The red fires built and built, becoming great spluttering columns that filled the throne room with heat and blazing light. Firelight danced off the distant and massive shape of King Tirek, at ease in his stone throne.
A little golden box rested between Tirek's forehooves at the throne's base. Apple Bloom's gaze flicked to it, before her attention rose. And rose.
Tirek's lower half and legs were the size of any respectable building, black-haired and dense columns of sheer muscle. Two Yrrs piled atop each other's shoulders wouldn't have risen to the level of his knee. His vast hands rested on the arms of his throne, and were clad in gauntlets of black steel that ran all the way to his shoulders. Tirek's horns ascended until they all but scratched the impossibly high ceiling. Fire flared into existence between them, a orange sphere that broiled in the gap like the beacon of a lighthouse.
One of his fingers flicked upwards in a come-hither gesture. What felt like a wall slammed into the backs of the Crusaders, and they stumbled forwards to the second row of plinths. Yrr, who had subsided into discombobulated gibbering and weeping as he fumbled at the arrow in his arm, was bowled over and forcibly rolled along the floor beside them.
“Hmm,” said Tirek, stroking his beard with one hand as the Crusaders righted themselves. He snapped his fingers and two last plinths erupted to life. Now the heat was hellish and the light was all but blinding. “I must say, you all don't look like much from where I sit. Certainly not more impressive than your sisters.”
“Where are our sisters?” spat Apple Bloom. She rose to her full height and glared straight up at Tirek, her orange eyes locking with Tirek's monochrome own. “Where are you keeping them?”
“Safe and sound, where I can keep an eye on them. It's more than I can say for some of their former associates,” Tirek spread his arms wide. “If you wanted to come and join them, you only had to ask sooner.”
“We ain't here to – wait, what do you mean, 'former associates'?”
Tirek's lips flickered upwards at the edges in a mockery of a smile, and one hand waved at the ground at his forehooves. Stone rubble lay strewn there, all but reduced to powder with a few recognisable chunks here and there.
A fragment of curling horn. Scattered pieces of stone antler. Pieces of wing, talon, paw. Part of a long face with half of a staring eye.
Apple Bloom looked, saw, and forced down an urge to dry-heave. Next to her, Sweetie Belle failed to force the same urge down. Scootaloo whispered, “Oh, skyfire.”
“I won't pretend that Discord and I were the closest of allies,” said Tirek. “I imagine that were he still in a position to comment, he'd quite agree with that statement. With all his magic mine, giving him to a competent servant for sport's sake was no great loss. I hope you three are taking the right lesson from this.”
“I …” Apple Bloom tore her eyes from the stone chunks and looked back up at Tirek, trembling and not caring that she was doing so. “...I think we just learned another reason why we've gotta stop you.”
“Tsk. Wrong lesson.” Tirek leaned forward. “I suppose I ought to thank you three, though. I'd neglected to consider those ponies too useless or stupid or immature to have yet gained their cutie marks.”
“Oh, sure,” hissed Scootaloo. “Just make it personal. That'll make us go easy on you.”
“Perhaps you ought to be isolated. Raised in camps en-masse, until your marks set in and your magic is sufficient to make consuming it worth the bother.” Tirek shrugged. “Something to ponder. Problems exist to be solved. In some cases, they hardly present much effort. You're lucky that I'm willing to give you an easy solution to yours.”
“What do you mean?” said Sweetie Belle, still staring wide-eyed at the remains of Discord.
“When the stars are right, I am prepared to be something resembling merciful. You may walk away from this throne room. You won't have to hear from me until your cutie marks develop. I'll even let that serpent you rode in on live.” Tirek's smile sharpened. “You shouldn't have left him right next to the city, next to me and my soldiers.”
“Don't you dare hurt him!” Sweetie Belle looked up, her eyes simmering green slits.
“Oh? Would you stop me?”
“We could,” declared Apple Bloom. “Maybe we don't look like the biggest ponies around. Maybe you've seen scarier things in your day. But we're the Cutie Mark Crusaders! We hang close! And we don't give up!”
“We found the story of how you got your tail kicked the last time.” Sweetie Belle took another step forwards. “We followed the story. We've got a human and everything! Tell him, Yrr!”
“(What the hell is going on?!)” shrieked Yrr.
“You heard him! We've come a long way, and like hay we're gonna give up now.” Scootaloo looked straight up at the fire, her feathers bristling. “Do your worst!”
For a moment, Tirek's expression held. Flat, unmoving. His lips pulled back from his teeth.
“Well,” he said with a magnanimous sigh. “So long as I can say I tried. Bring out your great weapon. Come forward, human. Let's see if Megan's spine was a common trait.”
He flicked his fingers, and Yrr spun off the ground and flew over towards Tirek, as if some great force had simply come down and seized him. Yrr wriggled in mid-air, wide blue eyes staring straight into Tirek's own.
“Put her down!” yelled Sweetie Belle.
“Curious. You don't seem to be manifesting any sudden destructive magic. I perceive no Rainbow of Light in your pocket. There's not even anything to devour in you.” Tirek twiddled a finger, and Yrr slowly and helplessly rotated. His legs kicked up at the ceiling. “Are you about to burst free of my hold with one mighty bound, human? If you are, do so sooner rather than later. There are other things I have to do today.”
Yrr coughed. His gaze acquired a vague focus.
“Can you even understand me?” Tirek tapped his chin, and then produced the same strange series of high barks. “(Can you understand me now? Clean out your ears.)”
“(Go ...)” Yrr's rotation completed to leave him vertical once more. “(Go f-)”
“(Slap yourself.)”
An aura of simmering crimson magic seized Yrr's arrow-stuck arm. The arm bent upwards at the elbow, provoking a scream of pain from Yrr as the arrow shifted. An instant later, his own hand slapped across his face with a retort that was heard from the other side of the chamber.
The next instant later, the hand came back the other way, a back-handed bruise-dealer. Yrr's head spun.
“No, stop!” Scootaloo shouted. “Stop hurting him!”
“Just put her down!” Sweetie Belle cantered forward, only to rebound off an unseen wall of force at the third set of plinths. “Stop hurting her, please! Please!”
Yrr's arm rose again and lunged sharply inwards to drive his own fist into his stomach. He bent over in mid-air, a thin hiss escaping him. Tirek gestured, and Yrr was flung to one side of the room. He bounced off the wall with enough force for the sound of it to echo throughout the room, and was flung to the floor at Tirek's hooves. A crack rang out as he landed on his side.
For the next moment, Yrr trembled on his side, his face turned away from the Crusaders. One arm, his only good one, scrabbled feebly at the floor. No sound came from him but a tremulous rasping for breath.
The Crusaders charged forwards, and the same immovable and unseen force blocked them. Tirek made a quick shove-off gesture, and sent them tumbling back to the middle of the room.
“This is not a story, little blank flanks,” said Tirek. “Do you have some other surprise to spring on me? Or will we bring this matter to a conclusion?”
“I … you ain't beaten us yet!” Apple Bloom said the words, and felt them turn to ashes as soon as they left her mouth.
“You'll find I have. Your human lies broken at my hooves. The artifacts that were your realm's only hope lie under fire. And your sisters, the Element-Bearers ...” Tirek's smile was now poisonous. “...Let's see what they think of your chances, shall we?”
He snapped his fingers, and each of the fire-crowned plinths surrounding the Crusaders peeled open.
Stone and iron bars parted, and the Element-Bearers stepped forth.
Twilight Sparkle spoke first, and her voice was as hollow as a crater. “You shouldn't have come, girls.”
“Twi!” said Apple Bloom, whirling to face the alicorn. Twilight's mane was washed-out, her coat was grey, her gaze didn't lift from the floor. “You ... you ain't Discorded as well, are you? We can help you, we can snap you outta -”
“No,” giggled Fluttershy, who trotted at a slow and measured pace towards them. Her face was a snarling mask, her words dripped with sweetness. “No, you really can't. But it might be funny to watch you try. Go on, beg. Clutch at our hooves. Weep.”
“Who's there?” said another peeking out past her cell door, a unicorn with a coat as pale as bone and a thistle-coloured mane that hung down around her head. “They can't have my room. They can't have it. There's things there, it's mine.”
“Rarity!” Sweetie Belle turned on the unicorn. Her eyes glistened and a smile hovered on her lips. “It's me, it's Sweetie Belle, I'm here to rescue you!”
“No!” Rarity slammed a hoof on the ground before Sweetie Belle, making the little unicorn jump backwards. “You won't trick me away! I know what you want, I know what everyone wants. Why should they get it? Take what's mine and I'll kill you. Get away!”
“But … Rarity, it's me.” Sweetie Belle curled in on herself, trembling before Rarity. “I'm your sister, remember?”
“I don't care what you are!”
“You're all disturbing us,” growled a new voice. Pinkie Pie stalked out of her own cell, her ears flat and her coat and mane the colour of stormclouds. “Do you think you're being funny? Do you think you're doing anything other than getting us annoyed? Don't you think you all ought to leave? Or whatever gets rid of you.”
Scootaloo, whose mouth hung open, glanced around in mute desperation until she sighted a familiar figure. “Rainbow Dash! You're awesome, you're loyalty itself, you're … you remember, right? You can snap out of it, right?”
Rainbow Dash's impassive expression slid into a sneer.
Scootaloo kept talking. “Come on, listen to me. Please remember, snap out of it, you … you have to, you're as good as my big sister, and I'm your -”
“You're nothing to me. And whatever you think I am to you, keep kidding yourself if that floats your boat.” Rainbow Dash turned her head aside. “Stop buzzing, you're giving me a headache.”
Scootaloo didn't shrink in on herself, didn't tremble. A soft whimper escaped her, and that was all.
Apple Bloom, her vision misting and her delicate scaffold of hope down in rubble, sought about for the only bright pillar holding her up. “A – Applejack?”
The farmpony held herself steady. Her gaze flitted from point to random point, and her face was contorted in a awkward smile. “Everything's going to be alright, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said. “Don't fret none. Leave Tirek be. Everything's going to be fine.”
Deep and melodious laughter came from the throne then.
“Well?” said Tirek. “You've had your chance to plead. Anything else you'd like to venture? You could try running, for all the good that might do you.”
Apple Bloom closed her eyes, aware of Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo instinctively looking her way. In the darkness she found no answers, and opened them again, glaring up at the distant and misted form of Tirek. “Apples don't run. Neither do Crusaders.”
“Very principled. Let's see what that gets you. Let everypony see what that gets you.” Tirek gestured, and iron bands of force seized shut around the Crusaders. Their limbs were trapped, no matter how they strained.
“Applejack,” said Tirek, “Kindly step forwards and kick Apple Bloom to death.”
Silence came crashing down across the throne chamber. The Crusaders' hearts hammered in their chests, and even the grey Element-Bearers managed to blanch. A flare of vivid green rose in Applejack, and her teeth bared. “R -rot in Tartarus, you sonuva broodmare.”
“In time, perhaps. But let's leave my mother out of this. Step forwards.”
Red magic pulsed around Applejack's limbs, and whatever paltry colour was left in her coat diminished further. The green of her eyes faded until they were a mere tone away from grey. One of her legs rose, trembling as it did so, and came down. A step forwards.
“Step forwards. Pretend she's a tree in one of your orchards. You can lie to yourself about that much.”
“A … Applejack?” managed Apple Bloom, in a voice so small she struggled to hear it herself. “Sis?”
“No,” whimpered Sweetie Belle, “No, no, no, no, no.”
Applejack drew in a deep shuddering breath and took another step forwards. Her hoof came down with a crash. Tears were welling up in her eyes. “It ain't gonna hurt none, Apple Bloom. It ain't gonna hurt.”
A low murmur came from the side. Rainbow Dash regarded the scene with a frown. “This … this isn't right,” she said. Some hint of flame had returned to her eyes. Twilight's head had lifted from the ground, and she watched with a pensive frown.
Another heavy step forwards. Some war seemed to be waging within Applejack; the mare's eyes flickered between grey and green like the churning of a fire. Her next step was heavier. “Ain't … ain't gonna ...” she murmured. Tears rolled unfettered down her cheeks.
“No,” slurred Rarity, her own expression creasing with horror. “We … protect our own, we -”
“Applejack!” blurted out Apple Bloom, her vision blurring and her heartrate hammering and her voice unsteady. “It … it's gatherin' season back at Sweet Apple Acres. You know gatherin' season? Lots of green branches, apples just danglin' down off them, all ready to be bucked clean into baskets. The big special wicker baskets, that ya keep in the cobwebby corner of the barn. Big Mac'd be out clearin' the West Orchards, and you'd be ploughin' though the East like the workhorse you are. Remember? And you'd take a break when you were plum tuckered, and sit back with cider with maybe a couple of your friends, these ones right here, and you'd watch the sun comin' down over the hills and that's what you love more than anything else! You gotta remember who you are! Please remember!”
Applejack loomed over Apple Bloom. Her forelegs rose, trembled, and the red binding them fast blazed like lava. Green rose in her eyes like a flood. Tirek snarled and waved a hand. Magic energies cascaded out in a torrent, and all of Equestria's magic, all the magic of Chaos itself, all the power of all the alicorns, all came unbridled and hammering down upon Applejack's will.
Her legs rocked in mid-air, and Applejack screamed.
At one end of the throne room, an ape-descendant was pre-occupied with trying to rise past the pain. Yrr had not been having a good day. He didn't expect it to get better, inasmuch as he could still form expectations or plan ahead or think of anything much beyond the pain in his torso and arm and ribcage and knee and head and everything.
The world was bloody mist, a red-soaked haze that didn't deserve consideration. The thinking human was being scoured off the surface of his mind by pain and terror. The mindless inner ape was rising with a vengeance, screaming for fighting or flight, whichever was handiest. There was a enemy before him, a vastly overpowering one whose head he couldn't even crane up to see. There was space all around him, but no doors, no exit, nowhere that didn't have an enemy in front of it.
He slammed his good hand into the floor in a frantic effort to rise. His leg, the one from which dull waves of agony still pulsed, convulsed with pain and he fell back with a furious sob. The pain built, his heartrate drummed in the black corners of his mind, and the ape screamed for release.
From somewhere behind him, amidst the warbling white noise, there was a scream, piercing and desolate.
It was – resembled a horse's whinny. But there was something human about it, something that begged for action. For help. The thinking human reeled from the pain enclosed in it, and the ape looked around in sharp concern, heedless of the source.
Aid the tribe, death to enemies, escape all pain, aid the tribe, death to enemies, escape all pain...
The human closed his eyes. The ape opened them. Blue eyes stared wildly, casting their gaze to all points around them.
There was an enemy's black leg within grabbing distance, a handhold to grab and rise from and savage, to bite and claw to the finish. They were near, an immediate mortal threat, and what apes did to enemies at hand was this; they lunged.