OMAI: The Empire of Storms

Chapters

Chapter 1: Rose
Chapter 2: Meetings
Chapter 4: Do I look Pretty?
Chapter 5: The King's Demand
Chapter 6: Canterlot Falls
Chapter 7: The Commander's Choice
Chapter 8: Safe
Chapter 9: Cruel Curiosity
Chapter 10: A Spark
Chapter 11: Southerly Winds
Chapter 12: Klugetown
Chapter 13: A Silky Voice
Chapter 14: Genorosity
Chapter 16: Across the Desert Sands
Chapter 17: Embers Glowing
Prologue: A Storm Brewing
Chapter 3: Lovebugs, Scaleheads, Catbirds and Stormclouds
Chapter 15: Broken Homestead

Chapter 1: Rose

“Here goes.” Rose muttered, her muscles bunching as she launched herself into the air again, her wing muscles pumping to keep her in the air. The Pegasus had not spent much time flying since she had gotten her wings, as it was very difficult to learn how to use appendages that one didn’t have until two years ago. Sure, she could get into the air now, but staying there was another matter, and landing safely a third matter entirely.

Sometimes she caught herself wishing to go back to how things used to be, to being a simple little human with her ordinary life and her fiance, like nothing had changed.

Everything had changed though. The man she had fallen in love with was gone. Her hometown had been all but destroyed by a psychotic warlord from another world. Her brother was now her sister, and a pegasus too, on top of that. She had had to fight for her life on more than one occasion that year.

And now here she was, learning to fly on the job as she delivered letters in her new home. Ponyville, Equestria, the Planet Equus, who even knew what galaxy or universe.

Talk about remodeling. Her whole life felt like someone had looked at a wall and decided it needed a new, wacky, wonderful paint job featuring horses and rainbows.
“Looking good! I almost can’t tell you’re a total newbie!”

Speaking of rainbows.

“Hi Dash. How’s it going?” Rose asked, to the space of once again empty air beside her, the Pegasus who had briefly occupied it already entertaining herself by doing several lazy loop-the-loops while staying close to Rose. The cyan coated mare was on the smaller side. She was a compact package of strength, agility and speed, to the point that she outclassed pretty much any pony in Equestria in terms of raw athletic potential. If she could put her ego aside long enough to hone that potential to its absolute best, that is. As such, Rose looked up to Rainbow’s physical prowess, but wasn’t quite so sold on her sometimes abrasive personality. When she was feeling cocky, the mare turned into a bone-head.

“Pretty awesome, as always. I was just gonna swing by Pinkie’s and see if she was free before we head on up to Canterlot. Wanna come?” Dash swam upside down through the air, backwards, a feat that Rose continually struggled to accept as possible.

“Sorry, Dash, but I’m still on duty.” Dash made to grab her bag by zipping past her, but Rose was already flipping herself over to avoid the attempt, righting herself with a little wobble afterwards. “And no, before you say it, you can’t do it for me. I wanna do this job properly, and do it myself. That means no ten second flat delivery’s that crush all my parcels.”

“Awww, come on, I’m not that bad!” Rainbow protested, coming up to glide next to Rose.

“No, you’re worse. Last time you tried that, you broke three flower vases for the Flower Trio, broke that flux capaci-doohikey that Time Turner ordered, and crushed several letters into an unreadable mess. The only reason I wasn’t fired was because it was you that did it, and Derpy likes you.” Rose grumbled, banking and descending slowly to come to a stop at the next house on her route. “Besides, you know how I feel about people helping me.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, the whole ‘I need to get used to doing things on my own as a Pegasus’ thing.” The athlete sighed, before turning away from her and taking off again. “Well, I’ll try and get something for you once you’re done. Pinkie said they’re doing an amazing marzipan and chocolate cake that you just have to try! Anyway, see ya later!”

And with that, Rainbow was gone, leaving behind her signature rainbow streak of light that dazzled the eyes and left Rose blinking owlishly as her sight readjusted to normal light levels. She shook her head, checked on the next packages address, placed it carefully back in her bag, closed it, then took off, enjoying the feeling of her feathers being parted by the wind. Bliss.

*****************************

It didn’t take long for her to finish her rounds for the day. Rose was quite happy to swing by Sugarcube corner after work to pick up that slice of cake Dash had mentioned, and was just licking the last crumbs off of her face by the time Pinkie Pie came bounding over.

“Hey Rosie!! It’s pretty much time to go! You ready?” Pinkie Pie truly lived up to her name, with both coat and mane being a ridiculous combination of bright pink, and darker pink. It made her blue eyes stand out all the more.

“Yeah, we should get to the train station before we’re late. Wouldn’t want to miss out on the prep-work, right?” Rose replied, wiping her face with a napkin to clear away any lingering traces of cake crumbs or icing.

“Of course not! This is the biggest party of the year! NO! The century!! No, wait, it’s actually the biggest two parties of the century!!! HUUUUUUUHH!!!!! I NEED TO GET SO MANY MORE SUPPLIES TO GET THIS RIGHT!!”

Rose watched as the Pink blur ignored the train station altogether and streaked off towards the distant shadow of the Canterhorn mountain, and the capital city of Canterlot, leaving a trail of confetti and joy in her wake.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t tell her that Cheese Sandwich is gonna be there to help.” Rose muttered, shaking her head. The pegasus mare chuckled at Pinkie’s antics, then trotted off to the train station, making sure that her ticket was secure in her bag before she arrived. She had bought the ticket almost a week ago, and the week before that had made sure she had this week booked off so she could celebrate the festival and her sisters marriage.

Supposedly, it was going to be one hell of a celebration, with foreign dignitaries and creatures from all across the land in attendance, which ought to please the Princesses, who had been working towards peace and co-operation between the world’s nations since long before Rose’s grandparents grandparents had been born. Chocolate fountains, buffets, carnival games, merchant stalls, and all kinds of entertainment had been set up for the festival, and a stage with an altar and seating arrangements had been placed in one of the cities many courtyards.

The one Static, Rose’s sister, and her Fiance had chosen was a vista, overlooking the entirety of central Equestria, including Ponyville, the Everfree Forest, and the lands beyond. It would be gorgeous in the bright daylight, with no clouds to mar the occasion.

Rose sighed contently as the train pulled into the station, right on time, amid a squeal of metal tracks against metal wheels and a cloud of steam from the engine. It wasn’t like the trains back home, where they were built for pure speed and convenience, coloured in sensible greys, whites, or the occasional blues. There were some outliers that chose more outrageous colours for their vehicles, but they were merely outliers, and tended to be few and far between. This train was coloured in bright pinks and yellows, as if it had been made of flower petals forged into steel and cast as train cars.

The conductors cried for passengers to board once the small collection of ponies getting off had finished their journey from train to platform, allowing Rose to enter the nearest car with a flash of her ticket.

Technically, as the guest of one of the VIP’s, the ticket allowed her access to a private booth in the reserved cars, but Rose had never much liked that kind of treatment- nor did she particularly enjoy the thought of being on her own with her thoughts.

Instead, she settled into one of the public use seats, pulled a book from her saddlebags, and began to read.

**********************************

Canterlot was a splendid city indeed, with its soaring white towers and impeccably clean streets, and its sheer size compared to its closest neighbouring communities. While not a literal city in the sense of Manehatten or Fillydelphia, the capital of Equestria was world renowned for its beauty, having been designed and built by the best minds that ponykind had had to offer.

Built onto the side of a sheer mountain face, and sectioned off into numerous tiers, with the Castle occupying the highest, it was a monument to pony-kinds magical prowess and knowledge, and to the Princesses as well. Here was the throne of Equestria, presided over by the immortal Alicorn sisters, Celestia and Luna, rulers of the kingdom and beloved by all. Even criminals and ne’er-do-wells would not cross the pair if they could help it.

Of course, the sisters literally having control of the sun and the moon made that decision very easy for them.

Rose stared up at the grand towers in the early light of morning, the day of the festival, and the second Canterlot Wedding within a decade. Well, the second major wedding. Obviously there was a lot more than that, but these were noteworthy because of the individuals involved. First had been the Captain of the Royal guard and the Princess of Love, and this time, an Element of Harmony and Princess Luna’s personal protege, called the Lunar Knight by many, were to be wed.

Hopefully it would go better for Rose’s sister than it had for poor Princess Cadence and Shining Armour. Invaded by Changelings on the day of your wedding. Ooof.

Shaking her head again, Rose felt the train slide to a stop at the station. Hopping off of her seat and stowing her book back in her bag, the Pegasus trotted out of the doors and looked back up at the city, still quite a ways to walk before she entered it proper, as the station was actually just outside the city walls.

She was admitted through the security gates fairly quickly, a scan of magic proving she was what she appeared to be, and a quick check of her bag to see what she was carrying was all that was needed, and so she was waved through within minutes of entering the checking station. It was odd to think that these hadn’t been here just a few years ago. Not that they were unwarranted- far from it. While technically at peace, Equestria had had more than its fair share of security scares and attempted invasions over the past decade.

It was hard to imagine Princess Luna, the sometimes goofy, sarcastic and caring pony as a villain of any description, especially not one like Nightmare Moon. Sure, she could be serious, and sometimes overbearing, but that was not really bad, just personality quirks that she tried to work on.

Now within the city, Rose took to the skies again, relishing the rush of joy that flooded through her as she crested over a low flying cloud that had yet to be busted by the weather team. The view on the other side was magnificent. The marble towers of the palace turned orange by the early sunlight, each window glistening like dew drops on grass blades amid fields of pure white, all framed by the mountain on the right, and the rest of Equestria’s open skies on the right, distant mountains showing up as a purple smudge on the horizon. To think of all the views on Earth she could have seen if she’d had wings. All the views that she and Jeremy….

So much for avoiding thinking about him. Rose slapped her hoof to her forehead and prayed to the sisters to give her a distraction.

She was surprised when they delivered it in the form of a familiar voice.

“Okay, watch it! Mind out, please! Important Princess documents coming through!!!”
Sending a thank you grin towards the palace, Rose dived down to street level, and quickly found the source of the voice, wading through the crowd of ponies while holding a bundle of rolled up scrolls aloft in his claws.

“Hi, Spike!” Rose chirped, beaming widely as the dragon yelped, almost dropping his precious cargo.

“Whoa! What the- Oh, it’s you!” The young dragon gave a relieved sigh, then frowned at Rose in annoyance. “Really Rose? These are really important, you know. If I’d dropped them-”

“I’d have caught them, don’t worry!” Rose lied, not wanting to admit she was just as likely to smash her face into the ground than save the documents. “I just wanted to say hello! You look busy.”

“Tell me about it.” Spike grumbled. “With Twilight it’s always one more freak out over some tiny detail she thinks she forgot but actually checked about a hundred times already. Juggling the festival and the wedding has been hard on her- and me.”

“Ouch.” Rose winced in sympathy. “Didn’t Static tell her not to worry about getting everything perfect?”

The purple dragon raised an eyebrow and gave a pathetic little chuckle. “You honestly thought that would help at this point?”

Rose sighed again, making note of how frequently she’d been doing it recently. “Knowing the Princess, probably not. Any idea where the others are?”

Spike shrugged, hoisting the papers up into a position that made it easier to hold. “Dunno. You tried looking in the courtyard? Pretty much everyone but Twilight, Fluttershy and Static will probably be there doing finishing touches.” The dragon looked around suddenly, as if expecting to see someone. “Do you, uh...happen to know if Discord is coming?”

Rose laughed, shaking her head. “Nope. He’s not coming. Said something about a vacation, visiting his cousin at some interdimensional party. Said he’d be gone a while.”

It was Spike’s turn to sigh, this time in relief. “No offense to him, but I don’t think Twilight could take any of his antics today. She’s barely holding together as it is.”

“Well, if I do see him, I’ll let you know, okay?” Rose promised.

“Thanks. I know I’ll appreciate it, and Twilight definitely will.” With that, the dragon resumed his mission as a courier, leaving Rose to go looking for the Element bearers in the main courtyard.

Rose took to the air to speed up the search, flitting above the crowds of ponies trotting, walking, talking, laughing, playing, complaining, shouting, whooping and otherwise making lots of noise, as crowds do. Being above it all made getting past it a breeze- literally- and the pegasus mare was soon swooping down into the courtyard that Static and Fluttershy had picked for the wedding ceremony.

Had Shy not decided to be brave, the ceremony would have been a much smaller, private affair in the castle gardens, but as it was, the ceremony would be taking place on the stage that was currently playing host to a small collection of mares, all busily working to make sure the festival was a success.

Rapidly inflating and twisting balloon animals was Pinkie, though as Rose approached she lost control of one and it went zipping around the stage area, with Pinkie hot on its tail. Overhead, Rainbow Dash was busting clouds, kicking the fluffy water vapour apart with practiced ease. Then, decorating the edge of the stage with precision that was borderline obsession, stood Rarity, the fancy Unicorn already wearing a sunhat to show off her stylish nature. Not far away from Rarity was Applejack, the down to earth country mare, wearing her familiar, worn stetson hat, and a red neckerchief that Rarity had made for her, embroidered with green apples along its edge. When asked about why she made the neckerchief, Rarity had responded with a proud smile and a slightly puffed out chest. “What? A lady can’t make something for her marefriend?” Applejack had already finished her part of the stage’s construction- namely, the heavy lifting, assisted by her little sister, Apple Bloom. The two were bringing out cider and refreshments for everypony, all of the confections the Apple clan were known for stacked on a cart that wobbled precariously as the two moved it closer. Standing on the stage itself, aided by Angel, Fluttershy’s pet rabbit, was Starlight Glimmer, Princess Twilight’s student. The purple unicorn mare was instructing a choir of birds using Fluttershy’s elegantly written notes, with Angel translating for her. Rose had no idea how the two got on so well when Angel was hellspawn in a white bunny suit.

“Hey everyone. Anything I can do to help?” Rose called, ducking underneath Pinkie’s runaway balloon as it zoomed overhead, Pinkie tearing after it a second later.

“Hmm, oh, what darling? Terribly sorry, I’ve been rather in the zone, as it were.” Rarity replied, barely glancing Rose’s way. “I don’t think I need much help here...unless you want to help me speed things up a bit. Making the stage look so good is taking a while.”

“I’ll say.” Rainbow grumbled, coming down from above with a soft whump. “I’ve busted every cloud from here to Ponyville in the time it’s taken you to put up four of those decoration thingies. Why didn’t you do something simpler?”

“This is Fluttershy and Static’s wedding!” Rarity harrumphed, turning up her nose at the suggestion. “They deserve nothing but the best!”

“Oh, they’ll get it alright!” Dash called, flashing past Rarity in a contrail coloured in her namesake, grabbing the hoof-basket of ribbons and diamonds that Rarity had been using to decorate the stage with as she went. In three seconds, every ribbon and diamond was fixed in place. Badly.

“Oh, fer pete’s sake Dash!” Applejack called, bringing the refreshments cart closer. “That’s an awful rush job!”

“It isn’t the best.” Starlight called down from the stage, leaning over the side to take a look. “Rose, could you help Rarity straighten those out?”

“Sure thing!” Rose eagerly started fiddling with the decorations, trying her best to match Rarity’s flawless presentation. It wasn’t quite there, but it was a darn sight better than Dash’s attempt. “So, if you’re out here, who’s helping Shy and my sister get ready?”

Rarity frowned, not entirely happy with the situation. “While I wanted to be the one to get them ready- after all, I know my dresses better than anypony! Fluttershy and Static are being attended to by the royal maids, as per Princess Celestia’s request. Apparently somepony forgot to get somepony to handle decorations for the stage.” The fashionista looked pointedly at Starlight as she spoke, and the purple mare blushed madly.

“And Twilight’s up at the castle too.” Rose murmured.

“Yeah, she’s busy figuring out how to deal with all the dignitaries that are gonna be here.” Starlight said, settling onto her hind legs while her forelegs dangled off of the stage. “Or, she would be, if she hadn’t already gone over todays plans a bajillion times.”

“Extreme Twilighting?” Rose asked.

“Extreme Twilighting.” The group answered as one.

********************************************

Up in the castle, another purple mare was in the middle of a freakout- the sixth one in the last twelve minutes. “WHERE ARE THE STORES OF LOVE FOR KING THORAX’S ENTOURAGE!!!” She screeched, rapidly shuffling through several dozen spreadsheet pages looking for where she had written the answer.

“Page twelve, row three, column one.” Came the calm reply from her assistant.

“WHY IS IT- oh, never mind, it’s where it should be.” Princess Twilight Sparkle was very much in the throes of a massive mental overload, having juggled the logistics behind holding a festival opening and a wedding on the same day for several months now, was very much stressed. “WHAT ABOUT THE MEAT FOR THE GRYPHONS AND THE GEMS FOR THE DRAGONS?!”

“Page six, row eight, column two.” Spike answered, the dragon reorganizing the notes by claw in a far more rational and relaxed manner. “Seriously Twilight, it’s fine. You’ve checked everything so much that I can pretty much guarantee that everything will go great.” The dragon punctuated his point by producing a sparkling ruby from a nearby bowl and tossed it casually into his mouth. “Please calm down and take a break.”

The Princess was breathing heavily, and far too quickly to be okay, but she was at least thinking about what Spike had said, starting to go through the familiar breathing exercises that Princess Cadence had taught her. It took several minutes to finally break her manic panic, but Twilight was relaxed for the first time in days. In truth, she felt exhausted.

“Oooooohhh, oh, oh….that doesn’t feel so good.” Twilight moaned, rubbing her head. “Uh, Spike, do we have anything to relieve headaches?” Before she had even finished asking, Spike had gotten up and retrieved a steaming pot of tea from the nearby table. He poured his adopted sister/parental figure a cup of the warm beverage, which she gratefully took with a murmured thanks.

Spike gave a little encouraging smile. “That should help a bit. Still, I don’t think you should be doing a lot of magic for a bit. It’ll just make the headache worse.”

Twilight nodded, drinking deep from her cup of salvation. It was the good stuff.

The room the pair was in had been Twilight’s when she was younger, before Celestia had given her the tower room she had spent most of her teenage years cooped up in. Funnily enough, that tower was visible from this room’s window.

Twilight’s old room was a small but cozy affair, with a well organized desk, several bookshelves, and of course, a bed, currently being sat on by Spike. The windows were dressed with curtains- purple, of course, and the floor was a soft, plush carpet. And outside the windows that faced out from the tower the room sat in, was a balcony overlooking the gardens and Twilight’s old tower room.

Twilight had come here instead simply out of nostalgia.

The Princess of Friendship breathed in slowly, then out again, a strange feeling that had been plaguing her for weeks bubbling up in her chest again as she did. Ever since she had taken on the planning for such a pair of important events, she had been feeling almost ill, and not just from nerves or lack of sleep. She felt….lethargic.

Still, the exercise did its job, and her thoughts began to shift into a more manageable mess. Sipping at her tea again, Twilight let herself relax and smile. Tomorrow, the ceremony would go off without a hitch, the festival would launch its campaign of cooperation, and she could relax again.

“You reckon you’ll be okay now?” Spike asked from his seat on the bed.

Twilight nodded, moving all of her pages of notes off to one side in a slightly more organized folder, and put aside her duties for a moment. She found her old favourite chair, one that Princess Celestia had used as a place to tell or read Twilight bedtime stories when she was still a little filly. Snuggling into the familiar scent of her teacher, Twilight drifted into peaceful serenity, lulled into a daydream by the plush sensation of chair pillows pressing against her.

“Yeah. I think we’ll be fine.”

************************************

Author's Note

Fun fact: This chapter was named after the first episode of Doctor Who I ever saw!

Chapter 2: Meetings

Static Thunder was hardly what one would call normal. For instance, while most ponies sported a coat that could be any colour under the sun thanks to a massive and varied pool of hair colour genes, Static stood out even more, as her fur glimmered like metal when caught by the light at just the right angle. On top of that, her vibrant blue mane and tail could not help but add to the striking image the mare presented. More than a few times, Rainbow Dash had told her she looked like a character from a ‘steampunk’ novel.

That was just how she looked, of course. Static also happened to be a former human, former changeling and the first Knight of the Lunar Order in a thousand years, capable of traveling the dream realm, and about to be married to one of the Elements of Harmony.

All in all, she made for an interesting case study in how life could be bat-shit crazy.

But at the moment, the hero of Vancouver, who had stared down a mad queen and waded through an army of Changelings, was quivering and shaking where she stood, the maids who had been helping her put on her wedding dress having to constantly request her to stay still so that they could actually put on the long, traditionally white dress- though Rarity had spruced it up with silvery trim and linings that really made it stand out. A few leaf patterns had been worked into the main body, and a few sapphires were sprinkled into those patterns to add a little more flair.

“Oh…I hope I don’t screw up my lines!!” Static mumbled, her eyes more than just a little panicked as she looked about one of the royal castles many fitting rooms. This one was technically a part of a guest suite, but there were so many guests, and unfortunately, nobles, getting ready that Static and Fluttershy were getting ready on what could easily be the absolute opposite ends of the castle. “What if my legs get tangled up and I trip? What if my dress gets caught on something? What if-?”

“And here I thought my Knight was going to be the stoic one.” The maids immediately jumped up and bowed to the figure standing in the door, the illustrious and resplendent Princess Luna, who regarded the tittering bride with a wry smile and amusement dancing in her eyes. “Yet I come to check up on her, and find her fretting and worrying like an old mare.”

Static ran her hooves through her tumbling mane and looked at her reflection in the nearby mirror and bit her lip. “I just...I keep having all these little worries. It’s driving me crazy, thinking about all the ways I could mess up, or things could go wrong.” Static admitted, looking over her gorgeous gown and make-upped face and frowning at every little tiny imperfection.

Luna saw her student’s concerns as plain as day, her experienced eyes picking up all the little twitches of Static’s lips and eyes that indicated displeasure or annoyance at something she had seen. The Alicorn rolled her eyes. “Methinks perhaps that thou art looking at this from the wrong angle.” She motioned with her hoof for the maids to back away, which they did immediately, and moved over to sit by her student, looking at the reflection in the mirror. “Instead of dwelling on all that could go wrong, think of all the things that will go right today. Thy friends have done a marvelous job of preparing the stage for your ceremony, and by tonight, you will be married to one of the most beautiful mares in all the land, with an adorable foal to raise, and a fantastic life to lead together, until the end of your days.” Luna cupped her faithful friends face in with her wing, and lifted it up, so that she might gaze into those wonderfully blue eyes. “This day, to borrow a phrase from another royal, will be perfect, and you are going to be too busy tonight to remember how frightened and nervous you were.”

Static blushed bright red, and Luna grinned playfully, the maids even giggling a little and trying to make it seem as if they weren’t. “Luna!” Static gasped, backing away with a shocked, but far brighter expression adorning her muzzle, her ears splayed back and cheeks still burning. “That’s just- just-!”

“Exactly the kind of thing that thou wouldst say were our positions reversed, my friend.” Luna smirked, and the slightly guilty, shameful grin on Statics face did nothing to convince her that she was wrong. “And it made you laugh and relax a little, so there’s that.” Luna paused, before asking a tentative question that had been weighing on her mind. “Art thou sure you wish for my sister to give you away? I know that I cannot do it as the officiator, but I’m sure your mother or father ...”

Static sighed, rolling her eyes. “We’ve been over this. I’m not going to ask my parents to make a one way trip just to attend a wedding.”

“And be with their children.” Luna pointed out. “They may have changed their minds since last you spoke.”

Static frowned, considering the possibility. “Yeah, true. They might have. But to ask them to come and abandon their lives...the rest of their family.”

Luna felt her ears drifting lower and lower until they rested against her neck. “It ...does not seem like an easy choice on their part, especially when you can still visit them.”

“Exactly. Now, I think I’m as ready as I can be- physically at least. Still working on building up my nerve.”

Luna’s wry grin resurfaced. “Oh, was my little pep talk not enough? Perhaps I should find your soon to be wife and request she help ease your tensions.”

As luck would have it, Static had just decided to take a drink of water to stay hydrated, and sprayed it all over one of the unfortunate maids, who, surprisingly, just shook her head, muttered something about “Every week. Every feathering week.” and then walked out of the room to find a towel- and a dry uniform.

“LUNA!!” Came the despairing, accusatory wail, followed by a laughing Princess being chased out of a changing room with several pillows flying out after her at max speed.

***********************************

“Might I come in?” The motherly voice at the door was one that all ponies knew in their souls, but the pony whom that voice currently addressed had a far more personal connection with its owner.

Fluttershy, humming to herself and brushing her mane while a pair of maids, one stallion and a mare, helped to get her ready for her big day by fitting her dress and making sure nothing was either out of place, too tight, or damaged in any way. The maids moved aside for their Princess, who took up a position beside the bride.

“Feeling a little nervous?” Celestia asked, smiling down at the pink maned beauty beside her.

Fluttershy pursed her lips before mumbling a maybe.

Celestia gave a knowing nod, before turning to look into the mirror at herself and her subjects reflections. How grand the Alicorn seemed, yet, as she stared, the Alicorn found herself….a little envious. Paramours and secret romances aside, as Princess, Celestia could never truly embark on this kind of adventure the way that Fluttershy could. For any lover she took, there would always be secrecy, always stealing fleeting moments instead of simply enjoying the time.

Like with the current object of her affections.

Celestia sighed, but kept the smile on her lips and did what she did best. “Ah, young love. Always wonderful to witness.” She said, as if to herself, using her magic to braid Fluttershy’s hair. “Of course, being so old now myself, I’ve seen it many times.”

“Did you ever experience it?” Fluttershy asked, rather boldly. A far cry from the mare Celestia remembered meeting on that wonderful morning nine years before, who had practically hid from her the rest of the day.

“Once or twice.” Celestia answered, evenly. “But nothing that ever lasted, I’m afraid. And I dare say that there isn’t a pony alive today that would even think of asking me now.” Not true of course. Somepony had asked. Somepony they both knew. Not that the Princess was going to go blabbing, of course. They kept it secret for a reason.

“I’m sure they would.” Fluttershy murmured, her eyes darting off to the side. “If they weren’t so scared of rejection.”

Celestia chuckled. “They should not fear rejection, just the wrath of my sister.”

Fluttershy looked up at the bigger mare with a little, but slightly confused smile. “She’s overprotective?”

“You could say a thousand years gave her a long time to consider what she cares about most, and what she’ll do to protect those things.” Celestia continued braiding those delicate pink locks. “It’s not much of a surprise that she considers me the most important thing in her life, since we’re the only family we have.”

Fluttershy shook her head, making Celestia gasp and jerk forward at the sudden yanking on her magic. “Oh no, no, that’s not true!! That’s not true at all!”

Celestia settled back onto her haunches again, raising an eyebrow at the mare. “Oh? Do you know something that we don’t?” She asked, amusement lacing her tone.

“Twilight and Cadence are your family!” Fluttershy protested. “And Static and me! And our friends! We may not be related by blood, but it still counts!”

Celestia truly did feel happy at that. Her smile was far more genuine this time. “Oh, Fluttershy, you are truly too kind. Thank you.”

“Oh, and um, there’s Blueblood, too, I guess.” Fluttershy mumbled into her own hair, looking away a bit and blushing.

“Hmm, sometimes I do wonder if I should keep calling him nephew. His ego doesn’t need any more of a boost.” Celestia said, contemplatively rubbing her pastern under her chin. “Any more and his head might just swell up like a balloon.”

The two mares looked at each other for a moment before they started to quietly chuckle at the pompous stallions expense.

************************************

It was a knock on the door at about midday, that finally broke the peace and quiet respite that Twilight and Spike had been enjoying. The purple Princess groaned and rubbed her eyes, searching for the clock hanging on the opposite wall, and finding the hands both pointing upwards. Twilight slid off of her comfy chair and clopped to the floor, before tiredly making her way over to the wooden orifice that someone was rapping against.

A quick application of magic to the handle opened the door, and revealed a tall figure encased in purple and gold armour, hand raised to knock again.

The unusual sight of a very humanoid figure dressed in the new-ish colours of the Friendship Guard was one that Canterlot had been treated to a lot during Twilight’s visit, as the Architect called Crimson Pureheart was a part of it, and had been assigned as Twilight’s personal bodyguard for several months. As such he announced visitors, kept Twilight on track, and generally stood around looking intimidating.

“Morning- uh, afternoon, Crimson.” Twilight yawned. “Is there anything wrong?”

Crimson, as he should, did not address her by name. “No, Princess, nothing is wrong.”

“You know you can call me Twilight.” Twilight complained, turning around and inviting the guard inside. She made her way over to a small kitchen area and started making some coffee to wake herself up.

“I’m on duty, Princess. That means I call you by title, unless ordered otherwise.”

“Then as Princess, I order you to call me Twilight.” Twilight grouched, pausing her coffee grinding to wake up Spike with a few telekinetic nudges.

“Oh, come on, now that’s just playing dirty.” Crimson whined. “You know the Sergeant will chew me out if he hears me calling you Twilight- regardless of what you order me to do.”

“Then I’ll get Captain True Shot to get him off your back.” Twilight countered.

Crimson just shook his head. “It’s not worth the hassle just to get one person to call you by name instead of rank.”

“Coffee?” Twilight asked, waving some of the brew in his direction.

“No, thank you. The last thing a guards needs to be is buzzing and jittery.” Crimson replied.

“Suit yourself.” Twilight chirped, before pouring her and Spike a cup and passing the young Drake his. “So, what did you need us for?”

“Princess Celestia stopped by, told me to wake you for a meeting.”

“A royal meeting?”

“Yes. She said that Princess Cadence, Luna, and Prince Shining would be there.”

Twilight smiled happily, depositing her already drained mug on the counter. “Oooh, BBBFF’s gonna be there? Must be important. But no Blueblood?”

Crimson shrugged. “Her Highness didn’t mention him. Just someone she called Javelin.”

Twilight flinched. “Javelin?”

“Yes. Is….is that bad?”

“Potentially. Javelin only comes to those meetings when something important is happening.” Spike chimed in. “Not that I’m supposed to know that, but Twilight tells me everything anyway.”

Twilight blushed bright red and turned around to shush the dragon, who just grinned and laughed. “Anyway, I should get going. This sounds important.”

“I’ll be right with you.” Crimson nodded.

Twilight shook her head. “You’ll be waiting outside the tower where we meet him. When Javelin is involved, not even Spike is allowed in with me, and he’s allowed everywhere with me.”

Spike nodded. “It’s true.”

“But….I’m supposed to protect you. How can I do that when I’m stuck outside.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, before patting his cheek and giving a mocking pout. “Awww, is mister big bad Architect feeling left out cause he can’t come in?” Spike laughed from where he was packing up all the papers that his sister had left strewn around the room.

Crimson flushed beet red under his armour. “No!! I’m not feeling bad! I just don’t want something to happen and you get hurt because I’m not there!! You’re sp- Uh, you’re my Princess, ma’am. I’m supposed to protect you.”

Twilight just laughed again. “Don’t worry. It’s probably not that big a deal. I’ll be fine, you’ll be right outside the door, just like you were all day. It’s really not that different.”

“It is. I’ll be at the bottom of a tower while you’re meeting someone I don’t know.” Crimson frowned.

“Relax, it’ll be thirty minutes, tops.”

“It had better.”

Twilight fixed him with a stare. “Calm down, grumpy pants. You’re just gonna make me nervous now.”

She didn’t let him reply, instead trotting out the door and starting off towards the familiar meeting place that Javelin always met them at.

***************************************

Javelin’s meeting place was certainly not in the tower that Twilight led Crimson to. While she did go inside that tower, she had lied to him. The meeting place wasn’t in the Astronomy tower at all.

It was under it.

Twilight trotted into the room last, having taken the time to make sure the secret passage was properly closed and concealed. She was greeted by a group of familiar faces, including one very annoyed Pegasus mare who was still in her wedding dress.

“Alright Javelin. What’s the matter now?” Static asked, now that Twilight was there, the meeting began with no ceremony at all.

Javelin, was exactly who no one would suspect for the position of Spymaster. Being both intelligent and brilliant at subterfuge while seeming to all the world a bumbling idiot. The white coated and gold maned stallion placed several images onto the meeting rooms table, and the Princesses all leaned in to examine them.

“These were brought in just an hour ago by my long range scouts.” Javelin spoke softly, almost in whispers, but every word was measured and precise. “Sometime last night, someone or something attacked a watchtower at our southern border, and killed all the guards before they could even rally a defense. The beacons were lit, but in a freak thunderstorm, the signal didn’t get very far before the other towers were attacked as well. Very few made it out alive, and most are unaccounted for.” The pictures in question were of squat stone towers in various states of ruin, many still smoking from the destruction that had been brought upon them. They numbered five in all.

“Do we know what did this?” Shining Armour asked. The Unicorn Prince looked uncomfortable without his guard armour, shifting nervously as he stared at the pictures.

“No.” Javelin answered. “The evidence indicated skyships, but my scouts found no trace of them.”

Static frowned. “Because of the storm?”

“Yes. Whether this is a scouting mission, a quick raid or a full blown invasion, we don’t know. The storm made it impossible for my unicorns and pegasi to find out.”

“So they used the storm to mask their approach, attacked, and then, what, just left again?” Static asked. “Seems one hell of a stupid idea to poke a military power and then give them a chance to respond.”

“Unless that is their aim, to have us expose ourselves by sending our own forces to investigate.” Luna suggested.

“Where is that storm now?” Celestia asked.

“Dissipating, your highness.”

“Keep track of any similar weather. If they’ve hidden their ships and their forces nearby, then they may use the same trick again.”

“So what do we do?” Twilight asked. “If we send ponies out, we could get ambushed, but if we don’t, then we risk them surprising us again.”

“My ponies are on high alert now. If any of them catch wind of any potentially hostile activity, they’ll send a message as quickly as possible.” Javelin replied. “I recommend we ready our forces for potential attack. Notify all garrisons to go to high alert and be ready for anything.”

“I guess that’s all we can do, for now.” Static frowned. “I don’t like it though. Not one bit.”

“Nor do I.” Luna grimaced. “It is all too easy for us to make a mistake when we have so little to go on.”

“That’s why we’re going on high alert, your Highness.” Javelin agreed. “We may not be able to risk sending our forces out, but we can at least prepare them for whatever comes their way.”

“This meeting is adjourned, for now.” Celestia intoned, tapping her gold-shod hoof on the table. “Go back to preparing the festivities. Shining, Javelin and I shall see to the military.”

*****************************************

Chapter 4: Do I look Pretty?

As Static made her way down the palace corridors, Princess Celestia walking beside her, she heard a familiar voice up ahead, close to the huge double doors of Canterlot Castle’s massive entrance. The individual in question was a tall, broad chested, wide-winged Gryphon, whose feathery head crest was bundled together thanks to a small braid woven around and between several of those feathers. His rear half was made of the black and white feline called the Siberian Tiger, while his front half resembled some kind of eagle, one with dark brown feathers, similarly brown eyes and a hooked yellow and black beak. He was talking with one of the door guards about their armour while he waited, wings tucked close to his sides but tail gently swaying behind him.

Static recognized the voice coming from the strangers beak, a timid smile worming its way onto her face. She looked up at Celestia, who had also recognized the voice. The diarch simply motioned for her to go talk to the Gryphon, a command that Static had absolutely no objections to.

She approached slowly, so that the Gryphon did not hear her approach until she was only a few paces away. “Long time no see, Mike.”

The Gryphon froze, his conversation halting mid flow as he turned to look at the newcomer behind him. He looked the pony up and down, slowly piecing together just who it was he was talking to. “A-Allan?”

Static nodded, beaming. “What’s it been, two years since we last saw each other? Guess we’ve both changed a lot since then.”

Mike nodded, beak open as he struggled to link the Allan he had known, both as a Human and as a Changeling, to the mare standing in front of him. “More than a little. Gilda told me about it, and I got your letter last year...but…..seeing it….seeing you...”

“A bit startling, isn’t it?” Static grinned. “So you know I’m going by Static Thunder now, right? Have you chosen a new name?”

Mike nodded. “Yeah. Gallant.”

“Like the knights of old.” Static chuckled.

“Like you, actually.” Gallant replied. “You’re a knight, right?”

“The only dream knight currently in existence. Technically that makes me a Guard Captain- or, it would if there was anyone else in the Dreamguard.” She sighed, looking out of the door and towards the courtyard.

“Glad I got an invite to this. I was a little worried you might have forgotten I was here on Equus.” Gallant remarked, still staring at his friend. “Do you ever miss it?”

“What?”

“You know? Home.”

Static bit her lip, glancing off to the side. “Ponyville is my home now….”

“You know what I meant.” Gallant laughed. “I’m not trying to imply anything.”

Static stayed silent for a bit. “The place…..eh. Not that much really. Earth was….Earth.” She swung her head back around to look Gallant in the eye. “It’s the people I miss.”

Now it was Gallant’s turn to be quiet for a bit. “You miss her a lot, don’t you?”

The pegasus turned away again, eyes downcast and tail curling up protectively around her body. “She was...she was my best friend. Of course I miss her.”

“I think she would be pretty excited to see this today, don’t you?”

Static’s ears drooped a little further. “I think she would have wanted to be the one opposite me on that stage.”

Gallant clacked his beak shut so that he didn’t blurt his instinctual answer of no. He had to remind himself that while Static had come to terms with how she felt about their late friend, Anna, bringing it up would do her no favours. “And your parents too. They’d probably come if you asked.”

“And abandon everything to do so. I already went over this with pretty much everyone I know at least once.”

“Eh, I wouldn’t know. I’ve been hanging out in Griffonstone for the last two years. Hard to think we’ve been gone for so long….” Gallant’s train of thought trailed off, not sure where to go next. “Uh...I bet they’d love this, you know. Your parents?”

Static smiled, trying to picture her parents coming to Equestria, wondering what their reactions to their new selves would be. She could see her mother squealing in delight at the cute faces and adorable little hooves she and her husband would then have- assuming they became ponies, of course. “Yeah. They would…”

Silence reigned once more, the two friends just standing there for a moment, before Static drew in a deep breath, preparing herself for what was to come. She turned to Gallant one last time, and, in a display of timidity and nervousness, she asked a fateful question.

“Do….do I look pretty?” She posed the question quietly, barely whispering.

Gallant cocked his head, casting his intense eagle-eyed gaze over her body and face, this time looking with real scrutiny. After a few long moments, Static’s old friend smiled, and reached out to gently put a claw on her shoulder. “Oh yes.” He said, before gently pushing her towards the door.

The soon to be married mare stood back, pulling her veil over her head as she started to back towards the door. “You’d better get to your seat on time.” She jibed, trying to force down her nerves as they fluttered about in her stomach. “I’ll be pissed if you miss this.”

Gallant nodded again, watching his friend go, joining back up with Princess Celestia as they walked out into the castle’s courtyard, before passing through the gates to the city, and vanishing from sight.

The Gryphon then sighed, bidding the guards he had talked to goodbye and taking off, flying his way to the ceremony.

*********************************

It began with a fanfare, the royal announcement played by loyal mares and stallions. In filed the bridesmaids, the Elements of Harmony all dressed in their finest, and then there was Princess Luna, who ascended to the podium set on the stage. The mare’s bright, glittering dress drew a few appreciative, if timid looks of approval from several ponies in the crowd, mares and stallions both, which Luna certainly seemed pleased about, if her smug little grin and twitching ears were any indication. She ignored those interests however, instead reminding herself of the task on hoof.

“Mares and Stallions, noble and common pony alike. We are gathered here today to honour and celebrate the recent victories of our heroic allies, and our own military, just two years hence. It was the first truly great achievement together, only made possible by our co-operation and the sacrifice of many brave souls.” Luna paused, watching the crowd as they in turn listened in rapt attention. She noted the solemn faces at the mention of those that had perished, but also that, where non-ponies were sat beside ponies, there were shared looks and nods of camaraderie, creatures once estranged now regarding each other as friends and confidants, people who had experienced loss too.

“While there were a great number of heroes that day, who gave up their lives to protect peace and vanquish evil, there was one soul who was spared death, and given a second chance at life. Today, she wishes to join that life to another.” Luna watched the crowd again, seeing slowly growing smiles and contented nods. “It was my honour to know Static as my student, and now a new adventure beckons her. That adventure started, in her own words, with a pair of wonderful eyes, and a kind heart that opened her own.” Luna smiled at the image of the two ponies she had become so fond of. “The eyes and kindness of a pony who gave her hope when she had none, and gave her a new reason to press onwards. Fluttershy Breeze is an exceptional mare in her own right, having overcome many of her own demons in order to even be here today- though she is no doubt quite nervous today.” A chuckle rippled through the audience, and Luna motioned with her hoof, as had been arranged.

Music started up, sung by a flock of birds, as dictated by Starlight Glimmer, who gently waved a tiny conductor’s baton to the stand the flock was perched upon. A gentle piano and violin had been added to the mix, but it didn’t sound bad, actually. Not that anyone was paying attention to the music.

From the rear of the crowd, a group of four ponies had entered, the tallest and most obvious being Princess Celestia herself, looking quite pleased with her dress as she led Static Thunder towards the stage. The smaller mare had her veil over her face, and with Celestia between her and Fluttershy, the old superstition about seeing the bride before her wedding was kept safe.

On the other side, was Fluttershy and her father, who was actually panicking more than his daughter. After all, he was walking next to Princess Celestia, the Diarch of the Sun and ruler of Equestria, while several hundred ponies watched. It was a lot to handle.

Perhaps that was the irony in the situation, as Fluttershy was too concerned over her father’s nervous state to worry much about the huge crowd.

Proceeding with the music, the pair marched up to the stage, carefully climbed up the stairs onto it, led by their escorts, before coming together in the middle, both trying very hard not to start gushing at how beautiful they thought the other looked.

As they arrived, Luna cleared her throat, ready to continue once the brides gave the okay, which they did.

“Fluttershy and Static Thunder, the two of you have chosen to be wed this day, of your own free will and out of true love for one another. This bond between you is a sacred one, forged in both adversity and comfort, and smiled upon by the forces of harmony. Fluttershy, you have prepared your own vow?”

“I have.” Fluttershy murmured. Thankfully, Twilight had planned for nerves and cast a spell on the stage that projected her voice to everyone present. Fluttershy cleared her throat and began her speech. “Static. When you first came here, I have to admit, I was….terrified of what was going to happen. You were a stranger from a strange world who had just lost everything, and I had no idea if I could help you. I did what I thought would help, and tried to help you the best I could. And it worked. I….I felt so happy to see you start to open up, the way that I started to open up when I was learning how to overcome my fears. And then you weren’t a stranger anymore. You were my friend, a friend who was kind and considerate, who could never stop apologizing for breaking something by accident, or trying your hardest to learn about the world around you.” Fluttershy looked back at her friends and beamed happily. “You reminded me of all the best people in my life, and how far we’d all come. And then you did even more. You risked your life to save our friends from a yeti, worked yourself to the bone to help Applejack at the farm, and still found time to help me with my animal friends at the cottage. You did so much for me, and I wanted to do things for you too. I wanted to spend time with you, and hug you, and kiss you, and….” Fluttershy went bright red as she her well planned speech veered off on an embarrassing tangent. She cleared her throat again before giving her speech’s finale. “You made me feel lucky, and pretty. You made me feel wanted. And I want to make you feel those things too. And I don’t ever want to stop. I promise that I will always try to let you know you are loved.”

Luna nodded, turning her gaze to Static. “And you have prepared your vow, my student?”

“I have.” Static said, voice shaking in nervous anticipation only a little bit…. Just a bit. “Fluttershy. Ever since I met you, my life has turned upside down more times than I can count, sometimes even literally (thank you discord.)” Static’s little aside drew a few chuckles from the crowd, who were watching, several with tears in their eyes already, such as Fluttershy’s parents, and almost all the Element bearers. Though Dash would most likely claim that she most definitely did not cry for the rest of her days, and Rarity was probably crying over how gorgeous her dress designs looked. “When I was lost, you helped me find my way. You taught me, were patient and accommodating in every conceivable way, helped me whenever I needed it, often without me asking you to.” Static paused, looking her fiancée in the eye. “And now here we are, about to commit ourselves to one another. For the rest of our lives.” Static chuckled, trying very hard not to listen to her treacherous mind as it shrieked at her to get off the stage and run as far away as she could, due to how many ponies were watching them. “I once told your dad that I felt like I was in debt to you, and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life repaying you. But now, that’s just not true. No debt could ever make me feel the way I do about you. Every day, my first thought is of how we’ll spend our time together. All I want is you, every hour, of every day. I just want to see you smile. Hear your laugh. Be with you when you need someone close, hold you when you need to be held, offer kisses and hugs after a long day, talk about everything, or nothing at all, just to hear the sound of your voice. I want to get into fights and argue over dumb stuff, just so we can make up and do it all again. I want the long and sleepless nights, the fun nights and boring nights. I want to spend it all with you. For the rest of my life. Because dammit, you make me feel special. And I promise to do everything I possibly can to make you feel that way too.”

Luna smiled triumphantly, glad that neither of her brides had cracked under the strain of many eyes locked on them. She drew herself up to her full height, wings flared. “Before we continue, I would offer this moment to welcome those that would like to share the reason they think these two should not be wed.” While she had said it out of politeness and a regard for customs, the intense stare Luna leveled at the crowd explained in full detail, that anyone who objected to this wedding in front of her could very much expect nightmares for years, or perhaps even a little trip to the moon. No one was stupid enough to risk taking that bet.

“Then, I take it you have the rings?”

The two mares exchanged a quick, knowing glance before nodding, a signal to a filly waiting eagerly nearby.

Static watched as Scootaloo hopped up to present both her and Fluttershy with the rings sitting on a pillow, nestled carefully on the red velvet that the teenager balanced ever so carefully on her upturned hoof.

Luna smiled, trying very hard not to look like she was going to cry at any moment, though Celestia was already dabbing her eyes and whispering to Twilight about how she always cried at weddings. Shining Armour was bawling his eyes out in the front row, much to the amusement of his wife and daughter, who was giggling and batting at his mane with a hoof.

“Now, Static, please, take thy ring, and repeat after me.” Luna led. “With this ring, I, Static Thunder.”

“I, Static Thunder.” Static dutifully repeated, her breath coming out only a little too fast.

“Take thee, Fluttershy.”

“To be my lawfully wedded wife.”

Luna turned to Fluttershy to repeat the process. Thankfully, having seen Static do it, Fluttershy found it far easier to do. Technically they had done a rehearsal, but that had been a small thing, barely a dozen ponies around. It only made sense that with a crowd this massive that the fianceé’s nerves would be magnified.

Luna stood proudly as the last words of the vow were finally spoken. She smiled, broadly, her star filled mane sparkling just a little brighter than usual as she spoke. “Then without further ado, I now pronounce you both, mare and-”

The distant rumble of thunder interrupted the Princess, her eyes immediately flicking upward, to the clear skies, those gorgeous orbs filled with worry. Then widened in shock.

Because the skies weren’t clear.

They were filling up with storm clouds.

Static and Fluttershy stared up at the clouds too, the guests all taking the sudden pall as a sign that the wedding was most definitely being postponed.

Static and Fluttershy were moving before anyone else, helping each other carefully but quickly remove the outer layers of their dresses. Luna was yelling for order, but as the other element bearers all stripped off their dresses as fast as possible, flashes of lightning in the clouds above revealed exactly what Static and Luna were afraid of.

The dark hulls of airships.

Twenty of them.

And they were all descending through the lowest layer of the clouds now, the biggest and most well armoured one in the middle of the others, surrounded by a cordon of its sister ships as it drifted lower.

“Guards, escort all non-combatants, to the castle, now!” Static roared, magic flashing about her as armour replaced the dress she had been wearing before. Her friends received similar protection from their own magical flashes, summoning stones quickly stowed away in convenient to reach locations on their new gear before they fell in beside Princess Luna, ushering the many guests off of the concourse. Among the guests were several creatures that did not leave however, and Static’s heart leaped out of place when she spotted Gallant among them.

Rose had already managed to snatch up Crystal, galloping away as fast as she could while Luna, Twilight and Static started issuing commands to the guards. “Day Guard, all companies, assemble!” Luna shouted, addressing the group of guards who had been watching over the ceremony. “Night Guards, initiate emergency evacuation protocol C-3! Escort all non-combatants to the Crystal Caves through the palace or the Market entrance!”

“Day Guards, form ranks and prepare for battle!” Static called out. The weight of her armour after nearly two years was unfamiliar, and she felt at odds with it being on her.

The thought of Crystal’s terrified face as Rose carried her away was enough to throw her back into reality. She was needed.

The airships had slowed their descent, but the big one had made its intention to land very clear by positioning itself over the far end of the balcony-concourse.

By the time it had settled down, a set of spider like legs emerging from retractable panels in the hull, the guards were fully arrayed in their shining golden armour, lances and swords ready as their helmet plumes waved in the breeze. Static stood beside Princess Luna and Twilight, watching as the airship began to lower a gangplank for its passengers to disembark. The three ponies glanced at each other, before stepping forward to meet the occupants as they came.

As they did, a a pair of ponies joined them, Cadance and Celestia having already switched clothes and donned their own battle armour. The five marched in step, until they stood fifteen paces ahead of their own guard force, watching as the small column of twenty soldiers made their way out of the ship and down the plank.

“Remind me to thank you later for your evacuation protocols.” Static heard Celestia murmur. “You were right to worry, it seems.”

“We’ll settle up who lost that bet later, Princess.” Static muttered back.

The column of soldiers parted, and a new figure stepped out of the ship, one that made the arranged Day Guard, and even the Princesses themselves, recoil slightly in horror.

A unicorn with a broken, cracked stump where her horn should be.

**********************************************

Author's Note

The title was a reference- as was the scene with the title drop too. Can you guess what movie? It's one of my favourites.....

Chapter 5: The King's Demand

The unicorn trudged down the gangplank, with her head held high, her ears slightly pulled back in a display of control and reserve that bordered on emotionlessness. Her face was unreadable as she descended the plank, her eyes sweeping across the gathered ponies impassively. She treaded slowly, methodically, stoic in every sense of the word. Her armoured hooves clinked harshly on the ramp as she traversed its length, before finally alighting on the marble slabs that made up the concourse.

As she did, a small, diminutive figure appeared at the top of the ramp, and quickly rattled down the ramp to join the broken horned unicorn, his own armour loose and ill fitted due to his tiny size. He carried with him a box with a gramophone style horn sticking out of the top. As he and the Unicorn came to a stop, he laid the box on the ground and pulled some kind of speaker or receiver from the gramophone’s chassis, and set up a little stand in front of the Unicorn.

No one spoke as the Unicorn stepped up to the odd microphone.

“Citizens of Equestria.” The Unicorn announced, her voice as cold and detached as her expression. “It is my honour to bring to you glad tidings. For your new King is here.”

Static’s brow furrowed. She turned to glance at Twilight, whose face was also twisted into an unpleasant grimace.

“He is the Conquerer of Nations, the Ruler of Storms, King and Emperor of the Southern World.” The Unicorn spoke flatly, not indicating any personal stance on these titles or their implications. “He is the Storm King, Ruler of all Jotunns and soon to be…” The Unicorn paused, and Static narrowed her eyes. Was that a….did she smell blood? “King of the World.”

There was a dull murmuring throughout the crowd of guards now, angry mutterings of rejection and detestation. Emperor of the World? Just how arrogant was this creature?

“The King requests that you lay down your arms, and surrender now, to spare yourselves pain, and to avoid harm that would make you useless to him and the Empire.”

That sent alarm bells ringing through Static’s head. He wanted bodies for something.

Princess Celestia had apparantly decided that she was done listening, and Princess Luna looked positively livid. They marched forward in perfect unison, their imposing stature enough to make the small creature beside the Unicorn cower a little. Not the Unicorn. Either she was used to staring down much larger creatures, or she was as robbed of emotions as her eyes.

“And if we should deny his demands?” Celestia prompted. She was standing perfectly still, staring the strange pony in the eyes. “What then?”

The Unicorn went to answer, only to be cut off.

“Then I take what I came here for by force.”

All eyes went back to the ship.

Standing in the entryway, was a figure that dwarfed all others present, not due to sheer size- though that was an enormous factor, but instead in presence. Him simply being there made many of the ponies balk, nervously eyeing the nearest way out of the courtyard and wondering if it was perhaps a better idea to gallop as fast as possible away from this creature.

He was tall, easily twelve feet tall and covered in thick armour plates. His blue eyes shone dangerously in the dim light, and his staff, a deep blue thing capped with a sparking, lighter blue crystal hung easily in his grip, point down. A pair of massive swords, each one easily as big as a pony, were strapped to his back, and his helmet sported a pair of horns that made his head look far wider than it actually was.

His face, equipped with a cruel sneer, twisted into a sick grin at the sight of the gathered ponies in their armour. “It seems that these ponies aren’t as soft and defenseless as you thought, Commander Tempest.” He noted, drawing the first real reaction from the mauve unicorn since her arrival, a quick but very noticeable wince. “I shall have to remind you to take better care when surveilling our targets in future.”

He strutted the rest of the way down the gangplank, a long, furry white tail drifting lazily behind him. He ignored the threat of the canterlot guard entirely, instead walking directly up to the two Princesses. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Princesses. I have heard more than a great deal about you.” He came to a pause in front of them. “Now, I’ll make this quite simple.” He extended his hand, not in a welcoming gesture, but instead as a ruler, demanding supplication. “Surrender your magic to me.”

Celestia looked around at her guards and gave a sad smile. “You say you have read the stories about me. Surely you must know who you are dealing with?”

“Yes, I know full well. The Unconquered Sun. The Solar Diarch. The Scourge of Dragons! Conquerer of the Northern Darkness! I know who you are, and what you have done.”

Celestia’s smile vanished. “And yet you still believe it wise to challenge me.”

“I do.”

“Then I’m afraid you’re about to be disappointed. My sister and I will not be surrendering to you.”

The Storm King chuckled, sweeping his staff out in a broad arc. “I’m afraid you misunderstand, Princess. When I said your magic, I did not mean you and your sister- at least, not just you and your sister.”

Celestia actually growled then, stepping right into the Storm Kings personal space. “Touch my fellow Princesses, or even one of my subjects, and I will burn your ships and your army to ashes.”

“And anything my sister misses, I shall be sure to finish.” Luna snarled, stepping up as well.

The Storm King raised his hands, and backed away. “Fine. I shall return when you are feeling more up to sharing.”

He began to turn away, but, as it happened, he was still facing Static when he attempted his deception. He pulled an orb free of a small pouch that he had sequestered beneath his breastplate, and span on his back foot, casting his arm out in a throw that would have sent the orb hurtling at Celestia’s face.

A bronze hoof intercepted it, hooking around from behind it and slowing it’s momentum down safely, before the Pegasus landed, orb in hoof and glaring at the King.

“I believe this is yours.” She snarled, and hurled it back at him with her wing.

Chaos erupted as the King dove to the side, and his troops began to pour out of his ships like a hive of ants, big lumbering brutes interspersed with smaller, more agile creatures, all dressed in matching, dark armour plates that bore the Kings sigil, two simple lightning bolt marks that were angled slightly towards each other.

Static was able to catch a glimpse of the unfortunate Jotunns caught in the Orb’s effect, a cloud of as expanding from the fractured orb and devouring their flesh, replacing it with a reflective, volcanic stone. Then the King was charging at her, his staff unleashing a torrent of lightning her way that snapped and hissed as it hit the stones were she had been standing. Celestia and Luna met the Jotuns with fire and silvery moonlight, carving through them with only a little trouble, while the guards had considerably more difficulty combating the much larger soldiers that had invaded their city. They combated this obstacle with teamwork, working in threes, a pegasus, a unicorn and an earth pony to each triad, using their abilities in tandem.

As Static dodged another blast of lightning, a rainbow blur shot by, knocking the King’s staff wide and giving Static an opening to counterattack. Thanking Rainbow in a brief mutter, Static plunged into the fray, rolling underneath the staff as the king brought it whistling back over her head. She came to a stop directly in front of him, hind legs curled up beneath her. Then she leaped, shoving the ground away from herself and upwards into a brutal uppercut that slammed her gauntleted hoof into the King’s unprotected chin with a sickening crack.

The King stumbled back, hand flying to his lip as a trickle of blood leaked from the split lip Static had given him. He seemed otherwise unharmed.

“Very nice. And you haven’t even drawn your weapon.” He commented, spitting out a wad of blood and sliding his staff into a holster on his back, between his twin swords. Those twin swords replaced the staff, and the king raised them in a brief salute. Static didn’t bother with a reply, instead choosing to launch herself forwards into another attack.

The blades came whistling towards her, but Static was concentrating, her mind acknowledging her surroundings and taking note of the myriad threats around her. Applejack was brawling with several Jotuns at once, while Rarity watched her back, her rapier flashing in quick jabs that poked holes in eyes or throats when they could be reached.

Twilight had produced her staff, and was using her magic to rapidly spin it in a helicopter motion behind her as she let loose magical blasts that seemed far less effective than they should have been.

Rainbow was doing what she did best, causing havoc from above, while Pinkie was introducing the business end of her warhammer to as many of King’s troops as possible. Fluttershy had retreated to the rear of the courtyard, her arrows silently ending a few soldiers before they could make their own kills.

Static jumped and rolled over the Storm King’s arm as he tried to get a proper hit on her, while she simply dodged and analyzed him. He favoured broad swings because of the size of his weapons, and was slowed down by his armour. However, the sheer thickness of those plates and the strange resistance to magic that his guards armour displayed was likely going to make trying to get through it incredibly difficult. Side step. Roll. Dive, roll. Leap, somersault. Static noticed his intense stare and recognized that he was analyzing her as well. Hence why she was giving him little to analyze.

Then that choice was taken from her. Tempest appeared, another orb in hoof that she was aiming at Static, intending on taking her out of the fight and freeing the King to pursue the Princesses.

The orb came flying towards Static and she had no other way of evading. She reached into the dream realm, and pulled free some magic, forming it into a lashing tentacle that deflected the orb and sent it hurling into the side of a tower some seventy meters away.

Seeing no point at letting the tentacle not see more use, Static lashed it out at Tempest with a thought while she continued to evade the King. Tempest tried to punch through it, rearing up and delivering a swift strike to the magic limb, only for it to instead coil around her own leg and throw her bodily across the courtyard.

The Canterlot guard, brave as they were, and even backed up by the Princesses, were barely holding their ground. It took two teams of three to properly fight one of the Jotuns, and there simply weren’t enough guards to match them all. The line faltered, pushed back by the scrum of larger Storm Creatures, and hounded by the smaller ones, which were armed with deadly dual claw blades that were attached to their bracers.

The Guard were being forced to retreat from the courtyard, slowly inching back to the various entryways into the city streets, which were thankfully more narrow and easier to defend.

However, this was not good news for Static. Her friends and the Princesses were acting as the rear guard, delaying the Jotuns as the Canterlot guard formed a barricade out of the festival vendor booths. With the Guard almost all gone, the brunt of the attack now fell on the Princesses and the Element bearers, who had managed to at least find each other and form a semicircle that was slowly tightening in front of the closest street entrance.

Static’s dodging game came to an end, vaulting away from the King and Tempest, leaping over the Jotuns and falling into place in the semicircle.

Before long, the semicircle had become a line that was being pushed down the street, barely holding back the assault. Luna and Celestia stood side by side, sword made of fire and scythe made of moonlight twisting aside pikes and swords and leaving openings for Twilight and Static to thrust and slash at their opponents as the group was pressed back. When they were about halfway to the barricade, Celestia lit her horn and teleported, carrying them all behind the line of guards and out of reach, letting the friends breathe.

“There are too many sister.” Luna grunted, sending a spell blast over the guards heads and slamming into a Jotunn. “And by the looks of things, he brought more!”

More ships were emerging from the clouds and heading to the Courtyard.

“We will be overrun before we can even call for reinforcements.” Celestia concluded.

“Not so, Princess!” A soldier arrived, quickly removing his helmet and saluting. “Major Cloud Burst, ma’am.”

“Report, major.”

“The guests from the other races, they all promised they would return with their own troops as quickly as possible. And Prince Blueblood sent out a messenger for the nearest garrison. So a call for reinforcements has gone out, ma’am.”

Celestia frowned. “It will be too late by the time they arrive.” She paused, eyes flicking to sky with worry. “Send out another messenger to intercept those messenges, tell them that they shall meet us in the Everfree Forest, at the castle of the Two Sisters. Quickly now!”

The Major nodded, and hurried on his way.

“Our old castle, sister? Is that not too close?”

“After Static suggested her failsafe’s and evacuation plans, I determined that the castle can be fortified and defended, even hidden from an invading army, should the need arise. The only other closest defendable position is the Crystal Empire, and if we attempt to flee there, we will have nowhere else to go once we do.” Celestia gave a spell blast of her own, sending several jotuns falling to ground and trying to put out their burning fur. “Take as many ponies south as you can, Luna. Use spells to conceal your movements, and wait for our reinforcements. I will hold the King here as long as I can.”

“But sister-”

“THAT IS AN ORDER, LUNA!” Celestia thundered, stamping her hoof. “NOW GET MOVING!”

Luna winced, then took off, flying low over the rooftops and away from the invasion.

Celestia turned to Twilight and the Elements. “You as well.”

“But, Celestia!” Twilight protested.

“Twilight.” The Princess did not raise her voice this time, but her tone was final. “The Elements of Harmony have been a symbol of Equestrian heroism and hope for some time now. Our ponies will need you. Now go.”

“But-”

“Go.”

The six mares reluctantly turned away, and started to follow after Princess Luna, galloping down the street as fast as they could go.

“You too Static.” Celestia turned back to the battle, the Jotuns getting close to breaking through the barricade.

“With respect Princess, but I’m not an Element, and I’m no symbol of hope. You need me here.”

The Princess stared at Static for a moment, then nodded grimly. “Then prepare to fight.”

****************************************

Author's Note

The war against the Storm King begins.

Chapter 6: Canterlot Falls

The battle was not going well for the ponies of Canterlot.

The retreating ponies were pushed back so far that they were soon spread thin by simple city geometry and design, forced to cover multiple streets in order to keep themselves from being surrounded, which meant that their line was only a pony deep and only barely managed to stretch across all avenues of potential attack. That line was unable to truly entrench itself, and as such, was constantly pushed even further as a result.

Celestia bored the brunt of the assault, teleporting rapidly across the battlefield to bolster her troops when they faltered. Her flaming sword cleaved lines through oncoming hoards and bought her guards precious time to fortify positions or simply retreat to a new one. Static did as much as she could to assist, but being unable to teleport or fly as fast as Rainbow Dash was, she was limited in her effectiveness, adding her strength to only a few streets while Celestia covered the rest.

Her sword had long since become slick with blood, the pegasus having conceded that simply knocking the invaders out was only doing them a favour, even if they would only wake up either when she let them, or when she was knocked unconscious and was unable to control her magic. Her armour was dented, and her helmet had lost one of it’s horns to a heavy blow from a pike.

There were popping and cracking sounds that were not coming from Unicorn horns or alchemical explosives, but rather from something Static had dreaded seeing in Equestria since her arrival three years prior.

Guns. They were crude, little more than prototype matchlock rifles that had terrible aim and took a long time to reload, but they were still a threat to the unwary, since the ammunition they fired seemed to be made of the same material the Jotuns magic resistant armour was.

The royal guard armour was enough to protect them from these firearms in a simple one on one fashion, but when stragglers were caught by a hail of bullets, there was little even the unicorns could do to protect them.

Static dove over the heads of her current guard force, and charged at a group of reloading rifle-wielders, ripping off her horned helmet and using the metal as a bludgeon, since it was now so dented and broken that it barely sufficed as protection, having already taken several shots from the matchlocks. Static was too tired to fix her armour anymore.

With helmet in one hoof and sword in the other, Static smashed one rifle downward with her helmet, before slicing through its owners neck and plunging the blade into another Jotun’s gut in the same motion. Ripping it back out, she dropped, avoiding several hastily drawn daggers and cutting through ankle tendons as she rolled under the Jotuns. The ones who’s ankles had been slashed dropped immediately, howling in pain and clutching their wounds.

With them out of the fight, Static leaped into action against the remaining four in the group, spinning in a deadly dance that lodged her sword in one Jotun’s heart, and put her in the middle of the others. She lashed out with her dream magic again, hellish dark tentacles erupting from thin air behind her to spear through the other Jotuns.

With that group crossed off her list of worries, Static turned tail and galloped, not particularly wanting to get caught by another volley of bullets like last time. The other groups of Jotuns were preparing to fire their next volley when a blast of sunfire scorched them to ash, leaving this street clear.

Watching as Celestia rained fire on her enemies, Static took wing and came down into a gallop behind the Jotuns pursuing this streets defenders. She leaped onto the rearmost Jotuns back and plunged her sword between his helmet and his thick bevor, slipping the blade between the protective metal plate and his helmet, dropping him to the ground as she used his tumble to launch herself onto the next one, who felt her land and went to grab her. Static sliced his hand open and used his arm as a catapult to fling her body around his, so that she landed with her hooves caving in his breastplate.

She wasn’t able to reach the forward Jotun, one of the small ones they had seen disembarking the ships, before it reached the slowest pony guard. It was on him in seconds, leaping onto his hindquarters and slashing deep into his back severing his spine. The guard was dead in seconds, but the Jotun didn’t seem to care, laughing wildly and slashing madly, using it’s awful clawed gauntlets to tear the body into bloody shreds.

Static made sure it didn’t get the chance to kill another, hurling her sword at the vicious beast and impaling it through the back. This unfortunately left her weaponless against nearly fifteen eleven to twelve foot tall monsters who saw her as little more than a new toy to break.

A crashing sound emerged from a nearby alley on her left, and a Jotun came flying out, before a familiar figure came barreling into it, a long, staff like weapon with an pointed tipped, axe like head on the end ramming into the creature and nearly splitting it in half. He was spouting curses and was in desperate need of a shower, due to how much blood covered his purple armour. Behind him lay a pile of Jotun corpses, all in states of dismemberment.

“Crimson!” Static called to the Architect, drawing his attention, and revealing him to the Jotuns. “Could you lend a hand?”

“Have you seen Twilight?!” Crimson snarled, ripping his huge bardiche free of the wall it had been embedded in.

“Not since Celestia told her and Luna to evacuate!” Static called, diving between the Jotuns in their distracted state and grabbing her sword. Her headache was getting worse.

“I don’t think anyone made it out yet! The Jotuns got to the gates first!” Crimson met the first Jotun with a headbutt, denting his helmet but knocking the Jotun to the floor in a daze, before a quick slash of his weapon slit its throat. He knocked another Jotun’s weapon to the side, taking a nasty blow from an axe to his shin in the process. His armour held, and he brought his bardiche around to decapitate the Jotun in front of him before kicking the axe wielder in the groin and spinning the blunt end of his pole-arm to smash in the axe wielder’s face.

Static did what she did best, dodging around the big, lumbering swings of her opponents before springing off of any available surface to cut through vulnerable flesh and sever armour straps for an easier time. There went a Jotun’s shin guard, and then quickly after, his lower leg, cut off just below the knee before her sword parted his head from his shoulders. Then she vaulted over a clumsy sword thrust and ran up the bearers arm before pulling on his helmet and leaping away, using her weight to unbalance him, giving Crimson an opening to slam his bardiche into the Jotun’s chest with a massive crunch. Her armoured wings flared, the radial bone of her left, similar in function to a human arm’s elbow, clothes-lining a Jotun as she flew past, sending her into a spin. She recovered in a quick tumble, before sending her hind legs into an attacker’s knees and bending them completely backwards. A quick jab with her sword ended his cries of pain.

Her mind was going numb from it all. She had killed before, and gotten over it, justified it. But this was…..too much. Too much blood. Too much death for her mind to process. So it didn’t. She felt oddly emotionless, empty of anything except rage, panic and desperation, and a burning will to survive.

The Jotuns in that street had run out of bodies to send at them now, so the two friends turned to gallop and sprint off in search of other ponies, heading towards the city gates.

They met little resistance they couldn’t deal with alone, and the few fights they couldn’t finish without help were fought beside guards they had come across along the way. Several were the last of their companies, or had been separated from theirs, so they joined Static and Crimson’s growing band of resistance as they approached the city wall.

They arrived to carnage in a ring around a cordoned off section of untouched city, bodies mounted in the streets, several of them the defenders, but most of them the attackers, something that pleased Static’s hyper alert amygdala as it was a seemingly safe place to be.

A crowd of ponies stood behind the guards, including some familiar faces that Static was overjoyed to see alive, but concerned that they were still in the city.

“Twilight! Girls!” Static called, rushing over once they had been admitted past the line of guard ponies.

“Static! Crimson!!” Twilight rushed her personal bodyguard and launched herself into a full wing hug, before giving Static a similar, if much shorter version. “I’m so glad you’re alright!”

“Why haven’t you left yet?” Static cut through the celebration of survival. Now wasn’t the time for that.

“These civilian ponies.” Rainbow panted, covered in sweat and her wing blades coated in gore. “They’re still trapped inside! We couldn’t just leave them!”

“Trapped inside? How? Why can’t you open the gates?” Crimson asked.

“The mechanism is jammed or broken somehow.” Applejack wiped her brow to clear her hair out of her eyes. Her braids were loose and her stetson looked half crushed and half torn. “We think it was sabotaged early on in the fighting, but it’s taking too long to fix it!”

“Then just bust it down!” Static thundered. “We don’t have time to waste on getting it open and getting them out of here!”

“We can’t! The city wards will defend it if we don’t open it properly! We’d lose dozens of ponies just trying!” Twilight explained, as quickly as she could.

“Then…..then what can we do?”

“You can surrender to me.”

The ponies all went dead silent. As one, they turned to the insidious voice of the Storm King, standing alone at the entrance of the main thoroughfare of Canterlot. His staff was crackling, and he was grinning. “Well? Are you all as stubborn as your Princess? Or just too scared to speak up?”

Applejack went to speak, likely intending to voice a snarky comeback, but Static grabbed her by the shoulder shook her head, motioning to the gatehouse on the wall. The Earth Pony took a few moments to look between the gatehouse and the King, before nodding and slinking away through the crowd.

A few seconds after the King spoke, Static emerged from the crowd, standing tall, with her mane and tail blowing in the hot wind created by the fires that had started to belch smoke up into the sky. She realized that Crimson was standing beside her, and, curiously, that the King didn’t seem too bothered with his appearance.

“Ah, so you know about the Architects as well then.” The King drawled, pointing his staff at Crimson. “Are you sure you want your pet to see this?”

Crimson growled, and Static felt bile rising in her throat at the insinuation. “Crimson isn’t my pet, you fucking piece of shit! He’s my friend!”

“And do you make all your little pets play dress up?”

Static bit back her next retort instead choosing to hurl a rock his way by kicking it into the air with her hind leg, then catching it in her wing and slinging it in his direction.

The King just leaned to the left and watched it sail on by, before going back to his original position with a smirk.

“Storm King!” Static winced at the sound of Twilight’s nervous voice as the Alicorn approached. She passed between Static and Crimson, coming to a stop a few paces ahead of them. “Please! Enough of this violence! Haven’t you spilled enough blood already? Much of it is your own soldiers!”

The king brushed her concerned plea aside with a laugh. “If they died, then they were weak. And the weak deserve to die, or be put in their place by the strong.”

Twilight flinched, ears splaying back in sadness. And anger.

“How could you be so cruel! We’ve never done anything to you!”

The King stopped laughing, his vaguely amused smile slipping silently from his ape-like face. “Never?” He asked. “You claim your kind has never done harm to mine?” He started to laugh again, an awful,soulless, mocking sound. “Then explain why we have been living off scraps when your people have lived like kings and queens for centuries! Explain how an empire that once claimed everything south of here as it’s own fell so far! Explain that to me, Princess, and I will concede that your kind has never done us harm!”

“We didn’t even know you existed until you attacked us, you jerk!” Rainbow yelled.

“Then your predecessors were fools too, for not telling you the truth.” The King sighed, before reaching into his armour, like he did in the courtyard. The throw came quickly, this time too quickly and far too close to Twilight for Static or even Rainbow to react.

But Crimson was closer than either of them. And he had seen the attack and started to move before the orb even left the Kings clawed hand.

It sailed through the air, headed directly for the Princess, who’s eyes widened in shock.

And then it hit Crimson instead, bursting open as he jumped in the way and dousing him in a noxious green gas, that almost instantly engulfed him in shiny, dark stone.

Twilight’s already widened eyes shrank to pinpricks. “CRIMSON!!!”

At that moment, the drawbridge fell open, with Applejack already yelling for ponies to start moving. The crowd turned and galloped, the thunder of hooves down the road that lead to freedom and safety drowning out the despairing wails of a Princess as she was hauled away by four of her best friends, watching the darkened form of another friend shrink in her sight, and the smaller form of a second friend desperately holding back a towering, storm wielding titan with nothing but a sword.

The drawbridge was closed moments after, leaving Static cut off from her friends as she tried to keep the King from chasing after them. He wasn’t holding back this time, his swords moving so fast she barely even saw them, dodging this time purely on instinct, and often failing. Cuts opened on her flanks, and her armour was systematically whittled away by a far superior blades-man than herself. She lost a length of her mane in place of her head thanks to a well timed duck, but was met with a clawed foot to the chest that sent her careening into a wall. Bricks cracked as she slammed into the thick stone, and something gave way in her ribcage, tearing a ragged, garbled shriek from her lips as she fell heavily onto the flagstones below.

She raised her sword to block the incoming blow only through sheer effort of will alone, her foreleg shaking so much from the pain that the blade wobbled in place, before the King’s own twin swords came smashing down on it.

And in that moment, something in her mind snapped. Not her psyche, or her sanity. Her Nightmare. The magical, sentient beast that had been molded by an agreement struck between pony and monster, into a sword and armour to protect her, and defend her.

It shattered like glass after all the strain it had suffered through that day.

Her armour vanished, and her sword lost its magic, lost its power, becoming nothing more than a lifeless heap of metal shards that landed, piled in front of her. She reached to trail a bloodied hoof through her shattered blade, the remains of a companion she had carried with her for over two years. Gone.

She heard a vengeful scream, and through her blurring, darkening vision, saw a burning, white light slam into the King, before his staff connected with her chest, and Celestia was sent hurtling away, crackling with electricity.

Static groaned, and slipped into the sweet embrace of darkness.

Celestia didn’t have that luxury, instead having to feel several thousand volts of lightning course through her body and send every nerve dancing in excruciating pain. Her muscles twitched involuntarily as she struggled for control, managing to get her legs under her and keeping them from buckling. She brought her flaming sword up, the magic intercepting the next attack that swept over her and crackled against the flagstones and burned all the nearby grass blades that poked up between the stones, or grew in the planters or designated green areas that Celestia had forced the nobles to accept nearly seventy years previously.

Snarling at seeing some of her work undone, Celestia galloped forward to meet the king, knocking aside his staff and slashing with a practiced grace and proficiency that had been learned across centuries. The only thing that saved the king from her blade was his own skill. Gaul broke off his spellcasting to spin his staff up, meeting her magic blade with the haft of the staff, the two weapons meeting with a shower of sparks- both made of fire and electricity.

The king shoved back against her and finding her like a mighty mountain range, completely immovable. She took his shove by bracing her muscles and locking her legs, magic holding her blade firm, before countering his shove with one of her own. She forced him backwards with all the effort it would take to knock over a barstool, her sword, eyes and mane spitting more sparks.

All around, the last of her loyal guards were valiantly battling against the King’s forces, a pair even trying to carry Static Thunder away while others protected them. Flames and smoke where consuming the city, whole blocks at a time, with smoke choking the sky in thick grey, almost black, sheets.

Celestia felt anger, pure, unadulterated rage, surging through her body and out of her horn in a torrent of flames, that met a poorly made shield and flowed over and around it, dripping to the floor and splattering the courtyard with gobbets of liquid fire. Her armour had long since melted off of her body and become a living suit of flames, turning her into a living embodiment of her blazing sun. She glowed brighter than anything in the city, or even on the planets surface, the heat starting to sear and burn everything around her in an expanding circle.

She breathed out jets of super heated air, her hoofsteps melting into the stone underneath them and carrying her closer to the King.

So close that her Alicorn vision was able to pierce through the flames and the shield, and see the King in his desperate attempt to hold her back.

And Static Thunder clasped in his grip, awake and with her teeth gritted, still trying to escape. Two royal guards lay dead behind him, with more being killed by the Jotuns even further back.

“Surrender, and they live.” The King gasped through the effort he was expending to protect himself, and by extension, Static. “Refuse and they die.”

Celestia’s eyes went wide, and she stepped back.

“NO!!!!! KILL THIS BASTARD!! DON’T RISK EQUESTRIA FOR ME!!” Static screamed her throat roar to be heard over the flames. But it didn’t matter.

The Princess had already made her choice. Her head drooped, her flames went out in an instant, and she spoke in a hushed, barely heard whisper.

“Let them go.”

The King stood, panting, before flinging Static to one side, where she was caught by more of his guards, who immediately put blades to her throat.

“No. I don’t think I will.” Celestia’s eyes turned hard again, only for a quick movement of a blade towards Static’s throat to stop her. “Try to resist, and what little is left of your precious guards, and anyone who was left behind, dies. Slowly, and painfully.”

“NO!!!! DON’T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH THI-GAHH!!” Static started trying to convince Celestia to keep fighting, but the Jotun holding her by the mane yanked back on it, hard.

Celestia bowed her head, and her blade and armour fizzled out of existence, her mane returning to it’s normal, multi-coloured hues. “I surrender. Just don’t hurt them.”

The King leveled his staff at the Princess, grinning broadly. “Oh don’t worry. I will.”

The Princess’s eyes went wide again, only for her body to suddenly betray her, an awfully familiar sensation tearing through her body. Magic streamed from her every pore, ripped from her in a stream that drained into the staff, the fires of the sun mingling with the might of the storms within, turning the staff’s crystal from blue to a deep, blazing orange that made everything around it look like it was being bathed in red. Even the King’s eyes twisted to match that vile colour, the orange light shining in their depths. With a gasp that emptied her lungs, Celestia felt that spark of immortality that had kept her alive for centuries, suddenly flicker out.

The Princess collapsed over, her wings crumbling to ash as she grew smaller, her mane going limp and lifeless. She was just a Unicorn, with pink mane and tail and pale white fur that was streaked with blood and ash. She was barely breathing.

“NO!!! CELESTIA! NO!!” Static thrashed in her captors grip, managing to wriggle free at last and snatch the Jotun’s overly large dagger from his belt and sliced across his neck before her could blink. She landed on her hooves and charged at the King, but barely made it a few steps before deep orange lightning slammed into her chest, and sent her toppling to the floor with convulsions that set her fur and feathers to smoldering.

The King made his way over to her, slowly, and casually. He stood over the Pegasus with a little smile, before he raised his foot up over her head, then brought it down in a sudden blow that sent Static spinning into unconsciousness.

*********************************

Static woke up to the taste of copper in her mouth and a nasty feeling of deja vu, like she had woken up in captivity before. Which she actually had, come to think of it, in Vancouver, when she had tried to help her family and the small group of resistance fighters in their struggle against Queen Chrysalis. They’d put her and the girls into a small room and made them wait. She’d slept through most of it.

This wasn’t like that though. This was true imprisonment. She was in a cell because her enemies had put her there. This wasn’t a misunderstanding. This wasn’t an accident.

This was real.

Canterlot had fallen.

Static sat up, looking around the vaguely familiar dungeon of Canterlot for anything that she might use.

Of course, it being a dungeon, it was designed to be as difficult as possible to escape from. Even for someone privy to it’s design and potential secrets.

Which Static wasn’t. She was trapped in a place designed to hold people like her. And she wasn’t alone. The other cells were full of ponies, many crammed into spaces that weren’t meant to house more than three or four ponies, and always exceeding that capacity- except for two. Her cell, and the cell of a pony who lay limply on her cot, her breathing slow and light, barely even noticeable.

Celestia.

She looked awful, her mane cut short like many of the ponies, and with a collar put around her neck. Her wings were gone, and her horn was far shorter than it used to be.

A quick feel with her hoof informed Static that there was no collar around her neck, strangely enough. Everypony else had one.

Sitting in that cell, Static knew that they considered her to be little more than a nuisance. That she was next to harmless, and that trying anything would be stupid and would probably get her killed. And they were almost definitely right about that.

But then again......

Static had never claimed to be a genius.

*****************************************

Chapter 7: The Commander's Choice

The fact that she was alive was not lost on Tempest Shadow.

She had survived when she should, by all reckoning, have been killed. It felt wrong. Tempest didn’t particularly want to keep living. If living was either suffer as a slave, or serve the king, she would, after many long nights of careful consideration, choose the other option and call it quits on the whole breathing deal.

It wasn’t like she particularly liked the idea of just giving up and dying either. She was quite fond of being alive, even if her life for the past few years had been one of absolute misery. She knew it could be good. She’d experienced some of that as a foal, before the...beatings ...and even as a teenager, growing up with colts and fillies who were terrified of her and hurt her because of that, she had had small glimpses of that better life. Small moments with her parents. One or two adults who treated her with kindness. Even one other filly who at least tried to talk to her. She’d just been too angry to see it.

It was her fault those were gone. But that hadn’t stopped her from hoping, yet.

That hope was very weak now, though, hence her current train of thought. With the supposedly “Unconquered Sun” lying in a cell in the dungeon, and the rest of her kinsponies on the run….it was hard to see how it was even possible to find a way out of this that didn’t involve a particularly lengthy and gruesome death at the hands of those she betrayed- be that of the ponies, or the Storm King.

She found herself drawn back to one particular cell, as she made her rounds. The pony inside seemed to have lost all hope, just sitting there, passively, barely even moving. A far cry from the warrior that Tempest knew her to be.

And yet Tempest couldn’t stop seeing Static Thunder, and how viciously she had fought for what she loved. She couldn’t stop seeing that pony effortlessly cut down a multitude of Jotuns and hold back the King, entirely on her own in many of those cases.

The glimpses she had caught throughout the battle, and the reports she had received...they made this pegasus, a creature the King denounced as weak, and pathetic, look….well, it made her look like a bucking titan in her own regard. It had taken the King himself to put her down, and if he hadn’t had the staff….it was entirely likely that the pony would have been his match. His equal.

That strength...Tempest didn’t believe it was gone. The pony before her seemed to be deadened, passionless.

But Tempest could see it in her eyes.

It was very hard to lie with your eyes. And every so often, Tempest caught it. A flash of that same defiance that she had seen when the pony fought the king.

Looking at this pony made Tempest angry. Angry at the King. Angry at the Jotuns.

Angry at herself.

She hated what she had become. Hated the puppet the King had made of her.

His training sessions were brutal. He beat her when she failed. He deliberately went out of his way to remind her that he was in charge, that he owned her.

She hated all of it. Hated how she had just accepted it. Hated how she had been stupid enough to trust him. Hated how she lacked the courage to just walk away. The way that Static would.

Maybe her death would be doing the world a favour.

….But then again…..maybe her living would be doing it one as well…….

Tempest grit her teeth as she stared through the bars at the chuckling madmare.

If only she had decided to act earlier, when the King was less powerful, when the Princess was still and Alicorn. When Canterlot hadn’t yet fallen. It would be so much easier if she had done something sooner.

If she fought the king now….she’d pretty much be committing suicide. But if she didn’t….then she would also be condemning herself and so many others to life under his boot.

She had to choose.

And she didn’t know what to do.

**********************************************

Betraying someone isn’t easy. Oh, buck it was not. In fact, now that Tempest was contemplating doing so, every vaguely odd look that any of the King’s soldiers directed in her direction-whether or not it was intended for her- seemed to be the accusing glance of a potential informant about an equally potential traitor. She couldn’t bring herself to talk to anyone that she didn’t need to talk to, her equine need for company doing it’s best to drive her insane with that need.

Instead she kept herself unusually quiet and subdued. She wanted to kick herself for making her discomfort so obvious, but she couldn’t help herself.

Trotting through the halls of Canterlot Castle only compounded her guilt, especially when there were groups of newly collared ponies being lead down the hallway she was in at the time. Seeing their glares, their hateful eyes boring into her...Tempest gritted her teeth. At least her time with the Storm King had been good for teaching her how to keep her emotions hidden from others ...almost all of them, at any rate. No matter how hard she tried, the King always seemed to be able to see how she actually felt about a given situation- but since he had spent the last month playing with his new power like a child with a ball, she saw no reason that she would encounter him in the halls.

Not until the novelty of Alicorn magic wore off on him at least, which, if the erratic patterns of the sun moving across the sky were any indication, wouldn’t be any time soon. She could count on his delight keeping him occupied for at least another few days.

Which left her almost completely free to plan her move.

Almost completely free.

While the Jotuns were no problem to fool, she had a much more difficult time dealing with the King’s “hounds”. The smaller soldiers with their claws and their mad laughter were much harder to fool. They seemed to notice any little twitch ...or rather, their high pitched chuckling always made it seem like they had.

The worst was their commander, but he was still keeping watch over the King’s favourite…..maybe second favourite toy now. He wasn’t due to arrive for another few days.

Tempest hurried on her way. Her rounds inspecting the guard detail for the twentieth time were boring, and kept her busy. It was most likely another way to keep her from forgetting her place. Commanders weren’t usually left with that crap. Usually that sort of duty was left for the lower ranked officers.

Still, it gave her the perfect opportunity to plan.

She couldn’t do much in the castle itself- too many eyes, too many ways that she could get turned around should things go south. But if she could get a weapon to the Pegasus, then maybe Static could get herself free while Tempest caused some confusion.

Any plan she could concoct to help the ponies would be risky, if she dared to try. Especially if the King caught wind of it.

Maybe if she could limit the number of guards around Static somehow, and smuggle a weapon to her, something small and easily concealed somewhere...not that the pony had many places she could hide something. It was pretty much mane, tail or wings.

And what kind of weapon? A dagger? She could accidentally slice herself open retrieving it from wherever she hid it.

A projectile weapon then. A crossbow was too big, and no necessarily lethal enough to pierce a Jotun’s armour. No, it would need to be something she could use in close quarters, something that the guards would not be expecting.

Tempest shuddered at how she was contemplating helping the pegasus kill some of the Jotuns she had been living with for….how long had it even been now? She’d stopped counting somewhere after the fourth year. Guess that went to show just how much she had grown to hate them all. It would give a psychiatrist a field day.

That could wait until it was all over though. Working through her issues would be a full time job, one she didn’t have time for right now.

Tempest found herself missing her horn more than ever. Her brand of magic was hardly what she would consider subtle. She found herself fantasizing about freeing the ponies with some fancy magic learned in some fancy school somewhere, and before she realized it, had walked straight into the throne room without meaning to.

The King was stood out on a balcony, still playing with the Staff of Sycanas like a dog with it’s new favourite chew toy.

That didn’t stop him from noticing his commander entering the room.

“Ah, Commander. Good, I was hoping that you would stop by after your rounds. I’ve reached a decision on what to do with our prisoners downstairs- the unruly ones, at least.”

“What do you command, my King?” Tempest was glad that he hadn’t seen fit to turn around and look at her, or he would have seen her narrowed eyes and gritted teeth before she could do anything about them. She quickly brought them back under control, putting her mask on, hoping that it wouldn’t be necessary to try hiding her emotions from him, since she always seemed to fail at convincing him.

Thankfully, he was too enraptured by Princess Celestia’s magic. He made the sun start whizzing about in figure eight circles, no doubt doing massive amounts of damage to Equus’s weather systems in the process.

“My King, if you continue to play with the sun this way, you might very well ruin the world. There are other ways to play with that magic besides flinging the sun around.” Tempest knew that getting him to stop was a terrible idea at the present, when she was depending on him being distracted, but having the sun itself being treated like a simple bouncy ball by a power mad Jotun in the grips of childish misbehaviour was likely to end in disaster if it wasn’t put to an end.

The King stopped, setting the sun to a more natural course and looking wistfully at the staff in his claws.

“It wouldn’t do to accidentally burn down your entire empire because you mishandled it.” Tempest added.

If there was one thing that the King would not risk, it was his power over others. Accidentally burning them all to death would ruin his fun.

What a travesty, to ruin his fun.

You know what? Screw needing him distracted, seeing that disappointed look on his face was damn well worth it.

The King sighed and turned around, walking back inside and staring at the twin thrones that took up the end of the massive room. He fingered the staff with a single hand, before he leveled the length of crystal at the enormous seats.

“I made a decision on the unruly prisoners, and the Princess.” Gaul reiterated, still eyeing the thrones.

“So you said, my Lord. What decisions have you made?”

The King grinned, staff thrumming with power, and his red eyes crackling. “Execution.”

The Solar Throne exploded in a shower of dust and debris.

“Take the prisoners into one of the buildings near the central plaza, and have your Squadron build a gibbet. Then ready the broadcast spell. I want the world to know that the “Unconquered Sun” met her end on my word.”

Tempest listened with growing horror, her eyes shrinking into pinpricks as she realized what she was being asked to do.

“Y-yes...My lord.” Tempest mumbled, bowing, before turning and walking away, her face pale and her mind numb.

Kill Celestia…..Kill Static Thunder. If she did this…..if she did as she was commanded, then there really was no going back…..and if she defied the King….he would never stop hunting her.

Tempest grit her teeth again, not for the first time, and marched steadfastly out of the Throne room, and went in search of her squadron.

She had preparations to make.

**************************************

The Gibbet that Tempest’s troops had constructed was a massive and ungainly thing. Constructed of wood and situated closer to one end of the plaza, with the back of the gibbet facing away from the city center, backed up by the sky.

The ponies due to be executed had been constrained in ropes, chains and magic suppressors in the broken remains of a cafe of some kind. Tempest wasn’t entirely sure about it, since most of the furniture had been smashed up to be used as fire or construction supplies. Tempest looked about at the fair city of Canterlot with wistful eyes. She had been told about it since she was a filly, about how it was full of light and laughter, that the trees were the greenest greens and the walls shone in the sunlight.

Now it was just grey from fallen ash. And brown from mud. Black, and red from fire damage and blood, with nothing left of it’s pristine beauty.

These people had been happy. They had had food aplenty, water to drink, and lived comfortable, safe lives, provided for by benevolent rulers who strove to help their ponies reach their potential.

And now all that was gone.

Tempest remembered some of the many words the King had used to persuade her to his cause. “Magical power, wasted by those that don’t understand what it means to go without. Magical power wasted by those not strong enough or brave enough to use it for something greater.”

Looking at the ponies who were being brought into the plaza, in chains, and remembering how they got there….Tempest couldn’t see it any more. They were vulnerable, yes. They had been caught, yes. But the resentment in the eyes staring up at her…. The burning passion and anger. They didn’t seem unwilling, or too cowardly to use magic.

Tempest stood stock still upon the gibbet’s main platform, decked out in her full armour, and, for once, wearing her ceremonial sword at her side- despite her lack of practice with bladed weapons, preferring blunter weapons in combat. It was a vicious looking thing, but highly impractical, with a jagged edge more likely to get caught on her opponents instead of simply cutting or stabbing them, should she ever try to use it. She was tense, her decision not to decide making the air around her seem to close in as the minutes between now and the time of the execution ticked away.

It was all arranged. The broadcast “spell” as the King called it, had been set up so that he could be seen, and the stage as well. He was standing on the balcony of the city museum, with the “spell” ready to be activated in front of him. It was designed as a bowl with a carefully crafted lens and reflective mirrors over top of it, held inside a copper tube bent at a ninety degree angle. The result was a primitive broadcaster that could pick up imagery and then show the image on the other end of the communication “spell” on the other side of the bowl. Anyone looking into the other end would see what the periscope was pointed at, with dials and knobs on the sides of the tube adjusting it’s angle and focus. It was activated by pouring a precise alchemical concoction that was brewed and then divided into multiple glass vials. When poured into receptacles, the liquid would form a visual and audial connection, hence the broadcasting capabilities.

The minutes continued to crawl by, with Tempest sweating nervously the entire time, stewing inside her armour.

And then she saw the flared light of the potion being poured.

Tempest heard the king loud and clear, since he had always been fantastic at projecting, despite his many other shortcomings, none of which he would admit to- as shortcomings, at least. The King began with a typical greeting. “Citizens of the world. I am Gaul, King of the Storm Empire, and I am currently standing in the Equestrian capital of Canterlot. My agents have distributed the necessary components for this broadcast to your cities. I tell you this, because I want you to understand that there is nowhere in this world I cannot reach.” The King stepped a little closer to the lens, so that he was framed by the copper tubing, central and filling the entire view of anyone who could see and hear him on the other end.

“This broadcast is being made for a particular reason. Today, I have achieved what none before me have. I have taken the Equestrian capital, and captured the so-called “Unconquered Sun”, Princess Celestia of Equestria, and many of her allies.” The King reached up and twisted the viewer around to point towards the stage, displaying the ragged, battered ponies that were being led in a dour procession through the crowd of enslaved ponies, towards the gibbet. “And today, at the moment that I, with the powers I have claimed from the Princess, raise the sun to its highest point over this land, these ponies who resisted my rightful reign over all, shall watch, as their beloved Princess, and her loyal followers, are hung by the neck until dead, like all the best .”

The crowd of ponies below bowed their heads forward in a wave, fear and sadness spreading through them.

“Commander Tempest. Prepare the prisoners.”

This was it. Tempest felt every step reverberate through her body, felt the accusatory stares of every member of the crowd gathered before the gibbet, and the resolute, rebellious stares of those that had ropes being put around their necks.

Save for two. Static wasn’t staring at her at all, and was instead looking at the King. Princess Celestia was staring at the boards under her hooves, her mane still dangling over her face.

Tempest was forced to look into every single pair of eyes of every pony there at the gibbet. And she did it anyway. She put the noose around their necks, and tightened it. She could see her own blank stare reflected in their resentful ones.

Then, once she had finished that, she made her way back across the gibbet, to stand by the lever that would drop the ponies to their deaths. Her hooves found purchase on the wood, and she felt the cold wet of her own sweat pressing against her skin on the frogs of her hooves.

The sun climbed higher in the sky, guided by the King’s staff.

Then it stopped, having reached its zenith high above.

“Execute the Prisoners!” The King commanded, and Tempest went to pull the lever. Only she couldn’t. She couldn’t do it. She felt her muscles seize up, and even though her shoulders were set and she was leaning in to the pull….she couldn’t move. She found herself frozen in time, panic clawing at her. That panic burned, pooling in her chest before igniting into a raging inferno that wasn’t panic anymore.

Tempest’s deadened eyes narrowed, enraged and upturned, to stare the King in the face, so that she could utter one of the hardest phrases she had ever spoken in her entire life.

“No.”

Silence.

“What did you just say, Commander? Perhaps you should speak up?” The King snarled, staff swinging her way.

“I said no.” Tempest growled.

“Say it again, one more time.” The King threatened, staff lighting up in its awful, burning orange.

“NO!” Tempest howled, before she raised her hind legs, and kicked out at the support for the gibbet, smashing through it in a shower of splinters.

A beam of sunfire and lightning detonated in the space she had been standing in just seconds after she had started galloping down the gibbet, sword clutched in her teeth and swinging it through the corded ropes that had been attached to the prisoners necks.

The crowd of slaves went wild, cheers and roars of anger unleashed as they en masse, stood up and charged at the guards all around them, not caring that they were unarmed. The resulting rush of bodies against the line of Jotuns turned the plaza into a chaotic bloodbath, with ponies and Jotuns scrambling to get hands and hooves on anything that even resembled a weapon, so that they could beat the nearest bad guy over the head until they stopped twitching. Many of them swarmed the Gibbet too, rushing to their Princess either for perceived safety or to help maintain her safety instead.

It did not take long for Unicorn horns to be free of the magic blocking rings that had been placed around them, increasing the devastation the enraged ponies unleashed upon the Stormguard. Even with their magic resistant armour, the sheer anger that the ponies were turning in their direction was proving to be more than enough to put them on the back heel, allowing Tempest and other ponies time to get the ropes off the Princess’s cohorts safely. With the Storguard actively trying to get up onto the Gibbet to stop them, the King would be killing his own troops in order to stop them, and since that was-

An explosion ripped the gibbet apart, flinging bodies everywhere, with Tempest and the Princess landing on the ground behind the burning embers of the former execution stage.

“TEMPEST SHADOW!!” Gaul roared over the crowd. “YOU ARE A TRAITOR TO THE EMPIRE!! I SENTENCE YOU TO DEATH!”

Tempest grabbed the Princess and hauled her to her hooves faster than she had ever moved before. It wasn’t surprising to find many ponies hauling tail behind her as she charged down the street that had backed the gibbet.

“COME ON!! THE DOCKS ARE THIS WAY!” Static Thunder called. She was flapping her wings like a maniac, propelling herself ahead alongside a dozen other pegasi, most likely to try commandeering a ship or two so that they could get a larger number or ponies to safety.

With the pegasi leading the charge, and the Jotuns running behind them, much slower, the ponies made their way to the docks, overwhelming the small numbers of Jotuns who they met along the way, since most had been present for the execution, or posted at the walls and city gates.

The docks were crowded with ships, most of them the nasty, massive warships that Tempest had despised since first seeing them- not just because they were the King’s navy, but because their designs were simply unpleasant to look at and focused purely on arms and armaments, instead of maneuverability.

That could not be said of the drafted or captured ships used by the messengers and courier ships. Crewed by their enslaved former owners and captained by a small number of guards and officers of the imperial navy, the ships were much more lightly armed, and had less in offensive capability, but were faster and more nimble.

Such as the one Tempest was looking at.

“THE SKYLARK!!” She cried to the Pegasi, who were already fighting the Jotuns at the docks. “THE ONE WITH THE GOLDEN BALLAST ARMOUR!”

One of the pegasi looked up to her, then to the ship, then back to her, and gave her a quick, curt nod, before leading the other ponies towards the Skylark. The small crowd of ponies following her charged onto the deck of the Skylark and two of its neighbouring ships, overpowering the guards through sheer numbers and booting them overboard. Within minutes, the crews were freed, a mixture of two legged, flightless bird people, and a few other two legged species, such as the cat-like Abyssinians and a few fish like people as well.

One of the Skylark’s freed crew members, a parrot beaked avian with creamy feathers and a bright green head crest, was already barking orders to her fellow crew members, while the ponies held back the retaliating Jotuns as they tried to get them off of the ships. The engines were soon firing up, roaring into life while the docking clamps installed by the Jotuns were broken apart by the magic blasts of the freed Unicorns.

Behind the Jotuns and ponies still fighting on the docks, Tempest could see the Storm King and the rest of the Jotuns, charging towards the docks at full force, roaring- and shrieking in the hounds case.

Sprinting as fast as he could ahead of them, was Grubber.

One of the crew members was retracting the gangplank, making Tempest’s eyes widen as she saw Grubber was about to be left behind.

The Storm King’s staff tore the ship to the Skylark’s starboard side apart in an inferno of sunfire and screaming. Grubber had reached the docks, but the Skylark was already sliding back out of the dockyard.

Scrambling towards the prow of the ship, and then scrabbling up the bowsprit, Tempest reached out for Grubber. “GRUBBER! YOU HAVE TO JUMP!”

Grubber kept running, the Hounds hot on his heels, as the armoured mental patients prepared to skewer him on their outstretched claws. He reached the end of the pier, and leaped, pawed hands reaching for Tempest.

Tempest felt his paw collide with her hoof, relief starting to etch onto both friends faces.

Then Grubber grunted in surprise, with Tempest screaming in surprise as a sudden weight tried to pull her from her precarious perch on the bowsprit. Dangling from the claws that were sticking out of Grubber’s pudgy little body, was one of the Hounds, giggling and cackling at the vicious act it had just committed at the cost of its own life. Grubber looked up at her, with a quick, sad smile, before his grip went slack, and Tempest was left to try, in vain, to lift her friend up onto the ship.

There was a blur of brown, and the Hound went sailing into the empty air beneath Canterlot with a howl, and Tempest was able to haul her friend up onto the bowsprit, which she then fell backwards off of, collapsing onto the deck as the King and his troops shrank into the distance, with the few ponies that had been unable to escape the city keeping the Jotuns from launching their ships and chasing the escaping prisoners.

Static came in to land beside Tempest as she clutched Grubber to her chest, the Pegasus almost keeling over from exhaustion and malnourishment the moment her hooves made contact with the wood.

Tempest ignored her, still wanting nothing more than for her friend to open his eyes and make more stupid jokes about food.

She would never get her wish.

*********************************************

Chapter 8: Safe

After a bit of guidance, the Skylark and the other ship, humorously named “Bait Me”, came to land in the clearing that housed the huge ruin that had once been the Castle of the Two Sisters, settling onto their landing gear with creaking groans of straining metal and wood. It had been a bit of a strange sight, to come up to what had looked like another stretch of nothing but dense forest, only for the illusion to ripple apart as they passed through it, revealing a huge castle and the clearing the ships were now settling in.

Static’s legs felt like a plate of jello as she tried to stumble her way down the extended cargo ramp. She was tired, and dirty, and covered in all kinds of gunk, and she was worn out in every way. Even the day long journey to reach the Castle hadn’t been enough to recuperate much, since she’d been too worried about the King following them to actually rest.

Added on top of that was a month long stretch of poor food and an uncomfortable living space, which only made it worse. She’d lost weight and her face felt far too thin.

A small crowd had emerged from the fortress, the first wave a set of armed guards who quickly put up a call for medics and other assistance once they realized who it was who had found their way to the old castle. Static grunted as she helped support the weight of Princess Celestia, another pony she recognized as a disheveled Fancy Pants on her other side.

Tempest walked slowly and sullenly behind them, her armour removed and a few guards staying close by, not trusting her apparent capitulation. Her small friends body was draped over her back, the pony not wanting to leave him behind when she left.

“Sister!” A flurry of wings and hooves carried Princess Luna over to the haggard Princess and her helpers, embracing the exhausted Alicorn in a gentle yet much needed bear hug that was weakly returned. Luna was smeared with mud and was missing pieces of the armoured suit she wore- the same one she had worn during the invasion of Canterlot, which was covered in new scratches and dents that had not been there the last time Static had seen her.

Luna pulled away from her sister, moving her mane out of Celestia’s eyes so that she could look into them. The grayish magenta of her siblings eyes were slightly misted over by tears of relief.

“You look terrible.” Luna chuckled, and Celestia joined her, though while Luna was smiling, Celestia was not. “Are you alright?”

Celestia sighed, looking to her wingless sides. “I have most definitely been better.”

“Come, you need food and medical attention.” Luna picked her sister up in her magic, gently cradling and supporting her. Then, looking at the other escapees, but ignoring Tempest, she hoisted them all into the air, and carried them into the castle.

Within minutes, the group of ponies and avian’s were being fussed over by nurses and doctors. The equipment they were using was old fashioned and crude, fished out of the castle’s old medical facilities and cleaned up. The reason for the lack of decent supplies was from the rushed evacuation of Canterlot and Ponyville, forcing the doctors and nurses who got out to leave much of their equipment behind. What little they had was either scrounged up after the evacuation, or found and refurbished from the castle’s old supplies.

Wounds were cleaned, some incisions made to help some of those wounds close cleanly, others had flesh that had started to rot cut away. Those with broken bones had them set, a few having to have those bones re-broken- including Static, who shrieked loud enough to startle the entire ward when her rib was re-broken and set using magic.

By the time it was done, Static was very glad for the IV pumping painkillers into her bloodstream, wincing with every breath even with them. Some of her cuts and wounds from the battle had started to rot too, so she’d had to go under the knife for those.

She was understandably very sore as she lay under the sheets of her makeshift bed. She had no idea what time it was or how long she’d been there. In fact, she was pretty sure that she had been completely blacked out for half of it. At least, she hoped so with how little she remembered.

She hadn’t been updated on anything either, not since she’d been put in here.

“Getting bored yet?” Static looked up to the doorway of her relatively private room- relatively, since the only other occupant was gently snoring away, so they were unlikely to overhear anything, or care about the conversation.

Static broke into a grin, relieved at the sight of her sister standing there. “Rosie.”

“Hey. How are you holding up?” Rose sat herself down at the edge of the bed, wings folding carefully. “I heard you got a pretty hard time up there.”

Static chuckled humorlessly. “Yeah, we all did. Poor food, guards with no sense of humour and generally just uncomfortable living conditions. Oh, and the occasional beating. So yeah, I’m more than a bit worn out.”
` Rose couldn’t help but lean over to give her sister a hug.

“How’s Crystal?”

“Doing okay, for the most part. Fluttershy and I have been taking turns looking after her whenever one of us have to do something. She’s missed you though, a lot.”

Static nodded. She fumbled with her hooves for a bit, simply out of a desire to move more than she had for the last few hours. “And how’s everything else going….you know….with fighting back?”

Rose didn’t answer. Not immediately, at least. She looks over to the other patient with a tired expression before she finally spoke. “We’re not. We’re too spread out and too weak to even consider fighting back right now. Most of Canterlot’s guard is either lying in a hospital bed, dead or captured. The rest of the Equestrian guard is too busy ensuring the safety of their own cities and civilians to even try fighting back properly. Equestria as a kingdom….it’s almost empty, Static. They’re all fleeing to allied nations in search of sanctuary.”

Static groaned, falling back onto her bed. “So he owns everything, then.”

“Not yet.” Rose shook her head. “While it’s true that we’re at a severe disadvantage right now, the King seems to have only brought an advance force with him, almost half of which was wiped out in the battle.”

Static blinked in surprise. “He only brought that many troops?”

“Don’t get me wrong, he still brought a huge amount in comparison to what the Guard were able to use, but you made them pay for every inch of ground they took. The King’s been sitting in Canterlot for all this time because the rest of his army is taking far longer to get here. Your turncoat friend confirmed as much when Princess Luna questioned her.”

“What did she say?”

“I don’t know all the details. Only that the invasion was rushed, for some reason. Most of his army wasn’t ready in time, so he left them behind to finish preparations.”

Static smiled. “Well, that’s some good news. Maybe this isn’t completely hopeless yet.”

“Maybe.” Rose smiled, but she wasn’t very convincing in her attempt to sound hopeful. “I’ll, uh, let you get back to resting, and I’ll let Crystal know you’re back.”

“Thanks.” Static winced again as she felt her ribs twinge, but she chose to just bear with it.

Rose left the room, trotting off along the corridor and out of the medical wing, navigating the ruined castle with a now practiced ease until she reached the room she, Fluttershy, her brother Zephyr Breeze, and her adopted niece, Crystal Aster, were sharing. Pinkie was also there, her hair hanging straight and darker than normal, a state she had been in since she had left Canterlot.

“Guys. I’ve got some good news for once.” Rose announced with a smile. “Static’s back. She and a bunch of others escaped with Princess Celestia.”

“Mummy’s back?” Crystal jerked upright, eyes wide and lip trembling in excitement.

“Cellie’s back?” Pinkie gasped, looking up at Rose.

“Yes, mummy’s back, and you can go say hello if you want. Just remember to be gentle.” Both Pinkie and Crystal jumped to their hooves and immediately slammed their faces into the closed door before opening it and charging outside. “Be gentle!!” Rose called out after them, as an equally ecstatic Fluttershy scrambled to her hooves behind Rose, and started following her daughter.

Back in the medical wing, Static heard a few surprised shouts in the distance before smiling. “Three, two, one.”

The door slammed open, and Crystal came charging in, leaping into the air and coming down hard on her mummy’s belly, knocking the wind out of her in a great wheeze. A Pink blur streaked past, pausing just long enough to look in through the door, before streaking off again. Then, a gasp of realization erupted from just down the hall, before the sound of rapid hoof-beats reversed their direction, and Pinkie Pie came streaking into the room. “CELLIEEEEEEEE!!!!!”

The other patient bolted upright in shock and surprise at being woken up, before suddenly being smothered by a very relieved and delighted mare whose deep, candy floss mane tickled her nose and ears at the same time that the same pony’s mouth was showering the hapless Princess in kisses.

Celestia managed to finally pull Pinkie off of her with far more effort than she used to need. “Pinkie! What have we said about this in public!!”

“I don’t care! You’re back, and you’re okay!!” Pinkie squealed, wrapping her legs around the now much smaller former Alicorn and squeezing tightly.

“Gah!! Pinkie!! Your hugs are too tight!!”

Pinkie just laughed, patting the top of Celestia’s pink mane. “Ha ha ha, no they’re not.”

Celestia just gave up with a sigh.

“Mummy!” Crystal beamed into Static’s face, doing her best to hug her adoptive mother to death with an attack of cute that made Static want to squee very, very loudly. “I missed you so much!!”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m back then, isn’t it, little bug? Don’t want my little Princess getting too worried about me, do we?”

“Nope!” Crystal chirped.

Fluttershy chose that moment to crash in through the open door, tripping over her own mane and slamming headfirst onto Static’s bed like a sack of potatoes. She quickly wriggled and wormed her way up the bed and into her shocked lover’s forelegs before contentedly sighing and snuggling as deep into Static’s chest fluff as possible.

“I take it that Cryssie wasn’t the only one that missed me.” It was more of a statement than a question, and even of it had been, if certainly didn’t need answering.

Fluttershy just mumbled something about missing Static and how she should never do that again. Static wasn’t overly enthusiastic about arguing against her fiancee, so she stayed quiet and snuggled back.

“So, uh, which pony do we hug?” Applejack asked from the doorway, hat askew and looking to Rarity for guidance in the matter.

“Static. I think Pinkie would chase off anyone else right now.” Rarity giggled at the sight of Celestia’s scrunched up mouth, as the Princess tried to pretend she wasn’t incredibly happy to have a marefriend kissing her cheek, neck, horn, lips and nibbling on her ears. The corners of Celestia’s mouth were already betraying her inner smile by twisting up a little into a tiny grin.

Static pretty soon was buried beneath a pile of mares, gasping for breath while trying to laugh at the absurd number of tails all waving around above her while their owners wrapped their forelegs around her, laughing and crying a little in joy at their reunion. Then a rainbow maned Pegasus busted into the room and dog-piled on top of them, making the entire pile topple over and sent most of them sprawling all over the room, just in time for a nurse to look inside, shake her head, and start bossing the excited ponies around, telling them to stop “pestering the Princess and Ser Thunder.”

So the friends began animatedly retelling their escapes from Canterlot, with most of the attention of Static’s most recent adventure and near execution at the claws of the Storm King’s minions. Once Static was finished, they settled into a comfortable half circle and simply sat together in silence, enjoying the calm and the reprieve, letting their worries take a backseat to their relief at having survived.

But eventually, the hours passed by, and it was time for her friends to leave Static alone, and for the nurses to find something to use to pry Pinkie off of Celestia, the party mare having fallen asleep where she hung from Celestia’s neck, leaving the diarch to grumble under her breath about drool in her coat.

But sleep did not come easily to Static, even with the medicine that was on hoof to aid her. She’d told the doctors and nurses to treat everyone else first, but they weren’t interested in listening.

It was with a weighted mind and an equally heavy heart that Static finally drifted off to sleep, not even trying to slip into the dream realm because of how tired she felt. Her dreams were haunted by the ringing of swords, and the cries and screams of those that had fought and died beside her. The image of a two legged statue lingered in her beleaguered mind, and a burning desire whispered thoughts of vengeance into her head. Oh how she wanted so desperately to return the pain that the King had so generously provided, with interest.

Those thoughts deepened, turning to the past, revisiting the battle of Vancouver, and the best friend who had died there. Like with Crimson’s petrified body, Anna’s terrified face stayed in the forefront of her mind as she dreamt.

When her eyes opened in the morning, Static had to blink away the afterimage of her dreams that night, the lingering faces of her friends imprinted into her memory like a brand that faded with the night.

She shook her head, letting her ratty mane hang over her eyes as she swung her legs and body out from under the covers of her makeshift hospital gurney. Her hooves met the floor with soft clicks of keratin on stone. She felt her tail slowly slide off the mattress and flap limply down behind her. She wondered why her mane and tail had been left uncut by the Jotuns, but decided it wasn’t worth thinking about as she plodded her way out of her room, following her nose until she reached the bathroom.

After going through the arduous process of relieving herself and cleaning up afterwards, Static shambled back into bed, ignoring the gobsmacked faces of the doctors who said she should barely be able to walk after all of her ordeals over the past month, before climbing back into bed and under the covers.

She ignored their annoying braying about how she seemed perfectly fine today, when she had been emaciated and starving yesterday. She didn’t care. She was too busy asking about getting some food, since she was starving and her magic felt awfully low.

“How is this even possible?” One of them asked, to which Static merely grunted and flipped him the Pegasi’s equivalent of the middle finger with a wing- a wing that had apparently had a fracture yesterday, and may have yelled at him to either get her something to eat, let her sleep, or find out how a bedsheet tasted when it was shoved down his throat by an annoyed Pegasus. He had balked pretty quickly, and left with his fellows to have the cooks prepare her something.

A few hours later and some apologies later for her rudeness, and Static was staring at herself in wonder. The Doctors had been right. Many of the wounds that had been stitched shut had sealed shut and were no longer sore, while her broken rib and fractured wing were mended too. She still had bald patches from where they had stitched her up, and there were some nasty scars there, but she was otherwise okay, if still sore and irritable.

She was discharged from the medical wing by midday, with orders to go see Twilight, to hopefully get an explanation from the reportedly overworked young Alicorn.

Static found her in the bowels of the Castle’s old dungeon, looking over a multitude of projects done by a team of scientist and thaumatician ponies who were analyzing Storm Empire weapons, working on producing counter-agents to the gas used on Crimson, and various other things. The mare herself was frazzled, her mane wildly sticking out in all directions and her eyes dark with bags that made her look like she had not slept in weeks, which may have been completely true by that point. That Twilight hadn’t even come to see her mentor meant one of two things to Static: One, that Twilight was too busy to come, or two, she was simply so absorbed and consumed by her work that she hadn’t even registered that two of her good friends- that she had probably thought were dead- were alive and safe. Either way, Static didn’t care, she needed to talk to Twilight about her odd recovery, and Twilight needed to talk with someone- anyone.

“Twilight?” Static called as she approached Twilight, who was hunched over a parchment with a quill, a completely unconscious Spike curled around her table in a protective ring of scales and spines. “Twilight?”

“Did you bring the samples I asked for, Moondancer?” Twilight snapped, her voice terse and full of a manic urgency.

“I’m not Moondancer, Twilight.”

Twilight whirled around, her eyes not even focusing on Static as she almost roared in Static’s face. “Then why are you here? I’m busy! Ask one of my assistants! That’s what they’re here for!” She spun back around to face the table again, too absorbed in her work to even notice who it was asking for her.

Static frowned, folding her wings in front of her as if they were arms. Such a great welcome back. Static shook her head and thought back over the number of times that her sarcastic retorts had been held back out of politeness. Well not today!

“I would ask them, but they’re a little busy kissing a Princess's ass to pay attention to little old me.” Static said, leaning against a nearby desk. “You wouldn’t happen to know her, would you? Purple? Wings, horn and a silly haircut?”

Twilight harrumphed, ruffling her feathers and shuffling her papers. She rolled her eyes at Static’s lippy remark, instead choosing to ignore it in favour of looking for a solution to her current problem. “The metal is highly resistant to magic and requires non-magical means of study, and seems to be treated with some kind of chemical which gives it its unique properties, yet attempts to separate or synthesize the chemical mixture result in petrification, similar to the affects observed on Architect Guard member, Cr-” Twilight’s breath caught for a second, before she carried on. “Crimson Pureheart. No known remedy for this petrification. Chemical solutions producing no results so far, and no magic seems capable of loosening the bonds between the reacted atoms…...UGH! There’s something obvious that I’m missing, I just know it! What is it I’m missing, Static? What am I not seeing?”

“Uh-”

“Don’t worry, I’ll get it in a minute.” Twilight groaned, slapping her papers down on her desk with another moan of woe, slamming her head down onto the wood next to it. Spike remained comatose, having probably stayed up all night to help his adoptive big sister.

Static smirked, and started flipping the feathers on her right wing down in a count of seconds.

As her counter hit zero, Twilight’s head perked up, and she turned herself around to look at Static, who did her best to appear as nonchalant as possible. Dazed, Twilight walked over to her, raised her hoof, and gently prodded Static in the chest.

“Boo.” Static grinned.

“Uh…..Hi.” Twilight mumbled, still taking in her Pegasus friend in all her half-shaven, scarred glory.

“Hello Twilight. How are you today?” Static asked.

“Um…..” Judging by how the Princess flung herself onto her friend and started crying, Static guessed that she was very much relieved to see her alive and well.

Once Twilight was done coating Static’s shoulder in a layer of snot and tears, she pulled back and started spouting off on a tangent of questions, most of which were about who else had escaped. “Is Princess Celestia okay? What about the guards? What about Crimson? Did you see what happened to him? TELL ME HE’S OKAY!!”

“Twi, Twi….Twi….” Static had to wait for her to calm down enough to listen, and her answer wasn’t the hopeful one she wanted to give. She placed her hooves on the younger Princess’s shoulders, looking her dead in the eyes. “Princess Celestia is in the medical wing, recovering from imprisonment. Most of the surviving guards got out… but I have no idea what happened to Crimson. Last I saw, he was standing in the courtyard where we left him.”

“O…..Oh.” Twilight bit her lip and her ears folded back. “I….I should go and see Celestia.”

“Not yet.” Static inwardly winced at how quickly she spoke, but kept it from showing on her muzzle. “She needs her rest, and Pinkie already wore her out yesterday. Right now, the doctor’s want you to take a look at me.”

“Yesterday? How long have I been working down here if I missed you coming back?” Twilight asked, before waving the thought away. “Apart from those bald patches and scars, you look okay. Why do they want me to look at you?”

“Because yesterday these were all still open wounds, fresh from the operating table. Now they’re sealed up, and no one cast any rapid healing spells on me. I shouldn’t be up and about already.”

Twilight’s ears twitched and a familiar look settled in her eyes. The need to discover.

“That is strange, if they’re sure no one cast on you. Come over here, and I’ll start by giving you a quick physical examination so I know what I’m dealing with.”

The physical examination was little more than Twilight looking at Static through several different pairs of magical glasses that had numerous and seemingly random effects, from x-ray enchantments to gingivitis detectors that made Static’s teeth light up red wherever her teeth were in good need of a clean- which thankfully wasn’t much of an issue. The exam lasted only thirty minutes before Twilight reached the same conclusion the Doctor’s had. Static was, for lack of a better phrase, as healthy as healthy can be. No sign of long term injury or damage of any kind, despite the rotten flesh they had removed only the day before.

“This is strange, and definitely beyond what even a Pegasus like Rainbow is capable of. She can recover from wounds approximately one and a half times faster than an ordinary Pegasus, even serious ones, but you more than doubled that time.” Twilight paused, muttering to herself a bit. “That much Pegasus magic being used at once should leave you drained and exhausted, to the point of falling comatose. But if it is magic that is the cause, then I should be able to detect traces of it in your Thaumic system. Higher than normal blood cells, increased sensory acuteness, hyper-reflexes…..hmmmmm….”

Twilight pondered over it for a bit, before she slit her horn up and started scanning Static’s thaumic systems, before suddenly jumping back in shock. “Whoa!”

“What? That’s not a good sound, Twilight. What’s wrong with me?”

Twilight lit her horn again, only this time, it wasn’t just on herself. Static’s eyes were suddenly open to a whole world of magic, swirling around them and through them.

“It’s not something wrong with you. It’s something right with you.”

“Okay, now you’ve lost me.”

Twilight groaned. “I told you to study anatomy on your time off!”

“And I said I’d think about it, now spill!”

“Alright, look. Right now, because of the spell I cast to lock your shapeshifting into a single form, you should only have access to Pegasus magic, and nothing else. With me so far?”

“Uh, yeah, I think so.”

“But what this spell is showing me is much more than just Pegasus magic. There’s an overabundance of unused Changeling, Unicorn and Earth Pony magic as well that's being tapped into.”

“.....My changeling magic is coming back?”

“Yes and no. You can’t consciously use it to shapeshift or use spells because of the damage to your non-Pegasus thaumic systems, but you’ve been in a love rich environment and converting it into magic for nearly two years without using any of it. So it just sits there, doing nothing, until ....”

“Until the Doctors start using healing magic on me.” Static nodded. “Their spells let the magic loose.”

“Right. They jumpstart your recovery after being imprisoned, and WHAM! That stored up magic suddenly has an outlet to go through! Your body heals rapidly, undoing damage at a rapid pace without leaving you tired or putting you into a coma.”

“Twilight….”

“Yes?”

“If I’m using magic to heal myself rapidly, what does that mean for the spell you put on me? Why isn’t that damage being undone?”

“I….I think it might be because my magic is Alicorn magic. Changeling magic and Alicorn magic are similar, but they don’t match up, so….” Twilight scrunched her face up as she did some more mental gymnastics to work out the answer. “So, the spell I cast couldn’t access that magic to jump start the healing process- especially since that magic wasn’t there when I cast the spell. Remember, this is a two year backlog of magic we’re talking about.”

“Right. So if you could rework the spell on me to use the magic my Changeling love conversion produces, then….”

“Then I could potentially fix your Thaumic systems much faster!” Twilight was excited, hopping on the spot in an adorable trot. “Instead of the majority of your life, I could fix the damage in as little as a decade!”

“Meaning that I would…..” Static blinked. “I’d stop being a Pegasus.”

“Yeah, and? Isn’t that great? You can go back to being the bronze shelled bug-brain we all know and love!”

Static frowned, folding her ears back and pawing at the ground. “But I like the way I am now.”

“So? What’s the problem? You could just shapeshift into that body. I mean, you’d feel uncomfortable like that but….” Twilight stopped, as she she realized what Static meant. “You’d stop feeling comfortable in any skin but the Changeling one. You’d have to adjust. Again.”

Static turned her head away, shaking a little in….well, she wasn’t sure what she was feeling.

She’d put so much stock in putting the past behind her, and now all of a sudden, a part of that past was being brought right back into the present. To be a Changeling again felt like a step back.

“I don’t want it.” Static said. “Just leave me as I am. The magic won’t hurt me, and I get the benefit of being able to recover from major injuries overnight.”

“Static….”

“Don’t. Just don’t. This isn’t a discussion.”

“Static-”

“I SAID DON’T!” Static thundered, whirling on her friend in an instant. “No more changes, no more adjusting- I’M HAPPY THE WAY I AM, DAMNIT!”

The whole lab had gone quiet, and several pairs of fearful eyes watched on as the scene unfolded.

“I know.” Twilight sighed. “I just think that maybe you should talk to someone about it. That’s all.”

“Besides, Twilight, didn’t you say before that you couldn’t mess with the spellwork anyway? Too delicate or something?”

Twilight’s already fading excitement vanished immediately, her smile replaced with a sudden recollective frown. “Oh, yeah… I kind of forgot about that in my excitement. We both did.” She rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish smile. “Even if the spell was stable enough to mess with, I don’t want to force anything on you.”

Static sighed. “I know.” The two mares shared an awkward silence before Static decided to break off. “The Doctors told me that Luna was asking to talk to me earlier, so I think I’ll go find her. What’ll you do?”

“I’ve got all this research to do…”

“Twilight.” Static firmly reached up and grabbed her friend by the shoulders. “You’ve been down here for hours already today- and who knows how long before that? Come with me up top. You could do with some fresher air and a break from all this.”

Twilight went to object, but caught sight of her own reflection in a metal plate on the table behind Static. The messy hair and the thick bags under her eyes looked awful, and the whites of her eyes were tinted red.

“....Okay. I’ll take a break.” Static smiled happily in response, turning and starting to trot out of the room while Twilight slumped her way to the door after her. Her body felt stiff and unresponsive after hours of swift bursts of motion followed by long periods of near perfect stillness.

Static stayed at a slower pace so that Twilight could keep up. Finding Luna wasn’t too hard, since she had taken to the old throne room with only a little reluctance, and had been held there by a near constant flow of decisions being brought to her about how best to prepare the castle for sheltering it’s new occupants and fending off attack. It was a constant stream of ponies needing approval, and Luna’s completely flat expression showed absolutely no inkling of enjoyment in the repetitive drivel- as if there was any but Twilight who could find hours of sitting in one place and proofreading proposals any kind of enjoyable. The pony stood beside Luna looked just as bored, her quill flicking lazily across her page of parchment.

“Princess. You wanted to see me?” Static called out, startling the Lunar Princess and making her smile for the first time that day.

“Static! I am surprised to see you up and moving this early! I thought you would be in bed for days!”

“A byproduct of me still being a changeling without having any way to use the magic that I’ve produced in the last two years.” Static returned with a smile. “Nothing to worry about.” Static said, making sure that Twilight didn’t try to explain it fully. “But you wanted to see me?”

“Yes, I wanted your opinion on Miss Tempest Shadow. She’s been sitting in a secure room since you arrived yesterday. I questioned her a little, but nowhere near enough.”

Static pursed her lips. “And you want my opinion on whether or not we should trust her?”

“Indeed. You spent the most time with her.”

“I don’t trust her. Call me stupid, but I make it a point to take anyone who suddenly tells you they’re totally good now with a healthy amount of skepticism. Just because she lost someone she says was a friend doesn’t mean this isn’t some ploy.” Static’s frankly rather brutal honesty had Twilight breathe in sharply just behind where she was standing.

The throne room was silent, it’s huge, ancient drapes and slightly cleaner floor than Static would expect from a castle this old filled with a heavy air of years untold and a very fresh dose of worry, sadness and fear.

“I thought you might have been more supportive of her, in all honesty.” Luna admitted. “To hear something so cold from you is unexpected.”

Static’s eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t born a pony, Luna. I think differently to you. When someone with a history of doing wrong suddenly turns around and says they’re good, I won’t be stupid enough to just accept them at their word. They have to prove they’ve changed. If she wants to prove that she really wants to help, she can start by telling us everything she knows about the Storm King and his armies. Their weapons, their strategies, their commanding officers, where they come from and why they do what they do.”

Luna sat back a little in her throne, the dark blue background of the old thing allowing her to almost blend in. She folded her hooves over her chest and steepled them, her head lowered so that her eyes were staring at Static from behind them. “Wise beyond your years, as ever. Wherever did you learn to be like this if you had a boring civilian life?”

“Stories, prudence, and common sense. That and a good understanding of my own people’s history.” Static replied. “You learn a lot about war when your species has spent so long fighting itself that you can barely go a year without someone being at war with someone else.”

Luna nodded in understanding. Her mane wafted in front of her face a little, hiding her right eye from view. “And what does it say of a species that even their most ordinary citizens can learn and apply so much about war with no prior experience the way you did in Vancouver?”

“That this is exactly the kind of time you need someone like me around. A fresh and different perspective can do wonders for problem solving of all kinds.”

“All too true. But it is sad that a race that lives for little time can have the same kind of mindset of an immortal warrior Princess who has had hundreds of years to reach those kinds of thought processes.” Luna frowned. She turned to the pony next to her. “Miss Inkwell, go find your sister. I think she’ll appreciate your company for the afternoon. I have a conversation to have with our resident turncoat.”

The aide nodded, happily placing the papers aside before rushing off out of the throne room in a clatter of hooves and, once she was out the doors, abandoned professionalism and started whooping and hollering in relieved joy.

“Perhaps I should have her do work when she isn’t by my side?” Luna pondered, a little smile gracing her lips. She stood up and stepped away from the throne, Static and Twilight moving up to walk beside her as the three left, heading down one of the corridors and deeper into the castle.

Twilight snorted in amusement. “She wouldn’t be very happy about it.”

“True, but I would find amusement in her annoyance.”

“You would also lose her support very quickly.” Static hummed, making sure she didn’t trip on a few loose bricks on the floor. “Right now you need their support, so staying on their good side is probably for the best.”

“Again wise, if sapping the joy out of a few harmless pranks.” Luna sighed. “Still, you once again display that wisdom. In that regard, what do you suggest we do about the King?”

“Listen to Tempest if she’s willing to talk, then corroborate the information she gives us by studying their movements and their armaments. If what she says is true, we act on it.”

Luna and Twilight exchanged looks before nodding. “You are quite right. I was hoping you would agree with my own opinions, and I am glad you do.”

“Glad the immortal Alicorn with lots of experience agrees with me- cause I’d feel like an idiot if she laughed at me cause I was spouting nonsense.” Static let go of a nervous breath before continuing. “Still, I wouldn’t be anywhere near as good at this without you having taught me.”

“Refining your knowledge with skill makes for a dangerous opponent.” Luna agreed. They turned down yet another corridor, only this one wasn’t empty like the last one. Two guards were standing by a door about halfway down it’s length. “Ah, here we are.”

“Princess.” The guards greeted, bowing at Luna. “Princess.” They inclined their heads in a second bow for Twilight, then turned to Static and gave a salute. “Ser Thunder.”

“Soldiers, at ease. We are here to interrogate the prisoner. She has given you no trouble, I trust?” Luna asked.

“None, your highness. She asked to bury her friend with your permission.”

“Supervised the entire time, and not outside of the illusion. I won’t have her giving away our position- even if by accident.”

The two nodded, then stood aside, allowing the two Princesses and the Knight to step inside.

The room had once been living quarters, but the furniture had all been removed, including the carpets, the curtains, the nails that had held up picture frames and paintings- even the ancient, low tech toilet was gone. There was a bucket in one corner of the room, which Static made sure to steer clear of, and a plate left beside the door.

Tempest was lying on the sill of the only window, itself sporting a magical shield to keep her from trying to leave through it. She was watching the swaying trees in the bright sunlight with a flat, impassive expression, her ears flat against her neck.

“Tempest Shadow.” Luna stated, her horn flashing as she summoned up a table with four cups of tea sitting on it. “I have come to talk. Please, sit.”

Tempest, to her credit, only flinched a little at the sudden arrival of three ponies into the quiet of her lonely prison cell, and made her way to the table with no fuss. She sat down and looked at each pony in turn, her gaze lingering on the Alicorn’s horns, and again on Static’s face in recognition.

“You are looking well.” She said, simply, in Static’s direction. “I had assumed you would be recovering for some time.”

“Call it a stroke of luck.” Static returned.

“You wish to interrogate me, Princess?”

“Indeed.” Luna said, her tone calm, but slightly flinty. “You claimed you wish to help us?”

Tempest shook her head. “To be honest, I want nothing to do with any of this anymore. I hate him, and I hate what he made me do, but I don’t think I’ll be of much use to you beyond what I know.”

Static watched her face the entire time, and Tempest watched Luna’s the entire time.

“I see. And you hold to your claim that you were forced to do things against your will.” It wasn’t a question.

“I do, for some things at least. I accepted his offers when he found me out of ignorance and anger, thinking I could find some manner of justice for the abuse I suffered at my fellow foals and also find a way to fix my horn- and instead was tricked into serving an abuser myself. I did the things I did because he would kill me or beat me if I didn’t, not that my successes stopped him from beating me anyway. Eventually, I came to the realization that whether I did what he said or not, he would hurt me, and keep hurting me, and that I would never get what he promised me. So I decided to leave. It just so happened that he pushed me too far in Canterlot, and breaking Princess Celestia and the others was really just a bonus. One last way to tweak his nose and rebel before I either got killed or got out. Now I am here.”

“So you claim. Forgive me for not trusting you just because you appear to be honest.” Luna retorted, still calmly sipping her tea. Static had to hide a sympathetic wince for her Princess- Luna much preferred coffee to tea, almost to the point of addiction. But not quite.

“I would think you an idiot if you did.” Tempest agreed. “What do I need to do to prove to you I want nothing to do with this anymore?”

“Tell us everything you can.” Static jumped in. “Strategies, weapons, armour, social structure, history, anything we can use.”

“It will take time. I was under his command for a number of years.”

“Then start talking.” Static snapped.

“Easy, my friend.” Luna cautioned. “She will tell us what she can.”

Static grunted and went back to drinking her tea.

Twilight was quiet on her end of the table, watching Tempest carefully as the Commander began to talk. She explained that the Empire had spent the last two hundred years undergoing rapid expansion, separated from the northern half of the continent by a massive storm front that had built up in that time, taking land and slaves at will and using anything they could get their claws on to improve their armies and technology. Airships from sky pirates in the free port of Klugetown, exotic fabrics and various other things from the Abyssinian territories, and huge tracts of farmland from other free nations that now no longer existed.

“What about the metal you use? The armour and weapons we were able to salvage are all magically resistant. How was that done?” Twilight asked.

“It’s called Gorgonite. The same material that was in those petrification bombs used on your Architect friend. It's brewed from various ingredients and disastrous if made wrong. It's used to temper the metal during the forging process.”

“You know about Architect’s?” Static asked, surprised.

“There are many of them in the south.” Tempest said, slowly. “All of them owned as slaves.”

The three other ponies all stopped, their own expressions going from relatively neutral to nearly pure rage in just seconds. “Did you say, “all as slaves”?”

Tempest nodded. “The Empire was using slaves for thousands of years before it fell out of fashion, but it resurged sometime after King Gaul’s grandfather took the throne.”

“Bastards. I guess that explains the scars around your neck. You were little better than a slave yourself, weren’t you?” Static asked. Tempest’s head drifted downward until she was looking at her hooves.

“Disgusting. Even as Nightmare Moon, I found the notion of slavery barbaric. It would appear that even my old self was still far from pure evil.” Luna muttered, her expression one of fury. “How many slaves has the Empire taken?”

“I can’t speak for all their history, but my best guess from what I’ve seen is somewhere in the hundred thousands.” Tempest admitted.

The three ponies immediately felt their anger start to boil over. Without a word, the three vanished, Twilight teleporting somewhere deep in the Everfree, Luna to the moon, and Static vanishing into the Dream Realm. The three of them then proceeded to start breaking everything unimportant and non-alive that was within reach, and they did not stop until they had calmed down.

When they returned, Tempest was still staring at the spots they had been in in both wonder and fear, and a guard was standing by the open door, having just walked in.

The guard quickly went and whispered into Luna’s ear. She thanked him and let him leave, closing the door behind him before returning to the table.

“Alright then, my guard has just informed me of something that occured recently. A large airship and a massive stone structure flew by not far from the castle only half an hour ago It just reached the edge of the forest. Do you know what it is?” Luna asked, and Tempest went rigid for a moment.

“He’s here.” She mumbled, and Static realized she was actually shaking.

“Who is here?”

“Commander Gale. King Gaul’s most faithful servant. And he brought the King’s greatest weapon with him.”

****************************************

Author's Note

Here we go, took me long enough.

Chapter 9: Cruel Curiosity

The Stormguard had been trained to ignore fear. They had been trained to fight their King’s enemies with all their might and tenacity until victory had been taken or death had taken them. They had been trained to give their lives to the Empire for whatever their King needed them for. It was very simple. The King commanded, and they obeyed.

But when the command was to so much as talk with Commander Gale, even the most verteran Jotun was reluctant to obey said command.

It was hardly an unwarranted desire, as the Commander had already killed six soldiers on the flight from the empire to this forsaken north-land simply for disturbing him in the middle of his study of the bits of junk he claimed were artifacts of some long lost civilization. None of the Jotuns ever cared for those items, save for the King, and he only tolerated the obsession his Commander had at best, and showed outright annoyance for it at worst.

Even worse was that the Commander had received a new shipment of these “artifacts” just the day before his ship had departed the Empire on it’s escort mission. With so many items to look over, the Commander had spent the entire voyage sequestered in his cabin, muttering and whispering to himself as he bent over the broken weapons, shattered armour and old art pieces that were liberally scattered across the huge desk that took up a good third of the small cabin he had claimed as his own.

No one disturbed the Commander of the Hounds. No one. None save the King could escape his wrath if he decided to display it. And the King had never done much more than rough the Commander up every once in a while as punishment.

So when Private’s Pollux and Castor were called upon to retrieve the Commander from his cabin, they were hardly enthusiastic about actually doing it. The twin Jotun’s looked sideways at each other through their war masks, before Castor sighed and knocked on the door of the Commander’s cabin.

A rusted, greatly pitted sword blade suddenly burst through the wood, splitting the plank almost in two and sending a shower of wood slivers into Castor’s mask with the tinny sound of several dozen impacts echoing in his ears. It was with horror that Castor realized the tip of the blade had actually lodged itself in his mask, right between his eyes.

“I am not to be disturbed.” Came the reply once the blade had stopped shaking in place.

“Commander Gale, we have arrived in Equestria’s capital. The King has sent a messenger requesting your presence.” Pollux offered, while Castor slowly and carefully extricated his mask from the blade it was impaled upon.

The door remained closed for a few more moments, then was wrenched open by a very displeased figure in Stormguard Hound Armour, complete with two sets of vicious, retractable claw blades on each arm, firmly attached to the gauntlets Gale was wearing. Like all of the Jotuns, his armour was deep, dark, reflective coal grey, with bits of white fur used as trim under the individual pieces. The only part of Gale that was always visible was his eyes, a pale gray colour that were constantly in the shadow of their owner’s masked helmet.

“What does the King want?” Gale asked, abruptly, not even giving them time to answer before barking at them. “Speak quickly!”

“The King wishes for you to report your evaluation of the journey north, the artifacts you have examined, and he wishes to brief you on current events as they stand here in the city.” Pollux explained, his eyes drifting to Gale’s claws as he played with them, using just the tips to dig at the dirt stuck under his nails.

“Very well. You know the drill. No one goes into my cabin while I’m gone. Period.”

“Commander, if I may ask….what use is a sword as rusted as that?” Castor asked, looking to the reddish brown blade still sticking out of the door from where Gale had thrown it.

“More than you. It’s survived hundreds if not thousands of years after it’s creators died, and is still as deadly as it was then. Now unless you feel like experiencing that deadliness first hand, I suggest you get out of my way before I get irritated by the sound of your idiotic voice.” Gale snarled, marching briskly forwards. Castor and Pollux made sure that they were jumping away from the door by the time he reached it. They were quite attached to their heads, and Gale was not averse to removing heads.

Once Gale was gone, the brothers made sure to close the door without letting so much as one of their toes cross the threshold into the room on the other side.

Gale made his way out of his ship, and then disembarked into the ruined city of Canterlot with not a single glance to anyone- not even the pitiful forms of the few remaining ponies who had failed to escape the King strung up and left lying in cages.

He passed the remains of a gallows that had been smashed to pieces and burned almost beyond recognition, and then moved past the outer walls of the castle that dominated the rest of the city. It’s walls were grey and dreary from ash and soot, and the plants inside the walls were turning brown from lack of sunlight.

After stabbing a lazy guard in the throat for not paying attention as he approached the front gate, Gale made his way through the palace corridors to the throne room, where the King was waiting, angrily staring at the door. There was a motionless grey figure next to him, and several cages filled with a small menagerie of creatures that were all in various states of health from poor to still leaking blood from some recently inflicted injury.

“Commander.” The King growled, as Gale approached his monarch, the leader of the Hounds immediately dropping to one knee in subservience. “Is the Citadel intact?”

“Ready for service, my liege.” Gale answered, instantly. “It shall be ready to destroy the city in a heartbeat.”

“No. I have no need to destroy this city. It is a useful staging post, both centralized and fortified, now that I am aware of the various entrances and exits it possesses. I want you to take these prisoners to the citadel and interrogate them. They are the retinue and guards of one of Equestria’s four Alicorn Princess’s. They may know where she is, or at least know what she might do.”

“As you command, my King.”

“And Gale. One of them is an Architect.”

Gale looked up sharply. His eyes immediately found the still figure standing beside the King and locked onto it like a creature dying of thirst stares at a bottle of water. “He is quite a large specimen.”

“He is one of the Princess’s guards. Study him and interrogate him as you will. You will be interested to know that several of my men reported seeing him using some kind of magic.”

“At once, your majesty!” Gale gave his salute as quickly as his limbs and armour would allow, then started to leave to find his troops to arrange transport of the prisoners.

“Commander Tempest has commited treason and helped one of the Princess’s escape execution.” King Gaul added, stopping Gale in his tracks. The King walked across the rubble covered floor, moving across the room to stare at one of the windows that lined the throne room walls, one displaying six mares using some manner of magic on a seventh, much larger mare. “Once you have exhausted these guards knowledge of their Princess, you will begin hunting your former comrade down, along with the Princess and her cohort. They are a well documented force that most frequently works together, so where you find one, you will undoubtedly find the others.” He came to a more recent addition, one of three the four Alicorns, a Changeling and the same mares from before stood about a caged creature with magic streaming up out of their horns, a second, very much dead changeling lying on the ground beneath them. The Changeling standing with the others looked very familiar to Gaul, as did the Pegasus emerging from the very top of the magic stream. His eyes flicked back and forth between the two bronze coloured creatures, noting the similarities between the two as he talked. “Make sure you don’t underestimate these creatures, Gale. That was my mistake when we first arrived.”

Gale nodded, and then left as he had been instructed, organizing the retrieval and movement of the prisoners in a matter of hours.

**************************************

Gale once again shut himself in his rooms, but the statue of the Architect now took up his attention entirely, rather than the scattered artifacts around him. He examined it’s armour, battle-worn and ill-fitted, as well as it’s weapon, pony made and nowhere near as durable as some of the weapons Gale had found among the artifacts the Architects of old had left behind.

The distracting cries of pain and anger from the prisoners being tortured for information faded into the background for Gale, as he poured over every detail of the frozen being before him. His expression of defiance, his strong stance and his towering size….Gale was enamoured by the creature before him. He had studied the Architect’s history for so long that having one here, frozen or not, was simply astounding to him.

The King had instructed him to study the Architect before he was released from his imprisonment, and the commander was very much content, if not enthusiastic to obey that command. He spent hours pouring over every detail the statue could reveal, and when the King came to release the Architect, Gale was almost sad that he couldn’t spend more time scrutinizing him as he was at the moment of his imprisonment. Almost. His excitement at being able to study the living being, armour, weapons and underclothes removed, trumped his previous sadness and got him as close to giddy as he ever could.

His two guards, Castor and Pollux, as he learned from them from their muted conversations outside his door, were not at all happy to have been assigned to him.

The feeling was completely mutual.

Still, he had required their assistance to relieve the Architect of his personal belongings, and to strap him to a table so that he could not simply escape, so he had decided to at least tolerate their presence. Well, for now at least. Time would tell if they would prove as annoying and useless as most Jotun guards.

The markings the Architect bore fascinated the Hound Commander, and he made note of their appearance while he waited for the Architect to wake up, having also taken time to study his purple and gold armour, his heavy Bardiche, and his large physique in more detail while he was not stone.

It was everything he’d wanted for a very long time.

***********************************

Crimson had not been expecting to wake up again after taking that odd, gassy orb thing right on the chest. In fact, as the stone had closed over his head, he’d been a little preoccupied with trying to rapidly learn telepathy so that he could say goodbye to his friends before his untimely demise could shut him up for good.

That being said, the first gasp of air he was able to take into his lungs was bliss, the slightly musty quality of said air not at all hindering his enjoyment of it.

What did hinder his enjoyment of his newfound consciousness was when he realized he wasn’t alone, was strapped to a table, and was very close to being buck naked for anyone who came into the room to see.

Of those three concerns, his present company took precedent, so Crimson focused on trying to see the individual better. The lighting had been set up deliberately so that he was right beneath a bright cone of light while the rest of the room was rather shadowed, odd lumps and shapes dotting what little of the available surfaces he could see from his bound position. The figure was obscured in the shadows, but Crimson was able to make out the armour of the smaller storm creatures he had fought in Canterlot. Those things had been giggling as they ripped open the ponies he had come to care about, and he certainly wasn’t in the mood to listen to that giggling again, not bound up and unable to resist.

“If you’re going to kill me, just get on with it.” Crimson sighed.

The figure did laugh, but it wasn’t the mad babbling of the others. “If I wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have bothered waiting for you to wake up.”

Crimson looked at the figure with narrowed eyes, not entirely sure what to make of this. Were they all just pretending to be mad then, or were some of them actually mad? Or was this one a unique case of sanity?

“No, friend. I want to talk. About you. About your little pony friends. About the Princesses.”

Crimson stayed silent. He wasn’t going to just give information like that away.

“Don’t worry, I’ll find out one way or another.” The figure turned around, hands dancing over a table before picking up something long and sharp. Then he turned around, brandishing the knife.

“You’re going to tell me everything.” The blade came forward, hovering at first over his heart, then tracing Crimson’s veins up to his shoulder, then down his left forearm, and to his hand, the blade nicking one of his knuckles. “You’re an Architect. How did you learn magic?”
“Eat shi-AH!!” The blade sliced a cut open on Crimson’s hand, along the inside edge of his index finger and letting blood trickle down the boards he was hanging from.

“Now, now. Let’s not be rude. I’ll ask again. How did you learn magic?”

“Well, I went down to the local library- Agh!! Fuck!!” Gale jabbed the blade through the back of Crimson’s hand until it hit wood on the other side, making Crimson try to clench his fist on reflex. That only made it hurt more. Then the blade came out and he yelped again. “STOP DOING THAT!”

“Then stop testing my patience.” Gale growled in reply. “Be nice, and play along. Tell me what I want to know, and you get to keep your fingers. Otherwise, I’m gonna start cutting them off.”

“Cut anything off of me and there won’t be anything anyone can do to save you from Twilight when she finds out!” Crimson hissed.

“And if I cut off anything from her other guards? Would she do the same for them, I wonder?”

“What does it matter to you? You’re gonna torture them anyway, you sick fre-.” Crimson growled and strained against his restraints with bared teeth. Then the knife slammed into his left palm and nailed his hand to the wood behind it for a second time.

“I told you to be nice. Now look at what you made me do.” Gale tutted. “I’ve gone and put a hole in my favourite torturing table. For shame, Architect, for shame.”

“Fuck you!”

“Considering the amount of pain you’re in, I’ll be generous a second time and let that slide.” Gale hummed, letting go of the knife and turning to the table again, picking up something long and glowing at the end. “After all, there’s a lot more to come, and so many more questions to ask. And remember, every single one you don’t answer, or talk back, and I carve you up just a little bit more.”

“You’ll regret every cut and every slice.” Crimson warned, scrunching his eyes as he tried to focus on keeping the pain at bay.

“Perhaps one day. But for now, I get to have my fun.” Gale grinned beneath his mask, then lifted up the glowing metal poker and pressed it against Crimson’s ribs with a horrid sizzling and popping sound.

Crimson screamed and arched his back, trying to twist away, anything to get away from his demented jailor.

He would not succeed.

**********************************

“That Architect gave you what you wanted, I trust?” Gaul asked, as Gale entered his office several hours later. Great conqueror or not, armies and their supply lines needed organization, and that meant paperwork, orders both written and spoken, and a personal touch to many matters, all of which confined the King to his study whenever other important matters left him the time to do so. He often ate in that room as well, reading over reports as he ripped his meal apart with his teeth and quenched his thirst with hard ales and other drinks, most of them stolen from southern countries he had raided. He was sitting in a small, out of the way, sparsely decorated and unimportant room off in a corner of the castle he now knew well, having viewed the official rooms of the Princess’s to be “garish and hideously bright”. He much preferred this darker, more secluded room to those travesties.

“He did, your majesty.” Gale’s response was expected, though the manic grin that Gaul could see in his servant’s eyes was perhaps just a tad too enthusiastic for his liking. “He informed me that he was taught by the ponies how to harness his magic.”

“And?”

Gale blinked, caught off guard by the request for more. “Sire?”

“Are you merely pretending to be dense, you cur?” Gaul snarled from behind his desk. “I told you to extract information on the newest Princess and her cohorts. Thanks to the Sun and Moon Princesses, written records of their exploits are difficult to come by and harder to access. Are you telling me you neglected to extract the most important information from the prisoner?”

“I would not dismiss the information about Architects as trivial, your maje-”

The staff that had been propped up behind the desk was pointed at Gale and discharging a bolt of lightning before the leader of the Hounds could blink, sending him smashing into the wall of Gaul’s chosen room in Canterlot Castle.

Gaul let up after a few moments, letting Gale wheeze out his apology from his fetal position on the floor. “I-I am sorry, my King! I-I did get some information from him, but he is tougher than I expected. All I got was names.”

“What names? Tell me, and I might be able to salvage your failure.”

So Gale told him every name that Crimson’s pain had torn from him, and he listed each and every one with that mad look slowly returning to his eyes as the pain receded. The King wrote down each and every name, and once Gale was finished, and had returned to his little hobbies, the King started to search. He and a small group of Jotun historians who had ridden up from the Empire in the security of the Citadel searched for those names, compiling details from any source they could find, obscure or not.

Gaul was no fool. In order to defeat an enemy, you had to understand them. And he would defeat them. He would relish the challenge.

*******************************

Crimson regained consciousness sometime in the early morning of…..he wasn’t sure how long it had been since Gale had started to torture him, but it had certainly felt like hours, if not days of time.

But for now, it seemed, the torturer was content to let him rest and heal from his wounds a little before starting again. Crimson didn’t remember much of it. He was thankful for that. He wasn’t sure he wanted to remember what he had been through.

But his cellmates were definitely not helping keep his spirits up. They had been tortured too, if the wounds were indicative of their role in this place, which Crimson was willing to bet they were.

He had tried talking to them, once he had recovered enough to drink some water and sit up straight….straight-ish. Some of the burns were making sitting upright too painful to try for now. His cellmates were quiet, mumbling their disinterest in talking, planning escape, or suicide, anything. They seemed vacant eyed and incoherent from their own pain, which left Crimson alone in the dark with no one to talk to.

His mind drifted to Twilight and their friends. He hoped they were alright, that he had managed to give them enough time to escape, otherwise there wasn’t much point in trying so hard to protect them.

Still, the questions that Gale had been asking suggested that perhaps they had gotten out, since the Jotuns weren’t celebrating, and were asking for information about them.

Sitting in that dark cell, Crimson found himself thinking of sitting out at night to stargaze with the girls, or running with the Friendship Guard during training. He thought of Aurora and Misty Dawn, the closest thing to a mother and Sister he had outside of home, and of True Shot, the closest he’d had to a father figure since his own father had been killed by a Sand-Worm. He thought of hanging out with Static, lazing around on their asses and talking about whatever came to mind. He thought of Twilight getting excited over a new discovery, or talking rapidly about things he had no clue about, then looking at him like he’d dribbled on his shirt when he failed to understand what she’d just said. Crimson found himself wanting to hear her voice again. To hear the Princess talk, to know she was okay.

The worst part was not knowing if she was okay.

Author's Note

He's back! He's alive! He's getting tortured! ......wait...what was that last part?

Chapter 10: A Spark

“What else?”

“The King’s guards serve him out of loyalty, they are, for the most part, totally fanatic, drawn from the first three houses of the Empire, primarily the first, being his own House.” Tempest explained as Princess Luna and Princess Twilight listened to their prisoner. They had been at it for hours, and she was not feeling particularly well after spending so long awake. Her eyelids felt heavy and her thoughts were slowed. Perhaps that was why she wasn’t complaining. It was somewhat justified for the Princesses to interrogate her so thoroughly, after so long in the enemy’s council. If only she could get her body to agree with her. “The Lords of both the other Houses follow the old traditions of the Empire, just like the King does. Might makes right, the weak serve the strong, or are killed. It’s a brutal system. Anyone who doesn’t serve the King willingly, serves him anyway because he’d just have them killed if they proved too much of a burden.”

Princess Luna grimaced. “And what of the rest of the Empire? Those who do not belong to the first three Houses?”

Tempest had to search her memory a bit to recall everything that would be of use, but she did it anyway. “The fourth House is House Silverwood, whose power and influence come from the near total control and management of all the viable farmland in the region. Lord Silverwood has expressed….disdain for the King’s methods before, but has never outright gone against him. Since his House has been the feeding trough of the Empire for so long, most other Houses wouldn’t know how to handle food production if House Silverwood was removed from play. That’s probably why Lord Silverwood is still alive.”

Luna was pensive as Twilight took notes, quill scribbling down as much detail as she could manage without making the page ilegible. The Lunar Princess twisted her lips before she asked her next question. “And what of the Slaves? How integral are they to the inner workings of the Houses?”

“Completely.” Tempest was able to answer that one immediately. “Each House depends upon the slaves they own to do the dirtier jobs no Jotun wants to do. House Silverwood at least treats theirs with respect, but the other great Houses treat slaves the way they treat everything else. Harshly.”

Static listened in from her side of the table as the interrogation went on. She had woken up that morning and gone down to check on the Princesses, only for Luna to ask her to sit in on the questioning the moment she arrived. She hadn’t used the Dream Realm, otherwise Static would probably have realized. Static chalked it up to Luna having either really good hearing, or really good guards.

Still, she was essentially just listening in on a conversation between two ponies and a transcriber, so she felt quite useless.

“I think we should take a break for now. Miss Shadow needs at least some rest.” Luna suggested, draining a cup of water before standing up and moving across to the door. She looked over to Static and jerked her head towards the door. Static groaned a little from muscle stiffness as she clambered to her hooves, but followed her teacher out of the door, glancing back to Tempest past Twilight as she closed the door behind them. Luna turned to her student with a tired but thoughtful expression. “Well, my friends, what do we think of Miss Tempest’s knowledge?”

Static frowned a bit and ruffled her feathers. “Well, I think she’s telling us as much as she can remember. She seems to be being honest.”

“And most of what she is saying does fit with their actions.” Twilight agreed. "Capturing and using our people for labour would greatly increase their effectiveness, since they would be reducing our pool of able bodied workers and warriors, while increasing their own. It also means they have a trump card should we try to fight back. Hostages. It would be highly effective, if it weren’t for one thing.”

“And what is that, Princess Sparkle?” Luna asked, cocking her head to one side.

“Slave revolts. While ponies are mostly passive in nature, we also have a great capacity for ferocity when we feel threatened, or if we feel our herd is threatened. Right now, a lot of ponies are currently cooped up together under threat. Eventually, the tension will override their fear and they will try to fight back.” Twilight explained. “So soon enough, they’ll have open rebellion in the ranks of their slave count, reducing effectiveness and eliminating their prior advantages. Hostage situations only work while the hostage is alive. Once they are dead or free, then it’s game over. Hostage situations usually end with the person who took the hostage being defeated, either imprisoned or killed after the fact.”

“Interesting. There may be some way to capitalize on their reliance on slavery.” Luna surmised. “But for now, there are things to attend to that are not our imprisoned Unicorn. I suggest you get to them while the daylight is still present.”

Static nodded. “I still need to visit the armourer to commision a new set of gear. Otherwise I’ll be fighting the Jotunn’s with my bare hooves.”

“Then get to it, my friend. Forged Blade will not be happy that you have yet another project for him.”

Static nodded in agreement and turned away, bidding goodbye to the Princesses as she went. She trotted down the corridors leading to an open courtyard outside the rear of the catle’s main structure, where Forged Blade had set up his ramshackle, low quality forge, built out of rubble and scraps to make a vaguely functional forgery with bellows and various other pieces of equipment.

When she reached the pile of rocks that could barely be referred to as a Blacksmith’s workplace, she found Forged, a grizzled Earth Pony smith who was several times Static’s age of a meager twenty six, with several scars and burn marks permanently etched into his face and forelegs, giving his fur an uneven and patchy appearance. A scar in the shape of a semicircle was just under his left eye, where, as the story was told by the castle guards, a shard of metal had flown out of his forge and hit his goggles, which had dug into his face and left him with a scar to remember the chunk of metal by. The one time Static had had the time and the curiosity to ask him about it, he had vehemently denied the entire thing, telling her it was actually from an altercation with some stallions in a bar who had been bad mouthing Princess Luna not long after her return. Having met the repentent and remorseful Princess during his time in the palace, he had very much resented their comments, and decided to teach the pair some manners, which had spurred Princess Luna to guiltily fret over him for his choices.

Static hadn’t the heart to tell him that Luna had also denied his claim. While blushing.

Forged was currently heaving a sledgehammer around in his teeth,wearing some kind of padded brace that wrapped around his neck and also into his mouth to protect his teeth. He was slamming the hammer repeatedly onto the beginnings of a sword blade, teasing out a new shape from the metal.

His ears perked as Static stepped on some of the few remaining bits of rubble from the mostly cleared courtyard, and he looked up at her before grunting. “S’pose you’ve got more work for me, have ya?”

Static let her wince show, her ears folding back a little bit. “Sorry. My old armour got totaled in the fight, and….well, I need a new set.”

Forged looked at the mare for a second before letting out a frustrated sigh. “Get your arse over there then. I’ll take your measurements when I’m done with this.” He pointed to a small tent standing off to the side, a few pieces of measuring tape and armour templates all cluttering the small space in what Rarity would call ‘Organized Chaos’.

Static hummed as she stood on the spot for a while, waiting for Forged to finish up his piece before measuring her. He was at it for quite a while, so she managed to get through the Equestrian national anthem, Canada’s national anthem, and even a few songs she knew, by which point she’d layed down to save herself the trouble of staying upright.

Forged then finally came over to do his measurements, and he gave her a critical eye in doing so. “Yer a might bit skinny for a fighter, lass.”

“I did just get out of a month long imprisonment.” Static reasoned. “I doubt King Gaul likes keeping his prisoners and slaves well fed. Wouldn’t want them getting any ideas.”

Forged grunted, scribbling down a few notes and occasionally poking her to see how much muscle and fat she did have. While her muscles had yet to truly atrophy, the fat she’d been trying to work off had vanished. Perhaps not the best weight loss diet to choose from, but it certainly got the job done. When Static made that remark to Forged, he gave a half amused snort and continued measuring around her barrel.

While the wait time had been quite long, the actual measurement taking was not. In under twenty minutes, Forged had everything he needed and waved her out of the tent.

“Three days. Three days and I can cobble together something for ya, lass, but it won’t be as pretty as that dream magic armour you and the Princess like to use so much.”

Static nodded her thanks to the older stallion and went on her way, trying to decide what to do next. She quickly looked in on Twilight in her science dungeon, before she made her way over to the training grounds.

The training grounds had once been the royal gardens, but since the Everfree had reclaimed most of it, the once expansive open fields Luna and Celestia had boasted about had been largely swallowed up by thick tree trunks and dense underbrush, leaving a field perhaps the size of a large hoof-ball pitch to use. The skirmishes held there by the Guards were often one on one, swift, brutal and far more vicious thanks to the reality check that two fully fledged wars in three years had given them.

Moving up to a good viewing spot on a set of ramshackle bleachers, Static folded her forelegs in front of her body and settled down to watch as two Earth ponies tried very hard to dent each other’s new silvery grey armour.

As she sat, she thought. She thought about the meeting with Luna, Twilight and Tempest, and the things that Tempest had said. How could the Empire’s reliance on slavery be exploited as a weakness? They were used as a workforce, as hostages, or as meat shields, abused, mistreated and downright de-equinized. Or was it still de-humanized? Who cared at this point. It meant the same, anyway.

Her mind started to drift back through her history classes, trying to think of examples of slavery being used as a weakness, but just ended up reliving having to listen to the droning teacher ramble on and on about ancient cultures in a completely non-engaging, disinterested way. Like then, the words blended in to each other and she almost fell asleep.

When her head jerked back up from it’s slow slump, Static nearly had a heart-attack from the wall of pink and blue in front of her face. “Gah!!”

“Hiya, Static!” Pinkie cheered, hopping into a perfectly copied version of Static’s own crossed arms rest. “Watching the matches? Should we tell Fluttershy that you’ve got an appreciation for guys who roll around on the floor with each other?”

Static looked at her friend and had to bite back a smirk. “Do you actually plan to say things like that? Or does it just happen?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Pinkie said with a beaming grin.

“Bite me- OW!”

“Eh, could use some salt.”

“Pinks?”

Pinkie turned to look at Static with her biggest, most innocent, adorable puppy dog eyes ever. “Yeeeeees?”

“Go jump in a lake.”

“Eh, I don’t feel like it.”

Static rolled her eyes and hunkered back down to watch the match.

“So watcha thinkin’ about?”

“Stuff, Pinks. Got a lot on my mind right now.”

Static shifted again, trying to get comfortable on the rough hewn wood.

“Thinkin’ bout how to win, huh?” Pinkie asked, plopping herself down besides her winged friend with a soft whump. The shorter mare looked up at Static with a grin. “Everyone’s thinking about it.”

Static smiled a little at that. “Well, more heads are better than just one.”

“Someone should tell that to the slaves. Maybe they could get themselves out if they worked together. Like a great big party for freedom!”

“Yeah, and maybe the poorly armed and armoured slaves could then show King Gaul his baby pictures and turn him good.” Static mused, only half listening to Pinkie, her eyes having drifted and her mind already back to trying to solve her problem.

Pinkie didn’t miss a beat. “If only they had someone to show them how to do it. It’d be easier with someone to lead them.”

“Maybe bring out a few of his old toys too. That’ll really do him in.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes and stood up, before leaving Static to her musings. “I’m gonna go help Twilight in the lab. Maybe she can figure out ways to get people inspired. She’s always got some revolutionary new thing to do.”

Static’s ears perked up at that. “Wait…..revolutionary? Pinkie, say that again!”

“Maybe I can go help Twilight in the lab?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head to one side like a confused puppy.

“No! The bit after that!”

“Uh...maybe she can figure out ways to get people inspired?”

“No! The last bit!”

“She’s always got some revolutionary new thing to do?”

“Yes! That! That’s exactly what we need! I’d dismissed it out of hoof because revolutions usually end badly, but with so much of the King’s forces up here, it’s the perfect time for one! Luna and Twilight were right! If we can show the slaves that they can fight for their freedom and win, then maybe, just maybe, we can bring the empire crashing down on itself! Pinkie, I could kiss you!”

Pinkie just held up a hoof and tossed her head away from Static before the pegasus could even jokingly move to do so. “Only if Cellie and Shy say it’s okay.”

Static laughed, hopping away and bounding down the stairs and back towards the castle. “Pinkie, never change!”

**************************************

“You want to do what?” Celestia sat up in her seat, still being worried over by a plethora of nurses who couldn’t take a hint that the Princess had recovered as much as she possibly could without her Alicorn powers. The fallen Princess was still weak, but getting stronger by the day, capable of taking quick walks and even discussing with Luna about getting back into the action. That still left her as a Princess with a kingdom to run, which was why Luna, Static and Twilight were all gathered together to discuss Static’s proposal.

“Revolution. Twilight was right when she talked about slave revolts eroding the Empire’s foundations, but if we could actually twist that to our advantage, we could spark a revolution in the Empire itself, bolster our forces with freed slaves, conquered nations and whoever else we can find. It served the dual purpose of destroying the King’s positions of power while regaining ours.” Static spoke quickly, eagerly. “With the Empire’s main workforce no longer supporting them, and actively fighting them, the Empire would struggle to maintain its war efforts, and factor in a multi-prong guerilla war up here in the north, and Gaul would be fighting a war on a multitude of fronts. He would be stretched thin and pushed to the limit. We’d be forcing him to fight on our terms. If he tries to gather his forces up and bulldoze over any of us, each individual nation and fighting forces would be able to evade him far easier than he could find them. All the while, he’d be bleeding resources and troops. Death by a thousand cuts, instead of a straight up confrontation. It could work.”

“But eventually, you would need to confront him at some point. He could well force the issue by attacking the Crystal Empire before stealing our powers.”

“If it comes to that, then we would have to fight, but if we do this right, he’ll be far weaker by the time he gets there anyway. At the very least, we’ll leave his Empire in chaos and disarray for decades to come.” Static admitted. “It’s not the best plan, and we don’t have much of a chance as we are, but that’s the point. The longer this goes on, the stronger we get and the better our chances are. This can work.”

Luna and Celestia drew aside to discuss the idea between themselves, while Twilight approached Static.

“It’s a start at least,” The book loving Princess said, trying to straighten her knotted and tangled mane. “And it’s better than just charging into Canterlot like a lunatic.”

Static nodded, letting out an uneasy breath. “It’s a lot of if, maybe and possibly, but right now, that’s all we’ve got. We might as well be throwing broken beer bottles at them from behind a tree. Or a bar. Damn, I could go for a drink right about now.”

“Let’s not get ourselves black-out drunk in the middle of a crisis, please.” Twilight chuckled. “This will be difficult enough as it is already.”

Luna and Celestia finished their discussions before Static could offer a reply of some kind, the two sisters turning back to Static and Twilight with unreadable faces. “Twilight, what are your thoughts on Static’s idea?”

Twilight’s eyes widened for a moment before she turned away, compiling a quick summary of her thoughts while nervously twiddling a few strands of her mane. “I think it’s a good start, but highly reliant on luck, the cooperation of complete strangers in a strange land and conditional circumstances to pull us through, rather than solid strategy and planning. It’s impulsive, reckless, foolish and rash….and that if we can pull it off, it might be the best we can hope for.”

The Sisters turned to each other before nodding grimly. “It does seem that way. As Princesses of Equestria, we hereby anoint Princess Twilight Sparkle the leader of this task, and those that follow her, and we recommend Static Thunder as advisor and second in command, as formulator of this plan.”

The two friends sat in dumbfounded silence for a little while, before they bowed.

“We won’t let you down, your Highnesses.”

“We have one other request regarding this mission.” Celestia added.

“Yes, Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked.

Celestia asked her question, and Twilight gave her answer.

*******************************************

Tempest jumped at the sound of her cell door being opened, and several guards being let inside, followed by the dark form of Princess Luna, the lighter and smaller forms of Princess Celestia, Twilight and Ser Thunder entering behind her.

The broken horned Unicorn felt herself shrink into the mattress, not wanting to be in the presence of so many imposing and important figures at once.

“Tempest Shadow. Rise.” Luna commanded, as she came to a halt before the bed.

Tempest did as she was instructed, slowly climbing off the bed before she was left standing before the Princesses, who made no indication as to their intentions. The three mares stepped a little closer, while Static stayed back, not a part of whatever they were doing.

“Tempest Shadow.” Princess Celestia began, her voice strong and unwavering, like it was in Canterlot. “You have given us information vital to Equestria’s survival, and saved the lives of many, including myself, at great risk to your own.”

“You have claimed to reject the Storm King Gaul, and have claimed you wish to aid our struggle against him.” Twilight continued, though her voice wavered, uncertainty lingering in what were obviously rehearsed words. “And you have so far shown no intent of harming our ponies.”

“We hearby offer you a chance to prove you are as honest as you claim, by joining a task force bound for the Storm Empire, where you will continue to offer information, as well as your physical capabilities in time of need, in order to help this task force achieve its goal.” Luna spoke coldly, her deep blue eyes locked on Tempest’s pale blue ones. She stood tall, the tallest creature in the room by far, after her sister’s loss.

“Know that should you show any sign of betraying us, we authorize the use of lethal force in order to prevent such treachery from causing our cause or our ponies harm.” Celestia intoned. “Do you accept these terms, for the chance to be free, and whole again?”

Tempest’s face was shocked for a moment, her features stretched as her mouth had fallen open and her eyes gone wide. But then those features shrank back, suspicion and anger creeping onto her face. “So you offer me my horn back, in return for my obedience. I’ve heard that promise before, and I was stupid enough to believe him. I won’t fall for it a second time.”

“There are no tricks. Should we prove victorious, we shall restore thy horn, miss Shadow.” Luna growled, baring her teeth in a snarl. “We are not Gaul, and we do not break our promises to those we pledge our aid to. The procedure to restore a Unicorn’s horn is difficult and dangerous, but it will be done.”

Tempest felt her mouth falling open again. “There is a procedure?”

“Thou art not the first to suffer this ailment. Nor will you be the last. While modern medical magic and science has yet to replicate the feat, my sister and I have been called upon to mend such wounds before.” Luna said, letting her snarl drop in favour of her more neutral expression. “We remember the methods used, and if we cannot do it, then we will teach someone else how.”

Tempest could feel liquid pooling in her eyes, and the familiar sting of angry tears wormed into her brain. She turned away from her guests and walked across to the window of her tiny little room. “All this time, and there was a way to fix my horn, right here in Equestria….” Tempest growled. “Why did I never hear of this before I left?!”

“Didst thou ever try to ask us?”

Tempest stopped, going rigid, as she remembered her parents words just days before she left. “We’ll try to petition the Princesses! They have to know!” If only she had waited a few more days. Just a few more days and she would have found out. Anger at herself. Anger at Gaul.

Her horn crackled and sparks spat out of it, snapping against the wall around the window, and out through the window itself. The pressure built, the familiar surge rushing to the cracked stump of her horn before a blast of crackling lightning streaked across the open miles under the cover of the Everfree’s natural clouds.

The release of power felt good, draining her fury away just a bit, allowing Tempest to breath. She looked back over her shoulder towards the Princesses, and Ser Thunder, the remains of that fury still smouldering behind her retinas.

“When do we start?”

************************************

Chapter 11: Southerly Winds

Another three weeks rolled by before they were ready. In that time, a collection of Earth Pony farmers had taken to the castle gardens and wrangled the overgrown mess into something resembling useful, using the old flower beds to plant their seeds, restoring an old irrigation system and flooding the ground with magic to kickstart crops that would feed the refugees. More soldiers from the scattered Equestrian army had made their way to the Castle of the Two pony sisters, finally giving Luna enough ponies and other creatures to start her campaign of hit and run attacks, leaving the Castle and the departure mostly in her sister’s capable hooves. Not only that, but a few scouting parties had reported the condition and whereabouts of the Storm King’s army.

Still sequestered up in Canterlot with the bulk of his forces, Gaul was hidden behind walls of Jotuns, and was organizing the first of many groups of search parties, trying to find his missing prey.

Static and Twilight had been busy, with Twilight being forced to leave many of her scientific projects in the hooves of other exceptional ponies, much to her chagrin, in order to better organize the venture south.

Captain Caelano had volunteered her ship to fly them south, and much of the organization had been in restoring the ships’s weapons and engine to proper working order after it’s tenure as a courier ship. The Skylark was being laden with food and supplies for the trip and enough to keep them alive for a while longer so they could set up some kind of temporary base to work from.

Of course, upon hearing that this mission was vital to Equestria’s survival, all of Twilight and Static’s friends had volunteered to go with them, but there were only five mares that either wanted to take.

Applejack had taken over the food loading, being the strong mare she was, while Rarity had of course, focused on getting the fabric’s and other materials necessary for repairing clothes, sails, and other things of cloth-ly origin, but had incessantly griped over everything being more function over style. Caelano had placated the mare by showing her the flashy, stylish rogue outfits she and her crew wore, which had inevitably turned into a fashion show on deck for the squealing Unicorn. The Pirates called Mullet and Boyle had to haul Rarity off of the captain’s coat before she “improved it” too much. They then had to do the exact same with Pinkie Pie, who tried to stuff miniature party cannons into the hems to add some “party pizzazz!”.

Twilight focused on keeping everything organized with her usual checklists, while Rainbow and Static visited Forged Steel and his slowly growing number of apprentices to get spare parts made for the ship’s engine, in case of failure, and also to replace the Elements magical armour and weapons with the new, more mundane armour.

Fluttershy had very little to do with getting the ship done- at least physically. However, her ability to call upon a swarm of forest critters to help get everything loaded up sped things along very nicely, earning more than a few cheers when she returned from gathering up her little friends. Her prideful blush made Static’s heart start doing somersaults in her chest while she started singing the first few lines of an Equestrian love song under her breath, that was imaginatively and ironically called “Heartsong for my Love.” which had originally been sung as an actual magic induced Heartsong between two lovers a few decades before Luna’s return from exile. It had since been recorded and sold to the public after the couple had agreed to it, and it was still quite a popular song even years later. Static had found it among Shy’s mother's old family records, forgotten and gathering dust in a box. They’d pulled it out on a date night and spent most of the night dancing under the stars to the romantic tunes while Crystal spent the night at Sweet Apple Acres and Discord played DJ. It had been a wonderful night.

Static’s reminiscent smile faded a little as the present reasserted itself, leaving her hauling cargo onto a pirate airship in the middle of a dark forest. Grunting, Static heaved her crate of repair materials up the gangplank and into the cargo hold, where Twilight gave it a quick look and a magical scan before smiling and checking it off on her ever present list.

“That should be the last of this lot, Twilight.” Static groaned aloud, slumping to the floor and wanting nothing more than to stay there hugging the floorboards. The cargo hold of the Skylark was the largest room on the ship, and was divided into smaller segments by support beams arranged in a grid pattern, with ropes tied or bolted to some to be used as fasteners on cargo to keep it from shifting mid flight. “We’ve got everything for the kitchen. What next?”

Twilight looked down at her checklist, while Caelano looked over her shoulders, making a few additional notes with a quill on the side of the parchment. “With the food and the replacement galley tools all in place, Lix’ll have everything she needs to keep my crew and you ponies fed- as long as you keep Miss Pie under control.” The Captain made an odd clicking noise with her beak, while her right leg, which Static had only realized the week before was a crystal peg-leg replacement, clacked noisily against the floorboards in lieu of actual claws to tap.

“We will, Captain.” Twilight promised, still scribbling. “The next boxes should be going into the ship's armoury. We can’t take too much ammunition, but we should have some in case of an encounter.”

“HEAR THAT AJ?!” Static yelled back down to the Earth pony, who walked easily up the gangplank with three heavy boxes of cannonballs, powder charges and botefeux’s, the long poles with matches on the end for igniting the primers and sending a cannonball flying.

“Ah hear ya, sugah.” Applejack called back, jogging up the plank with barely an ounce of effort showing for her troubles. Captain, Princess and Knight stared at her as she trotted by and disappeared into the armoury, then emerged again without her load. “Need a hoof there, partner?” She asked, not slowing down in the slightest and passing the tired and sweating Static, grinning all the while.

“Showoff!” Static yelled after her, stubbornly hauling the box onto her back again and carrying it over to the ropes used to secure cargo. She fastened it into place and turned to trot back out of the ship, only to see a still smug Applejack carrying another three boxes up the ramp.

Rolling her eyes, Static went back to hauling boxes around.

She still glared at Applejack’s flexing.

Rarity gushing over it from the top deck didn’t help.

**********************************

It was a solemn goodbye when the ship finally took off. There were no large crowds to cheer them on their way as they left, instead only a few ponies and a dragon who wished to say goodbye to their friends. Luna, back from a night raid, Spike, Starlight and a few others waved to them sadly as the ship ponderously began to rise up above the spires of the Castle, and above the forest canopy. A few illusion spells served as camouflage to keep them hidden from prying eyes as they rose up, the ship’s sails catching the winds and beginning to pull them southwards.

The ponies kept busy, each of them tailing one of Caelano’s crew in order to learn how to assist on an airship. Pinkie kept to the Galley with Lix Spittle, the ships cook, while Applejack followed Boyle, the strongest member of the crew, who was in charge of shifting cargo in the bay whenever supplies needed to be brought out. For now that wasn’t a necessity, but they unpacked and repacked several crates so that AJ knew what to do when the time came.

Dash, to her annoyance, was directed to follow Squabble, an Avian who communicated almost entirely through squawks, grunts, yells and squeals of various pitches, something Dash began to protest the moment she was out of the Captain’s earshot.

Twilight and Static stayed with the Captain, learning about navigation and flight plans, the various commands, and all the hard work that went into directing the ship and it’s crew. This also allowed them time to question Cealano on what they should expect down in the Empire, but most of her answers were often the tried and true: “Ask me later, when we’re not busy.”

Fluttershy and Rarity were two of the only ponies around not assigned to anyone, instead instructed to use their skills in sewing to repair and maintain the spare sail cloths and the crews gear when they got too damaged.

Tempest was confined to a small cabin, with one of Caelano’s crew, an Avian who served as second in command, who went by the name Mullet, to watch over her, though he frequently had to leave to do other things. Not that Tempest even tried to take advantage of his absence, preferring to stay sat on her cot as the minutes ticked by.

But that meant that the last member of the pony side of the crew was left with nothing to do. The eighth member of the voyager team had been an unexpected addition, but she was adamant that she needed to make up for her mistakes.

Princess Celestia was not well practiced in being normal as it was, so seeing her sit near the prow of the ship and take in the sight of her Kingdom as it slowly slipped past underneath them only served to highlight how out of place and alone she was now. Cut off from her people and robbed of her powers, which she had used to protect and guide them for centuries, Celestia was floundering and lost for the first time since she had banished Luna to the moon.

What was worse was that no one knew exactly what they could do or say to help her.

“Uh, Princess?” Celestia looked up from her perch on the bowsprit and into a pair of concerned green eyes above a smattering of pale freckles. Applejack was still wearing her stetson hat, as always, but had moved the red neckerchief she wore underneath the hat to use as a bandanna. The combination did wonders to keep her mane away from her face, letting her show the princess her concerned frown in all its glory. “You, uh, wanna come help me and Pinkie in the galley? Got a bunch of stuff need’s movin’, and magic’ll help a treat.”

The Princess arched an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t Twilight be more helpful in that regard?”

“Well, she might, but she’s a little busy helping Static and the Captain plan our journey a bit better, and they’ll probably be a while, even with the information that Tempest mare is givin’ us.” Applejack extended a hoof to the somewhat sullen looking Princess. “So, really it’s just y’all, cause, Rarity may be pretty, but liftin’ heavy stuff ain’t exactly her….uh, strong point.”

The Princess looked back out to the increasingly alien world that drifted lazily along. Her lonely perch seemed very empty compared to a galley full of her marefriend and her farmworking friend.

“You know what Applejack? I would be delighted to help.” The Princess smiled.

Unbeknownst to them, a third person was listening in on the conversation with a smile.

Twilight watched from nearby with a satisfied hum. “That’s what will get us through this.” She said, to no one in particular, before going back inside to help plan out the journey the ship would take. “A little friendship.”

“What was that, Princess?” The captain asked, as Twilight returned to the map table.

“Oh, nothing, nothing at all.” She settled herself back into her chair before she returned to the conversation properly. “Alright, so, we’d just reached Klugetown?”

“It’s the first stop on our journey, a few kilometers from the Wall of Storms. The only reason Gaul has such a tight grip on it is because he’s been using it as a staging post for years. It functions as a shipyard labour camp and is run by a gang when Gaul isn’t swinging his weight around. Verco is the leader, he takes all the best stuff and keeps everyone else beneath him.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to rile everyone up in a city of disgruntled workers.” Static murmured from behind a hoof. “A few displays of goodwill and kindness should get the ball rolling in our favour, and after that….hmmm….”

“Add in a few bits and pieces about your capital, and about the fight for freedom. Empathy won’t win many hearts in a city of pirates like me, but personal gain will. If they think they can throw the King out, they’ll do it for themselves sooner than they would for you.” The Captain chimed in.

“But how do we go about doing it? It’s not like Pinkie throwing parties will go unnoticed, or having Applejack and I yelling propaganda in the streets.”

“Tempest? Any thoughts you would like to add? Any recommendations?” Static asked.

The former commander looked at Klugetown on the map from her spot on the table, cuffed to her chair as a precaution that was entirely unneeded anyway, at least since Tempest still hadn’t tried a thing to escape. “Well, while Klugetown is being used as a staging post, with most of the fleet gone, they’ll be missing a large part of the guard force. It will still be a lot, but nothing like it was before the King flew to Canterlot.”

“So anything we do has to be quick, in and out kind of business?”

“Essentially, yes. Not much to work with.”

Static and Twilight frowned as they poured over the map some more.

*************************************************

The trip to Klugetown was a long, hot ride across devilishly dangerous sand dunes populated by the Sand worms, a vile creature that liked to spit torrents of sand at the ship, which resulted in the thunderous drumming of clogged together sand hitting the hull of the ship and spraying back down again. Almost every half an hour, they would pass over a Sand Worm pit-trap, noticeable from above for their nearly perfect circumference amid the random shapes of the dunes, and the drumming would start up for a few seconds, then end again as they moved away.

Tempest groaned louder each time, clutching her hooves over her ears at the auditory assault the giant insects were forcing upon the ship, and Static wasn’t far off from joining her, wincing with every new deluge that came their way. It was actually bordering on painful when inside the ship itself, the deck soon becoming the favoured gathering spot for the tail end of the first day, and the majority of the second day of the trip as well, with Equestria and it’s affiliates now far behind the Skylark and the ship floating high above the middle of Sand Worm central.

The entire crew was rather sullen and annoyed at the constant noise, but no one said anything aloud.

“HEY!! CAN IT, SANDWORMS!! YOU’RE BEING VERY RUDE!!!”

Everyone except Pinkie at least.

“How much further before we’re out of Sand Worm territory, Captain?” Twilight asked after an hour of nearly non stop drumming.

“We’re just passing over the densest groupings now, in case you couldn’t tell, which means we’re about six hours away from being mostly worm free.” Caelano ground her beak as she contemplated the damage the constant battering was doing to her ship. She’d have to spend some of her stash to get it fixed- once she had retrieved the stash, of course. She wasn’t stupid enough to have her hidden stash of treasure on her ship where it could be found by thieves or boarders. “Be thankful we’re flying high. Too close and they could actually damage the ship.”

The ponies blanched at the thought, not liking the sound of their ship possibly becoming worm food while they were still on it. Both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow, who had been peering over the side, backed away from the gunwales as quickly as they could while trying not to appear worried.

“Once we’re past the Sand Worms, we’ll be a day out from Klugetown. I suggest we use the time to get some sleep.” Caelano mumbled, stretching her arms and yawning as the sun sank further down towards the horizon . “The last stretch of the desert before the town is the hottest. I suggest we stay below deck as much as possible- since most of us will be sleeping anyway, it shouldn’t be a problem. We’ll take turns on watch and at the helm so that we all get a turn in our bunks. Boyle, Miss Thunder, you take first shift. Mullet, Miss Dash, you take second…” Caelano listed out the rest of the shifts, and one by one, the Ponies and Avians slipped below deck, leaving Static and Boyle standing on the decking with nothing but the wind to keep them company.

Boyle took the wheel, while Static flew up to the front observation basket, one of two that were balanced on the top of the balloon. There were rope ladders up the side of the gas filled sack, but Static ignored them in favour of her own powers of flight, before settling in for a few hours of watching the slowly growing band of dark clouds on the horizon.

It would be a long night.

**************************************

Celestia and Pinkie were the ones who woke up the majority of the crew in the morning, having beaten Lix to the galley and baked as many pancakes as they could before the irritable chef chased them out, waving her soup ladle at the pair like a sword as they clattered off with several stacks of fluffy pancakes balanced precariously on a pair of trays. After the cooking session with Applejack and Pinkie, Celestia certainly seemed to have perked up.

Static certainly seemed to think so, when she blearily stared at the ex-alicorn standing grinning at her and Shy, curled up together in their assigned bed. She was holding two plates of pancakes out for the pair, who were taking their sweet time to process the Princess waving delectable deliciousness just inches from their bewildered faces. Fluttershy was wondering why there was someone in their cabin, while Static was wondering what kind of syrup was on the pancakes. It smelled like maple, but as far as Static knew, they hadn’t had any in supply.

“Good morning!!!” Pinkie hopped past in a frilly apron, one so pink it was nearly impossible to distinguish the garment from her coat. “Breakfast is served!”

“Celestia? Pinkie?” Static slurred as the early morning blues started to slip away thanks to the becoming aroma of soft, fluffy deliciousness. “What’re you doin’?”

“Giving you breakfast.” Celestia beamed, her coat matted by sticky batter, splashes of syrup, dollops of whip cream, and squished pieces of fruit. “If you want some other syrup, I’m sure Pinkie has some stashed somewhere."

Static looked at the sugary liquid dripping slowly down the Princess and the pancakes, before sitting up, rubbing her eyes, and then taking the offered plate, while Fluttershy mirrored her movements almost perfectly. “Thanks?”

“Any time, both of you!” Celestia smiled, seeming to regain a bit of her cheerful radiance for the first time since her rescue. “You know, since I became Princess, I’ve always had meals cooked for me. I quite forgot how much I enjoy making food for others! Seeing ponies happy faces as they enjoy a meal prepared especially for them is like feeling the sun on your face on a lovely spring morning!”

Static had to admit, she was liking this Celestia even more than when she was playing the part of the Princess. She was just so....normal. It was such a breath of fresh air compared to the refined, polished statue of regality she very much appeared to be when sat in that throne of hers. Deciding that she very much didn’t want to see this Celestia retreat back into that shell, Static eagerly carved out a chunk of pancake and speared it with the fork that had come with her breakfast. Turning it towards her, she bit down on the fork and moaned in delight at the perfect balance of flavours that tickled her tongue.

“Pinkie had to remind me of a few things. I hope I didn’t get too much wrong.” Celestia’s smile became tinted with red cheeks.

Static swallowed, almost sad to let the food slip down her throat, since she wanted to savour it for as long as she could. “You don’t have to worry about that. These are delicious!!”

Celestia’s smile got even bigger, forcing her to close her eyes because she was unable to contain her own delight.

“Our compliments to the chef!” Fluttershy giggled, offering her own thoughts on her meal, which had more strawberries and mango chunks on it than Static’s did. Static’s had more blueberries, and both were exactly as they liked them.

Celestia grinned, quickly running in place, nearly dislodging the other plates of pancakes from their seat on her back as she did. “I’m glad you like them! I’ll have to make more sometime!”

Static declared her desire for more the best way she could: by greedily taking several large bites from her stack of pancakes and giving the Princess a syrup drenched, closed mouth smile.

*******************************

“We’re a little further north than I thought we’d be by now, but it’s not an issue.” Captain Caelano explained as she stood at the wheel. Most of the crew was gathered on deck, only Rainbow and Applejack absent, as they were taking their turn sleeping after having had the last watch in the early hours of morning. “It just means that instead of docking in port tonight, we’ll be doing it early tomorrow. I know a place where we can stop the ship, and we all get some more rest before we go in. We’ll need time to get all of you ponies ready for the city anyway, so this is probably a good thing.”

There were mumbles of acceptance as the crew accepted the plan, before they busied themselves checking over the ship’s many ropes, pulleys, machines and devices to make sure they were all in good condition still- despite having done so the day before. It was something to do in the long hours of the day.

The sun was just reaching the highest point in the sky when the first sign of trouble appeared.

A smoky trail slowly encroached on the skyline ahead, the thin wisps drifting lazily through the air up ahead.

“Scout party.” Caelano murmured, the ponies barely hearing it from their positions across the deck. “Looks like it passed by an hour or two ago.”

“Is it gonna be a problem?” Twilight asked.

“No. They won’t come back through this area for another few hours yet. We’ll be way out of sight by then.”

The Skylark continued on, the captain guiding the ship towards a rocky plateau that surrounded an even larger outcropping of rocks. Slipping between two large faces of stone, the ship emerged into a hidden opening, approximately five hundred meters in length and barely two hundred feet in width, letting the Skylark just barely scrape through with only a short span of open air between the port and starboard sides. The opening widened towards the inside, a wooden building constructed in the shape of a horseshoe clung to the rock at the far end, the tips just in line with the bow, allowing for the relieved crew to drop a gangplank across and disembark.

The building was a ramshackle mess mascarding as architecture, with no style and almost no concept of utility- or safety either. Nails stuck out of thin, plywood walls and wooden beams, walkways were patchy and missing entire planks of wood, and the roofs of multiple sections of the building were so full of holes that it resembled swiss cheese.

Thankfully, the lower levels were at least a little more sensible, having clearly been built first and with an actual plan in mind. The lower rooms were more uniform, and while still crooked and misshapen, it was less to do with lack of care and more to do with the shoddy building materials themselves. The beds were an improvement over the hard and uneven cots and bunks on the ship, as all beds on transportation tended to be outside of the odd “deluxe suite” rooms. None of them were complaining, though the kitchen room had been on the top level and had since collapsed from water damage, likely due to rain.

There was a small area of actual ground where a campfire pit had been set up, but the last people to use it had not cleaned it out, the blackened remains of burned wood scattered and smeared across the ring of stones that was supposed to keep the flames inside their confines. Small benches ringed the stone circle, and a few tables were sat just behind those benches. Like the building itself, the furniture was beaten up, the tables and benches outside too, many of them displaying cracks and stains.

With everyone off the ship to explore, the weary travellers started scouting out suitable beds for themselves, with Static and Fluttershy managing to quite happily snag a larger bed for themselves, due to bunking together, with Rarity, Applejack, and the Avian members of the crew all claiming the other mid and large sized beds. The others all sought out the smaller, almost child-sized beds. Pinkie and Celestia did have a bit of luck, managing to find the only set of bunk beds. With a bizarre giddiness, both Pinkie and the Princess clambered on top of them, peeking out from on top of the bed’s top level safety beam, giggling like a pair of idiots, with grins to match.

“Luna and I had one of these, a very long time ago, before we became Princesses. I have many fond memories of Star Swirl storming into our rooms to tell us off for still being awake in the middle of the night. The old coot was always irascible, even in his younger days before his beard had grown in properly. We used to call him an 'Old Goat' because if how it looked!” Celestia explained as she climbed back down, smiling in amusement as Pinkie simply hopped off, then proceeded to nearly go right through the floorboards too with her happy pronking.

Boyle and Mullet went back to the ship to grab some food for the night’s dinner, opting to stay away from the ladies as they got themselves ready for bed. Caelano surprised the ponies when she emerged from her chosen room wearing as very fancy looking gown that resembled a bathrobe, made of red cloth with a purple velvet sash. Rarity once again had to be restrained in case she flatten the Captain to the wall or floor with her excited antics at a chance to talk fashion after so long. They were all sat around the now very much lit campfire, ready for a bit of food and the nights rest.

“Am I really this bad when I think I can learn something new?” Twilight asked, horn glowing to keep Rarity from using hers as the Unicorn was left to calm back down.

“Worse, more often than not, sugar.” Applejack snorted. “Remember that time you just had to go look at that ancient statue in the jungle temple? The one that dropped us into a room full of snakes?”

Twilight went a strange white and red colouration, embarrassment and remembered fear warring for position on her cheeks. “T-that wasn’t my fault! How was I supposed to know the statue’s hoof was booby-trapped?”

“Cause with us, everything’s booby-trapped?” Rainbow smirked.

“You seemed pretty pleased at the time, Rainbow, if I remember correctly.” Static grinned.

“Come on, it was pretty awesome!” Rainbow protested, waving her hoof wildly in the air from where she was laying on her side. “It was just like being with Daring Do again!”

Tempest sat off to the side, her shackles off for the moment to let her stretch her stiff joints out a bit. She wasn’t engaging in the conversation, but Static caught her following along with a small smile on her face.

“I had to hold open a three ton door while you played hero.” Applejack grumbled. “I can still feel where it hit my back coming down.”

“Everyone else was stuck! I had to! It was that or let everypony get bit!”

“We were only supposed to be on a tour.” Rarity complained from inside her restrictive bubble, idly tracing dress designs for the captain into the dirt floor of her cage. “How we even stumbled upon a previously undiscovered secret room in a tourist attraction like that is completely beyond me.”

“The snakes weren’t so bad. They were just hungry.” Fluttershy smiled her classic “I love animals” smile, showing off her slight dimples.

“Yeah, but you didn’t have to make us wait and see them all get lifted outta there. We were missing the fiesta!!” Pinkie beamed, tail wagging back and forth.

“They needed to get out of there, and I couldn’t just leave them without making sure they did!”

“Eh, they’d have been fine.” Rainbow waved her hoof at her friend, lying on a cloud at the same height as the benches. She was just settling back down when a cacophony of bashes and clangs rang out through the narrow canyon, the angry yells of Boyle and Mullet easily distinguished amid the tumult. A few girlish squeals pierced the early night air, several pony heads shooting up at the familiar sounds.

Static and Rainbow’s wings were blurs as they streaked towards the source of the commotion, with Applejack and Rarity charging along behind. Twilight was right behind them, the other crew members bringing up the rear.

They arrived in front of the ship to find five familiar figures trying desperately to keep the much larger and stronger Mullet and Boyle at bay, the bulk of their efforts forwarded by a growing, increasingly more lithe, purple teenage dragon, who’s wings flapped frantically in an attempt to escape the pirates who were holding his other limbs in their claws.

“Spike?!” Twilight screeched to a halt, her hooves digging miniature trenches into the grounds. “What are you-”

Simply stopping in front of several charging ponies and avians is never a good idea, no matter what the title of the individual doing the stopping was. As such, even Princesses can end up at the bottom of a dog pile, or, in this case, a pony pile. Twilight swiftly became a fine example of this concept, the approaching crewmembers colliding with her still sliding rear and sending her toppling forward onto her face. When the tumult ended, Twilight was buried under no fewer than three of her best friends, and her mentor as well, with all of them trying to stare at the four fillies standing there with wide eyes.

Rainbow, Static and Applejack’s mouths were hung open in shocked disbelief, and Rarity was lividly vibrating at the sight of Sweetie Belle standing there with the other three.

“Apple Bloom?!”

“Scoots?!”

“Sweetie Belle?!”

“Crystal?!”

************************************

Author's Note

Oh dear lord, am I tired. Since I've still been at work during the entirety of Covid-19's horrid tenure on our currently very depressing mud ball, I have been so tired that I've pretty much had to put this on the back-burner. But, I finally finished a chapter! Please, read it as many or as few times as you want! Just use it to hopefully lighten your spirits a little, as I've tried to steer the story back towards the realm of fun and away from doom and gloom.

Chapter 12: Klugetown

“So what are we gonna do with ‘em?” Applejack fumed, trotting back and forth across the floor space behind the small table they’d found in the dining room. “We’re sending ‘em back right? Right?”

“It’s three days back across the desert, Applejack.” Twilight reminded her friend with a grimace. “And we don’t even have the fuel left to make it that far. And we don’t have the time to waste eight days just to take them back to the castle! We’re at war, and every minute we spend not finding a way to win is another minute Gaul can use to enslave all of Equestria! We can’t take that much time!”

Rainbow snorted. “I could do it in an hour.”

“And probably get seen. Rainbow contrails in the sky are rather conspicuous.” Celestia murmured, considering the tactics that Gaul might employ. “Gaul is going to be looking for Luna by now, so he’ll probably have people all around the Everfree by now.”

“So sending them back is not a good idea.” Static surmised. “We’ll have to keep them with us, and keep them safe. That’s extra food, more caution in our plans, and more rooms being used- assuming we don’t have them sleeping with their sisters.” Static looked over to Applejack and Rarity, who definitely did not seem happy to have their sisters potentially sharing their room. “Crystal can stay with us-”

“You’ll bunk with me, Scoots.” Rainbow griped, calling to where the CMC were waiting in the next room. “You’d better not hog all the blankets.”

“And you better not snore like a foghorn!” Came Scootaloo’s snark.

“HEY! I DON’T SNORE!”

“Rainbow Falls camping trip!” Scootaloo yelled back.

“That- wasn’t- I-”

“Whether or not Rainbow snores is irrelevant.” Celestia butted in. “We need to decide what to do now.”

“Simple. We carry on.” Static grunted. “We can’t go back, taking them back will take too much time and potentially leave us a mare down. We need fuel, we need more food and water to accommodate them, and we need to start our mission. We need to go to Klugetown in order to accomplish all of that. So we carry on.”

“They’ll need to pull their weight.” Celeano idly flipped a knife between her claws. “They stay on my ship, they work for their board.”

“Now that’s not really necessary. They’re only fillies.” Rarity interjected.

“This may be your mission, but it’s my ship, and on my ship, you obey my rules. We work for our beds, which means they do too.” Celeano explained. “The ship has pretty much everything it needs, and being kids, they’re not well suited to hard jobs….but we do need a cabin boy.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“No, I’m being serious. All of us have jobs to do on board, and some of those jobs- Miss Pie- create mess. Having someone around to clean up will be a godsend, just you see.”

Static raised an eyebrow. “Never heard the old saying: clean up your own messes?”

“You really want them to have nothing to do on board?” The Captain raised an eyebrow.
“Oh hay bales, no!” Dash cried, wings flaring wide. “They’ll set the whole ship on fire in twenty seconds flat!”

“I think you’re exaggerating…” Celeano chuckled, but none of the ponies shared that amusement.

“You wouldn’t be laughing if you knew them.” Applejack shuddered.
The captain wisely chose not to ask what kind of awful stories they might have. After all, one of them might just be enough to keep her awake tonight, if Applejack’s face was enough to judge the three fillies' propensity for causing trouble. Having three troublemakers on board her ship was bad enough without knowing just how much damage they could cause.

“Still, keeping them occupied is the best way to keep them from making trouble.” The captain said confidently, at which point Fluttershy started rigorously shaking her head.

“Oh, no, no, no! That just won’t work with the Crusaders!” Fluttershy brushed her mane out of her face and looked at Celeano dead in her own magenta eyes. “They need someone with a firm hoof to keep them in line at all times, otherwise they get easily caught up in their ideas, and they get distracted easily.”

“Well then, Applejack, if you could be their chaperone-”

“No, Captain, I’ll look after them. They respect me enough to listen to me.”

Celeano frowned, raising an eyebrow at the shy yellow pony who had just shut down the Captain’s ideas with a perfectly sound and calm explanation. “Are you sure you can handle the-”

“Girls!” Fluttershy called, and in a single blink, the four fillies were standing at attention before the buttery pegasus.

“I….I guess that decides that, then. Miss Shy, you are now in charge of the Crusaders.”

Fluttershy tilted her head, her mane falling delicately over her muzzle. “Are they still going to be cabin fillies?”

“Only if you really think they can handle it, I guess.” Celeano’s resigned sigh was punctuated by the avian pinching the bridge of her beak with her left claw. “Just make sure we make it into port before you let them loose.”

**************************************

Crimson wasn’t exactly sure how long it had been, days, or weeks at least, since Gale had started torturing him and his cellmates on a more regular basis.

Gale had not gotten much more out of Crimson, not that Crimson was even sure about that. The pain was so intense most days that his memory was fuzzy, so he may have said all kinds of things at some point that he just couldn’t remember. His repeated injuries were something that now required healing salves and potions after every session, lest he die before Gale found his precious answers.

In between sessions, when he was coherent enough, Crimson talked with the other prisoners, discovering a motley crew of creatures all as ragged and beaten as he was. There were even a few of his fellow Friendship guards dotted through the pack too. Two of the company’s six Gryphon’s, called Greer and Gouss, the dragon twins, High and Low, High being the shorter of the two, Spinnerette the Changeling, and Autumn the Pegasus- whose actual name was Feather Fall- were the ones he could recognize as his fellow guards. It was possible there were more in the other cells around this place but if there were, he’d not seen or heard anything of them.

Gale was maddeningly passionate in his poor treatment and nasty methods of extracting information, and his insane, gibbering Hound guards weren’t much fun either, especially when they drooled on the floor outside Crimson’s cell.

But then things changed. Gale stopped pulling Crimson and the others out of their cells, and seemed content to let them sit in their squalor for a while. There was no telling how long it was, only that they were given scraps of food to survive off of about eight times before Gale finally came back for one of them.

“Get up, Architect. We’re going someplace special.” Gale snickered. “The King wants a word with you about the Princess, Luna.”

Gale and his guards led Crimson through smooth, cut stone corridors that were lit up by long rows of evenly spaced torches, resting in metal sconces that were bolted to the wall. They passed by rooms of chained up Ponies, and other creatures too, all of those capable of using magic with shiny metal manacles and rings closed tight around horns, wings and hooves. Some of them managed to look up at the passing group before they disappeared behind the doorway, fixing sorrowful eyes on the passing prisoner before he vanished from view again.

Crimson managed to keep pace with the ape-like Jotuns, reaching a large, round room with a short, wide window that stared out of the stone building and onto what looked like the valleys and hills that surrounded Canterlot. And standing in front of that window, hands clasped behind his back, was the Storm King, his staff resting against the wall next to him. Crimson felt his teeth grit in rage, but was momentarily disarmed when the king turned to him, gave him a simple smile, and beckoned for him to sit down at a table that was laden with food and a steaming cup for both of them.

“I trust that you are quite hungry after your time in Gale’s company?” The King asked, pushing a plate of various vegetables and sauces across the table towards Crimson, taking a few himself and eating them in front of him. Seeing as the King didn’t turn blue in the face and fall over dead, Crimson cautiously began to eat, taking advantage of the opportunity to eat well for a change. “Good, eat. I have much to discuss with you.”

Crimson ate as much as he could without straining himself, being mindful not to make himself sick by eating so much rich food. Gaul relaxed in his chair, sipping at his drink and indulging in some kind of sweet treats. When Crimson was close to finishing, Gaul leaned back and steepled his fingers. “Gale is quite erratic in his dealings. I can never tell what will catch and retain his attention next. He seems dead set on uncovering the secret of your abilities.”

“And I suppose you don’t care about them?” Crimson asked, finally, after staring at the king for several long minutes.

“Oh, no. I do.” Gaul admitted. “I just don’t particularly care if Gale finds out how you received your abilities. I am more interested in other things.”

“Such as?” Crimson asked, taking another bite of food, enjoying the taste of some kind of meaty sausage as Gaul started to reply.

“Oh, your skill in battle for one. Your mastery of a blade is impressive. Where did you learn?”

Crimson stopped eating, his eyes flicking up to his captor as he swallowed. “I learned from the ponies.”

“Of course your training continued there, but you’d been fighting for years before they found you. I can tell.” Gaul chuckled, sipping his tea. “Would you tell me the truth?”

“No.”

“Hmmm.” Gaul sighed. “A pity.” Oddly, he didn’t press the issue any further, instead just sitting and drinking his tea, then getting a refill from a steaming pot when he ran out.

“And here I thought you’d be waited on by servants.” Crimson said, emphasizing the word servants and wrinkling his nose at the implication.

“I prefer to eat alone, with food I prepared.” Gaul answered, still smiling.

Crimson raised an eyebrow, looking at the spread before him, not believing a word.

“Of course, you may believe what you wish about me.” The king continued, taking a slice of meat and happily chewing it. “As can anyone, if they so wish.”

“Anyone who believes you shouldn’t be in power is an exemption, then?”

The King stopped, then placed his cup down, placing his elbows on the table and steepled his clawed fingers while gazing directly at his “guest”. “Anyone in power is a fool if they allow such dissenters to continue spreading such beliefs. Allowing individuals to have them, however, is no concern. They can think all they want. Not even I can stop that.”

Crimson stared at the King, then decided to play his game, and simply shrugged, taking an apple from the table and biting into it. Gaul smiled.

“You know, you’re quite rude, even for an uncivilized Arcan.”

Crimson’s chewing stopped. “Arcan?”

The King blinked, before his smile grew a few sizes. “You don’t know your own people’s name?”

“We’re Architects.” Crimson returned, not looking the King’s way as he ate more of his apple.

“So, you’re from Homestead then. Interesting.” Crimson nearly spat out his mouthful of apple at that, and only barely held it in. He failed to stop himself from choking on that piece though. Once he had cleared his throat, he saw Gaul had stood up again, and was walking back over to the window. “Thank you, you’ve told me what I wanted to know.

“What are you- HEY!” Crimson tried to go after the King and get an answer, but the guards had already entered the room and grabbed him by the arms, lifting him up and dragging him bodily away from the table.

“Wait.” The guards stopped. “Now that he knows the risks, I’d like to ask him some more questions.” Unceremoniously, the guards dumped Crimson back onto the floor, and left the room, leaving the young man along with the vile monarch.

Crimson sat back down in his chair, slowly, and picked up his tea cup as Gaul did the same.

“Now that you know the stakes, I want you to tell me what Princess Twilight and her friends will do.”

Crimson stared down at his cup, his hair, longer than normal and ratty from being unwashed and uncut for the last few weeks, dangling down around his head and leaving his pointed ears exposed. He almost wanted to hear Static making a dumb remark about him being an elf.

“I don’t want to have to force it out of you.” Gaul said, his voice low. When Crimson remained silent, Gaul frowned. Then he put his cup down and took up a bundle of grapes from a platter, picked one off it’s stem, and delicately held it between his claws. “I know you care for the ponies, but family is always a difficult thing to simply let go of, even when they are far away and distant. If you tell me what the ponies will do next, then your family will stay completely safe, ignorant and hidden away in their little hole in the ground, and you can continue being the black sheep of your family.” Gauls claws started to tighten, leaving the grape deformed and elongated on both ends, but contracted in the middle. “However...fail to tell me the truth, or fail to tell me at all, and there will be…” The grape squirted juice over the claw that had pierced it’s side, the fleshy pulp oozing out as Gaul continued to press, mangling the fruit until it was unrecognizable. “Consequences. So... will you talk? Or will you stay quiet?”

Crimson lifted his head to look at the bits of fruit slowly oozing down the King’s claws, and stared defiantly at the tyrant, keeping his lips firmly sealed and saying not a single word.

“Ah. Ever a brave one. You made Gale work to get what little information out of you that he did, and that I commend. Resilience is something I respect and admire quite a bit, hence why I kept Tempest Shadow around for so long. But everything has a time and place, my friend. And I’m afraid this wasn’t it.” Gaul stood, went over to retrieve his staff, then walked to the door on the opposite side of the room than the one that Crimson was brought in through. He stopped, turning to look at Crimson one more time. “Now, like with everything else, there will be consequences.”

Gaul didn’t even tell the guards to do anything. They just shut the doors and left him in there. There weren’t even knives or forks anyway, nothing that could really be used as a weapon, and he wasn’t really feeling up to trying to break the thick, sturdy looking table legs. Instead he just slumped back into his seat, wondering what exactly it was that he had just done.

******************************

Luna and her entourage had teleported into the warehouse just an hour earlier, engaging the Storm Guards that were looting the Ponyville emergency food storage and dispatching them with quick and concise strike teams. Now they were simply on the lookout for approaching danger while loading up the rest of the food themselves, to take back into the forest.

As Luna oversaw the loading and kept busy by regarding the maps of the surrounding region, one of her scouts came flying back in, the thestral panting heavily as he had been one of the furthest out and apparently rushed back. “Your highness! I just spotted the King’s flying citadel! It’s moving!”

“To the north?” Luna asked, keeping her worry out of her voice and remaining the stern leader she was supposed to be.

“No, south-south-west by my reckoning, your highness.” The guard replied, still saluting.

“South-west?” Luna murmured. “But there are no cities or targets in that direction. There is nothing but vacant rainforest and desert to the south west....” She racked her mind for why the king would take his behemoth to those regions when her face suddenly fell, recalling Princess Twilight’s guardian knight, and the tale of his home that her fellow Princess had relayed to her in her reports on the fellow. “The caves of conundrum…” She whispered.

“Princess?” The guard asked.

“Soldiers! Gather your arms and ready yourselves! We must make haste at once! Innocent lives are under threat, and I will not allow them to be extinguished without a fight!” Luna bellowed, lighting her horn and teleporting the carts of supplies back to the castle while her fighters looked up at her in worry and uncertainty. “Gather to me! We must not tarry, my friends. We go to the fight once more!”

In a flash, they vanished too, leaving the warehouse empty, save for the dead Jotuns left in their wake.

***********************************

The Skylark rolled into Klugetown early the next morning, with the Crusaders kept inside under threat of never getting desert ever again for the rest of their lives, by Twilight’s royal decree- even when they were grown up.

The adult ponies however, were keeping their ears open and eyes peeled for any hint of something wrong, with both the Pegasi and the Alicorn among them falling into instinct and somewhat resembling birds with their behavior, their heads on a swivel and their quick movements very reminiscent of birds on the lookout from their perches.

The city seemed to be fashioned almost entirely out of the remains of previously existing wooden structures, and nailed together without seeming to have much in the way of rhyme or reason, resulting in buildings with curved walls, floors that hung out over empty space that had to held up by support struts, and stairs that broke off mid level that went somewhere in what the wall they were attached to was part of.

“I don’t think these folks have even heard about buildin’ codes…” Applejack remarked, quietly, while Twilight ground her teeth at the illogical structural decisions and layouts.

“Quiet, all of you. The guards will be Jotuns, if they hear what they think are slaves talking out of turn, they’ll have us all thrown in the stocks!” Caelano hissed from her place at the wheel. She pulled the lever that governed the engine power and set it to slow as they reached the entrance to the harbour, a sky dock that was rather more like a traditional naval shipyard that had a roof, with various slipways meant for mooring, and maintaining ships. Two tower like structures suspended over nothing, held up by a small forest of pillars and supports, with walls lined with mounted cannons and deck guns, and two extendable doors to seal off the shipyard, were currently home to a small group of Jotuns each, one on both paying attention to the ship.

What they saw was not all that unusual.

A crew dressed in the messenger uniforms of the Storm King’s army, basic overalls that covered most of their body without allowing for much in the way of concealed weapons. There weren’t many, postal crews were barebones most of the time, usually with one or two guards accompanying them, though that wasn’t always a necessity. Several of the spots seemed to have been taken up by pony slaves, each dressed in simple, ratty and threadbare sackcloth that had seen better days even before being used to make clothing, four unicorns, three pegasi, and two earth ponies. Each was wearing a collar as per regulation and seemed absolutely miserable, as they should be. The ship was waved on through after a few moments, and the guards went back to watching the skies for attacking ships, not knowing they had just let the wolves in the front door.

The Skylark crawled into the open slipway that the skydock signallers, armed with signal flags and no sense of what the words “too close” meant, directed them to. They slid into the narrow gap between the planked walkways on either side, nearly crashing into various pieces of improperly stored dock equipment, which Caelano started yelling rudely at the dock workers for.

While the Captain was busy giving the dockhands a tongue-lashing, Twilight and the rest of the ponies started to unload cargo at the direction of the Avian crew, who acted the part of the taskmaster, complete with whips that only occasionally hit one of them by accident, leaving Static’s backside smarting when Lix accidentally smacked her across the cheeks, causing her to drop her end of the box she was helping Fluttershy carry.

The Jotunn guards at the entrance of the gave the ponies a fright when they demanded a search of the crates.

Then those fears were waived away when the guards didn’t even sift through the contents of the crates, just casually glancing at the stuff on top. They looked at the packages of fresh produce, and the bolts of fabric used for repairing the sails, but didn’t bother checking underneath for any kind of contraband hidden inside.

The ponies hauled the boxes out of the dock, guided by their Avian crewmates and one lone worker who looked about as enthusiastic about the arrangement as the ponies were. Caelano, who had initially stayed behind to deal with the awfulness known as documentation and paperwork, entered the side building where they were storing their stuff last, and after looking around, closed the door behind her.

Without a word, her crew started undoing the collars and bindings the ponies had been under, while Celestia and Rarity helped the Crusaders and Spike climb out of the half empty food crates the ponies had brought there. Caelano took one look at the dockhand, who was wide eyed at the sudden shift in the situation, and produced a trio of gold coins, not too dissimilar to Equestrian Bits, and placed them in the dockhands palm.

“You never saw this. They were never here.” She said firmly, and waited for the Dockhands agreeing nod before she opened the door and let him leave.

Once he was gone, the ponies quickly dug through the crate of cloth bolts and retrieved their armor and weapons, along with some cloaks that Rarity had made in her spare time- which was most of the trip, given they didn’t need to repair any damaged sails.

“Stay down, and follow me, keep quiet, and don’t draw attention to yourselves. We’re mercenaries, common as cutlery in a kitchen. Got it?” The Captain growled at the ponies, specifically at the young ones. “It ain’t too uncommon for Mercenaries to move their families every once in a while, so you five, stay in the middle, and you’ll be fine.” She said, looking at the four fillies and young dragon. They all nodded back.

One last check to make sure they were all ready, and Caelano pulled up several floorboards, revealing a narrow boardwalk underneath the house. “This comes up just outside a gap in the city walls. We slip in, and we move to a safehouse I know. We get separated, we’ll meet up in the marketplace, aye?”

“Aye.” The group all whispered back.

“Lix, Mullet, Squabble, go back to the ship. Keep her safe.” Caelano ordered, the three Avians quickly gathering their things and heading to the door they all entered through. “You get any unwanted attention, you scarper.” Mullet nodded in compliance, and Lix and Squabble wasted no time following the first mate out.

With that, Caelano motioned for Twilight and Applejack to climb down first, then had Boyle join them. The others followed one by one, the fillies in the middle, with the Captain bringing up the rear and making sure the entrance to the secret tunnels were covered over.

“Ya think they’ll be lookin’ for us once they realize we’ve not come back outta there?” Applejack asked, balancing precariously on one of the narrow boards that hung underneath the supported platforms that made up the skydock section of the city. The rest of the city was underneath them, quite a ways down and curling down and around the base of a large rock spire in the middle of more desert lands, the buildings all constructed by bolting wood together in haphazard combinations and hoping they stayed upright and intact. One particular building stood out, as it had a windmill perched at it’s crown, while also having a large water wheel on the other side, dipping into a river that lazily stretched across the dusty desert plains and meandered off to the east somewhere. The wheel was barely moving thanks to the slow current, and the windmill tower above it swayed gently in the breeze, threatening to pitch over at the slightest gust of stronger wind- or it seemed like it would.

Caelano shrugged her shoulders at Applejack, but didn't say a word.

The largest building though was a great hall in the center of town, the roof made of one single ship hull, upturned and poked through with metal chimney pipes that stuck up like a miniature forest.

It all lay beneath them, dozens of meters down the spire’s rocky face and it’s lower inclines. The dock seemed to be a separate part of the city, not included in the walled off grouping of buildings that tried to reach it. And it didn’t seem to be the only one. There were other raised platforms that ships were docked at all around the outer edge of the city, but the one the rebellious group were sneaking out of seemed to be the largest, with multiple slipways and skydocks all clustered around the rock spire like a ring of wood and metal.

Creeping along the boards and trying to ignore the huge distance between them and the ground, the wingless members of the group took shaky steps as they traversed the path, while the Pegasi and Alicorn were far less hesitant, and offered words of encouragement to the others in hushed tones until the path finally intersected with the city wall.

There was a small alcove built into the wall itself, which the ponies were glad for, as it was a much larger place to stand that could fit them all without too much wasted space.

Caelano knocked on one of the wood panels, and waited, listening with her feathery ear pressed up against the boards, waiting for a responding signal. After a few seconds, a knock was heard in reply, a quick three tone beat followed by two light taps. Caelano grinned and pushed two boards aside, allowing the ponies to step through one by one. It was a tight fit, and Boyle nearly got stuck, having to suck in his breath and hold it until he could wriggle himself through. They refused to use magic, as it was a bright and flashy method that could easily get them caught.

There was a watchman lying by the entryway, pretending to be snoring the day away. Caelano silently slipped him some more gold coins and lead the group away.

They stuck to as many back alleys and crowded streets as they could, using both anonymity and discretion to bypass patrolling guards as they followed the city down the rocky slopes.

Their path led them to a cliff face with a stairwell down, which served as a kind of overlook for the rest of the city. As a mixture of creatures of all kinds walked, squawked, trotted and scurried about on their way, Caelano took a moment to breathe, looking over the city and pointing out a cluster of courtyards and tents not far from the great hall. “That’s the market place. See that building off to the left side? That’s a tavern known for having more...open minded owners. If we get split up, wait for us there, if you can.”

The ponies nodded once again, and then they all started the long climb down the cliff-stairs.

************************************

Crimson watched as the landscapes slowly drifted by the windows, the familiar rolling hills and mountains of Equestria now having been replaced by dusty plains and rock formations that aspired to be like their giant, mountain cousins, but failed in the attempt.

They were familiar too, a place that Crimson knew perhaps even better than Equestria. He could just about see them on the horizon, a dark smudge of reddish rock that was dotted and pitted with dark shadows and black marks.

He was nearly home, and he wished he wasn’t. He knew that something terrible was about to happen, and there was nothing he could do while he was locked in this stupid room. Fresh food had been brought in for him, but he’d barely touched it, nor had he even tried to escape while the Jotuns stood guard over the doors, their heavy weapons and armour more than a match for Crimson’s weakened strength and magic. All he could do was watch the inevitable get closer and closer.

He heard one of the doors open, and some footsteps enter. Not the Kings, they weren’t heavy enough. No, these sounded like…

“Hello again, Pureheart. It’s nearly time.”

Crimson turned, and couldn’t truly hide the flinch at the sight of the deranged torturer who had been entertaining himself with Crimson’s screams for the last few weeks. Commander Gale stepped closer to Crimson, who instinctively stepped back, causing the Hound to chuckle inside his helmet. “No need to worry. I’m under orders not to hurt you.” Gale tittered with amusement. “Much to my dismay, of course, but I obey my liege.”

“You obey the one who holds your leash, you mean.”

“So he does know how to speak civilly. I had thought that incoherent babbling from pain and stubbornly screaming insults was all you knew how to do.” Gale said, moving to stare out of the window. “I don’t want this to happen either, you know.”

Crimson stared at the sadist in disbelief. “Why not?”

“Oh come now. Surely you aren’t that dense.” Gale snorted. “Haven’t you figured it out yet? Why I’m so interested in how you got your powers?”

“I don’t care why.” Crimson snapped.

“Ho-hum. Your loss.”

Despite his own words, Crimson felt the flutterings of curiosity in his head. “Fine. Just tell me. That’s why you came here, isn’t it?”

“Yes.” Gale replied. He reached up to grasp at the strap buckle holding his helmet in place, and undid it, then lifted it off of his head without much pretense of drama. He shook out his short hair, and turned to look at Crimson, who stared in wide eyed horror at the scarred mass that was the commanders face. “And now you know why I’m so interested.”

The faint blue markings on his face were misshapen from the scar tissue that intersected them, and his brown hair was rather fairly kept, despite the hairline being just as disrupted by the scarring. His forehead was cut up in a fashion that mimicked the Storm King’s sigil, and his blue eye was paired with a white one that still saw despite it’s appearance.

Gale grinned a vile grin at Crimson. “I want to unlock mine and my Hounds.” The twisted, scarred Arcan said, and then he walked out of the room, not bothering to put his helmet back on.

******************************************

Chapter 13: A Silky Voice

They got separated.

As the ponies and their Avian escorts were traversing a large road that lead through most of town, an influx of foot traffic had pressed between them, barging through the short, easily missable crowd of ponies after having shoved aside Caelano and Boyle. The fillies and Spike managed to stay next to one another, but Celestia, Rainbow, Twilight and Applejack were cut off from the others on one side of the street, while Boyle and Pinkie got stuck on the other.

Static, Rarity and Fluttershy closed around the fillies and Spike, forced by the crowd to hurry down the street, away from the frantic cries of their crewmates. The crowds shoved them and jostled them along the narrow and twisted pathways of the city, not giving a care for their smaller size or the teenagers with them.

The buildings around them grew more cluttered and clustered as they were forced on, Rarity and Fluttershy struggling to keep the fillies between them while Static took the role of spearhead, forcing the crowd to either part to admit them, or be pushed aside in turn. The armour under her cloak saved Static from a few bruises, but one rowdy passerby managed to hit her under her eye as he was pushed aside, a bruise swelling up her cheek a little as she forged on.

On and on the crowds forced them, before it finally relinquished it’s hold on the group, and they were able to retreat from the road and dip into a side alley without any more shoving. Not wanting to stay out in the open, they journeyed further into the alley before hunkering down to catch their breath, Fluttershy fussing over Static’s cheek.

“This isn’t good. I don’t recognize this part of the city at all.” Fluttershy worried, dabbing Static’s bruise with a cloth she had wetted with a tiny bit of her water canteen. “The only recognizable landmarks I can see are where we just came from, and I don’t think we should try going back through all those creatures…”

“But what else can we do, darling?” Rarity asked, hugging Sweetie Belle close to her breast with her forelegs, while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo pressed close to her sides. Crystal stood next to her parents, while Spike stood a little further away, keeping an eye on the alley entrance. “If we try to go anywhere else, all we will be doing is aimlessly wandering until we happen across a landmark, which could not only be dangerous, it could get us separated even further.”

“Or it could help us find the marketplace and find the others.” Apple Bloom said, nervously shifting against Rarity’s side. “Where’s miss Tempest? I didn’t see her when we got split up.”

“I’m here.” The group’s eyes all snapped up to see the Unicorn in question standing at the end of the alley, looking a little worse for wear, and one of her forelegs bleeding, her rope bindings torn off of the limb in order to let her move more easily.

The adults were on their hooves in an instant, but Tempest just limped closer, before sitting down with a puff of air. “I chose to follow you when we were separated. I knew you’d need the help.” She stated simply.

“And your rope?” Rarity asked, warily.

“You expect me to get through a crowd of creatures with my legs tied together? Even loosely?” Tempest asked, a raised eyebrow the only indication of her amusement. She rubbed her foreleg and winced, the skin where she had pulled the rope off split, and red raw around the wound. Fluttershy’s eyes fixated on that red, her eyes instantly creasing with concern. She moved away from Static and picked up her medkit, carried it to Tempest, and sat down next to her, the Unicorn looking at her with a puzzled expression. “It is nothing, do not bother yourself with my leg.” Tempest started to object, but Fluttershy quietly and firmly grabbed Tempest’s foreleg with her own, pulled it closer, and started to look it over with a critical eye.

“If I leave it untreated, it will become infected.” Fluttershy murmured, bringing out ointment and bandages, as well as a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, something that the Skylark had very little of.

“I have had much worse, miss Fluttershy.” Tempest protested, trying to pull her leg away, but was surprised at the sudden strength from the seemingly frail pegasus. “Do not waste your supplies on-” Tempest hissed in pain as Fluttershy pressed a cloth soaked in the alcohol against the rope burned skin, but only reacted to it for a few moments before she frowned. “You shouldn’t have-”

“You needed it, Tempest. I’m not going to sit by and let you get infections when I can help you.” Fluttershy stated.

“I’d listen to her, Tempest. She frequently wrestles bears when they get feisty.” Static smirked at Tempest’s surprised face. The Unicorn turned her gaze back to Shy, but now, her eyes were filled with hints of something Static had only seen directed her own way. Respect.

“So. Now we have four adults, and five teens.” Rarity nodded as Static turned back to face her. “I feel at least a little better about our chances now. On to the market then, if we can locate it?”

“I remember where to go from here.” Tempest spoke up from where Fluttershy was wrapping a bandage over her leg. “I can lead you there.”

“Good. We’ll go to the market and try to find the others. Hopefully we won’t have to wait long.” Static decreed. “Once Shy’s done with your leg, and you feel like you can walk a bit better, we’ll get going.”

They didn’t have to wait too long. Tempest was on her hooves with only a slight limp within a few minutes, stepping out into the slightly more empty street now that much of the foot traffic had passed, but there was no sign of Celeano, Twilight and the others, much to Static’s dismay. None of this had gone right since they left the Everfree.

Following Tempest’s lead, they crossed the street and into an alley on the other side, trotting down it at a quick but easy pace, given Tempest’s limp.

That didn’t stop her though, as the Unicorn carried on through numerous twists and turns until they reached a part of the city that Static actually recognized from their earlier observations at the top of the cliffs. Tempest turned on to and off of several busier streets before the shoddily constructed, ramshackle buildings gave way to several much nicer and larger looking ones, with more uniform and safer shapes, proper supports, even sporting decorative signs and bolts of cloth that hung overhead...all in all, still a bunch of mediocre buildings, but only half of them looked ready to fall over, rather than most of them. There were stalls set up in the streets, vendors selling bits of junk for quick coin, alongside a few bits and pieces of half rotten food, all the best produce reserved for the actual buildings, where fresher fruits and vegetables were being sold at a premium that no one could afford to pay, save for a few better dressed individuals, quite a number of them Jotuns. There was a good mixture though, apples, bananas, oranges, and a purple fruit that didn’t seem to be selling well.

Rarity couldn’t help but frown and sneer at the contemptuous conditions. “These brutes strut about in their fancy clothes while others go without food. You would hardly be able to find such a sight back home. It is a crime against fabulosity, and generosity!”

“We’ll find some way to sort this lot out, one day.” Static promised, whispering as loudly as she dared. “For now, we blend, and we don’t draw too much attention to our-” Static bumped into a large creature that resembled a fish, or perhaps a shark, given the sharp teeth and five gills he revealed as he turned to snarl at her.

“You better watch where you’re going, little mare! Ponies like you don’t last long out here. But you look like you’d make quite a good meal!” His wide mouth creased into a fanged grin, and he leaned in to smell Static, who batted him away with her hoof, her sword springing free from her cloak and whipping up to touch, just so, under the Shark’s chin.

“And you had best not make assumptions about what you can and can’t eat.” Static hissed, the sword in her hoof digging just deeply enough to sting, but not to draw blood.

The Shark did not look ready to back down, and instead, whipped his finned hands across to brush the blade aside and try to grab the pony who dared to resist him.

Instead, a paw caught his wrist and an alarmed voice burst from the mouth of the tan coloured feline that seemingly materialized between the pair, clad in a red coat, with a curled tuft of purple hair bouncing gently in place between his fuzzy ears. “You really don’t wanna do that!!” The cat’s voice was vaguely sophisticated, but sounded smooth and rather akin to a purr. “I dunno if you’ve had a good look at these ponies, but they are not good for eatin’, and y’all don't wanna be touching ‘em!”

“And how would you know?!” The shark demanded, pushing the cat back. The cat splayed his ears and swished his tail nervously, holding his hands up in appeasement. “You eaten many ponies?!”

“Well, no, but look at those two over there?” The cat pointed over to a rather dully coloured pair of ponies standing at a vendor’s booth, watching the incident with curious eyes. “Dull as dirt, sand and rock, that’s how they’re supposed to look!” Rarity ground her teeth and nearly leaped up to the cat to show him how ‘dull’ she was. Thankfully, the cat was able to get to his next sentence before Rarity took drastic action. “These ones here are so much brighter! It ain’t natural folks! They’re sick!” The cat claimed, holding the shark back with a dramatically swept arm and a wide eyed, fearful expression. “They’re infected with….” He paused dramatically, drawing in a hushed breath and whispering out in a dread filled voice as he leaned back from them warily. “Pastelus Colouritus!”

The cat swept his keen eyes across the crowd before settling on the shark. “It’s alright people, everything’s fine, as long as no one who touched ‘em starts developing bright purple spots on their skin.”

Someone shouted in alarm, pointing at the shark’s back, and as he turned, Static watched the Cat flick his tail ever so carefully, flicking what looked like a thick dollop of something viscous….and purple. Her gaze flicked over to a nearby store selling fresh produce, a display of bright purple fruits on demand, with what looked like one or two empty spots where there hadn’t been before.

“Sly kitty…” Static murmured, as the cat continued his skit.

“What do I do?! WHAT DO I DO?!” The Shark yelled.

The cat stepped away from him with a grimace, which slowly shifted into a grin as he spoke. “Enjoy your last days, my friend, and don’t touch anything or anyone.” The grin turned sly and mischievous, a glint in the cat’s eye as he spoke. “Parts will fall off.”

The shark took one look at the cat, then one look down at his spot riddled skin. Then, he opened his mouth, screamed at the highest pitch the ponies had frankly ever heard- and they knew Pinkie, so that was an incredible feat- and started sprinting down the street as fast as he could, followed by the other members of the marketplace crowd, who scattered in all directions in order to escape potential “infection”.

“Well alright.” The cat hummed, taking a moment to retreat back to a small, seedy looking drinks vendor, who’s proprietor was no longer present. He snagged a few bottles of heady smelling liquids and slipped them into the pockets of a maroon coat lying on the counter, which he then slipped over his shoulders. “Sorry for the confusion there, little ponies, but I wasn’t about to let that annoying blowhard start chowing down on some newcomers first thing.”

“Like I’d let Static get eaten. I’d have flame broiled his tail if he tried.” Spike said with a huff.

“Course you would have.” The cat purred, his chest literally thrumming with the sound. “Capper’s my name, and charming,” He swept his arms out wide in a theatrical bow. “Is my game.”

Rarity tittered, holding a hoof over her mouth to conceal a rather pleased grin. “You certainly are darling, and quite creative too! Thank you ever so much for your timely intervention!”

“Think nothing of it little ponies! But if you and your trigger-happy friend there aren’t gonna cause any more trouble, then I don’t think I should stick around, ya know?” Capper hummed a merry tune as he started to turn away, but Fluttershy was hovering in his face when he turned around. “I’m sorry Butter Wings, but I gotta bounce.”

“Oh, but please sir, we’re looking for our friends. We got separated and-”

“Say no more, sweet thing, I understand. But unfortunately, I can’t help. My little production here will have attracted attention, and dumb as those people are, they won’t stay fooled forever. That means I gotta lay low for a while until they forget about all this.” Capper’s green eyes creased in a firm yet pleasant smile as he brushed Shy aside and started walking away.

“We’d be willing to pay.” Static said, quickly. “Two bags of Equestrian gold, once we’ve found them.”

Capper stopped, ears twitching. “You say Equestrian?” He asked.

“Yes?” Static answered, her own curiosity rising.

“Like, magical land to the north Equestrian?”

“Yes.” Rarity chimed in. “Populated by ponies like us!”

Capper slowly turned back to them. “You got any of that gold on you now, to prove it?”

Static fished in her saddlebags for a moment, before she unearthed a bit from her bit-bag, and tossed it to him. “Right here, whiskers. Real as it gets.”

Capper glared at her for the name, but gave the metal a quick test bite, and stared at the slight indentation in the surface. “That’s...pretty damn pure.”

“Equestrian bits are about ninety to ninety seven percent gold, depending on year of printing.” Fluttershy offered, producing a bit of her own. “And we all have at least some on us. Just in case.”

“And how many of you ponies are there, exactly?” Capper asked, looking to Static to answer.

Static stared back, warily, before she gave her reply. “Including the fillies, and Spike here. Thirteen.”

Capper’s eyes went wide at the large number. “T-that many? There’s that many of you down here? Why?”

“Let’s just say we have our reasons.” Static said. “That a problem?”

“Not at all!” Capper said, quickly. Very quickly. He was quite enthusiastic about this- probably because of how much gold he would be getting. He snagged a few pieces of fresh fruit from the now empty produce store, and placed them in his pockets alongside the bottles. “I do suggest we get going sooner, rather than later. I wasn’t lying about those guards. They’ll be investigating the disturbance by now.” Capper offered his paw to shake. “I say we have a deal. Two bags of gold for helping find your friends.”

Static looked towards the market entrance, where she could make out the shadows of approaching guards on the wall opposite the opening. She could hear them too, armour clanking away as they got closer. “Deal.” She said, grabbing his paw in her hoof and shaking it.

“Alright, stay low and close, ponies. And don’t get lost.” Capper nodded before he set off at a brisk pace, heading for a narrow gap between two buildings, with the ponies slipping in after, one by one, with Tempest and Static at the end, with Static looking back at the guards entering the plaza before she slipped between the ramshackle hut walls, following Tempest as closely as she could, which was very, the mulberry tail hairs swishing just inches from her face.

They followed Capper, back once again through winding alleyways and side streets. But they were not going through as many secret passageways as Static would have thought, instead using the old greasing of palms in order to open a few doors, though Static could have sworn that Capper was mostly using things he had stolen from the market in order to get his way. That and things he picked off of passersby in the side streets, usually by grabbing their purses from their belts before they got out of reach...at least, that’s what it looked like from Static’s point of view, at the back.

They travelled far, skirting around the great hall they had seen, and off towards the river, taking a long, winding route towards the windmill tower that they had spotted from the cliffs.

“Be careful on this next stairwell, the boards are loose.” Capper called, quietly.

Tempest’s ears splayed back, the mare frowning as she watched the cat. Rarity seemed trusting though, much to Spike’s annoyance. She followed his every word, listening raptly and watching him move gracefully along every path they took. She followed closely to the cat, the leader of the pony part of the group by a clear margin- a three hoof margin, to be precise- only avoiding stepping on his coat tails by watching where she placed her hooves in between watching him.

Capper drank in the attention, only getting showier with each street, making his coat tails swish just a little more, sweeping his arms just a little wider as he sweet talked his way through a group of rough looking creatures who had immediately wanted to catch and sell the ponies. He got very into the act, playing up his brilliance for Rarity, who only seemed to want more.

Spike had his arms crossed for half the trip, staring daggers into Cappers back.

They reached the river in short order, on a balcony several feet above the gentle currents, the wooden boards half rotted from the moisture in the air. The water vapours drift up in a thin veil, making the sky above seem incredibly pale. The moisture clung to their coats as Capper pointed off to the top of the windmill.

“Ya see that? That’s my little hidey hole. We still got to go through some pretty nasty streets to get there, but if you trust me, then-”

“I don’t.” Spike snapped, stepping past Tempest and Rarity to get in Capper’s face...or, midriff, due to his shorter height. The young dragon was growling softly, hackles raised and tail thrashing.

Rarity looked appalled. “Spike!”

Tempest didn’t say anything, but frowned at Rarity.

“No, no, it’s alright. I understand, little one. Cause, ya know…” Capper started to say, then broke off, taking a breath and grinning. Raising his voice, he started to sing.

“This town is not a nice place

For little fillies, all alone

There are lots of twists and corners

That could lead to the unknown

Let me guide your way

And I'll be sure to help you through

You could really use a friend out here

And luckily for you….”
Static rolled her eyes, while Tempest scrunched up her face in surprise and confusion. “Uh....what’s going on? Why is he singing?”

As Capper reached his chorus, he swept around them in a circle, then darted off ahead along the slippery boards, dancing across a gauntlet of broken and poorly secured boards that bent and flexed beneath his paws, springing him across gaps he couldn’t have managed without the aid.

“I'm the friend that you need

When you're lost and don't know what to do

I'm your pal, your amigo…”

“It’s all too possible he doesn’t even realise that he is singing. It’s a harmony magic thing. Being around us just makes creatures want to sing.” Tempest stared at Static like she’s just grown three extra heads that were all talking gibberish and drooling caramel sauce from their mouths. Then, to Static’s surprise, she started chuckling, then fully giggling, suppressed peals of laughter making her shoulder’s shake. “What?” Static asked.

“I just imagined some poor Storm Creature starting to sing in the middle of Black Skull Island because of being near me or the prisoners. They’d be mortified!”

Static took her own moment to stare at Tempest before she started laughing too, imagining the poor sod being led through a dance number while the other Jotunns started throwing sharp things at them.

“Useful and resourceful, too

And my help, you'll concede

Is a plus, guaranteed

You can call and I'll come running

Just follow my lead

Cuz I'm the friend you need!”

Capper turned back into the streets, ducking between two townsfolk and offering a few pieces of fruit to them both to buy their silence, still singing as he went. “He's a friend!” Cried one, rather enthusiastically, immediately devouring his pieces of fruit so that the juices splattered all over Tempesy. Tempest just grumped on by, glowering at anything that got in her path until it moved. “Quite a friend!” The second of the two villagers opened a door for them to pass through, Capper offering to let them go first with a bow as the first townie sang again. “He's a friend, indeed!” It was a little hard taking that one seriously with apple-juice dribbling down his shirt.

After they had all climbed through, Capper kept on, while Tempest and Static followed, still snickering. The dark passage beyond was one that seemed to have been used as storage space of some kind, boxes and barrels by the dozen. Capper strode through them all, before grinning, knocking a widows latch loose and blocking all the windows, casting them into darkness, starting to mime out a small play worth of unfortunate occurrences that he would “supposedly” stop from happening.

“You need a bud to spot the danger” Capper sent a barrel toppling over at them, only to dart in and push them aside like some kind hero.

“A pal to stop the creep.” As Spike passed that fallen barrel, a tentacle slipped free and tried to coil around Spike’s ankles, only for Capper to shoo it away from him, once again passing it off as grand heroics, despite the tentacle being rather small and weak looking.

“A chum, and not a stranger, to assist.

You need a bro who is cunning,

That can help you take the leap!”

By now, Static was wishing she had popcorn, while Capper danced around, leading the group to a deep pit before leaping across. He hoisted up a long wooden board and slid it over the gap for the ground bound ponies to trot over, the wood clunking with the sounds of hooves

“A friend who knows what's lying in the mist.” Oddly, enough, the Abyssinian was able to find a stretch of hallway that was full of a thick miasma of drifting water vapour, thick enough to allow Capper to vanish through it with the brief flashing of a grin.

“Don't fear these darkened alleys,

They're scary, yes, I know.”

Capper was attempting to scare Fluttershy with some bats when his performance started to lag behind his lyrics a little, as instead of being scared of the bats, the bats all stopped at her delighted smile and were soon hanging upside down from her wings and clinging to her chest, snuggling up to her s she cooed and petted them with a bright smile on her face the entire time. Static grinned as Capper’s song faltered a little, the cat visibly sagging in disbelief at the sight of the shy pony being swarmed by bats that were vying for her attention. In fact, as Static looked at her fiance, she could have sworn she saw her ears were fuzzier than normal, and that a pointed fang was poking past her lip….

A second later, and the moment was gone, and the bats all flew back up to their roost, all squeaking and chirping happily.

The corridors lead them back out onto the streets soon enough, but there was sand and whipping winds everywhere, a fierce gale having tossed up a dust storm all throughout the city. Capper lead them on anyway, nearly vanishing among the dust particles thanks to his similarly coloured coat of fur. He kept on singing despite the wind tearing away at their cloaks and ruining all chance of them properly hearing him.

“Why, you could use a friend,

To protect you wherever you go.”

Ducking back off the streets and into a closed in alleyway, the group shook themselves off, dust falling to the floor in a thick blanket. Unfortunately, this pile of dust did not clean them all, leaving an unfortunate Rarity a pale, dusty brown instead of her usual pristine white.

“And such a dazzling beauty

Covered in dirt and muck.”

Rarity shrieked at the coating of brown that was plastered in her coat, and Capper started dusting the grateful mare off with his tail and paws, while Spike rolled his eyes again.

“But now, your fate is changing,

Now you are in luck!”

Capper danced out into the open once more, his outstretched arm snagging a bright red roll of carpet. The cat brought it across his chest before throwing it out, dropping the end he was holding down in front of Rarity, while the roll continued to unfurl, stretching all the way to a gap in a rickety wooden fence up ahead. The fence was curled around the base of a familiar structure, one comprised of stacked boxes of wood and beams of supporting metal that braced against each other and the center of the structure as the load bearing walls did not do a particularly spectacular job of sitting atop one another, thus requiring the structure’s many braces. Gears poked out of the various parts of the building at odd intervals, barely consistent in any manner at all, the largest of which were on the bottom floor and partially buried.

Capper raised his voice and started doing a step-dance in time with the beats of his song, traversing the unrolled carpet with flair and poise.

“Cuz I'm the friend that you need,

When you're lost and don't know what to do,

I'm your pal, your amigo,

Lookin' out for friends like you!”

The ponies followed along behind him, all of them forced to follow in time, thanks to Capper’s speed being slower than their own, thanks to his own dancing. Tempest stared flatly at the back of Capper’s head as he popped his coat collar as he grinned broadly, turning to direct the ponies to hop onto one of the large gears that was rotating towards the windmill.

“And my help, you'll concede,

Is a plus, guaranteed!

Just call and I'll come running,

We'll say it's agreed…”

One by one, Rarity, then Fluttershy, the fillies and Spike, jumped onto one of the gears massive teeth, which were so large they could have held all of their friends, had they been present. As Static climbed up, Tempest’s ear twitched at the sound of paws crunching gravel just outside the fence, and started to turn back.

Capper was gone.

Tempest snorted and stalked back towards the fence, her instinctive distrust flaring.

As she was about to round the corner, however, Capper burst back out from behind the fence, ushering her towards the gears while he sprinted towards the wall and squirreled his way up a pipe next to the gears, leaving Tempest and her furrowed brow down below, wondering just what the cat had been up to.

“Cause I’m the friend you need!” Capper crooned as he settled on the gear, the younger ponies all looking up at him with smiles.

“He’s a friend!” The fillies sang, in nearly perfect harmony, adolescent voices raised in praise of their new guide.

“Quite a friend!” Rarity cooed, dramatically.

“He’s a friend indeed!” Rarity was joined by the fillies for the last part, as the group ascended higher up the tower, climbing high into the air, with Tempest lagging behind.

******************************************

Chapter 14: Genorosity

Capper’s little corner of Klugetown was as much of a dump as the rest of the ramshackle city, with tattered cloth drapes hanging from the ceiling like great swathes of moth eaten sails...though considering the material used to build the city it was entirely possible that the drapes actually were sails once. There were empty picture and mirror frames leaning against the far wall in a great stack, dirty pillows and once fine furniture all missing their enameling and jewel insets, having been removed some time ago, evidenced by the gouge marks made by a blade of some kind.

There was no actual door, just a ladder leading up to a floor hatch, which opened into the small room only after Capper hit it with his balled up fist in just the right part of the wooden boards, springing a latch on the other side free. “It doesn’t like to open up sometimes. Just needs the right touch to persuade it otherwise.” Was Capper’s explanation, which most of the ponies chose not to pay all that much attention to, especially after the hatch fell closed on Tempest by accident, and the hornless Unicorn opened it with barely any trouble, without blasting it open or using her incredibly limited telekinesis.

Rarity, in spite of her earlier praises, immediately harangued the poor cat for an hour about the improper storage and care of several rat infested bolts of faded and worn fabric that bore evidence of once having been very beautiful. Said bolts were chucked out the window by the hapless Capper only moments after Rarity had gotten done berating him. Her fanciful tastes were affronted by almost everything, save for a small space Capper had kept mostly clean, and sported the best and most cared for furniture in the whole place. There were a few soft chairs with relatively tastefully patched cloth coverings and cushions still firm enough to retain their shape without being too unyielding, a small table that was home to a tiny pile of gold coins and a few paper notes marked with the Storm King’s sigil and ugly face, and a lantern hanging over it all, suspended by a thick rope. Capper lit the candle inside the lantern using one of a dwindling supply of matches, before setting down in one particular chair that was clearly his favourite, as it was molded almost perfectly to his body. The other chairs were large enough to hold two ponies apiece, but that still left the Crusaders and Static to find other seating arrangements, which were made when Spike managed to find Capper’s supply of extra blankets, tucked in a cupboard.

“So...you’re looking for your friends.” Capper said plainly. He had pulled out a large map of the city, completely hand drawn but accurate from the ponies experience, and laid it on the table in front of them. “Where exactly did you last see them?”

“Well, we last saw them around….here.” Rarity supplied, using her eye for detail to pick out the street they had been using when the crowds had pulled the group apart. “We went all along here and didn’t see them at all, and spent several minutes at the market before we found you, and still hadn’t seen them. They were supposed to meet us there, but with the guards arriving, I doubt they would have gone that way.”

“If I know Twilight, she’ll have figured out a new plan, probably to search for us, or maybe find a way to contact us. It’s entirely possible that they have found a place to sleep and are waiting for me to try and reach them through the dream realm.” Static suggested. “It would be the quickest and easiest method.”

“Sorry, the what now? You’ve lost me.” Capper queried, waving his paws in confusion. “The dream what?”

“Well, that’s a long story, but basically, I can go into people’s dreams.”

“Oh, is that all?” Capper asked, but his feigned blase attitude cracked a second later. “Seriously? You ponies can just do something as crazy as that?”

“Remind me never to tell him about who moves the sun and moon.” Static said to Fluttershy, who giggled into her hooves.

“I’m just gonna ignore that obvious bait…” Capper winced at the implication and moved on. “So, they likely approached the market from the same direction as you, and given how you reacted to the guards, would want to avoid being found. So, the best way that an outsider would probably use to get out of there would have been...this way, or this way.” He indicated a pair of nearby alleyways, both of which lead close to the large shape of the City Hall. “If they’re smart, they’ll steer clear of City Hall, cause of all the guards and….uh, more guards there, and would skirt around it.” He traced the path around to the best guess, before pointing to a cluster of buildings. “I’d say they may have stopped here. It’s a rough part of town, but it’s pretty easy to find a place to sleep for cheap, and the guards don’t usually patrol there. Too many knives in easy reach, if you know what I mean.”

“Then won’t those knives also be used on our friends?” Fluttershy asked, worriedly.

“If they’re unlucky, they just might be.”

“Yeah. If the knife wielders are unlucky.” Static chuckled.

***********************************

Twilight slammed the wrist of the jerk who tried to stab her against a wooden beam, and felt a particularly nasty crack through her magic, followed by a pained cry from the particular moron she was holding. Her mane was very nearly on fire again, for the sixth time in the last few hours, and her eyes were constantly narrowed into deadly, extremely pissed off slits. “If I had a bit for every feather brained idiot who tried what you just did, I’d have seven from today alone.” She threw the now whimpering pirate aside roughly, before she looked back at the one behind the desk. “I’ll take two rooms please. With enough beds for five.”

*************************************

Night fell over the city, but the hustle and bustle did not stop, as the more rowdy taverns were playing loud music and erupting into bar fights late into the night and early in the morning, keeping the adults up at night, who aside from Capper, took time to stay on watch in shifts, with Rarity taking first watch so that Static could do her thing. She was huddled over Capper’s cloak as Static settled down to sleep, sewing something onto the lapels and sleeve cuffs, the Unicorn’s tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth in concentration. Ignoring Rarity’s indulging in her profession, Static focused her magic inwards, feeling the familiar buildup and release of energy as she slipped away from the waking world.

The dim lights of Capper’s apartment fell away, along with the smell of dust and damp that came with it, all to be replaced by a field of stars that stretched as far as the eye could see. So many dreams in one ramshackle town. So many Nightmares here, flitting around the minds of many, feasting on their dreams by turning them dark and sickly, draining the happiness from them. The things were fat, and lazy with their easy meals, bloated and content.

They made Static wish her own Nightmare was still there.

Normally she could feel it, at all times, as a quiet, patient presence in the back of her mind, just waiting to be called upon, as they had agreed. It got to feast on her dream magic, and she got to use it’s power.

Not anymore though.

Now the space in the back of her head was simply empty, and quiet not by choice, but by absence. It was horrible.

But Static still had a mission to complete. These useless, dream-fattened slugs could be dealt with later. She had friends to find.

The Pegasus leapt up into the air, drifting weightlessly along as she searched for the familiar, glowing light that was her friends, hoping to catch one-anyone, sound asleep. She did not need wings to fly here, for here she was the one who decided what could fly, and what could not. She circled clusters of dreams, trying to find that tell-tale sensation, that nagging feeling that told her who the dream was for.

She found the Avian’s, Lix and Mullet and Squawk, all dreaming of the adventures they had once shared as they soared through the sky. She found the Mayor, happily using his dream time to have all the pleasurable company he could possibly have at once, and even a Reindeer, who seemed quite aware that Static was there, but never even looked at her. The Reindeer vanished almost instantaneously, leaving Static floundering in the dream realm before she sought out Twilight.

The Alicorn was where she felt safest, in her castle library, a book encased in her magic and her favourite coffee by her side- not that it would do much good in a dream. Static alighted on top of a bookshelf close to her friend and coughed politely, knocking a hoof against the crystal shelf and moving Twilight into a lucid state.

The book loving Princess blinked, then turned, looking around in confusion for a moment. Then she looked up to the source of the polite cough and spotted the Pegasus reclining on the shelf.

“Static!” The Alicorn dropped her book, carefully, onto the table, bookmarked and closed. “I am so glad to see you!” The young ruler jumped up to join Static on the shelf and gave her a quick hug, before drawing back with concern in her eyes. “ Where are you? Are you alright? Are you with Rarity and Shy? Are the Crusaders with you? We tried to go to the market to meet up with you, but we-”

“Twilight. Stop.” Static reached out with her hoof and layed it reassuringly on the mare’s withers. “We’re all alright. We managed to find someone at the market who was willing to help us for some money, and we’re holed up in the big windmill by the river. You know where that is?”

Twilight nodded, breathing a sigh of relief. “Thank harmony. Everyone else is with me, except for Tempest. We lost track of her in the crowds.”

“She’s with us. Managed to get her ropes undone and hurt herself doing it, but she’s been cooperating. Another point in her favour, I think. She’s definitely trying to help us.”

“I still don’t trust her.” Twilight sighed. “But even I’m starting to think she’s genuine. Keep an eye on her, for now, though.”

“Will do. Any ideas what we should do now? We’re gonna need to pay the guy we’re with, and he’ll be wanting two bags, like we promised.”

“Two bags?!” Twilight yelled, eyes wide. “You promised this guy two bags of gold?!”

“I wasn’t intending to pay up all of it, but he helped us get away from the guards and deal with some less than savoury characters before that. So, I say we do owe him.”

Twilight frowned, touching a hoof to her elbow while the other hoof went to her chin, as she thought. “Two bags is at least half of our money...but after what I’ve seen here, nearly pure gold is considered very valuable here, so we might be able to stretch the rest out much farther than I previously thought.” The Alicorn’s eyes flickered quickly back and forth as she tried to adjust her plans.

Static shook her head. “Twiggles, now’s not the time. We need to figure out what we do next, not how many apples we can buy.” The dreamwalker flapped her wings and concentrated, the library vanishing around them. The world swirled back into view a moment later, the desert surroundings of Klugetown coalescing beneath them as they stood atop the great stone cliff that the Skylark was moored next to. Beneath them lay the city, the windmill that Static was sleeping in gently spinning away in the breeze.

“So, where are you right now?” Static asked, looking at Twilight with an eyebrow raised.

“We’re holed up here. It’s a tavern in a pretty awful part of the city, over by the eastern city wall.” Twilight lit up her horn, a building pressed up against the wall lighting up in kind. “And if you’re in that big windmill there… then we’re half the city away from each other.”

“We need a place to meet up then. I’ll wake myself up and talk to Capper about possible places and get back to you. You want to stay lucid while I’m not here?”

Twilight shook her head. “I’ll be fine. Just make me lucid again when you get back.”

****************************************

Static stepped outside of the windmill’s upper living space and onto a windswept balcony, tucked behind the spinning sails of the windmill and underneath the main body of Capper’s upper story apartment.

The cat himself was sat on the safety railing, looking out over the city, looking oddly glum and staring at something on his coat. That something was a shiny gold button, four of them, actually, sewn onto the coat in place of the old buttons that had once been there. The numerous small tears the coat had once had were gone too, careful stitching having repaired the damage and leaving nearly no indication at all that the coat had ever been in need of repair at all. Rarity had even managed to clean it somewhat, the faded red coat now a vibrant shade of crimson as it had once been. Capper was staring at the cloth in his paws like it was completely alien.

“Something on your mind?” Static asked. Capper flinched at the sound, but didn’t turn around.

“Never had anyone do something for me without expecting something in return.” The Abyssinnian let out an uneasy breath and turned his green eyes to meet Static’s blue ones. “She wouldn’t even let me try to pay for fixing it.”

“That’s Rarity.” The Pegasus chuckled. She took the opportunity to stretch her wings and leapt into the air, soaring in place by gliding into the wind. She weaved about lazily, while Capper watched her, in obvious awe. “Never one to let an opportunity to be generous slip her by.”

Capper stayed quiet for a moment, letting the sounds of the city wash over them from below. “Are all you ponies like that?”

“No. Just most.” Static let the wind blow her back a bit and landed on the balcony rail next to Capper. “Any suggestions one where to meet our friends? They’re renting a room in some crummy tavern down in the city, near the eastern wall.”

“How do you know that? I thought you got lost.”

“It’s magic, whiskers. I ain’t gotta explain nuthin’.” Static chuckled, balancing precariously on the rail as she poke, wings outstretched to add extra lift and keep herself from falling.

“There’s a kind of plaza near the eastern city. Lot of the wealthier Storm Empire Lords have homes there. Risky to go to, but easy to find and lots of ways to go if things go sideways. That’s probably your best bet. Only other place I can think of is the eastern docks- not the airship docks, the normal docks, for the river. Stinks of fish and offal, and offal and fish.”

“Bet you love it there, kitty cat.” Static intoned, rolling her eyes at her own assumptiveness.

“Nope. Hate the place. Stinks up my clothes for weeks when I go.”

Static shrugged, hopping off the railing, mane all messy and windblown, and opened the door inside.

“You said most.”

“Huh?” Static stopped, pausing to look back at Capper.

“You said most ponies were like your Unicorn friend in there.”

“Yeah.” Static cocked her head to the side.

“Can’t imagine someone that nice being able to stand up to the Storm King. That’s all.”

Static scoffed, waving a wing in dismissal. “You’d be surprised by just how hard these ‘nice guys’ fight against assholes like Gaul. Trust me. One day soon, Gaul is going to get his ass handed to him by a cute and fluffy little pony. And I’m gonna be there when he does, just to rub it in his smug face.”

“Yeah.” Capper turned back to the city, so his guilty frown was hidden from Static’s eyes. “I hope so.” He said forlornly.

******************************

Chapter 16: Across the Desert Sands

Sand coloured feathers parted the hot air of the midday sky, beating in time as she projected herself forwards, high above the shining, reflective helmets of the Equestrian army. The green of the Everfree Forest was far behind them as they marched beneath her, and a backwards glance did not reveal the safety and comfort of those sheltered trees.

When Luna’s contingent had returned, missing several of their number and carrying an appalling number of wounded, the commanders had made their decision rashly, not listening to anyone when others cautioned against following the Storm King into the south. Their Princesses had been attacked, their capitol ransacked, and the group of heroes that had saved Equestria time and again were now in the line of fire. The commanders were angry, and wouldn’t listen to reason. Not now. Not after an entire underground city had been destroyed, not after their soldiers had been imprisoned and tortured.

Rose grit her teeth under her own helmet, a lightweight helmet given to her by a Pegasus who had had both wings broken in the last skirmish. That was something else to worry about. Conscription. She may have been given a role as a messenger for the army, but that could change at a moments notice. The armour she wore was strictly for protection if she was sent across enemy territory, but it was mostly useless right now, relaying messages between the different companies.

One thousand three hundred and seventy five ponies marching as part of the army, and an additional two hundred serving as a mixture of messengers, craftsponies, carriage pullers and cooks, required more missives than Rose thought should be allowed to exist. The fact that most were just confirmations or just damn repeats of previous ones, was what was annoying Rose the most. The pegasus landed back at her unit’s little wagon, glad that her turn to do the rounds was over for another few hours. She tagged in one of her cohorts and watched as the older guy took off, flying immediately for the head of the column and swiftly vanishing from sight.

Digging through the small box of rashioned snack foods for something to eat, Rose heard a soft knock not but an inch or two from her head. She looked up through her mane to see a yellow coated mare with a fiery orange mane and eyes, clad in a skintight blue flight suit that had been outfitted with thin metal plates stitched on as protection.

Rose stood to attention, even though she technically wasn’t a soldier.

“At ease.” The older mare said, sharply. She was still wearing a pair of aviator sunglasses despite everything that had happened. “I’ve been watching you mailponies for a while, and I gotta admit, I’m impressed.”

Rose felt her ears splay back as her blood seemed to freeze. “Uh- impressed, ma’am?”

“Yeah, specifically with you. The amount of flying you do on your shifts, and at a near constant speed, and better control than most pegasi is impressive.” The Wonderbolt Captain ran a hoof through her mane and grinned out of her mask. “I need good fliers like you. Would you conside-”

“No thank you, Spitfire, ma’am.” Rose hurriedly said, trying to sound respectful. “I don’t think it would be appropriate.”

“Why not?” Spitfire asked, taking off her sunglasses to stare Rose in the eye.

“I’m just a mailmare. I’m no fighter. Just flying well won’t help all that much.” And in truth, being able to fire a gun most definitely did not make Rose a fighter, not at all. She’d barely survived Vancouver, and only because her sister had come back to help with her friends.

Spitfire arched an eyebrow. “We would be training you, miss Rose. We wouldn’t just hand you a pair of wing blades and toss you at the enemy.” The Wonderbolt captain frowned at her junior and shook her head, sitting herself down on the edge of the cart. “Lemme be real for a minute here, kid.” The captain seemed to shrivel in on herself, her projected aura of bravery and bravado flickering out like a candle in the wind. “We’re desperate. We need fliers and we need em fast, cause they’ve got airships, and we’ve got nothing. We need fliers or we’ll be wiped out in minutes the first time we face an enemy force head on, and let’s be honest, your flying skills are wasted just handing out notes, kid.”

Rose blanched. The thought of fighting at all was a repulsive one after Vancouver. At least that had been with guns, where the enemy could theoretically never get close to you...but this was fighting with a blade, up close and personal. She could almost hear her sister talking to her about her first kill.

“I felt sick afterwards. Like everything about me was wrong, and that I was some…abomination for having killed this thing. It was the worst feeling I had ever felt.”

“Did….did it get easier?”

“Well….yes….and no.” Static said, looking down at her hooves as they held her mug of hot chocolate. “Physically doing it is much easier. Dealing with the emotions afterwards….no. If anything it’s harder. And I honestly hope it never starts getting easier. Because then something really would be wrong with me.”

“I don’t think I could do that sort of thing again. Not after Vancouver…..”

Static sipped her cocoa and smiled sadly at her sister through the steam. “You’d be surprised just what you’re capable of.”

Rose shuddered as the memory faded, her sister’s face replaced by the older muzzle of the stuntmare in front of her. That face was blurry, and the familiar sensation of wet fur weighed on her cheeks. Spitfire looked shocked at the grown mare before her crying so silently that she herself had only just realised that she even had been shedding tears.

Rose reached up with a hoof to wipe away the bitter memories staining her cheek and looked down at the captain with that awful image still in her mind. Not of her talking with her sister. That image she always saw when she looked back. The flames licking at the ashes of the hotel…

Rose snarled, and slapped Spitfire’s concerned, outstretched hoof away. “I’m not flying with you, Captain. Find someone else!”

Spitfire frowned, but retracted her hoof, and backed away. “I…..” She went to spread her wings, but paused, her left forehoof hovering just above the ground. “Your sister came to fight for you when you needed her most. Now she needs you. We all do.” Spitfire took to the sky as wide, bright green eyes followed her, surprise that bordered on outrage and shock filling their depths.

But the Captain was gone, leaving Rose to ponder her words.

************************

“This is going to be the hardest time of your life, right here.” Spitfire belted out her speech as she marched up and down the single, thin line of recruits. Of the hundreds of lying ponies and creatures that had been in the encampment on the edge of the sands, one hundred and twenty one had elected to train with the Wonderbolt Captain. More than half wouldn’t make it. She could tell by the look in their eyes. “This is where we begin. This is the day you learn, not just to fly, but to fly fast, fly as a team, and…” Spitfire’s eyes lingered for a moment on a pony at the very end of the line, a line that now contained one hundred and twenty two creatures. Orange eyes met haunted green, filled with a steely resolve. Then the Wonderbolt continued on. “You’re not going to make it. Not all of you. This unit, this team, is for the best of the best, and those who can one day become the best. So if you aren’t ready to give your all, to prove you’ve got what it takes….leave now. Because I will not go easy on any of you!” That last she belted as a scream, a harsh yell that broke ten ponies there and then, sending them running.

Spitfire noted a twitch from the hooves at the end of the line, and the resulting tension of muscles there shortly afterwards. Good.

“Alright maggots! Form up! We’re gonna do wing exercises, and I don’t want to see any one of you stop for a second before I give you my say so! So start doing wing-ups! Fifty of ‘em!!” Wide, shocked eyes from almost all answered her. “DID I SAY YOU COULD STARE?! GET MOVING!!”

A hundred and twelve sets of hooves scrambled to obey, and an equal number of wings were soon braced against the floor, pumping like mad in an attempt to get through as many wing-ups as possible. Of course, it was a tall ask, and not one she expected anyone to actually do without some serious muscle already developed.

She watched and observed the ones who bothered to stay and attempt to meet her challenge. By the time the last recruit was left standing, at an impressive thirty six wing ups, Spitfire counted seventy eight ponies still present. Including the owner of those fierce green eyes.

“Not too bad, recruit. What’s your name?”

The pony stood up on shaky legs and saluted. “Lightning Dust, ma’am. Former Wonderbolt dropout.”

Spitfire started for a second, recognizing the blue-green coat beneath the dust that now coated everything. “I remember you, recruit. Messed up something fierce, huh?” She circled the filly a few times, before she started yelling again. “EVERYONE GET UP. GET IN PAIRS! THIS IS A TEAM. SO YOU’RE GONNA LEARN HOW TO WORK AS A TEAM. YOU’LL TRAIN AS A TEAM. YOU’LL EAT AS A TEAM. YOU’LL EVEN BUCKING SLEEP AS A TEAM!! NOW GRAB A PARTNER AND GET TO THOSE WEAPON RACKS! ON THE DOUBLE!!”

Spitfire kept an eye on her recruits as they fell into pairs almost by accident, many of them running off to the racks before they had even picked a partner, and instead running almost into each other before remembering their instructions.

Fur the colour of pale sand and a blue green coat thundered down the track together, neck and neck, their flanks slick with sweat.

In all honesty, they were in the best shape. The other recruits were not as fast, and many were tripping over their own or each others hooves out of tiredness. Spitfire sighed, slapping a hoof to her muzzle. “We’ve got a long way to go.”

*********************

“We’re marching out!”
` “The Generals made a decision! We’re moving out!”

“Get everything stowed now! Now! Hurry up!!”

Rose and Lightning Dust came to amid the flurry of panicking ponies that were their fellow recruits. Two day of grueling exercise and uniform flying, performing sudden turns and reversals, barrel rolls and aileron rolls, and more wing-ups than there were Pegasi in the world, had the ponies and the few Gryphons among them thoroughly exhausted.

Rose frowned and started to neatly fold up her recruit uniform, taking a moment to let her gaze linger on the picture of her family tucked into a seam at the collar. Her mom and dad. Her sister. Fluttershy and little Crystal. The old family home in Vancouver. She tucked it back into it’s little pocket and finished tucking it into her saddlebags. The actual armour she had been assigned was going on her body, just as with her fellow recruits, now numbering just seventy two.

“About time they made a decision. Damn politicians.” Lightning growled. “That bastard king is probably attacking our friends in Klugetown by now.”

“I hope not.” Rose grunted, pulling on the last strap for her flexible splint armour. It still weighed more than she would like, but it would keep her more intact than a simple flight suit would. It also couldn’t easily fit in her saddlebags.

Spitfire came staking into the tent housed barracks like a mare possessed of some wicked phantom. “LISTEN UP! WE’RE TAKING THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD. STRIP IT ALL DOWN AND PACK THE TENTS AND SUPPLIES ONTO THE SLEDS!! THEN GET INTO FORMATION AND START FLYING OVERHEAD!”

The Wonderbolt hopefuls followed their commanding officers orders to the letter, then flapped their wings, lifting into the air.

The armour wasn’t much heavier than saddlebags full of letters, so Rose was able to wear it without too much discomfort. Lightning Dust kept complaining about chafing beside her, much to Rose’s un-enthusiasm. They rose into the dry air like a flock of crows in the early morning light, their cloth covered metal plates hugging their limbs and torsos. The armour was unenchanted, freshly made in the courtyard behind the Castle in the Everfree, by the increasingly annoyed and angry Forged Blade.

“YOU TWO! YOU’RE TAKING ESCORT DUTY! MAKE SURE THAT THE MEDICAL TENT IS ALL PACKED UP AND READY TO MOVE OUT!!”

Lightning and Rose flicked their hooves to their heads in salutes before peeling off from their places in the column, and diving down to where the contents of multiple medical tents and carts were just being tied down and the vehicles hitched up. The pair did a quick visual sweep before they hovered before the head physician. “She ready to move?!” Rose called.

“As ready as we can! There’s a risk she’ll become unstable again! Tell the Captain we may need more hooves!” The doctor hollered back up to them. Rose nodded to Lightning, and the other mare sped away, while Rose studied the doctor and his aides as they brought out their most critical patient, her powder blue mane and navy coat matted with blood, and limbs locked in casts. They were just getting her to the last empty cart when Spitftire arrived, Lightning Dust and a few more recruits in tow. Working together, they gently maneuvered the mare into the cart and got her settled in place amid a huge amount of cushioned pillows and thick blankets, setting up an IV drip and quickly injecting a shot of painkiller before the cart could start to move.

Spitfire turned to Lightning and Rose. “One of you flies, one of you rests and stays with her, then you switch off. You don’t leave her alone. Got it?”

“Aye ma’am.” Lightning saluted. Rose followed suit a split second later. Then after a quick deliberation, Lightning fluttered down onto the cart, and Rose flew a little higher above it.

So much for their training.

****************************

The caravan had slowed to a crawl in the deep sands, the sleds and airborne creatures having to step in and dig out the wheels several times during the day. The dust clouds rose thick, kicked up by the hooves of more than one and a half thousand ponies. All heading in towards the thick column of smoke rising into the sky ahead, and the vast expanse of clouds beyond.

No one spoke when they finally reached the smouldering wreckage. No one said a word as they took in the field of shattered hulls, Storm Empire and Pirate alike.

Lightning flew next to Rose as the scouting party that flew out over the destroyed town, a worried frown creasing her face as she stared at the mass of ruined ships and toppled, burned buildings. There were holes in some of the still standing walls, larger than some of the ponies, and many of the wooden chunks still had flames licking up from their undersides, charring their edges even further. The bright blue mare didn’t have any words of comfort for Rose, too focused on the destruction to offer any choice phrase to soothe her companion’s worries.

As Spitfire called for the company of ponies to turn about and return to the column, Rose hovered in place for a moment, staring at the ruins of Klugetown. “What happened here?”

***********************************

-Three days before-

“Gimme all your love, gimme all you love, gimme all your love now!” The mare on stage sang, her voice high but even, a country twang quite evident in her serenade as she swayed her hips behind the microphone set up on stage. It was an old fashioned piece of technology, with a heavy metal body, a grill made of strips, and a wire mesh underneath. The quality was not the greatest, her voice emerging from the speakers on both sides of the sides of the tavern stage as she reached the end of her number, her dress swishing gently against her legs as the last notes faded away. She had been accompanied by piano, drums and guitar the whole way through, but the percussion of hooves on floorboards filled the empty sound as spots were exchanged, the guitarist switching places with another pony offstage before two individuals, one sporting distinctly draconic slit pupils and a fanged smile, and the other with a perfectly coiffed, purple mane, stepped into view of the crowd.

Applejack opened her eyes, and, as was the plan, blew a kiss out to the crowd. Turning away from the crowd, she walked past the pair and winked at them. The dragon eyed mare arched a brow, but sashayed up to the microphone even as a new, much different beat started up, with Applejack claiming a base guitar. Rarity produced a second microphone stand and set it up next to Static as the distinctly predatory looking creature cleared her throat.

“My teacher was an avid lover of night time exuberance and joy, and frequently sponsored clubs and theaters before a tragedy befell her, quite recently. So this, is dedicated to the mare who taught me, a mare of old fashioned tastes who had long struggled to understand modern tastes. I think she would have enjoyed this facet of modern life.” Static worked the crowd, who had already spent several hours soaking in the vibrant, melancholy, joyful, colourful works of the elements and their friends. The crowd was invested in her every word, as was the plan. “And to the Storm King, let this be a message. We aren’t afraid of you.”

With that, the new beat that had drifted from the drums dimmed, joined by the stage lights, worked by Twilight from the back of the room.

A small assortment of brass instruments started blowing, muted a little by a curtain off to the side, before growing louder and clearer, picking up rhythm and accompanied by the drums and guitar again, a quick and energetic tune that greatly emulated jazz, but held distinct notes of electronic music that even out here was mostly unknown. It was one of Static’s favourite genres of music. Electro-Swing.

Static and Rarity exchanged a knowing smile as the song started.

“There’s a boy I know from the club I know,

He doesn’t say a word, he just hits the floor.” Static started, her legs started to flicker in front and behind of each other, foreleg behind foreleg and hindleg behind hindleg. She wasn’t wearing a dress, but a form fitted suit, courtesy of her dancing partner, who was matching her step for step, her sleeveless green dress trimmed with black and white polka dots. Rarity had taken Static’s suggestion that green really could be her colour and ran with it, and her opinion on the colour was rapidly shifting. “The way he moves always caught my eye,

Couldn’t take no more, just had to try.”

Rarity transitioned into a side to side kick shuffle that Static didn’t have the heart to tell her was frequently referred to as “The Spongebob”. It was an odd look on four legs instead of two, but the dance was certainly energetic and matched the beats of the song.

“I moved to the fours, and he danced away,

His feet like magic, then he looked my way,

And in one swoop, he had me by his side,

I knew I was in for a ride, as we-”

The two ponies both chimed in, starting to circle each other as their legs flashed, transitioning now from four legs to two for a more traditional swing style dance, the music picking up tempo and their forelegs now used in tandem with their ground bound hooves to swing and clap to the music, twisting their torsos back and forth in time with the drums and plucking of the strings as they continued the song into it’s chorus.

“Sway to the sound,

Our feet tap, tapping,

And our heartbeats beating and we,

Spin ‘round and ‘round, we got lost in the rhythm,

The lights and the crowd.”

The chorus came to an end, but the pair kept going, the song changing completely now, into yet another one entirely.

“Do you recall your papa, when he sat you on his knee,

Telling you the stories of everything he’s seen?

Parading other people, how they braved the battlefield,

Taking on an Empire, fighting to be free!”

Static crooned, her fangs glinting and her eyes burning into every single patron present, cutting through the haze of their drinks and right to the bone.

With no magic at all, she was implanting an idea into their heads. Not with spells, but words. And that was the plan.

“Oh papa, tell me what you saw,

Tan-tan-tara, can you hear the call?

Oh papa, I can see it in your eye,

Tan-tan-tara, ba-bap-da-daaaay.”

The song continued on through every verse and chorus before Static wound it down, and the ponies all took to the stage for a bow. They had shared songs and a few stories tonight, and before the guards could show up, they were packed up and moving, carrying their equipment through the hidden tunnels and on to the next venue.

They did not stop for more than a few minutes to eat and drink, and relieve themselves when necessary.

“Gotta say Sugarcube, when you went all Nightmare Moon on us, I didn’t think your plan was gonna be singin’ and dancing for a buncha pirates.” Applejack said as she hoisted Pinkie’s drum set up the ladder leading out into a back alley. “I thought you’d be wanting to smash every Jotunn in sight, and damn the consequences.”

Static rolled her slitted pupils and smiled up at her friend, showing off her pearly whites. “Who says I don’t?” The newly horned mare tapped her pale white appendage and sent off a small burst of shadowy energy that dimmed the lights in the alley above her. “Every time I see one I want to go and smash their face in.”

“So….” Rainbow Dash asked from behind Static. “I never got why you aren’t either.”

“Why that’s simple darling.” Rarity drawled down to the prismatic mare as she gave Applejack a quick peck on the cheek, then helped pull Pinkie’s instrument out of the hatch. “Static isn’t being controlled by a Nightmare, so her feelings are her own. And anger is just as capable of being managed as any other emotion.”

“In other words, I’m pissed off and redirecting that energy into something useful….until I actually do get to smash some faces in.” Static explained, before simply stepping into the shadows of the tunnel. “You coming up or what?” Static’s head appeared next to Rarity and Applejack, who jumped back, startled.

“Landsakes, Sugar! Stop doing that!”

Static smirked, mischievously. “No.”

The ponies worked quickly to set up their next impromptu public relations concert, and their songs began again, capturing the imaginations and aspirations of many a pirate.

Static and Rarity were about to take the stage again when a voice boomed...or, more accurately, wheezed out over the crowd and managed to interrupt Static’s concentration, her verse dwindling as her attention turned to the creature standing in the door.

“You aren’t supposed to be doing that. It’s a violation of King Gaul’s guidelines for workers efficiency.” The creature that spoke was dressed in a gaudy coat of a gold thread lined, bright red coat that seemed a strange mix between mariachi, french renaissance noble, and circus master. Oddly fitting for the character. “As Governor of Klugetown, given authority by King Gaul in his absence, I am placing you and your cohorts under arrest!”

“Those are some mighty big words for someone who clearly has no idea how to dress.” Applejack countered as she trotted up from offstage. “Even I, one of the most fashion ignorant mares I know, wants to faint just looking at your tacky, expensive, eyesore of a coat.” Applejack winked at Rarity, who returned a proud, beaming smile as the mole-rat started sputtering in outrage.

“E-e-Eyesore?!” The mole-rat-man swore. “Forget arrest for that one! Toss her in the pits and let the rats have her for her insolence!”

“Governor Verco, I presume?” Static asked, her tone rather flat. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your carbuncle?” Twilight tried not to vomit at the thought of that particular ailment, while Fluttershy, still hidden backstage, braced herself over a waste bin, her face going a pale green colour.

Verco didn’t seem to notice the mare’s referral to him as a pus-filled boil, and instead swiveled to stare at her. His eyes, covered by a pair of dark glasses, were unseen, but Static knew elation when she saw it, even if the little hairless weasel didn’t so much as twitch a mouth muscle. He was looking for Alicorns, for the king. Static flicked her right ear from left to right once, then twice, like there was a fly buzzing near it. After waiting a second, she did it a third time. Her horn started to faintly shimmer, but the mare made no move to attack or flee. “Ahhhh, you must be the ringleader of this little band of misfits. I know someone who will be very happy to see you.”

“Oh yes, I bet you do.” Static murmured, noticing that the bar patrons were being forcefully hauled from their stools and chairs, spilling ale and beer across numerous surfaces. A ring of guards was starting to encircle the three mares on the stage, while others were starting to head towards the back rooms.

“Well then, why don’t you be a good little pony and come quietly? I give my word as governor, none of you will be hurt.” Verco swore, holding up one hand in a vague gesture of promise.

Three unconvinced eyebrows raised as one.

“The alternative is I have my boys here beat the stuffing out of your cutesy faces, and my taxidermist stuffs it back in later.”

“I have an alternative ending of my wn to this little comedy sketch.” Static smiled widely, showing off far more fang than her friends were comfortable with.

“And what would that be, hmm?” Verco asked. “You sing one of your little songs, and we magically become fwiends?”

“Nope.”

Verco sighed, not willing to play games. “Huh, just take them, boys.”

The Jotuns under his command surged forwards, their huge forms blocking the ponies from sight in seconds. They piled on top of each other in a tangle of thick, hairy limbs and clanging armour, tails lashing, and grumbled swears tumbling free amid groans.

Verco looked at them for a moment before he realized what had just happened, and shook his head. Somehow, those ponies hadn’t really been there.

He hated magic…..

****************************

Chapter 17: Embers Glowing

The ponies relished in their victory for only a scant few minutes before they began planning for another. The town had been under the King’s boot so long that the inhabitants had barely needed to be roused into belligerence at all- they had already been belligerent before. All the ponies had needed was to provide the match to light the powder keg, then stand back and watch it blow.

Mere hours after their campaign had begun, and Static was watching a brawl over spilled drinks suddenly turn into an all out war against the guards responsible for the brawler’s misery. They wouldn’t need to drown their misery in grog if they weren’t miserable, and they wouldn’t be miserable if they didn’t have jack-booted thugs breathing down their necks all day. The brawl ended with many guards beaten and only a few patrons caught, the rest having ripped a few swords and spears out of the guards hands and running for the hills, laughing and jeering.

Of course, this only made it harder for the guards to keep up the aura of fear that the Empire relied so heavily upon.

Two more fights broke out within an hour, on opposite ends of town, one resulting in the burning down of a guard post, and the other in more weapons being nicked. The ponies smiles were contagious among the crowds, and hours of time wrenched the city firmly from the order of fear to the exuberant rebellion of free men and women taking up the call to arms.

Static and the others had to work fast, galloping and flying all across town in order to deliver messages, locate different revolutionists and convince them that working together would be more beneficial. Words of unity and courage were thrown liberally, with hints of treasure and promises of the open skies call being answered being given freely.

Momentum was building. Within a day, and the first small cell of rebels had formed under the noses of the city guard.

“We take a few hours to spread word of an attack on city hall, play up the numbers, make it look like more people are already involved.” Static explained, pointing to the courtyard outside city hall. “People are more likely to join us if they think we’re already gaining more traction than we are- yes, I know that’s lying to them, but we need them, and they need to get their heads out of the sand.”

Twilight seemed a little on edge about Static disregarding several key pillars of friendship, but when she confronted Static about it, the pegasus snorted. “Twilight. Grow up. Our moral conundrums will mean nothing if we don’t live to question them.”

Twilight had opened her mouth to object, but found a simple, logical, truth to those words. The Storm King wouldn’t care what they thought about what they were doing, or what he was doing. He’d just try to kill them.

It was an awful, cold truth. But truth nonetheless.

Rarity and Applejack had taken it upon themselves to establish a small base of operations in the tunnels beneath the city, ferrying supplies back and forth and making sure it was all well hidden from patrols and guards.

With their help, and no small amount of charm and guile from Rarity, the small rebellion was soon being supplied by a tiny cadre of sympathetic shopkeepers and merchants. By the end of the first day, the already fermenting pot of unrest and noncompliance was already yielding a potent brew of freedom-fighters. Application to corrupt government coming momentarily.

Tempest spent the time by Static’s side, at first as a guard and guarded mare, but her attention was drawn to Static herself, and how she had taken over leadership of the band, almost without hesitation.

“The real goal won’t be the Town Hall. It’s too well guarded. But from what you’ve told me, the Guards barracks themselves are supposedly quite difficult to penetrate, manned by a full company of guards at all times, ready to respond to any emergency. With a supposedly large crowd of rowdy rebels on their bosses doorstep, d’you think they’d go running out to meet them?”

Tempest nodded along, as did the pirate Captain whose crew had comprised the majority of their little band of misfits. He was a diamond dog with thick grey fur and a scarred face, that was referred to as Genn. “I think so.” The dog replied, his gravelly voice hiding a keen mind. “They usually do. Whenever something happens by their front door, they like to show up in force."

“Excellent. At that time, my team can move in and clear the place out. We get a wagon under the back window here, and have our fliers watching for any guards that might prove a problem. Our heavy lifters go in and empty as much of the armory as they can, and pull that cart all the way back here, quickly dump it all for someone to hide in here, and then keep moving. If we keep the place clear, we could avoid getting caught altogether. We get more traction, more people, and better gear to use while limiting their effectiveness going forwards."

The Captain grinned. "I'll get my boys ready to rile up the locals. You want us armed?"

"Anything you can reasonably conceal. The whole point is to distract, not give them a pitched battle in the streets."

Tempest frowned as a thought struck her. "If the guards are rushing out to deal with a bunch of angry workers, won't they be bringing a lot of their weapons and gear with them?"

Static grinned. "That's the beauty of it. Since there won't seem to be anyone in the crowd with armour or weapons, these boys will come flooding out with the bare minimum, not expecting to need anything more than a few swords and some intimidating armour in order to cow a few scared workers. They'll leave the rest behind, only to find out that there are a few armed rebels after all, and be caught up in dealing with them. You and your men will keep them busy long enough for us to steal everything that isn't nailed down. Food, maps, weapons, you name it."

The plan was simple, but flexible enough that it could handle a few unwanted developments.

Rainbow was the obvious choice for a scout. She flew up through the river-fed mists early in the morning, out of sight from any watchful eyes, and made herself a small cloud, just enough to conceal herself. A few minutes of careful observation and her incredible memory had the layout of the guardhouse complex memorized.

That layout was soon transcribed onto paper for Static and Twilight to figure out their strategy.

**********************************

"'Scuse me, partner. I need to borrow this fer a bit!"

"What are you doing?! That's my wago-" *THWACK!!*

"Sorry mister shark thingy! It's for a good cause!"

*********************************

The crowd was restless outside City Hall. The Governor was doing his best to grandstand, trying to spin recent developments as "ultimately fruitless acts of terrorism". Given that most of these "acts of terrorism had been some ponies singing songs, and a few drunken brawls, which was common around this town, and had inspired a response like this, the crowd was't buying it.

As the fervor of the crowd continued to build, there were harsh cries and demands for Verco to be pulled off the stage, so that the people he "represented" could show him how they really felt about him. There were a few glints of metal among the crowd-none of them weapons, just buckles and other metallic accoutrements that made the governor nervous. A few unseen hand gestures signaled for some reinforcements.

There was clamoring and clanging as the gates of the guard barracks swung open, emitting a stream of armoured brutes, their Storm Empire motifs uncleaned and covered in dust from lack of maintenance, the Armour plates dull and slightly pitted in a few places where battle scars had yet to be hammered out. They clutched spears and swords in hand, but little else. They were dishevelled and a few of them had not had the time to properly cinch the straps on their armour, but they seemed oblivious as they marched forth.

Fifty, then a hundred, then twice that strode out through the gates, forcing their way through the crowd, to stand at the call of their King's puppet. They brandished their weapons at any who dared step out of line, growling through their masks at the upstarts who challenged them.

From their place in the alleyway across the street from the barracks, Static and her friends watched as the guards marched out to deal with the common rabble with bated breath. As soon as the last line of guards was safely out from the gates, Static waved her friends into motion, Dash and Shy quickly flying up between the buildings to take up watch, while Applejack hauled their commandeered wagon around the barracks outer wall, until she was out of sight from the alleyway and the courtyard beyond, tucked closely to the back wall.

The few Jotuns left inside were hardly an issue with Rarity and Twilight's magic. Their armour may deflect magic, but large heavy objects smashing into the backs of heads while a sound dampening spell kept the impacts from alerting other guards circumvented that defense quite nicely. Applejack's hooves would have also sufficed were she not outside.

The element of surprise carried them right to the armoury, with the only guards that posed a problem being right outside the door and not close enough to surprise them without making a scene.

Static took point on this one. Her night based magic flooded the corridor with shadows, blinding the two, while Twilight kept their alarmed yells from being heard. Static's magic wrapped around the pair in oily black tendrils, lifting them off the floor and slamming them together. It took effort to keep the tendrils intact when they were touching the magic-resistant metal armour, but Static's newfound reserve of power was enough to brute force her way through, the two guards slamming together with a crunch, before falling to the floor in a heap.

Static blinked shadows out of her eyes for a moment, then relaxed her hold on the pair, letting the light flood back into the corridor.

She rifled quickly through the guards belt pouches, grinning as she retrieved a thick, metal key from one of them, and swiftly stuffed it into the lock and twisted. A grinding noise followed by a screech elicited winces from the ponies as the thick gate swung open.

Beyond it lay a treasure trove of weaponry and armaments, from axes to polearms, daggers to great big swords, and, of course, a stockpile of firearms. Matchlock rifles rested carefully against the wall, baskets of ammunition placed well away from a locked casket of black powder, which was evident to the ponies through the acrid smell leaking out of it.

"Grab everything you can, and get it over the wall to AJ. Rarity, do you think you can use those runway skills to keep them from being seen?"

Rarity looked extremely put out by the thought. "Darling, getting ponies noticed is what I do. This is…..this is….anathema to everything I stand for!"

"You can whine about it later, Rares. Right now, we just need to get this done."

"I do NOT WHINE!" Rarity hissed. "I complain! And right now I very much feel like complaining!" The alabaster mare grabbed the pegasus and pulled her out of sight as a pair of guards walked past on patrol. "Why not use your magic to do it?"

"Because a massive shadow in the middle of the day isn't conspicuous at all, is it?" Static returned, snidely.

"No need to be rude, darling, I get the point." Rarity bemoaned, lighting up her horn as Twilight started passing off boxes and crates to the others, Celestia stumbling a little under a particularly heavy box. She smiled as Pinkie bounced over to help, offering a little nuzzle before bracing the box on her back. Celestia then took a lighter load and trotted out into the open with her marefriend by her side. Rarity's horn flashed, and the two seemed to vanish from sight. More boxes went past, Static taking her turn and hauling a long box full of spears across the open ground between the barracks and the wall around them. She struggled a little to get the box up the stairs on the inside of the wall, but a little creative positioning let Static lever the thing up the stairs, sliding it up over the edge of each step, until she reached the top.

Carrying the case over to the edge, the bronze coated pegasus peered over the edge, spotting Applejack and the wagon below her. The earth pony had conveniently managed to find some manner of discarded fabric, and piled it haphazardly underneath the wall. "Heads up, AJ. Long one dropping down." Static called down, before she hauled the crate up to the lip of the wall, hoisting it up so she could tip the thing over. She checked the latch on thell lid one more time, then tipped it over the edge and turned back, retracing her steps and keeping her ears open for the sound of her friends moving up past her.

Emerging from the illusion and back inside the armoury, Static took stock of the remaining weapons and armour racks, before grabbing the next box that Twilight offered her.

The repeated journey was rather tense, the girls freezing in place and staring at the patrolling guards every time they passed by, not daring to so much as breathe until the duo of jotuns was gone for a few more minutes.

Finally, Twilight picked up the last box, and carried it out through Rarity's illusion, joining the others on the wall. The armoury had been thoroughly pillaged, the racks bare and the floors uncovered for the first time in months. Twilight shut the door as quietly as she could, and placed an illusion of the room as it had been on the other side, just for good measure. She slipped the pocket back into the satchel Static had found it in, and then left, making sure that everything was properly closed. Then she swiftly flew herself up onto, and then over the wall, joining the others by the wagon.

The crowd outside had not gone far enough to spark a fight, but the guards attention had certainly been on them, rather than on the ponies sneaking around in their armoury.

Their burglary went unnoticed, the ponies took a few minutes to make sure their precious cargo was secure, and, after a few moments of improvised rope-work using the now useless cloth, they tied the pile of crates and boxes down. Sound suppression spell once again cloaking their presence, the group made a swift exit, signalling to Dash and Shy to rejoin them. Shy in turn signaled Genn and his crew of rebels in the crowd, before flapping off to join her friends.

Genn vanished amid the throngs of irritated townsfolk, joined by his companions, one by one.

Within minutes, all the pirates were gone, all of the ponies were gone, and Verco's speech failed to promote any of the unity he asked for.

*********************************

The sheer number of weapons and armour now in their possession was a fantastic step in the right direction. Twilight, Static and Genn were sitting together and

"We need to keep this momentum up. Once word gets out that the barracks were robbed, more people will be willing to join the fight." Static grinned, looking at the growing arsenal of weapons at her hooves.

"These will need some work before we can use them." Genn grunted, examining the armour they had recovered. "Those jotuns are big bastards, even the smallest of these a side or two larger than anything I could wear."

Twilight nodded in acceptance. “We can at least make use of the weapons. Spread them among your crew, captain. And when others come looking for us, be ready to share with them too.”

Genn bobbed his head, and made to stand up. Then he paused. “Are you sure they will come?”

Static’s eyes settled on his, and the diamond dog watched as this strange mare became wreathed in broiling shadows that seemed to swallow her whole. Her bronze fur darkened to a near pitch black, and her teeth sharpened into fangs sharper than his own, before she vanished from sight entirely, leaving only her voice behind. “I can almost guarantee it.”

*******************************

Not one pirate in all of Klugetown slept well that night, plagued by dreams filled with burning ships and shattered homes, the stamping of metal boots and stone, splintered wood and noxious green fumes.

Friends, family, rivals and business partners, all dead and torn apart. The multitudes hewn apart by claws and blades, scattered around throughout smoke filled streets, nestled in the crooks between alleyways and doors like puppets without a puppeteer. All broken and discarded toys thrown away by the monstrous shadows that lingered in the corner of every eye. All of them emblazoned with a mark. Two jagged lines scored into their shoulders, glowing blue.

And always, there was a pony, a mare, standing amid the carnage, with a hoof outstretched, and soundless words on her lips. “You can change this.” Nothing more. Just those words. And those words turned embers into an inferno.

********************************

Author's Note

Sorry for how long this took!
I wasn't happy with how I originally wrote chapter's 17-19, and scrapped them to start over. Then I got into a stint of not writing at all due to being tired from my actual job. But now, I have a bit of time at last! So here we are!

Prologue: A Storm Brewing

The moon rose high overhead in the night sky, bathing all in it’s silvery light, save where the sparse few clouds blotted out it’s graceful light. The verdant greens of the rainforests here were made a deep blue by the night’s dark, and the bright, brilliant near-white of the desert sands to their south were grey and still. The winds were picking up as clouds rolled overhead, some coming in from across the desert, where the ever present wall of Storm clouds that separated the south coast from the rest of the continent.

It was on this night, in this place, that a lone Pegasus stood watch atop the battlements of a recently constructed outpost, a guard tower placed on the border of the large Kingdom of Equestria. The aptly named Night Watch was on duty for this stretch of the night, in the early hours of the morning, just minutes past midnight itself, and he was cold- as was to be expected on the edge of a desert at night.
Ruffling his feathers, Vigil Watch sighed, and quickly adjusted the strap of his helmet for the third time that morning, the strap having decided that halfway through his watch would be the best time to start coming loose.

The scuff of a hoof on stone behind him brought his attention to the approach of a fellow guard, a thestral called Bright Eyes, named for the way his eyes always seemed to reflect the light in the way that many predators did.

“Who goes there?” Watch asked with a small grin, ears flicking as he regarded the ruffled and matted fur of a bat-winged pony who had been unable to sleep properly.

“Bite me, Night.” Eyes snapped, stretching his wings and shifting some of his own armour plates a bit to stop them from chafing. The leathery sound of his opening wings was something that the ponies on the Night shift had gotten used to, as the Thestral’s ususal duties were performed at night, to account for his nocturnal nature. “Anything interesting?”

“Not a thing. Remind me to kick Ser Thunder in the flank when I rotate out of here, for suggesting these border stations to Princess Luna.” Vigil replied, his grin turning a little vicious. “You want some coffee or anything? Something to help you wake up a bit?”

“Eugh, no. Then I’ll just be buzzing all night with nothing to do.” Bright groaned, taking up a position not far from where Vigil was standing. “And I don’t need to be tired and buzzed with nothing to do but stand here for hours. That would suck all kinds of-”

Eyes cut off suddenly, looking up at the sky with an uncertain look on his face, his cat-like eyes narrowed and focused.

“What is it?” Vigil blinked, eyes searching the dark sky with a frown, before turning to look at his fellow guard. “What’s wrong?”

Bright Eyes blinked, then shook his head. “For a moment, I thought I saw….”

Vigil raised an eyebrow.

“It’s probably nothing. Just my eyes and my tired brain playing tricks on me.”

“You sure you don’t want that coffee? I’m sure you can find someone willing to whip up something-”

Bright cut Vigil off with a smile and a shake of his head. “I’ll be fine. Besides, the storm will wake me up when it finally gets here.”

“Storm?” Watch looked at the slowly gathering clouds overhead. “You sure it’s going to be a storm?”

“Yeah, you can smell em coming if you know what you’re looking for. And there was a flash of lightning a little while ago, just over there.”

As Bright Eyes spoke, a flash broke the dark of the sky above, followed by the rumble of thunder. “And there we go, it’s a storm.”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” Vigil rolled his eyes. “I’m an unobservant moron, I get it.”

“Uh-huh, well, I wish that I hadn’t been looking that way. I’m seeing spots now.”

“Now who’s the moron?” Vigil snorted, tightening his helmet strap again.

“I am. Ugh, that’s nasty. Heard that Princess Twilight once got hit by a bolt of lightning once. Not a nice feeling.”

Vigil blinked in surprise, staring at Bright with wide eyes. “Seriously? I didn’t realize that Alicorn’s could take a bolt like that. Thought that only Pegasi could.”

Bright Eyes stared at him incredulously, waiting for him to make the connection.

“Oh, right. Magic of all three races.” Vigil facehoofed, and another lightning bolt flashed above.

The conversation petered out for a bit, and the clouds rolled in overhead, covering the moon and darkening the world in a deep shadow.

“Greeaat….as if it wasn’t boring enough.” Vigil groaned, turning his gaze up.

It was then that a bolt of lightning coursed through the clouds high above him, lighting up the layer of water vapor beneath it.

And revealing the fleet of dark shapes inside the clouds and the ones slowly dropping down to the fort.

Vigil and Bright Eyes gasped, both stepping back several paces, before they broke, already screaming. “BATTLE STATIONS!!! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!!”

Lightning flashed again, with Vigil galloping as fast as he could, heading for the barracks, to wake the guards and start fighting back. His wings flapped intermittently, giving him bursts of speed as he charged towards the barracks.

Even as he did, he heard the growing sound of something roaring, like the engine of a train as it sped along the tracks.

Then, in a shower of stone, the outer wall of the small fort exploded in, revealing the thick wooden hull of an airship on the other side, a cannon pointed directly at the huge hole in the masonry. Being bathed in stone dust and pebbles had blasted Vigil into the opposite wall, his helmet coming off and falling to the floor with a clang. Scrabbling to his hooves, the hapless soldier stumbled back into his gallop amid the cries of the guard ponies, all trying to quickly arm and armour themselves.

But it was for naught. There was another cannon sound, and the rooms directly ahead of Vigil lit up with the light and deafening noise of cannon blasts, and the screams of dying guards.

Vigil skidded to a halt, before turning tail and thundering away from the barracks, instead hoping to find Bright Eyes, and send a message back to Canterlot, to warn them of the danger.

The corridors ahead collapsed under the bombardment of more cannonfire, forcing Vigil to turn into another room, and head through the mess hall. He flew past abandoned meals and overturned tables, all dusted with stone fragments, or crushed by chunks of the ceiling.

Barging through the doorway to the courtyard, Vigil once again forced himself to a dead stop, looking at the courtyard now full of small boats, unloading giant, monstrous creatures in full armour plating and carrying both swords and spears. They were easily three times his size, and heavily armed.

There was no way he could fight them all.

Vigil spread his wings and took to the skies, before they could truly notice him amid the thunder of the cannons that tore apart his home of several months, and killed his friends with hot metal.

He soared high into the sky as the night fell, hoping to all hoped that Bright Eyes had already fled, and that he would see his friend again.

Pain blossomed right between his right foreleg and wing, between the joints as something thudded into his side with the horrid, wet sound of punctured flesh. His right wing stopped working, and he plummeted back down, landing hard on something flat and slightly uneven, his unprotected head striking the cold stone with a painful jolt.

Dazed, and looking around, he realized he was lying on top of the small, squat tower that made up the bulk of the border fort, where the unlit signal fire sat. And there, lying next to it, a flickering, sputtering torch in his hoof, was Bright Eyes, still and breathless for the arrow sticking into his flank.

Horrified and angry, wounded and gasping for breath, Vigil managed to stand himself up, armour rattling as he limped to his friend, and gently, but shakily, took the torch from Bright’s limp hoof.

Limping to his goal, and ignoring the sounds of many approaching footsteps, Vigil raised the torch up, and put it to the signal fire, not caring about the second arrow that suddenly sprouted from his dock, having punched clean through his armour.

The fire caught the wood, oil drenched and dry as tinder, lighting the pile up in moments, and sure enough, in the distance, as Vigil had wanted, other lights lit up the night, lighting hope for his country against this foul invader.

He turned, his blurring vision showing him the giant figure of the invasion’s leader, a twelve foot beast, holding a strange staff that was topped with a bright blue gem. He was dressed in armour plates like his soldiers, but instead of a helmet, wore a massive horned crown above his grinning, fanged face, with eyes of the same, crackling blue as the crystal.

“Now all of Equestria will know you're here.” Vigil said, in a quiet, weak, and defiant voice.

And as Vigil felt his life trickle out of him, he saw the invader reach across to a banner that had flown atop the tower since the final day of its construction, depicting the two sisters, Celestia and Luna flying around the sun and moon, surrounded by stars, and simply snapped it free of it’s mooring. The flag dipped into the flames of the signal fire then, the invader beaming cruelly at the dying guard as he slowly toppled over.

“Perfect.” Said Gaul.

Author's Note

The War has begun.

Chapter 3: Lovebugs, Scaleheads, Catbirds and Stormclouds

“Alright, I think we’re all set.” Starlight ticked off the last of the boxes on her checklist, and Rose let out a thankful sigh. She and Rarity had worked their tails off in order to get all the decorations up, including dozens of lights and flower arrangements that hung from temporary pillars set up along the central aisle and also on the more permanent architecture in the area. The group had rolled out a long stretch of carpet down the middle, and garlands of flowers hung between the pillars overhead. The stage was simple, but elegant, with tasteful creamy coloured fabric draped as a backdrop behind the pedestal-like altar where Luna would stand as she officiated.

Rose shook her head to clear it of the morbid thoughts about Jeremy that were once again trying to spoil her mood. She refocused on Rarity’s story of her current client, a celebrity who was supposedly coming to the festival to sing, a Pegasus that was unironically called Songbird Serenade.

“Why, she thought the outfit was marvelous, of course, and ordered twenty for her backup dancers, and even asked for one for her own collection. She seemed so very pleased with my work.”

Applejack smiled at her marefriend, knowingly nodding along. “Well, they certainly looked good to me- not that I know enough about fashion for that to mean something, but mah point stands.”

Rarity beamed, pulling her marefriend in for a quick kiss before the conversations picked up again.

As the day rolled into midday, ponies started to fill the nearby streets- no longer decorating or preparing, but to enjoy the festivities, and for those who were invited- plus a great many who weren’t- a wedding to attend.

“Come on girls. We’d better go and get dressed if we’re going to be a part of this.” Starlight noted, looking at a clocktower a few blocks away. “I don’t want to miss the reception because we took too long talking about the latest issue of ‘insert popular magazine full of useless drivel here’.” Starlight grinned, making hoof-quote motions in time with her mockery of the tabloid industry.

“Yeah, if we ain’t careful, we’ll be featurin’ in the darn things ourselves!” Applejack guffawed. “Ah can see it now: ‘Princess of Friendship left alone by friends- too busy to give a buck!’” She spread her hooves out in front of her and assumed a wide-eyed look of wonder, as if beholding some gospel truth.

“Not like Twi isn’t managing the being alone thing by herself.” Rainbow grouched. “I’ve barely seen hide or hair of her all week.”

Starlight nodded, hopping down from where she had been reclining on the stage. “This thing has really eaten away at her free time. More than even her normal duties did.” The purple mare turned to stare up at the castle again, as if she could spot her mentor through the thick walls and colourful windows. “And to be honest, even before this came up, she was busy all the time anyway.”

“Indeed, but let’s not forget how important our Twilight is to Equestria.” Rarity hummed, dusting herself off and picking up what few items she had left from the stage setup. She carefully placed them in her saddlebags and closed the flaps with a flick of her horn and a toss of her silky mane, then broke into a steady trot. “Come now. It’s time that we cleaned up and got ready for the ceremony. We’ve left it late enough as it is!”

“Alright Rarity! Alright! We’re coming!” Rose laughed, quickly slinging her saddlebags over her barrel and jumping after the fashionista.

“Last one to the castle is a rotten egg!!” Rainbow screeched, before zipping off towards the marble towers.

“Ya darn cheater!! Get back here!!” Applejack yelled, galloping off after her.

Starlight watched them go with a chuckle and a shake of her head, enjoying the usual goofy rival antics her friends shared.

Rose stayed quiet for most of the trip back, thinking about what it meant for her sister to be getting married. What would it have been like for her and Jeremy, she wondered, allowing her contemplation's for a brief moment.

Those thoughts were immediately denied their time on Rose’s mind by a rush of air and the sound of rapidly flapping wings, though not the feathery swish of Pegasi or Gryphons, but the thick leathery fwoosh of dragons.

Rose let out a yelp as something large displaced the air behind her and sent her almost a foot skyward at the force of it’s landing. She twisted in mid-air so that she was facing the new arrival, and was greeted by a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and a scaled head covered with horns as thick as her legs. The Pegasus backpedaled immediately, wings flapping in a madcap scramble for safety from the terrifying monster that had just dropped out of the sky to devour her and her herd….. Rose blinked, momentary lapse of reason due to fear over, and she sheepishly chuckled, looking up into the amused eyes of the now nowhere near as terrifying looking dragon who had frightened her so easily.

The great reptile chuckled, a low rumbling sound akin to an earthquake, shaking his head at the skittish pegasus who scrunched up her muzzle behind her mane, hiding her face out of embarrassment.

“Wow, haven’t seen ponies do that in a while.” The voice that spoke was female, youthful but full of a confident charisma that made her sound authorative. If the blood red gem tipped staff in the speaker’s claw was any indication, she was authority, the Lord of all Dragons, in fact.

“Ember. Good to see you again.” Starlight smiled, though her expression quickly became a wary frown. “You do remember which pony I am, right?”

Ember frowned, looking at Starlight in confusion. “Uh, you’re Princess Twilight, right? You invited us?”

Starlight just sighed, shaking her head. “Every single time.” She muttered. “I’m Starlight Glimmer. Twilight’s student?”

“Uh….oh, right, yeah, different versions of the same colour, different butt marks. Both stars, but yours has a swirly blue bit in it.” Ember noted, clearly having to think pretty hard to come up with those distinctions. “Uh…...different mane?”

“Yes, I wear my mane differently than Twilight. Pretty much every pony does.” Starlight sighed, not interested in dealing with this kind of stuff on top of her organization role.

“So who’s this?” Ember asked, looking at the sandy coated mare with the pink mane who was still sheepishly staring at her own hooves.

“This,” Starlight brightened at the possibility of moving the conversation in a less awkward direction. “Is Static Thunder’s sister, Rose.”

“Sup, Rose?” Ember extended a claw in greeting, though she looked kinda odd, her posture a little too stiff. “Sorry about the scare earlier. Total accident. Honest.”

“No it wasn’t.” The larger dragon chuckled.

Rose looked at the offered claw and found herself reminiscing about fingers and their many uses. Like shaking hands without just sticking your leg out and waving it around like a moron once the dragon took hold of it.

Ember and her companion only stayed for a few minutes, before they made their excuses and left, taking off again and flying on up to the palace, leaving the group of friends to continue on their way. They trotted eagerly through the streets, admiring the tastefully chosen decor and open, inviting layout of activities and games for the festival. Pinkie was little more than a blur, seeming to be in about three different places at once at any given moment, soaking in all the smiles and good cheer going around.

As they were passing through the courtyard hosting the largest parts of the festival, the group overheard some familiar voices in the middle of a discussion.

“So, you’ve been building up support among the Gryphon nobles?” The voice of King Thorax drifted through the throngs of ponies. He was standing in front of a ring toss booth, a ring hovering in his magical grip as he talked with a Gryphoness, a brown coated, white feathered hen with dyed purple tips...or perhaps that was a natural colouration….

“Yeah, those dimwits can barely even concentrate on their own country they’ve been lazing around Equestria so long. I don’t think they’ve even set a claw across our border in their entire lives.” The hen groused, spinning her own hoop around her claws. “They’ve pretty much just foisted all the rebuilding and reorganizing on me and left me to it. I don’t think they realize that this reorganization puts me on top. I’ll be the first of a new line of royals, according to the Princesses.”

Thorax nodded, a small smile on his lips. “I know how you feel, Gilda. Ever since Queen Chrysalis left the hive, I’ve been left to pick up all the pieces, with only Pharynx to help- and he’s more focused on security than foreign relationships.”

“Well, this festival should make it a little easier for you to make friends.” Gilda smirked. “You already met up with the Princesses for an official welcome yet?”

“Yeah, they told me to make the most of my time and enjoy myself before the wedding. I hope Static’s okay. She gets nervous in big romantic events.”

“You’d know, lovebug.” Gilda grinned, tossing her hoop without even looking at the pegs she was aiming for. The rule of her coolness held up, and the ring landed on a peg with a clank, spinning around it before settling down. The red and white maned pony brothers behind the prize booth winced at another win, having been made to follow the rules of the festival- which meant no rigging their games.

“Yeah, with her having been in the hive for so long, I kinda got to know a lot about how she works.” Thorax replied, nervously tossing his ring, only for it to bounce off of the peg and drop to the floor. The king frowned, but continued the conversation as he picked up his last ring. “Even with two years of being a pony, she hasn’t gotten over that.”

Gilda shrugged. “Some do, some don’t. Never been into romance much anyways. What about the hive though? How are you holding up?”

As Thorax started to explain some of his more recent problems, Rose, Starlight and the Elements got out of earshot and missed the rest of the discussion, though they didn’t miss seeing other Changelings, Gryphons and young Dragons dotted around the festival, exploring the games and food vendors with obvious delight, the dragons particularly distracted by the supply of gemstones that had been brought out for them. They weren’t quite as pleased to learn they had to share, but they did reluctantly agree to do so, as per the Dragon Lord’s instructions.

When they finally made it to the palace, they were met by some maids, who had been instructed to help them get ready for the wedding ceremony however they could. Each pony was led off in a different direction, to separate rooms where their dresses were waiting for them.

“One hour to go…..” Rose beamed, as she looked into the mirror…

*****************************************

Not so far away, a Unicorn was pacing the floor of her quarters, armour rattling as she waited for the announcement, for the orders that she dreaded.

She didn’t want this.

Ever since she had made the mistake, the mistake of trusting him, she had done everything she dared to slow down his hungry expansionist tendencies. She’d been lenient with those who disobeyed him, chosen to disregard kill orders in order to save lives, even objected to a few plans that had involved outright slaughter of innocents.

But then she had come, with gifts and sweet words from her ‘master’ to the King. That Reindeer…..A few words from her and all of Tempest’s hard work to delay the King were ruined. Now he was gunning for her homeland, and wasn’t tolerating any foolishness on her part- hence why she was confined to her quarters in full armour plate which chafed and made her bleed.

The only other creature in the room was Grubber, the only Jotunn she truly trusted, since he was a runt and often sneered down at by his brethren, making him as much an outcast as she was. He was munching on some food he’d secreted from somewhere, occasionally offering some to the nervous young mare as she passed him by as he sat on her bed.

Tempest couldn’t help but glare at him every time his eating started to annoy her, which was every other pass she made. And why shouldn’t it annoy her? The Storm King was about to launch an invasion of her homeland, making her announce his arrival, the pompous ass, and enslave her people. She couldn’t bare to look the pony slaves he already had in the eye. Their miserable or angry stares ate into her soul and did their best to draw blood with every bite. There had to be some way. Some way to fix this. Some way to stop this. Some way to-

“WILL YOU STOP EATING?!” Tempest’s half strangled scream made the little Jotunn jump in place, sending a bag of potato chips flying all over her bunk. “How can you possibly be hungry at a time like this?!”

Grubber swallowed his last mouthful before starting to clean up the mess he’d made. He looked back at her over his shoulder with a frown. “I eat when I’m stressed. You know that, Temp. Honestly, I always wonder how you can’t eat at times like these.”

Tempest snorted, turning away from her associate before she let her frustration get out of hoof. “Canterlot is in the middle of celebration that’s about to be invaded, and I want to help them, but the moment I put so much as a hoof out of line, the King will have his men kill me.” She looked out of the small porthole, which showed nothing but darkness thanks to the ships concealment. “What do I even do? I try not to hurt them, Gaul kills me. I go after them like he wants, they do their best to kill me and probably do. I don’t do anything, Gaul kills me. I try to run, Gaul hunts me down and takes great pleasure in skinning me alive. I...I’m doomed, no matter what I do.”

“You know we’re in the same boat, right? Not just literally.” Grubber asked, dumping his ruined snacks into a small basket that served as a waste bin. “If I don’t do as he says, Gaul’s gonna use me to play hoofball.”

The image of Grubber being punted around a hoofball pitch wasn’t nearly amusing enough to lift her mood, leaving Tempest as miserable as ever. “It feels like my life is one long nightmare, and I can’t ever wake up.”

Grubber stayed silent, instead just feeling the stillness of the airship as it sat, waiting to fly again.

Tempest could see that city on the mountain becoming her grave. She bowed her head, not wanting to admit how terrified she was. Then she felt the ship lurch, the sound of the engines roaring to life jerking her thoughts right to where they didn’t want to go. She met Grubber’s eyes one last time before a Guard opened the door, instructing them to meet the King.

This was it.

Death was coming to Canterlot.

***************************************************

Author's Note

Here they come....

Chapter 15: Broken Homestead

The ponies and Capper slipped out of the windmill in the early morning, en route to the plaza meet up the Abyssinian had suggested. Given that Spike had always been somewhat more mature than his age would imply, he had been left in charge of the other teens, and instructed to be quiet and discreet. Not that the adults were hopeful in that regard. The crusaders and the words “quiet” and “discreet” only ever fit well in a sentence when the words “never” or “you’re joking.”

The grownups just hoped that they came back before the inevitable gongshow.

Creeping down the tower and out of the courtyard beneath the great rotating sails, the group slunk into the shadows of the alleyways, cloaks drawn tightly around themselves and hoods pulled low. They trotted quickly through the early morning mists, the river providing the friends some assistance with their dawn excursion’s creeping. Their hooves muffled with cloth and magic, and Capper padding easily along on his soft paws, they made good time amid the city’s early morning commuters and guard patrols.

Thankfully, the guards were not expecting a group of ponies from the north, and as such, they were not even looking for them, and were not overly alert, even after the ruckus in the marketplace the first day.

Static kept a wary eye out for the reindeer from the dream realm, and she kept thinking she had seen glimpses of antlers and green eyes several times, but as she continued onwards, she started to think the glimpses she was seeing weren’t really there, just her own imagination. She sighed, her thoughts turning to Luna and the other ponies fighting in Equestria…

*******************************

The desert sands rolled beneath them, the sheer rock faces now no longer so far away. The great heavy behemoth in the sky above them ponderously positioning itself above the caves that housed the Arcan’s home.

Crimson still stood in the dining hall, the guards left by the king simply waiting by the doors on both ends of the room. He had no weapons and was still weak from his tortured captivity. He was watching his enemies draw closer to his family, to the place of his birth, and, despite his misgivings and the bad blood between him and his people, he wished nothing more than to have his sword, his armour, anything, and fight to protect them.

But he could do none of that.

He couldn’t do much more than stand and watch.

Crimson snarled as he heard the familiar boots approach from outside. Gale. And the King.

Gaul was in an uncharacteristically happy mood, a broad smile on his face while Gale was as dementedly enthusiastic as always. Soft chuckles brought on by nothing but Gale’s own insanity made Crimson grit his teeth.

They didn’t say a word, as the citadel began to settle into position over it’s target. They just stood and watched him. Crimson watched the world beyond the window, the rocky peaks of his homeland reaching up to pierce the heavens around them. He stared at those familiar mountain caps with a growing feeling of dread, as if this was the last time he would ever see them.

Crimson could hear screaming, and he knew that some of his people were attempting to run, to flee from the Homestead. But there were so few. He knew that so many more had not even tried to run, and would not try.

“Fire the weapon. And, Commander Gale, after this one has seen the result of his uncooperativeness, try to get him to talk. If he still doesn’t talk, kill him.” Gaul intoned, his voice even, a guard immediately moving off to carry out the command. Gaul left after his soldier, humming a lively little tune as he walked down the corridor, tail sweeping from side to side.

Crimson felt his teeth grit, the sound of grinding bone and the sensation of tensed muscles in his jaw matched by his tightened, strained muscles that still carried that dull ache from the rounds of abuse and torture. Torture inflicted by Gale. Gale who was now behind him. Alone.

Crimson felt something in his chest snap.

The next thing he knew, he was pivoting on his heel to face the Commander, who had drawn a knife and was watching him like a shark watches a seal. Crimson stalked across the room, his long legs eating up the distance in a few short strides before he and Gale were no more than a few feet apart. Only as Crimson bared down on him did it occur to Gale that he might actually be in danger.

Crimson felt the energy in the air, a thick miasma of magic that was familiar to him, the same magic he had been surrounded by for months. Pony magic. But not quite the same. Pony magic made everything feel….lighter. This very much did not. Crimson reached out with his arm, intercepted a deft and well made attempt at a knife slash, then twisted Gale’s wrist even as the vile Arcan maneuvered himself into a backward roll, falling away from Crimson, now short of a knife. The knife sped across the space between them, just cutting through the skin on the top of Gale’s ear.

Flames billowed after the blade, to Crimson’s surprise, and Gale’s laughter grew.

“Yes! Show me how, boy!” Gale lunged for Crimson, who leaned backwards, catching outstretched hands with his own, and twisted them aside, sending the older, but smaller man crashing down onto the table of food. The cutlery and vegetables went flying, the meat sailing every which way while Crimson bolted for the open door, charging through just as a pair of guards tried to bar the way. With brute strength, he knocked one aside and sent the other reeling, before sprinting down the hall. Endless stone walls moved past him, the uniform stone trying to constrain him.

He had to stop this. He had to do something. He had to-

-THOOOOOM!-

……..Silence. The entire Citadel went silent, and the world beyond too. Like a breath held still, or the empty skies on the darkest nights, the world was rigid and unmoving, the very air painful to inhale. No….this was wrong. All wrong.

He started to sprint again, the sounds of crumbling stone echoing from the windows in the rooms he passed, his footfalls matching the chaotic cadence of destruction as he tried to find a way out. The corridors seemed endless, and his heart beat out of time with his dark, fearful thoughts.

Then, he saw something. His sprint slowed to a run, then a walk. Finally, he stood still.

He had came to a stop by a door. A familiar door. One that had hidden the ripping of flesh and the burning of muscles. The pain and the screams.

And like that, the panic was gone. He didn’t need to see what had happened to know what had happened. His home was gone. His people were gone. His family… Instead there was only anger, and a deep and terrible need.

He forced that familiar door open, and beheld Gale’s chambers, filled with relics of his people, artifacts of the Architects who had now vanished from the world. He stared for a moment at the rack, before his eyes drifted to a length of rusted, pitted metal, the blade snapped yet still almost as large as himself.

He crossed the room quickly, not wasting anymore time. His fingers closed around the hilt, and the bargain was struck. Not with some ancient malice enchanted to the sword, or to some higher power, but instead with himself.

With this sword, he would bring down as many Jotunns and their Hounds as he could.

And he knew exactly who he would start with.

But before he could begin, he had other obligations to take care of.

He marched swiftly out of the room and tried to retrace his steps, trying to remember where it was he had been brought from. He pounded down the corridors again, batting aside anything foolish enough to bar him, the rusted sword somehow sturdy and strong despite hundreds of years in the ground.

Guards died in their scores beneath the fury of the Architect.

Finally, he found what he was looking for. The cells. His fellow guards, normal ponies, imprisoned noble lords and ladies.

They all perked up at seeing him free, the prisoners clamoring to the bars and cheering loudly, a fleeting but intense ray of hope in a hopeless place. Crimson’s sword soon slammed into the hinges, gouging them apart until the doors fell free. Then he repeated his work on their chains. Soon they were all leaving, scrabbling to get out of the prison cells and into the hallways beyond.

Their hasty retreat from their prison was loud, but they didn’t care, running a desperate bid for freedom and pummeling any Jotunn that fought to keep them at bay.

They didn’t know where they were going, but soon found themselves in a massive room, round and tall, a huge cylinder….but it had no ceiling, the open sky above them, and the ground far below them, a massive crystal held in place in the center. There was nowhere to go. They were trapped.

Gale and his soldiers found them quickly, crowding the crystal room and encircling the small band of escaped fighters. They could see the King approaching from one of the open doors on the far side of the room.

They shared looks, and knew they were all in agreement.

None of them were going to go back to that cell.

Not one.

The King smirked as he drew close, eyeing the ponies, holding the few weapons they had been able to acquire from the guards. Three had been killed already just to get to this chamber, and many were wounded.

Only Crimson seemed to have not suffered any fresh injury. The angry, magical, flaming aura that seemed to spring from the patterns on his skin saw to that. Any guard who had gotten close had felt their flesh start to boil in their armour. Somehow, the raw magic was only barely lessened by their armour than any spell would be, leaving them at the mercy of the Arcan.

Gaul’s smirk only grew bigger when the Arcan stepped forward and raised his sword in a warrior’s salute to his innumerable enemies, and settled into a fighting stance.

Gale went to attack, but Gaul held up his hand. Gale immediately stopped his advance.

“It’s over boy.” The King said, firmly, smugly. “Your home is nothing but rubble now. And any place your little pony friends could hide will suffer the same fate. Your little band of friends here has done an admirable job of defending themselves, but look at them. Tired, injured, on their last legs. They’ll die here. And so will you if you fight with them. Step aside. Accept the inevitable and join-”

“Save your devil’s deal.” Crimson snarled. “You lost any chance of getting my co-operation when you killed my mother, and my Uncle.”

Gaul cocked an eyebrow before looking to Gale, and jerking his chin towards Crimson.

That single motion set off a torrent of Hounds leaping through the ranks of Storm Guards, the guards being knocked aside by the rabid horde.

The survivors braced themselves for the end, with Crimson raising his tired arms and the sword clutched in his fingers, hoping to take out at least one last foe before death swallowed them all.

Death did not come.

A burst of light from below revealed a form that flashed between the ponies and their rescuer, a form who in turn rescued them, blood streaming from a cut on her head, as the Princess of the Night and a small posse of thestrals sped through them and into the crowd of Jotuns and Hounds. Luna’s scythe slashed amid the tumult, her roar of anger and outrage actually getting Gaul to visibly cower for just a moment, the mare cutting down swathes of his troops while screaming her fury like a banshee, some terrifying spectre of death.

Luna whirled about, slicing a pair of Jotun’s to ribbons as they attempted to flee from her, then a trio of Hounds as they bolted for the escapee’s.

It was enough for the King to recover, then bark out a few orders. The Jotuns and Hounds turned their attention from the new force, and back to the escapees, trying to force their way to the tired group.

Seeing this, Luna snapped some orders of her own, the Thestrals turning to sweep those who could not fly off of their feet before all diving over the edge, their leathery wings tucked close as they fell in single file. Crimson found himself caught by strong hooves, and pulled sharply towards the edge. He tried to resist, but a second pair swept his legs and he fell, tumbling over the edge as leathery wings snapped open seconds after his carrier cleared the bottom of the Citadel.

Crimson yelled for the Princess, his words swept away on the wind as he caught sight of her on the edge of the platform he had just departed. She was barely standing, the bluster and fury gone now that the entirety of the Jotun and Hound forces had been focused on her. He lost sight of her then, but as his thestral soared away, he saw a flash of light, and the world seemed to tremble.

**************************

As she saw their friends approaching, Celestia smiled, starting forward to greet them.

As she did, she felt a terrible cold pass over her, and a nameless, bottomless cavern of fear open in the pit of her heart. Twilight stopped just ahead of her, her eyes wide and her muscles rigid, but it was Static’s reaction that was perhaps more telling. The Knight of Luna stopped, lip trembling as she reached into her clothes, withdrawing a small, silvery disk, hanging next to a small crystal heart, not dissimilar to the one hanging around Fluttershy’s neck. The silvery disk was embossed with Luna’s mark, the bright moon on a background of darker metal. Ever since Luna had given the amulet to Static, it had always glowed faintly with a sliver of it’s maker’s power.

But now it was shining brightly, a small star in the frog of the Pegasi’s hoof.

Celestia’s already wide eyes started to brim with tears, while Static looked up at her, her mane already starting to shift and wave in a nonexistent breeze.

The reunited friends found they had no words, instead reaching out to comfort each other.

****************************

The shattered and broken mountains that had once held Homestead lay behind them, a small band of guards and escaped prisoners, mixed with the incredibly few survivors they had been able to pull from the rubble.

The Citadel had left already, nothing more than a smear of brown stone floating miles away. The injured had been bundled onto whatever ramshackle stretchers or bits of metal plate or cloth could be found, many of the Architects still regarding the ponies in terror, not understanding why the creatures that had long been held up as their enemy, were helping them.

Crimson worked were he could, offering assistance to the medics tend to the wounded before they were lifted or otherwise moved onto the transports they had devised. Luna had led hundred of ponies here, but most had been left on the ground while the Thestrals and their Princess had rushed to the citadel once they realized that Crimson and the others were up there.

Only three of the Thestrals that had stayed to aid their Princess had survived, and only one was able to walk.

They worked diligently, setting up shelter and campfires once night drew closer. No one really knew what to do without the Princess, and so they floundered. The dragons, High and Low, spent as little time recovering from their imprisonment as possible, instead choosing to haul as many injured into the rapidly assembled medical tent as possible. Their scales still gleamed through the sand, glad to have a purpose again. In fact, the Friendship Guard, who had been suffering in cages for months, seemed oddly resolved and bolstered, by their awful experiences.

Crimson watched his squad with more than a little pride, as Greer and Gauss flew in with fresh supplies from the last encampment that Luna’s band had made before reaching Homestead. Autumn and Spinnerette, the Changeling, quickly and efficiently sorted through the supplies once they were brought down. Crimson himself was directing the setup of the camps each day, and dictating the pace of the march.

“Sir, you should take some time to rest. Your wounds aren’t healed yet, and none of us have treated you.” One of the doctors pestered him, but he waved the stallion off with a slight frown.

“When everyone is safe, I’ll rest.”

“You’ll die before then if you don’t take care of yourself!” The doctor snapped.

“I said I’m-”

“In dire need of sleep.” Crimson’s head snapped up, and he pivoted on the spot as he saw who it was that spoke.

“Sir! Captain True Shot, Sir!”

The red coated stallion nodded his head before giving his command. “At ease, Crimson.”

Crimson let his posture relax….a little.

“I understand you were recovered from Canterlot by the enemy, unpetrified and tortured for information, son?” True Shot asked, his voice hard, as expected of a Captain of the guard, but a note of sympathy lingered under the stallion’s stoic edge. “You look half dead yourself. Get this soldier inside that tent, and don’t let him out until he’s actually recovered.” That he directed at the medic, who smirked up at Crimson, who ignored him.

“I can stay and help, sir.”

“You’ve helped enough already, guardsmen. Recuperate and report to me once you can stand without trembling.”

“I’m not-” Crimson looked down at his legs, to see that his muscles were indeed straining to keep him standing. “Ah… at once, sir.”

“Good. I’ll leave you to it. I have to keep this lot from collapsing over themselves now that you aren’t in charge.”

************************

The ponies and their friends sat in Capper’s suite, the setting sun streaming light through the gaps in the buildings wooden walls, creating strips of light and shadow that fell across all fourteen of the faces sat inside the tower room. The soft grinding of the gears throughout the structure was accompanied by the whistling of the wind, the smattering of the dimming light resting heavily on all of them.

The fifteenth pony sat outside, watching the sun pass beneath the horizon. Her eyes and pearly white horn lit up, glowing a brilliant electric blue, and with a shudder, the moon lazily listed and swung up into the sky, the new pony controlling it unfamiliar with the power in her grasp, and the object she now held dominion over. Once it was firmly in the sky, she sat back on her haunches, and looked up at the orb, before flexing that power again.

The mare in the moon had not been seen in almost eleven years, but it rose again this night, seeming now a thing of beauty and majesty, rather than a deep, terrible shadow. A fitting tribute, the new ruler of the moon thought.

She stood, her hooves clacking against the wooden boards as she crossed the threshold of the windmill and entered the room her friends now occupied. The fierce blue eyes narrowed, partially hidden by her mane as she unrolled a map, spreading it over the table the others were sat around, before she sat down, mane flickering with stars and eyes cold as iron. Her bronze coat was now a deep brown, it’s luster lost. Her teeth were sharp, her wings half feathered and half bat-like. Her black pupils were slits, and her eyes blazed with angry, roiling magical energy. On her breast lay the pendant of the moon, now dulled back to it’s old shine, it’s magic now filling the creature wearing it..

“Shall we begin?” Static asked.

****************************

Author's Note

Her sacrifice shall not be in vain....