeking was so old that it was completely lost, or that someone had worked hard to erase it all.

Still the message from the Professor was awfully light so if there was anything related to my research then there wasn’t much. I dropped the letter off in my study before stopping by the kitchen for a drink and a snack. I noticed that I was running low on the chocolate cherry cordial cupcakes and made note to get Pinkie to bake up another batch for my personal stash as well as some decoys to keep others out of it. Returning to the study with my drink and snack floating behind me I took a seat and levitated over the letter to find out what the Professor had to tell me.

Dear Flarenza,

It’s always good to hear from another explorer even if they are just starting out. In regards to your inquiry I am sorry to say that I don’t have much more information regarding this Sionnach place you mention though I do have something that you may be interested in still. Your mention of pre-Discordian timberwolves reminded me of some ancient diamond dog ruins I was exploring many years ago. There were many carvings of feral wolves on many of the walls but what caught my interest was a wolf statue made of wood. There is a possibility that it may have been one of those timberwolves that you mentioned which suggests a link between them and the diamond dogs at one time. Unfortunately the ruins are no longer in any condition to explore due to an incident with some undesirables. While I am interested in these ruins you mention I will respect a fellow explorer and leave them to you. I personally prefer being out in the further corners of the world so I never thought to search the Everfree for lost ruins so I wish you luck in your endeavors.

Signed,
Professor D. Do
Equestrian Museum of History
Manehatten

P.S. You may wish to avoid mentioning me in Ponyville as there are a few overzealous fans living out there. Also my cousin mentioned how nice you are so please take care of her if you see her.

I wasn’t expecting much but the little bit she knew actually helped me more than I expected. The fact that the diamond dogs were linked to Sionnach means the there was a lot more information that I could search through at each den that they held. Of course finding them would be a problem but from the one I already knew about there was a very high chance that I would be welcome at any I do find.

I try to decide what to do next with this information as I put the letter away. I never did think to look too deeply into the diamond dogs beyond the little I needed at the time so I wasn’t sure how much information there would be on them. I decided to head over to the library to see what was there before searching elsewhere as Twilight often had a decent variety of information.

When I arrived there any thought of research went out the window as I walked in on a pacing and ranting Twilight. “Smile and wave, smile and wave, that’s all I ever do, then when something actually does come up instead of coming to me the princess instead goes to Discord of all ponies.” I can already see that Twilight had been at this for a while as Spike was practically ignoring her now. I did wonder what was going on as Celestia was more likely to deal with me than she was with Discord and that was still unlikely.

Deciding to avoid any unpleasantness for now I sneak around to Spike who is still oblivious to everything around him. “So Spike, do I want to know what’s going on now or should I just be ready to run for safety soon?” I wonder at the wisdom of startling a fire breathing being as Spike jumps and lets out a gout of flame sending the scrolls in his claws off to wherever. “What?! Oh Flarenza, yeah she’s in that kind of state again. Something about Discord being sent off to find whatever is out there draining ponies of their magic since his chaos magic can sense it.” I shake my head at this as Twilight would normally have seen the wisdom of this. I’m guessing the problem is more in the first part of her statement though I wonder what is draining ponies.

We sit there watching Twilight just pace around the library waiting for her to calm down. Of course we know that it’s unlikely that she will snap out of it herself any time soon so we argue back and forth on the best way to do it for her. We settle on a bucket of water though I decide to chill it down to icy levels before Spike empties it over Twilight’s head. “GAH! COLD! Spike, what was that for!” Twilight glares at Spike as she shivers from the freezing water while Spike glares at me for freezing it in the first place.

It was only with Spike glaring at me that allows Twilight to notice that I’m also in the room. “Wait, when did you arrive, Flarenza?” I sigh in frustration at how oblivious she can be at times. “I showed about ten ‘smile and waves’ ago. You went on about that more than you did about Discord being given work to do.” Twilight blushes at this but doesn’t try to deny it. “Well it couldn’t be that hard to find where Tirek is with how often he is draining ponies.”

I raise an eyebrow at the name Tirek as it was one I wasn’t familiar with and, from the way Twilight brought her hooves up to her mouth, was one I wasn’t supposed to hear. “True you might be able to find him but Princess Celestia has those trained to do exactly that but have failed. If she asked Discord to search because of his magic there’s probably another reason for it beyond the obvious.” I think for a moment and come up with a possible idea. “His chaos magic is probably the best defense as well from being drained. Putting the harmony magic of ponies with chaos magic is really a bad idea.”

Twilight cocks her head to the side a bit as she contemplates what I said. “But don’t you use both kinds of magic? Why would it be a bad idea to mix the two?” This gives me a moment of pause as she is right to an extent though I had not yet tried using the two in tandem. “You know I’m not really sure how I can do that yet, I’ll have to look into that later. But you’ve seen what happens when the two are mixed which I’ve done twice now. The event in Manehatten and my underground lab attest to what can happen when you mix harmonious magic with the chaos magic from a small amount of poison joke.”

Twilight’s eyes widen at this information as she hadn’t known what I was using in those fireworks until now. “If that can happen with a small amount of chaos magic what would happen with a large amount?” I try to come up with an answer but none really comes to mind. “Who knows really but it’s bound to be rather chaotic.” Twilight groans at this while seeming unsatisfied with my answer. “Now how about talking about what’s really bothering you?”

Twilight looks like she is about to argue or try and change topics but instead just lets out a sigh. “I’m supposed to be a princess yet I’m never called for anything useful. Any time I’m called on it’s just to be there to be seen and not for anything else.” It takes a good amount of effort to not roll my eyes at this. “How long did it take for Princess Cadance to be given things that you would classify as useful? From what I remember hearing she was your foal-sitter for a good long time while she learned what she needed to rule with Princess Celestia and Luna.”

Twilight is taken aback a bit at being reminded of what her sister-in-law went through before she took her place in the Crystal Empire. “Besides, do you really want to be constantly dealing with nobles like Blueblood instead of learning things with your friends? I’m pretty sure that their just easing you in slowly while you learn what you need to instead of just letting the nobles drive you crazy.” Twilight looks a bit thoughtful at my words as she tries to imagine what the alternative situation could have been like.

“You might be right. I never thought over what it would have been like if I actually did get wanted what I wanted. I’d like the chance to help out once in a while at least instead of just doing busywork.” I wonder if these things will repeat again when Selene grows old enough and is introduced to the public; if she is crowned in the first place at least. “You should really speak with the other princesses about this when you meet with them again. I’m surprised you don’t have a checklist or book with you trying to chart out your learning to be a princess.”

Twilight’s eyes widen once again at my words and she gets a rather creepy grin on her face. Spike turns to me with a frown. “Did you really have to say that? Now I’m going to be up all night helping her put together that checklist.” I slowly back away from the purple alicorn before muttering back at him. “You probably would have been kept awake all night anyways. At least now you don’t have to worry about her causing another incident and maybe she’ll go to the other princesses for advice who can help calm her down more.” Spike just wearily shakes his head as I back out of the library before I get caught up in the coming storm.

Since my plans to research more into the diamond dogs have been interrupted I decided to make plans regarding this Tirek character. Improving the protections around my home is easily at the top of the list but immediately after that is something else. Thinking back to what happened when Discord broke free the first time I decided to offer my help to the ones least likely to be able to protect themselves. For this I made my way over to the schoolhouse to meet with Cheerilee. Luckily school was already out and she was still there finishing up whatever work she had left for the day.

She looks up as I enter the room and sets aside her work to speak with me. “Hello Flarenza, was there something you needed from me?” I think how best to phrase this without causing too much panic. “Ms. Cheerilee, I’ve learned some interesting information recently that you may wish to know. There seems to be another major incident going on soon which is bad enough to have Discord sent out to try and deal with it. Remembering the trouble he caused himself I thought I’d offer my services for you and your students to have somewhere safe until it all blows over. Do you think you could set up some sort of a field trip for them all to my place for the next few days?”

The teachers jaw drops as I say this though recovers once I finish speaking. “Do you really think that it will be necessary to go there? And if something does happen do you think we’ll be safe?” I sigh since I really have no idea what this Tirek figure is. “I’m really not sure but it’s better to be safe and wrong than not. I have plans to improve my wards as a precaution but I know little about what the enemy is other than it drains ponies of their magic. It gets stronger after each one so it’ll probably take the princesses and Discord to stop it.”

She looks even more worried at this information but agrees to set something up and I make note to get Trixie’s help with this as well. I make my way home and spend the rest of my time until nightfall drawing up a magic circle in the basement and layering on some spells over the hearth stone. By the time I am finished I’ve added a barrier around my territory to deflect hostile spells away as well as make anything within it unnoticeable when activated along with the normal shield. I even attempt to tie a few trap spells into it as well but I am unsure how well illusions will work on Tirek.

The next day Cheerilee brings her class over for her lessons which are assisted by mine and Trixie’s magic. This helps keep the class entertained as well as shows them some of the things that can be done with it. In fact the lesson eventually changes to being about the different kinds of magic in ponies with use demonstrating through illusions what Cheerilee describes. This actually keeps the attention of most of the class including those that I’ve heard had problems paying attention. It actually turned out to be a rather fun day all in all and nothing bad happened.

The next day they returned and Cheerilee and I decided to show them some of the things I could do with my magic which was a bit different from what the ponies usually did. While I didn’t show them my workspace in the attic I did bring a few gems downstairs and demonstrated some of the enchantments I could do. I mostly did simple light spells in some of the gems too small for anything better and handed them out to the class. Unfortunately it was around lunch time when things started to go bad as I heard explosions coming from outside.

“Cheerilee, Trixie, take everyone down into the basement. If I’m not down in ten minutes there is a switch on the back wall the opens a door to my underground lab. Everyone should be safe in there as long as you keep the Crusaders away from the fireworks.” I glance at the four who try to look innocent before I head outside to see what is going on. Using my cloud, which I’m surprised has lasted this long, I ride up above the manor so I can get a good view of the Everfree as well as the surrounding area.

What I see leaves me speechless as I see Twilight around some strange creature that I assume is Tirek. Even from here I can tell something is odd about the alicorn as she somehow seems much stronger and faster than when I last saw her. She soon teleports somewhere and I can see Tirek charging up a powerful attack and was aiming it towards Ponyville. Unfortunately my house was between the two though on the fortunate side my defensive spells were active as soon as the students arrived.

From the trajectory I assume the blast was meant for the library but it was intercepted by the shield around my home where the two started to clash. Luckily I had been pouring energy into the hearth stone for the last few years along with what it absorbed naturally when it reached that stage so the sphere of energy was eventually sent off into orbit. Of course this interaction caused the barrier to shift into visibility clueing in the monster that something was hidden from sight.

Tirek walked up to the barrier and prodded at it a couple times in curiosity before her reared up and slammed his front hooves into it. The area around the impact shuddered but still held while he prepared to hit it again. Before he could land another blow he was blasted from above by a giant beam of energy from Twilight as he was sent flying away. She then interposed herself between the shield and Tirek as she poured on the power. Where in the world did she get all this power from? There’s no way it’s natural as she’s just wielding it like a sledgehammer and not a very efficient one at that. She’s wasting so much power in these attacks as most of the energy is surrounding Tirek instead of being focused on him.

From there it was hard to tell who had the advantage as they traded blows back and forth. Between the two Twilight felt as if she had more power while Tirek seemed in better control though his power felt off for some reason. Whatever the outcome the area would never be the same as they tore up the land, some of the Everfree and even a mountain. There was so much dust in the air from their fight that the sky started to take on a dirt-colored appearance.

Eventually the two unleashed a final powerful beam of energy at each other and where they collided a large explosion erupted ending in yet another stalemate. I was starting to wonder if there was anything I could do considering how close the fight was until Tirek decided to reveal his final trump card and brought out Twilight’s friends and threatened them. I could see Twilight’s resolve wavering from here but soon my attention was grabbed by the fact that there were seven bubbles and that the one in the seventh shouldn’t be there.

“Wait, that idiot actually absorbed Discord’s power? Does he not know what chaos magic does to harmonic magic? Whatever Twilight did powered her up to his level and stealing all that alone would be dangerous. I don’t even want to think what would happen with chaos magic added into the mix.” I now realize that this is what felt wrong about his powers before so I start to tap into the hearth stone and began putting everything into the barrier and focusing everything on the side Tirek was. I even reached back into my home for every enchanted gem and ruby I had and started spreading them in an array behind the shield in an effort to stop whatever may come.

Looking back over at Twilight I can see her defeated posture as Tirek releases her friends from the bubbles imprisoning them. Once that was done Tirek began to drain all the power that Twilight had into himself while growing vastly larger than before. “Wait, his size increases with his power? That can’t be good.” As I watch he grows to almost three times the size he was previously once he finishes draining Twilight. I hear him start to laugh triumphantly at his success until he lurches forwards, grabbing at his stomach.

Seeing this I reach out and grab the six ponies, Spike, and Discord and drag them back behind the barrier I had set up before pouring everything I could into it. “Whoa! Flarenza, what was that for?! And what are you doing out here where it’s dangerous!?” I just give Twilight a look considering I should be asking her the same thing. “Hopefully keeping everyone alive after whatever happens. Tirek isn’t looking very good right now.”

The others look towards the monster to see that arcs of energy could be seen flowing around his body and his color started shifting from his red and black to a sickly green. “What in the hay is happening to him?” Rainbow Dash’s question sums up what everyone is thinking. “The idiot drained Discord’s chaos magic. Chaos magic and harmonious magic doesn’t mix well if you aren’t built for it. That combined with greedily draining so much energy at once without acclimatizing to it means he doesn’t have the proper control. I’m not sure what is going to happen but that one firework I made works on one part chaos magic and twenty parts harmony and you’ve seen the damage it can do.”

They all just stare at me wide-eyed in fear, though there’s a glimmer of something else in Discord’s eyes, at this news as I turn all my attention to the shield. Looking at Tirek I see him start to give off a glow as his power begins to overload causing him to scream out in pain. When a ball of light coalesces around him I dumb all the unneeded spells I have active and push everything into protecting us from what is about to happen.

Moments later a huge explosion centered on Tirek erupts in all directions in a giant rainbow of power. As it impacts with my shield I can tell the difference between this and my fireworks are like the difference between a match and a bonfire. Like my fireworks though only the physical side of the explosion is blocked by my shield and not the energy being released. As the energy passes over us I can feel myself being energized as my magic pours into the barrier and I notice the others starting to recover as well as their cutie marks start to reappear.

By the time I am physically unable to pour any more energy into the shield Twilight had recovered enough to assist with her own shield. That was enough to ride out the last of the explosion allowing us to finally relax. After a few minutes of silence I spotted Trixie making her way out of the manor to see what was going on and to check if everything was over. The others reassured her but I was too worn out to listen and just drifted off to sleep on my cloud.

Author's Note:

And a revamped ending of Season 4 without the Deus Ex Machina box that makes little sense. Instead the more logical and believable greedy villain pulling a bonehead move. Also the Golden Oaks Library lives! Right not much else to say, may get another chapter or two in but don't count on it. At the very least the prologue will be coming to summarize things before the next Book begins. Until then be sure to leave any comments and typos found so they can be fixed.

Comments

[Truthseeker]

Twilight is taken aback a bit at being reminded of what her step-sister went through before she took her place in the Crystal Empire.

Sister in law.

[Amos Anon]

But... what about discord's betrayal? Did that still happen and still needs to be resolved, or did tirek somehow succeed in draining discord's power? Well, I'm sure these questions will be answered in the next chapter, but I like where this chapter ended; with a good number of questions needing to be answered, which can deepen the story even more.