Damned Are the Guilty

Tirek roared with a fury that shook the whole of the castle as he swatted the shot out of his face, steam erupting from his nostrils as he glared down the Punisher. Tirek lowered his horns and threw himself full throttle towards the human, who barely had time to register the attack. A flash of magic went off and Punisher found himself on the other side of the tower, regaining his senses just in time to see Tirek plough through the other side of the room.

"Eyes on the prize, Frank. Time to stop Tirek once again!" Twilight said to him as her friends threw themselves into battle against the centaur. Tirek bellowed at their attack before he started to shoot magical blasts from his horns, tearing through the roof of the tower and raining bricks down upon them. Punisher threw himself out of the way to avoid being crushed while Twilight joined her friends in the battle with her friends.

"He's even stronger than last time," Punisher grunted to himself as he pushed himself back up to his feet, before glancing to his side to see that Spike was standing next to him. "Shouldn't you be somewhere safe? Battlefield like this isn't a place for little dragons like yourselves."

"I'm right where I need to be. And haven't you forgotten? I'm the dragon that took down Sombra. I can handle this," Spike said with confidence right before Punisher had to tackle him out of the way from a blast of magic that was sent hurtling their way. Punisher rolled up to his feet with the dragon clutched in one arm with his rifle raised in the other.

He shot a blast of anti-magic crystal towards Tirek, but once more the centaur saw the attack and swatted it out of the air once more. Tirek did grit his teeth though as he held his hand in front of his face, which had a black mark on the back of it from where the shot had struck him. For a brief second the centaur glared at Punisher, before he was forced to defend himself from the onslaught of ponies once more.

"Haven't you had enough, Tirek?" Twilight asked the centaur as she unleashed an attack of rainbow magic so powerful into Tirek that the centaur was nearly blown out the side of the tower. Tirek managed to move to the side and fall out of the magical blast, but as he turned to glare up at Twilight he was blasted from the side by the other Ambassadors.

"Had enough of what?! My desire to rule this land?! To see you all crushed beneath my hooves?! NEVER! I will never stop until I have taken this land and your magic for the rest of eternity!" Tirek roared as he fired a massive beam of magic from between his two horns, forcing the ponies before him to dive out of the way of his attack.

"You won't win, Tirek. Haven't you figured that out, yet?" Twilight asked Tirek as she blasted him in the back, sending him skidding across the floor and into one of the walls. "For all your boasting, you're weaker than you were last time, all of your followers you consumed for your own selfish desires and this time you don't even have any leverage against us. You can't win."

"Then I simply haven't fought hard enough!" Tirek bellowed as he stood up and swung a fist towards the floating Rainbow Dash, catching her in the chest and sending her flying through the roof. Tirek channeled his anger and turned all of his power upon AJ, whose rainbow power protected her from being disintegrated, but the force of the blast was still enough to send her flying. Tirek then spun and lunged towards Fluttershy, whose eyes went wide at his approach.

A second shot of crystal magic caught Tirek in the side of the head and sent him off course, causing him to crash into the side of the tower wall. His broke through whatever furniture that had been left there and he fell to the ground in a spray of splinters. Rage boiled his blood as he rose once more, aiming all of his hatred towards the Punisher.

"I will kill you slowly, human. I promise that," Tirek said to Punisher.

"Get in line," Punisher replied before firing again. This time Tirek tore out a chunk on wall and hurled it towards Punisher, who reacted in time to grab Spike and hurl the both of them out of the way. The downside to grabbing the dragon was that he dropped the crystal weapon, leaving it to be crushed beneath the chunk of wall. Punisher rolled up to his feet to see Tirek barreling towards the both of them.

"Get out of here," Punisher said to Spike before practically threw him across the room. Tirek was upon Punisher a moment later, tackling the human and driving him into the wall. Tirek slammed a hand around Punisher, who let out a roar of pain as he felt his body being crushed by the grip of the centaur.

"You do not belong here, mortal. Not in a battle of gods," Tirek snarled at Punisher, who held onto enough strength to glare into the eyes of Tirek without letting the pain consume him. "So before I snuff out your feeble life, allow me to ask you a single question. Why would you dare to face me again after I crushed you so easily last time?"

"Because someone needs to put down sick bastards like you. Because you need to see that even with all your power and all the fear you generate...you're nothing more than dead men," Punisher replied with a look so black, so cold, so devoid of emotion that even Tirek moved back slightly. Tirek shook his head and refocused, bringing back a fist to crush the Punisher for good.

"We're not done with you!"

Six beams of rainbow light wrapped themselves around Tirek's arm, yanking him away from Punisher and allowing the human to fall to the ground. Punisher grunted in pain as he landed, everything in his body hurting like crazy. Through the pain he could vaguely see the six Ambassadors fighting with Tirek, while Spike ran over to check on him.

"Didn't know you cared about be," Punisher grunted as Spike helped him to sit up.

"I don't. But if you die now, Twilight will never get you to see the error of your ways and then I'll never get to rub it in your face," Spike replied with a wry smile, one that made even the Punisher chuckle slightly. Punisher leaned up against the nearest wall and pushed himself back to his feet, but he could tell from the way the battle was going that Tirek was about to lose.

Tirek shook with power before he let out a scream, one that was followed by a massive blast of energy that consumed the six Ambassadors of Harmony, before disintegrating the ceiling and causing a massive explosion in the sky. For a brief moment Tirek let out a smile, believing himself to have won, but then a burst of rainbow magic dashed his hopes. His eyes sank as the Ambassadors floated above him, protected in a shield of rainbow that hadn't even wavered at his most powerful attack.

"How...this is...not possible," Tirek muttered to himself as he started to back away, backing towards Punisher and Spike without his knowledge. The six Ambassadors floated to the ground in front of them, each of them glaring at him aside from Twilight, who gave him a sad look.

"Tirek, that's enough. Please, put a stop to all of this," Twilight pleaded with him. But despite her words, Tirek's rage boiled forth once more and he began to charge with magic once more.

"NO! I am a god! I will not lose to the likes of you!" Tirek roared as he summoned his magic once more, but before he could fire Twilight and her friends unleashed their own power against him. Tirek let out a bellow as his magic was consumed by the rainbow power, before the rest of him was enveloped by magic as well. The magic that he had stolen was torn from his body and thanks to the rainbow power was returned to who truly owned it. Tirek began to shrink as more and more magic left him, until he was barely taller than the ponies and far older.

"No..." he whispered as he fell to his knees, looking down at his shriveled hands with disbelief forming in his eyes. "This cannot be. I had it all planned. I can't lose again."

"Tirek...enough. Please, you're beaten. You're done. Just stop fighting," Twilight begged the centaur, but once more her words had the opposite effect. Tirek forced himself to stand up, trying to summon forth whatever strength he had left to decimate the foes that stood before him.

"I cannot! I must take over your world! I must prove that your friendship is weak!"

"Why? Why do you have to prove that? What could possibly drive you to this madness?" Twilight asked.

"My...brother," Tirek admitted, his voice cracking as he said the words. "My brother, my best friend, fought at my side for so long. We were inseparable, defeating all in our path. But then we came to Equestria and your devil magic changed him! Turned him against me! He betrayed me, his best friend, for a bunch of horses that never deserved to be in our presence! And for that...I will kill all of you!"

Tirek shot a small blast of magic towards the six, but the strength of the rainbow power canceled out the spell before it could reach them. But none of the six gazed at Tirek with hateful eyes anymore. All of them held pity for the centaur.

"Tirek, I can't begin to imagine how it feels to have your family betray you. But what he did...was because he knew you were wrong," Twilight began, expecting another wave of anger. But Tirek only held defeat in his eyes. "What you were using your magic for...that isn't right. Conquering, destroying...he saw that. That's why he turned against you."

"He left me to rot in Tartarus. He betrayed me," Tirek whispered.

"Yes, he helped imprison you in Tartarus. Did you know what the princesses originally wanted to do? They wanted to destroy you. And they had the power to do so. Your brother pleaded with them to spare you. He allied himself with us...so that he could help you live," Twilight revealed, getting Tirek to look at her with surprise. "I only found out recently, when you returned from Tartarus again."

"Then...he..."

"Tirek, you need to ask yourself a question. Is this what your brother would want? All this destruction, violence...watching you tear yourself apart trying to destroy all those that you believed had wronged you?" Twilight asked and this time Tirek didn't have an answer. "Or would he want you to move on? To be happy? To find peace?"

Tirek thought about her words for a long time, his face constantly changing from looks of rage to just sorrow. Then, after a time, he lifted his eyes to meet Twilight's, all of the anger replaced with weariness and regret.

"Perhaps I have been too consumed with my anger. My brother...always tried to make me happy. Always did what was best for me, even if I couldn't see it," Tirek said with a bitter smile as he lowered his magical energy, letting out a sigh as he knelt down. He then gave the six a smile, which they gave back to him in reply. "Perhaps you are right, princess. Perhaps it is time to let go...and to start making amends for all my actions."

"Tirek, I'm proud of you. You've finally-"

BANG!

Blood sprayed from the front of Tirek's skull as the bullet tore through it, spraying brains all over the ground in front of the Ambassadors. The rainbow power prevented any of the blood from touching them, but no amount of power could stop the horror and agony that washed over them. The other five stared at the now dead centaur that lay on the ground, while only Twilight could lift her eyes towards Punisher, who was pointing a gun that looked an awful lot like the side of his boot, which Twilight noticed looked like a holster.

"Finally," Punisher said as he lowered the gun and spat to the side. "I thought he'd never lower his guard."