//------------------------------// // 256. The Kingdom of Friendship - Epilogue // Story: Blaze the Pony Tale // by Wolven5 //------------------------------// Tirek was back in his cell in Tartarus, powerless. He growled, feeling sorry for himself. He had been bested by the magic of Friendship again and he was now looking like a champion fool. “Damn them all,” he snarled. “Damn that magic! Damn everything that that magic stands for!” He slumped down, sighing in agitated defeat. He only hoped that things wouldn't get worse. Unfortunately, all the fates were against Tirek that night. The sounds of hoofsteps filled the already unsettling darkness of Tartarus. Tirek looked around. “Who's there?!” No pony replied. Tirek looked around, but he could only see the suffocating and blinding darkness. Fear crept into Tirek. He was known to never get scared, but fear is a fickle mistress. Everyone has something to be scared of, which meant Tirek was no exception. Just then, the candles surrounding his cage burst into flames revealing a tal and pale gray Alicorn with a mane white like sunbleached bone, and two intense pale blue eyes. He was rather thin yet carried a slender musculature, and Tirek saw the alicorn bore a cutie mark of a wilting lily. He realized in an instant who it was. “Thanator...” Tirek growled. “What brings you here? Come to reap my soul at last?” “Oh no,” Thanator answered sweetly. “I'm here to enjoy a good dose of schadenfreude.” “Do tell,” Tirek growled, irritated. “I'm enjoying the fact you tripped at the finish line, just like every other villain in my prison. Come on, you should be breaking the cliché that all villains are incompetent, bungling twits and cunning, conniving, skilled villains. This is just becoming a comedy sketch. Now, where'd I put my popcorn and soda?” mocked Thanator with a laugh like cracking ice. If there was one thing the Pony of Death was known for, it was his “on the nose” taunting. It tended to get under others' skin rather easily. Tirek was no exception, as Thanator saw him boiling over, which he found brilliantly priceless. Even more when Tirek snarled and reached through the bars, trying to grab Thanator. The alicorn simply stepped back, continuing his mocking chuckle and watched as Tirek tried to steal his magic. However, no magic flowed into Tirek's mouth. “WHAT IS THIS?!” Tirek screamed in anger. With his mind, Thanator pushed Tirek back, causing him to crash against the back wall of his cell, as he then held up a glass orb with a deep maroon magic burning weakly inside of it. “I believe this is yours,” Thanator held it like dangling a mouse before a starving cat. “It's your magic. Specifically, the power you require to steal magic from others.” Tirek snarled and tried, desperately to get at it. Thanator stepped back again... and tipped his hoof, the orb slipping from his hold. Tirek watched in horror as the orb shattered upon the cold stone floor and his magic flickered and crackled, struggling to keep burning, before it slowly faded away in a wisp of smoke. Thanator smiled, unapologetically, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth. “Oops! I really need to be more careful, don't I...?” He then turned around, a shroud of smoke rising up and forming a hooded cloak over him. “Anyway, enjoy rotting. I will be back in due course to collect what is rightfully mine. Ta.” Thanator walked away, his laughter echoed mockingly through the hall leaving Tirek to slump down in absolute defeat. If it had a taste, it would be sour, almost spoiled and expired beyond all recognition. “Damn them all...” he growled again and closed his eyes. A softer sound came and a hooded figure stood before him outside his cell door. “Giving up already? I thought you were stronger than that.” Tirek opened an eye, but didn't care for any more visitors. “Go away,” he grunted. “Oh come now, don't be sour. One defeat shouldn't be the one thing that stops you. Oh wait! Two defeats... well, third time's the charm, isn't it?” Tirek growled and turned his back away from the bars but the figure continued. “Really, Tirek. Did you think Cerberus just wandered off that day? Who do you think unlocked your cell door?" “The lock gave way,” Tirek had always suspected someone had helped him, but he refused to acknowledge it lest they acted like he owed them. Losing patience, the figure reached up and lowered her hood to reveal a catty smirk, "But where are my manners? My name is Catrina, and I am here to collect on your debt, Tirek." "I owe you nothing...!" Tirek growled, still not looking back, "And I don't give a damn who you are, leave me be!" “However, you were rather slow," Catrina kept talking, acting like she hadn't heard a word. "You took so long before you made your first move, I honestly began to think you just crawled off somewhere to die. But finally, my patience, however much you tested it, was rewarded, and it all turned out just as expected." “Enough with the berating,” he huffed. “Make your point and leave me to rot in peace!” Catrina shook her head and smiled. “I do have a point to make. It was I who released you, not out of the kindness of my heart, mind you. Rather, I set you loose to test those twelve nuisances who are connected to the Elements of Harmony. I wanted to see what would result of unleashing a literally power-hungry monster upon Equestria and whether or not they would ultimately triumph or utterly fail. I don't make a move unless I am certain I have the advantage, and when it turned out those admittedly-formidable foals had quite the colorful trump card, my instincts proved correct. I am far from ready before making a move agaisnt Equestria." Seething in rage, Tirek realized that from the very moment he stepped out of his cell he'd played for a fool! He whirled about and gave her the hateful and vicious look he could muster, which didn't so much as spur a step back from the witch as she simply smiled at his pitiful attempt to intimidate her. “I now present you with an offer." “An offer?” Tirek was loathe to accept anything but what did he have to lose? “Yes. Join me, Tirek, and together we will assemble force of power so immense, so merciless that not only Equestria but all the world will cow at our feet! Or refuse, I don't care which," Catrina shrugged before adding, "Although you should thank Thanator for this opportunity I am presenting." "He stripped me of my power to steal magic! And if that weren't enough..." Tirek raged, “He rubs my failure in my face, enjoying every minute of my suffering!” “Mm, that is true but his taking that power from you, is exactly why I am offering you a chance to join me,” she clarified. “I would never have have made you this offer had he not. You would have stolen my magic when I least expected it, just as you did with the draconequss..." Tirek snarled again, this witch was smarter than he thought. "But far be it from me to make you this offer..." Catrina waved her paw-like hand, a greenish mist appearing and from it came forward a fearsome arm of dark metal! "...without a few perks." "...You have my attention," Tirek was indeed intrigued by this arm. "I witnessed the battle, and saw what Midnight took from you," Catrina held the arm up, making sure Tirek got a good look, "but you'll find this far more useful than your original limb. Not only that, it is infused with strong magicks. It will not only replace what you have lost, it will restore some of your strength! You will not remain this wrinkly wizened thing you are now; you will be strong, able-bodied, a fierce warrior indeed! A perfect enforcer of my will." And there it was. "Your will?" Tirek took a step back, Catrina narrowing her eyes. "But of course! Even you should know nothing in this world is free, Tirek. I am offering you power, revenge, strength, and a place at my side when this world is brought to heel under a new order. My order. It will take time, energy, effort, no small amount of guile, strategy and patience, some misdirection, and I certainly cannot do it on my own. I need a strong and ruthless enforcer of my will to help me in bringing about a glorious era where a great injustice is at long last made right and the ponies made to suffer for their ancestors' sins as my slaves! Under my rule, when all the world is ours - Yes, ours! - you will be a conqueror! A general to lead my forces to expand the borders of my reign, and you will have power, wealth, and the thing you have always wanted to get most from the ponies of Equestria - Even." Tirek narrowed his eyes, he'd heard this song and dance before, because he'd spoken similar promises, to Scorpan and then to Eris. But to refuse meant to rot perhaps another millennia or more in this hole, and even if by some miracle he managed to escape again he no longer had the power to steal magic. Whether in here or out there, he'd rot and as Catrina had thought earlier, he would indeed just wander off to die, alone and with nothing. It hurt, but he bowed as he swore, "Free me, and I shall serve you." Catrina purred with satisfaction as her smoky green magic reached out and caused the bars of the cell to crumble into dust and it carried the arm to Tirek... and suddenly grafted itself onto Tirek's stump! He cried out, only for the hazy mana to cover his mouth, preventing his agonized screams from being heard. The base of the limb shot needle-like anchors into Tirek's shoulder, piercing flesh and bone as it affixed itself to his body, and then... he felt a rush! Lines along the arm glowed green, extending through the interconnections that bound the arm to Tirek, and he felt it flow into every fiber! He grew in size and muscle as he felt the power reinvigorate his decrepit form, his horns grew, his eyes flared, and he laughed darkly at how good it felt! Finally it stopped, and Catrina looked up with a leering smile at her new enforcer, watching him move his new arm and test out the feeling of it. He flexed the claw-like fingers, rolled his shoulder. It felt really good! In fact... he even felt his arm almost as though it were his flesh and blood! Noticing the surprise in Tirek's eyes, Catrina explained: "The magic of your prosthetic connects not only to your muscles and nerves but also to your thaumaturgical system. Your mind is not playing tricks on you; that arm feels the same sensations of touch as if it were truly flesh and bone." "It feels like... it's always been a part of me! Like I never lost my arm at all!" Tirek was astounded by what he had been given! Then Catrina turned around, "Come, we must leave before either of us are noticed. We have so much to talk about and so much to do... to someone else." "Indeed..." Tirek responded as he prepared to strike Catrina down... only for his arm to lurch one way, taking him by surprise, and then, to his horror, it grasped him by the throat, and squeezed! Tirek fell down onto his side, struggling, writhing, gasping for breath as he fought the prosthetic to no avail, and it relaxed its throttling but retained its grip on his windpipe as Catrina chuckled with false pity. "Really, Tirek, did you honestly think it would be that easy? You think I would give you power and a new arm without insuring you could not turn against me? You proved you are capable of treachery against Eris; I knew you would be all too willing to shove the dagger in once my back was turned." She turned to look down at him, and stomped her foot onto his face, "You are a dog!!" She reached up with her own arm, her hand glowing, as Tirek's prosthetic did the same as it mirrored the movements of her fingers and grasp as she made a choking gesture and the limb proceeded to choke Tirek more, "And this is your leash!!" Then Catrina channeled green and black mana to her hand, which crackled like electricity, and Tirek screamed as the limb proceeded to do the same and Catrina laughed wickedly at Tirek's torture. Oh the fun they would have and the mischief they would enact!