ATC's Scrapbox

by AdmiralTigerclaw

Deus Ex Valkyrie (AKA: Cosmic Overkill)

After watching the season 4 finale, I couldn't help but imagine an old character concept of mine facing off against Tirek.

As big a threat as he is, at one point I was writing characters for cosmic scale. Characters who qualify for the God category with a capital G. Megumi Tenrai is one such character. 20,000 years old, a goddess tier humanoid trained for combat. She is Lance Master of the Valkyrie, leader of the order that exterminates threats to the peace of the cosmos with EXTREME prejudice. Also, a little silly until the combat training kicks in...

I suggest a good dose of epic music from Two Steps From Hell to support the next scene.
[Wait until the proper time to play this.]

A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES!

[MEGUMI TENRAI]
Now you're in trouble...

Also, yes... She's way overkill and OCP for the setting. Still, you know you want this.

---

Tirek smirked, the power of the Alicorn Princesses now at his fingertips. Centuries of waiting, a few well timed words and some luck was all it took after the setback his traitor of a brother had brought him. But now it was done. Power, absolute power, all for him. He even had the added bonus of gaining all of Discord's chaotic magic.

It was almost TOO easy.

Almost.

Tirek turned his attentions away from the ponies and their begrudgingly capable Princess Twilight Sparkle as they limped away to drown their woes... however they would drown them. With their magic now his, he had no reason to deal with mere insects. There were more important things to do...

Like renovation. For a god such as himself, only the most impressive of fortresses would due.

Tirek glanced around at the trees near the small pony town. Eh... As good a place as any.

The beast lit his newfound magic, preparing to blast away what was now weeds to him-

“Excuse me?”

For Tirek, that pleasantly soft pony voice sent a shiver of disgust through his being. It completely ruined the mood. The beast turned, his massive form searching for which of those pastel equine weaklings would dare interrupt his victory so soon.

“WHAT?!” he thundered.

A nearby rock outcropping caught Tirek's attention, if mainly for the stark red contrast adorning the creature that stood there. It was a pitiful looking thing, bipedal and lithe, with pale skin about its face and a mop of silvery-blue hair for a mane. It was a small wonder its voice even carried to the ears of the newly established god.

“Greetings, Lord Tirek.” the tiny insect continued in her -Tirek assumed it was a female- voice. “I am Megumi Tenrai. I represent the interests of the free peoples of the Orion Arm. After witnessing the events that have unfolded this local celestial day, I am required by the ancient laws to inform you that your actions as of late can be constituted as a threat to the cosmos. As such, it is my obligation to ask that you cease and desist any and all tyrannical activities and return that which you stole to the citizens of this world.”

Tirek, in all his power and glory, came up with a suitable retort.

“What?”

“Oh!” the creature that called itself 'Megaumi-Tenrai' covered her mouth in surprise. “I'm sorry... The standard ultimatum can be a bit wordy. But I'm required by oath to attempt diplomacy first and foremost in all initial contact cases. It's imperative that I try to resolve conflicts peacefully, after all.”

Tirek frowned. Something was off about this situation. This... 'Megumi-Tenrai' sounded a lot like that mewling weakling, Celestia.

“What is your point, little one?” he placed special emphasis on the word 'little' as he leaned down to exemplify this observation, face-to-face.

The 'insect' shifted her posture, the slight placid negotiable face she'd been holding during her strange tirade losing just the slightest amount of its emotion before her she smiled amiably.

“To be blunt,” she began. “I am officially requesting that you surrender your power back to the populace and stand down... Or face judgment.”

Tirek blinked, standing up straight once more. Was this creature right in the head? He couldn't have heard that right. There was no way that this... THING had the audacity to order him, TIREK! The new god of this world, to step down.

Tirek did the only logical thing he could think of at that moment. He burst out laughing.

“JUDGEMENT!?” he howled. “YOU?!”

He stopped abruptly, leaning down once more. Now that he was greater in size than a dragon, it was almost trivial to imagine he could snap her up and devour her in one quick bite. Not that he would. There was no telling what this strange creature would taste like.

“I am required to inform you that what you might observe about me at this time is off by several orders of magnitude,” Megumi stated, her features seeming slightly sad. “I cannot implore you enough to consider your next words very carefully.”

“Are you hearing yourself?” Tirek asked, straightening again. “You threaten me, TIREK?! I have in my grasp all the magical power of Equestria AND the lord of chaos himself! There isn't a being in this world with the power to rival me! I. AM. A. GOD!”

The creature's features fell to sadness as she closed her eyes.

“It is unfortunate...” she stated quietly.

“What is?” Tirek asked, narrowing his eyes. He was growing tired of this pest.

“That you believe yourself a god...”

The statement perplexed Tirek. And it also angered him as well. He possessed all the magical potency of Equestria, the power of the Alicorns, and the strength of the lord of chaos himself. Who was this creature to think she could order him around? Who was this sniveling, sweet-talking little insect with the magical power to rival only that pathetic trickster of a unicorn who's best skill was fireworks?

Lord Tirek, Master of Equestria looked down upon this 'Megumi-Tenrai' with contempt. It might not be much compared to what he now possessed, but Tirek decided he could always use a little more magical power.

“Fool,” he stated, his features turning grim. “If challenging me is your wish, then so be it. I shall enjoy devouring what little magic you have before I cast you aside with the rest of these pathetic creatures.”

He leaned down, power crossing between his horns as he made to hold the pathetic mortal before him.

“I tried...” he heard the weakling's voice-

Tirek's nose shattered under the force of a meteor-impact, his body careening backwards before his mind registered the stars swimming in his vision. The ground met him and he tumbled to a halt. It took a few more seconds for him to blink away the sudden searing pain in the center of his face.

[I suggest that music track starting here.]

Sitting up in a slight haze, Tirek glanced forward at the rock outcropping he'd been previously standing in front of. As the double-vision resolved itself, he was greeted by the sight of the creature's silhoete, accented with a disjointed spear in her hands, and two white glowing pinpricks where her eyes would be. She stood upon that outcropping her mop of hair blowing in the wind unleashed from his unplanned flight.

Tirek sneered, righting himself.

“So be it!” he snarled and charged his stolen magic. The beast unleashed the torrent of equestrian magic. It didn't matter if he ruined the land. That would just speed up the process of landscaping. It seared the ground as it passed. His target would have to be able to move faster than even Twilight Sparkle if she wanted to-

Tirek felt the spell almost the same time his jaw twisted with the blow. The small creature was along side him, her fist stringing along a sonic boom in its wake even as the magic he'd lobbed detonated in the distance.

“HOW?!” he managed to gnash out as his body swung off its center of gravity.

The thunderclap of her movement followed well after she'd unwound. Tirek hit the ground for the second time in so many seconds.

“Last warning, Tirek,” Megumi's voice was no longer that gentle mewling he'd come to associate with the ponies. It carried a sense of weight behind its magically amplified volume the likes of which the beast had only heard from the Royal Canterlot Dialect. “I am the goddess Megumi Tenrai, Lance Master of the Valkyrie and keeper of the legendary spear Regulus. You are under arrest for your crimes against this world and its inhabitants. If you resist, I will smite you from the face of the cosmos as is my authority. Surrender now, and only your pride and your nose need be broken this day.”

Tirek snorted as he rolled over, pushing once more to a stand. Megumi was standing below him, the opportunity to strike begging to him.

“SMITE THIS!” he snarled, stomping on her position.

He felt the spell again, fleeting in its brevity but foreign in its nature. The pest, who was turning out to be far stronger than Tirek wanted to admit, had vanished in another clap of thunder to reappear on a hill nearby. She brandished the strange disjointed spear of hers at him as if to act as a ward.

Tirek launched a magic blast at her with a snarl and a lunge. The beam of brilliant white that erupted from Megumi's spear in response was far faster and crossed the distance in an eye blink. It skewered Tirek's attack like a kebab and continued on to knock him on his back once more.

Tirek sneered at the sky as it mocked him for a third time with its clear blues.

“You handle your power like a child throwing a tantrum,” Megumi's voice carried across the wind. “It is slow and cumbersome, much like that form you use to contain it. Even the most green of Valkyrie trainees could use you as little more than a practice dummy. If this is the best you can do then it is of little wonder that you choose to bully these peaceful creatures.”

Tirek paid his adversary, upgraded from 'pest' moments before, little heed as he began to formulate a plan. She moved like Princess Twilight's blasted teleport, but hit far harder if she was easily matching the might of all of Equestria's magic. He'd have to throw everything he had at this creature, otherwise this might actually get unpleasant.

Pushing himself to a standing position, he regarded the tiny powerhouse in front of him with a little more respect as he began to slowly build his magic up.

“I admit, you surprise me,” he began, buying time to gather more and more power. “Perhaps underestimating you was sloppy on my part. I see now that perhaps I should take this fight seriously.”

“You desire to compare raw power,” Megumi's voice carried up to his ears. “A typical response of someone who knows they're beaten, and an infantile one as well.”

Tirek resisted the urge to lash out prematurely at the barb. It was all just battle taunts, nothing he was ignorant of in the least.

“Maybe,” he voiced. “But the way I see it, since you value the lives of all the little ponies, then perhaps you're just as foolish as Princess Twilight.”

Just a little more.

“Tell me,” he asked. “When I set this thing off, what do you think the damage is going to be? I don't care what happens to these pathetic equines. But I wonder if you're going to be able to use whatever trick it is to strike me when everything in the area is reduced to ash.”

The creature before Tirek was pleasingly silent for a moment as she shifted stances. Tirek had seen enough spears in all his years to recognize a general throwing stance.

“How about a deal?” he asked. “Give me whatever magic you possess, and I DON'T lay waste to this land right here and now.”

He was lying of course. After the humiliation, and his nose...

“I call,” the creature known as Megumi stated ominously. “Show me your power.”

Tirek hesitated, slightly surprised at her audacity. Then he exhaled slowly as he pushed a few more moments into his gathering power.

“Very well,” he continued at length. “Become one with the dust.”

Magic coalesced between Tirek's horns, and he unlashed a blast that would scour the land.

Megumi stared down the warped blob of raw magical power, her eyes narrowing just the slightest as she examined the field of battle. Then her head snapped up slightly as she began to coil back her arm.

“No, child,” her voice seemed to speak only to herself. “Instead, witness true power.”

Regulus flew.

---

Tirek followed his plan to the letter. The moment he saw the 'Valkyrie' wind up, he used the blast of magic he fired to conceal his own actions, and jumped, knowing he'd easily clear the arc of the spear she all but told him she was going to throw. He began charging a second strike, knowing she'd probably arrange some way to avoid-

Searing pain tore into Tirek's chest as a blinding flash shredded his magical blast like tissue paper. The momentum of his jump went from vertical, to backwards with the force to give even his colossal form whiplash. He felt something strike his back, crumbling with an earth-shattering noise as he tumbled end over end at the edge of consciousness. After a few more seconds of pain, the world rolled to a halt, the sound of distant thunder echoing off the hilltops barely audible of the ringing in his ears.

---

Three times...

Even has the box of harmony opened, Twilight Sparkle was worried. She'd felt a time spell no less than three times in rapid succession. There was no mistaking that kind of signature even with her magic drained to almost nothing. If Tirek was already flinging around time spells, there was no telling what he might do next. With the power he was harnessing, he could even go back in time to the distant past and rewrite all of history in his favor. A disturbing prospect, and all the more reason to put an end to this before he could gain a better grasp on the powers he'd gathered.

Harmony was a wonderful magic of course... Twilight could feel her strength returning as she watched her friends transform right before her eyes. The manes were a bit over the top, especially Rainbow's. She now looked like a living rainbow lightning bolt. Fitting, if worth a laugh later when this was over.

The power spreading, Twilight gathered her friends about her and began to ascend. It was time to teach Tirek the most important lesson of all. The lesson of Friendsh-

Twilight flinched as the sky split asunder, her concentration nearly failing her as a mountain top to the northwest shattered like one of those expensive vases she'd broken some six years ago back in Canterlot. For a brief moment, she thought Tirek had discovered some truly horrific spell to unleash upon Equestria.

But after a few seconds to gather her wits, she realized that said beast was nowhere in sight. She could feel his power with a quick thought, confirming he was... somewhere. But it felt strangely diminished. Twilight couldn't tell if it was because of the harmony around her self and friends, or what. But it was weak, and accompanied by the strangest ringing spell hum she'd ever sensed. It was almost like starlight focused through iron and struck with a tuning fork... If one could describe magical feedback with sound...

Wait... That hum's an echo! If that's the echo, what just got cast?!

---

Tirek cursed within the haze clouding his mind. The Valkyrie had read his move like an open book. No sooner than did he tense to spring then did she adjust her aim. The spear, no more than a toothpick in size compared to him, none-the-less had pierced his chest and struck his heart. Not that this would be fatal with the power he was channeling at the moment, but it would have to go. Even as Tirek managed to choke on his own breath, the tiny weapon burned his insides with an unquenchable fire.

Forcing his body to sit up, Tirek reached to pluck the weapon from his body.

He felt the spell.

His body slammed into the ground even as the thunderclap announced Megumi's arrival and strike, causing a pained howl to escape Tirek as something he never expected to feel gurgled in his throat.

Standing on his chest, Megumi reached down and grabbed the haft of her spear, planting one foot to give it a tug that freed it from the beast's body. The weapon sizzled as ichor burned off the blade on its tip, revealing a red glow like the hot iron of a blacksmith.

---

Twilight felt the time spell go off again. Her mind, amplified through the magic of harmony, was able to pick out almost with a gasp that it was an amazingly compact, inverted time-dilation bubble. It was accompanied with an audible sonic boom and she could feel the whole thing traversing the distance of the countryside in the blink of an eye. It didn't take Equestria's arguably greatest mind to realize the application of such a magic as the bubble collapsed on the far side of the shattered mountain.

Thinking fast, Twilight steadied her friends and set them all down on the ground, the magic of the tree of harmony still swirling in and around their bodies.

Changing gears on her plans, Twilight cast a scrying spell with utmost ease. The window showed the group the plains and hills on the far side of the mountain, and a tumble of rocks where Tirek lay shockingly still as a creature Twilight instantly recognized from her time through the mirror stood atop him.

“WHAT IN TARNATION!?” AJ pretty much spoke for everypony.

---

[I suggest a track switch]

“Lord Tirek of Equestria,” Megumi's voice resonated from atop the beast's chest with a weight far betraying the power he knew was behind it now. “Your pride and greed know no bounds. You bully the weak while stealing what little they have for your own petty gain. Your judgement is at hand. What do you have to say in your defense?”

Tirek grit his teeth as he forced himself to partially sit up. The creature that had struck him down multiple times now alighted easily to one side. The beast clutched the wound in his chest even as he felt the magic healing it. He was down, but not out. Not by a long shot.

“You think,” he huffed, working to stand once more. “You think I'm going to bow to your demands? Creature? Valkyrie? Don't make me laugh. That strike hurt, but it is nothing...”

Tirek caught his breath, feeling the wound closing up much faster.

“NOTHING!” he snarled, and went to Smash the Valkyrie, even as he realized she probably would just dodge it.

To his utter surprise, his smash connected with something, and he felt the ground give against the impact, eliciting a slight feeling of satisfaction.

At least, for a moment that feeling persisted, until he realized what he'd intended to smash wasn't as squishy as something that's been smashed should have been.

Tirek lifted his fists, and for the first time in his life, he felt fear.

Megumi stood at the bottom of the crater that had formed around her, eyes glowing bright enough to illuminate the shadows around her. Her arm was outstretched, a single finger extended, acting as the entire method by which she'd blocked her adversary's blow.

“So be it,” she stated curtly, lowering her arm. “If nothing is your defense, then nothing you shall become...”

---

Twilight felt the time spells go off in rapid succession. Her friends winced in sympathy as the strange bipedal creature that had just completely ignored Tirek's attack suddenly vanished, only to reappear and vanish as she delivered a barrage of apparently agonizing physical strikes. Tirek had no time to howl in pain, or even fight back. In a flurry of motion, he was broken in dozens of places and cast to the ground like a rag doll.

It ended as suddenly as it began, with the strange creature reappearing a short distance from Tirek's broken form. Almost immediately, Twilight noticed glowing lines tracing themselves around the battlefield.

---

Tirek sucked in a breath. Pain was temporary. He had to keep going, he couldn't lose to this... this... THING! He had plenty of power yet. He was far from finished.

Tirek focused on healing his legs, ignoring the other aches of his body and the glowing runic symbols tracing around him. He made a lunge, and the back of a spear swatted his face aside.

“I, Megumi Tenrai,” the monster (newly upgraded) began in a tone of authority. “Lance Master of the Valkyries; Keeper of Regulus; guardian of the Orion Arm, and protector of the innocent, here by condemn you, Lord Tirek, to the final eternity and cast your from this mortal realm.”

Tirek attempted another lunge augmented by a smattering of magic blasts, but once more, that BLASTED spell went off and his target landed a distance away. Immediately as she landed, a beam of light erupted in front of Tirek, causing him to stumble back, noticing five other beams circled around him, each lancing skyward from the symbols glowing on the ground.

“You claim to be a god, Tirek,” Megumi's voice stated almost conversationally. “Allow me to show you the hollowness of said claim.”

Transparent force closed around Tirek, each of the six beams surrounding him closing together in containment. He made to bash the side of his new prison, panic rapidly starting to set in as he felt the power continue to rise. The center symbol, which had yet to emit a beam, began to hum with a power Tirek was more familiar with, having used something similar to remove the other three Princesses not long ago. Only this... It was bigger.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” He snarled in full panic at this point.

“I'm putting your existence in perspective,” Megumi's voice spoke cryptically. “I'm going to show you the heart of our cosmos.”

“WHAT?!”

---

Twilight almost fell down as the portal spell she tracked kept going, and going, and going...

The trace didn't even touch Tartarus. Instead, the tunnel that was forming just kept extending above the sky. It passed the moon, the sun, and seemed to stretch on to the stars. Twilight chased it, drawing upon the power of harmony to keep up. Her mind reeled at the distances. Stars passed her in her mind's eye, becoming more numerous the further she pushed. Still, the path outraced her, going deeper into the cosmos than she could ever have imagined. She didn't hear her friends start to call her name with worry as she lost herself in the void. The path went on. The stars were closer together, crowded even, then packed, crushed, and suddenly... The connection was made.

Twilight let out a strangled scream as her mind overloaded.

---

Tirek felt the gateway shudder, a thin slip of light erupting from the center. Panic gave way to terror, terror like no creature in Equestria had ever known. He could feel it. He could feel unimaginable power leaking through but a crack in the cosmos. Power that dwarfed a million alicorns the same way a mountain dwarfs an ant.

“LET ME OUT!” he bashed up against the barrier around the gateway with enough force to elicit a crack from his shoulder.

“YOU CAN'T DO THIS!” he thundered as he ignored the pain. The light began to intensify. The ground around it was already melting.

---

“Twilight!”

The princess snapped to her senses to see a beam of light so brilliant that the noon sun looked like dull moonlight in comparison.

“What is that thing?!” one of her friends, she couldn't really focus on who at the moment, asked in horror. Twilight cleared her head from the aching feedback that had hit her. The path, the path had shot straight and true, right to the most crowded part of the sky. It had connected to the center... the heart.

“A gateway...” she uttered under her breath. “A gateway to power unfathomable.”

“Tarnation!” only by word choice could Twilight recognize that was AJ talking. “Yer not making any sense Twi! What power makes the Elements look like firecrackers like that?!”

Gathering her wits a little more, Twilight Sparkle came up with a name fitting enough that it surprisingly matched that which she had not actually heard.

“The heart of the cosmos...” she uttered.

---

Megumi raised her hand, and Tirek paled, gathering all the magic he could muster to shield himself, despite realizing the futility.

“TRUE GATE OF RA!” she snapped her hand open.

---

Light. Light was everything. It was nothing.

It simply was.

Even shielding their eyes and looking away, six friends were almost blinded by the brilliance, sound seeming to vanish as all thoughts were occupied with the light. The beam, contained as it was, erupted into the sky as the portal laid bare the heart of a galaxy before mortal eyes. It was not magic. There was no comparison. It was power, raw and primordial. The heat of a million suns and more, infernos each capable of reducing worlds to vaporous clouds if they so much as sputtered wrong, poured their energy through a hole in space and time for all to witness.

And indeed, all witnessed the event. For the light was bright enough to reflect off the moon and shine upon the far side of the planet.

Tirek, to his credit, lasted a bit more than a split second after the gate opened before the magic of Equestria buckled under the force of raw power. And then he vanished, his existence popping like a balloon. And like that, he was ended, the magic he stole scattering as his body was obliterated.

The gate was only open a few seconds. But to those who witnessed it directly, it seemed like an eternity. A shining column of fire that smote the heavens before snapping shut with a residual crack. Even in passing, the air trapped in the containment barrier glowed in wake of the wrath it had just been subjected to, if air it could be called.

---

Six friends, still wrapped in the the magic of Harmony, the strongest power Equestria had known, sat thunderstruck as they tried to blink the spots out of their vision.

“Is everypony okay?” Twilight asked, her mind in a slight panic. “Can anypony see?”

“Gosh darnit!” AJ's voice carried around the group. “All I can see is a huge blue box right in the middle of my sight. And I didn't even look at that thing!”

“This BETTER not be permenant!” Rainbow Dash's voice jumped in next. “I can't fly BLIND! That's SO uncool!”

The complaints piled on quickly, but ultimately proved not to be an issue as their eyesight returned to normal. Twilight was just wondering what they were going to do now that Tirek had obviously been obliterated when a voice cleared itself behind her.

“Excuse me?”

“WAH!”

Let it be said that Twilight has all the grace of a one-legged swan trying to land when she's startled.

“Oh! Apologies!” all eyes turned to the bipedal creature standing next to the group. Even still powered by harmony, they all backpedaled away from the one that had laid waste to Tirek. The glow may have been gone from her eyes, and her voice seemed nice enough, but after what they'd just witnessed... Well, nopony felt like chances were worth taking.

“I just thought I'd like to inform...” she hesitated as if checking a mental list. “Princess Twilight, Sparkle?”

Twilight's ears perked up, causing the bipedal creature to smile and continue with more confidence.

“I'd like to inform you that the magic which was taken from your people has been returned and should restore itself to the natural order shortly.” The female then closed her eyes and smiled apologetically. “I must also apologize for any inconvenience the True Gate of Ra may have had on anyone within' eyesight of it. The galactic inferno is not meant to be witnessed with unprotected vision.”

“Uh...” Twilight began. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” the creature bowed slightly. “Also... Do not attempt to replicate opening that gateway without a valid certification from a Valkyrie instructor. The complete annihilation of your world could result from improper procedure.”

Twilight blinked. “O...kay?”

“Good,” the Valkyrie nodded. “Good day to you.”

And with that, the creature turned, hefting her spear and wandering lithely into the Everfree. After several seconds of silence, Rainbow Dash finally spoke up.

“Okay...” she snapped in agitaton. “WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!”

Comments

[Basiritz]

I do a quick search for Sleeping with the girls news, and I find this bit of awesome instead. Good to know your still writing dood. I would love to see more Megumi Tenrai. Maybe in her own story?

[StarChaser01]

This could be a story all on it's own...