//------------------------------// // 18. Hopeless // Story: Tartarus Forged // by SvenFoxx //------------------------------// Twilight was on her hands and knees at this point, dripping with sweat, and flexing and un-flexing her hands as she tried to both maintain the rapidly wavering barrier around her, and ignore the sounds of coming from everywhere. “Twilight Sparkle, you are found guilty. Guards, take this monster away.” She knew her fear well. It was one of the many tests Tirek had given her. Discover your deepest, darkest fear… and conquer it. It was meant to shatter one more chain of weakness on her, to make her into a better tool for the Centaur Lord. “Stay away! Get away! Guards! GUARDS!!!” Tirek had submitted her to this very spell to test her, and if there was only one good thing that came from it, Twilight knew her own fears like the back of her hand. She had conquered it with time and training. “You’re no daughter of mine. You’re just a demon.” So why was she struggling now? Well, that answer was actually simple. For as powerful and well-read as the Centaur Lord was, he would never, ever be on the level of the master of the mind arts. When it came to magic that dealt with the mind, Nightmare Moon was the undisputed best in nearly all aspects of it. Tirek’s best attempt at the Nightmare Enchantment would be akin to Nightmare Moon twitching an ear. “I’m not a monster…” she muttered to herself, clenching her hands again. She shivered. “I’m not…” Crash! With a suddenness that completely caught Twilight off guard, her shield shattered. In a matter of moments, she was swallowed by the darkness. And then she was standing in front of Celestia, in the throne room of her castle in Canterlot. She felt her heart drop into her stomach when she realized Celestia’s eyes were wide in horror… and she was holding the sword that had pierced the Princess’ heart. She quickly let go and backed away, her own eyes wide in horror. She looked at her hands. They were red, soaked with blood. “Princess! No! Get that thing!” Twilight whirled around and started at the sight of at least twenty royal guards flooding the throne room, all of them enraged. She didn’t blame them. She spun around and dashed in the opposite direction… only to find herself now standing in the center of an unfamiliar room, surrounded by dozens of featureless bodies. Once more she was holding her light sword, but upon closer examination, it was different. Blood dripped from it, and the blade was a pitch black that seemed to absorb light. An aura of purple and green darkness flickered around it like a flame. Looking up, she found a full body mirror before her, and staggered backwards at the sight of her reflection. Her body was covered in dark violet fur, her mane a waving nebula of purple so dark that it was almost black, and her eye was shining with red light. Behind her, a set of leathery demonic wings twitched. She was grinning sadistically, showing an unhealthy amount of bloody fangs. Pure unadulterated rage raced through Twilight’s veins, and she lashed out, striking the mirror with an enraged cry. The mirror shattered, sending shards of glass everywhere. The sharp pain of glass piercing her flesh snapped Twilight from her sudden rage, and she took a moment to calm down. Said calm failed when she was suddenly standing in a bedroom. A very familiar bedroom. Her eye widened as her blood ran cold. “No…” she whispered. She was back in Tartarus. Twilight started hyperventilating as she examined her room. Her room in Tirek’s castle. Her room in Tirek’s castle that was in Tartarus. Doubt surfaced in her mind, seeing the runic formula scrawled on the floor that was supposed to have sent her home. It was smoking, denoting recent use. It hadn’t worked, Twilight realize with cold dread. Her only way home hadn’t worked. Five years of research, of careful alchemical manipulation, and frustrating artifact retrieval. Wasted. “It seems like you failed.” Twilight turned and came face to face with Tirek. He was grinning. “Oh well,” he said with a shrug, before his hand lanced towards her neck. Twilight only had a moment to numbly notice a metallic glint before something cold and hard clicked closed around her neck. Then magic rushed from her new collar and forced her to her knees. “I have allowed you to play your games for long enough. Tartarus is impossible to leave once you enter. From now on, you are my slave. Let this be a lesson,” Tirek grinned. “No one escapes my grasp.” She felt the fight that had fueled her for twenty years drain from her body. Her drive, her desire, her motivation… it all vanished in the face of crushing realization. She would never get home. She would never escape. She was, forevermore, a denizen of Tartarus. This was her worst nightmare. --- “Ready?” Pinkie Pie asked her friends as they crowded around Twilight. She was getting tired, fast, and wasn’t sure if she’d have the energy to save both Twilight and Sunset. Considering how dangerous this forest was without living shadows terrorizing it, she decided Twilight was the one they had to save next. Everyone nodded, and Pinkie smiled at them. Then, with her friends all holding hooves to her back and shoulders, she placed her glowing hoof on Twilight’s chest. --- Twilight numbly walked through the castle corridors, making her way to the front gate so as to complete her new assignment. It was rather standard, some demons trying to put together a resistance against Tirek’s rule. Her job was to locate the leaders, kill them, and then locate the ones funding the leaders and kill them too. She brought a hand to her neck. The cruel, cold metal of her new collar forced her to remember that she was now a slave. Not only that, but a magically bound slave. She could only escape if Tirek intentionally removed the collar. Not happening. Sighing, she continued her walk. “Wha’cha doing?” “Not now Pinkie, I’m busy,” Twilight mumbled, walking past the pink pony. She froze, her eye steadily widening. Then, slowly, she turned around. Yes. Pinkie Pie, alongside most of the rest of the group she thought she had dreamt up, was standing there. Pinkie was grinning like a loon, her eyes glowing blue. And then she remembered, and her eye narrowed. The Nightmare Enchantment. Fear, fueled by emotions drawn from the victim. She snarled and grasped the collar, pulsing her magic. With a shriek of metal, she tore it from her neck and hurled it down the corridor. “I’m starting to hate her,” she growled, facing the group. Pinkie just walked up to her and grabbed her hand with her glowing hoof. Twilight managed a small, relieved smile as she watched the world begin to twist and contort. She looked at Pinkie. “Thanks,” she whispered. The world faded away. --- Twilight opened her eye, starring up at the night sky. It narrowed and, silently, she promised to make Nightmare Moon suffer when she got a hold of her.