Of Heaven and Earth

by Garuda IV

Chapter 65- Retaking Equestria: Part V

Flashes of light lit up the open fields as Sol and Tirek clashed. With light shining bring from a light spell, Sol flew up and swung his hammer at Tirek's head, who nimbly dodged out of the way, despite his enlarged size, and followed it up with a counterattack. Brining up his shield, Sol easily blocked the massive fist, grunting from the force behind it, but not enough to throw him off. Pressing the attack, Sol continued to fly closer towards Tirek, taking a swing whenever he got close enough, but not quite managing to get close enough to land a solid hit.

Slowly starting to become annoyed that this wasn't going quite as he'd hoped, Sol used his power over the earth, causing vines to sprout up from the ground and begin wrapping themselves around Tirek's legs. Though they managed to slow him down and immobilize him for a brief moment, his new size and strength allowed Tirek to swiftly snap the vines off with ease. Trying a different plan, Sol then converted the surrounding earth within a fifty foot radius from a grassy field to mud several feet deep. At first it seemed to do the trick when Tirek's massive weight worked against him and caused him to sink into the mud pit, but much like his last plan, Tirek's new power boost proved to be problematic when he leapt up out of the pit onto solid ground.

"Are you even trying to fight me?" Tirek asked. "Don't tell me that you really thought those pathetic attempts to slow me down would actually work."

Sol remained silent while his grip on his hammer tightened. As he did, his hammer began to steadily glow a bright orange, appearing as though the hammer was about to burst from the magic it contained until the entire hammer looked like it was just pulled out from a forge. Reeling his arm back, Sol shouted as he threw the hammer at Tirek, leaving a blazing trail behind it as it soared through the air towards him.

Seeing the incoming hammer, Tirek created a barrier in front of him to block it. Less than a second later, he braced as the hammer impacted his barrier and exploded upon contact in a burst of holy fire and metal shards that cracked his barrier. Unfortunately for him, with him being so focused on maintaining the barrier in front of him, Tirek was unaware of Sol's plan until he felt two points of pain, one coming from his right flank and the other his left barrel. Shouting in surprise and pain, Tirek glanced back to see that his hide had been pierced by two stone spikes that had emerged from the ground. Gritting his teeth, Tirek roared to the heavens, unleashing a magical shockwave that shattered the stone spikes and pushing Sol back.

"That was a dirty thing to pull, you little-"

Tirek held his tongue when he saw Sol flying at him again, along with his hammer, which had nearly reformed itself in Sol's claw as the shards all converged back into his hammer. Growing annoyed, Tirek fired a beam of magic at Sol, who blocked it with his shield while pressing forward. Getting an idea of his own, Tirek undid the clasp of his cloak and, once Sol was close enough, dropped his beam and tossed it at Sol, who was unable to avoid it in time and found himself tangled up in the large red cloth.

Not liking the position he was in, Sol immediately changed the material of his fur coat and skin to metal. A moment later, he felt himself being pounded by what he could only assume to be Tirek's fists and hooves. The strikes didn't hurt as much as they would have if he didn't change his body, as well as his armor, but regardless, this wasn't an ideal spot for Sol to be in. That feeling was further reinforced when Tirek grabbed the cloak like a sack, began swinging it around, and repeatedly strike it on the ground like a flail. Quickly becoming disoriented, Sol unleashed his fire breath and incinerated the cloak, freeing himself and diving down into the ground to take a moment to recoup from the unwanted ride.

"Come on out, boy. We're not finished yet," Tirek called, moving around and scanning the area for any signs of Sol. After a few moments of seeing nothing, Tirek sighed and grinned. "Very well, then. If you won't come out, then I hope you won't mind if I have myself a little drink before we pick this back up. After all, I have been traveling for some time now and am rather thirsty."

Reaching back into his right saddlebag, Tirek pulled out one of three five gallon plastic water jugs. However, instead of it containing water, its contents were instead some sort of glowing orange substance.

Sensing something magical coming from it, Sol poked his head up out from the ground.

"What exactly is that?" Sol asked, not liking the feeling of whatever this was.

"Oh, nothing much, just a little something to help rejuvenate me."

Sol frowned. "Not happening."

"What? Are you saying that you won't let a poor, tired, traveling centaur have a moment to wet his whistle? And here I thought you were a stallion of honor."

"I am, but I'm also not stupid, Tirek. And sitting back while allowing you to drink whatever is in that container would be nothing short of idiotic."

Tirek paused for a brief moment before chuckling and popping open the lid.

"You know what? You're absolutely right."

Without warning, Tirek fired a barrage of magical blasts at Sol, who lit his horns and retaliated in kind, as well as use his earth magic to try and impale Tirek on another stone spike. Not wanting to risk falling for that again, Tirek stayed on the move while firing at Sol. During his barrage, Tirek fired a larger blast at the ground in front of Sol, causing the dirt and debris kicked up to give him enough time to tear off the lid and quickly slurp down the contents. It took a few moments with how thick it was, but soon enough, Tirek drained the first jug. Once he did, he grunted as he felt a wave of power flow through him, as well as cause his body to grow a larger from the quantity of magic he'd just consumed.

"What did you just drink?" Sol asked, staring at Tirek's larger form.

"Oh? Didn't you know?" Tirek taunted as he pulled out another jug. "I can take any magic that I've recently drained and spit it back out."

Sol cringed in disgust. "Are you telling me that you just drank your own saliva?"

"Magic-infused saliva. And believe me, I wouldn't have done this if I didn't feel like I had to. But, with how paranoid Chrysalis is with not trusting me and having her changelings keeping a near-constant eye on me, I had to resort to using it, otherwise I'd never be able to keep all this changeling magic that I've been subtly draining from them a secret." The nearby changelings all stared at Tirek in fear. "Speaking of which..."

Tirek opened his maw wide as he prepared to drain the useless changeling of their magic, but before he could, Sol dug his tail into the ground and tossed a large chunk of earth at Tirek, who leaped out of the way with ease.

"There will be none of that here."

Huffing at his interrupted meal, Tirek tore off the lid and began drinking again. However, before he was even a fourth of the way done with the jug, Sol blasted it with a bolt of magic, causing its contents to splash all over Tirek and the ground.

"No! All that delicious magic! Wasted!"

Seeing him enraged from having so much magic wasted like that, Sol watched as Tirek roared and fired a massive beam of magic at him. As it carved a path through the ground at him, Sol considered raising his shield and facing the blast head-on, but instead opted to play it safe by diving into the ground and travel through it to where the changelings were being held down by the stone claws. When he did, he surfaced just enough to shatter them with his hammer and free the changelings, intent on seeing them flee from Tirek before could get another chance to try and drain them of their magic again.

While Sol was busy freeing the changelings, Tirek, taking this opportunity, grabbed the remaining four five gallon jugs, bit the tops off of all of them, and proceeded to hastily chug them all at once. Unfortunately for Sol, by the time he had finished freeing the last changeling, who gave Sol a confused look and her thanks before fleeing, Tirek had finished drinking the last of the jugs of magic with a satisfying belch that echoed throughout the fields. Hearing the belch, Sol turned back to face Tirek with his shield raised, only to watch in worry as Tirek's form began to change once again. This time, his form grew to over twice his previous height, his beard growing out in addition to the full head of white hair that had grown from the top of his head.

Chuckling to himself, Tirek took a moment flex his muscles and admire himself.

"It may not be Discord's magic, but thanks to Chrysalis and her changelings, I'm now almost as powerful as I was before when I had drained his magic, as well as all of the non-alicorn ponies." Tirek turned his gaze away from himself and licked his lips as he focused back on Sol. "Speaking of alicorn magic..."

Clearly seeing what Tirek was intending, Sol's eyes widened as he flew up out of Tirek's reach.

Ok. It's time to carry out the plan. I just hope he finished up on his end, otherwise this will have been for naught and I might be in trouble.

As he flew up and away, Sol lit his horns and began peppering Tirek with bolts of magic, which did little more than amuse Tirek with his already reinforced hide had been further magically enhanced. Seeing Tirek grinning, Sol also began to repeatedly throw his hammer at Tirek, who still shielded the exploding weapon, but this time the shield didn't show any signs of damage. Half a minute later of this later, Sol began to pant a little bit as the magic blasts and hammer throwing was starting to wear him down.

Down below in the dust cloud that had been kicked up from the exploding hammers and magic beams, Tirek took advantage of the cloud coverage to take a moment as he replayed their current fight. This hadn't been the first time they had fought each other, but when compared to the last time over a thousand years ago, it felt as though Sol was still pulling his punches, despite them being alone in the middle of the open field with no other creatures in sight.

If he's going easy then he must be up to something, Tirek figured. And if that's the case, then I better end this now before he has the chance to enact his plan.

Sensing where Sol was from beyond the dust cloud, Tirek crouched down and leaped up out of it towards him. Taking him by surprise by the speed and distance he had traveled, Tirek had no trouble binding Sol's wings with his magic, temporarily immobilizing him in mid-air before snatching him up with his massive hands, leaving only his head poking out from the top of his fist while the rest of Sol's body was restrained. With the kirin now held firmly in his grasp, Tirek grinned as he landed, creating a small crater and cracking the ground beneath his hooves.

"You have no idea how long I've been looking forward to this," Tirek said, brining Sol up to eye-level as he began to squeeze him in his hands. "For so many years I have thought about what kind of an exotic cocktail your magic would taste like. A Scaleless Dragon and an alicorn, two of the most powerful races on the planet, their magic all combined into one creature."

With one last chuckle, Tirek opened his maw and drew Sol closer to him to drain him of his magic, but before he could so much as get a taste, a searing pain shot through the interior of his mouth and throat, one that Tirek knew from experience came from some very potent holy magic. Roaring in pain, Tirek recoiled his head back and loosened his grip enough for Sol to slip free. When he did, he caught a glimpse of wisps of prismatic light beginning to taper off from Sol's own maw, which indicated that Sol had used his holy breath on the inside of his mouth.

As Tirek grasped his throat and coughed from the pain, Sol shakily landed on the ground, realizing just how close he was to losing that fight, and by extension, condemning all of Equestria to Tirek's rule.

That's it. No more playing around.

Holstering his shield and hammer, Sol dug his claws into the ground and began pumping his magic into the earth. As he poured more magic into it, the ground beneath him and Tirek began to quake. A moment later, a pair massive, draconic stone claw arose from beneath Tirek and grabbed him by his barrel. Though the claws couldn't encircle even half of his body, they still had a firm enough hold on him that they managed to drag Tirek along the ground towards Sol, who had burrowed back into the ground as he led the claws along. After he'd traveled a few hundred meters off to the East, Sol had the stone claws throw Tirek off on the ground before retracting back to the earth that had spawned them.

Finally having him where he wanted him, Sol watched as Tirek finally recovered enough from the holy breath attack and began rising up to his hooves.

"I don't know what you're planning, boy, but I hope you didn't think that I'd just let you carry out whatever it is so easily."

Unable to hide his expression, Sol allowed himself to smirk as his horns began to glow his magic.

"Actually, I already have."

Feeling his spell ready to be triggered, Sol relaxed and began to pour his magic into the sources. As he did, pillars of golden light started appearing one after another in pairs of two in quick succession. It started with two closest behind Sol, and then another two appeared, and another, until the pillars of light started to resemble a large circle with them standing in the center of it. This brought a sense of unease to Tirek as he saw what was happening, but it wasn't until the pillars had completed encircling them that he finally noticed something at the base of the light pillars.

Clever little brat! He planted the surrounding area with stones engraved with magic runes, and trapped us in a teleportation circle!

Feeling a familiar and disturbing pulling sensation, Tirek shielded his eyes as the blinding light of the teleportation circle activated, sending him and Sol away from their battlefield without a trace.

---

In a brilliant flash of light, Sol and Tirek arrived at their new location. Having expected what was to come, Sol landed steadily on his hooves and claws, while Tirek, not knowing what to expect, briefly stumbled from the shifting, uneven ground beneath his hooves. Apart from the softness beneath his hooves, another thing Tirek immediately noticed was just how scorching-hot it had become, and after a moment of blinking away the affects of the teleportation's bright light, Tirek looked around and saw the reason why.

The South San Palomino Desert? Why would he send us-

"It's about time you showed up. You were taking so long that I was beginning to wonder if you were actually going to make it."

Hearing the booming voice coming from behind him, Tirek slowly looked back and saw easily the largest dragon he'd ever seen. If it wasn't for the fact that he was standing about three quarters as tall as this dragon was, Tirek would've found the sight of him looking down at Sol somewhat amusing.

"Apologies for making you wait, Torch," Sol apologized, "but it was proving more difficult than I had expected to get Tirek to the teleportation circle. Speaking of which, thank you for taking care of things on your end here. Considering we both arrived and are in one piece, I'd say you did a perfect job."

Torch let loose a snort of smoke. "You're welcome, but don't expect me to do this again. Having to carve those runes into those stone tablets was annoying, especially since I had to go slow so I didn't break them and have to start over. Now, you called in that favor, and I answered, so this makes us even."

"Agreed."

Torch nodded before looking up from Sol to Tirek, eyeing the centaur standing before him.

"So, this is the guy you wrote to me about?"

"He is."

"Hmmm. He does looks like a rather big one. I can see why you would have trouble with him."

"It's from all the magic he's drained. The more magic he drains, the larger and stronger he becomes. He actually almost managed to drain me of my magic before we got here."

Torch's eyes glanced between Sol and Tirek. "Now there's one thing we can't have happen."

"Agreed... which is why I asked you to set up the runes here." Sol looked around the deserted desert with a pleased look. "With us all alone out here, in the middle of the desert, I no longer have to worry anycreature getting caught up in our battle."

"And what about me?" Torch asked with a playful smirk.

"You're the biggest, toughest dragon I know. And you're fireproof. You'll be fine."

"Hahaha! Too true."

The two turned their attention back to Tirek. "But first, before we continue, I'll need to change into something a bit more appropriate."

Seeing him close his eyes, Tirek watched as Sol's body start to glow before bursting in a bright flash of light, which was accompanied by a strong shockwave of raw magic that kicked the sand up, forcing Tirek to shield his eyes from both the light and sand. A few seconds later when the light died down, Tirek lowered his hands and stood shocked as he gazed upon the celestial form of Sol, who's Scaleless Dragon body had him standing just a few heads smaller than Torch, and was now bathing the surrounding area in soft purple, green, and blue lights. Feeling the raw magic pouring from Sol's form, Tirek charged his magic in preparation for what was to come.

"Much better," Sol mentally said with a satisfied sigh, feeling the peace that this form was providing him before turning his attention back down to Tirek. "Apologies for the wait, Tirek. Now, let us finish what we started."

Now having to face Sol's Scaleless Dragon form, as well as the ex-Dragon Lord, Tirek growled and clenched his fists as his magic washed over his body.

"You think changing forms and having a friend here to help you will save you from me?!" Tirek bellowed, feeling his body being further reinforced and strengthened by his magic. "This doesn't change a thing! I can still drain your magic, and you can't access the Elements of Harmony with your friend like that little princess did with her friends!"

Though eyeless, Tirek could practically feel Sol's gaze upon him.

"You're right. I'm not Twilight, nor is Torch her friends... but, there is one thing that you seem to be forgetting."

Standing up on his back legs, Sol reached his claws up to the heavens. As he did, the lights of his body began to shimmer brighter and dance around more wildly before his claws closed around something seemingly invisible. With a bit of effort, Sol slowly began to pull apart whatever he had grabbed hold of, and as his claws moved away from each other, the land was once again bathed in sunlight as the sun and moon above them began to separate.

"I am the son of Heaven and Earth. And you, Tirek, are finished."

Comments

[Bronyshot2020]

Op title drop roll the credits lol

[Midnight Prophecy]

11373627
Extremely hard top argue with that one. Now I can only hope that we won't have to wait too long to see what happens next time. XP

[Asolem2]

"I am the son of Heaven and Earth. And you, Tirek, are finished."

He said the thing

[Akira Dragonborne]

[AstralFlare42]

If you make another story like this, I'll let you borrow an OC of mine. I'd have to tell you via PM.

[Comet_Chaser]

Just finished reading Of Flame and Shadow, utterly fantastic story. Now it's time to read this one, because really you're a pretty damn good writer.

[AstralFlare42]

What's next? A sequel that has to do with Luna having a kid with a sea dragon in a story called Of Stars and Seas?

[AstralFlare42]

The OC offer is still available.

[Garuda IV]

11470537 Sorry for not responding before. Thank you for the offer, but I've already got the characters and title name in mind (no spoilers). Just need to get around to finishing this story so I can get to work on the next one.

[AstralFlare42]

11471393
Ah. Ok

[AstralFlare42]

11501142
Ah. That's fine. Just needed clarification is all.

[OminousBrony]

11505585
You act like neither Twilight or Starlight are smart enough to recreate it from memory. Especially with two Chaos Gods who can probably pop right into the Memories and make a copy of the scroll.

[Evil_Zombie_1]

How long is The next Chapter Come out 🤔

[Evil_Zombie_1]

When is the next chapter🤔