Tirek stomped back into the throne-room, the floor cracking slightly with every impact of his oversized hooves.
“As to your punishment...” he said to Twilight.
Twilight folded her forelegs, and glared back defiantly.
“No doubt you're expecting me to torture you for this transgression. And no matter what I do to you, you'll probably think it's worth it, if you've let a friend escape.” Tirek shook his head at the sheer folly of the entire concept of friendship. “So I'm going to do something even worse.”
He looked over at his other prisoners.
“I'm going to torture your friends.”
He reached into the group with his magic, and pulled out the smallest of the lot – Spike, the dragon. He held up the sharp, but rusty knife. “I believe I shall begin,” he said, “by defenestr-”
Twilight thought faster than she'd ever thought before.
“DON'T BURN HIM!” she cried, letting her panic at Spike's plight into her voice.
“Burn him?” asked Tirek. “Don't be ridiculous. Dragons are immune to fire.”
“...yes.” said Twilight, nervously. “All dragons are immune to fire. It's definitely not something that they grow into, and even if it was, Spike's quite certainly old enough that he is fireproof. It's not like fire is especially painful and terrifying for young dragons or anything like that. Spike is definitely quite absolutely immune to fire so there's absolutely no reason why you'd possibly want to use fire to torture him with.”
Twilight promptly covered her mouth with both front hooves and looked away, not making eye contact with anyone.
For a long moment, Tirek simply glared at Twilight. Then he said “That was the singularly worst lie I have ever heard.”
He turned around and stomped back towards the door. “Guard captain!” he called out. “Bring me a brazier of red-hot coals!”
* * *
Fifteen minutes later
Spike hung from the ceiling like the bob of some gigantic pendulum, his wrists tied together above his head. He looked more bored than anything else.
Behind him, Tirek lifted a red-hot poker from the brazier of glowing coals, and inspected it thoroughly. Deciding that it was finally hot enough, he stepped forward and carefully poked Spike's tail with it.
Spike did not immediately react.
Twilight frowned at him and stomped her hoof.
“Ow!” said Spike.
“SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!” yelled Pinkie. “We're all here for you, Spike!”
“You barbarian!” shouted Rarity. “Torturing a poor, sweet, innocent young dragon for your twisted whims!”
Spike continued in a flat monotone. “Oh. Ouch. Oooh. Ow. Ouch. Oh dear, how much this hurts. Ouch. Ooooh. Ouch. Ouch.”
“Noooooooo!” cried Twilight, collapsing dramatically on the ground and covering her face with her hooves. “I can't bear to looooooook!”
* * *
Manehatten, the following day
“Hey, Ma, Pa. I's jus' gonna head out and play, okay?”
“Babs Seed.” said Mrs. Orange, primly. “Do you have to speak in that ridiculous accent all the time?”
Babs rolled her eyes. “It's the way everypony at school talks, Ma.”
“Leave your poor daughter alone, dear.” said Mr. Orange, not looking up from his newspaper. “If she wants to talk like -”
Exactly what Babs talked like wasn't further elaborated on, because at that moment the front door shattered, showering the Oranges with splinters of wood and revealing a grey-toned pegasus mare.
“I say!” said Mr. Orange, putting down his paper and stepping forward. “Nopony breaks into my house and -”
The pegasus leapt forward and, with a number of rapid kicks, knocked both adult Oranges unconscious. All without ever taking her eyes off Babs.
Babs backed away nervously, then spun around and ran from the pegasus who'd attacked both her parents. But she was too late – after only two steps, she was stopped by teeth grabbing hold of her tail. A hoof took hold of her head, and turned it until she was facing her attacker.
“Don't hurt us!” squealed Babs.
Daring Do spat out Babs' tail. “Where,” she asked menacingly, “are the headquarters of the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”
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The good news is, the guards have been told to ignore him. The bad news is, the rest of the population still sees him as Tirek's ally.
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Thanks!
I hope this new chapter doesn't disappoint - I feel there are several weaknesses in it.
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Babs now has a scene!
...it's probably her last scene in this story, but it is a scene.
Wow, Tirek is an idiot.
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It´s a miracle he outsmarted Discord.
4899607 It's not even that he outsmarted him, it's just that he took him by surprise.
But hey, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
Ah yes, the only logical choice for Babs's parents. I love the explanation for her accent. Also, Manehattan seems awfully peaceful, given the climatic instability and national disarray...
And Tirek continues to be hilarious in gripping the Villain Ball. Apparently, he needs a millennium or so to craft a decent plan.
Unless, of course, he's toying with the ponies, lulling them into a false sense of security regarding his intellect...
In any case, looking forward to more.
Faved on concept alone. Hope the read doesn't disappoint when I find the time. From the comments I don't think it will.
YAY! KEEP IT UP!
Now you just need to come up with two new crusaders and everything will be perfect
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The good news is, they have no magic either. The bad news is, they won't help him across the street. :-)
I think you missed an opportunity with this chapter. Rarity should be throwing a huge histrionic fit, full of "You ruffian! You barbarian! You brute!" and "Be strong, Spikey-Wikey!" and so on. Between her and Pinkie, they could raise so much noise that Tirek can barely hear that Spike is saying "ow" in the most unconvincing manner ever.
Twilight channeling Trickster is awesome. I suspect she wouldn't have originally thought of it until Discord demonstrated it, but she's quite smart enough to run with it on her own now.
The Mane Six: captured and still playing Tirek like a fiddle.
This guy really needs some Evil Overlord list pointers.
Actually, he'd probably necessitate some additions that nobody put in before because they thought common sense had it covered.
“I'm going to torture your friends.”
-And here, for a split second, I though she would get away with it... of course, he could accidentally pick something that isn't TOO bad, or at least doesn't do any permanent damage... or he could entrust the guards to actually carry out the punishment... the darkest I could see is, say, Fluttershy and Dash losing their wings, and then the Rainbow Power regrows it at the end. Even "cheaper" would be Rarity getting de-horned since the wings can presumably still be used as "hands" if hoof-hands still work, but, while nothing to sneeze at, a head-spike is much less useful.
-Incidentally, why WAS it that Twilight didn't escape instead of Discord? She doesn't stick out like a sore thumb, she has the key, and Discord is probably a much better liar than her, and thus could be more useful continuing to feel Tirac misinformation.
“DON'T BURN HIM!” she cried, letting her panic at Spike's plight into her voice.
-She is going to have to sell that REALLY hard, perhaps as a product of how he was hatched... dragon=fire-proof isn't hard to guess, and it isn't like dragons are a new thing the way that "defenestrate" is. Then again, in some worlds (How to Train Your Dragon) there are exceptions. Given that she didn't have any reference materials on Spike for either "Dragon Quest" or probably even for "The Secret of My Excess" they really COULD be that mysterious*... perhaps claim "Equestrian Dragon's are different from the ones in your homeland" if he brings it up?
*My fanon, however, is that Celestia didn't want to give Twilight a scholarly knowledge base that might tempt her into seeing him partially as "research subject" rather than as 100% as "Number One Assistant, (and tacit little brother/son?)". Granted, a LACK of information could do that too, but Celestia is pretty good a knowing which way to play such decisions.
“...yes.” said Twilight, nervously. “All dragons are immune to fire. It's definitely not something that they grow into, and even if it was, Spike's quite certainly old enough that he is fireproof. It's not like fire is especially painful and terrifying for young dragons or anything like that. Spike is definitely quite absolutely immune to fire so there's absolutely no reason why you'd possibly want to use fire to torture him with.”
-Bravo! Bravo! Bravo! *Stomps feet in approval"
He turned around and stomped back towards the door. “Guard captain!” he called out. “Bring me a brazier of red-hot coals!”
-Going to leave the actual torturing to the guards then while he just watches? Or will Spike manage to burn through their ropes with the coals? Interesting if Tirac DID drain him in the episode and I forgot, and you have it that he lost his fire-breath, but NOT his fire immunity... or maybe it just got toned down to where he will be getting 2nd degree burns instead of 3rd, which, combined with the scales making it hard to tell, could mean that even if Tirac IS doing it personally instead of... actually, the REALLY cruel thing would be to make one of the others do it... at which point Fluttershy pulls a poker face, and Dash says "I'll never torture him! I'm the Bearer of Loyalty!" or some such...
Actually, one thing I wonder if how Applejack is managing not to blow the secrets... maybe Tirac is a good planner, but TERRIBLE at reading Pony body language (and maybe voices too)?
his wrists tied together above his head. He looked more bored than anything else.
-He isn't acting very well... maybe trying more reverse psychology? I wonder if he is going to escape by, say, hiding on the far side of the coals (or below the rim of the brazier) after faking dying, and then burrowing into the coals to get carried out with the brazier later.
-(At this point I accidentally glanced at some words ahead a bit, so I know that at least part of my guess is almost certainly true.)
“Noooooooo!” cried Twilight, collapsing dramatically on the ground and covering her face with her hooves. “I can't bear to looooooook!”
-So he can't read people AT ALL, and is blind to the fact he isn't actually causing any damage? At least include the bit about "you can't see the damage to the flesh underneath his scales" or something.
“It's the way everypony at school talks, Ma.”
-Is that supposed to be her accent from the episode, or has the CMC's accent become cool because they are the "leaders of the resistance" and have been recruiting at school?
showering the Oranges with splinters of wood and revealing a grey-toned pegasus mare.
-Derpy, or a
DiscordedTiraced royal guard? I'm betting on Derpy actually... well, except for the mane, and she could be dying that... so probably a guard.... oh, wait, obviously Daring Do... duh! Well, this should prove interesting... might be all four CMC's first fight scene in this story. Also, getting grayed seems to canonically make one a worse fighter given that Spike didn't even seem to have to contribute much to the fight that lead up to "This is MY book! And I'm going to READ IT!" right before the Elements were found inside that same book in S2E2.Daring Do spat out Babs' tail. “Where,” she asked menacingly, “are the headquarters of the Cutie Mark Crusaders?”
-So she knows that Babs is enough of a CMC to know where the headquarters is, but not enough that she has to cut off her head? Or maybe she is planning on doing it AFTER she has the information and has confirmed it is true? Or Tirac didn't phrase it that way to her? Actually, having the CMC HQ NOT in Manehattan could be a good way of showing nicely separated fields of conflict since the Royal Guard is now under orders to mostly or entirely avoid Manehattan (except for travelling through it to get to other places and such). This might be a writing trick to allow you to imply a large scope to the action, without having to worry about how your plots might intersect. But that only really would be a concern if Babs is going to keep leading Daring Do along. Or resisting torture? Does the mind control change methods as well as loyalties by default, or do they keep to their old means of accomplishing task unless that clearly violates the spirit of their orders?
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Short-term thinking. Twilight found an opportunity to let somepony escape, and grabbed it with all four hooves. (Also, she feels guilty enough for letting herself get captured that she thinks anyone else deserves to escape more than she does)
That... works pretty well. But then, once Twilight got to Ponyville, why wouldn't she just look up "dragon" in the local library? At that point, she's already formed strong emotional bonds with Spike...
Yep. That's exactly it.
It's supposed to be her accent from the episode, which is distinctly different to the high-class accent that Aunt and Uncle Orange taught Applejack. If Babs is the daughter of the Oranges (there might be more than one branch of the Apple family in Manehatten), then she has a very different accent to her parents.
They keep to their old means unless that clearly violates their orders.
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Emotional bonds are not a sure defense when Twilight is in the grips of a fit of SCIENCE!
I meant that she had all such books removed from the GOVERNMENT OWNED public library where she knew she would be having Twilight move to after her sister's return. I agree that a bit of hassle from being an experimental subject from time to time would be less of a problem than than what happened in those two episodes combined. Might have back fired on Celestia or maybe the theory just doesn't really work. YMMV.
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I guess it could work if the knowledge was sufficiently obscure, but if it was common knowledge for others then sooner or later Twilight would pick up on it. (Also, the vet in "Secrets of my Excess" seems very clueless about dragons... one would think she'd know something about the subject if there was something to be known, given that Spike lives there...)
Oh my Celestia Tierek is an idiot