It had been such a long time since Tirek had felt such strength in his body. It did not reach the same heights he had attained during his initial foray into Equestria. He could only assume the alicorn he had stolen from was young. Given her smaller stature and incredible naivete, it was the only conclusion that he could reach. It was disappointing, in a way, but even so. The ability to walk tall and proud without his every joint and muscle shrieking in agony, to fill his lungs full with air without releasing it all in a fit of coughs, to be able to lift his own body weight, or lift anything. It was exhilarating, and he couldn’t wait to put it all to use.

The land around him was largely more of the same nondescript green hills. Under the first rays of morning sunlight, the rain having ended and the clouds parted, he saw that it was all largely unchanged from how it had been before his imprisonment, though considering how much time had passed, he was certain that plenty had changed. In particular, he couldn’t help but cast his mind back to his homeland. A barren wasteland it had been, more rock and rust-colored dirt than anything else. But it had been home, at least. A land he was destined to inherit…

Had Scorpan not betrayed him.

Tirek came to an abrupt halt, his hands clenching into fists. With a wild roar of rage, he turned and swung his arms back through the trunk of a nearby tree. Wood bent, cracked, and splintered under the force of the blow, and sharp tingles of pain raced up and down his muscles like a swarm of burning insects. His chest heaved a moment as he took a series of deep, calming breaths to try and bury his fury.

It had been a millennium, Scorpan was dead. Their deadbeat father was dead. He had been denied his vengeance upon any of them. He could only hope that they had died early, and look forward to the chance to rip down everything they ever built.

He looked down at his hand. He cringed when he saw a splinter buried into his crimson flesh. “Bah. Still weak,” he snarled, plucking the splinter free between the tips of his fingers. He scowled at it and flicked it away into the shrubbery at the tree’s base before focusing ahead.

In truth, he did not yet know where he was going. He likely could have rampaged through that little hamlet to his heart's content, draining all the magic from its inhabitants. With the alicorn already drained, there would have been precious little anyone could do to stop him. But the capital was right there, in plain view, less than an hour’s flight from Ponyville. If he was to be strong enough to deal with the greater Alicorns who called that city home, he needed more power, and there wouldn’t be enough ponies there to meet his target. And causing too big of a commotion there would only draw attention he was in no position to deal with.

A small voice reasoned he should have thought of that before murdering an alicorn. He killed that voice.

With a small sigh, he decided to press on and search for another sign of civilization, then find a road, and follow it to some far-flung corner of Equestria. He could begin harvesting what he needed from far away, and slowly work his way inwards. By the time the alicorns knew it was him, he’d be more than a match for—

A flash of light up ahead brought Tirek to a halt. He grunted, raising a hand to shield his eyes from the brilliant white light. It was as bright as the sun itself, and he could feel the warmth of the morning on his face. A tingle of dread crept up his spine. There was only one pony that could create a feeling like this.

“Tirek,” Princess Celestia greeted in a cold, passionless voice. “You’re out of your cell.”

Tirek lowered his arms and immediately spread his stance, his teeth gnashing together in frustration. He felt his heart skip a beat, but was quick to catch himself. He forced a firm glare, and put on a confident smile. “Princess Celestia. Consider me surprised. How is it that you found out about me so quickly?” he asked.

Celestia narrowed her eyes. She was taller than he remembered, albeit not by much, and her eyes had deepened with something considerably more than age. “You are not so subtle — nor as thorough — as you think.”

Tirek’s smile faltered. Then he snarled in agitation. “The runt lives, then,” he deduced.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia corrected. “Her name is Twilight Sparkle. You will use it when you speak of her.”

“I do not take orders from you, Celestia,” Tirek rumbled back, risking a look to either side.

“You are a prisoner of Tartarus,” Celestia rebuked, flaring her wings. “So yes, you do. And you will obey this one. Return the magic you stole from Twilight Sparkle and surrender yourself to my custody. You will be returned to Tartarus and carry out the remainder of your sentence.”

Tirek’s blood boiled, and he took a threatening step forward. “You mean until the day I die?” he challenged her. “That is all that awaits those who are sent to your ‘prison for evil.’”

Celestia remained unmoved by the barely concealed accusation. “I have given you my command. You will obey.”

What little remained of Tirek’s smile died, replaced with a hateful glare. He cracked his knuckles together, his mind spinning, and a cold sweat breaking out across his back. He tried to keep his face even and level, to keep the twitched and tiny trembles from showing. I’m not ready for her. Not yet, he thought, his eyes shifting once more in the hopes of finding an escape.

A plan was beginning to form, though it would be risky. But, with no other options presenting themselves, he decided it was better than merely going along with this demented sun goddess’ commands. He grinned widely. “No. I won’t,” he said, cracking his knuckles over his chest. “In fact, I think I’ll just take from you what I want — since you were kind enough to present yourself to me yourself.”

Celestia didn’t react to the threat. She held her head slightly higher. “You misunderstand,” she stated. “I don’t care what you think. You will answer for what you did to Twilight.”

Tirek had to fight to keep his surprise from registering on his face. Celestia visibly tensed, her voice raising. She appeared to be genuinely angry. He’d understood her to be always in control. To see that something about that runt of an alicorn had touched a nerve… Tirek’s grin widened. “Ah, I see. So the puny thing was your daughter, then?”

“No,” Celestia said, lowering her stance as her horn glowed with radiant magic. “But she is dear enough to my heart for this to be personal.”

And then a beam of blazing sunfire was tearing through the air at Tirek. His eyes widened, drying from the heat, and with a yelp, he hurled himself to one side. The searing beam ignited everything in its path, leaving a charred trench in its wave. A pressurized shockwave of superheated air slammed into Tirek from the side, smashing the air from his lungs and throwing him even higher. He tried to right himself, legs and arms flailing. Finally, with a grunt of effort and a burst of his newfound power, he managed to stabilize himself. Looking down, he saw Celestia standing where she had been before.

She was staring at him. Her expression hadn’t changed. She almost looked bored.

She’s not taking me seriously, Tirek thought, a vein bulging in his throat. Let’s fix that. With a roar, he gathered magic between his horns before releasing a return blast of his own at Celestia. She held her ground, though he did see her bracing somewhere before the tidal wave of black-tinted flame struck her. The explosion caused by the blast was pitiful compared to the volcano she’d released mere moments ago, but Tirek could be satisfied that he’d scored a hit.

That was what he thought, at least, until he heard a familiar pop behind him. His heart dropped. He spun around to see Celestia matching his flight through the air with steady, even wing flaps, utterly unscathed.

“What?!” Tirek yelped.

Celestia’s horn glowed. “This is for Twilight.”

Tirek only had time to blink before he was enveloped in a devastating wave of fire. He screamed at the top of his lungs as pain far beyond any he was used to permeated every fiber of his being. If seen from ground level, the resulting blast might have resembled a star being born.

Tirek was only able to regain a sense of the world around him when he crashed into it, smoking and sizzling. He groaned, dragging himself up to his feet as quickly as he could. He looked up to where he’d just been and saw only a cloud of smoke. He fired a retaliatory beam into it, clearing the smoke. Once again, Celestia was gone.

Realizing what was about to happen, Tirek spun in place, bringing the back of his fist around to clear the area around him. A good instinct, as Celestia had just appeared in another burst of teleportation magic. His fist almost connected with her cheek, but she pulled back at the last second. Tirek shouted and turned with the force of the original swing, bringing his other fist around. His hand was wreathed in golden magic, and he screamed when they squeezed, crushing his hand.

But he was close. He could see the whites of her eyes. Deciding to take a risk, he opened his mouth, focused on where her magic met his skin, and tried to take it into himself.

Celestia’s grip on his hand tightened, and something broke. Tirek’s inhale was expelled in a breathless wheeze, his lungs seizing. Then Celestia twisted his arm back, forcing his chest up. Her expression continued to be unchanged. Cold, passionless. But he could see the fury buried in her eyes.

“This is for Rainbow Dash,” she declared before raising one of her own hooves and driving it down into Tirek’s exposed chest. He had already been struggling to regain his air, and it was driven from him all over again as ribs bent and skin bruised. Ripples traveled all through his body, muscles spasming and nerves burning in pain.

When he did get his air back, Tirek roared, pouring as much power as he dared into his hooves and kicking forward. His shoulder bent at a painful angle, but he powered through it. Celestia took a step back, her eyes going wide in alarm, as finally, finally, Tirek landed a punch. Her head jerked to the side alongside a sickening crack.

Seeing an opportunity, Tirek pressed the offensive, punching the alicorn in the face over and over again as hard and as fast as he could. She withdrew, but he matched her retreat, and his angered shout became a manic laugh. “You should have taken me seriously, Princess!” he declared. As he moved for another punch, he snapped open his fingers and slammed his open palm into Celestia’s throat. She gasped, then went silent as he gripped. Her forehooves flew up to grip at his forearm as he lifted her up, before he drove her down into the earth hard enough to crack it.

Gathering more magic, Tirek unleashed it into her face in a barely concentrated torrent. He laughed maniacally as he did so, thinking for a moment that he actually had her beat, and that he wouldn’t have to fall back on his original plan after all.

And then a golden aura wrapped around his hand on her throat, and that got crushed, too.

“GAH!” Tirek roared in pain, backpedaling, the pain breaking his concentration on his magic. He held his ruined hands close to his chest, panting for breath. Then he looked up.

Celestia stood from the crater he’d put her in. Her makeup was ruined, and her face was a little singed. But otherwise, she did not appear to be terribly bothered. She took a slow, deep breath, then smiled. “You know? After all the evils I’ve been unable to fight properly since my sister returned, I’d almost forgotten what it was like,” she said almost dreamily before affixing Tirek with a wide grin. “Thank you for reminding me.”

Tirek’s entire body clenched, and his fear turned to another surge of blinding rage. “You dare mock me?!” he demanded before kicking back and away from her. He gathered energy between his horns, every drop he could spare. “I’ll grind you to dust!”

Celestia’s smile only grew.

Unable to contain a furious roar, Tirek released a beam of flame at Celestia, displacing air and igniting the nearby grass. The alicorn braced herself, and Tirek knew she was going to attempt to teleport away again. So instead of relying on the impact to carry the force of his attack, he sent a signal down the length of the beam just before impact, commanding it to detonate early. The beam crackled, bulged, and burst like a ruptured blood vessel. He heard a startled shout from Celestia, and cackled in delight as the force of the spell obliterated the nearby tree, reducing it to a scattering wave of ash.

Tirek panted for air, his adrenaline slowly starting to subside. Silence followed the explosion, long and profound. He did not imagine that actually worked, but he could still take comfort in the fact that he’d caused the alicorn some pain.

And then there was a surge of wind, and the smoke cleared. Tirek’s heart dropped. Celestia was still there. Her feathers were ruffled, she was smoking, and she had raised a now-blackened hoof to protect herself. Slowly, she lowered it, and her glare bored into him like that of a hungry predator sizing up its next meal.

And then she was gone again, vanishing in a flash of light. Tirek spun around, trying to repeat the trick that served him before, but Celestia was nowhere to be had. Blinking in confusion and rattled with dread, Tirek formed a barrier around himself, as well as he could with so much of his power already used up, and looked around.

The sun rose higher into the sky, the world growing brighter and warmer as it did. It took Tirek a few seconds to realize, the world tinted by his barrier as it was, that it was getting too bright. And too warm.

“No…” he breathed before looking up.

Celestia was high in the air above him, a sphere of barely contained, unstable magic gathering on the tip of her horn. Her head was held high, her eyes glaring down her nose at him, as if he were a bug to be squashed.

She didn’t say anything, and Tirek had no time to move. Celestia lowered her head and dropped the sphere on him. He only had time to brace and channel as much power as he could into the barrier to defend himself before he felt the full power of the sun.

“Perhaps I went a little too far,” Celestia mused to herself in the aftermath of the explosion. The fields all around her for almost half a mile had been cleared of grass, all of it having been ignited from the heat of her spell. She cringed, worrying she might have just killed Tirek. She couldn’t reclaim his stolen magic if it died with him.

With a flap of her wings and another burst of magic, Celestia cleared away the smoke and the debris. A large crater had been punched into the ground where the spell had met Tirek’s barrer. She saw him there at the bottom, partially buried in rubble, blackened with soot and burns. She felt a small sigh of relief escaping her when she saw his chest rising and falling, albeit unsteadily.

May he remember this the next time he gets any ideas, Celestia thought, flying in slow, arcing circles down, inspecting the damage around them. Thankfully, she saw no signs of any wildlife getting caught in their little scuffle. They had all probably cleared out after her first attack. Finally, she came to a landing by the edge of the crater and peered inside.

Tirek’s breathing was audible from here, shallow and labored. Cringing in disdain, Celestia realized she was probably going to have to heal him. She slowly descended into the crater, her eyes never once leaving Tirek’s prone form. She came to a stop beside him and stared down at him, her ears lowering.

“What manner of creature might you have been, had you not allowed such malice to pollute you?” she wondered. “Your father was good, kind, and firm. He was a good leader and a valued friend. If only you could have been more like him…”

She lowered herself to her haunched and lit her horn. A pair of chained manacles decorated in arcane runes appeared beside her. She had hidden them away before the battle began. With a sigh, lowered them to bind Tirek’s wrists.

The Centaur’s eyes suddenly snapped open, and his jaw unhinged. Celestia’s heart skipped a beat, and she felt the tugging on her horn. For a moment, magic began to drain out of her and toward Tirek’s ugly mouth.

Growling in frustration, Celestia jerked her head back, raised her hoof, and drove it into Tirek’s teeth with all the force she could muster. Tirek’s eyes flew even wider, then rolled back into his skull as the force of the blow drove his head into the hard earth of the crater, making it just a little deeper. Deep cracks spiderwebbed out from the point of impact, and teeth, freed from their gums, scattered across the charred earth.

The drain on Celestia’s magic ended, and Tirek fell still.

She waited a moment longer to ensure he would not try anything else. Then she scoffed. “And that was for me,” she declared.

Tirek was beaten.

Not far from Celestia and Tirek’s brief but explosive confrontation, a shallow bluff nestled in a copse of now-dead trees concealed the battle’s only spectator. They looked on, curious about this centaur and his abilities. They noted his attempts to take something from Celestia — her magic. They felt excitement as he enacted his ploy, and then disappointment as it ended as soon as it began. As ever, the Princess was not one to take lightly.

“A foolish gambit,” they thought to themselves, their voices joined together. “Doomed to fail from the start.”

“But bold. With guidance…”

“We would waste our time on this brute?”

“His strength is misguided. But with aid, it could make for a very useful tool. We need only grant him direction.”

“Too risky. We would expose ourselves.”

“But will that matter if we get what we want?”

Their internalized debate fell silent. They watched, their mind spinning, discussing, arguing, and finally coming to an agreement as Celestia carried away the now-bound Tirek. Silent as the grave, they followed.

Author's Note

Musical accompaniment for Celestia's epic beat down of Tirek.

It has been a bit since I wrote a proper fight scene in this series. And it was a lot of fun! And Celestia WON!

That's weird. She doesn't normally win. Hmmm.

I will admit, I was tempted to write a different chapter between this one and the last one, and I might just go back and do that, but I just for the life of me could not think of anything I could put there that would be particularly meaningful. (I also did a LOT of trimming of filler in my outline, so I expect this final arc of Keys will have much faster pacing than the rest of the story. Writing my novel taught me a few things about pacing.) If I ever do go back and do that, I'll probably double back and get rid of this part of the author's note.