The Crystal Museum

by Miner

Silence is louder than sound

Tirek runs as fast as he can back to the entrance of Tartarus, thoughts of possible futures fly through his mind as he tries his best to flee for his freedom. However, he stopped shortly after clearing into the main cell chamber. He curses his luck as he finds himself face to face with his pursuers who have finally found them. Arcana soon joins him as they stare down their foes.

Star Swirl, steps forward for the group to address the two, “Terik, I do not know why you have come to Tartarus, but it ends here and now.”

“Out of my way, you old fart,” Terik growls swinging his arm at them threatening, “I'm not going back to Canterlot to hear any more of those dumb lessons or wait around for you to turn me back into stone. And I especially am not staying here for the rest of my days.”

Starswril shakes his head slowly, “That is not up to me to decide. My only adjective is to return you to Canterlot. Princess Twilight shall decide your fate,” He turns to face the Arcana, “Aiding a criminal to escape from imprisonment is a great offense Mare,”

Arcana scoffs at him as she charges her magic, “If you think your group of circus clowns are enough to take me down,” She grabs her cloak before throwing it to the side reliving her dark purple coat, a white and teal stripe mane with matching tail, and aqua color hoof guards as she flares out her wings high above her head ready to fight, “Then you are more foolish than I thought,” Star Swirl and his team flinch at the unexpected turn of events,

“You’re an Alicorn! How?”

“There are a great many things you do not know old stallion,” She takes to the air smirking, “And the name is Queen Opaline!” She fires a magical blast at them to which Starswirl protects everypony with a magic barrier before they divide into teams of three to take them on. Starswirl, Flash Magnus, and Somnabula took on Opaline. While Rockhoof leads the fight against Tirek with Mistmane and Mage Meadowbrook aiding him,

Queen Opaline's fight led them to fight over the deep ravines before settling nearby above one of the isolated jail cells where the prison guards were being held. Terik tries to grab Mistmane, but it turns out that she is much faster than he thought and he misses each time he tries to. And when he almost had her, he got body checked by Rockhoof forcing him to back away. Their battle was heading toward where the others were fighting and everypony was focused on their opponents so that no one noticed that the cage guards were acting strangely. One might think that they want a piece of the acting themselves, but their attention is elsewhere as they try with all their might to get free from their prison.

Opaline was putting on a brave charade but she's not sure if she can take down Starswirl while also dealing with two Pegasus constantly trying to break her concentration while fighting him. Every time she was going to attack Starswirl one of the other pegasuses would either body-check her from the side or completely fly over her head making her duck to causing her to miss her shot. Then whenever she would try to turn her attention to one of the pegasuses, Starswirl would take that opportunity to attack her with his magic blast. This constant back and forth forced her into defensive tactics with rare opportunities to retaliate which proved to be futile. So long as Starswirl was there, she could not land any damage on his comrades as he cast protective shielding around them. She knows that her magic reserves are much greater than Starswirl’s. But if this keeps up, then her body will fail before her magic does. She must end this fight before that happens, but that is impossible.

Terik would be gloating over how an all-powerful alicorn is having such a hard time dealing with three ponies if he wasn’t also having difficulties. He was currently in a test of strength against Rockhoof, hooves, and hand locked together, which he thought would be an easy victory. But he was sorely mistaken. Not only was this earth pony much stronger than he imagined. But his comrades were more of a nuisance than he originally realized. Every time he would try to steal Rockhoof's magic, the old mare would either blind him with her magic or the one with the mask would throw some kind of tonic at his face, causing him to close his mouth due to the horror taste. He dears not to remember the taste. At his current strength, he won't be used so easily by these old ponies, but if this battle drags on, he dares not think about what happens then.

The next thing he knew was another tonic splashing into his face causing him to roar in pain as this one stings from all the small cuts on his face accumulated over time. Forcing him to back away from Rockhoof letting go of his hoof. Before he could clear his face of the tonic Terik was bucked in his mid-section by Rockhoof's rear hooves sending him away and landing on his side. Terik grabs his midsection as he groans in pain feeling like something broke before Queen Opaline was sent crashing into him the moment, he was about to get up sending them crashing into the cage freeing the Guards. Due to Tirek’s injuries, he lost some of the magic he stole from the guard returning their strength. But for some reason instead of the Guard joining the battle, they instead flee away from the battle to the entrance however instead of leaving, they make their way to the lower levels, but no pony pays them any attention as the Pillars regroup closing in on the two down creatures.

Opaline clenches her teeth as she gets up bruised but still ready to fight. Tirek looks at himself and his foes. Rage fills his body as his knowledge and experience are already telling him what the outcome of this battle is.

“Give up, Tirek. You can’t win,” Starswirl says Terik tries to think of a way to get out of this. His eyes widen as they fall upon the pony next to him and an idea comes into mind. Her complete attention is on their foes and she doesn’t see the danger that she is in.

In a final act to gain an upper hand against the heroes. Tirek grabs hold of his only ally and steals her magic. Queen Opaline was so stunned by the betrayal that before she knew it, she lost all her magic and fell to the ground powerless. With this newfound power, Tirek easily overpowered the pillars of Equestria before one by one stealing them of their magic. They tried to fight back but they were no match for his might now that he had the power of an alicorn running through his veins.

However, before he can throw Rockhoof off a cliff, Starswirl uses his magic to pull his comrades and the depowered Alicorn away from Tirek. Slowly each one of them got back to their hooves as they put on a look of defiance. All except for Queen Opaline. Without her magic, she lost any means of fighting the pillars of Equestria let alone Tirek. She has no idea how those ponies beat somepony like him, but she is not going to stick around to find out. As quickly as her limbs could she left the battlefield to the entrance of Tartarus with one thing in mind. ‘If I can’t have my revenge against the princesses. I will settle for locking these ponies in Tartarus forever,’ She smirks as she closes the doors to Tartarus locking those foolish ponies inside,

Back at the battle, Tirek stands tall over his foes with a cliff behind him, “I am Tirek, Devour of all Magic. I am the Greatest Villain that has ever lived. I will outlive all of you,” He declares proudly not noticing the cries of death in the distance as for a moment his foes' attention was not on him. Confused as to what that sound could be and where that sound came from. Tartarus is a prison, not a torture chamber. Their train of thought is interrupted as Tirek continues his rant making a fist and shaking it slightly before him, “I will have my revenge someday. And there is nothing you ponies can do to stop me!” As he finishes his statement, his foe's eyes widen with fear as they take a step back,

He scoffs at their actions believing that they wish to run away just when things were getting good. “I knew it y'all are nothing but a bunch of cowards,” He smirks as he stares down the heroes before him until he notices that they aren't looking at him while backing away.

Unsure as to what was going on he was going to scoff at them again, but a cold chill covered his whole body, freezing him in place. He hasn't felt this kind of emotion in a very long time. It’s something that every creature is born with but comes out of it as they grow older. Instinctual Fear. And not just any Fear. The Fear of Death. The cold numbing sensation of certain Death. He quickly turns around only to see nothing but blood and bones. He looks up trying to understand what is before him only to see rows of teeth over his head, each one larger than his head. He tried to scream, he tried to run, but it was far too late, as the teeth came hurling death from above.

*CRUNCH!*

Outskirts of Ponyville,

Rainbow Dash touchdowns at the outskirts of Fluttershy’s cottage looking for her friend. After a minute of searching, she found her friend looking dejected walking back to her house. She rushes over to get her friend a hug before checking her over to make sure that nothing happened to her, “There you are I was worried about you. With all these ponies going nuts over species racism, I was worried that something might happen here,” She smiles at her friend before it turns into a look of concern. She didn’t see anything wrong with her friend. Was she too late and those dumb ponies said something to her that they shouldn’t have? So many questions flooded her mind, but one of them was louder than the rest, “What's wrong?”

Fluttershy looks at her friend with sadness in her eyes, “Discord and I had a fight,”

Rainbow lets out a sigh of relief, “Is that all? I thought something serious happened,”

Fluttershy shakes her head, “No, it was a pretty bad fight,” She looks away rubbing one of her forelegs against the other, “I don't think he wants to talk to me anymore,”

Rainbow clicks her mouth in annoyance. If it only takes one fight to end a twenty-year-old friendship, then she and Applejack would have never been friends in the first place, “Now don’t be silly Fluttershy. Sure, Discord can be random at all times of the day. But you two are best friends. I'm sure you will work this out,”

“If you say so, but I'm not too sure about this.” They start walking back to the cottage as animals start surrounding them, “Has anypony been able to find Tirek yet?”

“Not yet. But I heard that the Pillars of Equestria were hot on his trail. They should have him back by dinnertime. That is if they can carry him back. I am not sure if he grow again. If he did, then they might need some help. But I am not worried. Teya re the Pillars of Equestria after all,”

“What's gonna happen when they get him?”

“Personally, I'm hoping they beat him to a pulp before locking him in Tartarus for the rest of his days. I mean he had his chance of a second chance like every pony else around here, yet he didn't want it. So, what can you do? But knowing Twilight she'll probably try to reform him. Hopefully, that's after you spend a few more years in stone,” No sooner had she finished talking, than a cloud of dust and smoke came from Fluttershy's mane before condensing into a scroll, falling at the two mares’ hooves. Fluttershy simply reaches down to grab the scroll while Rainbow Dash tries to calm herself down at the unexpected magic show, “What's that?”

“Oh, Twilight gave us these little magical hair pins that allow us to talk with her from long distances,” She turns her head to the side to show a small hairpin in the shape of her cutie mark nestled in her mane, “It works just like when Spike was sending messages to Princess Celestia. Whenever I need to send a message to Twilight all I have to do is write it on a scroll touch the pin two times and it bursts into flame and goes on its way,”

“That's awesome!” Rainbow exclaims before a thought occurs to her, “Wait why don't I have one?”

Fluttershy looks perplexed at her friend, “What do you mean? You should have one. Didn't you pick up yours the last time we were with Twilight?”

Rainbow looks at any place but her friend as she suddenly remembers the last time she hung out with Twilight. She remembers receiving a package, but she might have accidentally left it at the castle thinking that Twilight was giving her some treats instead of something important, “Yes of course I got mine. I must have left it at home. Hehe,” She shakes her head, “Anyways what does it say?”

Fluttershy smiles at her friend not fooled for a second before she starts reading the letter. As she reads the scroll her face changes from a look of happiness to concern, before ending with alarmed, “Twilight wants us to come to Canterlot immediately!”

Back with Aaron at the Crystal Museum,

Aaron is shaken out of his thought when a small filly wearing a sheep costume speaks to the Guide, “Excuse me. But what is a World Eater?”

“The World Eater is as the name implies. It’s an ancient creature locked away in the deepest darkest pit of Tartarus that had to ability to eat the whole world-” The guide tries to explain before she is interrupted by a very loud and frightened stallion,

“THE WORLD SERPENT IS REAL!” Aaron SHREIKS much to everypony discomfort as they glare back at him. “Too loud?” He asks uncertain of what else to say,

“Yes, that is too loud,” The guide scolds him as he shrinks again from the conversation,

“So, what happened to the pillars of Equestria?” Another filly asks speaking for the rest of the ponies,

“Nobody truly knows what happened to them. Although it's safe to say that they fell to the World Eater. But on the bright side, they were able to seal the doors to Tartarus before it could get out,”

“So, it’s still there?” Aaron asks,

“I will get to that in a moment sir,”

“What about that mare that was with Tirek?” He presses more questions,

“We believe she also was slain by the world eater,” She quickly says like it was common knowledge,

“Sheesh, what a bummer. She spent all her effort to free him only to end up as some creature’s dinner.” Aaron states the obvious much to everyone's annoyance, “Why didn't they get Discord to help them kill the thing? How did they kill the World Eater?”

The guide grits her teeth, expecting to have to deal with this from the children but not from a grown stallion. “We can't jump to the end just like that Sir. Some of us haven't heard the story before and would like to hear from beginning to end if you don't mind,” She says as others agree with her,

“Sorry,” He meekly replies,

Comments

[MatTheBook]

Terik runs as fast as he can back to the entrance of Tartarus, thoughts of possible futures fly through his mind as he tries his best to flee for his freedom. However, he stopped shortly after clearing into the main cell chamber. He curses his luck as he finds himself face to face with his pursuers who have finally found them. Arcana soon joins him as they stare down their foes.

Its TIREK