//------------------------------// // Chapter 46-You Are My Meteor // Story: A Beautiful New Age // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// An eruption so powerful, so unimaginably massive shook the entire landscape that was the Equestrian Badlands. A mountain peak that rose higher than any other began to tremble, the entirety of its foundation crumbling down as the explosion tore apart the side of the mountain. Numerous rocks—the size of entire buildings—were forcefully tossed aside from the absolute power of the explosion. Flame and debris and stone and metal shot outwards and in all directions as the fires from the explosion’s aftermath corroded the skylines, blurring out the sun and bringing forth Hell into Equestria. The first to arrive were thousands upon thousands of winged beasts beyond imagination. Harpies screeched and cried, demonic dragons roared and finally took flight for the first time in several generations, and the armies of Tartarus spilled out into the desert wasteland of the Equestrian Badlands. In their wake, as the sea of darkness and vile corruption took shape into a force that couldn’t even be fathomed, the deserts were filled in mere minutes. The armies of Tartarus took their own path, smelling the blood of the innocent and crying out to the north, their next destination. The ground rumbled as titans stomped and clawed their way through the Badlands and towards the north. The earth shattered beneath their massive feet, crushing several of Typhon’s children. It matter little. Such loss could be accepted to the amount that the damned had to offer. Demonic dragons, each one spewing fire and brimstone across the vastness of the sky, led the way to Canterlot… And anything else that got in their way. More and more kept spilling out of the mountain, from the earth, crying out to freedom, to the pain that had finally left them, and the vengeance that fueled their conquest. What remained of the gates of Tartarus was nothing more than a shattered relic lost in time, the massive, twin gates hanging limply on the mountain’s side. Both Ultron and Tirek watched as the gates finally crumbled together to the earth, lost in dust. For Ultron, the fall of the Underworld was just the beginning. With his army already scattered to the rest of the world—the beasts and children of Tartarus soon to join them—he could finally set his sights to the birthplace of sin and death. To Canterlot…where the condemned were to be judged. For Tirek…he just couldn’t stop staring. He couldn’t help it. After being ruthlessly betrayed by his own kin, Tirek had suffered what no mere pony had ever dreamed. He endeared Tartarus itself, trapped for years on end until his mind was nearly to the point of insanity. Maybe it already crossed that line. He didn’t know. He didn’t care. Then the moment arrived, the moment Tirek hadn’t imagined in all of his years of imprisonment by the hooves of the Royal Sisters. Cerberus, the very beast whose only purpose was to guard the foundation of the Underworld, left his post. He didn’t wait a second longer to make his escape. He didn’t know why, and he didn’t know how it happened. It just did. And once more, he didn’t care. He was finally free. That is, of course, only after he crossed paths with the Princess of…Friendship. The very utterance of the word churned what little muscles that kept Tirek’s insides functioning properly. Friendship was a disease, plain and simple. It infected the gullible, turned warriors into weaklings, and spread across the world like the plague it was. He was so close to eradicating it and bringing forth the rule he so rightly deserved. If it wasn’t for those six ponies…and a certain weak draconequus, he might have achieved such an accomplishment. And so he returned back to the land he had come accustomed to for the past several hundred years, back to the hell he was trapped in. Lost. Abandoned. Given to the harpies as prize to the success of Princess Twilight and her allies, but seen as an utter failure to any and all children of the mad creature Typhon. Never once had he dreamed of freedom again, not while the guardian stood in front of his cage, never leaving. Yet, there he stood on the nearest desert hill, finally free from his bondage at long last, hopefully for the last time. With the gates crumbling down, he didn’t expect to be going back anytime soon. However—while the taste of freedom upon his tongue was more delectable than any delight the world above had to offer—freedom did have a sense of holding both good and bad qualities. The wrong, while he didn’t want it to, kept pestering the centaur, forcing his attention to the six-armed beast to his left. The red electricity coursing through his body and limbs. The horrific red haze radiating off of his person. And the twin red eyes, burrowing in an endless void of pure, raw insanity. Nothing much new to Lord Tirek. He had seen plenty of foul creatures during his time trapped down below. With a painful cough, the roars and cries of the demon army flooding beneath him, Tirek began to speak, his voice hoarse. “I’d suppose you would ask for some sort of…‘thank you’, but I’ll have you know I have no intention of thanking any creature that tries to get on my good side.” Ultron made a subtle movement, but did not face him. He could feel as Tirek’s expression changed from weary to painful, then filled with hatred. “Never again.” Ultron narrowed his gaze on the burning landscape beneath him, all six of his palms clenching. “I don’t need you’re faithlessness, Tirek,” Ultron growled, not even shifting his eyes over to the centaur. He could already feel the creature’s confusion take over his emotion. Ultron continued. “Typhon offered me all that I could ever need. His power, his memories. Everything.” He finally faced him, the insanity in his gaze meeting the one in Tirek’s. “Don’t be so surprised when I know more about you than even you do.” The centaur’s eyelids fell, but only so much. “I couldn’t care less,” Tirek retorted, earning a chuckle from Ultron. He tapped his fingers together, the boney appendages dancing with one another as he contemplated his words carefully. “However, I am surprised how you even managed to conquer the entirety of Tartarus itself. Tell me, please, why exactly you chose to free me.” Upon saying those words, Tirek’s attention shifted over to Ultron’s middle right arm. Between his fingers, a flame burst to life, and out of the ashes a scroll appeared. “Because I have something we both need.” Tirek rose a curious brow, shifting his attention from the levitating scroll and back to the beast. Ultron caught the simplicity of the movements, already understanding what type of emotion plagued Tirek’s mind. “Your eyes don’t deceive you,” Ultron stated. “In my hand I hold the very spell that Star Swirl the Bearded used to transport three wicked creatures to another world.” The name “Star Swirl” brought forth some painful memories to Tirek, the centaur wincing and grinding his teeth to the name of the pony that corrupted his brother. Ultron caught on, shifting his twisted gaze back to the scroll. “It can be performed, yet I lack the magic required to make my dream a reality. Even this new form,” he paused to gaze at himself, “filling me with such power I had never imagined, is still unhinged, uncontrolled. You saw what I did to Tartarus.” Tirek weakly chuckled, ending in a plethora of wheezy coughs. “I must say, I was rather impressed with your…rage.” Ultron ignored the statement. “As I said, it is uncontrolled. But you,” he faced the centaur, “Tirek, a beast of your stature and knowledge can perform such a spell. All you lack is the strength to do so.” For several seconds, Tirek kept twisting his eyes back and forth between the beast and his scroll, truly wondering if his words were truth and not a fallacy. However, a pestering feeling his blackened heart and broken mind kept telling him to dive deeper, find meaning in the beast’s words. Perhaps then he can walk away stronger, more powerful, and able to achieve his exact vengeance on the ones who imprisoned him. In the end, that side won. In the end, Tirek sighed, holding out his palm. “Let me see it.” Ultron levitated the scroll over to Tirek’s hand. His aged fingers gently caressed the paper, slowly opening the scroll and skimming through the spell. His yellow specks for pupils danced across the lines until he reached the end. He read through it again, a toothy grin slowly building on his lips, showing his fangs. Once he was finished, Tirek closed the scroll and held it out. Ultron levitated the paper back to him, having it vanish right as Tirek began speaking. “Yes, I suppose. The spell is not too difficult as it is, yet as you can see I lack the strength to even hold myself up.” Ultron turned his gaze downwards, towards Tirek’s pathetic forelegs. “I’ve noticed.” “However,” Tirek continued, the same knowing grin spreading across his face like a virus, “all it would take would be just a smidgen of Alicorn magic, maybe two or three, and I can have enough power to successfully perform the spell you so desperately desire.” He took a step forward, a brave step to Ultron, both of his palms transforming into fists. “Help me to grow strong then perhaps we can resort to some sort of…agreement.” He could see the power in that weakened stare of his. The power of the centaur was nothing short of astounding. Of course, he just needed the right nutrients—like all young children would—before they could become truly powerful. Surprisingly enough, Ultron chuckled. “Oh, I already have one.” Tirek took a step back, his eyes widening, smile growing. “We crush the powers on this sullen land, take away their strength, their hope, everything that they are…until there is nothing. I’ll give Equestria and the world to you, and in exchange you will send me back to the world I originated. Sound fair?” Fair? It was even better than he thought. Tirek was finally going to enact the retribution the ponies so rightly deserved. All of the pain, all of the suffering he had felt for years on end, his only crime being that of following in his and his brother’s path of justice and clarity. Now his brother was gone, leaving only him and the path ahead. Yet again, fate revealed something miraculous to the centaur. Another being wounded, fed the lies of the world they stood on and attempting to bring forth true, definitive peace, now asking for his partnership. If it were so easy with Discord, then maybe Tirek would have succeeded last time. But this wasn’t Discord. This was someone entirely worse. Much worse, and much more dangerous. Tirek smiled, ready to test the beast before him. “You promise many things, yet can you bear such weight?” Ultron blinked, slowly turning to his right. “How do you know you’ve taken too much before it finally crushes you?” He appeared as if he was spit upon, and then proceeded to beat the life out of the one so foolish to spit on him. He smiled, the red haze exiting his jaw. “Trust me, I’ll know.” “‘Trust’, hm?” Tirek pondered, his palms intertwining as if he was in deep thought, which—coincidently—he was. He asked, “If you know so much about me, how can you be so certain you can trust me?” Unfortunately, Tirek used for himself a poor choice of words before he could even react. Ultron gripped his throat, pulled the centaur in close, and whispered, “As long as you’re still vulnerable and weak, if you even consider betraying me…I’ll personally drag you back to that hellhole without a head.” His breath smelled of Hell, which wasn’t surprising. His fingers, sharper than any other razor blade Tirek had felt before, continued to coil around the centaur’s throat, nearly cutting off his need for oxygen. Still, with his circumstances at an all-time low, Tirek smiled, his fangs glistening in the fires that consumed the sky. “So,” he wheezed, his palms lying weakly at his sides, “we have a deal then?” Ultron narrowed his gaze, tightened his grip around the creature’s throat—causing him to choke—and then finally released him. Tirek rubbed his throat, feeling the tears of skin dangerously close to a vein. He looked back to Ultron, smiling to see him ask, “Deal?” “Deal.” Tirek smiled, holding out his hand as Ultron shook it. With the deal struck, each side now depending on the other, both Tirek and Ultron faced the Badlands once again. Continuously, the armies of the Underworld kept pouring out from the wreckage of the gates that once trapped them, filling the ground and sky with their plague and infestation. Tirek watched as they all stomped and flew north, straight to the lone mountain miles and miles away. Tirek sighed. Ultron didn’t even look at him. “I suppose the first location we can travel to would be Appleloosa. You must already know how I gain power,” Tirek muttered, slightly turning to his left to see the beast nod. “Then we will make our way north, through every city and settlement, until every pony has been drained of their magic. And finally, after we have taken Canterlot and the Princesses’ magic is finally mine…then perhaps I could perform that little spell you want.” Again, Ultron made no indication that he acknowledged Tirek’s words. He continued to stare out into the infested plains, the damned crying out to him, their savior. He heard their cries, Tirek did, which prompted his attention back to the beast. As the haze became clearer, Tirek could nearly see just what the rage and sickness boiling together in his eyes truly meant, how his body appeared twisted, broken, yet fused together by his hatred and ambition to proceed, even if it cost him everything. That alone earned a true chuckle from the centaur. “Your intentions are wicked, my friend.” Ultron didn’t turn, just listened. “I can feel it pulsating off of you. You’re in pain. You’ve lost more than you’ve gained, yet you push on. I never asked you, why exactly do you want to see their world burn?” Certainly slow, but sure as can be, Ultron twisted his neck to the right, his eyes meeting Tirek’s once more. He opened his mouth, and oily mist colored fiery red and hellish black seen at the back of his throat. He said, “I’ve seen more than enough. These equines, these…beasts have waged a constant state of lie and deceit for as long as the sisters have ruled. They try to hide their sins, pretend they’re better and hope others to believe such a quintessential ideal.” He stopped, scoffed, and asked, “You want to know why? Like a phoenix, their lives will burn to cinder, and in the ashes a new life will be born…a life free from lie, from pain, from war, from everything that they are.” Tirek smiled. “Under my rule, I assure you that life will be free…” He stopped, eyes shifting downwards, then curiously back up to him. “What?” Ultron asked. Tirek shrugged, then stated with his palm held out, “I cannot say that I ever knew your name.” Instead of answering right away which Tirek had hoped he would, the beast merely chuckled to himself, shaking his head and facing the sea of lost souls and abandoned, demented children. Tirek stared at him, at his backside, at all six of his arms held together by the same red electric force that consumed his very being. Then, as a dragon flew overhead covered in dark blue flames, Ultron spoke. He held out his arms, palms facing upwards, head to the sky, eyes closed and in a state of peace and tranquility. “You only need to know one thing about me…” Tirek looked to the land, watched as it was consumed by evil and wickedness. “I’m here to abolish the world from slavery.” The armies of Tartarus easily tore through the mountains that concealed the Badlands from the rest of Equestria. Their rampage could never be contained. Not now. Not ever again. “Those who deny freedom to others…” They just kept coming. Like the thousands of sentries that consumed the heavens, like the beasts and demons that flooded out of the demolished gates, they continued on. To the north. To freedom. To vengeance. And Ultron stared into the heavens, not even blinking. “…deserve it not for themselves.” The skies were bright, pulsating blossoms of red and orange mixing from the sunshine and the essence of the Underworld finally released after thousands of years. The corrosion was exact, complete. It looked as if the whole world was on fire.