From One Villain to Another

"Oh?" Tirek raised an eyebrow. "What do you wish to gain from this?"

"I wish to go to Equestria," The Warden replied.

"I see," a smile appeared on Tirek's face. "Freedom is the best thing to have isn't it?"

"That's what I am trading for. I need someone to succeed Tartarus for me when I leave and I couldn't find a better candidate than you".

"I am flattered but I want to know why you have made this sudden decision".

"Do you want to be the new warden of Tartarus or not?" The Warden asked impatiently.

"Well, I want to know the terms of this negotiation".

"OK then, in return for my freedom.  I will assign Tartarus under your command. You can do what you want as long as you abide by the main rules," The Warden soon conjured a scroll and opened it. "You must not intentionally let a prisoner escape, you must not leave without anything taking your place, you can use any means necessary to keep prisoners in order but must not kill them and you must not delegate this title to anything else unless told to by the previous warden".

"Other than that, I am free to do what I want in this realm?" Tirek asked hopefully.

"Yes, this is a prison for the truly evil so they deserve whatever you give them but death," The dark cloud moved in closer. "Killing prisoners means that we give them the easy way out but if we contain them, they suffer!" The Warden gave a malicious grin as it receded into the darkness.

"However, I want one thing in return. I want you to turn over your soul like many have done in the past who have bartered with me when the deal is done!" The Warden chuckled.

"What will selling my soul do?" Tirek asked in confusion.

"Wow, I never thought that a wise creature like you would not be clear on the effects of being soulless!" The Warden mocked in astonishment. "If you hand over your soul, you become bound to Tartarus and can never leave. An advantage of this is that you are immortal in this realm and can never die unless the being who keeps your soul decides to end your life".

"So it gives me immortality?" Tirek put his fingers together and grinned.

"Yes, but I decide your fate not anything else. If you are in a circumstance that you would of died you will simply take the form of a spectre for a minute to retreat".

"So nothing will be able to stop me here except you. You interest me in this deal very much, I always heard that The Warden of Tartarus was fair in his deals with mortals who summoned him," Tirek gave a complimenting bow.

"Well, the ritual that summons me has been lost for centuries for reasons I do not know".

"Oh yes, I know why. Ponies removed all traces of dark magic and rituals," Tirek explained in disgust.

"Well, Celestia and Luna are not the one for dark magic. Greedy foals!"

"So, I agree to your deal. When will you leave?" Tirek asked eagerly.

"I think tomorrow, I need to alert the shades and organise the transfer of power," the red eyes soon disappeared which left Tirek thinking in the cage once more.

As The Warden materialised in the dark palace, he noticed a unicorn shaped shadow standing collectively near the door.

"Can I help you?" The Warden asked.

"My lord, I have returned," The shadow bowed as it spoke in a very deep voice.

"Well, you took your time to get back here," The Warden said as he turned towards the bowing shadow. "What held you up?"

"I had to regenerate completely, that blasted crystal heart almost killed me!" The shadows faded to reveal King Sombra bowing towards The Warden.

"I got to say, you Equestrians are rubbish at being villains! Tirek got his flank handed to him by the mane six and you got disintegrated by a baby dragon!" He mocked. "I got some news for you and the shades".

"Yes my lord?" Sombra finally stood upright as he waited.

"I am retiring tomorrow and leaving Tirek as the new warden, you are to obey him!"

"Tirek, with all due respect my lord, he is a prisoner!"

"Are you arguing with me Sombra?" The Warden leaned towards him and stared straight into Sombra's eyes.

"N...no my lord," Sombra stuttered as he walked back to the wall.

"Good, tell the shades this news. You may leave," he floated upstairs as Sombra turned into a shadow and flew out of the door.

Unknown Location

"Yes, it appears that we finally found the ritual instructions we have tried to hard to find," a pony said. Several unicorns dressed in dark black robes were standing in a circle facing a ritual circle with several items in the centre, one of them being an unconscious mare. The dark cavern allowed for nature to leave the ritual circles safe and sound.

"I hope so, this has been a tough two months for us all but it has not been in vain," the eldest stallion stood at a stone lectern with a light battered tome in front of him.

"Indeed, now that we can use this magic that the royals banned centuries ago we will be unmatched in power!"

"Easy my child, if we act harshly then all will be lost," the eldest raised his hoof to cease the discussions between the necromancers. "We may have power but we do not have control over it, all magic requires discipline and discipline we shall get!"

"What if we get captured by the royal guards?" The youngest asked as he stepped forward but he stepped back as the group stared at him in surprise.

"The blood oath requires you to take your own life in the event you get interrogated, we all know that don't we?"

"Of course".

"Then let us perform this ritual, we need to know if this is valid first".

After minor modifications to the ritual runes on the circle and the stabilisation of the sacrifice, the group of necromancers took the formation around the circle. The eldest powered up his horn and fired a beam of energy towards the centre. The runes burnt with a purples flame but soon extinguished after a few seconds. The eldest gave a sigh as he read through the tome once more.

"Well, carry on with gaining knowledge. This meeting is dismissed". The formation disbanded as they walked outside and the idle chatter of disappointment filled the dark cavern. "Soon, I will have you within my grasp," the elder muttered as he walked outside.

Tartarus, The Next Morning

The Warden had collected the gear that he could get hold of, he wore a dark brown leather jacket with several trinkets such as a water bottle and a knife attached to a shoulder strap. His brown pants hung over the black combat boots and had a sword attached to the belt. The Warden picked up a red scarf and wrapped it around his neck, covering his mouth entirely, he then packed a small satchel with a coin purse and a small rune stone. He walked out to the door and spread his wings and flew towards the vast amount of mountains.

He landed onto a platform with great speed and looked up to see Tirek looking at him.

"Ah, welcome once again," Tirek said.

"Well, this won't be your cell soon. Shall we get started then?" The Warden asked as he clapped his hands together. "Your soul first". He clicked his fingers which pulled the cage door open and snapped the chains off Tirek. Lifting his hand and putting it just hovering above Tirek's head, an energy began to escape him and was absorbed by The Warden. Tirek fell over and slowly stood up and looked at The Warden harshly.

"Now it is your turn," Tirek braced himself. The Warden raised his hand in the hair, causing mass amounts of energy to strike Tirek within a split second. He grew in mass and size as more and more magic was pumped into him. Soon it stopped and Tirek was in his most powerful form yet.

"Happy?" The Warden asked.

"Very, farewell Warden. I hope we can see each other soon," Tirek waved as The Warden stretched out his wings and flew towards the gates of Equestria.

"See you later Tirek! Take care of the old place," The Warden shouted back as he flew further and further away.

After flying past the gates of Tartarus, The Warden began to travel inside a vortex as he reached unimaginable speeds. Suddenly the wings began to fall off as he travelled further into the vortex and skin began to peel off and was replaced with mass amounts of burn marks. The vortex soon stopped and The Warden found himself falling at a great speed towards the ground, the wings were unusable and he braced for impact with the ground. A small shield enveloped him and he collided with the ground, causing dust and dirt to eject from the ground and shoot up. The shield dissipated and the dust settled, revealing a tall, male human who was crouching. He soon stood up and held a stone in his hand.

"Well, that worked," he muttered to himself as he threw the stone away.

Ponyville

Twilight walked around the town centre, looking closely at the items that were on sale at the market. She walked up to a young mare selling carrots who began to shake as she saw Twilight approaching.

"Could I have two carrots please," Twilight said as she smiled at the shaking mare.

"T...thats one bit please," the mare stuttered.

"One bit? Aren't they usually two bits a carrot?" Twilight asked in confusion.

"Yes but for you it's one bit".

"Please, I am no more important than you. I don't want you treating me differently than the others just because of my new title. I am just the same as other pony folk here," Twilight slid four gold coins on the stall and packed the two carrots and carried on to the other stalls. "That's the fourth one today," Twilight sighed to herself as she had a replay with the next stall.

As the monotonous and boring day drifted by, Twilight began to walk towards her new tree castle. As she was about to open the door a booming sound rolled over the hills and the town, a shock-wave then caused the shopping to almost crash to the floor as dust flew past.

"What in Equestria was that?" Twilight asked herself as she regained her senses. A group of pegasi flew over the town to the direction where the shock-wave hit the town, Twilight dropped her bag and lifted off to join the group. She met Rainbow Dash who was also en-route with meeting the large group.

"Did you see that!" Rainbow exclaimed.

"I did, I wonder what kind of object can cause a small dust-storm like that!" Twilight rubbed her chin in thought as several other pegasi flew past.

A crater was in the middle of the large plains on the outskirts of Ponyville, several groups of pegasi landed around the crater and observed it.

"Hey! I found something!" A young pegasus shouted as he held a white, smooth stone in his hoof. Twilight walked up to the crowd which was assembling and everypony began to move out of the way.

"May I have a look at this please," Twilight asked while keeping her trademark smile.

"Sure," the pegasus coolly said as he handed it to Twilight.

"This stone looks odd, nothing that I know of but my books may have something!" Twilight took off and headed towards Ponyville once more at speeds that would beat Rainbow Dash in a race. The crowd soon dispersed save for one crimson coloured unicorn who stood near the crater. He cast a spell which caused a small black fog to envelop him until The Warden appeared.

"That was easier than expected, let's go pay some visits then," The Warden smiled to himself as he began to walk towards Ponyville.