Avalanche from a Flurry

Twilight tapped a hoof nervously while waiting for Zecora. "Why do you have a recipe for something that only works on alicorns, anyway?"

Zecora took a moment to dice something before responding. "For it to work for any pony was the aim. To succeed, great power it does require. Alicorns can provide it and channel the same. Others would find their vision a liar."

"So… it's a work in progress and you can't get the power requirements under control, but it's not like you specifically set out to make something just for alicorns."

Zecora nodded. "Quite right."

A few minutes later Twilight heard a distant crash. She checked the window, and upon seeing nothing, warily stepped out to get a better look around. She traced the sound of another smaller crash and found Tempest approaching from an off-path direction. The source of the second crash appeared to have been a filly-sized hornet now lying on the ground. Based on the damage to the tree it's under, it may have been the source of the first crash as well. Tempest had already moved on.

Twilight called out to her, "Hey! Did you cross the whole forest?"

Tempest nodded. "Yeah, when you told me to meet you here, I figured I'd save a few hours and train fare by walking straight from Fillydelphia instead of getting the connection in Canterlot."

Twilight giggled. "How did that work out?"

Tempest gave an eager hoof swing. "Fine! If I took the train, I wouldn't have made it here for another fifteen minutes, and the exercise was nice."

"You seem cheery. So, how were the twins?"

"As you could figure from where I came from, they took your advice on moving to a cheaper area. They also drew up their design pretty well."

"That's not what I meant."

"No sign of any contagious effect."

Twilight nodded. "Good. I'd hoped that was the case; nice to have confirmation, but I haven't been probing for it."

"I probed them pretty deeply on that, among other things."

Twilight swallowed. "How so? Do I have to worry about my reputation?"

Tempest laughed her off. "No, I didn't go as Tempest Shadow. I went as Berrytwist. I twist bears."

"A bold move, making your secret identity your real name. Why, though?"

"I pretended to be from a criminal syndicate, investigating to figure out how much we could shake them down for."

Twilight facehoofed. "Whyyyyy?"

Tempest raised her nose. "They'd open up more about the opportunities, present every method they could use to make money. And I felt like cutting loose a little after all this time."

"I hope you didn't push them into going crooked!"

"Not at all. I went pretty soft-sell. They insisted they were doing this entirely up-and-up, and threatened to drag you in, and they did it without implying any prior relationship. I distracted them from any concerns by buying their prototype."

Twilight's eyes bugged. "You did?"

Tempest's eyes, on the other hoof, narrowed. "The Super-Seedy Spider-Squeezy 6000 is amazing. You never got to use the eighth attachment, did you? Because you were from a palace instead of a criminal syndicate. And now you'll never get the chance. It's all mine."

"The Super-Seedy… who came up with that name?"

"I did."

"How did you even know to come up with it?"

"I read your book."

Twilight gasped in delight. "I didn't realize you were studying friendship!"

"At the time, it was 'know your enemy'." Twilight blinked. Tempest grinned, then suddenly changed topic. "So, how were all the ponies here?"

"Oh, right! I've made a number of interesting discoveries. My friends are mostly affected, but I found a way to greatly reduce the effect. I'd like to have you not do that, if you don't mind, because it may be short-term relief on the intrusive thoughts themselves, but may make things worse in overall horniness after not very long." Tempest nodded in acknowledgement, and Twilight continued, "So, please don't kiss anypony substantially older or younger than yourself."

Tempest blinked. "What?"

"I know, that's what I thought too. It seems to shut the intrusive thoughts off like shutting a tap. And it seems to be a medium-term solution, at least if you keep doing it often, based on a one-pony sample."

Tempest swallowed. "But you want me not to, just to see what happens if we don't?"

"Basically, yes. I am concerned that it may also cause problems…" Twilight gasped in delayed realization. "You used the eighth attachment right in front of them, didn't you?" Tempest grinned, but did not reply.

To get out of that awkwardness, Twilight decided to check in on Zecora. Just before following her in, Tempest said something brief that Twilight couldn't understand, but she could tell that it rhymed.

Zecora almost dropped her spoon and began replying rapidly, until she realized Tempest couldn't follow her. She sighed but smiled, and said, "I recognize that look - did you get that from a phrase book?"

Tempest shrugged. "Something like that."

Twilight watched her stirring for a moment, then asked, "How is it coming? Is there anything I can do? I don't mean to rush you, but I thought you had said it would be done by now."

Zecora shook her head. "I had a prepared ingredient, but it bore a nasty scent. In a moment it will all be ready; thank you for holding steady."

Twilight sighed. "Thank you so much."

Tempest asked, "What's the potion for, anyway?"

"Lets an alicorn look into alicorn history. This time I'll be aiming at Skyla, to see if we have a hint of what is going on."

"What are the limits on that? Can some future alicorn peek back and catch you doing something embarrassing?"

"Based on what I saw, only if it's critical to my life story and/or relevant to their problem. I should be safe. Well, maybe if they were to brew up a huge amount of it then it might begin showing progressively less important parts."

Zecora calmed her, "Do not fear, memory-giver. Taking too much would be bad for her liver."

Twilight frowned at her. "And you didn't tell me this before I drank it the first time?"

"This dose is not close." And with that, she proffered the same ornate Erlenmare flask full of the same purple goop as last time.

Twilight nodded. "All right." She charged up her horn and drew out alicorn magic. This time it was much less strain, and she could keep her eyes open. So she saw in amusement that in the presence of the potion, the alicorn magic blob she was extruding appeared like Sombra's dark magic. She didn't have long to marvel at this, for the potion went from magenta to white, and the discoloration of the magic ceased.

"All right. Show time." She took a sip, and after a second, the vision began.

Twilight gasped. A pink alicorn with yellow and lavender hair lay stretched out on a table, with dark crystals embedded in her horn. She bore a massive chest wound, and she wasn't breathing. A soldier in Sombra's mask stood by with a cluster of hourglasses; most were done, one was nearly done, and the last was almost halfway done.

Twilight came close and looked at the wound closely. Blood wasn't even flowing, though it was still wet. Ten seconds into the vision, with a flash of light, the alicorn's wound closed. There was a clang, and she looked to its source - the soldier had tipped the halfway hourglass on its side, and was flipping one of the finished hourglasses to start it. Then he sounded a gong.

Momentarily, Sombra swirled into the room. "Excellent. Excellent. That was quick." He examined the halfway hourglass. "Yes, yes." He turned it on its end to reset it.

He approached the alicorn and gloated. "Dear Skyla, you have been so much help to me."

She gasped out, "How did I fail? Why did they betray me?"

Twilight activated her voice recorder spell, in case it would work.

He considered. "You keep asking that… and now, at the end, I might finally answer. On the one hoof, we will be facing off again some time in the future, I'm sure. So maybe I shouldn't explain. But on the other hoof, the reason just shows how hopeless your situation is. Or I can have it both ways. Yes… Order is good, your miserable 'highness'. The crystal empire was an outpost of order, a bastion against Discord, and I have raised it to be the epitome of order. Crystalline perfection. The crystal empire is honest and, dare I joke, transparent. The crystal empire holds firm in its loyalties, and gives all to the collective. Not only would it never go along with your methods, it rejects your very meaning. You do not belong here, princess. You cannot fight me."

Skyla rasped, "They are also ponies of joy and kindness. You do not belong here either."

Sombra grinned. "Yet I am the king, and you are about to undergo the final test of your immortality. When I annihilate your body, do you come back in one thousand years, or somewhat longer? And how much will you remember? And from what material will your body be drawn?"

Skyla gritted her teeth. "I am only sorry to be missing your defeat. Do it."

Sombra nodded. "You are a worthy opponent in bravery, if not character or ability."

The vision drew to a close.

Twilight opened her eyes, and played back the voice recording: silence, then, Tempest asking, "How long does this take?"

She cancelled playback. "Paper! I need paper!"

Zecora gestured to her desk, and Twilight began writing even before she made it there:

CE epitome of order + 5 el. Skyla not H,L,G. "Rejects not only your methods, but your very meaning. You do not belong here, princess. You cannot fight me."

Skyla - "They are also Joy and K. You do not belong here either."

Earlier "How did I fail? Why did they betray me?"

He debated giving her hints, predicting she would be back and able to resist, but goes for demoralizing instead. See above.

She recovered from gaping chest wound. He proposed to destroy her body and see how long it'd take to come back. 1000y or more? Also, how rebuild, how much memory.

"Worthy opponent in ~~character, if not~~ bravery, if not character or ability."

She looked up. "Okay. So, her tactics involved dishonesty, disloyalty, and lack of generosity, and disorder."

Tempest observed, "A standard insurgency strategy would fit that."

Twilight frowned. "But loyalty wouldn't necessarily mean following the crown. It should be able to latch on to the loyalty to her friends and her cause."

"Sombra might not have seen it that way."

"I'm going to presume he was right since he beat her and seemed to know why."

"The last few times you beat him, he didn't know why."

"Yes, because we won, but when he won, maybe he knew what was going on. But you have a point, he might be working with a bad model that happened to be close enough that time."

Zecora suggested, "Or her plan betrayed her side, and they got off that ride."

Twilight shrugged. "Last time, I didn't get it in one dose either." She took another sip.

She found herself hovering above an orgy of crystal ponies. The centerpiece was four crystal ponies tied down, their eyes glowing with Sombra's mind control. Each was surrounded closely by a group of free crystal ponies, who were lavishing sexual attention on them. Twilight estimated the overall crowd as around fifty.

She focused in on the nearest mind-controlled stallion. A mare was riding his cock, another was straddling his chest presenting towards his face; the mares were kissing, and the first was spreading the ass of the second. A stallion stood below, licking the mind-controlled stallion's balls and shaft. Another stallion was sucking on one of his hooves.

Twilight set that aside and looked around for Skyla, wondering how this could be part of a memory if she wasn't there. After a few moments, she saw the alicorn off on the side, talking quietly with a pale yellow mare with pale blue hair, hardly older than the crusaders. Skyla isn't much older than that herself.

Momentarily, they leaned closer and kissed deeply. Then Skyla flew up, and declared, "She is ready! Specula, would you come forward and break this bond?" The orgy ground to a halt, and everypony watched.

The yellow mare took a deep breath and started forward toward the second mind-controlled stallion. He was a dimmer yellow, with green hair, and his eyes glowed fiercely with Sombra's control. "Dad? Do you hear me? It's me, Specula. You know that rule? About kids and their parents? The one which says we can't have sex? I'd like to break that rule. With you. Now I've said it. And no one is stopping me."

The light in his eyes brightened, and he writhed. The ponies around him stepped aside. The ponies around the other three resumed their actions, slowly; others came close beside them and whispered in their ears.

Specula continued closer to her father and repeated what she had said, word for word, then added, "And you've always wanted to, haven't you? This rule is stupid, useless. It doesn't belong. These laws are handed down from on high…" She crawled up over his barrel. "… to keep us from happiness, by a pony who should never have been in charge."

She leaned close to her father and ground against him, his penis trapped between his body and hers.

She looked back. "Mom, could you give me a hoof?" Then, to her father, "Yes, dad, mom is going to help you fuck me. Nopony agrees with this rule. The rules are bad. And you've always wanted to break it, haven't you? Haven't you? You've even broken the rule already. Remember the parade when the king brought Skyla into the city, and I got on your shoulders, and you held me there so tight I was grinding against you. You knew what you were doing. When they passed, I came."

A mare, presumably her mother, had been langourously approaching. She finally came close to his head. She licked his ear and said, "It's me, I'm here, and I'm going to make sure you come inside our daughter. Like you should. Nothing wrong with that at all, what a stupid rule. One you've already broken. You're ruined to him. Disobedient."

Specula turned to the crowd. "Don't you all agree?" Once the general acclaim had quietened, she said, "Yeah, Dad, look, you can see Crystal Petal spreading her petals for her son-in-law to get in. Oh, there they go."

Twilight glanced to the side, where a stallion around the age and size of Big Macintosh was beginning to enter an older mare.

Her attention returned to the daughter working on her father. "Oh, a married mare, fucking a married stallion while their spouses watch and cheer them on. Look how they're not afraid. Not being punished. Not afraid. No need to fear, they're just doing it and it's fine. Breaking that rule so hard. Just like we're going to. No half measures here. Screw that rule. And screw me, Dad. Mom and I are going to get you lined up, but it's up to you to start."

While Specula's mother took her time meandering around down to their nethers, Twilight looked back to Skyla, didn't find her, then looked up. She was hovering over the proceedings, hind legs splayed out, rubbing herself vigorously.

Twilight's head jerked back to see Specula's mother lining her father's penis up with her soaked entrance.

Specula leaned in and kissed him. With a flash of light, his eyes lost their glow and he rammed into her. This started a chain reaction, and the other three were released as well. One of the tied-up mares began peeing into the mouth of a stallion at her feet, while the other stallion and mare who were already having sex changed from passive to active participants.

Skyla settled down to the ground and kissed Specula long and hard and deep. She didn't even look as a stallion came up behind and mounted her back, penis ready; she moved her tail aside, and he entered her.

The vision came to a close.

Twilight took a deep breath. "Well. Now we know one way of freeing a pony from Sombra." She frowned. "It could probably use some optimization. Or perhaps being thrown out and burned with fire. One or the other."

Tempest gestured to her head and asked, "Was it this? A weapon against him, that went off in the wrong place? Or is this something else?"

"Yes, what we're experiencing is probably related to that. But I feel like there's something missing. I'll take the third dose."

She finished the bottle and waited a moment. She found herself above a parade. She was ahead of the procession, watching it approach. Sombra was bringing in a much younger Skyla, grinning, as they were apparently not yet enemies. Twilight wondered for some time what she was supposed to be seeing here. And then she saw it, up ahead. The pale yellow stallion with green mane, and the bright yellow little filly with pale blue mane, Specula. Twilight swooped down and stood as close to them as she could, which ended up being right behind.

And he lifted her up and put her on his neck. But, contrary to what she had said in the previous vision, it was done very innocently. The barest incidental contact between his neck and her inner thighs; she was trying to climb as high as possible. And no reaction from her as the procession passed.

So she was lying. Or… misremembering.

Twilight hardly noticed the vision's end.

Tempest inquired, "Well? That wasn't long."

Twilight looked her in the eye. "We could be misremembering what we did before this happened. Finding excuses and precedents where there were none."

"So, hold ourselves to a higher standard even if we don't feel like it?"

"That would work, but the original effect was directed most strongly against following rules, and fearing social or punitive consequences, and it wasn't made very selectively. It called any rules bad. I think I can see some possible thaumaturgical reasons she had to make the argument worse than it could be... anyway, I'm not sure how best to resist. But with this, I might be able to make a counterspell."