The Storm King’s Dreamsby FlufuxChapters1) A World of Storms2) Betray or be betrayed3) Snowy1) A World of StormsThe Storm King’s Dreams By Flufux the Velociraptor Chapter 1 A World of Storms Wind... Clouds... Thunder... Lightning... Storms were raging...trees and buildings were swept away by the harsh, unforgiving winds... Thunder and lightning boomed...and many thunderbolts rained down on the world below, setting whatever they hit ablaze... The clouds were dark and grey...as if to vanquish the light and cover everything in perpetual darkness... ...And in the eye of this eternal storm stood a creature...a two-legged creature wearing black armour and covered in white fur, with cloven hooves on his goat-like legs, a pair of great dark horns on his head, a three-clawed hand at the end of both arms and a pair of glowing blue eyes that were looking upon this chaotic world with pride. The creature’s fanged mouth showed a smile that was anything but pleasant...a smile that spoke of the malice he had for this world. This creature...who was standing on top of a mountain overlooking the desolation below...was the Storm King. He was the one who had summoned the dark clouds...and the winds...and the thunder...this was now his world. He had absolute control over everything. The Sun, the Moon, the Wind, and the Rain, it was all his to command...and he needed no army, no magical staff, no treacherous cloud creatures or hornless unicorns to do it. The Storm King had everything he’d ever wanted, and the whole world was going to remember and fear his name for centuries to come. He would never fall, never fade into obscurity, and never ever die. He was so pleased with himself that he let out a loud and powerful laugh at the cruel world that he had successfully created. “HAAHAHAHA, HEHHEHEEHEH, YEAH! COME ON, WORLD, TELL ME I’M NOT WORTH IT NOW, HA!” The Storm King bellowed to the sky, sounding way too excited to see the destruction before him. However, in his excitement, he failed to notice that he was no longer alone on the lonely mountaintop he was standing on. Someone else had appeared a few steps behind him and looked upon the Storm King with a stoic expression on her face. “So this is what you truly desire, storm-creature?” Surprised by the second voice, the Storm King turned around and smirked at the sight of a talking dark blue pony with a flowing mane, a long horn on her head and a pair of wings sprouting from her back. “Weeeeeell...this is kinda what I want,” he answered in a conversational tone. “This is everything I want actually...if it wasn’t for one tiny little detail. You wanna know what that detail is? IT’S YOU!!!” The last part of that sentence was shouted so loudly that it made the whole mountain tremble and caused the pony before him to flinch a little. She stood her ground however, and showed no fear of the beast-man who had declared himself king. Instead, she calmly asked, “And when this world is yours, and this fantasy you see before you is more than simply a figment of your imagination, what will happen then?” The Storm King sighed, “How many times do we have to go over this, Luna-woona? When this is all mine, I will be happy. More happy at least than I could ever be AS A BROKEN STATUE!” Princess Luna, clearly disappointed with his answer, gave him a small glare, “You know full well that you are completely at fault for that yourself!” “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he shrugged off. “So I may have thrown that obsidian orb-thingamabob too close while standing on a ledge. That still wouldn’t have happened if that blasted TEMPEST hadn’t gone ahead and ruined my fun! When I get my claws on that good-for-nothing little pony, her bones will be as broken as her stupid little horn!” He clenched his fist at the end of that sentence, showing that it was not an empty threat. "To my understanding of the situation, that wouldn't have happened had you simply stayed true to your agreement with her," Luna pointed out. "What? To give her back her horn?" he scoffed. "Did you seriously think I could even do that?! I just figured since she wanted that dinky little horn back, then all I had to do was make up a funny little story about me being able to fix it if I had enough magic, see?" "You held the power of four Alicorns in your claws, giving you complete control over the sun and the moon. What is repairing a single unicorn horn compared to that?" “Alright, let's put it this way, I'm the Storm King, she's the stray unicorn I picked up in the middle of nowhere, conditioned her into being my commander, and sent her to invade little pony land because she said you guys had magic to spare. Now imagine how I feel when I hear her yabber on about how she would show the world what she could do with her magic, not what I could do with my magic! Trust me, I can smell a would-be-traitor a mile away, and it's not my fault she was too stupid to think I would fall for that." “Still can only find fault in everypony but yourself, can you?” Luna observed, sounding even more disappointed. “Hey, when you turn into a shattered piece of crystal and have to listen to a pastel-coloured pony try to lecture me on what I can or can’t do, you wouldn’t feel any better, would you?” “I was turned into crystal too, remember? And if Twilight hadn’t caught me in time, I would have ended up exactly like you.” “Yes...how lucky for you that didn’t happen, huh?” The Storm King said with a smile...that then turned into a frown, “Now would you please do me a favour and tell me why I should care about you again?” Luna took a few steps towards him and answered, “Because I am your only hope if you ever wish to be put back together!” The Storm King cupped his chin with his claws in thought, then let out a sly grin. “Touche.” The princess stayed silent, preferring to let him continue the conversation instead. He then put his arms behind his back and asked, “Alright then...what do I have to do if I want my life back? Pay the bill, reveal my trade secrets, give you my magic? Ah, scratch the last one. I don’t really have any right now. But other than that, I'm open to suggestions, so name your prize!” Luna shook her head, “This is a problem you cannot simply barter your way out of, Storm King! While we certainly have the power to bring you back, we would never do so if it could endanger the lives of others. And after seeing you still hold onto your ambitions even after all that has happened, and also judging by the attitude you have shown me so far, I do not see any reason why I should set you free.” “And what if I promise out of the bottom of my heart that I would be a good, friendly Storm King, who would love to make friends with all the cute ponies in this sweet little candyland?” He asked in a mockingly sweet tone that simple reeked of insincerity. Not particularly amused, Luna simply raised an eyebrow at him in response. The Storm King let out a small chuckle, “Hehee, yeah, I wouldn’t buy that either.” Luna remained silent for a moment, trying to think of what to say next. She had dealt with his kind before, many times in fact. The power-mad sociopaths who thought the world belonged to them and that everyone else only existed for their amusement. Their dreams were usually things that made Luna's skin crawl just for how twisted they were. For the longest time, she considered those kind of people to be completely irredeemable. At least...until she turned into one herself a thousand years ago. Though in her case, things were a bit different. Nightmare Moon, while born from Luna's jealousy and anger, was ultimately a separate entity than her. The Storm King was not possessed by an evil split personality. All the terrible things he'd done, he did of his own free will. Still, there was another creature many assumed was an irredeemable sociopath but eventually ended up surprising her...one that was far more like the Storm King overall. “You remind me of a former foe of mine," Luna eventually confessed. "He came to this land a thousand years ago, and used his wicked magic to transform everything he saw into chaos and mayhem, and just like you, he was also eventually defeated and turned to stone in the end. And yet, even after everything he had done, we ponies decided to give him a second chance and use his magic to serve good instead of evil.” “Let me guess...that didn’t work?” The Storm King asked, not sounding very interested in this story at all. “As a matter of fact, it did, and now because he allowed friendship into his heart, he got to experience a more fulfilling life instead of being reduced to a statue in a garden. I could offer you the same opportunity, but only if you are willing to consider it.” The Storm King’s response came with a huge gag as if he was about to vomit. “Friendship? Friendship?! FRIENDSHIP!? BLEH!” he even stuck his blue tongue out in disgust, “Give me a break! The Storm King doesn’t have any friends, and that’s how I got big in the first place! Trusting friends, or anyone really, only makes it easier for them to stab you in the back when you least expect it. Believe me, I know.” With a deep sigh, Princess Luna turned around and began to trot away from him. Before she left, she decided, “Then...I guess you will stay like this forever.” The Storm King's eyes widened in panic when he realised what that would mean, and he started to shout, "Wait, what about-" ...But he was too late, with a bright flash, Princess Luna stood no longer on top of a mountain surrounded by dark storm clouds...but in the Canterlot Dungeons, where the assembled crystallised pieces of the Storm King lay in a pile before her, his head resting at the top. To the average observer, the shattered remains of the infamous conqueror would look no more alive than a pile of stones, and for the most part, you would be right in assuming that. After all, the Storm King could not breathe, move, or do practically anything for that matter...not even move his eyes to look around. However, despite all that, Princess Luna could still sense the active mind and soul still locked inside those fragments, she could still touch his dreams whenever he had them, and even worse, she knew that when he was awake, he was fully aware of everything going on around him. While he couldn't move those eyes, Luna knew that he was looking at her through them. With that fact in mind, she took a few steps toward his broken skull and stared into his constantly panicked eyes. Then she said, "I do not know if there is any hope for you left...or if you are simply a lost cause, but I will not leave until I know for sure." The same hysterical face looked back at her, with no sound or movement coming out of it. "Though it might take awhile..." Luna noted out loud a bit later. Author's Note Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is the small feathered dinosaur of the day, Flufux, talking, and this is my newest story. So, turns out that I need a distraction from writing my Spider-Man crossover story to keep my sanity and give you a dose of one of my favourite new villains I've seen lately. Yes, I'm talking about the Storm King, the evil but funny main villain of the My Little Pony movie as well as its prequel comic (which is awesome by the way). Now, I have seen so many stories pop up dealing with what Tempest does after the movie, but barely any about the Storm King. Though I'm guessing that could have a lot to do with the fact that he seemingly died at the end, which I thought was a bit of a shame, all things considered. Plus, he only had like 8 minutes of screentime in the film, and while he completely stole the show in those 8 minutes, I would love to have seen more of him than that. This story is meant to show a bit more of him, as well as bring on an interesting topic about who is, and who isn't redeemable. Also, I might consider going a bit deeper into who the Storm King might have been originally and where he came from for that matter. 2) Betray or be betrayedChapter 2 Betray or be Betrayed Each time Luna had visited the Storm King in his dreams so far, she had seen events that had never happened or places that didn't really exist, things that he conjured up himself out of his own imagination...but this time, that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, the place she was seeing right now was one she was very much familiar with. Canterlot... ...The Royal Palace... ...Balcony... ...and on it, stood the Storm King himself in all his glory...along with two ponies, one Luna recognised as her sister's faithful student Princess Twilight Sparkle....and the other as the scarred unicorn with the broken horn who lead the tyrant's forces to the city in the first place: Tempest Shadow. Twilight looked like a mess, her mane showing several burn marks, and the fact that she was surrounded by debris from not only the cage she was recently contained in, but also parts of the cracked wall, made it clear that she had been hit by a significantly powerful blast of raw magic. The source of that magic became all too clear when the Storm King stepped forward wielding a staff with a sparkling blue gem at its end. "Not bad," he commented in an excited tone. "Actually, kinda first rate! What else does it do?" he asked before giving the glowing magical crystal a small poke with his claw. "Your excellency..." Tempest's voice called out as she made an effort to keep up with him. "You promised to restore my horn and give me even greater-" Before she got a chance to finish that sentence, the Storm King held up a hand and interrupted, "Be-be-be-be! Okay, hang on, I want to blast that pony again..." He pulled up his staff to prepare for his next strike, but when he did so, the entire sun suddenly flew across the sky faster than it had any right to do. Surprised by this development, he moved it around a bit more, and let out an amazed gasp to see that the mighty celestial body was following his every move. "You got to be kidding me! I can move the sun!? HA-HA-HAA!" He took a few steps over to the edge of the balcony, "WOW! Now this is what I'm talking about!" Out of the corner of her eye, Luna briefly saw a moment of vulnerability on the usually stoic face of Tempest Shadow, but the scarred unicorn quickly shrugged it off and took a few steps to approach her master. "HA-HAAA! Time to play!" the energetic voice of the Storm King beckoned as he aimed the staff at the horizon while keeping a massive grin on his face. Then, not entirely unlike a child having way too much fun playing with their new toy, the mighty Storm King flipped his staff back and forth repeatedly, causing the sun and moon to fly across the sky so quickly that day and night ended up lasting mere seconds. "TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY! DAY...NIGHT...DAY...NIGHT...DAY...NIGHT, DAY-NIGHT, DAY-NIGHT, SUNRISE, SUNSET, TAM-TAM, BADABADDA-BUM-BUM-BAM-BAM-BAM!" He was even dancing like a monkey on his cloven hooves while he did this. He was just that happy. Princess Luna on the other hand felt pretty much anything but happiness at the sight. In fact, seeing her beloved moon and also her home for the last thousand years, as well as the majestic sun that her older sister cared so much for, be tossed around and treated as playthings downright sickened her to the bone. If Luna had been able to move at the time, she swore she would have done everything in her power to make this self-proclaimed king of storms stop his reckless tampering with the laws of nature and have him punished for even attempting such a thing. However, that was not why she was here. No, Luna's task was to help reform the Storm King, to show him why conquering entire lands was a bad thing, and how being a good guy might be better for him...or at the very least find out the reason why he was so evil in the first place. So why was she seeing this moment? Sure, she had of course heard what happened...literally...meaning while she couldn't walk around or turn her head to see the action, she could hear just about everything from the next room during her short time as an immobile statue, but she hadn't actually witnessed what happened with her own eyes until now. Seeing it like this gave her a bit of a different perspective on the event for sure...but what was the Storm King's reason for dreaming of this specific moment, Luna pondered. Was he simply remembering his final moments as a living breathing organism with a hint of nostalgia or regret, or was this particular moment precious to him in some way? She could not answer those questions herself, especially since she had trouble verifying if this truly was going on exactly as it happened. As stated previously, she hadn't actually seen this moment with her own eyes until now due to her having been frozen in obsidian at the time as a result of an impact with a magical orb, rendering her helpless and immobile. Probably one of the few times in her long life when her imprisonment in the moon felt like a welcome alternative. Where did the Storm King find those orbs anyway, Luna just considered as she thought about her petrification. She had never seen anything quite like them before, and from what she had been told from Celestia's and Shining Armour's interrogation of his former minions, apparently not even Tempest, Grubber or the Storm Guards seemed to have any idea where their king got his hands on them in the first place. All they knew was that he was very protective of the orbs he had and never let anyone even touch them without his permission. Even Tempest Shadow was only allowed to carry four of them for her attack on Canterlot...and that was only after she explained in detail just how powerful the four alicorn princesses were, and the measures they needed to take in order to successfully capture them. Whatever they were though, they were definitively powerful. In fact, aside from the magic-absorbing throne of one Queen Chrysalis, Luna had never seen nor heard of any object that could nullify outside magic so effectively. She'd bet that if Discord had been hit by one of them, probably not even he would be able to stop himself from being turned to stone...an experience that he was pretty familiar with so far, she was sure. Power like that was not something to take lightly, and if the Storm King could find them, then it would be a logical assumption to make that other potential enemies of Equestria could discover and use them too. Therefore was finding out the origin of those Obsidian Orbs one of Luna's top priorities. Something to ask him about later, perhaps? "...and now...I'm bored," the Storm King eventually said in an unimpressed tone that was even followed by a yawn. He also let the sun stay back in the sky now that he had had his fun with it. Seeing an opening, Tempest Shadow took this opportunity to ask, "Your Excellency, I did my part of the-" "Not until I know for sure this staff is all it's cracked up to be!" he interrupted without turning around to face her. "Sun and moon control is all well and good, plus there's the whole zappy-zappy-thing, buuuuuut...I think you said something about 'the power of a thousand armies' or something, right? Why don't we put that to the test first?" Tempest clenched her jaw in order to curb her impatience a bit. "Very well. Should I find you a target, sir?" On cue, the sound of some kind of commotion could be heard in the distance, drawing the attention of not only the Storm King, but also that of the two ponies that were on the balcony with him. Down below, the Storm Guards were growing anxious, with some rushing to investigate what was going on while many more grouped together to form a defensive blockade around the entrance to the palace. "No need, Tempest..." the Storm King answered in a sinister voice, a viscous smile forming on his face. "Now let's get this storm started...OH, I JUST LOVE SAYING THAT! Hey, is it too late to make it my new catchphrase?!" Tempest wasn't really paying that much attention to him though, and took a few steps to look over the railing and see what in the world was going on down there. Her eyes widened in disbelief when she saw the same Abyssinian con-man she supposedly blew into smithereens suddenly show up alongside five very familiar ponies and one baby dragon. Questions like how the heck was he still alive, how did they all show up here so quickly, and how did they get past all the guards swam around in her head, and nothing seemed to be able to provide her with an answer. It got even weirder when the cat picked up the dragon and began to use him as a living flamethrower, scaring off a whole platoon of (apparently very flammable) Storm Guards from their posts without much of a fight. "What! HOW!?" the flabbergasted unicorn asked in utter confusion. After having stayed silent and mopey for most of the time all this was going on, Twilight Sparkle's eyes lit up with hope, and she started to say, "It's...it's the magic of-" But was cut off when the Storm King waltzed in with a happy strut and said "Yeah, yeah...", then grabbed both Twilight and Tempest and pulled them both into a tight hug, "...friendship and flowers and ponies and...BLEH!" he finished with a gag so majestic he even stuck his tongue out in disgust. "I'm so totally over the whole cute pony thing..." the Storm King then commented in a dry tone...before he raised his voice and shouted, "...this ends NOW!" With a glint of sadistic glee in his face, he raised the magically imbued staff skyward, sending a bright bolt of lightning into the clouds above him...all while cackling like a madman. Under the mighty alicorn magic contained in the Staff of Sacanas, the clouds were pulled out of the sky and formed a huge devastating tornado right in the middle of Canterlot, nearly ripping the city apart in the process. Faced with an obstacle so great, the small group of would-be-heroes had to flee from the storm while many Storm Guards were helplessly swallowed up by the strong winds. In the eye of the storm, the Storm King bellowed, "NOW I TRULY AM THE STORM KING...AND THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BOW TO MY BA-BA-BA-BOOM, BABY!" complete with fist-pumping and pelvis-thrusting. He had succeeded. After all this time and effort, he had finally become the true king of storms, a mighty force of nature that would not bow to anything. Nothing would stand in his way ever again, and he was at long last free to do whatever he wanted. Realising this, Tempest once again pleaded, "Yes, yes, you are every bit as powerful as I promised, sire. Now restore my horn and I swear to use my magic to serve you," even bowing before him to show her sincerity. Luna knew what happened at this point. She knew that he didn't keep his word, and threw Tempest aside thinking he had no further use for her even with her horn and magic intact, and she also knew that that decision backfired in a way that eventually left him but a pile of shattered pieces of crystal. That was what she knew was going to happen. That is what she had heard, and what she was told happened. So imagine her surprise when that didn't happen at all... Instead, the Storm King put his claws on his chin in thought for a second before he decided, "Ah, what the heck? One dinky little unicorn horn coming up!" He aimed the magical gem at the end of the staff at the base of the broken remains of her horn and began to pour magic into it. Though unlike the destructive bolts of lightning he set off before when he used the staff, now a multicoloured wave of healing magic radiated from it instead. And before she knew it, Tempest Shadow's horn was back in its full glory. After all this time, the part that was taken from her so long ago had finally been given back to her. She was now fully restored and more powerful than ever before. Pleased with his good work, the Storm King smiled a bit. "There you go, so would you please do me one itty-bitty tiny little favour and STOP WHINE ABOUT IT!?" Tempest didn't say anything. She was just too lost for words as she began to feel her magic start to build up in her new horn. "So where to now? Oh, should we invade the dragons, or maybe those change-thingies, or how about the-" he suddenly stopped talking when a magenta-coloured magical aura enveloped his staff. "What the?!" It was then harshly pulled out of his claws by a very strong force before it gently floated over towards Tempest, whom he only now realised had the same-coloured aura emanating from her newly restored horn. With a devilish smirk on her face, and with cold bloodthirsty eyes, Tempest commented, "Now I'll show you what I can really do." Lost for words, the schocked Storm King asked, "Tempest? You...betrayed me?" She chuckled evilly, "Hehehe...no, Storm King. As you said, friends can betray you..." her voice turning less feminine and more raspy for every word she...or rather 'he' spoke. "I merely have my own goals...and they do not include you!" Suddenly, the image of Tempest Shadow started to fade away as she was soon replaced by a gangly-looking, two-armed, legless, gaseous being with a pair of black sinister eyes that stared directly into the Storm King's soul. He was also now holding the staff in his creepy-looking hands rather than a magical unicorn aura. With no time given to evade or defend himself, the smoke creature unleashed a powerful bolt of lightning right into the Storm King's chest, blasting his chestplate to pieces and sending him flying straight into the very cyclone he had himself just created. The irony was not lost to him as he was swept up by the force of the storm and tossed around like a rag-doll among all sorts of debris that the tornado had picked up. In just one moment, all that he had worked for, bled for, fought for, had been undone by a single mistake. He was a fool to put his trust in anyone but himself, to let them have power he should only keep for himself, and believe for even a second that they would hesitate to betray him if given an opportunity. However, with a brief flash of her horn, Princess Luna made the tornado vanish into nothing while the image of Canterlot was replaced with an endless star-filled void. This was the dreamscape, Princess Luna's true domain. The Storm King looked around a bit in confusion at the sudden change of scenery, as well as the fact that he was still standing on something despite not feeling himself ever hitting any ground. Then he realised what happened and let out a long drawn out sigh. "Let me guess...this is just another dream, isn't it?" "Correct," Luna answered while she gently trotted towards him. He looked at her and rolled his eyes, "Is there a way to get rid of you? Like, can I make my head horse-proof or something? Because this is starting to get REALLY ANNOYING!" Having gotten used to his sudden bouts of shouting for the last three nights, Luna didn't even flinch when he did it this time, and instead calmly replied, "Like it or not, Storm King, I am the only one who can communicate with you in your current state. But if you would prefer to be alone for the rest of your existence...then by all means." The Storm King growled at that comment, his deep voice making the noise more felt rather than heard. Then he let out an indignant huff and turned away from her while crossing his arms. After a moment of tense silence, Luna asked, "Who was it that betrayed you?" He gave her a surprised glance over his shoulder, "Uhh...what the heck are you talking about?" "I have walked among the dreams of countless beings for more than a thousand years. I know how to interpret a dream's meaning...even within the mind of someone like you." An image of Tempest Shadow materialised next to Luna, her head held high with a confident look on her face...and then...an image of the strange smokey creature faded into existence on the other side of her, his ghostly hands clasping each other in a way that betrayed his treacherous nature. The appearance of the creature made the Storm King's eyes flash bright with anger, especially with Tempest there as well. And if only that purple alicorn had been there too, then he would have been subjected to the sight of the four beings in the whole world he despised the most. Noticing his reaction, Luna continued. "I understand now your reasoning for not upholding your end of the bargain you had with Tempest Shadow. And I think we both know that it has something to do with the creature on my right, am I correct?" While just barely managing to keep his rage from erupting, the Storm King took a few angry steps towards her. When he got close enough, he physically tried to punch her in the face, only for his hand to phase through her as if she wasn't even there. He let out a loud but short growl, then tried to do the same to the vision of Tempest, and then to the smoke creature...but he still couldn't even touch them. Frustrated by this, he stormed away (heh) from them all and let out a long and enraged scream that was so powerful that it distorted the dreamscape around him with visible ripples. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAAA! YOU STUPID, MISERABLE PIECE OF PONY TRASH! WHO GAVE YOU PONIES THE RIGHT TO POKE INTO MY BRAIN AFTER HUMILIATING ME TO THE WHOLE STINKING WOLRD?!" And just when the Storm King seemed to have broken the record for loudest voice of all time, Princess Luna used her own Royal Canterlot Voice to prove him wrong. "AND WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO PLUNDER EVERY LAND IN YOUR PATH JUST TO SATISFY YOUR OWN OVER-INFLATED EGO!?" The force of her voice was enough to make the much larger Storm King have to take a few steps back to avoid falling off his hooves by it. To put it bluntly...he did not see that one coming. "Now, for the love of Equestria, would you cease acting like an entitled brat and stop blaming everyone else but yourself!?" the princess finished in a slightly less powerful tone. The Storm King just stood there flabbergasted, with his eyes opened wide and his jaw nearly hitting the ground. Then he shook his head and gasped, "WOW! Now those were some mean pipes you got there! Is it just something in the dream world or are you actually that loud?" "Um...it is not just in the dreamscape," Luna answered awkwardly. Clearly, that was not the reaction she was expecting of him. "Ha-ha, is that right? Shame I didn't meet you sooner. With your voice we wouldn't even need Grubber's gramophone thingy to announce our invasions every time!" "Did you listen to a word I just said?" Luna deadpanned. "Hmmm...I guess a little of it. Something about 'blah blah', and 'beh beh beh', and 'oh look, I don't care'." Luna facehoofed and groaned. "Actually, hehe, I heard everything! I just wanted to see the look on your face, Ah-HA hahahahahaha!!" He even showed what could only be described as a troll smile on his face after he admitted that. "Is everything a joke to you?!" she asked in a frustrated voice. "Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing, considering I'm not the one who's probing inside someone else's head!" Seeing that this was getting her nowhere, Luna stomped her hoof on the ground with a hard clang, changing the backdrop to something very different to the current one. Instead of being in an endless void this time, the two of them were now in some kind of luxurious garden full of tables stacked to the brim with all sorts of delicious-looking food, from exotic fruits to roasted meat, which, while being a foreign food concept to ponies, was something that the Storm King was quite familiar with. The Storm King himself was now seated in a luxurious throne befitting of his ego and several floating fans were giving him a light breeze even with no creature actually holding onto them. He looked around quizzically, not knowing if he should feel flattered or insulted by his surroundings. "Umm...what's this?" "A mere taste of my power," Luna explained. "As the princess of the night, I can conjure up any scenario you can possibly imagine for your pleasure. Any wish granted, any possibility made real, and anything you could ever want to do or be can be made real at your convenience. All you have to do...is ask." The Storm King picked up a pineapple from a nearby table and gave it a bite, and even let out a small gasp as he realised that it tasted just as real as they did when he was awake. "Oh, that's delicious! So...you would do this? Just like that? What's the catch? There's gotta be a catch, right?" "Indeed there is," Luna replied ominously. "In return, I want you to tell me something about yourself." "Like...what?" The images of Tempest and the smoke being reappeared next to Luna, though by doing so, she was actually spoiling the perfect scenario she had created for him somewhat. "First off, I want to know what this creature is, and how he relates to Tempest Shadow." The king thought about her proposal for a second, even pinching the bridge of his flat nose while he did so. After about half a minute of considering it, he decided, "FINE! I'll tell you, but you gotta do something else for me first!" "And what would that be?" "I want you to make that Tempest Shadow over there physical, so I can touch her, and then...I want her to come over here. Do that, and I'll tell you everything about that idiot you could possibly want to know. Deal?" Princess Luna was a bit uneasy about his request, but decided to honour it anyway. It was unlikely she would ever get an opportunity like this again, and whatever it was he actually wanted right now, she knew it wouldn't hurt anyone in the real world...which, at the end of the day, was the only world that really mattered when it came down to it. So with a brief flash of her horn, 'Tempest' came to life and began to trot over to the Storm King. "What do you want from me, your excellency?" she asked in her usual voice. When she came close enough to him though, he answered her question by grabbing her by the throat so hard that she couldn't breathe. "To put it bluntly, Tempest...I want you...dead," he said before squeezing her hard enough that her eyes rolled back in their sockets, a sickening cracking noise rang off as her neck snapped, and she soon began to hang limply in his claws. Then he tossed the dead Tempest Shadow image aside without a second glance, now turning his attention back to Luna who was visibly horrified by the sight, with her eyes wide open in shock. "Ahhh...that felt good," he idly commentated, showing not a speck of sympathy or regret for what he just did. "Now, let's start with the basics! His name's Strife, he's a living cloud...thingy, and he's Tempest's predecessor. I met him back when I first started out with the whole 'Storm King thing'. Good at reading maps and finding magical knickknacks, but kinda sucks at pretty much anything else. Still, the only other guys I had with me at the time were an army of those mush-brained brutes and that little spineless hedgehog, so I made him second in command of my armada, and we simply had the best of times! I let him pick a destination, then we smacked down, tore the land apart and ran off with whatever we could carry. Together, we plundered the penguins, hippogriffs, lizard-people, parrots, centaurs, gargoyles, minotaurs and a few more I don't remember. "Then, after we finished mopping up Abyssinia, that little fart stole all my loot to join up with those damn birds! After everything we've been through, he just decided to betray me as soon as he saw an opportunity! Can you believe him!?" "You were afraid that Tempest would do the same," Luna observed, having gotten over the senseless, if imaginary, murder of a pony in front of her. "That's why you chose to betray her first." The Storm King picked up a roasted piece of chicken and took a hearty bite out of it. "Well...DUH! Thought I already explained this whole thing though," he said while chewing obnoxiously. "Why would I ever give someone else the power to stab me in the back!?" "Have you ever considered that that wasn't what she was planning at all, and that your own paranoia and trust issues caused the very problem you were trying to prevent?" "Eh...no. Why would I? It was obvious she gonna betray me, so why bother?" Luna looked away for a moment, her hoof now kept on her chin in thought, "Hmmm...now why don't we take a look then?" "What are you-" In an instant, the dream changed yet again, but back to a familiar scenario. In the eye of the storm, the Storm King bellowed, "NOW I TRULY AM THE STORM KING...AND THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BOW TO MY BA-BA-BA-BOOM, BABY!" complete with fist-pumping and pelvis-thrusting. He had succeeded. After all this time and effort, he had finally become the true king of storms, a mighty force of nature that would not bow to anything. Nothing would stand in his way ever again, and he was at long last free to do whatever he wanted. Realising this, Tempest once again pleaded, "Yes, yes, you are every bit as powerful as I promised, sire. Now restore my horn and I swear to use my magic to serve you," even bowing before him to show her sincerity. The Storm King put his claws on his chin in thought for a second before he decided, "Ah, what the heck? One dinky little unicorn horn coming up!" He aimed the magical gem at the end of the staff at the base of the broken remains of her horn and began to pour magic into it. Though unlike the destructive bolts of lightning he set off before when he used the staff, now a multicoloured wave of healing magic radiated from it instead. And before she knew it, Tempest Shadow's horn was back in its full glory. After all this time, the part that was taken from her so long ago had been given back to her. She was now fully restored and more powerful than ever before. Pleased with his good work, the Storm King smiled a bit. "There you go, so would you please do me one itty-bitty tiny little favour and STOP WHINE ABOUT IT!?" Tempest didn't say anything. She was just too lost for words as she began to feel her magic start to build up in her new horn. "So where to now? Oh, should we invade the dragons, or maybe those change-thingies, or how about the Yaks? Any ideas?" After collecting herself thoroughly, Tempest noticed something in the corner of her eye and lit her horn. This time however, instead of trying to take his staff away from him, she created a protective shield in front of her master just before a cannonball of five ponies and a dragon could hit him at terminal velocity. With her newly restored horn's added power, it was more than enough to send them all flying in separate directions. Though, with the tornado right next to them, all of them soon ended up being swallowed up by it and left at the raging storm's mercy, scattering them to the wind. Seeing this, Princess Twilight let out a heart-wrenching "NOOOOOOOoooooo!" as she saw her closest friends be taken away from her and consumed by the mighty tornado. With a flash of anger, the alicorn faced the Storm King and asked, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!? What could you possibly hope to gain from destroying our homes!? Our friends?! WHAT'S IT ALL FOR!?" The Storm King stayed silent for a moment, an unreadable expression crossing his face, then he looked at her and spoke in a surprisingly calm voice by his standards. "Hurts, doesn't it? All your friends, all your loved ones, your homes, all of it just go...POOF! That's life for ya. It isn't getting any better...believe me." Then he glanced at Tempest Shadow, who regarded him with a blank look, as if she didn't really know what to do with herself. "Oh, and thanks for the assist, Tempest, remind me to get you something nice from the next place on the list." Twilight's face started to sprout tears as she hunched over in despair, and the sound of her sobbing started to fill the air. Paying her no further mind, the Storm King hit the ground with the butt of his staff, dispelling the tornado in the process, and then began to head towards the exit. "Come on then, time to leave this sappy little candyland for good!" In a flash, Princess Luna and the Storm King found themselves back in the empty dreamscape again. He regarded her with a strange look, almost as if he himself didn't know what to think of her. Though Luna could tell that one of the few things he most likely didn't regard her with right now...was hatred. For the first time since they met didn't he seem to actually be angry with her...even if he seemed to look at her with some kind of emotion. "Perhaps you should consider that the next time you decide to think the worst of someone on principle," Luna suggested, "because maybe...just maybe, a little trust and kindness can go a long way." He didn't respond to that...at least not verbally. Instead, he turned away from her with a look on his face that Luna could have sworn showed just the tiniest hint of regret...which was one emotion she had not seen him experience until now. "I...I eh, can you...leave me alone for the rest of the night?" The calmness in his voice took her off-guard a bit, but what really got to her was the sincerity in it as well. He even looked at her in the eye and finished with a strangely gentle "Please." Princess Luna nodded, then in a bright flash, she promptly disappeared from his dream. She refrained from letting optimism cloud her judgement, but something told her that she may have finally been making at least some progress in her mission. Though only time would tell if that was so. Author's Note Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out. I had to focus on my other fanfic a bit first before I could get back to this one, and...well, honestly, I had a hard time deciding what this chapter was even gonna be about. That's why for future reference I would actually welcome your input on what I can do from here on. While I do have a pretty solid plan as to what I want to do with this story, any ideas you can provide would be much appreciated. Oh, and one thing I may want to mention is that I will treat the My Little Pony the Prequel comic as canon to this story, and will make references to it from time to time. If you haven't read it yet, then I highly recommend you do so, for it is really good, and goes a long way to flesh out the characters that appear in the movie...especially Storm King. If you're wondering where to find it, well, Google it and then you might find one for purchase...or alternatively, just click this link. 3) SnowyChapter 3 Snowy A cold and lifeless wind was blowing... ...it stung like death itself upon touch... ...and it was endless and unrelenting. The wind picked up snow and harshly whipped it across the mountain...slamming it into rocks and snuffing out any semblance of life in its path, leaving nothing but a frozen wasteland. And yet, even here...there was at least one living thing that still drew breath. A lonely creature was wading through the thick snow. A furry bipedal creature with cloven hooves and a pair of glowing blue eyes...but with no black armour, no great horns...and he was definitively not called the Storm King. ...At least not yet. Also, in clear contrast to the giant beast that was the mighty Storm King, now he was a fair bit smaller, being only slightly taller than Celestia, and he looked younger as well. For several days and nights now he had done nothing but wander aimlessly through the snow-filled winds and steep cliffs...with no food, no water, and no place safe enough to rest...not even for a moment. Needless to say, he was thoroughly exhausted at this point. For every moment that passed, and for every step he took, he felt more of his will, his strength, and his life...fade away from him. Without the aid of a miracle...he was doomed to fall apart and die here sooner or later. He knew this of course, he felt it in his bones...but still he kept going. Nothing was going to make him give up until his very last breath. That determination was the one thing that had kept him alive for this long... ...But even that couldn't last forever. Even if his thick fur and sturdy muscular body made him better equipped than most to handle this kind of weather, it was not enough to make him last several consecutive days of unrelenting cold winds without any food or shelter. Just by looking at the guy, you could tell he was feeling it too. His grey skin had turned almost black out of frostbite in several areas, and actual ice had formed on his exposed teeth. By now, he wasn't even so much as 'walking' as he was limping his way forward. Eventually...the strain proved too much...and he fell to his knees in exhaustion. With his legs now deep within the snow, and any stamina to keep going all-but drained from him, that last breath was coming closer and closer...and he was definitely not wasting it on something as trivial as breathing. With deep-rooted wrath in his eyes, the creature faced skyward and screamed, "COME ON THEN, WORLD! DO YOUR WORST! YOU WANT TO KILL ME?! THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" After he almost tore his throat by screaming that loud (especially in his current condition), he was left with a much weaker voice when he finished his rant. "What? Don't you...at least have the decency to...ugh...put me out of my damn misery?! You killed the others...why not just go on and finish the job, huh?!" With a depressed sigh, the creature lowered his head and aimlessly stared at his shadow in the rapidly growing snow around him. "Yeah...I hate you too." Hidden by the intense blizzard, and so far completely unnoticed by him, was a silent observer. Following his every step, but not leaving any prints in the snow of her own, Princess Luna kept a watchful eye on the furred beast, yet also kept her distance from him. Unlike last time, she had no intention of interfering with this dream. All she wanted to do was observe. The creature, of course, didn't see nor hear her. To him, she was little more than a ghost or a whisper...far beneath his notice. While she would have normally intervened at this point, something about this dream...or more likely, memory, sparked her curiosity something fierce...and she became even more intrigued by what she saw him do next. Cold tears began to form in his eyes then fall down into the snow, and his laboured breathing started to slowly turn into exhausted sobs. It was the closest Luna had ever witnessed on his face that could come even close to crying. Seeing him like this was...strange for her. Even if she had held an open mind for his potential redemption, all she had known of the beast dubbing himself 'the Storm King' was that of a haughty man-child who plundered and destroyed kingdom after kingdom just for his own twisted amusement, but this...this brought conflicting feelings of sympathy and pity into the mix as well. While she couldn't be certain if this was a memory of a past event or a figment of his imagination, she knew for sure that the pain he was feeling in it was very much real. And no matter how much he might have been trying to hide it, she knew that it had affected him greatly. Ever since she was released from Nightmare Moon's corruption had Luna been fascinated by the things that could turn a good creature into a bad one. The stories she had heard from ponies like Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, Stygian or Tempest Shadow usually spoke of one common theme: pain and suffering. Those that were enraged, desperate or had just suffered too much, may (in some cases, not all, she had to remind herself) go down a dark path and eventually turn into something cruel. Sunset grew up feeling powerless and ignored during her childhood, and saw her mentorship under Celestia as her chance to finally gain some respect by becoming a powerful alicorn princess...only to grow resentful of her mentor when Celestia denied her that opportunity. Out of rage, she ran away through a portal into another world where she ended up stranded and without her magic, forcing her to use more and more nasty methods to gain any semblance of power or popularity. Starlight lost the only pony in her childhood who understood her over something as trivial as a cutie mark, and as such, grew up with feelings of resentment over the thing that took him away, even creating her own town where she could make her friends exactly the way she wanted them to be. Stygian felt overshadowed and unappreciated by his closest friends, and so he sought a way to become as great as they were...but that only resulted in him being banished for a crime he never intended to commit and given no chance to explain himself. Cast out and alone, and filled with feelings of sadness and betrayal, a cunning shadow befriended him in his desperate state and used his rage to transform him into a Pony of Shadows. Tempest lost her friends and her dreams of becoming a powerful unicorn when her horn was destroyed by an angry Ursa Minor, and soon left Equestria to live in the rough and chaotic world outside of it. Her envy of those who didn't suffer hardship like she had made her bitter and selfish, and her desire to restore her horn blinded her to the Storm King's treacherous nature and willingly chose to aid him in his conquest. ...But what drove the Storm King himself to such measures? Did something happen in his childhood that turned him into the monster that he became...or was he simply raised to be that way...or...could it be so simple that it was just his very nature to be the way he was? So far, Luna could only speculate on the answers to those questions. But maybe...just maybe...some of these dreams of his might give her some clues. Eventually though, the young would-be-Storm King opened his eyes and spotted something in the distance, then slowly turned his head around to get a closer look. Luna curiously followed his gaze and saw just what it was that had gotten his attention. By the side of the mountain, there was a cave opening...and even more, a warm light seemed to be radiating from it. Such a sight could mean many things depending on who you asked, but to the young Storm King, it only meant one thing... Hope... ...the one thing he didn't have until now. Desperate to reach this mysterious light, he began to crawl over to it on all fours like a wild animal, not having the energy or the patience to get back up and walk properly...at least by a bipedal creature's standards. Only once he finally reached the cave entrance did he try to stand up straight, and the only way he could manage to do that was to grab onto the walls and use his arms to pull himself up on his hooves. Then, with renewed vigour and a regained will to live, the creature limped further into the cave to find the source of the light that guided him there. It didn't take him long though until he found it. In a slightly larger compartment of the cave that was protected from the cold winds and snow...sat a distant relative of his. While a bit shorter and slightly bulkier than him, with huge arms and short legs, and claws on his feet instead of cloven hooves, the creature's resemblance to him was otherwise uncanny, given that they were both grey furry bipedal ape-like creatures with a pair of fangs sticking out of their lower jaw. Princess Luna, who had followed the Storm King into the cave, recognised the lone creature inside of it as one of the Yeti-like creatures that the King's Storm Guards were mostly comprised off...even if this was the first one she'd seen without a mask hiding its face. She never actually did figure out what they were called, but she was going with 'Storm-Creature' for now. The Storm Creature in question seemed to have made a home for himself inside the cave, and was sitting quite comfortably next to a lit fireplace on the floor. Even more, he also seemed to have gathered a fairly large stockpile of food in the cave with him, ranging from various hunted animals as well as several fruits and vegetables. He was even dangling a crab-looking creature on a stick over the fire in preparation for his next meal. The sight of so much food, warmth and shelter was like a slice of heaven to the would-be Storm King, and his eyes lit up with happiness while his mouth started to hang open, practically drooling at the prospect...not to mention the fact that he actually recognised the lone creature sitting in the cave. "Bard! Boy, am I glad to see you!" he happily exclaimed. Only now noticing that he wasn't alone anymore, the Storm Creature apparently named 'Bard' looked at him with an expression that went somewhere between surprise and dread. "Snowy?" Bard said in an alarmed tone. "You're...alive?!" Luna had to do a double take to make sure she heard that right. Snowy? Bard addressed the Storm King as...Snowy? The implications of that nearly made her giggle. Apparently, underneath that monstrous appearance and that fancy title...was a creature named Snowy? The mighty Storm King's true name turned out to be something as unflattering as 'Snowy' of all things? No wonder he would choose to call himself something as pretentious as 'the Storm King', Luna realised. It would certainly be hard to take someone named Snowy seriously if he was trying to be intimidating. Turns out the Storm King wasn't so different from Tempest Shadow after all, given that she used to go by something as silly as Fizzlepop Berrytwist before she met him. Honestly, Luna couldn't tell which name was funnier. However, it also confirmed something that Luna had suspected for a while. Since no one seemed to refer to the Storm King by his real name anymore, not even the beast himself, it would probably mean that he likely buried his previous identity a long time ago, with as few reminders of it as possible. Something must have happened to him that made him want to change his entire identity...but what? Perhaps that was what she was seeing right now... "Well, I'm here, aren't I?" 'Snowy' answered, bringing her focus back to the situation in front of her. "Good thing I found you, old buddy! I was starting to think I was the only one left." Bard eyed the new arrival suspiciously as Snowy took a few careful steps into the cave and trailed his hungry eyes over the great amount of food the Storm-Creature had spent most of the day collecting. That reaction made one thing quite clear: Bard did not like where this was going. "Oh yeah, now we're talking!" Snowy muttered as he reached one of his claws over to grab a fruit. "I owe you big time for-OUCH!" ...but was stopped when Bard picked up a stick and slammed it straight into Snowy's forearm with enough force to make him cry out in pain and clench the wounded area with his other hand. "What the heck was that for?!" he questioned in an offended tone. Bard stood up and clenched his claws over the stick he hit him with while giving Snowy a defiant glare. "This is my food, not yours! I found this cave, I gathered everything here, I set this fire...and you are not welcome here!" Snowy was nearly lost for words, and you could tell as much by the baffled and hurt look he showed on his face after Bard said that. "Hey...look, buddy, I just want something to eat. No need to make such a huge deal out of it." With a grunt, Bard explained "It won't last for the both of us, especially with your appetite! Now leave!", then made his stance even more clear by smacking Snowy in the face with his stick hard enough to make him fall over to the floor while drawing blood. After making a pitiful attempt to get back on his hooves, only to find himself too weak to do even that, Snowy looked up at his old friend with a desperate glint in his blue eyes. "Bu-bu-but you can't just throw me back out! I'll die out there!" A conflicted look very briefly showed itself on Bard's face, but he quickly hid it underneath a stern and angry expression that made it abundantly clear that Snowy would get no sympathy from him. This time though, Bard went ahead and grabbed his unwelcome guest by the neck, dragged him through the tunnel leading out of the warmth and comfort of the isolated cave, and once he reached the exit, threw the poor creature out into the icy cold of the world outside. Snowy fell face-first into the snow-covered ground and was immediately subjected once again to the harsh, life-draining winds of the relentless blizzard plaguing the mountain. "If you come back, I'll hit you even harder! So don't even think about it!" Bard selfishly yelled before he turned his back to him and returned to the comfortable cave he had camped out in, not even sparing his former friend a second glance. Princess Luna however was left frankly horrified by what she had just seen. On one hoof, she could understand why Bard wouldn't want to share his food with someone else if his life depended on it...but on the other was the simple act of throwing out a starving creature to freeze to death something she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy...a statement that happened to be a lot more literal in this instance. True, the Storm King was undoubtedly a monster, and Luna had no doubts that he'd probably done something far worse to someone else, but it still pained her to see him suffer so much. At this age, he probably hadn't even gotten around to doing anything all that bad yet for all she knew. She was suddenly broken out of her thoughts however when a strange otherworldly howl loudly echoed through the mountain, making her fur stand on end. Frantically, she immediately began to look around for what unholy abomination could have possibly caused it. The noise sounded feral and animalistic, yet also at the same time poisonous and unnatural. It was also strangely familiar even if the sound itself had never passed her own ears before. Looking up into the snowy sky above, Luna soon saw the creature that caused it...or rather the creatures that caused it...for there were three of them. Decrepit and ghost-like, three unsettling horse-like beings flew across the stormy winds, using their foul magical breaths to make the storm even harsher and colder than it already was...and in turn, killing or smothering everything that was unfortunate enough to be around them. Though she'd never seen these creatures in person, she immediately knew what they were from not only stories of old, but also from many nightmares that she had visited over the years. Windigoes. Spirits of ice and death that were summoned by fighting and hatred. Either a great evil drawn from the essence of evil itself...or a just punishment to those that refuse to be swayed by the power of harmony. No one knew for sure...not even Luna. What they were doing here, in the Storm King's dreams...she didn't know either. Her best guess would be that somehow, he had seen these monsters with his own eyes, perhaps in this very memory (if it truly was a memory anyway)...even though the Windigoes had been gone from Equestria for so long that most ponies these days discount them as little more than a myth. But then again...the Storm King didn't come from Equestria, did he? Perhaps outside the harmony of the land of ponies, into the vast lands beyond it were many other monsters now believed to be extinct or locked up in Tartarus. Maybe in the lands where the Storm King came from, the Windigoes are still around to this day, maintaining their lifeless winter indefinitely. The thought alone was enough to send a cold shiver down her spine. However, the sound of movement took her attention away from the evil ice elementals in the sky and back down to Snowy, who was making a move to push himself off the ground with his hands and get back up on his hoofed feet once more. Though when his face was revealed to her, still full of frost and specks of snow, there was a certain expression on it that was somehow way more unsettling than the appearance of the dreaded Windigoes. In the limited time she'd been in contact with him, the Storm King had mostly acted like a goofy and petulant brat with a superiority complex, who was prone to dishing out temper tantrums when he was angry or act like an obnoxious comedian when he wasn't. The expression he had on his face right now though, with his fanged mouth forced into a snarl and his blue eyes unblinking and focused, that expression showed none of that. This wasn't one of his usual childish tantrums, this was a face of pure rage, his unbroken will to survive driving him to push all of his usual eccentricities aside and turn into the feral beast he was hiding underneath that facade. After letting out an angry grunt, he reached his clawed hand into the snow and picked up a rock. A rather big and heavy rock...and definitively not something most ponies would have been able to lift as easily as he did, at least not without magic. What unnerved Luna even more about his current mood was the fact that for once, he was actually quiet. He didn't utter a single word or let out a laugh or anything as he slowly made his way back into the cave...his pure force of will making him ignore his weakened body protesting against his movements for every step he took. A bit worried about what was about to happen next, Luna carefully followed him in, making sure to keep herself squarely in observer mode so she didn't disrupt this...dream, memory? She still wasn't quite sure. As Bard, who had sat down by the fire again to keep himself warm, heard the sound of hoofsteps by the entrance, he tensed and picked up his stick again, and when he saw Snowy emerge from around the corner, he once again put on a harsh face and reminded, "I told you already, you're not welcome here!" He steeled himself, so he could rebut any plead for mercy or pity that Snowy might throw at him, but what he did not see coming was for his old friend to suddenly pounce on him like a starving jaguar and tackle the shorter storm-creature to the cave floor. With nothing but savage untamed fury in his eyes, Snowy pinned Bard down under his own weight, baring his long fangs at him while letting out a beastly growl...then, he raised the hand holding the rock up high...and brought it down on Bard's skull. Luna flinched, then looked away in horror as Snowy repeatedly bashed his former friend's head in with the rock, it now having turned red after only the second time he swung it...though she couldn't bring herself to watch any more than that. The sound however...that she could do nothing about, even as she clenched her eyes shut and turned her head down to face her own hooves. Murder. That was what she was hearing... Vicious, cold-blooded murder... Having seen the circumstances, she could tell that it was done out of desperation, but still...that did not change the fact that murder was exactly what it was. The princess was not naive, she knew murder had occurred, even in Equestria, and even by her own subjects...however rare that might be. She herself even held the haunted memories of when she tried to kill her own sister in cold blood under the control of Nightmare Moon, as well as many other albeit non-lethal punishments she'd inflicted on many other ponies that stood in her way when she was in that crazed state, not to mention her part in turning King Sombra to shadow...which she at least thought would be his end, even if he did come back some 1 000 years later or so. Nevertheless, it was not something Luna enjoyed seeing before her own eyes, and definitively not something she would ever condone of her own free will. However, the emotions she allowed herself to feel after witnessing that event, they unwittingly bled into her surroundings and disrupted the vision around her, making the memory fade away into the endless void of the dream realm. "You know, Woona," a familiar voice called over to her. "If seeing stuff like that disturbs you so much, then maybe you shouldn't go snooping around inside my brain!" Luna opened her eyes and looked up to see the Storm King, now very much the Storm King she remembered, not the younger Snowy he was just a second ago, stand in the void, looking down at her with an annoyed expression on his face. A bit too shaken up to address that comment, Princess Luna instead began to ask, "Was that...?" "Something that actually happened?" he finished for her. "No, it was just something I made up as a funny little joke, OF COURSE IT REALLY HAPPENED!" "That...Bard, was he-" she began to ask, but before she could get much of a word in edgewise, the Storm King raised a finger to her lips to cut her off. "BE-BE-BE, no, no, no, NO! None of that!" he declared, now crossing his arms and turning away dismissively. "You know the deal. If you want me to tell you anything, you have to do something for me first." Of course, Luna did indeed remember the deal she made with him last night, she just hoped he hadn't done so as well. Either way, given that she knew he wouldn't tell her squat otherwise, the princess let out a sigh and simply asked, "What do you want this time?" The Storm King began to pace around a bit, putting his hand on his chin while considering his options. Eventually though, an idea came to him. "Hey, you know something I haven't done in, like, forever, that is very much not possible when I'm stuck in crystal?" Luna braced herself. Whatever this could be, she knew she probably wouldn't like it. After all, the last favour she made for him was to basically let him murder Tempest, or thankfully, just a fantasy image of her. Goodness knows what horrible thing he would ask from her this time. "Dancing!" Luna blinked a few times in surprise. "I'm sorry, what?" That...clearly was not what she was expecting. Keeping a big bright smile on his face, the king simply reiterated, "Dancing! If there's one thing I love more than pillaging entire kingdoms or burning them to the ground, it's to celebrate it with a couple drinks, play some music, then bust out some wicked moves on the dance floor! I mean, what's the point in being a big bad conqueror if you never get to enjoy it every so often?" "So let me see if I got this straight," Luna began, sounding a bit baffled and slightly confused. "You want me to give you a dream where you're...dancing?" "Not just dancing, sweetheart," the Storm King answered, now getting right up in her face with a big goofy grin. "I want a party! Lights, music, action, the whole shebang! You're in my mind, you'll know what I like." A...party, right! Luna had participated in tons of parties, hadn't she? It took her only a second to realise that that's a laugh. In truth, the reclusive princess cared little for large crowds, rowdy guests or obnoxious dance music...in fact, she could barely remember when the last time she danced even was. Probably a thousand years ago at least if she had to guess. However...there was one pony Luna knew who not only had far more knowledge about throwing parties than she did...but probably knew more about throwing parties than anyone. Period! It was time to call in the big guns! Giving the Storm King one last glance, Luna requested, "If you would please wait for a second, I will return with your...'party' shortly," before she quickly and abruptly disappeared in a bright flash of light, thus leaving him alone in the void for now. Raising one of his thick white eyebrows at the spot she just stood at, the Storm King muttered, "Why do I get a bad feeling about this?" Princess Luna meanwhile had a pink peppy party pony to find... Author's Note Wow, this chapter has been in development hell for quite awhile. I don't even know if anyone is still reading this story...but I'm back! A combination of not having a clue with that to do with this chapter, with me wanting to finish the Awesome Spider-Dash as quickly as possible, some procrastination, and just your average writer's block made this take a ridiculously long time to finish. The problem with this story is that I don't have it planned out step-by-step as I have with Spider-Dash. I just know what its themes would be and maybe how it will eventually end...which I honestly hope won't be too far into the future.
1) A World of StormsThe Storm King’s Dreams By Flufux the Velociraptor Chapter 1 A World of Storms Wind... Clouds... Thunder... Lightning... Storms were raging...trees and buildings were swept away by the harsh, unforgiving winds... Thunder and lightning boomed...and many thunderbolts rained down on the world below, setting whatever they hit ablaze... The clouds were dark and grey...as if to vanquish the light and cover everything in perpetual darkness... ...And in the eye of this eternal storm stood a creature...a two-legged creature wearing black armour and covered in white fur, with cloven hooves on his goat-like legs, a pair of great dark horns on his head, a three-clawed hand at the end of both arms and a pair of glowing blue eyes that were looking upon this chaotic world with pride. The creature’s fanged mouth showed a smile that was anything but pleasant...a smile that spoke of the malice he had for this world. This creature...who was standing on top of a mountain overlooking the desolation below...was the Storm King. He was the one who had summoned the dark clouds...and the winds...and the thunder...this was now his world. He had absolute control over everything. The Sun, the Moon, the Wind, and the Rain, it was all his to command...and he needed no army, no magical staff, no treacherous cloud creatures or hornless unicorns to do it. The Storm King had everything he’d ever wanted, and the whole world was going to remember and fear his name for centuries to come. He would never fall, never fade into obscurity, and never ever die. He was so pleased with himself that he let out a loud and powerful laugh at the cruel world that he had successfully created. “HAAHAHAHA, HEHHEHEEHEH, YEAH! COME ON, WORLD, TELL ME I’M NOT WORTH IT NOW, HA!” The Storm King bellowed to the sky, sounding way too excited to see the destruction before him. However, in his excitement, he failed to notice that he was no longer alone on the lonely mountaintop he was standing on. Someone else had appeared a few steps behind him and looked upon the Storm King with a stoic expression on her face. “So this is what you truly desire, storm-creature?” Surprised by the second voice, the Storm King turned around and smirked at the sight of a talking dark blue pony with a flowing mane, a long horn on her head and a pair of wings sprouting from her back. “Weeeeeell...this is kinda what I want,” he answered in a conversational tone. “This is everything I want actually...if it wasn’t for one tiny little detail. You wanna know what that detail is? IT’S YOU!!!” The last part of that sentence was shouted so loudly that it made the whole mountain tremble and caused the pony before him to flinch a little. She stood her ground however, and showed no fear of the beast-man who had declared himself king. Instead, she calmly asked, “And when this world is yours, and this fantasy you see before you is more than simply a figment of your imagination, what will happen then?” The Storm King sighed, “How many times do we have to go over this, Luna-woona? When this is all mine, I will be happy. More happy at least than I could ever be AS A BROKEN STATUE!” Princess Luna, clearly disappointed with his answer, gave him a small glare, “You know full well that you are completely at fault for that yourself!” “Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he shrugged off. “So I may have thrown that obsidian orb-thingamabob too close while standing on a ledge. That still wouldn’t have happened if that blasted TEMPEST hadn’t gone ahead and ruined my fun! When I get my claws on that good-for-nothing little pony, her bones will be as broken as her stupid little horn!” He clenched his fist at the end of that sentence, showing that it was not an empty threat. "To my understanding of the situation, that wouldn't have happened had you simply stayed true to your agreement with her," Luna pointed out. "What? To give her back her horn?" he scoffed. "Did you seriously think I could even do that?! I just figured since she wanted that dinky little horn back, then all I had to do was make up a funny little story about me being able to fix it if I had enough magic, see?" "You held the power of four Alicorns in your claws, giving you complete control over the sun and the moon. What is repairing a single unicorn horn compared to that?" “Alright, let's put it this way, I'm the Storm King, she's the stray unicorn I picked up in the middle of nowhere, conditioned her into being my commander, and sent her to invade little pony land because she said you guys had magic to spare. Now imagine how I feel when I hear her yabber on about how she would show the world what she could do with her magic, not what I could do with my magic! Trust me, I can smell a would-be-traitor a mile away, and it's not my fault she was too stupid to think I would fall for that." “Still can only find fault in everypony but yourself, can you?” Luna observed, sounding even more disappointed. “Hey, when you turn into a shattered piece of crystal and have to listen to a pastel-coloured pony try to lecture me on what I can or can’t do, you wouldn’t feel any better, would you?” “I was turned into crystal too, remember? And if Twilight hadn’t caught me in time, I would have ended up exactly like you.” “Yes...how lucky for you that didn’t happen, huh?” The Storm King said with a smile...that then turned into a frown, “Now would you please do me a favour and tell me why I should care about you again?” Luna took a few steps towards him and answered, “Because I am your only hope if you ever wish to be put back together!” The Storm King cupped his chin with his claws in thought, then let out a sly grin. “Touche.” The princess stayed silent, preferring to let him continue the conversation instead. He then put his arms behind his back and asked, “Alright then...what do I have to do if I want my life back? Pay the bill, reveal my trade secrets, give you my magic? Ah, scratch the last one. I don’t really have any right now. But other than that, I'm open to suggestions, so name your prize!” Luna shook her head, “This is a problem you cannot simply barter your way out of, Storm King! While we certainly have the power to bring you back, we would never do so if it could endanger the lives of others. And after seeing you still hold onto your ambitions even after all that has happened, and also judging by the attitude you have shown me so far, I do not see any reason why I should set you free.” “And what if I promise out of the bottom of my heart that I would be a good, friendly Storm King, who would love to make friends with all the cute ponies in this sweet little candyland?” He asked in a mockingly sweet tone that simple reeked of insincerity. Not particularly amused, Luna simply raised an eyebrow at him in response. The Storm King let out a small chuckle, “Hehee, yeah, I wouldn’t buy that either.” Luna remained silent for a moment, trying to think of what to say next. She had dealt with his kind before, many times in fact. The power-mad sociopaths who thought the world belonged to them and that everyone else only existed for their amusement. Their dreams were usually things that made Luna's skin crawl just for how twisted they were. For the longest time, she considered those kind of people to be completely irredeemable. At least...until she turned into one herself a thousand years ago. Though in her case, things were a bit different. Nightmare Moon, while born from Luna's jealousy and anger, was ultimately a separate entity than her. The Storm King was not possessed by an evil split personality. All the terrible things he'd done, he did of his own free will. Still, there was another creature many assumed was an irredeemable sociopath but eventually ended up surprising her...one that was far more like the Storm King overall. “You remind me of a former foe of mine," Luna eventually confessed. "He came to this land a thousand years ago, and used his wicked magic to transform everything he saw into chaos and mayhem, and just like you, he was also eventually defeated and turned to stone in the end. And yet, even after everything he had done, we ponies decided to give him a second chance and use his magic to serve good instead of evil.” “Let me guess...that didn’t work?” The Storm King asked, not sounding very interested in this story at all. “As a matter of fact, it did, and now because he allowed friendship into his heart, he got to experience a more fulfilling life instead of being reduced to a statue in a garden. I could offer you the same opportunity, but only if you are willing to consider it.” The Storm King’s response came with a huge gag as if he was about to vomit. “Friendship? Friendship?! FRIENDSHIP!? BLEH!” he even stuck his blue tongue out in disgust, “Give me a break! The Storm King doesn’t have any friends, and that’s how I got big in the first place! Trusting friends, or anyone really, only makes it easier for them to stab you in the back when you least expect it. Believe me, I know.” With a deep sigh, Princess Luna turned around and began to trot away from him. Before she left, she decided, “Then...I guess you will stay like this forever.” The Storm King's eyes widened in panic when he realised what that would mean, and he started to shout, "Wait, what about-" ...But he was too late, with a bright flash, Princess Luna stood no longer on top of a mountain surrounded by dark storm clouds...but in the Canterlot Dungeons, where the assembled crystallised pieces of the Storm King lay in a pile before her, his head resting at the top. To the average observer, the shattered remains of the infamous conqueror would look no more alive than a pile of stones, and for the most part, you would be right in assuming that. After all, the Storm King could not breathe, move, or do practically anything for that matter...not even move his eyes to look around. However, despite all that, Princess Luna could still sense the active mind and soul still locked inside those fragments, she could still touch his dreams whenever he had them, and even worse, she knew that when he was awake, he was fully aware of everything going on around him. While he couldn't move those eyes, Luna knew that he was looking at her through them. With that fact in mind, she took a few steps toward his broken skull and stared into his constantly panicked eyes. Then she said, "I do not know if there is any hope for you left...or if you are simply a lost cause, but I will not leave until I know for sure." The same hysterical face looked back at her, with no sound or movement coming out of it. "Though it might take awhile..." Luna noted out loud a bit later. Author's Note Hello, ladies and gentlemen, this is the small feathered dinosaur of the day, Flufux, talking, and this is my newest story. So, turns out that I need a distraction from writing my Spider-Man crossover story to keep my sanity and give you a dose of one of my favourite new villains I've seen lately. Yes, I'm talking about the Storm King, the evil but funny main villain of the My Little Pony movie as well as its prequel comic (which is awesome by the way). Now, I have seen so many stories pop up dealing with what Tempest does after the movie, but barely any about the Storm King. Though I'm guessing that could have a lot to do with the fact that he seemingly died at the end, which I thought was a bit of a shame, all things considered. Plus, he only had like 8 minutes of screentime in the film, and while he completely stole the show in those 8 minutes, I would love to have seen more of him than that. This story is meant to show a bit more of him, as well as bring on an interesting topic about who is, and who isn't redeemable. Also, I might consider going a bit deeper into who the Storm King might have been originally and where he came from for that matter.
2) Betray or be betrayedChapter 2 Betray or be Betrayed Each time Luna had visited the Storm King in his dreams so far, she had seen events that had never happened or places that didn't really exist, things that he conjured up himself out of his own imagination...but this time, that didn't seem to be the case. In fact, the place she was seeing right now was one she was very much familiar with. Canterlot... ...The Royal Palace... ...Balcony... ...and on it, stood the Storm King himself in all his glory...along with two ponies, one Luna recognised as her sister's faithful student Princess Twilight Sparkle....and the other as the scarred unicorn with the broken horn who lead the tyrant's forces to the city in the first place: Tempest Shadow. Twilight looked like a mess, her mane showing several burn marks, and the fact that she was surrounded by debris from not only the cage she was recently contained in, but also parts of the cracked wall, made it clear that she had been hit by a significantly powerful blast of raw magic. The source of that magic became all too clear when the Storm King stepped forward wielding a staff with a sparkling blue gem at its end. "Not bad," he commented in an excited tone. "Actually, kinda first rate! What else does it do?" he asked before giving the glowing magical crystal a small poke with his claw. "Your excellency..." Tempest's voice called out as she made an effort to keep up with him. "You promised to restore my horn and give me even greater-" Before she got a chance to finish that sentence, the Storm King held up a hand and interrupted, "Be-be-be-be! Okay, hang on, I want to blast that pony again..." He pulled up his staff to prepare for his next strike, but when he did so, the entire sun suddenly flew across the sky faster than it had any right to do. Surprised by this development, he moved it around a bit more, and let out an amazed gasp to see that the mighty celestial body was following his every move. "You got to be kidding me! I can move the sun!? HA-HA-HAA!" He took a few steps over to the edge of the balcony, "WOW! Now this is what I'm talking about!" Out of the corner of her eye, Luna briefly saw a moment of vulnerability on the usually stoic face of Tempest Shadow, but the scarred unicorn quickly shrugged it off and took a few steps to approach her master. "HA-HAAA! Time to play!" the energetic voice of the Storm King beckoned as he aimed the staff at the horizon while keeping a massive grin on his face. Then, not entirely unlike a child having way too much fun playing with their new toy, the mighty Storm King flipped his staff back and forth repeatedly, causing the sun and moon to fly across the sky so quickly that day and night ended up lasting mere seconds. "TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY! DAY...NIGHT...DAY...NIGHT...DAY...NIGHT, DAY-NIGHT, DAY-NIGHT, SUNRISE, SUNSET, TAM-TAM, BADABADDA-BUM-BUM-BAM-BAM-BAM!" He was even dancing like a monkey on his cloven hooves while he did this. He was just that happy. Princess Luna on the other hand felt pretty much anything but happiness at the sight. In fact, seeing her beloved moon and also her home for the last thousand years, as well as the majestic sun that her older sister cared so much for, be tossed around and treated as playthings downright sickened her to the bone. If Luna had been able to move at the time, she swore she would have done everything in her power to make this self-proclaimed king of storms stop his reckless tampering with the laws of nature and have him punished for even attempting such a thing. However, that was not why she was here. No, Luna's task was to help reform the Storm King, to show him why conquering entire lands was a bad thing, and how being a good guy might be better for him...or at the very least find out the reason why he was so evil in the first place. So why was she seeing this moment? Sure, she had of course heard what happened...literally...meaning while she couldn't walk around or turn her head to see the action, she could hear just about everything from the next room during her short time as an immobile statue, but she hadn't actually witnessed what happened with her own eyes until now. Seeing it like this gave her a bit of a different perspective on the event for sure...but what was the Storm King's reason for dreaming of this specific moment, Luna pondered. Was he simply remembering his final moments as a living breathing organism with a hint of nostalgia or regret, or was this particular moment precious to him in some way? She could not answer those questions herself, especially since she had trouble verifying if this truly was going on exactly as it happened. As stated previously, she hadn't actually seen this moment with her own eyes until now due to her having been frozen in obsidian at the time as a result of an impact with a magical orb, rendering her helpless and immobile. Probably one of the few times in her long life when her imprisonment in the moon felt like a welcome alternative. Where did the Storm King find those orbs anyway, Luna just considered as she thought about her petrification. She had never seen anything quite like them before, and from what she had been told from Celestia's and Shining Armour's interrogation of his former minions, apparently not even Tempest, Grubber or the Storm Guards seemed to have any idea where their king got his hands on them in the first place. All they knew was that he was very protective of the orbs he had and never let anyone even touch them without his permission. Even Tempest Shadow was only allowed to carry four of them for her attack on Canterlot...and that was only after she explained in detail just how powerful the four alicorn princesses were, and the measures they needed to take in order to successfully capture them. Whatever they were though, they were definitively powerful. In fact, aside from the magic-absorbing throne of one Queen Chrysalis, Luna had never seen nor heard of any object that could nullify outside magic so effectively. She'd bet that if Discord had been hit by one of them, probably not even he would be able to stop himself from being turned to stone...an experience that he was pretty familiar with so far, she was sure. Power like that was not something to take lightly, and if the Storm King could find them, then it would be a logical assumption to make that other potential enemies of Equestria could discover and use them too. Therefore was finding out the origin of those Obsidian Orbs one of Luna's top priorities. Something to ask him about later, perhaps? "...and now...I'm bored," the Storm King eventually said in an unimpressed tone that was even followed by a yawn. He also let the sun stay back in the sky now that he had had his fun with it. Seeing an opening, Tempest Shadow took this opportunity to ask, "Your Excellency, I did my part of the-" "Not until I know for sure this staff is all it's cracked up to be!" he interrupted without turning around to face her. "Sun and moon control is all well and good, plus there's the whole zappy-zappy-thing, buuuuuut...I think you said something about 'the power of a thousand armies' or something, right? Why don't we put that to the test first?" Tempest clenched her jaw in order to curb her impatience a bit. "Very well. Should I find you a target, sir?" On cue, the sound of some kind of commotion could be heard in the distance, drawing the attention of not only the Storm King, but also that of the two ponies that were on the balcony with him. Down below, the Storm Guards were growing anxious, with some rushing to investigate what was going on while many more grouped together to form a defensive blockade around the entrance to the palace. "No need, Tempest..." the Storm King answered in a sinister voice, a viscous smile forming on his face. "Now let's get this storm started...OH, I JUST LOVE SAYING THAT! Hey, is it too late to make it my new catchphrase?!" Tempest wasn't really paying that much attention to him though, and took a few steps to look over the railing and see what in the world was going on down there. Her eyes widened in disbelief when she saw the same Abyssinian con-man she supposedly blew into smithereens suddenly show up alongside five very familiar ponies and one baby dragon. Questions like how the heck was he still alive, how did they all show up here so quickly, and how did they get past all the guards swam around in her head, and nothing seemed to be able to provide her with an answer. It got even weirder when the cat picked up the dragon and began to use him as a living flamethrower, scaring off a whole platoon of (apparently very flammable) Storm Guards from their posts without much of a fight. "What! HOW!?" the flabbergasted unicorn asked in utter confusion. After having stayed silent and mopey for most of the time all this was going on, Twilight Sparkle's eyes lit up with hope, and she started to say, "It's...it's the magic of-" But was cut off when the Storm King waltzed in with a happy strut and said "Yeah, yeah...", then grabbed both Twilight and Tempest and pulled them both into a tight hug, "...friendship and flowers and ponies and...BLEH!" he finished with a gag so majestic he even stuck his tongue out in disgust. "I'm so totally over the whole cute pony thing..." the Storm King then commented in a dry tone...before he raised his voice and shouted, "...this ends NOW!" With a glint of sadistic glee in his face, he raised the magically imbued staff skyward, sending a bright bolt of lightning into the clouds above him...all while cackling like a madman. Under the mighty alicorn magic contained in the Staff of Sacanas, the clouds were pulled out of the sky and formed a huge devastating tornado right in the middle of Canterlot, nearly ripping the city apart in the process. Faced with an obstacle so great, the small group of would-be-heroes had to flee from the storm while many Storm Guards were helplessly swallowed up by the strong winds. In the eye of the storm, the Storm King bellowed, "NOW I TRULY AM THE STORM KING...AND THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BOW TO MY BA-BA-BA-BOOM, BABY!" complete with fist-pumping and pelvis-thrusting. He had succeeded. After all this time and effort, he had finally become the true king of storms, a mighty force of nature that would not bow to anything. Nothing would stand in his way ever again, and he was at long last free to do whatever he wanted. Realising this, Tempest once again pleaded, "Yes, yes, you are every bit as powerful as I promised, sire. Now restore my horn and I swear to use my magic to serve you," even bowing before him to show her sincerity. Luna knew what happened at this point. She knew that he didn't keep his word, and threw Tempest aside thinking he had no further use for her even with her horn and magic intact, and she also knew that that decision backfired in a way that eventually left him but a pile of shattered pieces of crystal. That was what she knew was going to happen. That is what she had heard, and what she was told happened. So imagine her surprise when that didn't happen at all... Instead, the Storm King put his claws on his chin in thought for a second before he decided, "Ah, what the heck? One dinky little unicorn horn coming up!" He aimed the magical gem at the end of the staff at the base of the broken remains of her horn and began to pour magic into it. Though unlike the destructive bolts of lightning he set off before when he used the staff, now a multicoloured wave of healing magic radiated from it instead. And before she knew it, Tempest Shadow's horn was back in its full glory. After all this time, the part that was taken from her so long ago had finally been given back to her. She was now fully restored and more powerful than ever before. Pleased with his good work, the Storm King smiled a bit. "There you go, so would you please do me one itty-bitty tiny little favour and STOP WHINE ABOUT IT!?" Tempest didn't say anything. She was just too lost for words as she began to feel her magic start to build up in her new horn. "So where to now? Oh, should we invade the dragons, or maybe those change-thingies, or how about the-" he suddenly stopped talking when a magenta-coloured magical aura enveloped his staff. "What the?!" It was then harshly pulled out of his claws by a very strong force before it gently floated over towards Tempest, whom he only now realised had the same-coloured aura emanating from her newly restored horn. With a devilish smirk on her face, and with cold bloodthirsty eyes, Tempest commented, "Now I'll show you what I can really do." Lost for words, the schocked Storm King asked, "Tempest? You...betrayed me?" She chuckled evilly, "Hehehe...no, Storm King. As you said, friends can betray you..." her voice turning less feminine and more raspy for every word she...or rather 'he' spoke. "I merely have my own goals...and they do not include you!" Suddenly, the image of Tempest Shadow started to fade away as she was soon replaced by a gangly-looking, two-armed, legless, gaseous being with a pair of black sinister eyes that stared directly into the Storm King's soul. He was also now holding the staff in his creepy-looking hands rather than a magical unicorn aura. With no time given to evade or defend himself, the smoke creature unleashed a powerful bolt of lightning right into the Storm King's chest, blasting his chestplate to pieces and sending him flying straight into the very cyclone he had himself just created. The irony was not lost to him as he was swept up by the force of the storm and tossed around like a rag-doll among all sorts of debris that the tornado had picked up. In just one moment, all that he had worked for, bled for, fought for, had been undone by a single mistake. He was a fool to put his trust in anyone but himself, to let them have power he should only keep for himself, and believe for even a second that they would hesitate to betray him if given an opportunity. However, with a brief flash of her horn, Princess Luna made the tornado vanish into nothing while the image of Canterlot was replaced with an endless star-filled void. This was the dreamscape, Princess Luna's true domain. The Storm King looked around a bit in confusion at the sudden change of scenery, as well as the fact that he was still standing on something despite not feeling himself ever hitting any ground. Then he realised what happened and let out a long drawn out sigh. "Let me guess...this is just another dream, isn't it?" "Correct," Luna answered while she gently trotted towards him. He looked at her and rolled his eyes, "Is there a way to get rid of you? Like, can I make my head horse-proof or something? Because this is starting to get REALLY ANNOYING!" Having gotten used to his sudden bouts of shouting for the last three nights, Luna didn't even flinch when he did it this time, and instead calmly replied, "Like it or not, Storm King, I am the only one who can communicate with you in your current state. But if you would prefer to be alone for the rest of your existence...then by all means." The Storm King growled at that comment, his deep voice making the noise more felt rather than heard. Then he let out an indignant huff and turned away from her while crossing his arms. After a moment of tense silence, Luna asked, "Who was it that betrayed you?" He gave her a surprised glance over his shoulder, "Uhh...what the heck are you talking about?" "I have walked among the dreams of countless beings for more than a thousand years. I know how to interpret a dream's meaning...even within the mind of someone like you." An image of Tempest Shadow materialised next to Luna, her head held high with a confident look on her face...and then...an image of the strange smokey creature faded into existence on the other side of her, his ghostly hands clasping each other in a way that betrayed his treacherous nature. The appearance of the creature made the Storm King's eyes flash bright with anger, especially with Tempest there as well. And if only that purple alicorn had been there too, then he would have been subjected to the sight of the four beings in the whole world he despised the most. Noticing his reaction, Luna continued. "I understand now your reasoning for not upholding your end of the bargain you had with Tempest Shadow. And I think we both know that it has something to do with the creature on my right, am I correct?" While just barely managing to keep his rage from erupting, the Storm King took a few angry steps towards her. When he got close enough, he physically tried to punch her in the face, only for his hand to phase through her as if she wasn't even there. He let out a loud but short growl, then tried to do the same to the vision of Tempest, and then to the smoke creature...but he still couldn't even touch them. Frustrated by this, he stormed away (heh) from them all and let out a long and enraged scream that was so powerful that it distorted the dreamscape around him with visible ripples. "GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAAA! YOU STUPID, MISERABLE PIECE OF PONY TRASH! WHO GAVE YOU PONIES THE RIGHT TO POKE INTO MY BRAIN AFTER HUMILIATING ME TO THE WHOLE STINKING WOLRD?!" And just when the Storm King seemed to have broken the record for loudest voice of all time, Princess Luna used her own Royal Canterlot Voice to prove him wrong. "AND WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO PLUNDER EVERY LAND IN YOUR PATH JUST TO SATISFY YOUR OWN OVER-INFLATED EGO!?" The force of her voice was enough to make the much larger Storm King have to take a few steps back to avoid falling off his hooves by it. To put it bluntly...he did not see that one coming. "Now, for the love of Equestria, would you cease acting like an entitled brat and stop blaming everyone else but yourself!?" the princess finished in a slightly less powerful tone. The Storm King just stood there flabbergasted, with his eyes opened wide and his jaw nearly hitting the ground. Then he shook his head and gasped, "WOW! Now those were some mean pipes you got there! Is it just something in the dream world or are you actually that loud?" "Um...it is not just in the dreamscape," Luna answered awkwardly. Clearly, that was not the reaction she was expecting of him. "Ha-ha, is that right? Shame I didn't meet you sooner. With your voice we wouldn't even need Grubber's gramophone thingy to announce our invasions every time!" "Did you listen to a word I just said?" Luna deadpanned. "Hmmm...I guess a little of it. Something about 'blah blah', and 'beh beh beh', and 'oh look, I don't care'." Luna facehoofed and groaned. "Actually, hehe, I heard everything! I just wanted to see the look on your face, Ah-HA hahahahahaha!!" He even showed what could only be described as a troll smile on his face after he admitted that. "Is everything a joke to you?!" she asked in a frustrated voice. "Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing, considering I'm not the one who's probing inside someone else's head!" Seeing that this was getting her nowhere, Luna stomped her hoof on the ground with a hard clang, changing the backdrop to something very different to the current one. Instead of being in an endless void this time, the two of them were now in some kind of luxurious garden full of tables stacked to the brim with all sorts of delicious-looking food, from exotic fruits to roasted meat, which, while being a foreign food concept to ponies, was something that the Storm King was quite familiar with. The Storm King himself was now seated in a luxurious throne befitting of his ego and several floating fans were giving him a light breeze even with no creature actually holding onto them. He looked around quizzically, not knowing if he should feel flattered or insulted by his surroundings. "Umm...what's this?" "A mere taste of my power," Luna explained. "As the princess of the night, I can conjure up any scenario you can possibly imagine for your pleasure. Any wish granted, any possibility made real, and anything you could ever want to do or be can be made real at your convenience. All you have to do...is ask." The Storm King picked up a pineapple from a nearby table and gave it a bite, and even let out a small gasp as he realised that it tasted just as real as they did when he was awake. "Oh, that's delicious! So...you would do this? Just like that? What's the catch? There's gotta be a catch, right?" "Indeed there is," Luna replied ominously. "In return, I want you to tell me something about yourself." "Like...what?" The images of Tempest and the smoke being reappeared next to Luna, though by doing so, she was actually spoiling the perfect scenario she had created for him somewhat. "First off, I want to know what this creature is, and how he relates to Tempest Shadow." The king thought about her proposal for a second, even pinching the bridge of his flat nose while he did so. After about half a minute of considering it, he decided, "FINE! I'll tell you, but you gotta do something else for me first!" "And what would that be?" "I want you to make that Tempest Shadow over there physical, so I can touch her, and then...I want her to come over here. Do that, and I'll tell you everything about that idiot you could possibly want to know. Deal?" Princess Luna was a bit uneasy about his request, but decided to honour it anyway. It was unlikely she would ever get an opportunity like this again, and whatever it was he actually wanted right now, she knew it wouldn't hurt anyone in the real world...which, at the end of the day, was the only world that really mattered when it came down to it. So with a brief flash of her horn, 'Tempest' came to life and began to trot over to the Storm King. "What do you want from me, your excellency?" she asked in her usual voice. When she came close enough to him though, he answered her question by grabbing her by the throat so hard that she couldn't breathe. "To put it bluntly, Tempest...I want you...dead," he said before squeezing her hard enough that her eyes rolled back in their sockets, a sickening cracking noise rang off as her neck snapped, and she soon began to hang limply in his claws. Then he tossed the dead Tempest Shadow image aside without a second glance, now turning his attention back to Luna who was visibly horrified by the sight, with her eyes wide open in shock. "Ahhh...that felt good," he idly commentated, showing not a speck of sympathy or regret for what he just did. "Now, let's start with the basics! His name's Strife, he's a living cloud...thingy, and he's Tempest's predecessor. I met him back when I first started out with the whole 'Storm King thing'. Good at reading maps and finding magical knickknacks, but kinda sucks at pretty much anything else. Still, the only other guys I had with me at the time were an army of those mush-brained brutes and that little spineless hedgehog, so I made him second in command of my armada, and we simply had the best of times! I let him pick a destination, then we smacked down, tore the land apart and ran off with whatever we could carry. Together, we plundered the penguins, hippogriffs, lizard-people, parrots, centaurs, gargoyles, minotaurs and a few more I don't remember. "Then, after we finished mopping up Abyssinia, that little fart stole all my loot to join up with those damn birds! After everything we've been through, he just decided to betray me as soon as he saw an opportunity! Can you believe him!?" "You were afraid that Tempest would do the same," Luna observed, having gotten over the senseless, if imaginary, murder of a pony in front of her. "That's why you chose to betray her first." The Storm King picked up a roasted piece of chicken and took a hearty bite out of it. "Well...DUH! Thought I already explained this whole thing though," he said while chewing obnoxiously. "Why would I ever give someone else the power to stab me in the back!?" "Have you ever considered that that wasn't what she was planning at all, and that your own paranoia and trust issues caused the very problem you were trying to prevent?" "Eh...no. Why would I? It was obvious she gonna betray me, so why bother?" Luna looked away for a moment, her hoof now kept on her chin in thought, "Hmmm...now why don't we take a look then?" "What are you-" In an instant, the dream changed yet again, but back to a familiar scenario. In the eye of the storm, the Storm King bellowed, "NOW I TRULY AM THE STORM KING...AND THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BOW TO MY BA-BA-BA-BOOM, BABY!" complete with fist-pumping and pelvis-thrusting. He had succeeded. After all this time and effort, he had finally become the true king of storms, a mighty force of nature that would not bow to anything. Nothing would stand in his way ever again, and he was at long last free to do whatever he wanted. Realising this, Tempest once again pleaded, "Yes, yes, you are every bit as powerful as I promised, sire. Now restore my horn and I swear to use my magic to serve you," even bowing before him to show her sincerity. The Storm King put his claws on his chin in thought for a second before he decided, "Ah, what the heck? One dinky little unicorn horn coming up!" He aimed the magical gem at the end of the staff at the base of the broken remains of her horn and began to pour magic into it. Though unlike the destructive bolts of lightning he set off before when he used the staff, now a multicoloured wave of healing magic radiated from it instead. And before she knew it, Tempest Shadow's horn was back in its full glory. After all this time, the part that was taken from her so long ago had been given back to her. She was now fully restored and more powerful than ever before. Pleased with his good work, the Storm King smiled a bit. "There you go, so would you please do me one itty-bitty tiny little favour and STOP WHINE ABOUT IT!?" Tempest didn't say anything. She was just too lost for words as she began to feel her magic start to build up in her new horn. "So where to now? Oh, should we invade the dragons, or maybe those change-thingies, or how about the Yaks? Any ideas?" After collecting herself thoroughly, Tempest noticed something in the corner of her eye and lit her horn. This time however, instead of trying to take his staff away from him, she created a protective shield in front of her master just before a cannonball of five ponies and a dragon could hit him at terminal velocity. With her newly restored horn's added power, it was more than enough to send them all flying in separate directions. Though, with the tornado right next to them, all of them soon ended up being swallowed up by it and left at the raging storm's mercy, scattering them to the wind. Seeing this, Princess Twilight let out a heart-wrenching "NOOOOOOOoooooo!" as she saw her closest friends be taken away from her and consumed by the mighty tornado. With a flash of anger, the alicorn faced the Storm King and asked, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!? What could you possibly hope to gain from destroying our homes!? Our friends?! WHAT'S IT ALL FOR!?" The Storm King stayed silent for a moment, an unreadable expression crossing his face, then he looked at her and spoke in a surprisingly calm voice by his standards. "Hurts, doesn't it? All your friends, all your loved ones, your homes, all of it just go...POOF! That's life for ya. It isn't getting any better...believe me." Then he glanced at Tempest Shadow, who regarded him with a blank look, as if she didn't really know what to do with herself. "Oh, and thanks for the assist, Tempest, remind me to get you something nice from the next place on the list." Twilight's face started to sprout tears as she hunched over in despair, and the sound of her sobbing started to fill the air. Paying her no further mind, the Storm King hit the ground with the butt of his staff, dispelling the tornado in the process, and then began to head towards the exit. "Come on then, time to leave this sappy little candyland for good!" In a flash, Princess Luna and the Storm King found themselves back in the empty dreamscape again. He regarded her with a strange look, almost as if he himself didn't know what to think of her. Though Luna could tell that one of the few things he most likely didn't regard her with right now...was hatred. For the first time since they met didn't he seem to actually be angry with her...even if he seemed to look at her with some kind of emotion. "Perhaps you should consider that the next time you decide to think the worst of someone on principle," Luna suggested, "because maybe...just maybe, a little trust and kindness can go a long way." He didn't respond to that...at least not verbally. Instead, he turned away from her with a look on his face that Luna could have sworn showed just the tiniest hint of regret...which was one emotion she had not seen him experience until now. "I...I eh, can you...leave me alone for the rest of the night?" The calmness in his voice took her off-guard a bit, but what really got to her was the sincerity in it as well. He even looked at her in the eye and finished with a strangely gentle "Please." Princess Luna nodded, then in a bright flash, she promptly disappeared from his dream. She refrained from letting optimism cloud her judgement, but something told her that she may have finally been making at least some progress in her mission. Though only time would tell if that was so. Author's Note Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out. I had to focus on my other fanfic a bit first before I could get back to this one, and...well, honestly, I had a hard time deciding what this chapter was even gonna be about. That's why for future reference I would actually welcome your input on what I can do from here on. While I do have a pretty solid plan as to what I want to do with this story, any ideas you can provide would be much appreciated. Oh, and one thing I may want to mention is that I will treat the My Little Pony the Prequel comic as canon to this story, and will make references to it from time to time. If you haven't read it yet, then I highly recommend you do so, for it is really good, and goes a long way to flesh out the characters that appear in the movie...especially Storm King. If you're wondering where to find it, well, Google it and then you might find one for purchase...or alternatively, just click this link.
3) SnowyChapter 3 Snowy A cold and lifeless wind was blowing... ...it stung like death itself upon touch... ...and it was endless and unrelenting. The wind picked up snow and harshly whipped it across the mountain...slamming it into rocks and snuffing out any semblance of life in its path, leaving nothing but a frozen wasteland. And yet, even here...there was at least one living thing that still drew breath. A lonely creature was wading through the thick snow. A furry bipedal creature with cloven hooves and a pair of glowing blue eyes...but with no black armour, no great horns...and he was definitively not called the Storm King. ...At least not yet. Also, in clear contrast to the giant beast that was the mighty Storm King, now he was a fair bit smaller, being only slightly taller than Celestia, and he looked younger as well. For several days and nights now he had done nothing but wander aimlessly through the snow-filled winds and steep cliffs...with no food, no water, and no place safe enough to rest...not even for a moment. Needless to say, he was thoroughly exhausted at this point. For every moment that passed, and for every step he took, he felt more of his will, his strength, and his life...fade away from him. Without the aid of a miracle...he was doomed to fall apart and die here sooner or later. He knew this of course, he felt it in his bones...but still he kept going. Nothing was going to make him give up until his very last breath. That determination was the one thing that had kept him alive for this long... ...But even that couldn't last forever. Even if his thick fur and sturdy muscular body made him better equipped than most to handle this kind of weather, it was not enough to make him last several consecutive days of unrelenting cold winds without any food or shelter. Just by looking at the guy, you could tell he was feeling it too. His grey skin had turned almost black out of frostbite in several areas, and actual ice had formed on his exposed teeth. By now, he wasn't even so much as 'walking' as he was limping his way forward. Eventually...the strain proved too much...and he fell to his knees in exhaustion. With his legs now deep within the snow, and any stamina to keep going all-but drained from him, that last breath was coming closer and closer...and he was definitely not wasting it on something as trivial as breathing. With deep-rooted wrath in his eyes, the creature faced skyward and screamed, "COME ON THEN, WORLD! DO YOUR WORST! YOU WANT TO KILL ME?! THEN WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" After he almost tore his throat by screaming that loud (especially in his current condition), he was left with a much weaker voice when he finished his rant. "What? Don't you...at least have the decency to...ugh...put me out of my damn misery?! You killed the others...why not just go on and finish the job, huh?!" With a depressed sigh, the creature lowered his head and aimlessly stared at his shadow in the rapidly growing snow around him. "Yeah...I hate you too." Hidden by the intense blizzard, and so far completely unnoticed by him, was a silent observer. Following his every step, but not leaving any prints in the snow of her own, Princess Luna kept a watchful eye on the furred beast, yet also kept her distance from him. Unlike last time, she had no intention of interfering with this dream. All she wanted to do was observe. The creature, of course, didn't see nor hear her. To him, she was little more than a ghost or a whisper...far beneath his notice. While she would have normally intervened at this point, something about this dream...or more likely, memory, sparked her curiosity something fierce...and she became even more intrigued by what she saw him do next. Cold tears began to form in his eyes then fall down into the snow, and his laboured breathing started to slowly turn into exhausted sobs. It was the closest Luna had ever witnessed on his face that could come even close to crying. Seeing him like this was...strange for her. Even if she had held an open mind for his potential redemption, all she had known of the beast dubbing himself 'the Storm King' was that of a haughty man-child who plundered and destroyed kingdom after kingdom just for his own twisted amusement, but this...this brought conflicting feelings of sympathy and pity into the mix as well. While she couldn't be certain if this was a memory of a past event or a figment of his imagination, she knew for sure that the pain he was feeling in it was very much real. And no matter how much he might have been trying to hide it, she knew that it had affected him greatly. Ever since she was released from Nightmare Moon's corruption had Luna been fascinated by the things that could turn a good creature into a bad one. The stories she had heard from ponies like Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, Stygian or Tempest Shadow usually spoke of one common theme: pain and suffering. Those that were enraged, desperate or had just suffered too much, may (in some cases, not all, she had to remind herself) go down a dark path and eventually turn into something cruel. Sunset grew up feeling powerless and ignored during her childhood, and saw her mentorship under Celestia as her chance to finally gain some respect by becoming a powerful alicorn princess...only to grow resentful of her mentor when Celestia denied her that opportunity. Out of rage, she ran away through a portal into another world where she ended up stranded and without her magic, forcing her to use more and more nasty methods to gain any semblance of power or popularity. Starlight lost the only pony in her childhood who understood her over something as trivial as a cutie mark, and as such, grew up with feelings of resentment over the thing that took him away, even creating her own town where she could make her friends exactly the way she wanted them to be. Stygian felt overshadowed and unappreciated by his closest friends, and so he sought a way to become as great as they were...but that only resulted in him being banished for a crime he never intended to commit and given no chance to explain himself. Cast out and alone, and filled with feelings of sadness and betrayal, a cunning shadow befriended him in his desperate state and used his rage to transform him into a Pony of Shadows. Tempest lost her friends and her dreams of becoming a powerful unicorn when her horn was destroyed by an angry Ursa Minor, and soon left Equestria to live in the rough and chaotic world outside of it. Her envy of those who didn't suffer hardship like she had made her bitter and selfish, and her desire to restore her horn blinded her to the Storm King's treacherous nature and willingly chose to aid him in his conquest. ...But what drove the Storm King himself to such measures? Did something happen in his childhood that turned him into the monster that he became...or was he simply raised to be that way...or...could it be so simple that it was just his very nature to be the way he was? So far, Luna could only speculate on the answers to those questions. But maybe...just maybe...some of these dreams of his might give her some clues. Eventually though, the young would-be-Storm King opened his eyes and spotted something in the distance, then slowly turned his head around to get a closer look. Luna curiously followed his gaze and saw just what it was that had gotten his attention. By the side of the mountain, there was a cave opening...and even more, a warm light seemed to be radiating from it. Such a sight could mean many things depending on who you asked, but to the young Storm King, it only meant one thing... Hope... ...the one thing he didn't have until now. Desperate to reach this mysterious light, he began to crawl over to it on all fours like a wild animal, not having the energy or the patience to get back up and walk properly...at least by a bipedal creature's standards. Only once he finally reached the cave entrance did he try to stand up straight, and the only way he could manage to do that was to grab onto the walls and use his arms to pull himself up on his hooves. Then, with renewed vigour and a regained will to live, the creature limped further into the cave to find the source of the light that guided him there. It didn't take him long though until he found it. In a slightly larger compartment of the cave that was protected from the cold winds and snow...sat a distant relative of his. While a bit shorter and slightly bulkier than him, with huge arms and short legs, and claws on his feet instead of cloven hooves, the creature's resemblance to him was otherwise uncanny, given that they were both grey furry bipedal ape-like creatures with a pair of fangs sticking out of their lower jaw. Princess Luna, who had followed the Storm King into the cave, recognised the lone creature inside of it as one of the Yeti-like creatures that the King's Storm Guards were mostly comprised off...even if this was the first one she'd seen without a mask hiding its face. She never actually did figure out what they were called, but she was going with 'Storm-Creature' for now. The Storm Creature in question seemed to have made a home for himself inside the cave, and was sitting quite comfortably next to a lit fireplace on the floor. Even more, he also seemed to have gathered a fairly large stockpile of food in the cave with him, ranging from various hunted animals as well as several fruits and vegetables. He was even dangling a crab-looking creature on a stick over the fire in preparation for his next meal. The sight of so much food, warmth and shelter was like a slice of heaven to the would-be Storm King, and his eyes lit up with happiness while his mouth started to hang open, practically drooling at the prospect...not to mention the fact that he actually recognised the lone creature sitting in the cave. "Bard! Boy, am I glad to see you!" he happily exclaimed. Only now noticing that he wasn't alone anymore, the Storm Creature apparently named 'Bard' looked at him with an expression that went somewhere between surprise and dread. "Snowy?" Bard said in an alarmed tone. "You're...alive?!" Luna had to do a double take to make sure she heard that right. Snowy? Bard addressed the Storm King as...Snowy? The implications of that nearly made her giggle. Apparently, underneath that monstrous appearance and that fancy title...was a creature named Snowy? The mighty Storm King's true name turned out to be something as unflattering as 'Snowy' of all things? No wonder he would choose to call himself something as pretentious as 'the Storm King', Luna realised. It would certainly be hard to take someone named Snowy seriously if he was trying to be intimidating. Turns out the Storm King wasn't so different from Tempest Shadow after all, given that she used to go by something as silly as Fizzlepop Berrytwist before she met him. Honestly, Luna couldn't tell which name was funnier. However, it also confirmed something that Luna had suspected for a while. Since no one seemed to refer to the Storm King by his real name anymore, not even the beast himself, it would probably mean that he likely buried his previous identity a long time ago, with as few reminders of it as possible. Something must have happened to him that made him want to change his entire identity...but what? Perhaps that was what she was seeing right now... "Well, I'm here, aren't I?" 'Snowy' answered, bringing her focus back to the situation in front of her. "Good thing I found you, old buddy! I was starting to think I was the only one left." Bard eyed the new arrival suspiciously as Snowy took a few careful steps into the cave and trailed his hungry eyes over the great amount of food the Storm-Creature had spent most of the day collecting. That reaction made one thing quite clear: Bard did not like where this was going. "Oh yeah, now we're talking!" Snowy muttered as he reached one of his claws over to grab a fruit. "I owe you big time for-OUCH!" ...but was stopped when Bard picked up a stick and slammed it straight into Snowy's forearm with enough force to make him cry out in pain and clench the wounded area with his other hand. "What the heck was that for?!" he questioned in an offended tone. Bard stood up and clenched his claws over the stick he hit him with while giving Snowy a defiant glare. "This is my food, not yours! I found this cave, I gathered everything here, I set this fire...and you are not welcome here!" Snowy was nearly lost for words, and you could tell as much by the baffled and hurt look he showed on his face after Bard said that. "Hey...look, buddy, I just want something to eat. No need to make such a huge deal out of it." With a grunt, Bard explained "It won't last for the both of us, especially with your appetite! Now leave!", then made his stance even more clear by smacking Snowy in the face with his stick hard enough to make him fall over to the floor while drawing blood. After making a pitiful attempt to get back on his hooves, only to find himself too weak to do even that, Snowy looked up at his old friend with a desperate glint in his blue eyes. "Bu-bu-but you can't just throw me back out! I'll die out there!" A conflicted look very briefly showed itself on Bard's face, but he quickly hid it underneath a stern and angry expression that made it abundantly clear that Snowy would get no sympathy from him. This time though, Bard went ahead and grabbed his unwelcome guest by the neck, dragged him through the tunnel leading out of the warmth and comfort of the isolated cave, and once he reached the exit, threw the poor creature out into the icy cold of the world outside. Snowy fell face-first into the snow-covered ground and was immediately subjected once again to the harsh, life-draining winds of the relentless blizzard plaguing the mountain. "If you come back, I'll hit you even harder! So don't even think about it!" Bard selfishly yelled before he turned his back to him and returned to the comfortable cave he had camped out in, not even sparing his former friend a second glance. Princess Luna however was left frankly horrified by what she had just seen. On one hoof, she could understand why Bard wouldn't want to share his food with someone else if his life depended on it...but on the other was the simple act of throwing out a starving creature to freeze to death something she wouldn't wish on her worst enemy...a statement that happened to be a lot more literal in this instance. True, the Storm King was undoubtedly a monster, and Luna had no doubts that he'd probably done something far worse to someone else, but it still pained her to see him suffer so much. At this age, he probably hadn't even gotten around to doing anything all that bad yet for all she knew. She was suddenly broken out of her thoughts however when a strange otherworldly howl loudly echoed through the mountain, making her fur stand on end. Frantically, she immediately began to look around for what unholy abomination could have possibly caused it. The noise sounded feral and animalistic, yet also at the same time poisonous and unnatural. It was also strangely familiar even if the sound itself had never passed her own ears before. Looking up into the snowy sky above, Luna soon saw the creature that caused it...or rather the creatures that caused it...for there were three of them. Decrepit and ghost-like, three unsettling horse-like beings flew across the stormy winds, using their foul magical breaths to make the storm even harsher and colder than it already was...and in turn, killing or smothering everything that was unfortunate enough to be around them. Though she'd never seen these creatures in person, she immediately knew what they were from not only stories of old, but also from many nightmares that she had visited over the years. Windigoes. Spirits of ice and death that were summoned by fighting and hatred. Either a great evil drawn from the essence of evil itself...or a just punishment to those that refuse to be swayed by the power of harmony. No one knew for sure...not even Luna. What they were doing here, in the Storm King's dreams...she didn't know either. Her best guess would be that somehow, he had seen these monsters with his own eyes, perhaps in this very memory (if it truly was a memory anyway)...even though the Windigoes had been gone from Equestria for so long that most ponies these days discount them as little more than a myth. But then again...the Storm King didn't come from Equestria, did he? Perhaps outside the harmony of the land of ponies, into the vast lands beyond it were many other monsters now believed to be extinct or locked up in Tartarus. Maybe in the lands where the Storm King came from, the Windigoes are still around to this day, maintaining their lifeless winter indefinitely. The thought alone was enough to send a cold shiver down her spine. However, the sound of movement took her attention away from the evil ice elementals in the sky and back down to Snowy, who was making a move to push himself off the ground with his hands and get back up on his hoofed feet once more. Though when his face was revealed to her, still full of frost and specks of snow, there was a certain expression on it that was somehow way more unsettling than the appearance of the dreaded Windigoes. In the limited time she'd been in contact with him, the Storm King had mostly acted like a goofy and petulant brat with a superiority complex, who was prone to dishing out temper tantrums when he was angry or act like an obnoxious comedian when he wasn't. The expression he had on his face right now though, with his fanged mouth forced into a snarl and his blue eyes unblinking and focused, that expression showed none of that. This wasn't one of his usual childish tantrums, this was a face of pure rage, his unbroken will to survive driving him to push all of his usual eccentricities aside and turn into the feral beast he was hiding underneath that facade. After letting out an angry grunt, he reached his clawed hand into the snow and picked up a rock. A rather big and heavy rock...and definitively not something most ponies would have been able to lift as easily as he did, at least not without magic. What unnerved Luna even more about his current mood was the fact that for once, he was actually quiet. He didn't utter a single word or let out a laugh or anything as he slowly made his way back into the cave...his pure force of will making him ignore his weakened body protesting against his movements for every step he took. A bit worried about what was about to happen next, Luna carefully followed him in, making sure to keep herself squarely in observer mode so she didn't disrupt this...dream, memory? She still wasn't quite sure. As Bard, who had sat down by the fire again to keep himself warm, heard the sound of hoofsteps by the entrance, he tensed and picked up his stick again, and when he saw Snowy emerge from around the corner, he once again put on a harsh face and reminded, "I told you already, you're not welcome here!" He steeled himself, so he could rebut any plead for mercy or pity that Snowy might throw at him, but what he did not see coming was for his old friend to suddenly pounce on him like a starving jaguar and tackle the shorter storm-creature to the cave floor. With nothing but savage untamed fury in his eyes, Snowy pinned Bard down under his own weight, baring his long fangs at him while letting out a beastly growl...then, he raised the hand holding the rock up high...and brought it down on Bard's skull. Luna flinched, then looked away in horror as Snowy repeatedly bashed his former friend's head in with the rock, it now having turned red after only the second time he swung it...though she couldn't bring herself to watch any more than that. The sound however...that she could do nothing about, even as she clenched her eyes shut and turned her head down to face her own hooves. Murder. That was what she was hearing... Vicious, cold-blooded murder... Having seen the circumstances, she could tell that it was done out of desperation, but still...that did not change the fact that murder was exactly what it was. The princess was not naive, she knew murder had occurred, even in Equestria, and even by her own subjects...however rare that might be. She herself even held the haunted memories of when she tried to kill her own sister in cold blood under the control of Nightmare Moon, as well as many other albeit non-lethal punishments she'd inflicted on many other ponies that stood in her way when she was in that crazed state, not to mention her part in turning King Sombra to shadow...which she at least thought would be his end, even if he did come back some 1 000 years later or so. Nevertheless, it was not something Luna enjoyed seeing before her own eyes, and definitively not something she would ever condone of her own free will. However, the emotions she allowed herself to feel after witnessing that event, they unwittingly bled into her surroundings and disrupted the vision around her, making the memory fade away into the endless void of the dream realm. "You know, Woona," a familiar voice called over to her. "If seeing stuff like that disturbs you so much, then maybe you shouldn't go snooping around inside my brain!" Luna opened her eyes and looked up to see the Storm King, now very much the Storm King she remembered, not the younger Snowy he was just a second ago, stand in the void, looking down at her with an annoyed expression on his face. A bit too shaken up to address that comment, Princess Luna instead began to ask, "Was that...?" "Something that actually happened?" he finished for her. "No, it was just something I made up as a funny little joke, OF COURSE IT REALLY HAPPENED!" "That...Bard, was he-" she began to ask, but before she could get much of a word in edgewise, the Storm King raised a finger to her lips to cut her off. "BE-BE-BE, no, no, no, NO! None of that!" he declared, now crossing his arms and turning away dismissively. "You know the deal. If you want me to tell you anything, you have to do something for me first." Of course, Luna did indeed remember the deal she made with him last night, she just hoped he hadn't done so as well. Either way, given that she knew he wouldn't tell her squat otherwise, the princess let out a sigh and simply asked, "What do you want this time?" The Storm King began to pace around a bit, putting his hand on his chin while considering his options. Eventually though, an idea came to him. "Hey, you know something I haven't done in, like, forever, that is very much not possible when I'm stuck in crystal?" Luna braced herself. Whatever this could be, she knew she probably wouldn't like it. After all, the last favour she made for him was to basically let him murder Tempest, or thankfully, just a fantasy image of her. Goodness knows what horrible thing he would ask from her this time. "Dancing!" Luna blinked a few times in surprise. "I'm sorry, what?" That...clearly was not what she was expecting. Keeping a big bright smile on his face, the king simply reiterated, "Dancing! If there's one thing I love more than pillaging entire kingdoms or burning them to the ground, it's to celebrate it with a couple drinks, play some music, then bust out some wicked moves on the dance floor! I mean, what's the point in being a big bad conqueror if you never get to enjoy it every so often?" "So let me see if I got this straight," Luna began, sounding a bit baffled and slightly confused. "You want me to give you a dream where you're...dancing?" "Not just dancing, sweetheart," the Storm King answered, now getting right up in her face with a big goofy grin. "I want a party! Lights, music, action, the whole shebang! You're in my mind, you'll know what I like." A...party, right! Luna had participated in tons of parties, hadn't she? It took her only a second to realise that that's a laugh. In truth, the reclusive princess cared little for large crowds, rowdy guests or obnoxious dance music...in fact, she could barely remember when the last time she danced even was. Probably a thousand years ago at least if she had to guess. However...there was one pony Luna knew who not only had far more knowledge about throwing parties than she did...but probably knew more about throwing parties than anyone. Period! It was time to call in the big guns! Giving the Storm King one last glance, Luna requested, "If you would please wait for a second, I will return with your...'party' shortly," before she quickly and abruptly disappeared in a bright flash of light, thus leaving him alone in the void for now. Raising one of his thick white eyebrows at the spot she just stood at, the Storm King muttered, "Why do I get a bad feeling about this?" Princess Luna meanwhile had a pink peppy party pony to find... Author's Note Wow, this chapter has been in development hell for quite awhile. I don't even know if anyone is still reading this story...but I'm back! A combination of not having a clue with that to do with this chapter, with me wanting to finish the Awesome Spider-Dash as quickly as possible, some procrastination, and just your average writer's block made this take a ridiculously long time to finish. The problem with this story is that I don't have it planned out step-by-step as I have with Spider-Dash. I just know what its themes would be and maybe how it will eventually end...which I honestly hope won't be too far into the future.
