//------------------------------// // Empowered by Kildeez (Sequel) // Story: Tainted Love: A Twysalis Prompt Tag Collab // by Foals Errand //------------------------------// by kildeez Tirek had forgotten how long it had been since he was imprisoned down here. Again. Days? Months? Years? In Tartarus, there was no way to know. No sun and no moon orbited here, and this meant he had no way to keep track of time. Ironically enough, the reminders of the very bane of his existence were also the only way he’d ever had of keeping track of time. He had determined that every fourth bubble that burst in the lava pit beside him was about two minutes, but he’d lost count of those after about 4,000 of them , and minutes grew meaningless after 5,000 ticked by anyway. Something stirred in the distance, a faint glimmer, and he eyed it. Mostly out of curiosity: besides the lava pit and the three-headed dog just down the pathway to his cell, nothing ever moved in Tartarus. Though there was something familiar in that glimmer…what was it…had it been emerald, if he wasn’t mistaken? And flickered like fire? “Tirek,” a familiar voice said coldly, it’s strange, multi-layered tone perking his ears. “Ah, Chrysalis,” he whispered, grinning ear–to-ear. He rose to all fours and trotted over to the changeling queen, standing just outside the bars of his cage. His skeletal hands grasped them and he leered out at her, feeling a surge of joy at the sudden pang of fear that rose in the changeling’s cat-like irises. “I must say, I didn’t know this prison allowed for conjugal visits. And here, after a thousand years, you’re only now visiting me. Have you anything to say for your absence, my little slut?” The changeling’s eyes flared, her fangs baring. “We were never wed, you evil fuck!” She bellowed. “Oh, but we might as well have been, for how close we were,” he said mockingly, his voice creaking as a malevolent grin crossed his face. “Tell me, do you miss the nights we spent together? All that time…” “You’re implying that there was ever any love between us, and that you didn’t force yourself upon me every night all those years ago,” she hissed. “Ah, forced, as if there was anything to take,” Tirek mused. “I already owned you, silly little slut. Or did you forget how I defeated you in battle so completely? How you promised yourself to me in exchange for sparing your changelings?” “I had no choice!” She screamed, and an evil glint entered his eye at seeing the tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. “My changelings depend on their magic to feed on love! They would have starved if you’d drained them!” “Oh, but I kept them fed, did I not? True to my word,” he licked his lips lecherously. “All I asked for was a bit of…repayment for my generosity.” Chrysalis took a step back as his tongue darted out between his lips. “I-I’m not afraid of you. Not anymore,” she said, her voice shaking, though her eyes did manage to meet his. “Oh? Then why did you run when I broke out again? Here I was, expecting a kiss from my loving whore, only to discover she had picked up her entire hive and run to the farthest corners of Equus upon hearing of my escape,” he stroked his chin in a mockingly quizzical gesture. “I couldn’t understand your fear, my little slut. I heard from the other inmates that you were only found after Celestia’s little protégé tracked you down.” “Twilight,” Chrysalis insisted, stepping forward again, regaining the ground she had lost. “Her name is Twilight Sparkle, and you would do well to remember that.” “Ah yes, Twilight Sparkle,” Tirek sneered, infuriated by the name of the pony that had played such a major part in his second downfall. Then, the grin returned to his face. “Word is she found you in your throne room, hiding in a corner and shaking in fear. Such a sad, sad, sight, my little slut. Did you miss your Tirek so badly?” Instead of the fear he expected, Chrysalis’s eyes bulged with unbridled rage. Suddenly, her magic seized the tips of his horns and slammed him against the bars. She danced back at the same time, remaining well out of reach of his ability to drain her magic, and as a result he was helpless to resist. She pressed his head against the bars, increasing the pressure until he was sure she might just tear the horns out entirely. His face became a grimace of pain. “You listen to me,” Chrysalis hissed. “And you listen good. I’m going to say this once, after which, I’m going to turn around and never look back. Twilight Sparkle picked me up from a very dark place. She found me and helped me even though I was an enemy because I was in pain, and because that is just the kind of mare she is. She picked me up after the memory of what you did dragged me down, and she introduced me to an entire new world filled with new beings and incredible ponies that have done nothing but repair the damage you did. I know I will never quite be over what you did to me, Tirek, but I do know that with them at my side, I can do anything.” She released her grip on his horns, allowing him to drop to the floor of his cage. “And by the way,” she added, her cold eyes gazing down at his weakened body. “She’s a better lover than you’ll ever be, you rapist pig.” With that, she spat in his eye, turned, and started trotting back out into the darkness. Her ebony form soon melded with the black, and eventually the only evidence that she was still there was the clop of her hooves. Regaining his marbles, Tirek stood again, gazing out at Chrysalis’s retreating silhouette. “That Twilight Sparkle sounds like quite the mare,” he called after her, an evil grin spreading across his face. “I think I’ll take some time off to get to know her better next time I’m out.” All at once, the clip-clop of her cloven hooves stopped. His grin grew wider, believing he had struck the fear back into his little slut’s heart. But then her voice returned, echoing out of the black: “Tirek?” Confused, he called: “Yes?” “Oh, good, judging from the placement of your voice, I can see you haven’t moved away from the edge of your cell.” “Wha…” All at once, the magic seized his horns again and slammed his face against the bars with a speed that was blinding. The pain didn’t even have time to register before his head whipped back and repeated the motion. Then it happened again. And again. And again. Around hit ten, his nose broke and he lost track of how many times he’d been forced through this motion. He could do nothing to defend himself, to stop the disorientation, the panic, the agony screaming through his face. Finally, the blows stopped falling, and he was allowed to drop to the floor, his face a bloody, pulpy mess, his eyes swollen shut, and every one of his teeth lying in a puddle of blood at his hooves. As promised, Chrysalis still hadn’t turned around to see him, nor did she when her voice rose, trembling, yet with an incredible inner strength. “That is what her love has given me, Tirek. Keep in mind that you will face that power again should you foolishly choose to escape. And one more thing: if you ever lay a single finger on that mare, I will throw you in a hole in my hive and devote the rest of my existence to finding a way to kill you, starting with breaking every bone in your body. And that’s counting every single one of your vertebrae as individual bones.” She left him then, allowing him to heal and collect his broken teeth. It would take time for the physical scars to heal, but then, time was all he had. Which was actually for the best, because it would take even more time for the sudden twist of fear that entered his heart at Chrysalis’s words to leave again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chrysalis stumbled out of the portal to Tartarus in tears. She collapsed to the floor of the cave, whimpering like a filly and shivering. She curled up into a little ball and wailed, hardly even aware of the hoofsteps approaching until the pony they belonged to was practically standing on top of her. Chrysalis looked up into the warm, loving eyes of Twilight Sparkle. “You were so brave, Chryssy,” she said, smiling apologetically as she held out the inhibitor ring the Canterlot nobility insisted she wear while in Equestria. Chrysalis let out a few jagged breaths, and nodded. Twilight smiled and slid the ring over her lover’s horn, sealing it in place with a kiss, then rushing in to wrap her forelegs around her. Chrysalis returned the hug, still sniffling. Her breath still went into spasms occasionally, like a foal’s after a good, hard cry, but as Twilight continued to hold her, they faded. “So many ponies wouldn’t be able to do what you just did: face down someone who…did what he did,” Twilight whispered, the word “he” hissing between her lips with as much venom as she could muster. “I’m so proud of you, Chryssy, so proud.” Chrysalis continued to say nothing, continued to just hold her lover for a few extra minutes. Finally, she whispered: “What happens now?” “Now?” Twilight smiled as she pulled away, tears of happiness gathering in her eyes. “Now the healing can finally begin.”