A Grey Knight in Tartarus, part 4 (Sins of the Father)

>Eris stares at you blankly for a moment, before growling in frustration.
>"Dude, what does that even MEAN!? Do you not GET it!? We're dead! There's no hope!"
>She's getting more hysterical by the moment, and are those...tears?
"We don't need hope, Eris."
>"Well that's good, because we don't have ANY!"
"Have faith. The Emperor Protects."
>Her hysteria transforms from terror to rage in a snap.
>"He'll protect YOU, maybe! But according to you he wants me and anything like me dead! You would have probably killed me the second we got out if Tirek wasn't coming to get me already!"
>That hurt you more than she could know, but you don't let it show.
>It hurt because what she said was true not too long ago.
>You just stare at her silently for a few moments.
>She stares back, before sighing and regaining her composure.
>"That...that wasn't fair of me. I'm sorry, Justy."
"I realize you didn't mean it. Fear unmans those capable of experiencing it. Why do you fear this 'Tirek' so?"
>She winces, curling herself up as she floats in front of you.
>"He killed most of my family."


>You look at her for a long moment before sitting down on a nearby rock.
>She stares at you, shocked.
>"What the buck are you doing!? We need to g-"
"I will not run. Cowardice is beneath me. And according to you, we cannot escape from Tirek. So I will wait for his arrival. While we wait, why don't you tell me a story?"
>"Dude, but..wha...grrraaaaokay! A story of what!?"
"Tell me about Tirek. Tell me why and how he killed your family. Tell me the entire story of how you came to be trapped here."
>Eris glares at you, before glancing at the horizon behind your back, before glaring at you again.
>Then she snaps her fingers and sits down on a high-backed chair made of clouds.
>Another snap, and she's holding a pipe in one paw while a monocle pops over her eye.
>"Okay, fine. When we die, we'll at least die informed. Most of this is what my dad told me when I was young. I didn't even BELIEVE Tirek existed before I came here. I thought he was just a fairy tale..."
>She takes a draw from the pipe and breathes out pink bubbles.
>You stare at her pointedly and she scowls, before dismissing the pipe.
>You keep staring at her.
>"The monocle stays, I don't care if it's distracting."
>You shrug, and she continues.
>"Okay, good. Well, according to dear old Dad, a long, long, looooooong time ago, the Old Guys (that's what he called em) made the world. And then they made him. And Celestia. And Luna. And what would become the Smooze...."
"And Tirek?"
>"And Tirek."


>She seems a bit uncomfortable with continuing, twitching her paw.
>"Well....Dad didn't tell me EVERYTHING that happened, but eventually the Old Guys left, and they gave him and the others a job to do."
>"Other life sprung up on the planet, ponies and dragons and manticores, those kinds of things. The Old Guys told Dad he had to rule over them, and to make them happy. So he did that with jokes and pranks and things like that. He was good at it."
>"Celestia and Luna-" she spits the names-"were put in charge of the Sun and the Moon. They were supposed to keep everything balanced and advise Dad."
>You nod at her to keep talking.
>"And then came Tirek. He was....sort of a guardian. It was his job to preserve life in the world, to maintain dominion over Nature, with the Smooze at his right hand."
>She hesitates again.
"Go on, Eris. We have time. I will hear him coming."
>"Well....here's where it gets...weird. Dad used to tell me that Tirek found something....funny, when he was out...guardianing or whatever he did in his spare time. He came back to Celestia, Luna, Dad, and the Smooze, and he told them he'd found something to replace the Old Guys, something to give them purpose."
>Your gauntlets clench on your knees where you sit.
>You knew where this was going.
>"Tirek called them the Four Gods."


>You give a sharp intake of breath, and Eris glances at you, concerned.
>"What?"
"Remember when I tried to purge you when you mentioned Chaos?"
>"Uh....yeah? Kind of hard to forget a nine-foot tall metal dude chasing you with an arm that shoots pain."
>You winced, glad your helmet made your face invisible.
"Those 'Four Gods' of Tirek's....I'll wait until your finished."
>She looks at you imperiously with her monocle, before slowly continuing.
>"O...kay...Well anyway, Tirek went on and on about the Four, saying they would give the world purpose, and with their aid, all the creatures of the world could spread into the rest of the galaxy."
>She adjusts her monocle.
>"Dad and the Smooze at least heard him out, but Luna and Celestia thought he was spouting crazy talk, and when they said they weren't interested, Tirek flipped."
>"He withdrew from the others, hiding in the dark places of the world. He built a castle out of stone and magic, and he stole ponies and manticores from Dad's kingdom."
>"He used magic, some power given him by the Four, and twisted the ponies and manticores until they became centaurs and griffins."
>Yes, you knew how this went. A mad God, corrupted by Chaos. It was as if the Horus Heresy was retold before your eyes.
>"When he re-emerged, he was at the head of a twisted army, and he declared war on Dad, Celestia, Luna, and the Smooze."
>"He called himself the Dark Centaur."


>"Dad and Luna and Celestia begged and pleaded with him to stop, but he wouldn't see reason."
>He razed town after town, turning ponies and manticores into griffins and centaurs, until his army grew bigger and bigger.
>"Finally, the Smooze went out to fight Tirek on it's own."
>"Dad didn't see the fight himself, but the next time Tirek was spotted, the Smooze was at Tirek's side."
>"Dad, Luna, and Celestia finally decided to gather the ponies, the manticores, and the dragons, and fight Tirek themselves."
>You snort.
"That's what they should have done at once."
>She glares at you, and you wave a hand to continue.
>"Done? Okay? Good. Well they got beat. Badly. Tirek tore the manticores apart first, because they were Dad's favorites. He cursed their entire race, and ripped their sentience away."
>"Tirek and the Smooze seemed unstoppable, taking city after city, forest after forest, until it looked like he would rule the entire world."
>"Then Celestia and Luna came forward with a weapon of incredible potency."
>"They called it the Element of Harmony."


>"Dad didn't know where the weapons came from, and the Sisters ignored his questions."
>"They used them to tear Tirek's armies apart, turning centaurs back into ponies and griffins into mindless manticores."
>"The griffins rebelled, turning on Tirek and joining the Sisters and Dad. The Smooze tried to take on Dad, Celestia, and Luna at once, trying to bypass the Elements."
>"This time, Dad was the one to pull out a weapon. He took tore a part of the world off, and twisted it, the way he'd seen Tirek twist flesh."
>"He created a sub-world, a prison. He called it Tartarus."
>"He, Celestia, and Luna hurled the Smooze into Tartarus, and then they went hunting for Tirek."
>"They shouldn't have bothered."
>"Tirek heard about what happened to the Smooze, and he came for Dad."
>"He cut him, wounded him, screaming at him about the Gods and trying to cajole him into joining their side. "
>"Celestia and Luna caught him before Tirek could kill Dad, and the three of them trapped the Dark Centaur in Tartarus."


>She grows even quieter than before.
"Eris..?"
>She looks down at her lap before replying.
>"Give me a minute, Justy. This last part....not a good memory."
>You give Eris her peace.
>She inhales, and then continues.
>"Well, after Tirek and the Smooze were trapped, Dad and the Pony Sisters worked long and hard to return the world to it's natural state."
>"And while they were doing it, Dad settled down with another draconequus, dear old Mom, and they had three bouncing bundles of joy. The widdlest and cutest of which was yours truly."
>She points both her thumbs at herself, and you give her the chuckle she's been looking for.
>You can see from her expression, she needs SOMEONE to laugh.
>"We were happy for while. Centuries, even, with Dad as king. And....then...something happened. I don't know what. Me and the rest of the family were away, vacationing in a pony town, Las Pegasus, when Celestia and Luna came for us."
>She tries to force a smile, but even you can see the hurt in her eyes and expression.
>"They told us that Dad had gone nuts, that he had pledged himself to dark and insane Powers, and that they had trapped him in stone. We didn't believe them, but when we tried to argue, they got scared. They said that they couldn't allow the danger of four corrupted draconequus to roam free."
>She snaps her fingers.
>"And like that, BAM! They hurled us into Tartarus, Dad's old invention."
>Her forced smile grows haunted
>"And Tirek was waiting for us."


"Eris?"
>You reach out an arm, to stop her. You'd heard enough. You could guess what had happened.
>"No, let me finish."
>"He had been watching. He had eyes in Equestria. He had watched as Dad, the guy he had been a brother to, the guy who had built the prison he was now trapped in, went nuts. He watched as the Sisters turned Dad to stone. And he watched when they tossed us into his clutches."
>Eris' paw is shaking as she reaches up to keep her monocle in place.
>"He told us to run. And then he hunted us down, one by one. He killed us, no matter where we hid, no matter where we ran. And he made it slow. He made it last. He got my Mom first, then my brother. My big sister was last. I stayed ahead of his grasp by never stopping, teleporting all over Tartarus, stopping only to eat. And eventually, I...I think he got bored. He went back to scheming his way out, and I went back to trying to steal from his caravans. And then I met you."
>For the first time in the last hour, the smile she wears is approaching genuine.
>"And now we're going to die."
>To her credit, she does not cry.
>You get to your feet, and she looks up at you.
"We are NOT going to die."
>"Did you hear that story at all, man? Tirek can't-"
"Don't say can't. Despair is a tool of the enemy. Do not let it take root. We are not going to die. We are going to win. And you've told me how."
>You walk off, drawing your sword as you go, looking for the perfect spot while Eris stares at your back.
>"What did I tell you? And HOW are we going to win!? How are we going to live?"
"I'm going to make a trap."


>Eris had armed you with the greatest weapon possible against the Archenemy.
>Information.
>You knew what Tirek was, now. You knew what you could do against him.
>He was a warp-creature, Like Celestia. Like Luna.
>Like Eris.
>He was as much warp-magic as flesh.
>And he was infused by the power of Chaos.
>He was daemon.
>And you were born and raised, bred and trained, to hunt and destroy the daemon.
>You prayed as you inscribed the circle, a vast trap drawn in sand with the tip of your blade.
>A ritual, taught to you by an Inquisitor.
>And even as you draw, you remember the Inquisitor. A man who sought to fight the daemonic WITH the daemonic.
>He was a heretic, and you had purged him with the very sword you now held.
>You wondered if you were worthy to bear it any more.
>After all, were you not a heretic? You, who were now dead-set on defending a xenos from her age-old foe?


>My title is friend.
>You feel the doubt taking hold of you, and the grip on your blade slips.
>Wait.
>That wasn't a slip.
>The ground is rumbling.
>You hear the bellow of a hunting horn and the sound of hooves striking sand, a near-silent impact.
"Eris."
>She's been watching you draw the rune-circle as you prepare for combat with Tirek.
>"Just, wha-"
"Eris, hide. He's coming."
>"He'll find me, he can sme-"
"He'll be too busy to worry about you. Now hide."
>You can see him now, over the next dune. A shadow on your psyche and a blot on the horizon.
>You begin to pray.
"I am the Hammer."
>You hear roaring as the the daemon draws near.
"I am the tip of His spear."
>You can see wings, vast pinion spreading out like ink on the Tarterian sky.
"I am the the sword in His hand."
>You send out your meager psychic will into your weapon, and it begins to glow a soft blue.
"I am the gauntlet about His fist."
>You rise to your feet, blade in hand, as you await the daemon.
"I am the bane of His foes and the woes of the treacherous."
>Tirek, the Dark Centaur, Griffinfather, leaps the dunes, roaring, a poleaxe in one armored hand. Great feathered pinions spread on his back, and he brings the blade down towards you.
>Your sword rises up to meet his axe.
"I am the End."