Freedom
Almost there. Just a little further now.
How long had it been? How long was it since I Lord Tirek had been left to rot in that stifling abyss by the pathetic pony princess and her bearded cohort? How I had longed to feel the touch of soil against my hooves. To once again taste the summer air. To know the power of magic course though my body. How I had wished to take my well-deserved revenge.
I crawled my way through the narrow rocky tunnel, my path to freedom. There was barely enough space to move as I clawed my way through the dirt. Stones and rocks jabbing into my body all the while. My poor decrepit body.
My imprisonment had left me barely a shell of my former self. I had grown old, terribly old. My once powerful, muscular physique had withed away to skin and bones. Every movement was a chore, leaving aches and pains that could last for hours. But I had to endure. I was almost there. I was almost free.
As I squirmed through that dark crevasse, thoughts came to me. Memories of my life before my internment. I don’t know had brought it on, maybe I was just delirious from exultation. Or perhaps subconsciously I knew I need it to keep myself pushing forward. So I began remaining.
I was a prince once. The rightful heir to the throne, and blessed with magical power beyond those of the rest of my kind. Even beyond those of my father, a powerful sorcerer in his own right, not that he was much of a father to me.
Intend of taking pride in my accomplishments the old man did his best to suppress my magical training, repressing my talents at every turn. He was jealous, jealous and afraid of my potential, that I would inevitably craft my own legacy that would overshadow he’s own.
Mother wasn’t much better. As a gargoyle she never fully understood me, or my power. She never said it, but I knew she found my abilities alien. She distanced herself from me and instead lavished her attention on my brother, Scorpan.
Scorpan, he was the only one that ever understood me. The only one I could talk to. The only other being in this world that I actually respected.
I didn’t need farther or mother though. I didn’t need any of them. I wasn’t going to let them hamper me. I would learn magic and spells on my own, and practice in secret. Save from when Scorpan would volunteer every now and again when I needed a practice target. Gargoyle skin is strong and very durable. I appreciated his contribution.
I shouldn’t have been surprised then when I was exiled. Some peasant had found out that I had been testing a new power I acquired, the ability to drain the magical energy from another being, and had informed my father. They said what I had done to be monstrous, how ludicrous, as if they wouldn’t use such power f they had it. But my ultimate ‘crime’ was the study of the magic of some unicorns I had procured from the neighbouring land of Equestria.
It was a joke, all of it. Just an excuse to be rid of me. I was infuriated, how dare my farther strip me of my rightful place and title. And mother, she just stood there and said nothing. I would have besieged my father right then and there, and shown him how feeble and pathetic he really was, if Discord wasn’t there. He may not have been exactly loyal to my farther, but I doubt he would have let me just attack him. Or maybe he would have, who knows, but it wasn’t worth the risk.
So I left my home, abandoned by my family, abandoned by everyone. Everyone that was except Scorpan. He came with me joining me in my exile. When I asked why he would do such a thing he told me “I can’t let you go alone, you’re not just brothers you’re my friend.”
So there we were two exiles, two brothers alone against the world. Standing on the borders of my father’s kingdom, our home for as long as we could remember, and we would never see it again. Scorpan looked back, back to say farewell to our family, our home, but I don’t. I looked ahead and saw what lay before, a new world for me and my brother. If I was to be denied my rightful kingdom, then I would simply build my own.
Equestria the land of ponies, was the perfect place to raise my new empire. Its lands were prosperous and fertile, far more than the arid steppes of my former homeland. Its population weak and gullible, spouting pathetic nonsense about community and friendship. But most of all it had magic, so much magic.
Too much magic in fact. It seems the unicorns I first encountered were little more than rudimentary dabblers. There were ones who commanded truly impressive command over magic, enough to rival even my father. And then there was Star Swirl the Bearded.
Star Swirl, how I despise his name. I never imagined to find another creature, other than a being like Discord that could equal me in magic, let alone some eccentric armless horse. Yet when the time came to do battle he not only managed to hold his own, but bested me! And when the dust of our battle cleared it was the pony who stood victorious.
I couldn’t believe it, I was defeated. Me! There I lay broken and beaten waiting for the final blow to come, but the blow didn’t come from the unicorn, but from the one source I never expected. Scorpan.
It seemed my brother had been going off to mingle with those ponies behind my back, and had allowed his head to be filled with lies and nonsense. I couldn’t believe what he was saying. He told me we didn’t have to fight, that we could all work together, that we could be friends.
Scorpan, my brother, the one being I trusted, that I respected, that I cared about as much as I did myself. He had betrayed me. His betrayal hurt more than all the indignities I had suffered till then, and all the torments that would follow.
I cursed at him, I exploded with rage and despair. How could he have done this to me, taken these ponies over his own brother? I couldn’t stand it, was ready to go down fighting, to have it all end. I would have gladly welcomed death.
Then the Alicorn appeared. She flew down from the sky, the ruler of the land, the so called Sun Princess. Apparently my death would not be good enough her. The witch striped me of my powers and then banished me to the forsaken pit, Tartarus. She called it a mercy, but I knew better. She wanted me to suffer. And suffer I did.
Tartarus, the prison of the damned. The penitentiary perdition. The Abyss. Once it belonged to my people before those accursed ponies somehow appropriated it for themselves. A place ancient place, older than any living creature can remember, and a place of great power.
Things work differently there. Time dose not flow as much as it drips. It can move, slowly, but it does not change. There is no ‘light’ in the traditional sense of the word, but rather the place is irradiated by faint fiery illumination. It is monitored my obsidian golems, powered by the sins of the wicked, who make now sounds other than the footsteps of the constant patrols. Its guardian Cerberus, an immortal, immense three headed hound. Said to have been born from the deaths of the underworld, and feeds off the punishment the guilty, and the only living thing to be found within. Unless of course you count those kept prisoner within. Either chained to the ground in black steel chains, or held in solitary stone cells. Like the one I would call home for unknowable eons.
The first century was the hardest. They don’t provide much of the way in food in Tartarus. Not that they have to, one can easily live there without the need for physical substance. If you can call that living. The hunger pains nearly drove me insane. I attempted to chew my own arm off in desperation at one point. But after the first few months I learnt to cope with it.
After that it was the Isolation. I never thought I’d miss interacting with another living creature. Aside than my brother I always thought others beneath me. But what I wouldn’t give at the time for another being to talk to. Unfortunately the only interaction I had was when the golems would occasionally come to deliver the tasteless blocks they insultingly call food, or if Cerberus came to sniff around my cell. Neither were much for conversation. As for the other inmates, well I never so much as saw them. I wouldn’t even know they existed if it wasn’t for their howls of anguish echoing throughout Tartarus. It made sleep all but impossible, and sleep was one of the few comforts I had. But I had always been a loner in one form or another, and in time I learnt to cope with that as well.
Worst of all though was the boredom. The crippling, mind numbing boredom. The things one dose to fill in the time, to keep yourself sane. The myriad productions of figure masterpiece theatre, the countless contents of catch the food, the endless games of tic-tack-toe, all of them ending in draws. But you can only recite the works of Wildebeast Swiftspear to yourself some many times before you wish the best himself would just walk in and tear your heart out like he did in his poems. That was the hardest, and I never, ever learnt to cope with that.
But there was one blessing living in that pit had. It gave me plenty of time with my thoughts. Plenty of time to plot my revenge and plan for my escape. My body may have withed over the decades, but my mind was sharp as ever.
During one eventful game of ‘catch the food’ I stumbled upon a weak point in my cell. Somehow I managed to brake open the flaw creating a hole in the cell walls. Over the years, slow but steady, piece by piece, I managed burrow my way through the stone. The golems didn’t seem to notice what I was doing and Cerberus only cared that I remained within my cell. So I was allowed to work on-and-off until I eventually found the means of my escape. A narrow underground chasm with a trickle of water running through it. And if there was water, that could mean the surface. All I needed now was a chance to make my move. And if there was one thing I had gained from Tartarus it was how to be patient.
And now the day had come. Something had called Cerberus away from his post, and with the gates unguarded it was time to make my move. I crawled into the narrow tunnel and began my dig to freedom.
I had almost given up. For a moment I had thought that I would die in this accursed tunnel, that all my planning, all the indignities I had suffered had been for nothing. But then I heard it. Something that had always brought me hope and comfort as a child, something I thought I would never see or hear again. Rain. It was rain!
My withered hands were sore and bloody, my fingers mangled and torn. Every scoop of dirt and stone I removed felt like a hammer smashing upon my fingers. But I couldn’t give up now. I was almost there.
Then I saw it. A gleam of light shining through a hole in the rocks, with fresh water trickling through the cracks. I could feel it, I could taste it. After all this time freedom was finally within my grasp.
With a roar of triumph I burst through the ground. Exhausted and coved in mud and filth I managed to call to my feet as the rain fell upon me. For a moment it seemed too good to be true, but there I was, in a rocky wasteland with an overcast sky above me. I was on the surface.
Filled with jubilation I took in a deep breath. For the first time in eons my lungs were filled with fresh air and the scent of the wilderness entered my nostrils. I stood to bask in my triumph as the rain fell, washing away the dirt and grim from my body.
I couldn’t help laughing, a laugh of indisputable elation. It was the most genuine, euphoric laugh of my entire life. I was tired, my body bused and batted but that didn’t matter. After all those years in the depths of that hole, I was free! I’ve never felt such bliss.
And then the rain stopped, the clouded parted and sun shone down. It was almost blinding as its golden rays warming my frail withed body. It was if the heavens themselves were g welcoming me back to the world as congratulations for my freedom.
Yes, a royal welcome. And as I looked up at the sky I found myself infused with a new sense of purpose. I purpose that I have to long been denied.
And as for those ponies that imprisoned me, they will know my full wrath, simple and raw. The pain I felt I would inflect on them onehanded fold. I will absorb there power and return myself to my former glory. And then I Lord Tirek will calm my rightful place once and for all.