Tirek's Reform

by Harratot33

Chapter 4 - Dimension Nameless

Tirek did not know where he was going whatsoever; he just kept going, fully aware of the fact that if he did not, he would be not be let off lightly by Spatium.

I know evil when I see it...hear of it...feel it in the atmosphere. Tirek thought as he sped along into Ponyville itself. But Stellas Spatium...he's another sort of evil altogether; one I never dreamt even existed! In the town square, Twilight's group was still attempting to reach Discord's realm.

"OK!" Twilight revelled in delight at a certain spell she had caught sight of in a book of hers. "I think I've found the very piece of allicorn magic that can help us, Cadance. It's one that amplifies any spell an allicorn may perform ten-fold!"

"So, if we cast a regular transportation spell and combined it with this bit of magic, we could be able to go as far as Chaosville?"

"There's only one way to find out. Hold hoofs, everypony," The row of ponies went like this from left to right: Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Spike, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Cadance, Twilight, and...Tirek?!? Nopony had noticed his more-than-unexpected arrival, he was just so minute.

"Ready?" Twilight asked.

"READY!" Everypony clamoured in response (with the exception of Tirek, that is, of course!) Twilight and Cadance's horns began to glow a candy floss-like pink, with white sparks sporadically jetting from them every two or three seconds.

"Concentrate," Twilight urged Cadance. "It's not ideal that we don't exactly know what Discord's realm looks like, but we must try to generate at least a rough image of it in our min--" And then came the inevitable moment of notification. "NO...it can't be..." Before the purple pony could say anything more about Tirek's uninvited inclusion into the group, she and the others found that they had been successful in transporting to Chaosville. Boy, did it live up to its name! In fact, it lived up to its name far more so than usual; for it was not only pure havoc as a result of the lack of consistence in size, rotation or colour, but many of the doorways to other dimensions had been opened, and objects were falling into those other dimensions at close to the speed of light!

"Oh...I fear we're too late!" Fluttershy wailed in disbelief. "It looks as if Spatium's gotten here first!" There was a brief pause in which the mellow pegasus realised that nopony else was giving any sign of sadness at this fact. They probably just don't care about Discord and will never be convinced he's well-meaning after all he's done! She thought to herself, but when she removed her hoofs from her tearful eyes, she found the cause of the deathly silence was much, much more sinister!

"Just dandy!" Rainbow Dash was shouting. "Stellas Spatium, by far the most evil foe we've ever encountered, and now Lord Tirek—let's face it, you ain't exactly pure of heart, either!"

"I am aware of that, Rainbow, just please let me--"

"Hey! Nopony calls me Rainbow that isn't my friend!"

"Don't anger him, Rainbow Dash," said Twilight. "Have you come to gain vengeance for your defeat at my hoofs? And how in Celestia..." Twilight stopped, and recognised that that term was no longer appropriate. "How in Equestria did you break free from Tartarus? Take a step back while he gives his story, everypony, he may be small, but he could very well still be dangerous." Tirek told everypony all about Queen Chrysalis breaking him out of Tartarus, and how they had seeked revenge on Starlight and Twilight respectively, and how they had tried in utter vain to aid Spatium in his quest for control of the whole multi-verse.

"So Chrysalis is one of Spatium's now, just as all the residents of Equestria are?" Starlight Glimmer asked.

"Correct," Tirek replied.

"You should be happy, Starlight, if she wasn't, you would've had to fight her all over again!" said Pinkie Pie.

"I'm...not so sure, Pinkie," Twilight said slowly, still slightly unsure herself what to make of everything.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, even though he didn't specifically swear it in the same manner Queen Chrysalis did, I'm sure Tirek would have liked more than anything to get me back for landing him in Tartarus for the second time in his existence." Tirek nodded.

"Well," said Cadance, confused. "What's stopping you?" Tirek sighed.

"Because I know sticking with all of you is my only means of surviving. Do not get me wrong, I'd still like nothing more than to have all of Equestria under my rule...but under these newly-founded circumstances, that is no longer possible."

"SO YOU'RE REFORMED?!" Pinkie yelled excitedly. "LIKE DISCORD?! YOU'RE OUR FRIENDS NOW...AND BELIEVE IN ITS MAGIC, AND HAVING PICNICS, AND MAKING CUPCAKE RECIPES...AND...AND..."

"Pinkie! Pinkie! Pinkie!" Tirek interrupted. "Please...you're voice is the stuff of nightmares. No, I am not reformed; and don't consider any of you friends—merely scapegoats."

"Hey!" Applejack said loudly all of a sudden. "Who's to say that if we do ever manage to prevent Spatium from enacting any more of his diabolical plans, you'll tear us to shreds the first chance you get?"

"Who knows," said Tirek. "I may! It is up to all of you. I just think it would be better if me and Twilight were kept as separate as possible."

"I completely concur," said Rarity. "Anyway, if you want my opinion, I don't believe we should be letting former foes off more easily than we would normally just because we're currently facing off with one that's far more menacing than any of them ever were."

"Hmm...I suppose I just don't feel safe or comfortable around you, Tirek," Twilight admitted. "I'm sorry."

"Actually..." Pinkie began. "I was thinking about that thingy Applejack said...about him crushing us as soon as we bring about Spatium's downfall. And I got thinking: if we can all take Spatium, surely we could take Tirek again, and if Spatium is defeated by us, Tirek would be wetting his centaur pants and running like the wind from us!"

"Pinkie Pie has a point," said Cadance. "Even if it is rather juvenilely stated."

"Personally," said Spike. "I am of the well-formed and argued view that...well, I agree with everything Rarity said."

"It's not looking too good for you, is it?" Rainbow Dash said obnoxiously. "It goes without saying what my vote is."

"How has nopony realised that Tirek's magic may come in extremely useful once we get to that elusive final battle with Stellas Spatium himself?" This time it was Starlight's turn to voice her opinion.

"I'm with Starlight on this one," said Trixie. "I think it's ignorant of us to think we won't need all the hoofs we can get to say the very least."

"Would Tirek even help us defeat Spatium? He just said he wanted to help him," Spike pointed out.

"After what he did to Chrysalis?" Tirek replied rather morbidly. "She is the closest to a real companion I have ever had. No...no, I shall never help the piece of scum! Still, I am not overly keen on the idea of helping any of you."

"But you do desire vengeance for what he did to Queen Chrysalis, don't ya?" Applejack asked.

"Absolutely! I mean I do not really wish to...aid any of you in anything not associated with Spatium."

"We don't expect you to," said Twilight. "Nor do we particularly want that sort of assistance, thank you."

"Is he really sticking around, then?" Rainbow Dash was beginning to sound impatient.

"Well, I for one certainly don't think he should at all!" This voice was one that had not been heard by the group since Spatium's raid on Equestria. It was that of Discord. "Look, Tirek, I'm not going to bore you with 'Why did you betray me, how could you??' or any other kind of overly-sentimental dialect designed to emotionally guilt you. All I care about at this moment in time is ensuring the safety of Fluttershy and her friends." He teleported himself down to the ground and put his arms around them.

"I have no particular interest in speaking with you, either, Discord..."

"I think we should make our decision soon, y'all..." Applejack was beckoning towards the various gateways to different parts of space and time; through one of them emerged Stellas Spatium himself! Thankfully, he appeared not to notice Twilight and the others; this was not enough to prevent shivers being sent down everypony's spines, though.

"Which dimension should I re-balance in my image first?" He hissed. "Eney-meeny-miny-mo..."

"We have to get out of here and fast!" Discord whispered to everypony.

"Agreed, but what about Tirek?" Cadance uttered just as silently in response.

"Is that really a top priority right now?"

"We've got to try another inter-dimensional travel teleportation spell," said Twilight.

"No need for that!" Discord assured the princess of friendship. Twilight and Cadance scowled.

"What?! Have you never taken a shortcut before?"

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"Where the heck are we?" Rainbow Dash was just as puzzled as everypony else.

"I have transported you to the one dimension not even Stellas Spatium will bother about," said Discord.

"Let me guess, is it called - nothingness?!" Pinkie Pie giggled.

"Nice try, Pinkie Pie!" Discord disappeared in a flash, only for three of him to appear an instant later. One of them was at a desk with what seemed to be question cards; the other two were sitting at a game-show-esque table.

"What is the name of this dimension Discord has brought his friends to?" The first Discord asked the others. "Is it A - nothingness..."

"Ooh! Ooh! That gets my vote!" Pinkie squealed.

"Is it B - Dimension X?"

"Sounds like something out of one of my comic-books," said Spike.

"Or C - Dimension Nameless?" The two Discord's at the large table both held up white flash cards with the third letter of the English alphabet written on in ink that was just as black and dark as Stellas Spatium's plans for the multi-verse.

"CORRECT!" The first Discord yelled in delight.

"Dimension Nameless?" Twilight Sparkle was fascinated. "I think I read about that in a book somewhere."

"Oh, is there anything you haven't read about, Twilight?" Discord asked. The dimension he had escorted them to was certainly appropriately named —it was literally nothing but whiteness as far as the eye could see!

"Anyway," Tirek butted in. "What are you all going to do about me?"

"You know..." Rainbow Dash's vocals were suddenly much dulcet. "Don't get me wrong, everypony, I feel as comfortable having Tirek around as Spatium would in a friendship class. But—being so loyal, as all of us are—we can't just send him back to Discord's realm. Spatium will enslave him for sure, or worse!"

"I'm with my fellow pegasus," said Fluttershy. "As immoral as Lord Tirek has been in the past, we can't just toss him out."

"That's not like us at all," Starlight Glimmer nodded.

"Why, Fluttershy, I do believe you are the kindest little pony I have ever had the fortune to meet!" Discord said sweetly, embracing her.

"I'm glad you're safe too," said Fluttershy, half-poignantly and half-cheerily.

"So it's decided?" Tirek questioned. "You're gonna let me stay. Well, I cannot say I am happy with the concept..." Twilight and Cadance's eyes narrowed. "But I'd be far less happy in the clutches of that menace Spatium!"

"You too," said Pinkie, who just did not get it.

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Stellas Spatium had assembled a team of his slaves gathered from all across Equestria in the dimension of Dream Valley prior to its invasion.

"Whichever one of you can locate Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends will receive a most desirable prize," he promised them. "And I want everypony alive!"

"As you wish," everypony said. They were Big McIntosh, Granny Smith, Zecora and Mayor Mare!!

"Go!" They did as he commanded, of course. "And if you return to me empty-handed, do not think for one moment you will be let off lightly." He grinned as they were transported by him back to Equestria. Nothing could stop him from enslaving the entire multi-verse! Not even, seemingly, the great princess herself...!