Today was the greatest day of Tirek's long life, as not only did he escape from Tartarus some time ago, and remain hidden for a long time until Discord found out where he was lurking, he had finally absorbed the power of Princesses Celestia and Luna, who had defeated him a thousand years ago with the help of his own brother, along with the power of the newest Princesses, Cadance and Twilight Sparkle. A few days ago this would have been impossible, as his time in Tartarus had left him weak and he had to be careful about how he went about stealing the magic of the ponies around him, but when Discord found him it had been the best opportunity he could have asked for, as the chaotic being turned his back on the ponies he had befriended and joined him, allowing him to steal the magic of the earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns in rapid succession, leaving the alicorns as his only targets. Of course the only downside to his plan was that he had no idea there was a third alicorn, the Princess of Love, much less a fourth alicorn, one that Discord went to great lengths to hide from him, but in the end it didn't matter, as he assaulted Ponyville, fought the small alicorn that was empowered by the magic of all four alicorns, and then, when it was clear that they had reached a stalemate, he used his greatest bargaining chip against Twilight Sparkle, that being her trapped friends and Discord.
That had been the best decision he could have made, because that allowed him to take all of the magic he had been looking for, and that also included the power of Discord as well, just to make sure that there was no one that could stand against him, which crippled the heroes and left them as shells of their former selves, giving him the power to do anything and everything, with absolutely no limits.
When he started this quest, when Discord found him, he had been twice as tall as a normal pony and his body was frail, despite being a centaur, meaning he had four legs and an upper body that seemed similar to the minotaurs that called this land home, while the colors of his arms, legs, and body were muted due to having no power. Over the course of his quest to steal all the magic in the land his body had returned to what it had been in the past, as it became more muscular, his color returned to his form, and his horns, which started as small things in the beginning, curved up towards the sky, allowing him to fire energy blasts from between them, which he used against Twilight Sparkle. Now that he had the magic that his entire quest had been centered around, making him the strongest being in existence, he towered over everything that happened to be around him, be it the forest or even the nearby mountain, and there was no one that could stop him at this point in time. He could do whatever he wanted, crush anything that he didn't like, and rule over this land as he searched for Scorpan, the brother that had betrayed him a thousand years ago by joining forces with the sisters and helped them seal him away in Tartarus, thus reducing him to his pitiful state. Revenge was the one thing that had kept him going while he was imprisoned, but now that he was free from both his prison and his frail body, and the fact that he had the power to do whatever he wanted, he could finally have his revenge on those that had wronged them, of which only Scorpan remained, and he made sure to lock both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna away in Tartarus when he and Discord invaded their castle earlier.
While Tirek was thinking about what he was going to do first, with the power that was coursing through his body at the moment, he glanced to the side for a second and found a rainbow light emitting from it, which reminded him of the power that Twilight had used against him, and focused on it. That was when a sphere of energy emerged from the crack in the ground, which was actually a gorge or chasm between where he was standing and the piece of earth in front of him, and moved into the air near him, where he found Princess Twilight and her five friends resting in the center of the sphere, each of them looking different than what he remembered. All of their manes and tails were longer than what he had seen in the past, though some of the colors were different than what he remembered, there were some odd markings on their hooves, why he had no idea and he didn't honestly care about them, and those that had wings also had different colored feathers from what was closer to the main part of their bodies. Instead of wasting time, and allowing them to do whatever it was that they were planning on doing, he charged up his magic between his horns and blasted the six mares as soon as they came to a stop, only to find that his beam of energy struck the sphere and didn't seem to do anything to his targets, eventually causing him to stop and glare at them.
"How is this even possible?" Tirek demanded, because from what he knew there was nothing that should have be able to stand against his magic at the moment, not with the power of every type of pony and four alicorns currently coursing through his veins, which was why he growled as he stared at the six mares, as they were annoying him and he needed to come up with a way to take them down, "You have no magic left in your bodies!"
"You're wrong, Tirek," Twilight replied, a smile appearing on her face as she and her friends stared down at their foe, as they were focusing on what they were about to do and wanted to make sure his attention was on them, so he didn't run off with all his stolen magic before they were ready, "I may have given you my alicorn magic, but I carry within me the most powerful magic of all!"
In that moment Tirek took a step back as six strands of energy burst out and struck where he was standing, before combining into a powerful beam of rainbow energy that covered him in a blinding white light, but that was followed by all of the stolen magic he had accumulated over the last few days being forcefully pulled out of his body. It was painful for a few moments, something that he really wasn't expecting when he considered the power that was being used against him, and he watched as his arms and his body decreased in size, losing the mass that he had added to his body since he started stealing the power of the ponies he came across. It only took a few seconds for him to regress back to the smaller form he had been using during his battle Princess Twilight, though that was quickly followed by him losing both the alicorn magic and the rest of the magic from the three types of ponies he had encountered, his body shrinking back to what it had been when he first escaped Tartarus. That informed him of something he didn't want to see again, that he was likely going back to his cell in the realm that he had been imprisoned in, and since there was nothing he could do against the power that was being used against him, not with the stolen power being taken from him, he closed his eyes and braced himself to find himself back in his cell, with a brand new sentence for his crimes.
What he wasn't expecting, however, was for the magic to weaken him to the point where he started to pass out, but at the very least he wouldn't have to witness his return to Tartarus, to be laughed at by the other inmates or whatever was waiting for him on the other side, before he passed out completely and slipped into the darkness for what was the second or third time in his long life.
Tirek had no idea how much time had passed since he got hit with the rainbow beam, or whatever the ponies were going to call it since they liked naming things, but when he finally thought about what happened to him he seemed to snap back awake, expecting to find himself back in Tartarus, imprisoned in his cell once more so he could be subjected to an endless amount of laughter by the other inmates. What he found, on the other hand, was more strange that anything he could have considered before that moment, as he wasn't in the realm of Tartarus, rather he was in some strange place that looked more like a cemetery of some kind, one that was littered with gravestones, walls of stone that seemed to be in the process of falling apart, small bits of water that seemed to form a path away from where he was resting, and a number of trees that looked like they were in the process of dying. It also appeared that the graves that were the closest to him were either freshly dug and hadn't been covered back up, allowing them to be filled with dust as they waited for a coffin to fill them, or they were covered by layer upon layer of ash, as that was the first thing that came to mind when he glanced over to the grave that was to his left. From what he could tell this world was unlike anything he had seen so far, since all he had seen were Equus and Tartarus, meaning that his first order of business was to figure out where he was, how to use the magic of this world, and then gather all the power that he could get his hands on, before attempting to head back to Equus so he could smash Twilight and her pitiful friends.
It was in that moment, when he tried to get up and walk, that he discovered two things, the first being that he was back to his old and frail self, not that such a thing was much of a surprise given what happened to him earlier, while the second thing was that he no longer had the body of a centaur, rather he looked more like a minotaur, which was going to be rather odd when it came time to leave this area, especially with how weak this form was. The next thing he noticed was the fact that he was now wearing some sort of long ash colored robe that covered his chest and seemed to go all the way down to his waist, which was where it opened up and revealed that he had some sort of pants that covered the lower half of his body, not to mention that there was a blue undershirt under the robe and that the main attire had a hood that went over his head. Of course that made him question the need for the red hood that was beneath the ash colored hood, and then he spotted the blackened gloves that were on his hands, with silver medallions on the back of them, which informed him that whatever had brought him to this world had given him some gear for his stay, and he even found some rather odd and interesting items nearby. A rather simple looking staff rested near him, one that had some power inside it, and had two pieces of paper resting under it, for a pair of spells known as Soul Arrow and Heavy Soul Arrow, though near them rested a short sword that looked pretty dangerous, even if it appeared to be without an edge, and a ring with a blue stone that had a dragon emblem on it.
Tirek waited for a few seconds, to take in what was going on at the moment, and picked himself up from where he was resting, where he picked up the ring and slipped it onto his right pointer finger, which was accompanied by feeling a sight power boost to his magic, before he picked up the sword and found a sheath resting behind it, one that he attached to his new attire and then slipped the weapon inside it, which was when he picked up the staff and held it in his right hand, and he made sure to collect the pages, just to see what the magic of this land was like.
As he took his first step, however, he paused as he heard a rather loud bell go off in the distance, one that continued to ring for a good minute or two, though that was before one of the nearby graves shuddered for a moment, which caused Tirek to turn and glance at it, where he found a figure rising out of the ground, through the ash that had been placed over all the graves in this area. Based on the mounds that were on the figure's chest, even if they were rather small, he had to assume that the figure was female and noticed she seemed to be wearing some sort of leather armor, though the other thing he noticed was that she preferred to cover her face, as she happened to be wearing a veil of some kind, leaving only enough room so that her emerald colored eyes could be seen, informing him that she was either ugly or was scarred in some manner and didn't want to show people what had been done to her face. The lady also seemed to be wearing a rather large weapon on her waist, one that was longer than his sword was, though Tirek discovered that most of her body was covered by her armor, meaning he couldn't see her skin at all, not that he actually cared since she was a total stranger and he didn't trust her at all at the moment, and this could be the only time they even saw each other. The only interesting thing was that the lady seemed to be looking down at herself, as if she was surprised by something, which was hard to tell since he couldn't read her emotions at the moment, but he waited for her to say something before he left the area and started to explore the new world he had found himself in.
"Fan-fucking-tastic, I'm alive... again." the lady said, though Tirek noticed that her tone lacked any sort emotion at the moment, because where most people would be happy that they were alive, after some horrific accident or something, she sounded like she didn't care at all, nor did she sound annoyed, before she shook her head as she finally finished pulling herself out of her grave, before noticing that she wasn't alone, "What are you looking at?"
"I was merely observing someone come back to life, that is all." Tirek replied, where he focused on the path that would lead him out of the area that he was in, since there seemed to be a walkway of some kind that would bring him right to a ruined fountain, because he didn't care about the lady and suspected that she felt the same way, even if she didn't seem to be the sort to feel emotions, "Now I'm going to leave this area and find someone who can tell me about the land that is all around me, before I do anything else."
"We are in the Cemetery of Ash, where all of the Unkindled rise after they have been buried, depending on the ringing of the bell," the lady answered, though she stepped forward and stared at the area that they were in, almost as if she was looking out for enemies to take down, while not appearing to care much for Tirek or the fact that he was there, "I would wager that a good number of Unkindled have been resurrected in the last few days, each following their own path in this dying world... oh well, we had best get moving, least we get ambushed by anyone that is still lingering in this area, looking for scraps to aid them in the future."
"What is this 'we' business?" Tirek inquired, as he raised an eyebrow to that, like he was questioning it, but even as he said those words he knew that he could take total advantage of this situation and follow the lady's lead, allowing him to drain whatever power he could from those that were around him, before eventually taking her out and going wherever he pleased, but before all that he needed some of his old power back and that would take time.
"Listen, old man, we were raised by the bell at the same time, and in this land that means we're bound to the same objective, whether we like it or not," the lady stated, where she merely glanced at him for a moment, like she couldn't believe that he had no idea what she was talking about, but that was because she had no idea that he wasn't like the rest of the beings that called this realm home, before she glanced at the path in front of them, "not that I want to be on this quest again, but this is apparently my fate for the foreseeable future."
"I see..." Tirek said, though at the same time he started to walk away from where he had been resting before suddenly waking up, where he found that moving with two legs, instead of his usual four, was rather odd and would take some time for him to master, regardless of the fact that he had the staff to assist him, before he glanced at his new companion, even if he really didn't see her in that light at the moment, "Well then, lead on."
The lady barely glanced at him as she walked into the area that was in front of them, where Tirek slowly followed after her thanks to his old and frail body, though they didn't get too far before the lady stopped, as there was another figure, a male he guessed, resting nearby with a dark blue gown over his body with a hood that was covering his head, but when he raised his head he got up and rushed at them. The lady drew her blade and parried the attack that was coming their way, as the figure was using a blade to attack the pair, and she managed to push the figure backwards a tiny bit, before she swung her sword down and cut through her foe's chest, dropping him to the ground, where Tirek watched as both of them got some white strands of energy, only for the lady to turn towards him.
"You do know how to use magic, right?" the lady inquired, as she was looking at him and the staff he was carrying at the moment, like she was expecting him to help her clear out anyone that tried to attack them while they were leaving the cemetery, before glancing at the path that was in front of them, where Tirek spotted another foe resting in front of the ruined fountain that was in their way.
"Give me a moment." Tirek stated, where he stepped forward for a moment and focused on his magic, though what he discovered was the pages he had picked up glowed for a second and he pulled them out, allowing him to see how to use both of the spells that had been given to him, before he lowered them and raised his staff, where a light blue glow appeared as he loosed a light blue arrow of some kind that raced through the air and slammed into his target, knocking him down and releasing some more energy into the air, "I would say that I do know how to use magic. Now, what do you think this thing is?"
What he was referring to were the pair of light blue colored containers, which looked like a drink of something, that were laying near the fallen figure that had collided with the fountain, hence the ruined nature of the object, and the lady stared at the items in question, as if she was thinking about what they were as she took one of them, allowing Tirek to hold the second one, even though he noticed he had an orange one on his belt at the moment.
"It's an Ashen Estus Flask," the lady answered, causing Tirek to raise an eyebrow for a moment, showing that he had no idea what she was talking about and that she would need to explain this to him, where she shook her head and simply handed one over to him, allowing him to put it with the other one, finding that it was the color of the liquid that was blue and not the glass itself, as the glass was a dull green for this container and the other one that he hadn't noticed until this very moment, "These are valuable for the Unkindled, as the orange ones allow us to restore our health, so if we get cut or have a broken limb this will restore our bodies to what they had been before we were hurt, and those are just the normal Estus Flasks, as the blue ones replenish someone's magic supply, if they happen to run low or run out. Though anyone from this land would know that, so, since you didn't know that information, it means that you aren't from this land... so who in the world are you?"
"I am Tirek, and, as you said, I'm not from this place." Tirek replied, where he looked out at the area that they were in and kept an eye out for any enemies, because he was sure that there were more than two foes out there and that they had to be careful if they wanted to get out of here alive, only to glance back at the lady for a second, who seemed to be studying him at the moment, "What about you?"
"Sarana. That's my name." the lady stated, though as she said that she used the tip of her sword and lifted the edge of Tirek's new robes, locating his hooves, as she could have sworn she heard something like a horse move in the area and had yet to find the source of the sound, but now she knew where it was coming from, causing her to glace back up to her new companion with her emotionless face, "Care to explain why you're legs are like that?"
"I do not know why they are like this, but I can walk just fine." Tirek said, because while he was more than willing to tell Sarana his name, to learn hers at the same time, he wasn't going to spill the beans about his home world and what had likely brought him to this world, and likely never would, before he continued walking down the path they were following, as standing around was getting them nowhere.
As Tirek explored the area near the fountain he found that there were a few more enemies in the area, one just so happened to be to the right of the ruined object in question, while there was another one to the left side of the object and at least one more in front of them, but these grave tenders, or whatever they were called, seemed to be rather docile at the moment. Sarana took the opportunity that was presented to them and headed towards the foe on their right, where she snuck up behind her target and stabbed him right in the chest from behind, instantly killing the enemy and alerting two more that were behind the wall that Tirek couldn't look over, while at the same time the other two foes he had spotted seemed to be aware of a battle happening and raised their weapons, one wielding a sword and the other a crossbow. In a split second he knew who he needed to take out first, as he raised his staff and blasted the grave tender that happened to be carrying the crossbow in the chest, knocking him down like the first target he had taken out a few seconds ago, before shifting his stance to blast the other grave tender, who went flying into one of the walls, causing a very small grin to appear on his face. Once his enemies were taken care of, and he was sure neither of them were moving as he collected the power from them, or whatever the energy was, he found that Sarana was done with her opponents and that she hadn't taken any damage in the process, but what they did next was walk along the path to their right, to see what was down that way, as they were both sure the path that aligned with the fountain was the correct way to go and they wanted to see if they could find anything useful before heading that way.
The path in question made then wade through knee deep water for a few seconds, something that Tirek was a little surprised by since none of the other sections that had water were like this, before they reached a dead end that consisted of a large grave area, which happened to be home of a large lizard-like creature that was made of earth and light blue crystals, though it seemed to be eating something and was ignoring the direction they had come from, but as Tirek made a move to step into the area Sarana held up a hand across his chest to stop him.
"Don't. That's a Crystal Lizard, an adult one by the looks of it," Sarana said, though her eyes were on the creature and the fact that it hadn't noticed them at the moment, as if she was thinking about something while they were looking at it, causing Tirek to stare at it as well, as he was curious as to why she stopped him, "the younger ones are docile and don't fight back, but when they get to this age and size they're incredibly strong and can take down an unsuspecting traveler or adventurer in no time. We're freshly reborn, meaning we are weakened from what happened to us, and that means we cannot face something like this at the moment, but we can come back at a later time and face it, if you so desire, because I honestly don't care about coming back here in the future."
Tirek said nothing to that, choosing to take Sarana's advice on the matter and dropped the idea to invade the Crystal Lizard's home, to which they turned around and turned back to the area they had been in a few moments ago, and when they returned to where the fountain rested they headed to the north, as it was time to see what else this place had in store for them. As they walked through the opening that was in front of them, which was rather small since the two cliffs were rather close to each other, Tirek found that they would have to be careful from this point forward, as there was no railing or safety measure in front of them, rather it was a sheer drop off a cliff if they weren't careful, so he stayed near the rock wall as they walked up the path to their left. The interesting thing was that it appeared the Cemetery of Ash was high up in the mountains, if the far away peaks were anything to take into consideration, but that told him nothing since he had no idea where in the world he was, since he was sure a native of this land would be able to tell, at a glance, where in the world they were located at the moment. The other thing he noticed was that there was a walled city or something to their right, one that they wouldn't be able to climb up since it looked like a sheer cliff, though as they followed the path he came to a stop as he spotted a large temple or shrine off in the distance, with a path leading out of it that seemed to connect to some sort of fighting area that was on the other side of the hill they were climbing, even though the area in question was lower than where they were standing.
At the top of the hill rested an odd object, as Tirek found a coiled sword of some kind that had been embedded in what appeared to be a pile of ash or something, though when Sarana held her hand out a fire burst to life and wrapped around the blade, making him wonder what in the world was going on, especially since his companion took the chance to sit down at the fire.
"What is this?" Tirek inquired, because while he couldn't believe that they were stopping already, since they had barely started their journey through this land, he was also interested in the strange fire that Sarana was now sitting at, almost as if it was someplace special that he needed to know about before they headed down into the circular area that was at the bottom of the hill.
"A bonfire, another important tool for the Unkindled," Sarana replied, informing Tirek that she had heard about them before becoming what she currently was, though at the same time she gazed through the fire and stared at the area they were heading towards, almost like she couldn't believe that this was happening to her, "Here we can rest and recover our health, not to mention the magical energy a sorcerer uses, and we can even replenish the flasks that we are carrying, so if we used one before this point we can refill it in seconds... oh, and if one of us were to be killed by our enemies, they will come back to life at one of these bonfires, more specifically the last that was used. You should rest for a few seconds, just to be sure your old bones don't give out on you."
Tirek noticed that Sarana didn't sound concerned for him at all, rather he had to guess she was annoyed at having to undertake whatever quest they were no on with someone that was as old and as feeble as he happened to be right now, but he said nothing as he sat down with his back resting on some of the gravestones, because he had the feeling that he needed to be ready for whatever happened next, once they went down the hill anyway.