Equestria had, in a very short span of time, been subjected to one of the greatest upsets in its long history. Tirek, former prisoner of the dreaded realm of Tartarus, had broken free and was running rampant across the land, stealing the magical life essence of all he came across. And if that weren't bad enough, he had enlisted the aid of Discord, Master of Chaos, to help him in his goal of taking all the power he could from the ponies. Now, his task was nearly complete. All in this land, even Discord himself, had fallen victim to his insatiable hunger for magic. Now there remained only one final task. The magic of the alicorn Princesses still eluded him, but he knew where it was, and who it was being kept by. Twilight Sparkle was his goal, and he'd even managed to capture her friends in his efforts. Doubtless they will serve him as a bargaining chip if things don't go well. He allowed himself a dark chuckle as he salivated over the thought of gaining all that wonderful power for himself. But, as was so often the case in moments like this, his train of thought was interrupted by a rather incredulous-looking fellow beside him, leading to a sigh on the Lord's part.

"Ugh...yes, Kevin?"

The human folded his arms as he looked up to Tirek.

"Yeah, er, could I just get a lift up, Boss?"

Tirek raised an eyebrow, but nevertheless gave his assistant some begrudging help, offering his hand for Kevin to step onto. When he brought the tiny helper to his face, Tirek snorted a little.

"Alright, now what's this all about?"

His answer was, apparently, a slap straight to his face. Unfortunately for Kevin, while this tactic had worked out fairly well for him in the past, here it was less so, as Tirek had already become so absurdly powerful that the slap actually ended up hurting Kevin's hand instead, which he started nursing while an obvious look of pain adorned his face.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!"

Tirek, despite having been just attacked by his own minion, smirked with amusement over the outcome.

"Feel better?"

Kevin, thoroughly annoyed by this point, just went and said what was on his mind.

"YOU BETRAYED DISCORD?!?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT A MONUMENTALLY STUPID IDEA THAT IS?!?!"

Tirek waved him off.

"Discord was a fool. He's grown soft in the head during his time among the ponies. He should have known it was a bad idea to help me."

Kevin, though his hand still throbbed, nodded.

"Yeah, sure, helping bad guys whose whole thing is stealing magic is probably not good when you're packed full of it yourself, granted. And yeah, it was kinda dumb for him to forget subsection D of rule twenty-seven of the villain playbook."

He raised a finger, reciting said rule.

"Villains always stab each other in the back, without fail."

But then his eyes narrowed.

"But you've kinda taken a pretty useful player off your side of the board. Sure, you have his magic, but you can't really use it like he could! All you can do is that big horn shooty lazer thing of yours! Do you have any idea how useful it would have been to have someone who can do literally anything helping you out in this coming fight?!"

Tirek snorted again.

"I may not have access to Discord's more quirky abilities, but I assure you, this power is still enough for me to face Princess Twilight."

He balled his hand into a fist, savouring the thought of the battle yet to come.

"I swear to you, this will be the greatest fight she will have ever known!"

Kevin nodded.

"Oh, I've no doubt it'll be awesome and epic. But you can still do plenty to tip the odds in your favour. You say you want Discord's power? Fine, I guess I can swallow that for now. But why fight her before you know for certain you have an overwhelming advantage?"

Tirek looked to him with annoyance.

"You think I haven't done enough already? Every pony in Equestria, down to the smallest foal, has had their essence stolen by me. The only power I haven't taken yet is that which Twilight now hoards for herself! There is literally nobody else for me to take from!"

Kevin folded his arms, gesturing to the first random direction he thought of.

"The ponies? Sure, but what about other creatures? You've taken from Discord, so clearly you're not limited. There are others who live in or around Equestria who have that kind of essence in them that you can take. Griffons, Dragons, Yaks. Why not go after some of them to make yourself stronger? Because hey, every little bit helps, right?"

Tirek paused here, pondering that notion as he stroked his beard.

"Hmmm...stealing magical essence from Dragons, you say?"

Kevin gave a proud nod.

"Yep. Because hey, if you're strong enough to face down a mare with the power of four alicorns in her, I'd say a dragon here and there should be easy pickings for you at this point."

Slowly, a hungry look came to Tirek, and he turned, looking out to the horizon, no doubt thinking of all the non-ponies he could steal from out there.

"You know, it is always good to broaden one's palate from time to time."

Kevin chuckled.

"That's the spirit! Who says you need to stick to ponies after all? There's plenty of non-ponies, and their essence, all around you if you know where to look."

Slowly, as Tirek began to increasingly accept this new notion, a wicked smirk crept onto his lips, and he cast a glance down to Kevin.

"...Is there now?"

---

Enough time had passed, she'd decided. Twilight had hidden for far too long. She'd studied, practiced, made plans and contingencies as best she could, but now, she knew she was ready. She would face Tirek, free her land from his terror, and restore all that had been taken from him. So, stepping out onto the field of battle, the youngest alicorn stood confidently, speaking out with the assurance that only true heroes could speak with.

"Tirek! Your reign of evil has come to an...an..."

But, rather than the Tirek she'd led herself to believe she was facing, instead there stood a version of him that was so large and imposing that even the tallest skyscrapers of Manehattan would have seemed puny by comparison. The towering centaur folded his arms, smiling as he looked down to the pony that continued to gawk at him.

"Well then, Princess Twilight...shall we begin our battle?"

Twilight blinked a couple of times, then glanced to the side, where she saw the currently-exhausted form of Kevin lying on the ground, eyes bearing the distinct mark of one who'd had their essence taken. After a brief moment of looking embarrassed, the human, surprisingly, chuckled.

"Yeah, yeah, I know...subsection D of rule twenty-seven. Don't remind me."

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