Author's Note
Feel free to listen to the song this chapter was named after during the battle scene.
Experiment on Me
The entire mountaintop city of Canterlot was quiet that night and this was a rather rare occasion, considering the fact that it was both the capital of Equestria and the second most populous city in all the land (the first one being Manehattan). Usually, the residents would spend their evenings walking on the streets, visiting shops and markets to purchase either necessities or accessories, dining in fancy restaurants, watching plays in the local theater, or simply chatting with their friends, family members, or business associates. To put it simply, the city from which the princesses Celestia and Luna watch over their kingdom would feature anything but silence during nights such as this one.
The only problem was that the princesses were no longer ruling Equestria at that time...
About a week ago, during the first ever Festival of Friendship, a massive army from a land beyond Equestria invaded the city and managed to conquer it in a matter of hours. Consisting of giant creatures wearing black battle armor, the army was led by Tempest Shadow, a scarred unicorn with a broken horn who had pledged her allegiance to a tyrannical satyr named the Storm King in exchange for the restoration of her horn. Under Tempest's command, the Storm King's forces succeeded in not just occupying Canterlot and subjugating the entirety of its population, but also capturing all four of Equestria's alicorn princesses so that the Storm King could use their magic to power up his ultimate weapon, the Staff of Sacanas. With it, he conjured up a hurricane so powerful that it nearly destroyed the city and swiftly eliminated all those who dared to oppose him. Moreover, he gained the ability to control both the sun and the moon, making him not just the most powerful being in existence, but also the new monarch of Equestria.
Shortly afterwards, he gained total control of nearly every single town and city, and forced all of their citizens to serve as his slaves. They were making mountains of food to feed his soldiers, as well as building gigantic stone statues in his image. Even though there was still some resistance from a neighboring nation called, the Crystal Empire, it was nevertheless too weak to stand up to him and he was planning to invade it in a couple days or so. As for Tempest, she was horrified to find out that the Storm King had no intention to hold up his end of their bargain whatsoever. Then, instead of restoring her horn, he used the magic in his staff to brainwash her so that she would remain under his service and carry out every single one of his orders without question. Right after he took up residence in the Canterlot castle, she became the city's chief of security and ordered her troops to patrol the streets while searching for any signs of crime or rebellion. She also began to issue daily curfews and severely punished any pony who would dare to break the law (sometimes executing them without trial). Needless to say, under the Storm King's rule, life for ponies in both Canterlot and the rest of Equestria was truly miserable, and they were all praying to the heavens every night for someone or something to come and liberate them from this madness.
And it seems one of their gods did hear their cries, after all...
It was the seventh day of the Storm King's reign over Equestria and, as usual, all was quiet in Canterlot. Every pony had already retreated to their homes before the curfew began and they were making sure not to utter a single sound while the guards were patrolling the streets. Meanwhile, the Storm King himself was comfortably dining inside his new castle. He was sitting at a thirty feet long dinner table filled with a huge amount of food that his pony subjects from all over Equestria had slaved over to prepare. In fact, he had already finished consuming four wild boars as appetizers and there were many more food he could not wait to sink his teeth into: including six fried cockatrices, eight bowls of manticore stew, ten loaves of cornbread, one hundred green apples, five hundred red cherries, fifteen peach pies, eight cheese pizzas, and one gigantic chocolate cake that had a length of almost twenty feet. This was the meal he had every day just for dinner and he enjoyed every second of eating it without even thinking about the hardships his slaves went through to prepare it. All that mattered to him was whether or not it was delivered to him on time and whether or not it tasted good.
Suddenly, just as he was about to take a bite out of his first fried cockatrice, he heard a strange sound from outside. He quickly started wondered what it could be as it had been several hours since the beginning of the curfew and no pony would be crazy enough to make this much noise at this time of night. With that in mind, he placed his food back on the table, got up from his seat, walked towards the nearest window, and looked through it to see what exactly was the source of that sound. When he finally saw it, however, his jaw instantly dropped from the shock.
It was a bipedal creature he had never seen or heard of before riding what looked like a motorized vehicle with two wheels through the streets of Canterlot and attracting the attention of every guard she passed by. She had long yellow hair and was wearing leather boots and leather pants over her fishnets; the pants are cut on each side to reveal the fishnets underneath. She was also wearing black gloves and a bomber jacket, as well as a black zip-up leather top underneath. On top of all that, she had a studded choker.
After she completed her ride through the city and prompted the entirety of the city guard to chase after her, she eventually reached the castle courtyard and stopped right in front of its locked doors. She then got off her vehicle and looked behind to see a whole legion of guards gathered only about half a dozen feet away from her with their spears pointed right towards her. In response, she smirked at them and turned her attention back to the castle before shouting, "Hey, Storm King! You're not man enough to get up your lazy ass and give this lady a proper welcome?!"
This caused all the guards in gasp in unison and look at each other with utterly shocked expressions. They knew exactly how their king would react to this insult and they were honestly pretty scared of witnessing the upcoming gruesome punishment. About a minute later, the front doors opened up and a few dozen more guards came out of the castle before lining up in front of the intruder and preparing to attack her with their spears just like their comrades on the opposite end of the courtyard.
Soon enough, the Storm King himself appeared at the door with a furious expression on his face and the all-powerful staff on his right hand. He made his way towards the front of his soldiers and once he reached there, he yelled at the creature, "How dare you speak to me in such an insolent manner! How the heck do you think you are?!"
She then responded by letting out a dry chuckle and saying, "The name's Black Canary and I've got a message from my friends back at the Crystal Empire. They're not exactly happy about how you're managing this kingdom and they have a few strong words to say about it. Personally, I really think you should listen and listen well."
Upon hearing this, the Storm King groaned with pure annoyance before replying, "Alright, then. Let's hear what they say."
Right after that, Canary cleared her throat and screamed so loud that her voice created sound waves powerful enough to send both the Storm King and his soldiers flying several feet away, instantly knocking them out and partially shattering the castle walls. She then directed her scream towards the guards behind her and knocked them away as well, while also crushing their eardrums and creating many large cracks all over the courtyard.
As soon as she saw that all of her opponents were on the ground, she stopped screaming and cleared her throat once again before she retrieved a rope attached to the rear of her bike and started walking towards the Storm King's unconscious body, hoping to tie him up with the rope and bring him to the Crystal Empire with as little trouble as possible. However, just as she had taken a mere ten steps, she was struck in her left side by an erratic beam of magic that closely resembled lightning and was sent flying nearly a dozen feet away while letting out agonizing screams. Immediately after hitting the ground, she struggled to get back up while groaning with intense pain and managed to look at the direction the attack came from. When she saw who her newest enemy was, her eyes widened with pure shock.
It was an armored unicorn with a scar across one of her moderate opal eyes. She also had moderate rose mane with lighter edges, dark orchid coat, and an extremely fierce expression on her face. Moreover, there were small blue-colored sparks around her broken horn, meaning that her magic was unstable and unfocused as a result of her horn's current condition. All of these features made Canary realize that this pony was prepared to do anything to stop her from capturing the Storm King, and that the only way to make her stand down was to beat her into submission. Luckily, she was itching for a good fight ever since she was brought to Equestria by her new friends, Starlight Glimmer and Sunburst, a few days ago and this was the perfect opportunity to knock some rust off her muscles.
So, she quickly got back to her feet and threw away the rope in her hand before announcing to her opponent, "From one woman to another, this is gonna hurt a lot."
In response, Tempest smirked at her and said, "You are sadly mistaken if you actually think something as trivial as pain can make me back down from this fight."
This prompted Canary crack her knuckles and replied, "Do not say I didn't warn you, sister."
Right afterwards, she held up her fists and prepared for the next attack. Tempest responded by cracking her neck a couple of times and sending another erratic beam of magic to her opponent's direction. Luckily, Canary dodged it at the last second and began running towards Tempest while avoiding more strikes along the way. Once she was close enough, she delivered two punches (one right hook and one left hook) and a kick to the pony's face, breaking her jaw in the process. She then screamed at Tempest's face so loudly that she was sent flying straight through the concrete wall surrounding the castle courtyard and started tumbling down to the main street of Canterlot. Immediately after she hit the ground and the impact of her fall created a small crater on the street, she began struggling as hard as she could to climb out of the crater and get back on her hooves. By the time she managed to accomplish both of these tasks, Canary had already reached near the crater by simply jumping to the air and performing a superhero landing on the sidewalk.
Noticing this, Tempest quickly started looking around to see if there was anything in her environment to her advantage. A few seconds later, she found exactly what she needed at the moment: a munitions cart full of obsidian orbs, which had the power to turn any pony or creature into crystal statues upon contact. They were what she had used to capture all four of the alicorn princesses and thus, they were exactly what she needed to take down this new enemy standing right in front of her. With that in mind, she swiftly galloped towards the cart, picked up one of the orbs and kicked it towards Canary. Even though she avoided getting hit by performing a backflip, she was nevertheless struck by Tempest's magic the second she did that. The blast electrocuted her entire body and caused her to fall to the ground while groaning with agony, giving Tempest enough time to consecutively throw the five remaining orbs right towards her.
Seeing all those orbs coming straight at her made Canary quickly jump to her feet and use her sonic scream to push them to right where they came from. However, Tempest managed to dodge the oncoming barrage of orbs at the last second and quickly jumped towards her opponent, landing kick directly to her chest and breaking a few ribs in the process. She then kicked Canary a few more times in the torso before delivering an uppercut to her jaw, partially shattering it as a result. This forced Canary to take a few steps backwards and spend a few moments recovering from her injuries. Meanwhile, Tempest used this opportunity to fully charge up her horn so that she could send a beam of magic so powerful that it could potentially electrocute Canary to death. Unfortunately, just before she could shoot said beam of magic, Canary retrieved a small device from her pocket and threw it near Tempest before it created an ultrasonic wave that severely injured the pony's ears and caused her to accidentally emit the beam towards a fire hydrant on the street, blowing it up and spraying the entire street with nearly a hundred gallons of water.
As Tempest was trying to recovering from the damage to her ears, Canary leaped forward with both of her knees and hit her opponent one at a time with each of them. Having knocked the pony to the ground, she tried to finish her off with a heavy punch to the face, but she rolled away just in time and jumped to the air before landing on top of Canary and slamming her head into the road. She then grabbed Canary's head and started to repeatedly slam it into the ground, creating huge cracks on it with each hit. However, just before the seventh slam, Canary wrapped her legs around Tempest's neck and threw her to the side, giving her a few moments to recover from her dizziness and rise back up.
Tempest, meanwhile, recovered much more quickly than her opponent and began galloping towards Canary with the intention of kicking her right in the face and gouging out her eyes. Unfortunately, just before she could reach her target, Canary moved out of the way, grabbed Tempest by the tail with both hands, and body slammed her to the nearby sidewalk so hard that the impact of the strike not only formed a small crater but also nearly cracked her entire skull. As Tempest tried as hard as she could to get back on her hooves, Canary decided that it was finally time to finish this battle and so, as soon as her opponent barely succeeded in standing upright, she started performing her ultimate attack.
She jumped up into the air and screamed down at Tempest with her Canary Cry, forcing her opponent to her knees. She then landed in front of her and bicycle kicked her up into the air, jumping up again to slam the pony into the ground with her Canary Cry, then dropping down onto her with a gut punch.
Right after that, she wiped away dust off her clothes and slowly walked towards Tempest to see whether she was conscious or not. Once she reached her side, she saw that the pony was barely conscious and struggling to rise back up while groaning with immense pain. Soon enough, she opened her eyes to see Canary standing near her and her facial expression became confused rather than angry.
"Who are you?", she asked. "Where am I?"
"Seriously?", Canary inquired with an equal amount of confusion. "Did I hit you so hard or screamed at you so loudly that you don't remember the last five to ten minutes? Let me give you a little heads-up, then. I came to Canterlot to capture the Storm King, and bring him to the Crystal Empire so that my new friends there could throw him in a dungeon, use his staff to return everything back to normal, and end his despotic regime once and for all. Then, just as I was about to tie him up, you attacked me and we started brawling like there's no tomorrow. Though you put up a pretty good fight, you still got your ass kicked by the Brutal Banshee herself. Any of that ring a bell?"
As soon as Canary uttered the name, "The Storm King", Tempest started remembering bits and pieces of the few days.
She even began connecting the dots and soon enough, the picture became perfectly clear to her. Right afterwards, she managed to rise back up with some struggle and said, "The Storm King... I remember now. He... he brainwashed me right after our conquest of Canterlot. He was supposed to restore my horn and make me whole again. Instead, he violated our deal and... turned me into his personal slave... He completely erased everything related to my horn from my mind and controlled me like a puppet for an entire week. No, wait, I've actually been his puppet a lot longer than that. Oh, Celestia, I've been such a fool! I did all those terrible things for him and never once saw the monster he really is!"
Immediately after she said all that, she laid on the ground once again and started crying her eyes out while Canary watched with uncertainty. Honestly, she did not know whether or not it was right to feel sorry for Tempest at that moment. Even though she was fully aware of the fact that Tempest had assisted Storm King in countless conquests long before their invasion of Canterlot (thanks to the research conducted by both Starlight and Sunburst), seeing her in this state did make Canary feel a tiny amount of sorrow.
About fifteen seconds later, she became unable to stop herself any longer and bent on her knees before starting to slowly caress Tempest's mane. This caused the pony to look at her with tear-soaked eyes and say, "I don't need your sympathy. Neither do I wish to live anymore. So, please, just end my miserable life and continue your mission."
In response, Canary let out a dry chuckle and declared, "I don't know what kind of hell you went through, sister, but where I come from, heroes like me don't kill villains like you. It's what keeps us from stooping down to their level and maintains the people's trust in us. So, no, I won't just betray my moral code like that even if I'm in another wo- Hey, wait a minute... I think I've just got a great idea. What about, after I bring your jackass of a former boss to the Crystal Empire, you can come to my world with me? I can give you a place to stay, my husband Ollie can train you to become an even better fighter, and my good friend Harley can teach you how to work your way towards redemption. Interested?"
Upon hearing this, Tempest spent some time thinking really about whether or not she should accept the proposal and almost half a minute later, she sighed and replied, "I do appreciate your attempts to help me. But why? Why are you giving me a chance to redeem myself for my mistakes?"
Canary responded by standing back up, extending her hand to Tempest, and saying, "That's what heroes do. Wanna learn how to become one?"
After staring at that hand with uncertainty for a few seconds, Tempest finally took it and allowed Canary to help her get back to her hooves. She then gave a small smile to Canary and asked, "Want some help apprehending the Storm King?"
"Sure. Let's go", Canary cheerfully replied and the two former enemies started walking towards the castle while the citizens slowly began coming out of their houses.
