Fires of Reprisal

They wronged me, they banished me, defeated me and also dragged me back from banishment to send me to Tartarus. Just because I wanted to show them what I could really do. Just because I went against the grain. That white bitch called me cruel, if by cruel she means where I decided magical prowess was better than friendship then yes I am cruel. She called me dishonest, just because I wanted to surprise her with my growth and lied about what I was doing. She kicked me out of her school and later I come to find out that she is not only cruel and dishonest but also a hypocrite. She never cared about me making friends, she just wanted me to get some companions so I could weaponize the Elements against her sister. She thought nothing of banishing an eighteen year old to another dimension just because I didn't fit into her perfect little plan... if that isn't cruel then I don't know what is.

I wasn't idle in that other world either, no. I plotted and planned and worked tirelessly to exact my revenge. I would get an army and rebel against this sick joke of a country. This whole world is nothing but a flimsy facade and I will bring it down to its knees if only for the sake of seeing that proud white bitch show everypony the monster she truly is. Not only her but her naive student Twilight, meekly following in her masters shadow and even being able to use that overpowered magic of friendship. It may be extremely powerful, more powerful than me in demon form but I would rather die a thousand deaths than rely so heavily on others like that.

Her and those ignoramus... brainless dolts that she calls friends had to ruin it all for me. All my hard work, and risks and sacrifices all for nothing because they followed her and she followed her.

They couldn't even let me lose in peace, they had to come and drag me kicking and screaming all the way back to Equestria and then send me to Tartarus. I swear on every lie and cruelty they caused I will get my revenge. I will get stronger, my hate will fuel me and this time I will work alone. When I break out of Tartarus I will be a one pony army. I will burn down their precious way of life and I will sit atop the ashes of their fake land and laugh at the finality of it all before I can finally die.

I ground my teeth. Hard. The pain of them gnashing and pushing each other, threatening to crack immediately sharpened my mind.

Fueling my drive to destroy Equestria again in my head, I shook it, limp mane swirling around me as I thought about more pressing matters with a grim look on my scarred face.

Since being exiled to Tartarus I’ve been constantly on the run for my life. Tirek in his quest to get powerful enough to break out of Tartarus and rule the world, had been chasing sources of magic all throughout this blasted hellscape and draining them to get stronger. The moment I was teleported inside the main gates, their impregnable black iron twisting high and covered with magic to disallow any creature to open them to access the portal back to Equestria… Tirek had attacked me.

It was through sheer luck and terror that I got away from him. Chain casting teleport to get away from him, faster and more often than I had ever cast it before. I teleported as far away from that monster as my magic would allow me and with my eyes white from my pathetic weakness, the blood pounding in my ears. I almost collapsed from the adrenaline alone, I then found a cave and collapsed in it.

Since then I have learned a lot about Tirek and Tartarus. For one it seems like time goes more slowly here, there’s no day or night, just that glaring and oppressive sun. It both serves to weaken the spirits of every creature and also reminds us who sent us.

For me its a reminder that I can't ever give up, or give in.

Luckily enough I can't die, at least not from natural causes. There's no food or water but no matter how much my lips get cracked and my throat tears from thirst, no matter how much my stomach feels like it will devour me from the inside I wont die of hunger or thirst.

No the only way for me to die is if I am killed, and the strongest being down here has it out for me. Tirek is craving my strong magic more than anything else down here. Him and his minions hunt for me constantly, I can't stay still for more than one day or they will find me.

Sunset smirked, feeling the action to cause my lips to crack and my gums to start bleeding, displaying a perverse smile that would have sent any normal pony screaming in fright. Just wait till I turn the tables on them and pulverize every thing down here into a smear on the ground.

I grinned even more now, finding a fleeting thought funny. Maybe I’ll make a lake from their blood, the first ever lake in Tartarus and I’ll call it Shimmer lake. That's a fantastic idea if I say so myself.

Enough about the future, I need to focus on the present or I won't last much longer. As I stiffly get up, my joints protest almost audibly. Cracking and sending spikes of pain to my mind... I can ignore that. Such a little amount of pain was nothing compared to the hunger and the sun. That damnable sun.

Stepping out of the cave, my only solace from the waves of heat beating down on me and almost forcing myself down on the ground from the sheer weight of it all, I habitually scanned the horizon for anything alive. If it was alive, it was my enemy, it was one of them.

Magically enhancing my vision, I scoped out the blistering and cracked plains around me. Tartarus had two main environments, a scalding desert devoid of sand. The heat from the sun and the cracked ground were my only companions. Not that I needed any but other than the odd rock formation that would sometimes have a cave that would give me a moment away from her sun, there was nothing but endless and endless stretches of dry and cracked ground.

The other thing Tartarus environment wise it had was near the entrance. Nothing but volcanoes with the odd river or pool of lava. I guess the idea when the princesses made this place was that if you made it past the certain death at the entrance, the only thing left was an endless lack of anything meant to break the spirit and decay the mind.

Not seeing anything I turned my attention to the ground, checked the mark I made on it before napping in the cave, indicating where to keep going. With the sun permanently at its zenith and no real landmarks or stars it could be tricky to avoid going in circles. It took a constant mental trick to walk in a perfectly straight line.

Starting off at a trot I felt my blood starting to pump more, loosening my joints. Quickly though it was time and I started galloping in the opposite direction from the entrance of this hell. I knew nothing was close by me right now from when I last checked but I needed to get more distance between me and the horde on my trail. Running had more of a reason than just getting distance. I needed to get stronger, not just magically but physically as well. Stronger and tougher for the fight to come.

Remembering one of the few accidental nuggets of real wisdom I learned back at that monsters school, Sunset took a trip down memory lane for a moment while running. The amount of magic unicorns could use was dependant on a few things. Genetics was one of them, a unicorn from a family of spellcasters would probably innately have more magic than the average one. Another one was luck, sometimes unicorns got lucky and just had a talent for magic. Lastly was physical traits, a unicorn who is stronger would have a bigger magic pool to draw from, that and the more magic they used the more they could use. It was like its own muscle and just like any muscle, the better shape the body was in the stronger it could get. Alicorns with their immortal bodies and magic of the three races had the most of course and could do impressive feats using brute strength alone.

With the curse here of not being able to die and also a nearly unlimited amount of time. I have plenty of time to build up my strength and on my own get stronger and more powerful. One day I will would be more powerful than even that bitch and her sister. More powerful than the elements of harmony and the magic of friendship.

One day.

Getting into the groove of running it was finally time to start working on using my magic too. Using a sloppy and inefficient spell to make a stopwatch hover in front of me I counted the minutes and poured more magic than I should need to keep this wasteful spell running. After all… the more magic I use in general the more I’ll increase my pool. Reality soon made it hard to think straight though as I focus on my pain, becoming better acquainted with it than any other being.

The pounding of my hooves beneath me jolts and jars my tired and stiff body, hurting every step of the way. The thick calluses on the bottom of my hooves help but don't entirely block the heat coming from the ground. The pounding waves of the sun above me, feeling like a living thing trying to push me into the ground. My body is beginning to heat up to intolerable levels since I used up all my water to make sweat long ago, so long ago. My throat is so dry I’ve forgotten the taste of water and my stomach so shrivelled I could swear from the pain it would normally be trying to eat me from the inside out. I guess it feels like a strong fever and starving to death, except that the cause is everything around me.

I couldn’t imagine a better training regime, I thought as I grinned again. The motion of my lips moving cracked them again and a little blood seeped out. I ignored that, it happens all the time.

As my timer wore on and my daily exertion continued, I could think of nothing else but my hatred of the Sisters, of the Princess of Friendship, of Tirek and his horde, and my never ending pain.. The hate keeps me going, the pain keeps me sharp, these keep me pushing myself, keeps me from ever giving up or giving in.

My previous record for running while keeping this magic clock up is nineteen hours and fifty minutes. Considering I’m improving about five to ten minutes a session, days no longer applied to me. I should be able to hit twenty hours of constant exertion before needing to teleport a little further and find a spot to relax in.

God it's frustrating! I want to push myself to the absolute limit every time so I can improve faster but I must always keep a little held back in case Tirek shows up while I’m recovering. During my time in the human world when I heard about god, I thought it was stupid but harmless, worshipping a being no one had ever seen but now I’m just happy to have something other than her to swear at.

A feeling of dizziness hits me at about the twenty hour, ten minute mark. Quickly teleporting as far forward as I dare. I pop out and see nothing around me, no caves and nothing but the cracked, blistering ground as far as the eye could see.

My legs are starting to get wobbly, I started to get worried. I need to get to shelter soon. Not seeing any alternative a hole would have to suffice, it wouldn't be the first time. Lighting up my horn I pushed the ground down and sideways in front of me, effortlessly making a pony sized hole in the ground to crawl into. Scratching a mark on the ground to point the way when I wake up, I wormed my way into the hole. Not wanting to make it any larger than it had to be to keep it hidden I wedged myself in it backwards until I was in the shade. The air was hot, stifling and overbearing but at least I can sleep when I know that she isn't right above me. Setting a quick and easy creature detection alarm spell I quickly drifted off to sleep.