Thunderspite

It was after midnight in the wraith’s cloud fortress, and all the wraiths were mostly asleep in their barracks, save a few firewatch that patrolled the glowing streets in pairs. They each carried halberds at shoulder arms, chatting casually to themselves as they went.

“What are you going to do with your share?” one of them was saying to the other.

“Oh, same as everybody else, I guess. Nice big house in the country somewhere, maybe three or four pony slaves.”

“Why settle for one house? Way the king tells it, we can each have our own town.”

“Mayor eh? I guess I could get used to that.” They both laughed in their low, hissy voices. Coming to a corner, they stopped and looked around.

“Hey, where’s our relief? They were supposed to meet us here.”

They both jumped as a gruff voice behind them spoke almost directly into their ears. “They weren’t able to make it.” The two wraiths both whirled around and tried to bring their halberds to bear, but it was too late. With a flash of steel, both guards perished, their raspy screams cut short as their forms vanished into a puff of white glowing vapor.

Thunderspite caught each of their halberds as they fell, preventing them from clattering to the ground, and quickly stashed them in a nearby alley. He had thoroughly smeared his body, his armor, and all his equipment with the oily blue cloud on which he walked. As a result, his entire body now glowed a faint bluish color. If he stood still, his form was nearly invisible against the monotonous blue-glowing cloud that comprised the wraith’s city-fortress.

Returning to the street, he trotted silently down the street with his wings open, using slight lift they generated to lighten the sound of his hoofsteps. He went into the ground floor of the nearest barracks, peered in and saw a wraith soldier half-asleep at his post, his face resting on his hoof. Thunderspite quickly dashed in the door, leaving it to close on its own behind him, and flattened himself against the wall adjacent to the guard. The soldier was momentarily roused by the motion, or perhaps the rush of wind. Though Thunderspite was standing just a few paces away, his glowing camouflage was so perfect the guard was completely unaware of his presence. After a moment, the guard resumed his slump. The second he closed his eyes, Thunderspite unceremoniously walked over and slit his throat.

With the guard out of the way, Thunderspite walked down a short corridor and into the first floor squad bay, where perhaps a hundred more wraith soldiers slept in their cots. Without even slowing down, Thunderspite drew his sword again and silently dispatched each of them with a quick thrust through the neck. He quickly went down the line, each wraith evaporating in a puff of glowing mist. Each of their deaths was nearly soundless, and none of them even so much as stirred as their comrades were murdered around them. Before long, the squad bay was devoid of life, and the blue-white cloud that collected near the ceiling was the only evidence of what had transpired there.

The second, third, and fourth floors of the building were much the same. Thunderspite silently dispatched the lone guard on each floor, then killed every wraith soldier in their sleep until none remained. When he had cleared the first building, he exited through the roof, and fluttered to one next to it and repeated the process, this time from the top floor down.

He had made his way through at least a dozen buildings in this manner when an alarm was finally sounded. Likely, one of the patrols had returned to the barracks and found all their comrades dead. Thunderspite had just made his way to another rooftop when off in the distance a klaxon sounded, and in just a few moments, the streets below him were swarmed with wraith soldiers, sleepily arming themselves and falling into formation as officers in elaborate glowing headwear barked orders.

Directly below him, a company of four platoons assembled and hastily came to attention. A wraith soldier, whose head dress was more elaborate than the others, stood in front of the others and addressed them.

“Soldiers, there is an intruder on the base. We suspect the ponies have launched a pre-emptive commando strike. I want every corner of this base searched. We’re not going to let a bunch of ponies disrupt our glorious...”

A rush of wind, a flash of steel, and the commander evaporated right before the eyes of the astonished troops. The other officers hurriedly began barking orders, and the company hastily assumed an infantry square, their weapons pointing upwards and outwards in all directions. Another rush of wind, and three wraiths from one corner of the square screamed and vaporized. One of the other officers barked orders to adjust the formation, but he was cut down in mid-sentence. Panic quickly spread through the rest of the troops, and some broke ranks and sprinted back for the barracks. They were each cut down after only a few steps.

“There!” one cried, pointing to a glowing silhouette on a rooftop. A split second later, his arm was severed at the elbow, the limb evaporating before it hit the ground. As he screamed in pain, several soldiers on the outside of the square turned to see what had happened. They were quickly punished for their inattention, and their weapons clattered to the ground.

“There he is! Fire!” The last officer remaining pointed to a pair of amber glowing eyes on the formation’s right flanks, and frantically tried to direct his archers in the center of the square to it. In their haste, the archers did not give the front line time to duck, and several of the halberdiers were struck from behind by the flaming magic arrows.

What remained of the wraith’s formation completely dissolved after that, and the surviving soldiers fled on foot or took to the sky. Now exposed from all sides, every straggler was quickly caught and destroyed.

Just as he plunged his sword into the belly of the last survivor, a great, booming voice came from the sky. Thunderspite immediately recognized the voice of King Talionis. “So!” the voice boomed. “He has returned. Welcome back, Thunderspite.”

High above him, Thunderspite saw the king sitting on his throne, which was suspended in the sky with some kind of magic. Thunderspite immediately scooped up the bow of the soldier he had just killed and dashed into the sky directly towards Talionis, loosing his arrow midway there. The arrow impacted some sort of magical force field that surrounded the floating throne and harmlessly bounced off. Thunderspite stopped and came to a hover as close as the force field would allow him, a few hundred yards.

King Talionis smiled sardonically at him, his one good eye leering. “I have to give it to you, Thunderspite, you certainly do know how to make an entrance.” The king eyed the hundreds of discarded weapons in the streets below approvingly. Thunderspite wondered how it was that he knew his name.

Talionis continued, looking very bored. “I suppose you’ve come to avenge the death of your little heifer.” The king sighed. “I do regret not killing you when I had the chance, my little pony. I see now that that was a mistake. I, of all people, should know that vengeance is a powerful motivator. It is, after all, why I came to your pathetic little land.”

Thunderspite spoke in a loud voice. “And we came to you in peace.”

“Peace!” Talionis spat the word. Behind the king’s throne, an entire battalion of wraith soldiers formed ranks, hovering in the air with their insectoid wings. “There will be no peace, my little pony, until every pony in Equestria is either dead or in chains. There will be no peace until the ponies pay for what they have done to me and my people. I will have my revenge!”

With that, Talionis lifted his staff, and a bolt of green magic shot from its gem. Thunderspite quickly whipped a shield from his back and brought it to bear. The magic bolt struck the shield and was harmlessly absorbed. Astonished, King Talionis fired again. This time, Thunderspite did not even bother hiding behind the shield, as the bolt changed course in mid-flight, drawn to the shield like a magnet, where it was again harmlessly absorbed again.

Thunderspite ignored the attack.“The ponies have done nothing to harm you, or your people. What you seek is not revenge. But fear not, King Talionis.” Thunderspite drew his sword and pointed it directly at the wraith king’s floating throne. “Today, you will learn what vengeance means.”

Talionis bristled with rage. “Kill the pony!” he bellowed, and the legions of wraiths behind him all moved in to attack.

A nearly solid wall of wraiths in close formation advanced upon Thunderspite. In a flash, Thunderspite shot directly upwards, up and above the oncoming wave and into the inky black sky above. The entire wraith formation turned upwards to follow, transitioning from a wall to a floor. However, it was a rare for any creature to be able to sustain completely vertical flight for more than a few moments, and before long the wraith formation lots its momentum and began to break apart. Seeing this, Thunderspite quickly looped around and dove back towards them, his sword extended and pointed downwards. The wraith officers scrambled to get their troops back in formation, but there was not enough time. Thunderspite accelerated at unbelievable speed in the low-density air, and before long a vapor cone had formed around him, extending behind him from the tip of his sword.

As he passed through the wraith formation, the sonic barrier finally gave way. There was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder, and a dark cloud formed and quickly rolled outwards, engulfing the wraith soldiers. Those nearest the explosion were killed outright. Further away, some wraiths dropped from the sky, unconscious, and the rest were merely deafened and stunned by the incredible noise. They held their head in their hooves in pain, disoriented. Never slowing down, Thunderspite swooped back around and sliced through the heart of their formation again and again, taking out dozens with each pass.

As always happened during battle, Thunderspite found a part of himself detached from his body, as if he was watching the action from afar. The part of him that was fighting seemed to have things under control, and his conscious mind need not intervene. The detached part of himself saw Dawn Glimmer and Blitzwing, laughing and carrying on in the gondola, then evaporating right in front of him. He heard screaming: a savage, primordial sound, and realized it was coming from himself. He idly wondered how many wraiths he had killed so far. Thousands? Tens of Thousands? As a foal, Thunderspite had once watched a single hornet decimate a bee’s nest over the course of several hours, mercilessly slaughtering thousands of workers, and he reflected on the similarity.

Later, and he could not say how much later, he realized that the wraiths had stopped attacking, and were fleeing for their lives. He caught up with and killed as many as he could, but many of them were already too far scattered. He spied Talionis’ flying throne, nearly a speck off in the distance, attempting to flee. It took him several minutes to catch up with it. When he did, he swooped up from below and stopped directly in the path of the throne and the king.

King Talionis gasped in surprise. Thunderspite moved in, but found the throne still protected by the magical shield. He tried again, this time placing the magic-repelling Shield of Caballus against the bubble-shield, and then touched the bubble-shield with his sword. The shield cracked, shattered, and fell away. Desperate, Talionis made one last attempt to fire his staff, but Thunderspite knocked it from his hoof with a loud clang. It spun off into the empty air below with a metallic ringing sound. Thunderspite rushed up to the throne, seized Talionis by his robe, and put his sword to the king’s throat.

Gradually, Thunderspite’s battle-self and his conscious mind were re-united. He was breathing hard, teeth bared, and his breath made a sort of grunting sound with every exhale. And he was angry. He must have been a sight: The glowing blue cloud he had smeared on himself earlier had mostly worn off, but still mottled his coat and armor in places. He also became aware that he was injured. An arrow had partially pierced his armor just forward of his right wing, and he was cut and gashed in a dozen different places. A stream of drying blood trickled from his helmet and streaked his face.

Before him, King Talionis cowered, his hooves trembling in the air. “You killed my friends!” Thunderspite hissed.

King Talionis’ expression slowly turned from fear to hate. “That’s right, I killed your friends. You may have defeated my army, pony. But no matter what you do to me, nothing will ever bring back your friends. I have taken them from you: your heifer and your underling. Remember that, as you live out the rest of your pathetic pony life.” The king spat at Thunderspite. Thunderspite ignored the spittle on his cheek, grabbed the king by the collar of his robe, and brought their faces close. He roared in anger and readied his blade for the killing blow, eager to watch the life drain from the king’s one good eye.

He was just about to strike, when out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of his own arm. The noctilucent cloud he had smeared on his body earlier had worn off in places, and where it had, a blue-white glow emanated from his very coat. Thunderspite forgot his rage for a moment. He let go of Talionis’ collar and looked down at his two hooves. He wiped away some of the cloud from his arm, and where he did so, more of the bluish-white light shone through, the same color as that coming from Talionis. Turning his head, he gasped as he saw that his feathered wings had been replaced by insectoid, gossamer ones. On a hunch, he also felt his head, and there he felt not one, but two bony horns protruding from under his helmet.

Talionis, still seated in his throne, had found his anger again. “Well, what are you waiting for, pony? Kill me! Go on, do it! Do it, you coward!”

Thunderspite ignored him, still inspecting the remarkable changes on his body. But even as he watched, the glow from his coat faded, the insectoid wings gradually changed back into his feathered ones, and the two horns slowly shrank and dwindled to nothingness. When he was his whole self again, Thunderspite hovered there for a few seconds longer, inspecting his body over and over to make sure it was really back.

Talionis was screaming. “Kill me! Kill me, you coward! I killed your friends! Strike me down, and have your revenge!”

Thunderspite looked back to Talionis and considered him for a long moment. Thunderspite was still angry, but the unbridled, bloodthirsty rage he had felt only a few short moments ago was gone. In fact, as he watched Talionis tremble in his robes, he realized for the first time that the king was actually quite frail, one might even say fragile, and Thunderspite pitied him.

“No.” Thunderspite said at last. “I will take you back to Canterlot. You will be made to answer for your crimes.”

Talionis screamed. It was a loud, wild sound, not unlike the one Thunderspite had made not long ago. When Thunderspite grew tired of the noise, he brought the hilt of his sword down sharply on the king’s head, knocking him unconscious.

* * *

Back in Canterlot, the Royal Guard was on full alert, standing by their stations with catapults, bows, and a magical bubble shield deployed 24 hours a day.

The watchman was the first to see it. Peering through his telescope, he could faintly make out an object falling downwards, directly towards them, slowly but surely growing larger and larger in his eyepiece.

“Something is coming!” he shouted. “Stand ready!”

The guards hastily scrambled and trained their weapons at the sky, though at first none of them could see anything. Then, one of them finally spotted the object, nothing more than a dot against the faintly glowing blue background of the cloud city, now directly overhead.

They all waited and watched as the object grew closer and closer. After what seemed like ages, the object finally grew close enough to resolve.

“It’s Thunderspite!” the watchman shouted, looking up from his telescope again. “It’s Captain Thunderspite, and he’s towing something!”

A great cheer went up from the assembled guards, and it did not subside until well after Thunderspite passed through the magical shield and landed on the castle’s south lawn. Behind him he towed a throne, suspended by a tuft of magic cloud, and on the throne sat a being the likes of which the other guards had never seen before. He was secured by a length of rope, his arms and torso tied tightly to the ornate chair. He glared at the guards surrounding him with a look of absolute contempt.

Thunderspite handed off the tether to another guard, and said, “throw it in the dungeon.” His voice was hoarse and weak. As four unicorn guards hauled the prisoner away, others surrounded him, cheering and patting him on the back. He winced in pain each time they touched him.

“Stand back, stand back! All of you!” Boulder Hoof pushed his way through the crowd and approached Thunderspite. Without slowing down, he quickly unbuckled Thunderspite’s armor and stripped it off, revealing the arrow shaft still stuck in his side.

“He’s injured,” Boulder Hoof said, and called for a stretcher. Thunderspite collapsed into his friend’s waiting arms before it arrived.