Part 2: Chapter 12: A Close Friend's Teacher

"Come on, Alpha!" Beta said excitedly.

Alpha smiled as he made his way down the flight of stairs and towards the tomb. "You need to calm down."

"You need to hurry up!" Beat replied as he glided through the rock walls. He turned to look at his tomb while he waited for his friend. "Alpha, are you coming?" He said after a few moments.

"Beta…"

"What?"

"Watch this."

Beta looked around to see Alpha halfway down the hallway, staring at a lit torch. He flew to Alpha. "What am I looking at here?" Alpha nodded to the torch. Beta turned his head to look at the torch and watched as it dimmed down to a considerably low state before rising up until it was spewing fire until it looked like Alpha's welding torch was using Napalm as its fuel. "That's odd. Are you-" Beta stopped talking as he looked back at Alpha.

He was staring at the torch, grinning in disbelief. Breathing slowly, he seemed as if he was concentrating on the flame, as if he was manipulating the flame. The colors in Alpha's mane were pulsating; it would light up until all its colors were in their neon form then would they would dim back to their original dark color before lighting up again. Alpha's breathing and his mane pulsating was in sync with beat. When he breathed in, his mane lit up. When he breathed out, his mane dimmed.

"Beta…" Alpha said without taking his eyes off of the flame.

"You are doing that, aren't you?"

Alpha nodded. The flame, spewing fire like a flamethrower, died down and formed a small sphere of fire.

"You know what? Screw what's inside my tomb, I got a better idea." Beta said after a while. He disappeared as he bonded back with Alpha.

The small sphere of flame extinguished itself.

"Aww, why'd you do that?"Alpha complained.

"Because we are going to go meet an ol' friend of mine."

Alpha raised an eyebrow. "A friend that is still alive?"

"Yup."

Alpha backed out of the hallway and walked to his room. He made his way to his bed and leaned down, grabbing and slipping on his brace, and his bag. He disappeared in flash of red light as Beta teleported him to the peak of the mountain.

Alpha landed on the peak, the snow crunching under his hooves. It was early in the morning, the sun starting to rise as Celestia did her job. "Well then, where to?"

"Tartarus."

"Which is where?"

"We aren't flying there; we can be easily caught if we fly during the day. I'll teleport us there." Beta replied before Alpha disappeared in another flash of red light.

Alpha landed on a stone-made road. He shook his head to rid of the blurriness and confusion before looking up and taking a step back.

Looking down upon him stood the Three-Headed dog Cerberus. He was huge, easily bigger than Celestia when she stood on her hind legs. His fur coat was black and had spikes of what seemed to be made of stone. Its faces looked like the faces that bulldogs own. Its eyes were yellow with red pupils and had a spike collar on each of the three head's necks.

"Oh." Alpha said, his heart beating loudly in his ears. "Hi there."

The head in the middle of the three spoke. "THIS IS A RESTRICTED AREA. LEAVE NOW OR BE PUNISHED WITH INSTANTANEOUS DEATH." Its voice was loud and calm but hoarse. It reminded Alpha of how his voice was after yelling in agony in the Factory; all low and thick.

"To be honest, that has never really scared me." Alpha admitted, pushing the thought aside.

"LEAVE NOW."

"Chill out, C, It's Beta." Beta said, taking over.

"Oh, my apologies." Cerberus apologized to Beta, lowering his voice. "How are you?"

"I am fine. You?"

"Doing good. Finally away from other ponies so it's all quiet and peaceful here. What are you doing here and who's the colt?"

"His name is Alpha, a close friend of mine. Anyway, I'm here to talk to Mr. T, is he here?"

Cerberus nodded. He lifted his paw and pointed back to the platform in the center. "He hasn't left. I have heard what you two have done recently and I have to admit, I am impressed. He will be impressed to see you two as well."

"Thanks. It's nice to see another old friend like yourself, one that is still alive."

"Likewise." Cerberus said with a nod as he moved to the right to allow Alpha to pass.

"One last thing," Beta added.

"Yes?"

"If we get him out of the cage, can he leave Tartarus and come with us?"

Cerberus grinned. "If you can get him out of that cage, you can do whatever you want with him. The cage is made out of your Dragon Metal."

"Okay, Thanks."

Alpha walked past Cerberus and began to walk up the stairs to Beta's friend. After half a hour of climbing up the stairs, Alpha's legs were burning. He got to the top of the platform and realized who Mr. T was.

Standing in a cage that was forged using Dragon Metal, stood a red centaur. He had a pair of black horns that curved outwards then inwards then outwards on the top of his head. Wearing only his black shirt, the centaur looked as if he was in style with the social dress code for centaurs. He was sitting in the middle of the cage, his eyes closed, deep in meditation.

"Who are you?" He said without opening his eyes.

"The name's Alpha." Alpha asked, ignoring the centaur's initial question.

"What are you here for?"

"WE are here to talk to you, Mr. T."

"No one has called me that in a long time." The centaur said, opening his eyes and looking at Alpha. "It's nice to hear from you, my pupil. Are you somewhere where I can see you?"

Alpha waved his hoof in the air.

"I'm not talking to you, colt."

"Are you sure about that, Tirek?"

Tirek laughed aloud in disbelief. "You learned how to bond?! You know that is an advanced type of magic that even I don't know how to do, right?"

"Yeah I do. We are here to make you a deal."

"Go on." Tirek replied happy to be in the company of an old friend.

"Alpha is 18 years old and recently, about two nights ago, we both found out that he was a mutant. Now you and I know that this rarely happens because after the age of 13, the mutant ability usually dies out if it is not discovered."

Tirek smiled. "You actually remembered what I told and taught you." He nodded. "Yes, that is correct. If the pony finds out about his mutant ability after the age of 13, it is not as powerful as it was if it was found before age of 13. It does not grow in power but gets weaker and weaker over time, even if its used."

"How strong is the ability to use magic for a mutant who finds out about it at age 18?"

"On average, based on a study of 1000 mutants who found out about their ability after the age of 13…" Tirek trailed off as he recalled the information of mutants. "It would be able to shatter a glass sheet about five centimeters thick, no more."

"Well, Alpha here had a bit of a meltdown. He accessed his ability when he had three of the four ingredients of what made up my rage."

"Confusion, Realization, Depression, and Revenge. I remember." He said with a nod. "How strong was it?"

"Pretty strong."

"Define strong."

"Strong as in it could easily beat me in a duel."

"Really?" Tirek asked, his eyebrows raised. "Interesting. So what is this deal you are proposing?"

"I was wondering if you could do an evaluation on what he can do and what type of magic it is."

"And what do I get in return?"

"Currently, Alpha and I have an army of ponies and mutants who are against Celestia. You evaluate Alpha and in return, you can join us."

"Alpha," Tirek said. "What do you have against Celestia?"

Alpha reached to his metallic wing and took it off, revealing the remains of the charred wing.

"How did that happen?"

"Have you ever heard of the Rainbow Factory?

"No, what is it?"

"Long story short, after The Battle of the Victims, Celestia was short on magic and was very, very weak. At that time, numerous pegasi were failing the flying test, Magic itself was rare to find, and the market was in chaos causing the Economy to go down."

"Ok." Tirek said, listening intently.

"Celestia needed a way to regain her magic to stabilize Equestria, so she created the Rainbow Factory. The Rainbow Factory is exactly what it sound like. It's a factory that creates rainbows."

"I understand, but how is this relevant to his missing wing?"

"To create rainbows, you need a source of pure magic."

"So?"

"There was an endless supply of pegasi that were failing the test."

"The factory is a death camp?" Tirek asked in suprise and disbelief.

"Pretty much. Celestia found out that the blood inside Pegasus colts were made up of almost pure magic. So she created the Factory and in doing so regained her magic." Alpha intervened.

"This rainbow blood, do you have any of it?"

Alpha nodded. He opened his bag and took out the jar of blood.

"That's just a jar of blood. I'm talking about the rainbow version you were talking about."

Alpha, without replying, took off the cap. The oxygen made contact with the blood and turned it into its rainbow colored state.

"So I'm guessing that your wing is gone because you were at the factory right?"

Alpha nodded as he gave the jar to Tirek. "Yeah, I used to work in the Metal repairing part of the Factory. A week before my 11th birthday, I saved a mare from hurting herself as she played around with my welding torch. One week later, I was punished for doing the right thing."

Tirek took a sip of the rainbow liquid and slightly grew as he regained power. "May I drink all of this?"

"Not all, but you can drink some."

Tirek nodded in thanks. He took another gulp of the liquid, growing as he absorbed the magic. "Why were you punished?"

"That is a good question." Alpha replied. "I will get back to you on that once I find out why."

"Ok, but how do you know that Celestia was behind it."

"Because before I was punished I was told that they "had specific orders from the Princess to keep you alive." "

Tirek had already drank half of the jar of blood before giving it back to Alpha. Alpha took it, placed the cap back on and placed it back in his bag.

"Feeling better?"

"Much. Thank you." Tirek replied. "There is a problem, however, with your deal."

"Which is?"

"How are you planning to get me out of here? The cage is made up of your metal."

"I could try…" He said.

"Try what?"

"You said that the magic I did two nights ago could easily beat you in a duel, right?"

"Yeah."

"If I did the same against the cage, would it rip it apart?"

"Maybe." Beta turned to Tirek. "Should we try it?"

"It would give me a sample of his magic. Hell, why not?"

Beta disappeared as he bonded back with Alpha. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Alpha said as he closed his eyes and brought up memories of his time in the factory. He needed to turn his depression into a rage like emotion. He stood still for five minutes as he searched his memories for something to kickstart his depression.

"Alpha, it's been five minutes. It was a good idea but-"

Alpha's head twitched violently to the right as the memory of his punishment filled his mind. His breathing became quick takes of air; his body seemed to begin to vibrate as Alpha trembled with his newfound source of rage.

"So Tirek, I can't control Alpha right now. He has fully taken control of his body and-" Beta was interrupted as a cone of neon blue magic instantly appeared from Alpha's forehead, firing at the cage. The magic attacked atoms in the metal. The atoms released their bonds with the other atoms and began to disentergrate. The metal was easily chipped away at the cage until only Tirek remained with shards of what was a cage. Tirek was knocked down onto his side by the sheer amount of magic and groaned as he pushed himself up. "Now about that evaluation, I think you have more than enough of a sample of his magic to check what he can do."

"I think we both know what Alpha can do based off what we just witnessed. You and I can teach him how to use it properly."

"What?" Alpha said, snapping out of the trance he was in. "Teach me what?"

"How to use, control and learn magic."

"Beta can teach you the spells and how to use them."

"And Mr. T can teach you how to duel and fight using them."

"Wait," Alpha interrupted. "I thought you said you taught yourself magic."

Tirek laughed. "My colt, Beta did teach himself magic."

"How does he know you then?"

"I taught him."

"Taught him what?"

"I taught Beta how to fight and duel."

"So," Alpha replied with a smile, amazed that Tirek taught Beta how to fight. Ideas flew through Alpha's mind as he imagined what Tirek could teach him. "Would like to join us?" He said, his voice barely hiding the glee he was experiencing.

Tirek laughed hard. "You ask as if I would turn down this opportunity."

Alpha smiled as Beta teleported Tirek and himself to the Safe-Mountain. Giving Mr. T a room of his own, Tirek thanked Alpha and Beta from freeing him from the prison and closed the door. Alpha, now tired, trotted happily to his room. Once inside his room, he took off his bag and set it aside near his bed. His metallic wing clattered on the ground as it fell from Alpha's hoof. The 18 year old colt was exhausted, having no rest besides being unconscious since two days ago.

With a hop-like jump, the colt leaped upon the untidy bed. He soared gracefully in the air for the few seconds he had. His head hit the white pillow first, it's shape contracting as weight was applied onto the center of it. The poor colt was already dead asleep before the rest of his body fell onto the bed. The body bounced twice as the springs in the mattress absorbed and dispersed the energy transferred onto them.

With the creaking of the bed ceased, the safe mountain was again once quiet, void of life.

Inside the tomb, the legendary, timeworn suits of armor began to pulsate with life, for their creator was near. Gears spun wildly as each suit came back to life and readied itself for use.