...sderhs ot tuc gnieb er'ew...
They stood, at the edge of the Everfree, staring into the black maw of the cave, the cool damp draft within running shivers down their spines, despite the summer heat. Then Glitter Drops nudged Fizzlepop's shoulder. Fizzlepop glanced between her and Spring Rain. Then she tip-toed inside the tunnel, her horn lighting up the path before her.
There was the ball, landed in the crook of two stalagmites, completely unharmed. She used her magic to levitate it into the air and turned back to smile at her two friends.
They were staring at her in terror, clinging to each other and shaking with dismay. Tentatively, Spring Rain raised a hoof and pointed behind her.
Fizzlepop already knew that something was there, though. She'd felt the stinking hot breath curling her mane. She'd felt her tail brushing against something loose and shaggy and slick with cave ice. She turned, slowly and stared up into the snarling red eyes of the hulking creature.
And that's when time slowed down.
Every molecule screamed to run, but Fizzlepop's hooves were glued to the floor of the cave. And all she could think about was the story her mother used to read for her. The one about the three ursas who returned home to find somepony sleeping in their cave.
The story had been funny when her mother told it, with silly voices for all the different bears. And at the end of the story the gold-maned pony who'd been so naughty got a good fright and it had served her right for eating somepony else's food and molesting their upholstery. But that wasn't the original ending to the story. The one that her mother told her was the one that parent ponies had created, because they didn't want their little fillies to go to bed with nightmares.
It was a like a cake and underneath all the tooth rotting frosting festered something black and gag inducing. Fizzlepop understood the moral of the story now, the truth which had been layered over with softness and sweetness until it was almost unrecognizable.
Don't go where you don't belong, or you will be eaten.
Over the skull-ratting roar of the ursa minor, Fizzlepop heard the patter of her best friends' hooves disappearing down the path behind her. She didn't call out for them though. She didn't take her eyes off the monster for one second, she didn't even flinch as it raised a paw three times her size.
Instead, she did her best to conjure a shield spell, the same kind that her mother used to make as part of her job. She didn't think to drop the ball. She wasn't entirely sure why, except that it just didn't occur to her to do so in the heat of the moment. Perhaps if she had, her shield spell would have been powerful enough to better protect her from what came next.
But probably not.
Founded by the reptoids (largely smugglers), the icthyoids (mostly poachers), and the amphiboids (almost exclusively slavers) as a means of achieving political impunity by concealing their crimes in a proverbial haystack, Klugetown was not known for its hospitality. The sole establishment which could be considered anything approximating tavern, had been founded by a babirusa trying evade the boarish organized crime family (known as the Mortadella).
It was called The Crunch, and it was a bar first, casino second, location where no holds barred pit fights were held every Friday night third and inn a distant fourth. All variety of creature called it home. There were the regular aquatic species, displaced by the Storm King's campaign and the relocation of the hippogriff kingdom. But there were also griffons, descended from the mountains to put their wings to good use transporting goods that even the parrots wouldn't touch. There were diamond dogs, hired as bodyguards and bounty hunters by the perpetually acquisitive molefolk. And there were minotaurs, fresh out of Pony Land with bits to spare and myriad monstrous thirsts to slake.
What there were not, were ponies. Ponies didn't last long in Klugetown, not when it was a well-known fact that their bones, hides and horns were magical and could be used for a variety of potions, powders, weapons and jewelry. Ponies did not come to Klugetown, at least not willingly. And when they did come, they rarely lasted long enough to figure out on which of the unmarked streets the Crunch was located.
Tempest was the exception that proved the rule. She kept to herself and more importantly kept herself hidden. Her normally dust stained black cloak hung languidly around her ankles, concealing everything but her hooves and dripping all over the scuffed floorboards. And her mask, a chunk of sun-bleached ivory fashioned from the upper half of a camel skull, was sufficiently grotesque as to lend to her mystique as the "mysterious horse thing which lived out in the desert".
Slowly, she trotted to a booth in table near the corner, where she could better view the entire room of possible assailants. Luckily, she was dark and brooding, which meant she blended right in, and she was missing her horn which meant that most residents had little interest in her as anything other than food.
That's what made it so surprising when a second, far more traditionally pastel pony stepped into The Crunch on the stormiest night of the past decade. Her golden coat was spotless, and her ruby streaked tail and mane were well coiffed and kempt.
She was young too, barely an adult. But what drew the most attention from the yellow eyed creatures throughout the bar, was the satin pouch which hung from her saddlebags, marked by the seal of the princess of Equestria.
There was no greater sign of wealth.
Instead of high tailing it out of town before anycreature got a second glance at her, the mare approached the bar and pulled herself up onto a stool.
"Do you have any wine?" She asked, the shark-toothed bartender. No sooner had the words left her mouth, then everycreature in the bar began to laugh hysterically.
Except Tempest.
Waiting for the hilarity to finally die, newcomer cleared her throat. "I'll take that as a no..."
The bartender, whose name was Bilk, leaned over the knife-scarred counter and growled. "Listen here, little one. We don't serve prissy ponies at the Crunch, so go back to whatever pretty palace you trotted out of!"
The unicorn stared into his black button eyes, then her horn flared, and two golden bits rose from the pouch. "I just want a drink and a room for the night."
The shark grabbed the bits out of the air with a scaly claw and the reached forward with the other to grab the entire pouch. No sooner had he done so, then a wave of magic threw him into the shelves behind the bar and held him there, fixed. The unicorn sighed and climbed up onto the bar, pressing a hoof to his nozzle and smirking. Then she turning to meet the eyes of the Crunch's stunned clientele.
"Listen up. I know you are all dastardly criminals and hardened mercenaries, so spare yourselves the need to act tough for my benefit. I am Sunset Shimmer, apprentice to the most powerful sorceress in the history of Equestria. I know that might not count for much since most of you slobs are too stupid to do magic." There was a chorus of hisses and snarls, which Sunset responded to by intensifying the aura around her horn. "But I assure you, it makes me more powerful than all of you put together."
The Crunch's self-appointed bouncer, Kedge, a scabby-faced tortoise with an eyepatch, moved to grab Sunset. With a flick of her horn, she tossed Bilk at him, and they both went smashing through the front doors and into the mud outside. There were a few seconds where the pounding water on the tin roof was all that could be heard.
Then Sunset smiled. "Drinks all around!" She declared, jumping behind the bar and tapping the first of many casks. "Let's celebrate my one-night in Klugetown!"
The Crunch's regulars, who on their list of enemies placed its bartender and bouncer near the top, cheered. Soon they were crowding around the bar, quaffing free rum and demanding refills. Sunset remained unimpressed by their guttural threats, instead smiling genially as she continued to fill their mugs, one by one, until The Crunch's reserves had been so thoroughly emptied that everycreature was too sloshed to possibly harass her further.
Except Tempest.
"There's still some left, if you want it." Sunset said, levitating a bottle out from under the bar. "Turns out they did actually have wine; I guess he was just too cowardly to admit it."
"How did you do that?" Tempest asked, approaching the bar. "How did you learn magic like that?"
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "I told you before. I learned from the best."
"No student of Celestia conducts herself like this..." Tempest said, gesturing to the insouciant goons at her hooves.
"Ex-student." Sunset smiled grimly. Then she pointed to the pouch on her withers. "The princess gave me this before she exiled me. She said it would protect me. Something tells me it doesn't work though..."
"You should go home and beg for her forgiveness." Tempest said.
Sunset glared back at her, and Tempest sighed. Then she lowered her hood and unlinked the straps of her mask. When she failed to receive a flinch from her fellow unicorn, she placed the mask on the counter of the bar and her hooves to either side of it.
"If you stay in this place," Tempest said. "They will saw off your horn the first chance they get."
"Is that what they did to you?" Sunset asked.
Tempest narrowed her eyes. Then she returned the mask to her muzzle and re-buckled it in place.
"Where are you going?" Sunset asked, as Tempest climbed down from the stool.
Tempest paused at the edge of the busted entrance and watching as
There was a flash and Sunset had teleported between Tempest and the Crunch's entrance. "Be honest...would you really rather be out there in the rain, then in here with me?" Sunset asked. And as she spoke, she bent forward, using her shorter stature to mimic a foal begging for a treat.
Or a pet.
But no pet was that wicked or intelligent. Her brilliant amber eyes beamed up into the black holes of Tempest's mask and a hunger more profound than any lust traveled up with them. "C'mon, I could use some intelligent company for the evening...and it must get lonely out here, being the only pony..." Her eyebrows curled suggestively.
For a moment, neither of them was sure if Tempest was about to strike her.
Then Tempest marched past, stopping at the edge of the leaking stoop. "Go home, little one." She said, her growl muffled by the leather and bone of the mask and the growl of. "This is no place for little fillies."
Sunset grinned at the challenge, but Tempest wasn't there to see it. She was already striding out into the darkness, and stomping passed the still dazed forms of Bilge and Kudge.
They were reunited some years later in the Mareibbean Sea. Tempest had been tracking down the map to the location of the Tears of the Gorgon, step one of a very complicated plan. The map was last been seen aboard the Purring Purse; an Abyssinian merchant ship lost somewhere in the Abarcat Archipeligo two decades previously.
Most scholars believed the Purse had been driven into the rocks by the legendary sirens of Anthemusa, Tempest knew better. A long discussion with the serpent who'd sold the map to the Abyssinians had revealed that its new owners had not intended to take it east, as initially suspected and sell it on the Milk Road. No, the Purse's longhaired captain had been hired by a collector in the Dragonlands (who was too large and lazy to abandon his hoard and steal it himself). That put the Purse's course west, not east.
Right past Thrinacia, the perpetually stormy isle which had become the seat of power for the yetis after their expulsion from the Himallama mountains. There the newly crowned Storm King's vaults overflowed with the plunder of campaigns against Camelroon, Dambia, Gnuganda and Mozambeak.
And Abyssinia.
Not even the most vainglorious of pirates was foalish enough to steal from the Storm King. And not even the most boastful of sailors would brave the mast-shattering gales encircling Thrinacia.
Luckily, Tempest was neither a sailor nor a pirate.
Smuggling herself aboard one of the Storm King's dirigibles had been easy. Sneaking past the lumbering imbeciles employed by the King to protect his riches hadn't been particularly challenging either. No, what was hard was finding one, rather small map, amongst the loot of dozens of raided nations.
Given how well put together her fellow unicorn had been during their last encounter, Tempest almost didn't recognize her.
which probably had to do with her being left to starve in a partially flooded cell. Tempest had been in the process of searching the isle's deepest grottos, when she found the half-starved Sunset locked in a partially flooded cell.
Despite being obviously wounded, completely dehydrated and clearly ill, Sunset smiled when she saw her.
"I knew I'd gallop into you again." She said, leaning her black eye against the anti-magic bars of her prison. "A pony like you...I knew you'd survive...I could see it in your eyes."
Tempest didn't answer. She was too busy going over her options for the next few minutes. She should leave, find the map before any other creatures noticed her. But if she left Sunset to rot here, the mare might alert the guards to her presence.
Her eyes were drawn to that pouch. It was no longer full of bits; the Storm Guard had probably emptied it before throwing Sunset in here. But even though it was as saturated as its owner, and dirtied by the murky water of the cell, the insignia on it still blazed in Tempest's memory.
What was more useful, a map to a liquid that could petrify an alicorn? Or a unicorn who knew that alicorn's weak spots and might be more than willing to exploit them? A unicorn whose understanding of magic far surpassed her own. A unicorn with a working horn.
"I'm glad you got rid of that stupid mask. You look so strong and dark..." Sunset slurred. A grin cracked her face. "You know you are gorgeous, right? I just wanted to tell you that...you know, before I died."
Tempest ignored the obviously delirium induced mockery. Instead, she blasted apart the lock on the cell door and scooped up Sunset, tossing the smaller mare over her shoulders. She almost regretted the force with which she had done so, at Sunset's pained whine.
"I had no idea you were so romantic..." Sunset groaned. Then she started giggling.
Tempest hated how quickly she was regretting this decision already. Still, she concentrated not on the lightness of her emaciated companion, but on not getting imprisoned alongside her, as she calculated the best route back the way she'd come. She'd return for the map, when she didn't have the dead weight ready to give her away.
She had finally gotten Sunset back to the aerial bay, although she hadn't been positive where she'd take her once she got there, when she ran smack dab into a procession of yetis.
Surrounding the Storm King himself.
No biggie.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" The Storm King's sharp teeth gleamed in the dim light of the rain-soaked dock.
The little porcupine at his knee coughed. "That's the unicorn we planned to ransom to the Equestrian royalty, your malevolence. And...and another pony I don't recognize."
Tempest glanced between them and the zeppelin she'd come in on, frozen with fear. She knew what the yeti did to intruders on their mountain.
The Storm King narrowed his eyes. "Oh. Well, I don't know it looks like...SHE'S TRYING TO STEAL OUR HOSTAGE!" His guards sprang into action, even as he yelled "GET THEM!"
There was no fighting. She dove between the legs of her massive pursuers and had almost made it to the gangplank when the Storm King stuck out a foot and sent her tripping over her own hooves and sprawling across the rickety scaffolding. Sunset almost rolled off the edge and Tempest had to grab her hoof to stop her from falling into the roiling maelstrom below.
"Honestly, I don't know why I even pay you guys." The Storm King said, unsheathing a wicked looking glaive from his back and jutting it out behind him. "I'd hold onto your little friend tightly." He said as he stomped over to them. "If I lose my investment, it'll be all the worse for you."
Tempest concentrated as hard as she could and managed to conjure a blast that would have punctured the strongest Canterlot armor. The Storm King casually swung the glaive in front of him and the magic ricocheted off the blade, puncturing a nearby airship and creating an orange inferno that only better illuminated in his baleful gaze.
Sunset's weary eyes opened on the sight of the Storm King looming over them both. Then there was a flash of teal magic and Tempest and Sunset were on the bridge of the nearest airship (thankfully, not the one on fire). Tempest rushed to the wheel and took off, even as blasts of lightning began to strike the exterior of the zeppelin. Luckily the metal plating encasing the Storm King's airships were designed to absorb such attacks and the conflagration rapidly engulfing the airship bay created altogether too much confusion for anycreature to effectively follow them.
Tempest still glanced down, through the window of the wheelhouse. She could still see the Storm King far below, glaring up at them as the fire raged all around him. She knew then that she had just made an enemy for life. Well, so much for convincing him to help her. She'd have to get some other creature to help her steal the Staff of Sacanas.
"That's very good, Twilight...but why didn't you ask Moondancer to help you?" Celestia asked, trying as hard as she could to coax the right reaction of out of her newest apprentice.
Twilight blinked and glanced back at the beautiful ice-sculpture she'd just created. "She wanted to make the statue about Shadow Spade, and I wanted to make it about Daring Do. So, I asked the teacher, and he gave us the go-ahead to each work on the assignment solo since we're both doing so well already."
Celestia sighed. Twilight was her youngest pupil. Ever. And that came with some unique challenges. Sometimes though, she wished she were the slightest bit less precocious. If she wasn't so good at everything, it would make it so much easier to get her to rely on other ponies.
And Luna's immortal soul, as well as 99% of biological life on the planet, was relying on Celestia relying on Twilight learning to rely on other ponies.
Before Celestia could begin the tedious process of repeating a speech about how if she and Moondancer had just compromised, they could have created an even more beautiful ice sculpture together, the doors opened and Cadence (her last successful ward) came running in, accompanied by Twilight's brother.
"Aunt Celestia, I have an urgent matter that needs your attention." Cadence's eyes flittered to Twilight, who was still chiseling out the little divots in Daring Do's pith helmet brim and Celestia nodded.
Then she cleared her throat. "Shining Armor, would you please take Twilight and her sculpture down to the plaza for a little bit?"
"Of course, your majesty." He said with a bow. Cadence rolled her eyes. Despite the severity of the situation, his devotion to formality was always endearing.
"Huh? Why? Is something wrong?" Twilight suddenly couldn't care less about the sculpture.
Shining smirked, picking up Twilight with his magic and directing her towards the door. "C'mon, Twily, Cadence and Celestia have princess stuff they need to discuss."
"Hey! I can walk you know!" She pouted. "And what about my sculpture!?"
Shining Armor sighed, and Cadence giggled as he began to wheel the ice sculpture out along as well, much to Twilight's delight.
"What is it?" Celestia asked, once the doors to the throne room were firmly shut.
Cadence took a deep breath. "It's about Sunset."
Fizzlepop lay half buried in a thistle bush, her face hot with blood and wet with tears and snot.
Everything hurt. When the Ursa Minor had struck her, it had sent her flying, smashing through branches and rolling downhill. She should have counted herself lucky she hadn't broken a leg during the trip. But all she could concentrate on was the pain.
Not the sharp stinging across the left side of her face, where blood was oozing into her left eye. Not the burn on her muzzle from the magical blowback of the destroyed spell, where all she could smell was her own ozone-fried hair. No, it was the pain in her forehead. Normally, she'd be able to feel magic pumping through her, like a second heart. Her daddy had explained it was like a little river. It flowed through a unicorn's entire body and it gathered and pooled in the tip of their horn. If a unicorn didn't use their magic enough, sometimes it would build up and cause headaches and bad dreams.
This was worse than any headache that Fizzlepop had ever had. It was overwhelming, thought-obliterating, pain. The magic didn't pulse anymore, it pounded, against every muscle and every bone. And it didn't flow either, it rampaged like a wildfire, searing every nerve end to a blackened crisp.
She lay like that for hours, until the blood had stopped coming from the cut. Until her eyes had run out of her tears and her voice was too hoarse to call for help any longer.
Then, slowly, she shifted, rolling out of the bush and tentatively onto her hooves. She hadn't broken anything (except her horn) but she'd twisted her back-left ankle. She hobbled, lifting that hoof above the ground while she used the others to drive her back into town.
Later on, she'd find out that Glitter Drops and Spring Rain had neglected to alert anypony what had happened to her. They'd believed she'd been killed and that they would get in trouble if anypony found out they had been around at the time, since all three of them had been warned against playing so close to the forest.
They had never apologized for that. Or for her losing her horn. Not that they talked to her much after that day, anyway.
Tempest hated the phrase "nurse back to health." It implied a level of matronly care with which she refused to be associated.
If she did one good thing in her whole life, it would be not to bring another life into this world only to suffer.
There was nothing intimidating or dignified about having to help Sunset swallow solid food or helping her get to the bathroom when she became so weak that she needed help standing.
Tempest suspected that if it had gone on much longer, she might have driven the airship they'd stolen together into the side of the nearest mountain, rather than continue the demoralizing routine.
Luckily, she'd never been forced to make that call. Sunset had regained sensibility after the first few days and enough mobility to ambush Tempest less than a week later.
"Oh, c'mon, I'm only being friendly..." Sunset said, as she pressed herself into Tempest's stomach and nuzzled her muzzle against her girth. "Isn't that what ponies are supposed to do with each other? Be friendly?"
Without standing up, Tempest shoved her away, perhaps harder than was necessary given how bad she felt a second later when she saw Sunset's disappointed expression.
"Aw...please, you saved me, you helped me so much...I just wanna return the favor." Sunset said, diving back in close and nibbling gently along Tempest's collarbone.
"Aaah!" Tempest staggered back. She'd defended herself against ceaseless confrontations since leaving home. But despite the aggressive look in Sunset's eyes, this didn't feel like an assault. It felt like something else, something wonderful and stomach churningly scary all at once.
It felt like...worship?
"That-that won't be necessary..." She said, blinking rapidly and gently placing her hooves on Sunset's shoulders to remove her. Except she didn't want to remove her, not when it felt so good to have their coats brushing against each other and Sunset's breath hot against her mane.
"Why? Do you really not like me?" Sunset asked, pulling away temporarily to look Tempest in the eyes.
"I..." Her lips were so firm, her mane was so pretty. And her body, not nearly as muscular as Tempest's own, but toned and well-maintained even after the muscle atrophy of the past few weeks.
"No." She said. The strange tingling was all over her now. She didn't know what was about to happen but waiting for it was almost unbearable.
"Good." Sunset smirked. Then she saw the look of uncertainty in Tempest's expression, and she leaned close. "It's okay...my first time was scary too."
Tempest wasn't sure what that meant, until a few, memorable minutes later when the universe stopped exploding into stars and thunderbolts behind her eyes.
They lay on the floor of the airship for a long time, Sunset's shorter body pressed into Tempest's. "So, you spent all this time out in the big bad world, and you never had casual sex before?" Sunset asked.
Tempest just stared at the clouds, swirling high above them. She felt like she should blush or be embarrassed they were having this conversation. Instead, she just shook her head. What was the point of bluster, after what they'd just done, after the honesty they'd just committed.
Sunset giggled and this time Tempest wasn't annoyed by the sound. She was coming to realize, slowly, that all of Sunset's earlier flirtations had not been in jest. She was coming to realize that Sunset didn't view her as nearly so nauseating to look at as everypony else did. It wasn't the instant flip of a switch inside her mind, not after how long she'd spent viewing her own visage through the lens of disdain.
But it was a tiny comfort, the first bit of bliss separate from The Plan which she'd enjoyed in her years outside Equestria.
"Are you sure you're Celestia's student?" Tempest asked, after they'd enjoyed each other's silence for a few minutes.
That got another giggle out of Sunset and Tempest tried to ignore how faster her heart started moving when she heard that tickling little ring.
"Ex-student."
"Cadence...why am I doing this lesson with you instead of Princess Celestia?"
"Because...because Celestia had to do something very important, and she asked me to fill in for her until she gets back."
"Oh. Okay."
...
"Cadence?"
"...Yes, Twilight?"
"What was the thing she had to do?"
There were strangers in their living room. They were all big, burly looking earth ponies, except the one with the ascot, who was a little older, a little sleeker and a lot greasier.
"And you're sure this is the edition I requested?" Her father asked.
The ascot pony, who Fizzlepop could now see had some kind of skull as his cutie mark, rolled his eyes and spoke harshly in an accent that she was unfamiliar with. "Yes! This is the book you requested...me and my stallions went to great lengths to retrieve it, so I would suggest that you pay us the bits you owe us so we can be on our way."
"Yeah!" Said one of the goons.
"Of course, here...here's everything I owe you..." Her father levitated a pouch of bits into view, one which was quickly secured by the leader and examined and recounted and then tossed to an associate.
"Come. Let's get out of here before you know who catches up..."
Fizzlepop shrunk behind the staircase banister as the rogues marched down the front hall, slamming the front door behind them. Her father remained in the living room, holding the antique that the earth ponies had recovered for him. It was a silvery volume, with archaic writing across the spine and some kind of piece of brass affixed to the cover.
Later on, when her father was passed out at his desk, attempting to unlock its secrets, she would read the title, as translated from old Ponish.
"Forbidden Artifacts".
"So why were you at the Storm King's palace anyway? I'm guessing you didn't visit just to rescue me."
Tempest sat across from Sunset, staring at the unfurled map concealing most of the table between them. "I was looking for something...a map, to a powerful item."
Sunset smiled. "Well, I'm sure I could help find it...I was top of my class at the School for Gifted Unicorns."
Tempest smirked and reached into her saddlebag, removing the frayed, silvery cover of the book she'd stolen so many years ago. "My father worked there for a long time...teaching about magical archeology..."
She paused, to stare at the cover of the book and felt Sunset put a hoof on hers. "I'm guessing he wasn't the best support after you were attacked?"
Tempest just stared at the table and shook her head. "He didn't blame me for what happened...but he almost destroyed himself, trying to find a relic to substitute for my horn."
Sunset nodded, slowly.
"He wanted me to teach magic like he had. I wanted to be a guard like my mother. I guess neither of us got what we wanted..." Tempest tightened her grip on the book. Then she slammed it onto the table and flipped it open to the page she'd been looking for.
"This is our ultimate goal."
" 'The Staff of Sacanos'?" Sunset read. "What does it do?"
"It sucks the magic out of whoever it is used on and allows the user to wield that magic." Tempest said, stroking the lovingly rendered illustration in the center of the page. "It was created by King Vorak and given to his adopted son, Scorpan so that he could siphon magic like centaurs naturally are able to."
"Cool! So, the map was to this thing?"
Tempest shook her head. "I already know the location of the staff. What I need are the Tears of the Gorgon." She flipped to another page. "The plan was to recover the Tears of the Gorgon and use those to create grenades that could petrify creatures."
"You can do that?"
"I learned alchemy with that express purpose yes. I tried to create something similar with cockatrice saliva, but it kept turning the containers into stone as well."
"...Fair enough. Continue."
"Once I had these grenades, I could use them to impress the Storm King enough to convince him to steal the Staff."
Sunset frowned. "Okay, sounds like super solid plan except...why did you need the Storm King's help to get the Staff of Sarkinos-"
"Sacanos."
"-whatever. Why do you need his help if you already know where it is?"
Tempest closed the book. "Because it's guarded by the Thunderclaw Griffons."
When she saw the lack of recognition in Sunset's eyes she glowered. "Seriously? The Stormbreakers, the last guardians of the feathered throne? The sole remaining order of griffon knights sworn to protect the treasures of the last great winged king? Did Celestia teach you anything about the world outside Equestria?"
"Eh, she didn't really trust me with that stuff. It was mostly lessons about friendship and love and...bleh! Anyway, I'm guessing these guys are super tough if they have all those titles."
"They are three times the size of a normal griffon and their screeches can split stone." Tempest said, pointing to the section of the map where she'd drawn a little blue circle. "That's why I needed the Storm King to retrieve the staff for me. Only his magic is powerful enough to overcome their wind-wards."
Sunset narrowed her eyes. "Okay, but once you had the Tears you could have lured these griffons out and used them on them, right? Then you could just take the staff for yourself. Why give this Storm King jerk a chance to become even more powerful? Why not just take Celestia's magic for yourself?"
Tempest turned away. "I can't do magic."
Sunset blinked. "Well, yeah, I mean, I know that..."
"No, I mean...I never learned how to cast spells, alright? I was still in kindergarten when I lost my horn and the stuff, I did learn...the point is I can't wield the staff, alright? I can barely keep this thing from blowing up in my face." She said, gesturing to her head. "And the point of this wasn't to take over Equestria. It was to get my horn back. The yetis have some kind of ancient healing magic that no other creature does that allows them to regain lost bones, limbs, organs. I figured if I gave the Storm King ultimate power, he'd share them with me."
Sunset seemed to think about this for a moment. "Okay...I have a better idea."
Tempest rolled her eyes. "Sure, I've thought about this for years, you've just heard of it...well, spit it out."
Sunset grinned and climbed up onto the table. "Instead of relying on some creature more powerful to wield the staff, give it to me. Once we have the staff, we can go back to Thrincia, then we can get the map, we can steal the storm king's powers. We have all the leverage then and we can intimidate and interrogate any creature we need to until we figure out whatever this yeti hocus pocus is."
Tempest scowled. "That's assuming we fight out way past nine incredibly dangerous and ancient griffon warriors."
Sunset grinned. "Who said anything about fighting?"
The Storm King had finally finished rebuilding the docks, when the pony showed up. She dropped out of the sky, clad in golden armor, surrounded by a ball of eye-searing fire. Altogether, it was a little dramatic, even for royalty.
With a slam she crashed into the pier, her burning wings setting fire to one of the most newly christened airships.
"Oh, for the love of-what do you want!?" He asked, as she stared down his best shock troops.
"I am Princess Celestia, Bringer of Dawn and Protector of Harmony. For too long, I have allowed you to ransack this world and endanger its peoples." The pony stated, striding across the dock in his direction. "I believed I was being kind by allowing the bickering nations beyond my kingdom to unite around a common foe. I see now I have been blind. You have crossed a line. You have abducted and attempted to ransom a sovereign citizen of Equestria as if she were a piece of livestock and for this-"
"I get it, I get it! Can we fight now?" The Storm King asked, unsheathing his glaive. "Trust me, if I wanted to listen to boring speeches, I would have become a lawyer like my dad."
The pony was taken aback by his nonchalance, which was all he needed to find an in. He darted forward, jutting the glaive into her barrel. The narrow blade slid between two plates of armor and with an upward swing, he slashed all the way up her side and into the underside of her wing.
He grinned as she watched the blood ooze down her perfect white feathers as she buckled at the pain. He considered licking the glaive, just to show he meant business, but considered that was a little too dramatic even for him.
Then Princess Whatsherface raised her head and let out a low seething exhale. "You should have surrendered when you had the chance!" She snarled. The words were accompanied by little curls of flame, almost dragonlike. But brighter.
And for the first time in his life The Storm King couldn't help but wonder if he'd gotten in over his head.
The Thunderclaws were not what Tempest had expected. It was true they were old, older than any griffon might naturally live to. It had to do with whatever magically oath they had sworn to the last great king. It hadn't just granted them the strength to protect the staff, but the longevity as well.
That said, they weren't flawless immortals. Their age showed in wrinkled faces and molting wings and their experience was even more obvious from the cropped tails, missing claws and chipped beaks. Their armor was piecemeal, and their weapons were almost as old as they were. In a way it was more impressive that they all looked like a wake of badly beaten buzzards clinging onto life, because it meant that they had survived encounters with innumerable foes despite their appearances.
"Give us one good reason we don't slit ya throats and roast ya guts over an open flame?" Sir Gornemant demanded.
Sunset grinned up at him, ignoring the crackling, lightning-infused spear he was holding to her breast. "Because we can lead you to an enemy of Griffonkind, who intends to steal that priceless staff of yours."
Gornemant's one eye blinked and he glanced at his companions, and then back at Sunset and Tempest.
Sunset sighed. "And there's also a whole bunch of super-valuable treasure there too?"
There were cheers all around, followed by an inevitable series of coughs and complaints about back ache.
"How did you do that?" Tempest asked, as they flew back toward Thrincia.
"What? Oh, that? It was easy..." Sunset looked up from the wheel, which she was steering with her telekinesis. "Have you ever read Marechiavelli?"
Tempest frowned. "Sunset, I haven't read anything except shipping manifests and cemetery records for the past twenty years."
Sunset flushed slightly. "Right, sorry. Anyway...basically it's better to be feared than to be loved, but its preferable to be both. So, you always try the carrot before the stick."
"Sure, but how did you know what to say and how to say it...you did the same thing back at the Crunch in Klugetown. You turned all your enemies into friends with a few words." Tempest said.
"Oh, that's easy. All creatures want the same few things. They might act like their honorable or charitable. But really, they all want food or safety and if they already have those things, they want attention. All you have to do is make them think they'll get one of those things and they'll do what you want." She blew a strand of hair out of her face. "Celestia said I had a talent for empathizing with other creatures." Her face darkened. "She made me sound so stupid..."
Tempest leaned forward, putting a hoof on Sunset's shoulder. "It's alright. You don't need to prove yourself to her. Not anymore."
Sunset just looked away.
They were at the Royal Gardens for Fizzlepop's fifth birthday, after a long day of excitement, her mother was carrying her back to the train station. And Fizzlepop had, for the first time ever, noticed that other ponies wore the same badge her mother did.
"Momma?"
"Yes, darlin'?"
"What is that symbol they're all wearing?"
Her mother paused and shared a smile with her daddy. Then she used her magic to remove the badge from her cuirass and placed it into Fizzlepop's hooves.
"It's a symbol of her majesty, the princess." She said, her warm voice reverberating through the back of her neck and up and down Fizzlepop's ribcage. "It's the promise that we all make, to protect her majesty, and to defend Equestria, no matter what."
Fizzlepop held the gleaming bit of tin and copper, watching the glow of the afternoon light scintillate across its surface.
They were surprised to find that the storm surrounding Thrincia had dissipated by the time they returned.
They were startled to find that the Storm King's keep had been reduced to soot-stained debris and half-cooled slag.
They were shocked to see the Storm King himself, crawling in the direction of the shore.
"Is he the one you warned us about?" Gornemant asked, as the airship descended to only a hundred or so feet above the water. He was holding the staff, after having been convinced it would be needed to prematurely end this supposed threat.
"Not exactly..." Sunset said.
The blackened form of the Storm King lifted his head and called out something to the airship, probably assuming its crew were allies.
"You should use the staff on him anyway." Tempest advised. "As long as he's awake he's dangerous."
Gornemant glanced between the two of them and then shared a meaningful look with his subordinates. Then he lifted the staff and let out an ear-splitting shriek. A snap of lightning discharged from his claws into the rod of the staff. Then they could all hear the Storm King very well, loudly caterwauling far below as arcs of blue magic crackled up out of their charred and screaming host and into the crystal floating on the end of the staff.
"So, was that all?" Sir Gwain asked, when the form of the Storm King stopped flapping about uselessly in choppy waves and took instead to slowly floating face down in the shallows.
"Of course not!" Gornemant chided. "There be swag down there, remember? Waitin' to fill the coffers of Griffonstone." He turned to glare/squint at Tempest and Sunset. "At least fer yer sake I hope there is."
With that, the griffons took off, diving one after another into the wreckage below and scouring the broken beams, collapsed structures and exposed stashes. They didn't have long to look and both Sunset and Tempest relaxed visibly when the Thunderclaws took to throwing stolen coins and priceless gemstones into the air.
"What's the plan now?" Sunset asked.
"This was your plan." Tempest pointed out.
"Yes, but I figured that you'd have come up with something to add onto it by now." Sunset said.
"Once we have the map, I can petrify the Thunderclaws and we can just take the staff." Tempest suggested.
"Yeah, but I don't like the idea of them having control over the entire planet's weather system." Sunset returned. "They are bound to draw attention to themselves and by proxy, us."
Before she could answer, there was an explosion of yellow energy in the center of the island and chunks of stonework were thrown through the air.
"What...is that?" Tempest asked, leaning over the railing to watch as the Thunderclaws began to lift into the air to defend their newly plundered pilferage.
Sunset put a hoof on Tempest, shifting her closer to the center of the deck. "It's her."
As Celestia dragged herself out from beneath the rubble, the first thing she did was check that both wings were still working. They were not. While she had dominated the majority of the duel (pure brawn and a few dirty tricks were nothing compared to a thousand years of monsters), the Storm King had managed to get a few good licks in, wounds which would be mortal to anypony but her.
One of slice just beneath the knee of her right foreleg. And one jab to the secondaries of her left wing. It made walking difficult and flying highly ill-advised.
No stranger to pain, she had just begun to experimentally flex the torn tendon, when a great shadow fell over her. She glanced up, expecting to see a straggler from the Storm King's aerial forces.
"Well, see that, boyos? It's the same wooly-witted nag that done our good king in."
Oh no. She had to stop herself from groaning. Of all the creatures in the world, why did have to be these ones to find her in such a state.
"Sir Gornemant, if I recall correctly, it was not I but Queen Guinivere who brought an end to your lord." Celestia said, shaking the feeling back into her still working hooves and readying her horn with a threatening glow.
"HA! Do ya' hear that? This mountain stealin' lass is bad-mouthin' our queen!" Gornemant called. On either side of him his lieutenants pounded their spears against their shields in uproar. Despite his age, he glided to a graceful landing a few feet away. His rowdy right-wing men joined him a moment later and he yelled up to the rest of his flock. "Go get them ponies that brought us 'ere. Time for some bloody answers."
Ponies? Celestia's gaze was drawn to the distant airship that the other Thunderclaws were now closing in on and her keen gaze locked on the familiar red and yellow blur aboard.
"Last time you faced us ya had a whole army uh pegasai to hide behind." Sir Galahad said, throwing his shield to the ground and wrapping both claws around his spear.
"Aye. There'll be none uh that this time." Sir Galehalt chimed in, closing in from the other side.
Celestia was used to looking down on her little ponies. But the smallest of the three was taller than her by half-a foot (if you counted her horn). She backed the few inches that she could into the rubble she'd just pried herself loose from.
"It doesn't have to be this way." Celestia promised.
"Yer only sayin' that cause you know yer gonna lose." Gornemant said, raising the familiar, crackling spear in his talons. No, not spear...staff. Magic staff. "From the looks of ya, I'm guessing ya used up all that fancy magic ya have. Meanwhile, we've got this now. Looks like the thorn's in the other paw, eh?"
Celestia lowered her head, so that her horn was between them and her vitals. If she flew, they'd drag her back to the ground. If she disarmed Gornemant with a spell, the other two would lunge in. If she tried to fight them off, they'd wear her already exhausted body out and turn her into a pincushion.
But Sunset was relying on her.
"And if I surrender..."
They all growled, more cat that carrion bird for a brief moment. "We've been waitin' for this rematch for the past two centuries..." Gornemant hissed. "Now fight like a mare, ya lilly-livered-"
Celestia didn't wait for him to finish the insult. She used the last trick in her hat.
She shifted the sun, from sundown to sunrise.
The glare instantly created by the light reflected off her still gleaming golden armor all but blinded the keen-eyed coots and they let out a series of squawks and unrepeatable profanities. It only lasted for a few seconds, but that was all that Celestia needed. She charged Gornemant, and, knowing full well her horn would be unable to penetrate his breastplate, instead winded him with a jerk of her head and snatched the Scorpan's staff out of the midair with her telekinesis. A release of the magic inside blasted Galehalt into Galahad and while the three of them tried to recover, Celestia took off in the direction of the airship.
She could see Sunset and another pony, dodging dive bombs and shooting magical blasts at the remaining half-dozen griffons. She saw Sir Gaheris swat Sunset across the muzzle with the tip of his spear and get rewarded for it with a blaze of crackling blue energy. It caused him to crash into the underside of the zeppelin's balloon, and already she knew the entire airship was seconds away from crashing into the wreckage below.
Without bothering to warn anypony, she charged straight into Galeschin, driving him into Gwain and Gingalain and sending them crashing into the deck below. The maneuver was almost as painful for her as it was for them, but she pushed through, swooping down, dangling her hooves for the ponies to grab. Sunset was too dazed to do so, but her companion grabbed her with one hoof and Celestia with the other and soon all three were turning in a circle to escape the steadily expanding fire consuming the ship.
The larger, darker pony, who Celestia could see now was a unicorn, followed their escape up with a strategic blast of mana to the front of the balloon, causing the pressurized gas inside to explode and sending four feathery forms flying every direction.
Celestia was so horrified by the callous disregard for life that she almost lost her grip on the two ponies. That would be remedied though, when the two remaining griffons, the two who'd disappeared in the haze of pain and confusion, slammed into either wing. Sir Griflet on one side and Sir Gareth on the other, dragging their claws up through her coverts and baring the bone beneath.
Celestia lost everything then. The staff, her two passengers, all sense of direction or survival instinct. Everything was lost in the twisting tumble through the dampened sky. All she could see was the reflection of the sun on the water below and the tiny forms of her little ponies, wingless and plummeting towards the flotsam spotted surf.
Then she saw the familiar amber glow coalescing around the Scorpan's staff as it tumbled through the air. And before Griflet or Gareth or Gornemant or anycreature else could grab hold of it, the staff was in Sunset's hooves and cyclone began to form beneath them all.
Tempest had thought she was going to die at least three times in the past sixty seconds. Time slowed down when you were near death. Tempest had decided she didn't like the feeling. All it did was give you longer to regret every misstep that led to this terrible terminus.
That's why she was so stunned when Sunset recovered in time to grab the Staff and use it to conjure the waterspout beneath them. The sudden geyser served two purposes. The water and wind cushioned Sunset, Tempest and the princess' falls, allowing them to ride it as if aboard a great water slide, onto a pebble-studded shoal, for a, relatively, safe landing.
It also absolutely hosed the remaining assaulting griffons in the mid-peregrine falcon death dive. The Thunderclaws were as well trained as they were cantankerous. They were ruthless, cunning, super-strong and resistant to the blasts of lightning that Tempest could dole out, as well as which the cannons of the airship had supplied. They could have flown through winds that even dragons would have steered clear of.
They weren't seagulls though. Their wings, while water repellent, for better movement during torrential downpours, were not waterproof. This meant they were not designed for diving in and out of bodies of liquid. They crashed into Sunset's waterspout and those that were not expelled at terrific speed fifty feet into the air with shattered wings and water-logged lungs, were dragged down into the ocean below as the spell receded.
"Not bad, huh?" Sunset said, her hooves curling around the staff. Her eyes were on the crystal, not the burnt corpses of Tempest's foes, or the massive, once mighty bodies she'd just drowned and smushed without issue.
Tempest shook the thought from her head. The Thunderclaws were trying to kill them all. They wouldn't have thought twice about exacting equal vengeance. She and Sunset done what they had to do.
"Suh-Sunset..."
Right. The princess was here too. Tempest turned and lowered a hoof to help the alicorn who'd saved their lives out of the rough tide and up onto the makeshift land.
"Ugh, you just have to ruin everything, don't you?" Sunset said, lowering the staff. Then she stomped over to where Celestia's lightning-scarred, bloody winged body lay. "Just one last loose end to tie up..."
Tempest's eyes widened. "You...you're going to take the magic from her...after she saved our lives?"
Celestia could only cough up saltwater. Something told Tempest that her ride down the slide had been slightly less enjoyable, and she wondered, if Sunset had been able to kill her without losing a chance to steal her magic, would she have?
Sunset groaned. Like they were back in kindergarten and Tempest had just called her out for cheating. "Oh, c'mon. Don't tell me you're buying her sick saccharine charade too? She's a narcissist, Tempest...she uses ponies to get what she wants and then she gets rid of them! Trust me, I read up on her after she 'adopted me'. Her special little students...they don't always end up being superpowered immortals. Did you know that she drove her own sister, insane and then she banished her to the moon rather than have to deal with it?"
Celestia moaned something that might have been words if she'd been in less pain.
"Shut up!" Sunset screamed. "You don't get to talk! You sent me away, for nothing! I did nothing and you left me to fend for myself! You told me we were family and then you treated me like dirt!"
"Sunset..." Tempest stepped closer reaching out and then lowering her hoof when Sunset flinched away from her touch. "I know she hurt you...for a long time, I wanted revenge on the ponies who hurt me...but eventually I figured out...it won't make you whole."
Sunset's expression darkened. "What, and getting your horn back will?"
Tempest's posture straightened. "I can't let you do this. Not after what she just sacrificed to save us."
Sunset lowered her gaze and the staff hung loose in her hoof. "Fine..." She said, letting it drop to the sand.
Tempest relaxed ever so slightly but knew better than to drop her guard with somepony as discomfortingly dangerous.
"You helped me, when nopony else would." Sunset said, in a low voice.
Tempest stepped closer. "I care about you. I don't want you to turn out like me...cold and bitter and hateful...please, please don't become like everything else."
Sunset let out a little laugh. "It's too late for that. Maybe if we'd met when we were still foals...it could have been different."
Tempest was seized suddenly with a dread she'd failed to adequately defend against. "No, please, Sunset...no...you don't have to..."
"Yes, I do. If I want to give you that horn." Sunset said, as the staff snapped back into her hooves. Slowly, she raised her face, horn glowing brighter than ever, the crystal at the end of the staff gleaming along with her in tandem malignancy. "Sorry, Tempest. You'll thank me for this someday..."
Time slowed down again. Fizzlepop Berrytwist didn't mind it the way that Tempest Shadow had. It gave her time, time to reflect not on mistakes, but on those few moments of unbearable joy, those moments which had made the lows so much worse and at the same time had driven her to keeping going every day.
She remembered the night that her father had come home with the map to the Thunderclaw vault. The little kiss she'd given him before she decided it was time to stop being a burden. She remembered the day that she sat on the stairs, waiting to surprise her mother when she came home from work, and she never got the chance.
What was it her father had told her that her mother died doing? Defending Equestria. She'd never found out if it was the truth, or if her mother, like most royal guards these days, had passed away because of some mugging, some pointless scuffle over food or safety. Perhaps all the foals who lost their parents to the royal guard were told the same lie. Defending Equestria.
It had a nice ring to it, even if it probably didn't mean what ponies thought it meant most of the time.
Sunset turned the staff on Celestia. Fizzlepop released another blast. She'd never been very good at shield spells, but energy projection she'd developed into an art.
Her chaotic magic struck the staff just as it began to draw forth Celestia's boundless might.
And then everything got really bright.
