Chapter 6: Lord Tirek
No one went to Tirek’s castle willing, not unless they absolutely had to, so visitors were few and far between. This was why it was such a surprise to the head of the royal guard to see three travelers making their way towards the castle.
Clad head to foot in gold armor, the head of the royal guard watched as they approached. His attention zeroed in on the lavender-skinned girl with interest. She and her traveling companions were too far away to make out all that much about them, but he couldn’t help but notice how her body language was strange, as if she was’t used to moving around in such a way.
“What has caught your attention?” a deep voice spoke.
The royal guard glanced over his shoulder as a large cloaked figure joined him up on the tower, and he motioned towards the three travelers. “It appears we have visitors. A man and two women. There’s something strange about the purple one though. There’s a kind of… newness about her. I’m not sure how to explain it.”
The cloaked figure looked down as Micro Chips, Sunset, and Twilight approached. “Yes, I see. It has been so long since we’ve had visitors. Let’s go give them a proper greeting.”
The royal guard nodded and followed the cloaked person through the castle and to the front entrance. They arrived at the same time the three humans reached the doors. Pulling out his sword, the royal guard pointed it at the three travelers as the cloaked figure spoke to them.
“Who goes there,” he asked in an almost uncaring tone. “State your business here.”
Micro Chips and Sunset glanced at each other as Twilight hung back. Putting on a brave face, Micro Chips stepped forward while Sunset stayed beside Twilight and addressed the two blocking their path. “Um, yes, hello. Greetings. We’re, um, travelers, and we’ve come to see the great and mighty Lord Tirek.”
The cloaked figure cocked his head to the side. “State your business with Lord Tirek.”
Clearing his throat, Micro Chips puffed out his chest. “Very well, but we’ll do it to Lord Tirek himself.”
The cloaked figure considered him for a few moments. When the royal guard glanced at him in question, the cloaked figure gave him a nod and motioned for Micro Chips, Sunset, and Twilight to follow. The royal guard sheathed his sword and moved aside to allow them to follow the cloaked figure, and he followed after them.
No one spoke as they made their way through the castle. Micro Chips and Sunset looked around, looking for any sign that the alicorns were here, but finding nothing. Twilight clung to Sunset, clearly uncomfortable with the situation she was in.
As they made their way up the stairs, the whole castle suddenly shook, and a familiar monstrous bellow echoed through the halls. Twilight let out a fearful squeak and held onto Sunset even tighter, nearly losing her balance on her still new human legs.
“It’s alright,” the royal guard told her reassuringly. “You don’t need to be afraid. That was just Sombra. He won’t bother you though.”
Twilight glanced back at him uncertainly before facing forward again as they continued on their way through the castle. Eventually, they came to a room that was as dark and dreary as the rest of the castle, and at the end of it was a large stone throne far too big for any human.
“This is Lord Tirek’s throne room,” the cloaked figure told them as the royal guard went to stand by his side.
Micro Chips scowled in disapproval, clearly having hoped to find Tirek himself sitting there to greet them. “This is a throne room? It looks more like a cell. Where’s Lord Tirek? He’s the one we’ve come to see. Take us to him. Um, please.”
Reaching up, the cloaked figure pulled off the cloak and cast it aside, revealing a large, heavily muscular centaur. His humanoid upper body was black and dark red, while his lower horse half was a dark gray with white hooves. A beard as white as his tail was present on his face, and two large horns grew out of the side of his head, curving upward. Black eyes stared at the group with mild interest while his mouth was pulled down into a grumpy frown.
“I am Lord Tirek,” he announced.
Micro Chips took a step back, feeling more than a little intimidated. He glanced at Sunset, who looked equally as surprised to suddenly be in the presence of one of the ones who were supposedly behind the disappearances of the alicorns. She unconsciously moved in front of Twilight protectively, who also shifted behind the red and yellow haired girl a little more.
Tirek stared at them for a few moments before motioning to his royal guard. “This is the captain of my royal guard, Flash Sentry.”
Reaching up, Flash removed his helmet, revealing a man around the same age as the other three humans. He had light amber skin and spiky blue hair. And unlike Tirek, he was smiling, and had a kindness in his cornflower blue eyes.
“Hello,” he greeted them politely. “Nice to meet you.”
Tirek held out a hand to the others. “And you are?”
Micro Chips pulled himself together and cleared his throat. “Um, yes, my lord. I am Micro Chips. These are my good friends Sunset Shimmer and… uh…” He hesitated, wondering if he should use Twilight’s real name, or if Tirek would recognize it as the fourth alicorn princess and figure out who she was. “This is… uh… Sci-Twi. She’s Sci-Twi.”
If Tirek noticed his hesitation in introducing Twilight, he gave no indication of it. “And what is your business here?”
Trying his best to look professional, Micro Chips replied, “We would like to join your court, my lord. It would be a great honor to work for the mighty Tirek.”
The centaur just harrumphed and went to go sit on his throne. “I have plenty of servants. I have no need for more.”
Micro Chips’ face fell, and he began trying to come up with a reason as to why Tirek should let them stay. “Yes, but surely you could use more. We wouldn’t even require payment, merely a place to stay. Both Sunset and Sci-Twi would make fine maids.”
He glanced at them for support, but Sunset just glared at him for dubbing both her and Twilight as maids. He gave them an apologetic smile before turning back to Tirek. “As for me, I’m a scholar of magic. Surely you could find use for us.”
Tirek looked like he was beginning to get impatient. “What use would I have for a human scholar of magic? I already employ the god of chaos, Discord. There’s nothing you could tell me about magic that he doesn’t already know.”
Micro Chips’ mouth dropped open. “Discord works for you? Thee Discord?”
“Indeed,” Tirek replied, now looking bored. “I see no reason to keep a puny human around when I have him.”
Realizing that Micro Chips was botching this up, Sunset stepped forward while Twilight hung back. “I do. Micro Chips may be a puny human, but he’s one that can use magic. I’ll bet you’ve never seen anything like that, not even from the great Discord. Besides, knowing Discord, it’s obvious that he’s only working for you for his own amusement.”
Tirek raised an eyebrow. “A human that can use magic? There is no such thing.”
“But there is,” Sunset insisted. “During his studies, he devised a way to absorb and use magic. If you don’t believe me, he can show you. If he can figure out how to do that, just think about what else he can discover about magic.”
“Hmm…” Tirek muttered. “Interesting. Yes, I suppose that could be useful. Discord hasn’t really been all that helpful lately.”
“What’s that!?” a voice demanded, seemingly coming from all around them. A moment later, a draconequus with the head of an Equestrian pony and a long serpentine body made up of various other creatures appeared out of thin air. “You actually think that this pathetic human would be more useful than me, the Lord of Chaos?”
Micro Chips and Sunset recoiled from the sight of the god of chaos, but Tirek just looked bored, as if he had seen this countless times before. “Ah, Discord. I assume you were listening in.”
“Indeed,” the draconequus snapped. “And I can’t believe what I was hearing. How could you think that his four-eyed nerd could possibly be more beneficial to you than me?”
“For one thing,” Tirek began nonchalantly, “unlike you, a human won’t waste my time or get on my nerves with pointless gimmicks just for the sake of a laugh that only he finds funny. For another, the girl is right. You’ve worked for me for quite awhile now, and even with your random chaos magic, I’m no longer impressed by what you can do. But I am curious to see what a human with magic is capable of, and what other discoveries about magic he can find.”
Discord’s eyes flashed red. “You dare to insult the Lord of Chaos by actually suggesting that you could get more out of a human than you could with me! Perhaps you need to see what I’m capable of when I really get serious.”
He raised his arms, and the castle began to shake. Suddenly, random objects began popping up out of thin air and began flying around the room. Then the room itself changed, seemingly becoming another dimension itself of what could only be considered pure chaos.
Tirek continued to look bored as his throne rose up into the air and began spinning around. Micro Chips suddenly found himself trapped in a bubble, and began bouncing off the ceiling, floor, and walls. Beneath Sunset, a giant flower sprang up out of the floor, and she rose up into the air as a giant cotton candy cloud appeared over her head and began raining chocolate milk. The three of them were lost amongst the chaos as reality swirled around them in a blur of motion.
Grinning, Discord then turned his attention to Twilight. Before he could do anything, however, Flash moved in front of her to protect her from whatever the draconequus had planned. But then, much to his surprise, Twilight stepped from around him and went to face Discord. The draconequus sneered at her, and Flash held out a hand to warn her of the god of chaos’ power. But before he could, a swarm of objects that had sprouted wings flew in front of him, obstructing both Twilight and Discord from his view.
Discord chuckled at how this human girl was actually stepping forward to challenge him, and he began to think about all the different ways he could mess with her. He rose up into the air in an attempt to intimidate her, laughing at the thought of how she would freak out when he showed her what he was capable of as he surrounded them in a vortex of chaos magic, blurring out everything else.
Twilight did not back down. She may have been human now, but she was not going to let anyone mess with her friends. Besides, she knew who Discord was. While the draconequus was mischievous, he wasn’t dangerous, and never actually hurt anyone over the course of his very, very long life. And so she stared him down, reaching deep down for whatever remnants of magic still remained within her.
Much to Discord’s surprise, something happened to the girl that was not his doing. Her human ears disappeared, and a pair of pony ears appeared at the top of her head. Her hair grew longer and became a ponytail, the end nearly reaching the floor, and an additional streak of color appeared in it. Last, a pair of wings appeared on her back, stretching outward.
Discord stared long and hard at her, trying to figure out what he was seeing. Suddenly, it clicked, and he began to laugh. This was far greater than anything he had planned to repay Tirek with for the insult. It would most certainly serve the magic-devouring centaur right when he faced whatever fate had in store for him.
Suddenly, the large red arm of Tirek reached through the vortex and wrapped around Discord’s neck. The draconequus was caught off guard as he was pulled up to the centaur.
“Your usefulness is at an end, Discord,” Tirek told him. “There’s only one more thing you can do for me.”
He opened his mouth and began to suck the magic out of Discord. The draconequus’ eyes bulged in surprise as his magic flowed out of him in a continuous stream, and Tirek greedily consumed it. And as his magic was drained, the chaos that he had unleashed settled back down as everything returned to normal, including Twilight.
Sucking out the last bits of Discord’s magic, Tirek let the draconequus fall to the ground. The results of the magic he consumed began to take affect, and Tirek began to grow in size, and his muscle mass increased. His horns grew longer and sharper, curling inward more and then outward.
“Without your magic, you’re now completely useless,” Tirek told the god of chaos. “Leave my castle while you still have your life.”
A groan came from Discord as he rolled over and forced himself to sit up. He threw a glare at the centaur and snapped his fingers, but nothing happened. He tried a few more times before realizing his magic was completely gone.
Throwing the centaur a dirty look, he pointed at him threateningly. “You’ve made a big mistake, Tirek. You don’t realize it yet, but you’ve invited your own doom into your castle. I’ll be looking forward to the day when I get my magic back and you get what’s coming to you.”
Tirek looked unimpressed by Discord’s promise and uncaringly walked away from him. With the threat over, Flash bent down beside Discord and helped the draconequus to his feet. “Come on, big guy. Let me give you a hand.”
Discord, however, swatted him away. “I don’t need your help.”
Holding his head up high, Discord spread his wings and flew out the window, actually having to use his wings to fly since he was now without magic. Twilight watched him go before making her way over to the window and looking up at the moon in the sky. It was still there, just as it had been for weeks now, even when the sun should have been in its place.
Tirek looked at her curiously before he walked over to her. Twilight saw the centaur coming out of the corner of her eye, and a jolt of fear ran through her as she thought that he may have realized what she was during all the chaos that had ensued and was about to do something to her.
“Don’t!” she cried out, moving away from him.
Tirek came to a stop. “I’m not going to touch you. I was just wondering what you were looking at.”
Twilight relaxed a bit as she realized that her secret was safe, and looked out the window again. “The moon.”
“Ah, yes,” Tirek replied. “The moon is quite beautiful. With enough magic, one could even move it. Quite an amazing feat, don’t you…” He trailed off as he detected remnants of magic upon her, and he leaned in close to study her, trying to figure out what he was sensing. “What is this? I sense traces of magic on you. Powerful magic.”
Both Micro Chips and Sunset exchanged worried looks. Twilight may be human now, but there were still traces of alicorn magic upon her that had yet to dissipate. If Tirek realized what kind of magic it was, it could expose Twilight for what she really was.
Turning to the two of them, Tirek demanded furiously, “Who is she? What is this magic I sense?”
Micro Chips quickly began searching his brain for an answers. “Lord Tirek, sir, she is… uh… she’s my sister. The traces of magic you sense are from her spending so much time with me.”
Tirek stomped his hoof. “That does not answer my question! I want to know exactly who she is!”
Much to Micro Chips and Sunset’s surprise, it was Flash who came to the rescue. “Lord Tirek, what does it matter who she is? She’s here now.”
Tirek seemed to calm down as he considered this. He looked at his three guests in consideration before relenting. “Yes, I suppose you’re right. She is here. They are all here. However, whether they mean my doom or not is yet to be seen. The three of you may stay, for now. Whatever secrets you’re hiding, I’m sure they’ll come to light in time.”
With nothing more to say on the subject, he walked out of the room, leaving the four humans alone. Micro Chips and Sunset breathed sighs of relief at having successfully infiltrated Tirek’s castle. Now they just had to find out what happened to the alicorns and rescue them.
Flash was completely oblivious to what was going on in the heads of the other two. His attention was on Twilight, and had been ever since he saw her. And so, putting on a friendly smile, he made his way over to her.
“I’m sorry about that,” he told her. “Lord Tirek can be rather overbearing at times. Is there anything I can do to make your stay more pleasant?” He took note of her dirty clothes. “I could get you some new clothes so you can get out of those dirty traveling ones. Please, miss, let me help you.”
Twilight looked at him uncertainly, wondering if she could indeed trust the captain of Tirek’s royal guard. Flash Sentry his name was. He seemed to genuinely want to help her, and she felt drawn to him for some reason she couldn’t put her finger on. And as she looked into his kind eyes, she suddenly felt more at ease than she had felt since she had become a human.