Now that Twilight was ready to fight the Storm King, there was one last thing left to answer: how to gain the Storm King’s attention. His lair (that he was still building) being on an island, she couldn’t send her army to attack it, she didn’t have any airship to transport all of them. So she had to bring the Storm King to the desert somehow.

She then got an idea: sending a cloud of birds to attack one of the airships. Such an assault should convince the Storm King to come to her.

So she sent hundreds of birds toward one of the airships patrolling the sky around the Storm King’s island. Such a cloud was quite the scary sight.

She ordered her birds to not kill. Not just because she still wasn’t sure about killing something, even if she was about to start a war, but also because she needed the airship’s crew to report to the Storm King about the attack. However, she allowed the birds to injure the storm creatures as much as possible.

Through the eyes of one of the birds, she watched the assault on the airships. The storm creatures saw them approaching, but they didn’t have time to prepare before the birds were on them. The birds then began to scratch them with their claws and to peck them with their beaks.

The birds quickly revealed to have difficulty breaching the armor of the storm creatures, but they were able to remove the helmets, exposing the creatures’ head (which looked like the Storm King’s head). That was all the birds needed.

Twilight winced when she saw one of her birds peck an eye out.

The storm creatures tried to defend themselves, but even if they were hulking beasts, they couldn’t do much against so many birds. They were swinging their staves around, but it only allowed them to kill a few birds. Twilight felt the links disappear. Compared to the hundreds present, that wasn’t a lot. The creatures also tried to cover their head with their shields, which worked better, but then, the birds attacked the legs, making the creatures topple and opening their guard.

After several minutes, the birds retired, leaving a very miserable crew. All of them were bloody, covered in scratches at best. The worst cases lost their two eyes, becoming blind.

Now, she had to wait to see how the Storm King will react.

The Storm King admired from his flagship the immense tower that he was building for himself. Truthfully, he hadn’t expected getting a lair until he had conquered the world as he had been constantly going from country to country with his armada, never settling somewhere for long.

However, now that he knew about Equestria, he had to remain close while he prepared to invade it, so a lair became necessary.

When he learned about the hippogriffs and their Pearl of Transformation, he thought that he could have used it to invade Equestria right away, but then, the hippogriffs disappeared who knew where with it, ruining this plan. So now, the Storm King had to settle for the long wait as he tried to find a way to deal with Princess Celestia. Tempest Shadow told him about her, and if she was as powerful as she said she was, then his usual method of invasion would be met with failure.

The goal was to find a way to immobilize her long enough so he could absorb her magic with his staff before she could destroy his armada. Easier said than done…

But he was the Storm King! He will eventually find something, now matter how long it will take for him to find it! He already had several ideas in mind.

Suddenly, one of his storm creatures came.

“Sir, one of the patrolling airships is approaching.”

The Storm King raised an eyebrow. “Why would they stop patrolling?”

“I don’t know, sir.”

At his side, Tempest Shadow said, “Something probably happened. We should see what they have to say.”

“Yes, yes. Let’s see,” the satyr replied.

Before long, the approaching airship was beside his, and he was able to board it, only to find the crew in a sad state, all of them injured quite badly.

One of the less injured storm creatures approached him, limping.

“What happened? Who did that to you?” the Storm King immediately asked.

“Skeleton birds. Hundreds of them,” the storm creature answered before he showed the skull of one of the birds that had been killed.

The Storm King grabbed the skull, looked at it, then growled and crushed it in his hand.

“So the necromancer seems to have decided to make me an enemy.”

“Maybe they consider this region as their territory and they don’t like us encroaching in it,” Tempest suggested.

The Storm King groaned. “I hate necromancers. They send their minions to do all the work and remain hidden, and they can simply make new ones to replace the ones killed. For all I know, this one could be all the way in the jungle.”

“This is the most likely place for them to hide.”

“Well, if this necromancer wants war, they shall have it, even if I have to burn the whole jungle to find them,” the Storm King said before he looked at the storm creatures that followed him from his flagship. “Search if there is any skeleton bird around!”

The creatures immediately spread in the two ships to look at the sky. Rapidly, one of the creatures shouted, “I see one!”

The Storm King went to him, and the creature pointed with his finger. The Storm King followed the direction and saw the bird.

He glared at it. The necromancer was certainly looking at him through its eyes.

“You wanted my attention, you now have it, and this is not a good thing.”

…

“Then come to the jungle,” the bird replied in a childish girlish voice before it flew away.

The Storm King and Tempest watched the bird disappear in the sky, then the mare said, “It’s a trap.”

“Obviously,” the Storm King replied. “This necromancer certainly has an ambush prepared. And if she is confident enough to bring me there after observing me for weeks, then she must have prepared a worthy army made of whatever she could find. But I must still go there to deal with her. First of all, I need to find a way to deal with those birds. Also, we will need blunt weapons, they work better against skeletons.”

Tempest agreed with a nod. “An area attack spell would work well against the birds to deal with many of them at once. Do you think that your staff can do it?”

“With its current power, it can shoot electricity which can spread from target to target, but I don’t think that it would be very effective against skeletons. They need to be blown to pieces.”

“Then we would need your staff to create large explosions.”

“And for that, it needs to absorb magic.”

Tempest hesitated at that. “Then… absorb mine. My magic will be useless in this battle anyway, with my horn broken. You will make better use of it.”

The Storm King laughed. “Oooh! Teamwork! I’m sure this necromancer won’t be expecting that.”

“But once this battle is over, could you give it back to me?”

“Of course. Your magic is part of your charm. Now…” The Storm King raised his staff. “Don’t move. It will be over quickly.”

“He is taking a while to come,” Twilight said as she looked through the eyes of one of her birds keeping watch in the sky above the desert near the jungle. Twilight herself was in her lair, in the guard room, surrounded by Death Speaker, Goldie, and five pony guards (including three earth ponies and two unicorns).

“The Storm King isn’t stupid. He knows that you have prepared an ambush. He must be preparing his armada to counter whatever you will send,” Death Speaker said.

“I don’t know what he is expecting, but I don’t think that he will be prepared enough to fight a dragon,” Goldie said with amusement.

Death Speaker snorted. “Nobody expects a dragon. Like I said, rare are the necromancers who can animate one. But I wouldn’t be surprised if he has one or two cards up his sleeves too, so remain careful.”

Twilight nodded as she continued to watch through the eyes of her bird.

Then, on the horizon, she saw a storm appear and approaching very rapidly. The black clouds were immense, and she could see lightning flashing inside them, followed by deafening cracks of thunder. Each time that lightning flashed, she could see the silhouettes of many airships among the clouds.

She wanted to gulp. The Storm King knew how to make an impression.

“He is coming…” she said out loud to warn Death Speaker and Goldie before she focused on Star Eyes. Be prepared! The Storm King is approaching!

Yes, Princess! The troops are ready!

Twilight made her bird retreat into the jungle, and if she still had a heart, it would be racing.

Before long, the storm reached the jungle.

Immediately, thousands of skeleton birds of all kinds rose from the jungle, flying toward the storm.

And so, the battle for the fate of Equestria, and maybe even the whole world, started.

Countless cannons fired at the birds from inside the storm, the cannonballs killing many birds. But against thousands of birds, it barely mattered, and before long, Twilight could see the airships through the eyes of one of them.

On the biggest airship at the front, she could see the Storm King who was now in full body black armor and who had his staff raised. Then, he fired something from it.

The next instant, Twilight lost connection with her bird as a big explosion resounded. She felt over one hundred links disappear just like that. Then, there was another explosion, and another hundred links disappeared, followed by another, and another, and another.

Still, the birds were able to reach the airships and began to attack the crews, even entering inside the airships to take care of the creatures who thought that they would be safe surrounded by walls. However, the storm creatures were better prepared, now armed with giant clubs, and they were easily able to kill her birds. The number still overwhelmed many of them, but that number was quickly diminishing. And because of his full body armor, the birds could do nothing to the Storm King himself.

With the crews busy against the birds, the second wave of undead appeared: the pegasi and griffins. Also, the ballistas and cannons began to fire from little wood towers that she built for them all over the jungle. The airships were too high however to be reached by the catapults.

The Storm Army saw her flying undead approaching and immediately began to fire at them, the Storm King using his staff again to create huge explosions. With many of the crews busy with the birds, however, there weren’t as many cannons firing as before, allowing many of the pegasi and griffins to approach. Then, instead of attacking the crews, they began to attack the airships themselves, targeting the propellers and balloons.

Then, Sunny came in from further away where she wouldn’t have risked being discovered, clearly taking the Storm Army by surprise. Twilight even heard one of the creatures yell, “She has a dragon?!”

Because of their surprise, it took a while before the cannons began to fire at her, allowing her to get close enough that she opened her mouth and breathed fire at one of the airships.

Now, a skeleton dragon didn’t have the organs necessary to breathe fire. Thankfully, magic took care of that, so instead of breathing normal fire, Sunny was breathing magic fire which worked just as well.

As a result, the airship was engulfed in flames and dropped into the jungles.

Twilight tried not to think of what happened to the crew.

A problem quickly revealed itself however with Sunny. Dragons were known to be very tanky… thanks to their scales… which Sunny didn’t have anymore. As a result, Sunny’s bones were being destroyed one by one by the cannonballs, and she did her best to dodge them when they targeted her skull and spine, without forgetting her wings. Thankfully, cannonballs passed between her bones most of the time.

Soon enough, a second airship dropped on fire.

The airships attacked by Sunny weren’t the only ones dropping to the jungle. Thanks to the pegasi, one by one, airships were losing their means of staying in the sky, causing them to crash into the jungle in absolute chaos. Even the Storm King’s huge flagship crashed in a spectacular way.

And so started the second phase of the battle: taking care of the crews that survived the crashes.

As soon as the first airships crashed, Star Eyes sent the ground undead to attack the wrecks.

However, when Star Eyes herself went to attack the flagship, she got a nasty surprise: the Storm King and his new second in command were nowhere to be seen.

She cursed.

“Spread everywhere and search for the Storm King!” she ordered, and the undead under her obeyed. Princess! The Storm King is gone! We have no idea where he may be!

Twilight, hearing that, panicked and spread the news to her other undead, making half of them scatter all over the jungle while the other half fought the remaining forces of the Storm King, and a lot of them remained!

She saw Sunny’s state after she burned down at least a dozen airships and she ordered her to retreat. She didn’t want to lose her.

Also, the majority of her siege weapons were destroyed by now, taken down by the remaining airships’ cannons as they started firing all over the jungle in the hope of blowing up some undead. Soon enough, between that and the burning wrecks, the jungle was on fire in many places.

Dealing with the storm creatures was even harder than Twilight had expected. Many of them remained in the wrecks, using the cannons that survived the crashes to fire at the undead that showed themselves through the trees. Then, when undead reached the wrecks and fought the creatures, these hulking armored beasts showed their power, smashing undead left and right with their giant clubs. The smaller undead tried to overwhelm them, biting them to death all over their bodies where it wasn’t armored, and while many of the creatures fell this way, they still managed to kill many undead, lowering their number more and more until the remaining creatures could better defend themselves.

Even her pony undead had to work in number to take down just one storm creature. Twilight really did well to take time to gather that many undead.

As the battle continued, the Storm King’s feared armada was left in ruin, no airship remaining in the sky, but she lost thousands of undead, at least half of her army, and the battle was still going on as the storm creatures continued to fight.

Twilight even felt several soul pieces returning to her. These ones made her want to cry. Each undead with a soul piece became a close friend.

And all this time, the undead found the Storm King nowhere, and Twilight was starting to consider that he may have escaped.

But then, the doors to the guard room were kicked open, and there was the Storm King and Tempest Shadow, as well as a little hedgehog-like creature that Twilight heard was named Grubber who became Tempest’s sidekick. Right now, the little creature was cowering behind the mare who was holding a club in her mouth.

She could almost see the grin under the Storm King’s helmet as he said, “Found youuu~!”

Author's Note

Cliffhanger! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!