Twists, Turns, Scars, and Steel

Tempest stood on the bow of her ship, watching as the Storm Kings citadel came closer. It was a massive stone fortress built into the side of a tall mountain. The walls rose out of the mountain as if it was chiseled from the very rock, the almost jagged ramparts studded with Void-steel spikes. A pair of banners showing the Storm Kings emblem hung from either side of the main gate, a massive metal portcullis that ended the only way to the citadel that didn't require flying. Further up on the mountain, a small carved balcony jutted out from the rock, with another banner hanging from it bearing the Storm Kings face. Around three dozen airships hovered around or were docked at the skyports, and hundreds of Storm creatures milled about on the ramparts, the port, and the keep.

Spring Rain stopped next to her, looking out over the citadel. "Impressive, I'll give it that", he said.

"He didn't make it", Tempest replied. "I don't know where, but this place is older than him by far. When I first came here, they were tearing down old statues of Earth Ponies in the main entrance hall."

"Huh", he said, nodding. "Well, in that case, it's almost sad we have to destroy it." After a bit, he rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. "Well. Your troops ready?"

"I've had the stripes painted on the bottom of our ships and the dye along with their manes. They are ready when this 'Taskforce Xyston' is", she said.

"Alright", he said, lighting up his horn and fading from sight. "Lead on."

Tempest nodded, even though she couldn't see him. She turned around, heading over towards the main deck. A few of her soldiers headed around the deck, checking the state of the gas-bag, adjusting the connecting ropes, or performing other tasks. "Grubber!", she called up. "I want you to drop me off, then keep the engine on but on low power when we dock. You're gonna want to get away from the dock as fast as possible when things start getting hairy!"

"You got it, Tempest!", he called back, directing the Helmsman down to the dock. As the chains locked it in place, Grubber came down to her. "I don't like the idea of you going in there alone."

"Grubber, I've faced Queen Novo in single combat, besides fighting a bunch of other creatures. Even if I was going alone, I'd be fine. Now, you know your orders. Watch the ship, and get ready to move. Understand?", Tempest asked.

"Yeah", Grubber said. "Good luck, Tempest."

Tempest nodded, climbing off of her ship's gangplank and walking onto the dock. A pair of the Storm King's own soldiers greeted her, one of them saying, "Commander Tempest. The Storm King is expecting you in the throne room."

Tempest said, "Lead on."

Tempest followed behind them, eyes darting around the Skyport. She could almost hear Spring Rain next to her, watching the soldiers and equipment the Storm King had access to. This silent analysis continued as they continued along into the main keep, passing more soldiers, either on patrol or leading slaves to various parts of the palace.

Tempest was lead up a spiral staircase at the back of the keep, opening up onto the Storm King's throne room. Like the outside, several banners bearing the Storm Kings logo or face was hung from the rafters. Gold and jewels encrusted the bases of the pillars, freshly polished. The Storm King himself sat on his throne, reclining as he twirled the Staff of Sacanas in his hand.

"Ah, Commander!", the Storm King said. "Good to see you."

Tempest came up towards his throne, bowing and saying, "You too, my lord. I assume you have a reason to call me here?"

He nodded, straightening up in his throne and shooting her a somewhat nasty grin. "Yeah, yeah. You know? About your failure?"

"My lord", Tempest said. "Given the circumstances, I don't think it would be appropriate-"

He suddenly snapped his fingers, adding, "Oh, yeah! And your treason as well."

That caught Tempest off guard. "T-treason, my lord?"

"Yes, yes", he said. "You can show yourself."

Next to her, one of the guards was suddenly consumed by a flare of green fire. When it faded, she was greeted with a pony-like creature staring back at her, a fang-filled grin on its face. It had black chitin covering it, a fin instead of a mane, and a pair of insect wings on its back.

"Meet Carapace", the Storm King said, climbing off his throne and coming towards them. "He used to work for Queen Chrysalis. You know? That reason we didn't go to Equestria? Anyway, he didn't agree with their new king, so now he works for me. Specifically, he's been your personal shadow ever since Aris."

Tempest's eyes widened at the revelation. She said, "S-so he's-"

"Every. Last. Detail", Carapace said, his grin only growing bigger.

"Namely how you're planning to attack me with the help of some Pryhan soldiers," The Storm King said, raising the Staff of Sacanas. "What kind of name is 'Xyston', anyway? Speaking of anyway-"

"A xyston is a type of spear used by the ancient pegasi, namely around the First Pryhan-Equestrian War", Spring Rain said, still invisible. "A potent weapon, whether used by the lowest hoplite to the Stormbreaker himself." As he finished talking, the entrance to the Throne Room closed, a bar latch closing over it.

The Storm King looked around, while Carapace and the others dropped into a fighting stance. Tempest used the distraction to slam her hoof into the actual Storm Guards foot. As he dropped his spear and shield to grip his foot, she swept him off his feet and ran away from the guards.

The Storm King turned his gaze back to Tempest, shooting an arc of lighting out of the staff. She dodged it effortlessly, still running away from him. She ran up to one of the pillars, clambering up it before leaping off it and bucking one of the pursuing guards in the face.

Meanwhile, Spring Rain made himself known, lowering his spell with two pistols in his aura. The weapons blast resonated through the large chamber, dropping a pair of the troopers. He discarded the pistols, drawing another two and firing those as well, dropping another two. As he discarded them, he drew a Pryhan curved sword, intercepting a spear thrust and sweeping it aside.

Tempest, as opposed to weapons, just used her hooves to beat down her opponents. She ducked out of the way of their attacks, exploiting openings to deliver hard kicks to anywhere that would cause damage.

As she knocked another one out, Carapace flew in from her side, slamming his rear hooves into her side. She fell to the stone floor, her armor absorbing the blow but the wind still being knocked out of her. Carapace was on her in a second, wrapping his forelegs around her neck in an attempt to choke her. Tempest attempted to scramble free, only for Carapace to tighten his grip. "Nighty night, pony", he hissed in her ear.

Tempest snarled, lighting her horn in a flare of electricity. Carapace balked in alarm, slackening his grip just enough for Tempest to break free. Tempest whirled around, sending a massive wall of sparks into the changeling. He roared in agony, stumbling back under the onslaught and eventually, tumbling out the balcony, thrashing and screaming.

Tempest looked back, watching as Spring Rain deflected the blow of and cut down the last Storm Creature in front of him. Now, besides the two of them, the only ones in the room were the Storm King himself and a pair of guards. The Storm King growled, yelling, "Oh, great. You know how much of a pain this will be to clean up. Gods, could this day get any worse?"

One of the Storm guards gulped, before saying, "Uh... sir?"

He pointed behind her and Spring Rain, to which Tempest turned. Through the balcony entrance, she could see several massive shapes emerging from the thick clouds around the citadel. Six of them emerged first, airships a bit bigger than the Storm Kings standard air-cruiser. Unlike the Storm air-cruisers, these resembled traditional sailing ships, albeit ones with heavier armor and more weapons. The small sails around the side of the gas-bag retracted, and Tempest could see the crews running out cannons. Even from her angle, she could see the names etched onto the front of the ships: the Defiant, the Unbreakable, the Justice, the Caesars will, the Tantubus, and the Rainboom.

Her attention was drawn back to the Storm King as he let out a massive bellow. "That's it? This is the great 'Taskforce Xyston'? Some traitors and a few airships!?"

"Not quite", Spring Rain challenged.

Tempest again looked back upon seeing the Storm King's face pale. Out of the clouds, in the middle of the ships, came a seventh shape; a much larger one at that. A much larger ship emerged, easily twice the size of the Storm King's biggest ship, if not almost three times as big. The front of the ship was painted in oranges, yellows, and whites, the carved figurehead resembling a massive bird's head. A small protrusion jutted out from the bottom of the ship, with something being lowered out of it. On the bow of the ship, blended almost seamlessly into the design on the front, was the ship's name: Phoenix.

The Storm King yelled, "Oh come on! Why can't I have one!?"

"Because you didn't develop it", Spring Rain said.

The Storm King said, "You know, I think I'm going to keep you alive, you little piece of shit. Use you as a way to unwind. Maybe I'll use the spell thought I'd use to restore her horn to grow yours, then break it off and shove it up your ass."

Tempest noted his words, glaring at him. "What does that mean?", she bellowed.

"Hm? Oh, yeah. I wasn't really planning on giving you back your little horn", he said, shrugging. "I was really just using you."

Tempest glared, her eyes narrowing. Her horn sparked, a fresh sense of bloody vengeance flaring up. She stepped forward, only to stop and look back as the balcony was covered in darkness.

One of the Storm ships blocked the entrance, the gangplank lowering and about two dozen Storm Creatures ran out of the ships. Tempest unleashed her flare of magic, the magic lighting arcing through the soldiers. Many collapsed fell, twitching and screaming, while a few even fell off the gangplank to the main keep below, but even more came out. Tempest reared back, getting ready to fight them off, when-

KRA-KOOOOOOOM!!!

The loud blast seemed to shook the air, a loud whistling growing louder and louder. The whistling was replaced by a massive crashing noise, and the sun was visible in the room again... for a second. A massive iron cannonball the size of a train-car crashed through the ship, sending splinters and steel shrapnel flew through the room. The ball kept up its momentum, crushing pillars and sending rocks flying everywhere. Tempest bolted out of the way, skirting to the side and sliding into a corner. A falling rock slammed into her head, sending her skirting into the wall and slumping into unconsciousness.

++++~++++

Tempest rose herself up, shaking her head as she returned to consciousness. She looked around the room, her blurry vision taking in the practically destroyed room. A large number of pillars were crushed, while fragments of wood, stone, metal, and gore were scattered about. A massive cannonball was imbedded in the wall where the Storm King's throne once was.

She fully came back to reality as a loud crack reverberated around the room. In the center of the room, Spring Rain and the Storm King traded blows, staff against sword. The crack came from one of Spring Rains pistols, which now lay discarded on the ground. Tempest couldn't help but marvel at Spring Rains' skill, him being able to keep up with the Storm King, who was by no means a slouch in combat. Still, she wasn't one to leave it to chance, raising herself up and breaking into a loping stride towards them.

However, she didn't get involved in time. Spring Rain blocked another swipe of the staff, attempting to hook it out of the Storm King's grip. However, as he did, the crystal pointed at him, and the Storm King unleashed a blast of lighting. Spring Rain stopped dead midswing, before the Storm King swung the staff like a bat and sent him flying over to her.

"NOOO!", Tempest yelled, running over to her old friend. Despite the lack of metal armor to act as a conductor, he was still severely burned and lightly twitching. Tempest dragged him behind a Pillar, shooting out her own lightning burst to distract the Storm King. "Come on, come on, come on."

"T-tempest", Spring Rain said, coughing up a small amount of blood. "I... I'm so-sorry."

"Shut up! You just came back, you're not dying now!", she cried.

Spring Rain pulled out something from his cloak: the prosthetic horn he had shone her before. "I... I'm sorry." He went limp, his head lolling against the pillar.

Tempest felt hot tears once again forming on her face. She had only reunited with him for two days, and he was gone! She looked down at the horn, eyeing it with pure hatred. That hate turned away from it, and towards the one who deserved it; the Storm King. She grabbed the prosthetic, fitting the base over her horn stump and clumsily using her hooves to seal the clasps.

"Awww, is 'wittle twempest' crying?", the Storm King said, an evil cackle following as he stepped around the pillar. "Pathetic. I always knew you were weak. Never have a pony do my work. Oh well. Guess some wrongs will be righted, then."

Ignoring his words and the charging of magic behind her, Tempest finally succeeded in getting the claps to close and lock in place. Like she had done before thousands of times, she focused and channeled her magic. This time, it was different. Before, following her horn being broken, it had come out almost wildly; hard to control, unpredictable, and only able to do one thing. Now, however, it was as she was in the dark, and someone had flipped on a light. The runes inside the prosthetic channeled her magic, narrowing down the previously uncontrollable flares. It felt powerful, it felt good, and most importantly: She was in control.

Remembering the spell from when she was a filly, she lit her horn. The charging of magic stopped, and the Storm King began to grunt and strain with effort. He growled out, "What are you doing!? Your horn is broken!"

Tempest stood, turning around to look at him. His arms were held in a flickering, dark purple aura, rendering the limbs unmoveable. She noticed his eyes widen at the sight of the prosthetic. "Wh-where...?", he asked, only for his mouth to then be clamped shut with magic.

"The Pryhans gave me a kindness it seemed you never planned to. I got it from my friend. Now, I'm going to use it to kill you", she said.

She threw him back, tearing the Staff of Sacanas from his grip as she did so. She grabbed the largest bits of wreckage or debris she could, slamming them around the Storm King to hold him in place. He attempted to struggle, only for it to prove fruitless. She then turned attention to the smaller bits of debris all throughout the room, making them fly into the air around him. Soon, the Storm King is surrounded by a vortex of wooden splinters, stone shards, bits of metal, and anything else she could get her magic aura on. With one flare of her horn, the vortex collapsed, almost burying the Storm King.

When the dust such a feat kicked up faded, she looked on the Storm King as she breathed heavily. He was covered with dozens, if not hundreds of wounds. Bits of the fragments she had used stuck out of his skin and fur at odd angles, while blood leaked out of him in a prodigious amount. His left eye had a rock fragment sticking out of it, his horns were broken, teeth were missing, and he was breathing raggedly. "Die slowly, you fuck", she said, before turning to the destroyed balcony.

Outside, the battle was almost over. The Storm Kings airships, while numerous, were nowhere near as well-armed as the Pryhan ships. Wreaks and corpses littered the citadel, while more of it fell into the canyon below. She could make out the shapes of wing creatures-Pryhan griffons, most likely-soaring across the sky, weaving in between the ships and attacking the cords holding up the gas-bags. Her own ships were fairing ok; not doing as much damage as the Pryhans but still putting up a fight.

She fell to her knees, just taking it all in. Tears once again rolled down her eyes, but this time she didn't hide them. She just let them flow.