//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: A New Addition 
// Story: Tartarus Changes People 
// by Dashed 
//------------------------------//

“So Tirek, I know you said that dragons are a thing here but uh... are there supposed to be that many in the sky at one time?” Asked Ethan, sweat gathering on his face as he watched hundreds of dragons fly over the opening in the tree line of their temporary home.

“Hmm? Oh, that. That is just the migration for them. They go off to the distant volcanoes to do whatever giant, smelly creatures like to do in their free time. Though you should already know what that is, given that you are one.” replied Tirek, who was laying next to their new food basket and eating a few of the berries inside. 

Upon hearing volcanoes Ethan's interest suddenly peaked, ignoring the jab sent his way. Sitting up from his lounging position on top of Cerberus–who was quietly napping–he looked towards Tirek. “So you're telling me, dragons migrate like birds and that we could follow them and potentially see some volcanoes?” He asked with wonder and mischief coloring his tone.

“If one was so inclined to, yes.”

Ethan's face formed into a wide smile, “Hey, Tirek. I think I know what we're going to do today.”

Tirek glanced at the human and grunted, “If you are implying we chase down a bunch of fire breathing lizards then you're even stupider than I thought.”

“Aww come on, dude! Where's your sense of adventure? We've done nothing but gather berries and wood. Don't you get tired of that? I figured you especially would wanna do something after being locked away for god knows how long,” said Ethan while trying his best at puppy eyes, failing spectacularly. Tirek just rolled his eyes and shook his head causing the human to huff heatedly. 

“Fine be that way then. I'll just go without you. So, don't be sad if I never come back or you miss out on something really cooool~.”

“I think I'll survive.” Tirek said flatly, not even bothering to look in Ethan's direction.

“Whatever you say dude. I don't know how long I'll be, but just in case I'm going to bring a few days worth of food.” Ethan jumped down from Cerberus's back and made his way over to the food basket, grabbing his lunchbox on the way. Filling it with the various fruits they found, he zipped it back up and went towards Cerberus.

Once next to the giant dog, Ethan attempted to awake him. At first he tried to nudge the dog awake, but that only caused him to roll over. Switching tactics, the human began shouting at Cerberus, “Hey Cerb! Come on! It's time to go on an adventure!” Instead of getting up, one of Cerberus's heads peeked at Ethan with bloodshot eyes. Ethan smiled and waved. In return, the head sneezed and covered the human's head in dog snot. Tirek, having watched the whole exchange, laughed at Ethan's misfortune. 

“So, that's how it is, huh boy?” Ethan said with closed eyes. Making his way towards the small river, he dunked his head under the surface of the water to clean his face. After a few seconds, he brought his hands underneath the surface to vigorously scrub his face. Once clean, Ethan stood back up and brushed his hair out of his eyes; giving Cerberus the stink eye all the while.

“Fine, fine. I'll go alone. I needed some alone time anyways.” Ethan justified. “Well that and Cerberus is a little too noticeable,” Ethan mumbled to himself. He thought about his plan for several more seconds before looking towards the dragons in the sky and deciding it was time to go.

“Well I'll be off then. Try not to get into too much trouble while I'm gone 'kay?” Ethan said while beginning to walk in the direction of the migration. Just before hitting the tree line he turned back to give a mini-salute to Tirek who–having decided to be generous–gave a slight nod back causing Ethan to stumble as he turned away, a smile on his face.

'I can't believe he actually did something back. If this keeps up he'll be calling me a friend in no time. Cause damn do I need one right now...' Ethan sighed deeply, feeling his muscles relax as his shoulders dropped. 'It's just not the same unless he calls me his friend. Even if I already consider him one.'



Tirek



'Hm yes, let him think that I am beginning to warm up to him. As if I Lord Tirek am someone who calls lesser beings friends! Allies possibly but never friends. Friendship is for those ponies. Those ponies who will get what is coming to them soon enough... I just need more time.'

Tirek chuckled darkly to himself as he thought about his plans for the future when a traitorous whisper was heard in the back of his mind. 'But what if things changed?'

Tirek paused. Disgust began to fill him as he thought more on the whisper. Disgust in himself for thinking such things. He promptly squashed the thought and chose to ignore what was undoubtedly heard. 'There is no hope for change. Everything will eventually fall into place beneath my hoof as it should.'

Peeking into the food basket, Tirek estimated it to be half full at most. Deciding to fill it for the future, Tirek got onto his hooves and began wandering towards the tree line on the opposite side from where Ethan left. Feeling the cool late-morning breeze lightly ruffle his hair, he took a deep breath and slowly released it to clear his head of any more intrusive thoughts.



The moon shone brightly over a hill. The multitude of stars in the sky helped to illuminate the night. Suddenly, a hand shot out from the top of the hill and desperately grasped at the ground. A few moments later the gasping face of Equestria's resident human popped over as well.  After several days of travel, Ethan almost couldn't believe he was still alive. He had traveled through all types of weather: rain, snow, blazing heat and yet his journey still continues. 

'If I had known it was going to suck this bad I would've stayed with Tirek back at camp. The fact I survived that snow storm... thank god those mountain goats were warm because I surely would've been a popsicle. Thankfully it wasn't very large. I figured I'd be stuck there for at least a day but it only took like two hours if I had to guess. Or maybe my sense of time is warped... who knows?'

After catching his breath Ethan began walking down the mighty mountain(in reality a small hill) and saw what looked to be volcanoes in the distance with a trail leading through a forest in their direction.

'Hmm well that's pretty convenient. Might as well go through the forest to get a better view then head out. No point in risking staying here for too long in case one of those volcanoes decides to erupt.' Walking down the path Ethan looked around to keep himself entertained, humming slightly when he noticed what looked to be a bird nest in a tree with two birds watching him.

'Wow those are some of the prettiest birds I've ever seen' Ethan thought to himself. The birds were a fiery shade of red with orange accents on their wings and head. The smaller of the two, a female if the extra pink coloring on her wings was any indicator, kept an especially vigilante eye on the passing human. Looking into her eyes Ethan frowned slightly when he saw her eyes narrow.

'Jeez, didn't realize I was breaking the law just walking past a nest. Night or not.'

Shaking his head, Ethan looked ahead and kept walking away from the nest, not wishing be attacked by a bird. But before he could get too far he heard shouting coming from the direction of the nest. Stepping off the path Ethan made his way through the bushes, making sure to avoid making too much noise, and pulled open a hole through a bush to look towards the shouting. 

The first thing Ethan saw was a small purple dragon with a pale green underbelly and green spines throwing a decent sized rock at the nest. Only realizing his mistake when the male bird peeked over the edge with a welt forming on the top of his head. Turning around, the small purple dragon started running in the opposite direction of the nest, screaming when the two birds gave chase, their wings ablaze. Ethan went to step out of the bush and follow but before he could, three dragons just slightly taller than him flew out of bush across the clearing from him and towards the unguarded nest. 

Being unable to see what they were looking at, and having no way to fight flying creatures, Ethan was forced to wait for a good opportunity to reveal himself. He listened in as they talked between one another.

“What the!?” One voice said in confusion.

“The eggs have hatched,” said another nasally one.

“What do we do now?” A final deep voice questioned.

The first voice replied, “We take the hatchlings, of course.”

Having heard enough Ethan immediately stepped out of the bush and opened his mouth to shout but paused when instead of seeing three dragons attempting to take baby birds, he saw the birds making a fool out of a muscular red dragon. They easily avoided his grasps and even managed to tangle him in his own limbs, causing him to fall into the nest. Flying a few feet away, they—to the shock of Ethan—stuck their tongues out at the dragons then raced off.

With a shout of, “GET THEM!” from the now untangled red dragon, a fat brown dragon and a lanky purple dragon with blonde spines gave chase. The red dragon standing up and joining them not a second later, but not before ruining the nest and knocking a hidden egg from it. Ethan, seeing the egg falling, sprinted to the tree and managed to catch it a split second before it fell into a bush.

Ethan sighed softly and looked at the small two colored egg in his hands. Suddenly, a bright flash of light through the trees caught his attention and he looked in the direction of it, but the human couldn't see what was going on. Before he could figure out what was causing the light, it was over and Ethan caught sight of the two birds from earlier and three hatchlings flying away.

'Oh no...' Feeling a sense of dread build up in his stomach he looked back down at the egg and knew what needed to be done.

'I'm sorry this happened to you little one. If it weren't for those dragons you might've been able to live a normal life. But alas it is not to be. Don't you worry though, Papa Ethan will take care of you.' As soon as he finished the thought Ethan could hear the sounds of footsteps approaching and he began sprinting in the opposite direction. Ethan sprinted for several minutes, adrenaline keeping him going for much long than even he thought possible.

He only stopped sprinting once he managed to make his way back up the small hill he used to get to the forest in the first place. As soon as he stopped, Ethan fell to his knees and panted to catch his breath while keeping the egg close to his chest so it would remain warm in the cooler night air. Sweat dripped from his eyebrow and slightly stung his eyes forcing the human to reach a hand up to wipe them off.

Eventually, Ethan managed to stand back up and after checking his surroundings to make sure no one was watching him, began making his way back the way he came, legs aching in protest with each step, but fully intent on making it back to camp before the egg hatched.

'Could be any day now that this little buddy will hatch. Although what's a good name for a bird? Actually what type of bird even were those? Certainly nothing I've seen before. Maybe a type of macaw? But then what was that flash of light? There was also the flaming wings from the parents too. Hmm... just more things to ask Tirek when I get back from this little vacation, if I can even call it that anymore.' He thought with a sigh.



The Next Day



Ethan was walking through the desert hills in the blazing sun when he felt it, a slight twitch. His eyes shot down to the egg in his hands and waited. Seconds passed before the human both saw and felt the egg move. Looking around Ethan couldn't find much of anything that could be used as a make shift nest. Panic began to set in as the shakes got harder and harder to handle safely.

'Come on, Come on. Think! There has got to be something to use. It doesn't even need... to be... oh...' Feeling like an idiot Ethan looked down at his jeans. There were dirt spots on them and some holes from all the rough treatment, but it was better than nothing. Slipping off his shoes Ethan quickly unbuttoned his pants and worked them off his legs with one hand. Once it was off he immediately set to making a make-shift nest.

Once up to snuff, Ethan set the now almost violently shaking egg into the nest and waited. The shaking continued to get more and more rigorous before cracks began to form on the surface. They spider-webbed across the shell before suddenly the shaking stopped. Fearing the worst, Ethan began grabbing at some of the looser pieces and helped break the shell. Soon enough a large hole was made in the shell and a soft chirp sounded through the hole.

Ethan's hand froze just shy of the hole and he watched as a small orange head poked out and looked at him with bright yellow eyes. Ethan licked his lips and gave a slight smile at the new arrival. Seeing this, the chick chirped again and slightly nuzzled his hand. Ethan's heart couldn't help but melt and he brought his other hand up to the shell to break off the rest of the pieces and slowly take the chick into his hands. Bringing it up to his face, Ethan got a good look at his new companion. 

The chick had touches of pink on the ridge of her beak and circling her eyes like eye liner. He glanced at her body and wings seeing the fiery orange covering most of her head, upper neck and chest. Her lower chest had an almost minuscule line of pink feathers wrapping around from the back of her neck, almost looking like a necklace, with red feathers encompassing the rest of her body down to her claws and tail, the ends of both were also bright pink. The edge of her wings had the same bright pink coloration running against them with red feathers trailing before they faded into a dark orange hue.

'Given the pink feathers I think it's safe to assume this is a girl, right? But what's a good bird name for her? PeeWee? Nope. Flamewing? Too obvious. Ah whatever, I'll name her once I know more about her.'

“Hello, little one,” Ethan said gently. The chick looked at him, her eyes twinkling in confusion as she looked at the mysterious creature before her. “How would you like come with me?” He asked.

Silence lingered for a moment as the chick thought. Suddenly, she seemed to get brighter and chirped before nodding her head repeatedly. It still kind of freaked him out that the animals here seemed sentient but he was working towards accepting it. 

'Besides, it's kinda cool knowing that the animals here are actually sentient and can understand me.' Ethan thought with a smile.

Bringing his hand towards his shoulder so his new rider was level with it; Ethan then nudged the chick who quickly understood what he wanted and walked onto his shoulder. Ethan could feel the press of her small talons on his skin but dealt with it as he felt her rubbing he head slightly on his facial hair.

With her now out of his hands, he was able to brush the shells covering his pants off and threw them back on along with his shoes. With his legs now recovered, Ethan glanced at his companion who nuzzled his cheek causing him to smile.

“Welp, I think its about time we got back on the road to get home, huh?” Ethan asked with amusement lingering in his voice as he began walking back up the mountain he previously climbed days before.



Later...



Ethan felt miserable.

It was the simplest way to put it. After traversing through the heat he now was faced with the cold. It hadn't bothered him as much as it should have though, especially since he was still shirtless. He still shivered though.

He had brought his chick into his arms when they first began to travel through the cold. She had resisted at first, much to Ethan's confusion, but thankfully she gave in and quickly took to spreading out her wings against his chest. It helped at first, oddly enough. Yet after over an hour of walking through the snow, and roughly an hour left to go, the extra contact just didn't seem like enough. There were times though when the snow around them melted for no apparent reason to the human. It was at these times when the little chick would seem to glow. 

Ethan was no fool and could tell some kind of connection was there, but he didn't know what it was exactly. He would just need to ask Tirek more about this world and his affect on it.

'The snow outta be melting due to heat, but I can't feel anything besides the slight chill in the air. This chick though, she seems special, her glow coincides with the melting, making me think she is getting hotter. Reminds me of Phoenixes from my world. Well... at least the mythological kind. I don't think Earth ever had actual phoenixes flying around.'

As Ethan finished the thought, he watched as the little one in his arms grew brighter than ever, almost forcing Ethan to look away from how bright she suddenly got. He could see wisps of what looked to be flame begin to come from her outstretched wings and her pink accents glowed like a fire.

'I'll be damned if I don't acknowledge what I am seeing right now. She, She was burning! She was literally on fire! Just like a Phoenix would. You know maybe that would be a good name, Pheonix. Wait... no, that's too masculine. Ugh at this rate I might as well name her after a god or something...' Ethan thought, before pausing mentally.

'You know? That doesn't actually sound like a terrible idea. Way to go Ethan, finally putting that brain to good use. But who? I don't know too many gods besides Greek or other popular ones, much less goddesses. Hmm... Well I know Athena, Iris, Aphrodite, Artemis... What's with all the names that start with A? Besides those maybe Persephone? Hmm... That has a nice ring to it actually. Persephone. I like it.'

“Persephone...” said Ethan, causing the bird in his arms to look up at him, confused. Ethan smiled slightly, “I was just thinking of names for you. I think she was the goddess of spring or something like that. Ushering in the warmer weather for crops and stuff to grow.” Ethan shot a side long look at the snow rapidly melting around them. “Almost like how you're melting the snow around us. Married to a badass too.”

Hearing a slight caw, Ethan looked back down into his arms and watched her smile and nod, getting him to smile too. “Persephone it is then sweetie.”

'Well one problem down, now to just fight my way back home. Remember, this is the hardest part of the trip after this it'll be smooth sailing.' With renewed faith in himself, Ethan shook off the slight chill he felt and moved faster, hoping to get home as soon as possible.



Three Days Later (Tirek)



'What is taking that idiot so long? Its been days and he's still not back. Hmm... maybe he finally went and died? It would save me the future planning at the very least, but then Cerberus might not follow my orders over the princesses' Tirek thought as he sent a small glare over to the three-headed dog, all three of which were asleep near a small tree they had ripped from the ground at the treeline. 

Seeing his glare have no effect, Tirek sighed and looked at the fire pit he had put together with larger stones he found. Some of the thick sticks inside were still smoldering from the fire that had been alive not five minutes prior to light the camp. 

'I forgot how boring it was without Ethan's presence. That magic blocking-absorbing-nullifying thing at least made it easy to ignore the fact that I was very much alone for hundreds of years. It sickens me just thinking about it, but even all-powerful beings like myself can get a little bored without company.' He thought to himself absent mindedly.

Tirek continued to let his mind wander for some time before his attention was grabbed by a rustling sound coming from the nearby treeline. Looking towards the bushes in the direction of the sound, Tirek slowly rose from his sitting position and stood tense. The sounds got louder as whatever was making the noise got closer and closer to the camp. Eventually a small creature popped out from the bushes and it only took the centaur a split second to recognize it before his eyes slammed shut and he turned away.

An adult cockatrice had jumped out of the bushes and had Tirek looked for a second longer he would have seen it didn't hold the usual fearsome look of a predator that can turn anything that looks into its eyes to stone. Instead it's eyes held fear as it scrambled towards the nearest place to hide, which happened to be Ethan's tent.

Several quiet seconds passed before Tirek finally took a peak and heard the clucks of the creature inside the tent. A moment later, significantly louder and faster rustling came from the bushes the cockatrice came from and Tirek nearly dove under his tent to get away from the monster that could scare a cockatrice. 

But instead of a monster, a familiar biped shot out of the bushes holding a small stone chick in his hands with a manic look on his face.

“WHERE IS IT!? I'M GONNA KILL THAT MOTHERFUCKING CHICKEN, I SWEAR TO GOD!” Ethan shouted at the top of his lungs. Tirek blinked a few times and pointed at his newly arrived pal's tent. The human began smiling, but instead of happiness it was a smile of pure malicious intent, as he began to slowly walk towards his tent.

“Oh well, looks like it got away. Such a shame too, I just wanted to say hello and give it a nice gift,” Ethan said as he got closer to the tent. Coming up to it's side, Ethan took notice of the shaking his tent seemed to be doing. “Well Tirek, I'm really tired now so I'm just going to sleep inside my empty tent. The tent that certainly won't have any soon-to-be dead chickens in it or anything right?” As soon as Ethan finished his sentence the tent noticeably jumped and a choked sound could be heard from inside.

Ethan slowly started yawning and methodically raised both his arms above his head, with the chick held securely in his left hand. After a moments pause he let his right arm swing down as hard as it could, knocking away all the branches and leaves that made up his tent revealing the shaking cockatrice. 

The human glared and his smile turned near psychotic, freezing the cockatrice in it's place. He looked into the chicken head's eyes and reached out gripping its neck tightly and rose it to eye level; with the cockatrice screeching and flailing all the while.

“I'm only going to ask this of you once. Turn back my chick or else you will become tonight's dinner.” Ethan said in a deathly calm voice. The cockatrice's eyes only widened in fear at his 'question'. “And I don't know about Tirek over there, but I've never had chicken-dragon-thing meat before so I'm willing to give it a try,” Ethan held up his left hand which still held the stoned chick. “Turn her back right now.” The cockatrice rapidly nodded it's head and deactivated the stoning on Persephone, who fell over as soon as she was released.

“Good chicken. Now, I am a man of my word, so here,” Ethan set down the cockatrice and faced it back towards the tree line giving it a few nudges on the rump just to be sure it got moving. “You have a five minute head start to run away before I come and eat you alive. And it started two minutes ago when I came to camp. So you better get going because I'm pretty fast when I wanna be.” The cockatrice nearly jumped and took off, almost faster than the eye could see, through the tree line of their camp.

Ethan smirked, but it was quickly dropped when he felt movement from his hand. Looking at Persephone, who struggled to stand up for a moment before regaining her balance, he rubbed along her back causing her to give him a questioning look.

“Oh don't worry, nothing really happened except that we arrived while you were asleep.” Ethan stated as he gave a pointed look at Tirek to make sure he didn't cause her to freak out about almost getting eaten. The centaur rolled his eyes but gave a subtle nod. Ethan smiled in thanks and brought Persephone up to his hair so she could catch a ride.

“So Tirek... Do you know what type of bird Persephone is?” Asked Ethan as he gestured towards the chick on his head; who slightly glared at Tirek and snuggled into Ethan's hair further.

Finding amusement in the bird's attitude, Tirek smirked as he walked closer to inspect her. 

"Hmm... Interesting. Very interesting." He rubbed his chin introspectively. "Where did you find such a fine specimen like this?" Tirek asked with a glance towards Ethan before going back to his inspection of Persephone.

Ethan raised an eyebrow quizzically, "What do you mean? I found her nest in a forest near the dragon's volcanoes. She had two parents guarding the nest but some dumbass dragons came and fucked with the birds. She was a late bloomer, so her siblings hatched and managed to get away. Thankfully, the dragons were too busy chasing her siblings back towards their parents so they didn't notice her which must've been more hidden." Ethan said while giving Persephone a light scratch on her neck, causing her to coo and puff up her feathers.

Watching the interaction, Tirek reached out, attempting to touch the bird lightly and gauge her reaction. But just as his claw was about to reach her she focused on his claw and huffed, causing her feathers to glow momentarily. Feeling the sudden heat, Tirek yanked back his claw and nursed the slight burning feeling. Glaring at Persephone as she cooled off, the glow leaving her body.

While he didn't get to touch her, he did pick up on the fact Ethan was completely unharmed. Further reinforcing his belief in Ethan's immunity, or blocking of magic.

The human huffed, amused with Tirek and Persphone's first interaction together. Knowing that the two would keep life here interesting for as long as they're together. She may have been in his life on Equestria for a very short period so far, but she was already growing on him.

'Maybe she'll be able to keep him in line... Now if only I could figure out who his gram gram is, she'd be able to straighten him out real-' A yawn cut off his train of thought. Ethan looked back at the remains of his tent and cringed. Realizing his theatrics cost him his shelter.

'It was damn worth it though.' He thought with a smirk as he began collecting what he could to rebuild the tent. The process was slow going though since he kept making sure Persephone wouldn't fall from his hair.

"She's a pheonix. Very rare species of bird, capable of fire and light magic to a certain degree and almost completely immortal age wise," Tirek said as he started making his way over to his tent to rest for the night and to avoid being burned again. "Though, I'm surprised her parents haven't attempted to find her, they are very territorial, but if your story holds true they might think she was killed by the dragons."

Ethan could feel Persephone hug the top of his head with her wings. Her claws slightly poking his scalp, almost making him yelp. He reached up and held out his hand in front of her. Feeling her walk onto his hand he brought her down to eye level.

"I want you to be honest with me," Ethan said seriously. Persephone got the message as she straightened up and focused completely on him. "Do you want me to take you back to your nest?" He asked, a small selfish part of him hoping she would say no.

She looked down in contemplation, several moments passed before she took a noticeably deep breath and her feathers glowed slightly. She looked up with a razor sharp look in her eyes and shook her head firmly.

Ethan felt a smile tug at his lips and he brought her to his chest to give her a pseudo-hug since he didn't want to crush her. "Just what I wanted to hear. Welcome to the family, and don't mind the giant drooling animal, we have Cerberus from Tartarus keeping him in check," Ethan whispered, getting a smile from Persephone.



He looked at his rebuilt tent. It was a little more than some twigs barely keeping themselves held up, but it would do for tonight. Climbing in, he laid on his back to allow Persephone to sleep on his chest. It wasn't his preferred means of sleeping, but he didn't want her sleeping on the ground.

"Survival tip. Don't catch the tent on fire. It's not much but it's better than nothing at all." Ethan teased lightly, with the pheonix nodded softly in response as she got comfortable. It wasn't long before Ethan closed his eyes and he got the first real rest since leaving for the dragon migration, Persephone following him quickly after. 

Neither him nor Persephone felt the piercing gaze of Tirek as he watched them fall asleep, yet another plan formulating in his head as he let a malicious smile pull at his lips.