Chapters Starlight Glimmer had never been on such a crowded train, and for how many ponies surrounded her, it was eerily quiet, save for murmurs of worried and scared citizens, and one could easily hear the wheels chugging forward as the train pushed north. The fear and worry in the train car seemed to increase the closer ponies were to Princess Twilight Sparkle, as they watched the exhausted alicorn lay in the seat directly next to Starlight. Her breathing was labored, dried tears matted her cheeks, and she seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness as the unicorn did her best to comfort her.
The past two hours had been tense, and entirely uncertain...
The few townsponies of Ponyville that had not taken shelter stood still in the streets, their eyes glued to the pillars of smoke that were beginning to rise from the capitol of Canterlot some 40 miles away up on the tallest mountain in the region. They might have felt relief that they didn't reserve a spot for the Friendship Festival in time, had they not been so shaken at the events unfolding before them, with the sun and moon darting through the sky unpredictably. Day becoming night, and vice versa in a matter of seconds.
Their uncertainty only rose further as a speck against the burning city grew more detailed, and moments later revealed to be Princess Twilight Sparkle as she unstably descended towards the town. Her front hooves touched down near the front of the castle, and her landing had quickly deteriorated into a rolling crash. Ponies rushed to help her as she came to a halt.
"Princess, are you alright?" An earth pony asked as three others helped her to her hooves, and they saw just how exhausted she was.
"S... Starlight. Where's Starlight?" She asked, her voice soft, tired, and hoarse as she was helped towards the front stairs of the Castle of Friendship.
"Starlight, Princess Twilight is here! Starlight!!!" Caramel screamed towards the castle. It was then that Twilight saw dozens upon dozens of ponies watching from inside the stain glass windows of the castle. The large front doors of the castle opened, and out stepped Starlight Glimmer and Trixie Lulamoon, two of the only ponies who had made it off the mountain after the attack had occurred, and they had immediately started coordinating the sheltering of ponies down here.
"Twilight!" Starlight exclaimed, her voice full of concern as she galloped to meet the Princess of Friendship at the bottom of the stairs, who was struggling to just stay on her hooves. She looked like she had had the life sucked out of her. "Are you alright?" She asked, coming up to her. She wearily shook her head.
"We... We need to go. Right now. Get everypony you can to the... To the trains. Get as far away from Canterlot as possible. Bring food... Starlight, please..." Twilight rambled, turning away from the castle as she leaned on Starlight to stay up.
"Twilight I don't understand, what's going on?" Starlight asked as Trixie came to help keep her up.
"The... They're gone... They're all... All gone... The princesses... Our friends... We have to get away..." Twilight choked out as it seemed like she was just barely able to stay awake.
Starlight felt her blood go cold as she felt Twilight's hot tears against her coat.
"Everypony out of the castle, right now! We're leaving town!" She shouted back to the open doors, as townsponies now glanced up at the silhouette of Canterlot with fear.
Starlight's horn lit up, and she quickly cast an amplification spell on her vocal chords.
"Attention Ponyville, everypony grab as much food as you can reasonably carry and get to the train platform. Again, everypony get as much food as you can carry and get to the train. We're leaving! Now, go! Go! Go!"
The quiet aura around town quickly gave way to sounds of galloping, panicked voices, and doors opening as the crowd did their best to follow Starlight's announcement as they made their way through town with the Princess towards the train platform on the south side of town. A couple minutes later, word had evidently reached Town Hall, and the civil defense siren on the roof of the building started going off.
"Get to the train platform!!!" Starlight's amplification spell said over the siren. "Trixie, stay with her." Starlight said, putting all of Twilight's weight on the stage magician before using her horn to wink out, and materialized on the train platform. She immediately spotted two conductors for the currently idle train.
"You and you, anything in the baggage car that isn't food, blankets, or medicine, dump it, now!" She commanded.
The conductors treated her panicked tone of voice very seriously with the alarms going off, and set to work, opening the sides of the baggage car, and began unloading what Starlight had ordered.
A portal opened right next to her, and she jumped back, horn lighting up defensively. A moment later, a light gray unicorn stepped out onto the train platform, wearing a royal blue cloak and mage's hat.
"Starswirl!" Starlight exclaimed, letting her guard down.
"Get everypony on board, and get them to the Crystal Empire as fast as you can." The conjurer told her as he immediately began heading for the end of the platform towards the forests.
"What about you?" She asked as ponies began to arrive from all corners of town.
"I will join you when I can. Go, hurry!" He ordered, before breaking into a gallop as the sky switched from day to night and back again.
"Put any food you can spare into the baggage car before getting on! Again, any food you can spare, into the baggage car before you get on!" She shouted as more and more citizens arrived at the platform. A couple minutes later, she saw Trixie and Twilight come up to the platform, and they immediately helped her on board the closest passenger car, which was becoming more crowded by the minute, and the commotion outside was becoming softer.
"Starlight, I think that's everypony!" She heard Caramel shout. She glanced out the window, and saw the empty Ponyville streets, luggage scattered on the platform as the baggage car doors were slid shut and locked, and the conductors boarded.
"There's no one else on the platform, ma'am." The closest one announced to her. She nodded, and went forward, crossing into the locomotive, where the engineer was currently unsure what to make of watching his train being rushed and boarded in an incredible hurry.
"North. Get us to the Crystal Empire as fast and safely as you can!" She told him. He gave her a nod, and immediately started shoveling lumps of coal into the boiler. A minute later, Starlight, with nearly all the worried and frightened eyes on her or Twilight, heard the train whistle give a mighty blow, and they felt all the car couplings compress with metallic clanks, and the train pulled away from the platform. She glanced once more at the empty streets of Ponyville, remembering how nearly all of the population had been in Canterlot for the festival...
"Does anypony have a scroll, or parchment? Something to write with? I need to warn them that we're coming."
Shining Armor stood at the Crystal Empire's train platform, looking out at the endless arctic tundra and snowfall in front of him. The sky had shaken his entire populace. It would shift from day to night several times in a minute, then it would be one or the other for over an hour. It was completely unpredictable.
Then the hastily written scroll had come.
On our way with refugees from Ponyville.
Canterlot has fallen.
Twilight is with us.
-S.G.
That had been six hours ago, and any train travelling at full speed took about that long to get here from the central regions. As the minutes passed, he had to continually reach back to his soldier's discipline to keep his emotions in check, and remain ready and waiting to help anypony coming down those tracks.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of howling wind and snow, he saw a single headlight break through the snowstorm, and heard a train whistle overtake the wind. His heart pounded against his chest as train brakes started to scream as it closed in on the platform. Once it had come to a halt, the doors of the passenger cars opened, and tired, scared ponies started filing out.
"Citizens of Ponyville!" He shouted. "Head into the city. Our citizens are ready and willing to take you in. If there's not enough room, you'll be staying in the castle. Please remain calm and head towards the city." He announced as guards came to show the way to any first-time visitors. He then saw Starlight come out with Trixie, levitating an unconscious Twilight at her side.
"Is she alright?" He asked.
"She was fading in and out for two hours. Whenever she'd fall asleep, she'd wake up minutes later in a terror. I put her under a dark sleep spell so she can get some rest but stay cut off from the dream realm." She told him as Twilight was laid gently into one of the many waiting open-air chariots. Shining's head counting was a bit rusty, but it seemed that less than 200 ponies had gotten on this five-car train. Ponyville's population was over 1,500. Nearly all of them had been in the capitol for the festival.
"Starlight." Shining called as she and Trixie boarded the chariot on both side of Twilight. The unicorn mare looked back to him as more Ponyvillians filed past.
"Cadance...?" He asked, swallowing a lump in his throat.
No words coming to her, she merely shook her head somberly as the chariot started towards the castle.
Author's Note
Do I know where I'm going with this? Not quite.
Do I want to share the start with you anyway?
Abso-freaking-lutely.
Thanks for reading!
As soon as they had gotten Twilight tucked away in a castle bedroom as far away from the bustling as they could, Starlight and Trixie immediately returned to the train platform on the outskirts to help move the food supplies into the city. True to what he had said, Crystal Empire citizens all around the city were opening their homes to Ponyvillian refugees; all in all, only about 20 needed accommodations in the castle. With the smoking silhouette of Canterlot hours out of sight, everypony seemed to calm down a bit, as they felt a little safer up here.
Starlight feared they were anything but safe.
"Shining Armor, what are we going to do? They're not going to stop at Canterlot." Starlight asked worriedly, once they were in the castle, away from frightened refugee ears, storing the dry goods in a pantry in the kitchen.
"I know they're not. But rushing into something now could be dangerous. The one pony who can give us a ten-hour old update on the situation in Canterlot is out like a light. The best thing we can do for now is get this food sorted and counted, and make sure everypony down there is sheltered and fed."
The pair of unicorns heard a magical hissing sound, and stepped back several feet as a portal opened in the kitchen, and Starswirl stepped through.
"Starlight, I'm relieved to know you made it here safely." He said, carrying a small rolled sheet of black silk. "How's Twilight?" The mage asked.
"Resting in the east wing. I've never seen her so..."
"Drained?" Starswirl finished, with Starlight nodding sadly. "More than likely her magic has been stolen, along with that of Celestia, Luna, and Cadance. That would explain the sudden shifts in time of day. We'll have to wait until she wakes up so she can tell us what happened up there."
"She said her friends were... Gone. Along with the Princesses. She was the one who insisted we get as far away from Canterlot as possible." Starlight told him as she levitated more supplies over to Shining.
Starswirl stroked his beard sorrowfully.
"Truly a tragedy. I will have to alter my plans for these, then." He said, slowly unfurling the rolled silk he was carrying with him, revealing six different colored ornamental gems. A magenta six-pointed star, purple diamond, pink butterfly, orange apple, red lightning bolt, and a blue balloon.
"The Elements of Harmony? But, without those, the Everfree Forest would..." Starlight trailed off.
"Grow, expand, and envelop a town that is no longer populated. A regenerating supernatural force that close to Canterlot will hopefully distract the Storm King and his armies long enough without the need for us to sacrifice lives for time."
"Starswirl, sooner or later, we're going to have to organize some kind of retaliation, a resistance."
The conjurer looked at the stallion with an incredulous look of disbelief.
"Resistance? Across an entire continent? Under these conditions?"
"Are we supposed to just sit here and wait for them?"
"Prince Shining Armor, I'm afraid you may not appreciate or understand the timetable we are working with here. Do you think this conqueror up in Canterlot has any inkling of the magnitude of power he now holds? That he has the fortitude and foresight to properly cycle the sun and moon, day and night? We will not be able to grow food with unpredictable cycles such as this, and you want to talk of organized resistance when the time of day is no longer predictable? Your Highness, we are talking worldwide starvation within months, losses of life previously unheard of, if we do not put a stop to this, and soon."
Shining's eyes widened at the horrific realization, as did Starlight's.
"The moment Twilight has gotten enough rest, get her to the castle archives. We need to know what The Storm King has acquired, and if there is a way to stop it. In the meantime, I need an enchanting table."
"Lieutenant," Shining called to the guard on watch outside, who immediately entered.
"Yes, my prince?" The guard replied.
"Please take Starswirl to our armory. I believe he'll find our Arcane Enchanter there."
The guard nodded, and led Starswirl out into the halls. Starlight handed Shining one more bag of apples.
"I'll find Sunburst, and get a head start in the archives." She told him before likewise exiting to the castle corridors.
Twilight didn't suddenly awake with a gasp, bolting up in her bed. Instead, it felt as if a dark vale was slowly lifted from her body as the waking world returned, and she found herself in a bedroom that could only be in the Crystal Castle. She pushed herself up into a sitting position as she quickly recollected events of the past day. She recalled flying down to Ponyville, and bits and pieces of being helped to the train station, laying weakened on the train... And now this. They must have made it.
Her attention was drawn to the window as the mid-day sky switched to night, then day again, and she felt her determination harden.
She found apple slices and a glass of water on her nightstand, and quickly took two slices and gulped down the glass of water, ignoring the knot in her stomach. She wasn't going to be any help if she didn't keep it together. Getting up from the bed, she went to the door, and almost had to strain to push it open with her magic. The guard standing just outside turned to her.
"Princess, you're awake." He greeted.
"What's the situation, Captain?" She asked, seeing the insignia on his collar.
"Your train arrived four hours ago. If you're able, I've been instructed to take you to the castle archives." The stallion replied.
"Lead the way." Twilight answered, nodding.
As they made their way down the hall, Twilight didn't notice an increase in the amount of ponies.
"Do you know how many made it up from Ponyville?" She asked.
"Just around 200 ponies were able to get on the train, Your Highness. Our city has taken most of them into their homes, only about 20 needed rooms here in the castle, so for the most part, it's not a strain on castle operations."
The pair of ponies trotted to a pair of large doors, and stepped into the gargantuan three-story Archives Library of the Crystal Empire. Seconds later, Starlight came out from one of the aisles to drop off three books to the dozens already on the large center table, which were being pored over by Sunburst. She was just about to go back for more when she saw the princess at the doors.
"Twilight!" She exclaimed, galloping over to her. "Are you—"
"No. I'm not alright. But we have a job to do. He was told to bring me here." Twilight said, nodding to the guard, who gave a bow before leaving the library. "What do you need?" She asked the two unicorns as she and Starlight walked down to the center table.
"Any details on what the Storm King had to usurp the Princess' magic. Anything you might recall to help us narrow our search to learn what it is and how we might counter it." Sunburst told her as he adjusted his glasses.
"A... A staff. Black, obsidian maybe. Large gem of aetherium at the top. The magic was drained from Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and me, and absorbed directly into the staff. I think he even gave some of it to Tempest, his second-in-command, to restore her broken horn."
"Staff certainly narrows it down. If it's old enough, and our luck holds, we'll find something here. The Empire's archives used to be the biggest on the continent, before Canterlot became the capitol." Sunburst said, as he began to sort through and categorize the books he had collected on the table.
"I'm going check in on Starswirl and Shining, tell him you're awake. Are you gonna be alright?" Starlight asked the princess as she started to open the books that Sunburst was stacking.
"I don't know, Starlight. I'm holding it together for now, because that's the only way we're going to solve this." Twilight told her, before turning her attention completely to the first book. With that, Starlight turned and headed back out into the halls. She went up to the third floor, and ran into Shining Armor.
"Shining, there you are. Twilight's awake and in the library with Sunburst." Starlight told her as they entered the armory together.
"Is she alright?" Shining asked, as they approached Starswirl, who was focusing on a glowing enchanting table.
"I... I don't think so. She's focusing on helping Sunburst's research for now, but she's definitely holding it in." Starlight told him.
"Good," Starswirl interjected, turning from the table with a glowing rainbow orb in his hoof. "She is saving her emotions until she can use them." He finished.
Shining's expression tightened angrily.
"Starswirl, my sister is not a weapon of repressed rage that you can just point at the Storm King and hope everything works out!" He seethed.
"What would you have me do, Your Highness? She is the last Alicorn. If we are somehow able to find a way to reverse what the Storm King has done, reclaim the magic he has usurped, then she is the only one who can safely wield it. I believe Starlight is right; she is holding her grief in until she has something to release it at, which is exactly what I believe is needed. Did you not lose your wife at Canterlot? Yet here you are, being strong for your city and your daughter. I have nothing but sympathy; for you, for Twilight, for everypony who has and who will lose loved ones. If we survive, there will be a time for grieving..." He said, glancing down at the orb he held.
"...Just not now."
With the day and night cycles now being impossibly random, Twilight, Starlight, and Sunburst had to rely on the clock on the far wall of the archives to keep track of the time. They had been at this for three hours, and Shining had the kitchen staff bring them a small meal so they could keep at their research.
So far they had come up with nothing. At this rate they would be going over every inch of this library until the the Storm Fleet came over the horizon.
"I think I've found something!" Sunburst exclaimed, running out of a pair of shelves on the second floor, quickly coming down the stairs to where the other two were surrounded by open books.
"Have either of you two heard of Sacanas?" He asked, getting headshakes from the two mares. "He was a powerful mage from Equestria's First Era, one of the first to start experimenting with the magical properties of aetherium."
"So, we're talking pretty ancient here." Starlight remarked. Sunburst nodded.
"He helped a mage known as Gusty the Great overthrow a creature called Grogar, the first self-proclaimed emperor in this continent's recorded history. And he used... This." Sunburst said, turning the page, and setting it down on the table in front of Twilight. "Look familiar?"
The princess placed her front hooves on both sides of the open book, and stared down at the illustration of the crystallized wooden staff she last saw in the Storm King's grasp.
"That's it, alright. The Staff of Sacanas?" She asked, picking up the book to look in more detail.
"It's an absorption staff. According to lore, it was how he was able to put Gusty on equal ground with Grogar. Sacanas, along with three of the most powerful unicorns at the time sacrificed their magic to Gusty in a ritual to give her the power to face Grogar. But the staff can only draw magic through veins of aetherium to store and focus in the gem on top." Sunburst stated.
"The marble floor of the throne room is laced with aetherium dust. That's how they made it work." Twilight realized.
"Wait," Starlight interjected. "You said they needed the staff to put this 'Gusty' on equal footing with Grogar. Mind telling us what he had?"
Twilight's eyes widened, and she immediately shoved the book on Sacanas to the side while she started rapidly flipping through one of the books she had already gone through. She was sure she had passed an entry on a 'Grogar' about an hour ago.
"This." She said, stopping two-thirds through the book and sliding it towards Starlight and Sunburst, who looked at the entry showing an engraved and cracked green bell.
"The Bewitching Bell of Grogar?" Sunbrust asked as he read the page.
"It's essentially the same; magic absorption and bestowal. The caveat is, if it captures more than one source, it can only come out in the same order, but it doesn't need aetherium. Just proximity." Twilight told him.
"Great. So where's this bell?" Sunburst asked, putting the open book down on the table.
"Mount Everhoof." Came the voice of Starswirl as he came into the library, having overheard the last part of their conversation. "Equestria's tallest and most northerly mountain, before the Sea of Shadows begins. Even in my time, the final stretch of the pass up to the top was continually guarded. Publicly, it was to dissuade travelers from going any higher because of the treacherous conditions. But in actuality, it was to protect the cave at the top, where the Bell was kept."
"That's actually pretty close. Maybe our luck is holding." Starlight said.
"I remember Shining telling me that although it seemed mundane, being posted for a year at the Mount Everhoof pass was one of the most challenging and honorable assignments an E.U.P. guard could get." Twilight said.
"Close or not, scaling the mountain will be perilous. The E.U.P. post merely watches the path; gaining entrance to the cave is another matter entirely. If this is the path you believe we should take, say the word, and we shall prepare trekking packs for you." Starswirl said.
"I haven't found anything else that could possibly counter the Staff of Sacanas. This sounds like our best choice." Sunburst said.
"Right. When do we leave?" Starlight added.
"We?" Twilight asked.
"You honestly think that rested or not, you'll be able to scale that pass and get into the cave alone? You don't have your alicorn magic, you're gonna need help." Starlight told her.
"Count me in too. Whatever keeps that cave sealed, I might know something about how to get through it." Sunburst added.
"I'll talk to Prince Shining about getting you a royal seal to pass the E.U.P. post. After that, I fear you are on your own. For now, all three of you get fed and rested up. I'll see about getting your gear situated."
First thing the next 'morning', Twilight, Starlight, and Sunburst stood on the northern outskirts of the Crystal Empire, looking out at the arctic tundra that quickly rose to the Yaket Range, with the peak of Everhoof piercing well above the clouds. Luckily, southern lookouts had not spotted anything on the horizon.
Starswirl stood with Shining and a small contingent of honor guard. The three unicorns had been outfitted with the best enchanted arctic hiking gear; appearing as little more than simple cloaks that would keep them warm, and the smallest packs that could store tents and as much of the lightest, most sustaining foods the Empire had access to. They weren't experienced hikers that could carry the heavier loads, so this was the best that they could do. Hopefully, it would be enough.
"Are you three truly ready?" Starswirl asked them, stepping up to them from behind. The trio turned, and all gave nods.
"If the worst happens, we will hold out as long as we can. The realm has been to the brink of collapse before, and it has endured. We will endure again. I dub you three the Vanguard of Harmony; our last gambit in a losing battle."
He walked up to the orange stallion.
"Sunburst, you are the Wisdom; the collected knowledge passed down for generations that will you see you to your goal."
The conjurer stepped down to the heliotrope mare.
"Starlight, you are the Shield; persistent, the impervious barrier beneath which your allies survive and prosper."
Finally, he stepped to the lavender alicorn, and reached into his cloak, and came out with the glowing rainbow orb.
"And Princess Twilight..." He began, pressing the orb to her barrel, and it's rigid shape quickly softened as the glow increased and spread to her front legs and wings, and within seconds, her front half was enveloped in magnificent, multicolored glass armor, adorned with the six gems of Harmony. She looked down at it astonishingly.
"...You are the Sword. Razor sharp. Tempered. Driven to carve out the darkness that has befallen our home. That armor will augment the magic you have left, and will only grow stronger if you are able to gain any of what was taken from you. You three are our last hope."
He stepped back, and as Shining and the Crystal Honor Guard saluted, the Pillar of Equestria bowed down to the trio.
"Godspeed to each of you."
After the trio gave them the most sincere, determined, but uncertain smiles they could, they turned and began to trot into the blowing snow that marked the farthest borders of the Crystal Empire. As they became silhouettes against the snowfall, Shining Armor turned to Starswirl.
"You think she'll be able to do it with their help?" He asked.
"I honestly fear for either outcome." Starswirl replied thoughtfully.
"How do you mean?" The Crystal Prince wondered, as the Pillar continued staring out into the wind as the Vanguard vanished into the distance.
"If she fails, it is only a matter of time before we are all dead or enslaved. If she succeeds... Hatred and vengeance stoke heated, neigh unstoppable blazes... But when that fuel runs out, and run out it will, I fear that she will look behind her, and realize what she had to become in order to achieve victory."
If it wasn't for the enchanted and hooded cloak she now wore, Twilight didn't want to think about how cold she'd be. They hadn't even reached the E.U.P. post yet and already she could see her breath through the scarf she had wrapped around her muzzle. They were on the second day of their journey, and the tundra had given way to forests, and finally the ascent had begun.
With the chest plate that the Elements had been reforged to form, Twilight had felt her magic return to what it had been when she had first moved to Ponyville. That meant that if there were any problems of a magical nature, she would need Starlight's sheer ability, and Sunburst's incredible retention of information. In fact, until they were able to actually retrieve this bell, she couldn't see herself being of much use.
Around the next bend, they spotted a rustic stone and log cabin. Smoke was currently coming from the chimney. Off to the left, the path became much steeper and rockier.
"Who goes there?" Came a voice as soon as the door to the cabin opened. An E.U.P. honor guard unicorn in winter gear walked out into the snow. He got his question answered without a word as Twilight lowered her hood and scarf.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle, your highness." He said, bowing for a moment. "What are you doing all the way up here?" He asked.
Twilight reached into her pack, and came out with a medallion wrapped in cloth.
"By royal decree, my companions and I must pass and get to the top."
The guard carefully unwrapped the cloth, and inspected the crest, and deemed it to be genuine.
"I trust you know what's up there?" The guard asked, returning the crest to the cloth and then to the princess, who nodded.
"Do you know anything about getting into the cave at the top?" Starlight asked.
"Just that it's some of the oldest magic on the continent. I can't guarantee your safety if you pass, either. The cave is only inspected once a year by some of the most experienced EU.P. expeditionary teams when a new guard is assigned. But as far as I know, this barrier was never meant to be penetrated. The relic is extremely dangerous."
"Sir, I'm afraid we've got a crisis down there that is just as dangerous, if not moreso. It's understandable that an assignment like this doesn't get you the most expedient updates, so I need you to listen very carefully; if we don't come back down, you have my expressed permission to abandon your post, and head down to the Crystal Empire, because it's likely your post won't be resupplied."
"U... Understood, Your Highness. The only piece of advice I can give you is, don't leave the ground. The wind is so frigid that you'll be thrown off balance before you know what hit you."
With the crest safely tucked away, she turned to Starlight and Sunburst.
"Ready?" She asked, and got nods from both of them.
With a farewell bow from the guard, they began into the much deeper snow on the continued ascent.
"Ponies of Bostrot!" The raspy voice shouted out through the loudspeaker of the airship, one of four maintaining position over Bostrot Harbor, their broadside cannons brought to bear on the cityscape.
"Since you have refused our generous taxation on your city, and opted to dump the contents of your treasury into the harbor, the Storm King has taken your actions as blatant resistance. Your mayor has one hour to formally surrender himself into the custody of the Storm Corps... Or things become difficult."
With that, Grubber stepped away from the loudspeaker and looked down at the coastal city on Equestria's east side. A few moments passed, and they heard thwaps and thwangs; taught ropes being released from their tension, and saw blazing bottles being hurled towards their airships; crude homemade fire bombs.
"Prohibere!" Shouted a voice behind him. The armored unicorn mare's aetherium horn lit up to a brilliant purple, and all the burning bottles slowed and froze in place. She slowly walked to the edge of the ship's deck, and glanced at the catapults that had been set up on the rooftops of many of the tallest buildings, even making eye contact with some of the ponies surrounding them.
"I was hoping you'd choose 'difficult...' She said with a smile.
"Trajectorium contrarium!"
As if they had hit elastic nets, the bottles' arcs were suddenly reversed, and returned exactly to their launchers, sending the resisting ponies on the rooftops scrambling for cover as flames burst out from their impact points, with one unfortunate soul rolling off the roof, screaming and falling to the street hundreds of feet below in his desperation to not be set ablaze.
"Tsk tsk tsk. Well if that's how they're going to use their tallest structures, I think they have to lose them." Tempest said.
"Orders, Commander?" Grubber asked.
"Fire at will. Nothing over five stories left standing."
Sunburst, Starlight, and Twilight stood at a chasm that separated them and the final 100 ascent to the summit.
"What do you think? A conjured bridge, or teleporting over there?" Twilight asked the two unicorns next to her.
"Teleporting three ponies would be safer, but it would take more energy, and we may need to save it for the cave." Starlight replied.
The trio did their best to judge the length of the gap, and looked at each other.
"Bridge it is. We'll cross as fast as we can." Twilight said, and her companions nodded in agreement. Starlight's horn lit up, and after a few moments of concentration, a bridge of hard light started on their end of the chasm and traversed the gap to the other side, complete with railings. At once, they began at a trot, but had to slow down and grip the railings for support, as the wind across the chasm was the strongest they had faced so far. Once all three of them were across, Starlight stopped casting, and took a deep breath.
"Great job, Starlight." Sunburst said, as Twilight looked up at how much farther they had to go. It looked to be only another 20 feet higher, with hardened, frozen snow on the navigable path. Helping each other keep their footing, they walked up the last hill, and laid eyes on a cave that bored into the peak of Mount Everhoof. On either side were boulders with glowing blue-white patterns. Sunburst cautiously approached one, as Starlight tossed a pebble at the entrance to the cave, witnessing it bounce off against a magical barrier.
"By the moon..." Sunburst began, amazement filling his voice. "This is aetherium... Raw, unrefined aetherium! How did they...? I mean, if they found a way to power this barrier with the purest aetherial energy... Why, these boulders could power this barrier forever!"
"So, can we just move them?" Starlight asked, stepping up to her friend.
"I wouldn't recommend it. Raw aetherium is highly unstable. If those are even nudged in the wrong way, we could be knocked off the edge. No..." Sunburst said, studying the runes that ran the length of the boulders. "It's an incantation. That's what's using the boulders to power the barrier. We need another incantation to nullify it." Sunburst told her.
Starlight took on a look of nervousness.
"I've done only one incantation in my life, and that was to power the cutie mark vault."
"And I'm sure you've gotten stronger since then." Sunburst reassured her.
"You don't understand. I had to try that incantation three times before I got it right, and that was a cave wall of malachite that just gave me a headache for each failure. This is raw aetherium. If I don't get it right the first time... Guys, we could be blown off the mountain... You know, 'boom'? And that's if there any pieces left to be blown off." Starlight warned worriedly.
"Starlight..." Twilight said, coming up to her. "If we don't get that bell, and stop what's happening down there, I think being blown to smithereens or plummeting thousands of feet isn't the worst way to go."
"She's right, Starlight. We've come this far." Sunburst agreed.
Taking their encouraging looks to heart, Starlight took a deep breath, knowing that this one shot was going to have to come from where her strongest magic always did; her inner feelings and emotions. She set her pack down on the ground, and lowered her hood as she sat in front of the barrier and began to meditate, gently reminding herself that Twilight had not been the only one to lose friends in Canterlot. After a minute, her horn began to glow, and she spoke.
"Aeternum vos emineo ut servo id reliquia. Quod adflictio id queo finis. Aperio quod via Sic quod mundud esset vivet."
As purple glowing motes of light began to float out of Starlight's horn towards the barrier, Sunburst was impressed; she must have started doing some serious reading up on her Old Ponish since his last visit to Ponyville. What she had essentially said to the barrier was 'Forever you stand to protect this relic; it can stop the suffering down below. Open the way, so the world might live.'
Poetic, and yet, explained their situation quite literally.
When the last mote of light made contact with the barrier, Starlight fell back into the snow, the completed incantation leaving her a bit winded. Twilight and Sunburst came up to her, and all three pairs of eyes watched the barrier. Either the incantation would fail entirely and nothing would happen, the barrier would diminish, or the raw aetherium would react and most likely atomize the peak and everything on it.
They held their breath, and waited.
After what felt like minutes, the shimmering barrier blocking the front of the cave melted away into the snow, and the patterns on the boulders faded away. Starlight let out a breath of relief as she dropped her head to the ground, and Twilight ran into the cave. By the time Starlight had caught her breath and got to her hooves, Twilight came out of the cave, with the ancient bell in her grasp.
"We did it..." Starlight said, managing a small smile.
"Not yet we didn't." Twilight replied, looking out to the horizon, which was now more than 200 miles away. The Crystal Castle was a speck on the landscape below.
"So what now? To Canterlot?" Sunburst asked.
"No, not yet." Twilight said.
"Twilight, we aren't exactly long on time." Starlight argued.
"I know, but at the same time, we only have one shot at this. We need an edge. And I think I know who can help."
Grubber found himself running for his life on the forest floor as the two dozen airships scattered barely three hundred feet overhead collided with one another. Explosions within the hulls and the shrieking and creaking of metal as they descended towards the supernatural forest overtook all of the other sounds in the area. Panicking Storm Guards jumped overboard, and if they weren't killed by the long fall, they were almost immediately overtaken by the ever-expanding branches and vines that they had been trying to beat back for nearly a week now.
As his mind started to panic, as he was well inside where the forest had originally been, never mind how far out it had expanded into the hills and prairie, he kept wondering what had gone wrong. The entire fleet had been holding a steady formation as they were dropping firebombs onto the forest, when suddenly the helms of all of them stopped responding, and they began to bunch up on each other. As he was scrambling to take the nearest rope down to the ground, he could have sworn he saw a red glow around each vessel.
As he ran as fast as his stubby legs would carry him, he didn't quite clear a tree root that was protruding out of the ground, and he fell face first into the dirt. He pushed himself up, and looked above. He thought he saw a flying purple pony high overhead in the precious seconds before the descending airship blocked his entire view of the sky. Knowing it was impossible to get out of the way in time, the last thought to go through his head was how daft they had been to come here, to a land with magic they couldn't possibly understand or control.
The last airship crashed into the forest, and the wood and vines began to claim the wrecks immediately.
Tempest Shadow slowly made her way down the mossy forest path. How little it had changed over the years made it feel like a dream. The wind rustling leaves and gently knocking branches together were the only sounds accompanying her hoofsteps; each one she took steeled her resolve further.
Her frustrations only grew over the last two weeks as more and more of her detachment had been recalled to the hills southwest of Canterlot to combat some supernatural threat they had not anticipated. She had decided that if she wasn't going to be given the resources to carry out her task, then she was going to send them all back, and go off alone to take care of something... Personal.
The ambient lighting grew dimmer as the forest became more dense, the canopy thicker. Fifty feet ahead, there was a clearing. She found it a bit unsettling how similar it was to her constant nightmares; this same forest, this same path... This same cave.
Regardless of how she had grown in the years since, it was still bigger than she remembered, the yawning mouth still looking like it was ready to swallow her whole. The majority of planks, boards and warning signs had long rotted away, and the inside of the cave faded to pitch black less than 20 feet in.
Tempest stepped into the clearing, and snarled, charging up her horn, and firing a blast of energy into the maw of the cave. It vanished into the darkness, and a few moments later, there was a dull explosion, as the ground around the cave rumbled for several seconds, before returning to the near silence from before.
Until the ground rumbled again. Tempest remained firmly planted where she was as she heard a roar echo out from inside the cave, and saw a purple glow begin to appear. There was another roar as a leviathan purple translucent bear came out of the cave in an aggressive stance. An ursa major.
"Remember me?" Tempest asked, leering up at him, her aetherium horn glowing intensely. "You took something from me a long time ago..."
Twilight glided over dense forests that were nestled in the Foal Mountains east of Canterlot, following the trail of her residual magic. She had obviously been aboard an airship for the vast majority of it, due in no small part to the sheer destruction she had witnessed following the magic trail down the east coast of Equestria. Cities that had been partially leveled and under siege. Equestria would be rebuilding for years when this was all over.
Finally, the trail descended into a small clearing in the forest; a small village about a quarter the size of Ponyville. She was beginning to wonder how far this trail would take her; if she had stopped here, the was likely long gone; absolutely no Stormships were on the horizon. But this was the only lead she had, so she descended to the center of the village, and she couldn't keep her mouth closed as she looked around at the surroundings she had landed in.
It was a massacre. Nearly every building had signs of battle. Columns of smoke rose from several of them as fires had broken out. But what shook her the most were the bodies. There were at least a dozen of them. Twilight galloped over to the closest one, an earth pony mare, and saw the bloody marks where she had been hit with attack spells. She placed a hoof on the mare's chest, and felt warmth. Her eyes widened.
This had just happened. She looked around, and saw that most of the dead had been shot trying to get into cover behind and inside buildings.
She heard a wet cough, whipped her head around, and saw a, older stallion curled up on the ground across the street, clutching his stomach. She ran over to him.
"Sir..." She started, but saw his gut wound, and the pool of blood under him. His eyes were pinpricks as he shivered. No healing spell would reverse this. He had mere moments left.
"Where is she?" She asked, cradling his head as blood trickled from his mouth.
"F... F-F-... Fizzlep-pop..." He choked out, barely pointing a hoof down the forest path to the north, before it fell to the ground, and he gave up the ghost.
She laid his head back on the bloodied ground as gently as she could, her horn crackling with red energy, hearing distant blasts of magic in the forest.
This ended now.
Tempest stood in front of the ursa major corpse, taking long, deep breaths, her aetherium horn cracking with purple arcs of lightning. She took another breath, closing her eyes. She had finally done it. She had made herself stronger, and stood victorious over everything that had weakened her as a filly.
But what was it all worth, in the end?
Her ear twitched, and she dove and rolled to the left, a split second before a magic blast hit the ground where she had just stood. She whipped around, and saw Twilight Sparkle galloping down the forest path toward her, as she fired another three consecutive blasts. Tempest flipped out of the way of all three, and leaped into the air, grabbing her last obsidian orb, and kicked it towards Twilight before she fell back towards the ground. The orb detonated directly in front of her, and the Princess of Friendship disappeared behind the cloud of green gas.
Tempest let out a breath of relief, and began to turn away.
"That trick's getting old..." Twilight's voice taunted, making the unicorn whip back around as the purple alicorn emerged from the cloud unharmed, and the gas began to collect and swirl around her. "You need a new one."
Tempest's confidence faltered considerably, taking a step back when she saw the shimmering shield that the glass armor around the Princess' chest had generated, and her horn was glowing with a violent and pulsing red hue.
Suddenly, the gas, having been collected and concentrated in a magic field, was thrust forward at Tempest, who jumped up and to the left, and the crystallizing agent took the ursa corpse instead. Tempest rolled to her hooves and fired off a burst of energy blasts. Rather than evade them, Twilight revealed a dark green bell, which reacted to her shots and seemed to absorb them. Not letting her stay comfortable in one place for long, Twilight retaliated with another four blasts, the last of which tripped the unicorn up a bit. Catching her balance, Tempest knew that whatever Twilight had done, winning this fight on magic alone wasn't going to be possible. Dodging another two shots, she jumped in closer, halving the distance between them, and she bent down into a sweeping kick, forcing Twilight to jump back, putting her on the defensive with the physical prowess she had honed over the years. With the Princess forced into either blocking or evading physical attacks, she had almost no time to fire off more spells. Moments later, Twilight tried to throw her off balance again with physical blows of her own.
The alicorn jumped forward and rotated on her front legs, spinning one hundred and eighty degrees and bucking Tempest in the side, knocking her off balance. Tempest leaned into the blow, and came all the way around and connected a right hook to Twilight's jaw. As Twilight brought her head back around, Tempest was ready, and the aetherium tip of her artificial horn connected with her cheek, forcing the Princess to jump back, yelping in pain, discovering that blood had been drawn.
Twilight jumped forward again, and faked a left lunge and dipped right, using her wings to dash forward unexpectedly, and threw forward with a right hook towards her head. She anticipated the dodge that Tempest pulled, and now in close range, she lit up her horn and gave her a paralyzing jolt right to the chest that the unicorn couldn't block in time. Using the precious few seconds she had, she lunged forward again, Bewitching Bell in hoof, and slammed it down on top of Tempest's horn.
"Ahhgh!!!" Tempest yelled, defiantly shoving Twilight away, but the connection had been made, and she felt the magic that had surged into her weeks earlier get sucked of her, leaving her lightheaded.
"Murderer!!!" Twilight yelled, as she charged forward and landed a direct punch to her face, followed through by grabbing her neck, and threw her into the crystallized ursa corpse. Hitting the obsidian with her back knocked the wind out of her, and she fell to the dirt, coughing. The instant she looked up, Twilight jumped forward and brought the bell down, slamming it into the side of her face. The unicorn cried out, and barely took a breath as another blow came, this time with a bare hoof. Twilight put all of her weight on her, held the bell with her magic, put one front hoof on her neck, and used her other to come down again and again with punch after punch.
"You! Fucking! Monster! Murderer!!!"
Her fifth punch connected with the aetherium portion of her horn, and she heard a satisfying crack as Tempest wailed in pain. She reared back and connected again. Another crack, a louder cry. Twilight took a deep breath and gave an enraged shout as she came down again, and there was a shattering sound as Tempest screamed in agony. The alicorn brought her front hoof back again, and saw what she had done. She immediately brought the bell down on the curved shard of aetherium in the dirt, and it glowed bright as it absorbed the last of the magic that was taken from her.
She got off of the weakened unicorn and stood up, holding the bell to her horn, and felt a rush of energy as the most familiar magic - her magic - flowed back into her. The transfer complete, she let out the breath she was holding, lowered the bell, and glared down at the unicorn who was weeping in pain in the dirt in front of her.
Tempest, her chest heaving, her broken horn weakly sparking, risked blinking, and tears spilled from her eyes as she made eye contact with the Princess.
"M... M-Mercy..." The unicorn choked out, tasting blood on her lips, as Twilight began to pace around her as she laid in the dirt.
"Like the mercy you showed Bostrot? Manehattan? The ponies of that village?" Twilight asked menacingly, pointing a hoof back down the path as Tempest looked at her fearfully. Getting no answers, she bent down to the unicorn mare's left ear.
"Like the mercy you showed the Princesses, and my friends...?" The alicorn whispered, her voice shaking, tears beginning to fall from her eyes.
Tempest felt magic wrap tightly around her throat, nearly cutting off her air supply as her quivering, trembling body was lifted up in a telekinetic chokehold, bringing her face-to-face with the inconsolable alicorn.
"LIKE THE MERCY YOU SHOWED MY FRIENDS?!?!?" Twilight screamed hysterically inches from her muzzle, the tears on the left side tinting red after reaching the cut on her cheek.
Tempest's eyes began to roll back into her head from the lack of oxygen as she took a wheezing breath.
"After everything you have done, Tempest Shadow, this is a mercy ."
The next thing Tempest saw was an intense red glow from the alicorn's horn. Her chest heaving, Twilight let loose the surge of magic, hitting her near point-blank, smashing her through the crystallized ursa major corpse and sending her careening end over end into the cave. She rolled violently into a stalagmite, and coughed up blood, and unable to stand, tried to weakly lift her head to look how far she had been thrown.
There, next to an adjacent stalagmite, she saw a deflated, rotted yellow rubber ball, next to a small cone-shaped bone; the tip of a unicorn's horn. Her eyes were glued to the two items, and she vainly reached for them, as blood dripped from her mouth. She continued reaching with her outstretched hoof, ignoring the increasing brightness from the entrance, as well as the rush of frigid air that rushed through the cave.
Her horn glowing intensely, Twilight used all of her combined magic to reach across Equestria, opened a portal to the highest peak on the continent, pulled the boulder of pure aetherium through to her side, and flung it as hard as she could into the cave as she screamed and cried in a rage.
The boulder hit and scraped the ground, and a bright blue glow broke through the cracks as it smashed into the prone Tempest, a mere moment before the entire cave disappeared behind a deafening explosion of blinding white light.
Twilight felt a searing heat all around her body as she felt herself leave the ground and get hurled backwards. She wasn't sure what had stopped her trip backwards, nor what had broke her fall. She couldn't see, her ears were ringing, and she could barely feel the ground she had landed on.
With every sense overloaded, her brain made the not-so-calculated decision to black out.
She opened her eyes to an endless white expanse. She leaned up, and saw Spike, Pinkie, Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Celestia, Luna, and Candance looking down at her, smiling.
But as she reached out for each of them, they faded into the white nothingness.
"Twilight?" She heard a muffled voice call out to her.
Tears running down her face, she reached out to Spike and Celestia last of all, and they too faded from view.
"Twilight?" The voice asked, clearer this time.
With nopony around her anymore, she laid back down, closing her eyes, wondering if this was the end, or what was to come next. She felt a hoof on her chest, and the white faded into blurry sky and trees. Taking a breath, she reached up to the hoof that had touched her, and was able to grasp it.
"Twilight?" She heard perfectly clearly now.
"S... Starlight?" She asked, letting her head roll to the right, seeing the unicorn that had knelt down next to her.
"We saw and felt that explosion in Canterlot, about two hours ago. Are you alright?" Starlight asked.
Twilight took another breath as she slowly rolled over, and shakily got to her hooves, looking around.
The aetherial blast wave had knocked her and the Bewitching Bell more than three hundred feet down the path, and where she landed marked the radius where the forest still had some green, and everything else closer to the cave, which had either been disintegrated or were leaning after having their roots half blown out of the ground. Bits and pieces of limestone were everywhere.
She began to limp back down the path, Starlight at her side, and she realized how sore she felt. She had cuts and scrapes all over where the armor hadn't covered her coat, and her mouth went dry when she saw what she had done.
The clearing in front of the cave had more than tripled in size, and there was no longer a 'cave' to speak of, as the entire southeast face of the mountain had imploded and collapsed.
She trembled, took a deep wheezing breath, and fell to her knees as she broke into uncontrollable sobs. Starlight leaned down and the alicorn immediately clung to her for dear life as she wailed.
"They're gone..." She choked out into the mare's heliotrope coat. "They're gone and they're not coming back..."
It was supposed to be home, but it felt like the farthest thing from.
Twilight and Starswirl, accompanied by a small detachment of four Canterlot E.U.P. guards, silently made their way through the empty halls of the Castle of Friendship, branches and leaves crunching underneath their every step. It looked like an ancient jungle ruin more than anything else. Roots and branches had encroached on everything, as if it had spent centuries abandoned. But since she had returned the armor containing the Elements of Harmony to the Tree underneath the Castle of the Two Sisters, they had nothing to fear from the growth, and it could be cleared away with time.
There was quite an awful lot of things around the nation that would take time to deal with right now.
Her Castle of Friendship was one of the only structurally sound buildings remaining in Ponyville. The Everfree Forest had taken its toll on the town in the weeks it was left abandoned. It was heart-wrenching to see the town like this, but there wasn't a doubt in her mind that Starswirl unleashing the Everfree Forest and making the Storm King respond in a panic with his fleet, saved countless lives. Before she returned to Ponyville with Starswirl, she sent messengers out from Canterlot to spread the word of their hard-fought victory, and that help would be on the way to those that needed it.
Stepping up to the throne room doors, the six ponies pushed together, breaking the vines and slowly opened their way. There, Twilight stood and saw the Cutie Map, and how it was the only thing in the room that the Everfree growth had not touched. The seven thrones had been wrapped and entwined. She had to swallow to keep her emotions from bubbling over when she looked at the six thrones that wouldn't be sat in again. The last time she was in this room, they were all together just before the Friendship Festival.
She and Starswirl slowly walked around the table to the head, to her throne, and lit her horn up, burning away the vines that had overtaken it, and sat down. She fired a single beam of magic at the center of the table, and it flickered to life, the hologram of Equestria and beyond hovering millimeters above the crystal surface.
The alicorn's eyes scanned the map, surveying the clearest picture they would ever get of the destruction the Storm Fleet had caused. Bostrot. Haliflanks. Manehattan. Fillydelphia. Counting the dead would take weeks. Rebuilding would take years.
Thankfully, the northeast coast was where Tempest's rampage had been largely contained; with the Storm King panicking and desperate to hold his prize of Canterlot, and recalling nearly his entire fleet to attempt to burn back the Everfree Forest.
"Well," Twilight began, her quiet, sullen voice easily carrying to the other side of the room. "I think we can clearly see which areas need help the most."
"Your Majesty," The corporal of the E.U.P. squad began. "May I ask when you're planning on returning to Canterlot?"
Twilight's eyes rose from the map to meet the corporal's gaze.
"Who says I'm returning?" She asked, half-annoyed that he would make such an assumption.
"You're the last remaining alicorn princess, and Canterlot has been Equestria's throne for generations."
"Corporal, we've all been through a lot. But please don't assume where I will choose to rule from. If you think my reign will be from where my best friends and mentors were murdered, you are sorely mistaken."
The response had clearly flustered the guard.
"M-My apologies, Princess. I meant no offense."
"Rebuilding efforts in Canterlot are to be prioritized to homes, farms, and businesses. The only thing palace engineers are to do is ensure that roof isn't in danger of collapsing further. Other than that, the throne room is not to be touched for the time being, do I make myself clear?"
"Perfectly, Your Majesty." He replied immediately.
"Leave us, Corporal." She concluded.
The stallion gave a crisp salute, and turned and filed out with his squad, leaving the throne room to Starswirl and Twilight, who let out a sigh and slumped back in her throne.
The conjurer was being patient with the Princess of Friendship as best he could; he could tell that she had started to grieve, probably the moment she had finished Tempest off in the Foal Mountains. The only piece of good news she had received in the last couple days was that her mother and father were found unharmed in Canterlot.
"You think looking at these empty thrones is any worse than Celestia looking up at her sister in the moon every night for a millennium?" She asked Starswirl.
"I think that's a question only you can answer, Twilight." He replied.
"I never got the opportunity to ask her how she did it. How she made it through day after day after what she was forced to do to her own sister. Did she view herself as a monster?"
"I'm sure she didn't. She wasn't acting for her sake, but for the sake of everypony that counted on her and her sister. Just like you did what you did for everypony that has been counting on you."
"The last thing I said to them was how I'd be better off without them." The Princess confessed.
"They knew how you truly felt. That's why they came there to help you. Even best friends make mistakes sometimes." The Pillar told her as tears began to silently fall from her eyes.
"The way Tempest looked at me... The way she trembled, the pure, abject fear in her eyes as I stood over her... It was one of the most satisfying things I have ever seen in my life. And yet, at the same time..." Twilight paused, feeling a painful knot in her stomach. "...I never want to make anypony look at me like that ever again." Twilight confessed as she started to cry.
"Twilight..." Starswirl began as he pulled the weeping mare into a warm embrace. "It was never going to be enough. No matter how quickly or slowly you brought them to their ends, no matter how painful you made it... None of it would have lessened the losses you have suffered. The only thing that helps with healing is time, and sometimes not even then. You are a pony, nothing more. It doesn't matter if your magic can barely turn a page in a book, or if you can manipulate the cosmos with a fleeting thought, you are still an imperfect pony with hopes and dreams and fears just like all the rest of us, and you used them to save what we all had left. Nopony can possibly ask any more of you, not even yourself."
Twilight stood on the path in front of her castle, listening to the approaching train from the Crystal Empire. Three days had passed since she and Starswirl had returned to town, and now she felt the time had come to ask for volunteers to return and help rebuild. Shining had gotten their message, and said they'd be departing very early this morning, with instructions to come to the castle when they arrived, but he hadn't exactly mentioned how many were coming back. She supposed she expected them to start trickling in slowly from each direction, but what she saw come around the corner made her heart creep up to her throat.
Marching a dozen ponies wide, with Mayor Mare front and center, was a block of easily 200 ponies coming down the main road. The front row was holding large parade flags; Equestria's National Flag, Ponyville's flag from the Equestria Games, and what caused her tears to spill over, flags embroidered with the cutie marks of the Elements of Harmony, the three Princesses, and even one patterned for Spike. Though they marched through the dilapidation of their homes, their faces were determined and proud as the approached the Princess of Friendship standing in front of her castle.
"Ponyville, halt!" Mayor Mare commanded, grand-marshal-style. "Where do we start, Princess?" She asked, holding the Equestrian flag proudly.
Twilight took a deep breath and smiled at all of them as her tears continued.
"I..." She paused, sniffling, taking a step towards them. "I don't even know where to begin. This town opened me up to the incredible magic that friendship is. I know a lot of us have lost cherished loved ones, and even more of us still are waiting to hear from distant friends and relatives. I know that there are quite a few ponies who are wanting me, expecting me to take my place in Canterlot, but Ponyville helped in so many amazing ways to make me the leader Equestria needs me to be today, and that is a decision I won't even approach until this town is back on its feet. I know... I know that's what my... My friends would have... would have..."
Twilight couldn't find the will to finish her speech as she broke down in front of the crowd, and Mayor Mare firmly staked her flag in the ground, and without a word, came forward and embraced the princess, followed immediately by another, then two more, then three. When the grieving mare was completely surrounded, another layer was started behind that one. It quickly became a group hug two hundred ponies strong, as the twelve flags blew prominently in the morning breeze.
Shining Armor, Sunburst, and Starlight made their way up the steps of the Castle of Friendship, which was looking better and better with each passing day. When Twilight had sent word that the tracks had been cleared of the Everfree growth and repaired, Shining called for volunteer Ponyvillians to return and begin the rebuilding process, after they had abandoned their homes for nearly a month. He was taken aback when not a single one chose to remain in the Crystal Empire. He decided to stay for a few days with Flurry and help set up a considerable encampment behind the castle, as nearly all of the structures in Ponyville weren't safe to inhabit. Word quickly reached Canterlot, and the surviving Ponyvillians from the Friendship Festival immediately made their way down the mountain to help, bringing nearly the entire surviving population together again. With nearly one thousand volunteers ready and able to help with repairing, tearing down, and rebuilding, Shining was ready to put bits down on Ponyville looking as good as new within a year; sadly the same couldn't be said of metropolises like Manehattan and Fillydelphia. But the important thing to remember was that healing was happening across the nation. He was relieved when he heard that his mom and dad were both confirmed safe in Canterlot a week ago.
He knew his little sister was trying her best to put on a brave face for her subjects, but she was still grieving for what she had lost in the attack on Canterlot. It was a hard road, but he hoped it was one she would one day reach the end of.
For now, he was wondering why she had specifically asked to see him, Sunburst, and Starlight, who had been called down from overseeing recovery efforts in Canterlot. When they stepped through the front doors into the main foyer, they saw how improved everything was, with dozens of ponies currently in line for lunch in the dining room; cooking in firepits out in the camp was no longer a necessity once they got the kitchen equipment back up and running in here.
After heading up the stairs, they turned and went down the hall to the throne room, which had been remarkably improved as well. There at her throne, sat Twilight, and in front of her on the table, rested the Bewitching Bell of Grogar, the notches and patterns of it glowing a bright yellow against the dark green surface.
"Hey there, Twiley." Shining greeted, and she looked up from her current paperwork and gave them all a weak smile.
"It's nice to see you all again. Thank you for coming."
"What can we do for you, Twilight?" Starlight asked, as they stood on the opposite side of the table, facing her.
Twilight took a deep breath, then looked at each of them before speaking.
"What I am about to ask each of you, is entirely your own choice. And this is probably the most important question I will ask any of you in my life."
She paused, and motioned to the Bewitching Bell.
"This is entirely too much power for one pony. I did what I had to in order to bring the conflict to a quick and decisive end before we lost even more innocent lives, and it shook me to my core, especially when I blew up half a mountain in anger. I will keep it if I am absolutely forced to, but you are the closest family and friends I have left."
She slowly stood up from her throne, looking each of them in the eye.
"Will you let me share this magic with you? Will you help me take up their mantle? Sunburst, you are wise beyond your years, and your knowledge brought us a beacon of hope when we had little else going for us. Will you take the responsibility of Prince of the Sun?"
The stallion's eyes widened, speechless at the offer, but he gave a determined nod.
"Starlight, you are one of my greatest successes, and dearest friends. You helped me and saved me in my hour of need. Will you watch over the ponies of Equestria as they dream, and become Princess of the Night?"
Swallowing her tears before they spilled over, Starlight nodded.
"I would be honored, Twilight."
Lastly, she turned to her big brother.
"Shining, I hope I'm not being too bold in saying this, but I truly believe if the worst happened as it has, that Cadance would want nothing more than for you to take her place. You are a loving brother and father. Will you take Cadance's place as guardian of the Crystal Heart?"
He smiled proudly at his younger sister.
"Willingly, and proudly." He replied.
Sniffling, tears fell from Twilight's eyes as she smiled proudly at each of them. She took a deep breath, picked up the Bewitching Bell, and stepped up on the table, walking over to them. As she stood in front of them, they each closed their eyes, and prepared. The Princess of Friendship held the bell out towards them, and the bell expelled the magic it held, with light gold, dark blue, and light blue auras of magic flowing over to Sunburst, Starlight, and Shining Armor, respectively. What started as a slight tingling sensation grew to incredible surges, and each of them had to concentrate to stay on their hooves. Each of them began glowing brighter and brighter, and as the last of the magic touched their chests, they exploded in a flash of white light, so bright that Twilight had to take a step back and shield her eyes.
When she saw that enough of the light had died down, she lowered her foreleg from her face, and saw the three of them standing exactly where they had been. Only now, they were astonishingly studying their own, and each others, new pairs of wings.
"Alright, Twiley, one question; how long did it take for you to get used to these? Because, clearly, I have to get used to it faster." He sneered in a tone that could only denote undying sibling rivalry.
Chuckling for the first time in over a month, she jumped down from the table and pulled them all into a group hug.
"Thank you... Thank you all so much." She cried.
Author's Note
I would like that ending to stand as proof that I am not above accepting bribes from Larson.
I knew I could make it work, and honestly, twenty bucks is twenty bucks.
In all seriousness, thanks for reading. I'd like to personally think that Tempest is one of the most poetic deaths I've ever written, but I'll let all of you be the judges of that.
Again, thank you very much for reading!
-Miles
The Storm King was seething. He had to pull Grubber from Tempest's group for even more reinforcements around the valley town to deal with the... Complications, just down the mountain. He was currently on a spell call in the center of the throne room, where the hedgehog was delivering some more bad news.
"What do you mean it's not working?!?" The Storm King shouted into the cloud of smoke above the stone bowl, connecting him to Grubber.
"I don't know what to tell you, boss. If we destroy a section of this stuff in three minutes, it grows back in two. At this rate, we'll have to pull back most of our entire fleet here just to keep this thing at bay. It's already halfway through this town down here, and it's not showing any signs of slowing down. There's not a single pony down here, they must have done something in there before they pulled out." Grubber told him.
The Storm King gritted his teeth.
"Get whatever fuel you can get your claws on, and burn that forest to the ground!" He commanded angrily, before the smoke began to dissipate as he headed back to the balcony.
"Gardening trouble?" He heard a voice sarcastically ask him. He whipped around, the four Storm Guards also alerted. He looked for the intruder, left, right, down, and finally up. There she was, on the roof. Twinklelight or whatever the blazes her name was. He raised the staff, and fired a bolt of energy at her. She leapt out of the way, and the blast hit the roof, widening the hole already in the ceiling.
He was ready to fire off a second blast, but it wasn't one purple alicorn flipping and diving into the throne room, but three. No, seven.
No. A dozen , with more dropping in every second.
Getting over his bewilderment, he reached behind him, and came out with an obsidian orb. But before he could throw it, he was bucked in the back of the legs by another pony, a light purple unicorn, causing him to drop the orb to the floor, where it luckily didn't break open. Reacting too late, he swung the Staff of Sacanas horizontally, but she ducked out of the way and jumped further towards the center of the throne room with the multiple alicorns.
"Nice trick. Here's mine!" He shouted, aiming the staff at the center of the throne room floor, and fired off a sustained blast of lightning. The ponies evaded off to the sides and engaged the Storm Guards who came to the defense of their commander, who reduced the marble flooring to dust.
"There! Now you'll never get the magic out of this staff!" He cackled, firing off another lance of energy which was evaded by multiple ponies down the way. The far doors of the throne room opened, and in poured a dozen more Storm Guards. The Storm King smirked, believing he was about to gain the upper hand, as now his forces outnumbered the 13 alicorns and 1 unicorn. His confidence lasted all of five seconds, when he saw that half of the Storm Guards that had entered the room had started to fight with the other guards in the room.
"What's going on here?!?" He screamed furiously.
"The element of surprise." A voice said behind him. His own voice . He turned startled and indeed saw himself , as this clone reached forward and grabbed him by the throat and lifted him up off of the floor, and turned him towards the balcony. The split second his clone released him from his left claw, he followed through with a solid hook from his right, knocking him out onto the balcony and causing him to drop the Staff of Sacanas in front of the throne.
One of the alicorns rushed up to the staff, and touched a dark green bell to the gem tip, while his clone glowed and morphed into what could only be described as a lime green bug-horse hybrid with purple eyes and orange pincer-like horns. His forces were quickly subdued, and the other alicorns in the room as well as half of the Storm Guards morphed back into smaller pony-like insects, who quickly began to subdue his forces with thick goo, sticking them to the floor and walls.
As he scrambled to his feet, he saw the Staff of Sacanas shoot into the bell, as it began to glow brighter and brighter. He jumped forward, only for the large bug creature to morph back to the clone form and hold him back as the alicorn took the bell and touched it to her horn.
"No!" The Storm King shouted. He managed to get in a low punch to his clone's stomach, which was enough for him to lose his footing and be knocked out of the way. He rushed the alicorn and went for the bell.
Twilight's eyes opened, blazing a fiery white, dropping the bell to the floor and her horn lit up, glowing a sickly red color. His charge was halted, and he felt his limbs spread out as he left the ground, completely immobilized and levitated towards the open balcony. A shockwave emanated outward from the pony, and all of his minions were levitated up for a moment... before they disintegrated into piles of ash where they stood before. For the first time in a long time, he felt powerless. Powerless and afraid.
"You know something, Your Majesty? It's all about power to you." The alicorn began, the unicorn and insect-ponies gathering behind her. "That's the problem with creatures, with conquerors like you. You never have an endgame in mind. When you've finally won, when every other creature is beneath you, when you've conquered and pillaged the entire world and see yourself standing on a mountain of ashes, what then? Maybe then and only then would you realize that those who die with the most riches, the most land, the most servants, the most worshipers... Are nonetheless... Dead. "
She raised her right hoof, and the Staff of Sacanas flew into her grasp, and she put the tip of the aetherium gem to his throat.
"Tell me where she is, and I'll make it quick." She threatened.
"I don't know. Her orders were to track down resistance, while the rest of my fleet started to scatter the crystallized remains of the princesses and your friends so they would never be found... Until that damned forest started expanding!" He yelled defiantly.
The single alicorn with the power of three felt her blood boil.
"Scatter the crystallized remains? Huh... That's odd..." She said menacingly.
As he was levitated up to just above the balcony railing, the alicorn glanced back to the throne room, and grabbed his dropped obsidian orb with more of her magic, and brought it forward, floating it in front of his face.
The Storm King felt more magic grip his jaw and forced his mouth open, and the obsidian orb was pressed against his widening maw.
"Because I think they forgot some pieces..."
The orb was forced into his mouth and towards the back of his throat. He gave a muffled scream of pain as his gag reflex was ignored, and it was pushed down. When it was halfway down his esophagus, he heard a crack, and everything started to go cold.
The two ponies and changelings watched as green gas began to seep out of the satyr's nostrils, ears, and eye sockets, before his body hardened entirely into obsidian, and Twilight took the Staff of Sacanas in both hooves, raised it over her head, and brought it smashing down on the petrified face of the Storm King with a furious yell.
The staff and the crystallized conqueror shattered, pieces falling to the railing, the balcony, and the stairs two hundred feet below.
Twilight took a deep breath, and her eyes and horn returned to normal.
"Are you alright?" Starlight asked.
"I'm... I'm not sure yet." Twilight answered, being reminded of her fight with Tirek, before turning and levitating the bell back to her grasp, as she turned to Thorax.
"Thorax, we are in the Changeling Kingdom's debt. Thank you so much." Twilight thanked the Leader of the Swarm.
"After what you've done for us, it was the least we could do. I'm glad our plan worked."
Twilight turned to Starlight.
"Starlight, you're in command until I get back. Find where everypony is being held." She told her, before Sunburst came in through the far doors.
"Princess! I found a group of survivors that caved themselves in down in the old mines when the superstorm hit. Parrots and a cat, with a sizable group of Equestrian prisoners from the initial counterattack. Some of them are deathly hungry." Sunburst said.
"Change of plans. Thorax, find where the festival prisoners are being held and free them. Starlight, go to the mines and clear those rocks as safely as you can. Get those ponies, parrots, Skystar ,and Capper food and blankets as soon as possible, and get them up here when you think it's safe to move them. Sunburst, go to the castle dry stock storage and find any food you can, then help Throax with the prisoners, make sure everypony is fed and sheltered. If you find any E.U.P. guards that are able and willing to fight, tell them to crew any airships we have left, and pursue any Stormships they find. Sunburst, I need my orders to them to be perfectly clear: No quarter. Understood?" Twilight told him.
The unicorn stallion gave her a determined nod.
"Perfectly, Your Highness." He told her before exiting to the corridors with Starlight.
"What are you going to do?" Thorax asked, a bit of concern filling his voice as Twilight began to focus the magic of the three alicorns she now possessed, her horn glowing dimly, and in the red light it gave off, a sparkling purple trail appeared in midair that snaked out of the throne room doors; residual alicorn magic.
The single clue she had, the one path she could follow.
She checked the clock on the far wall above the doors, was about to adjust the sun's position in the sky, but reconsidered it; doing so might tip her off that something had gone wrong.
The alicorn looked back to the Changeling Swarm Leader.
"I'm going to finish this."
