The Wrath Of King Typhoon
“Bring in the unicorn!” The booming voice echoed across the throne room, commanding all ears in the vicinity to listen and adhere to its tone. Hooves scurried across the marble floor; wings beat as guards flew into position.
“Move it!” Doors opened, a pony stumbled forward as her neck was prodded with a spear. She was nervous, everything about her screamed it: her sea-green knocking knees, turned back ears that pushed back her mint mane with the white stripe in it, dilated golden pupils. Nervousness and fear radiated from the pony just as heat and light radiated from the sun.
She moved before the black monolith of a throne, it was the object of her fears, of all unicorn’s fears. It was the throne of King Typhoon. The pegasus king sat proudly upon it, his ocean blue wings spread wide, his electric yellow eyes glaring down at anyone who approached.
“What is your name?” Asked the pegasus king coolly. His voice, when not raised to a ridiculous volume, was very soothing...Like a father who was trying to comfort a foal.
“L-Lyra…” The unicorn mare answered quietly, shakily.
“Do you know why you are brought in front of us, Lyra?” A note of condescension slipped into his voice, making the meek pony shrink back in fear of anger.
“I-I’m a unicorn…” It was a capital crime, being a unicorn. Ever since the three pony tribes met in Equestria over a thousand years ago it’s been a crime. The pegasi took control, subduing the more powerful unicorns by force and threatening the earth ponies with droughts or tornadoes. Quickly the pegasi regime came to power, Queen Hurricane being the first monarch of the land and the most benevolent.
“That is correct. Do you know the punishment for being a unicorn?” The punishment was quite simple. Their horn was ground to but a stump atop their forehead, an extremely painful procedure that left most of the unicorns with hazy memories and a myriad of psychological disorders.
However, King Typhoon had been facing a new problem as of late. There was a secret unicorn camp somewhere in his fair land, cranking out the beasts at an alarming rate. In order to find this factory of devils he offered amnesty to any unicorn who could lead him to it.
“Y-yes…” That was the stuttering answer he received from the whelp, not even a ‘your Majesty’ or ‘sir.’ They were uncivilized brutes, and that is why he must help them along the path of cleansing, so they may see the errors of their ways and repent.
“Do you want that, my dear Lyra?” The gracious King Typhoon alighted on ground in front of the shaking unicorn. The unicorn, being apparently smart enough, shook her head and averted hr gaze. The ruler would have none of that, he wanted the creature to stare into his eyes as he spoke, so he put his hoof under her chin and gingerly raised her eyes to meet his own. “Then tell me where your spawn are, and you will be granted the position of maid in my castle…”
Something happened that the king would have never suspected; the unicorn met his eyes, narrowed her eyes, and fired a blast of magic directly at his head. The king went tumbling across the floor and straight into the base of his black marble throne, hitting his head as he did so. Typhoon’s vision swam, he could only make out shapes, but he could still hear. The screams of a unicorn being impaled by his guards, the sound of one beast dying.
“Your majesty, are you alright?” His advisor, a kindly if shy pegasus named Fluttershy, picked him up and dusted him off. His vision returned slowly, only being helped along by his constant blinking.
“I am fine…thank you, dearest Fluttershy…” He pushed the butter yellow mare away from him, barely containing his rage. “Now….I want that…Beast’s head on A BUCKING SPIKE! DO YOU HEAR ME?! A SPIKE!” He broke and the rage took over, his powerful wings launched him into the air and through the halls of the castle, only the sounds of him cursing wildly could be heard coming from him.
--
High above the throne room, in another part of the royal castle that sat upon the mountain, a young princess sat on her bed eagerly staring at the poster glued to the ceiling above it.
“The Wonderbolts…” She whispered quietly to no one in particular. It was her one dream, her one aspiration, to be a member of the elite flying squad that dispatched unicorns wherever they hid. “What a job…” It was better than being a princess…she dreaded being Queen one day. Like all first-born daughters of the royal family she was destined to be the monarch when her father passed.
A knock sounded at her door. “Uh, excuse me, Princess?” Her eyes shot open, her maid was at the door! Quickly, she put on the tiara that was discarded on the bedside table, grabbed a tie and slipped it into her multi-colored mane, making a ponytail that was customary for her.
“Urm…come in!” The princess of Equestria sat gracefully on her rump, holding a regal pose.
The door opened and in walked her earth pony servant, Applejack. Applejack was an orange pony with a short blonde mane. Often she looked more tired and old than she actually was; the princess thought that it was because Applejack had a little filly to look after. It wasn’t Applejack’s filly; it was her little sister that came with her to the castle.
“Princess Rainbow Dash, ah bring news from the throne room.” The southern accent was quite nice to listen to, it was soothing actually. The maid closed the door with her back hoof and sighed.
“Princess Rainbow Dash? C’mon, I’m Dash.” Rainbow gave her maid a wry grin and rolled off of the bed. Applejack was the Princess’ best friend; the maid had come to the castle when she was just a little filly because her parents died during a terrorist’s attack on the castle so the servant’s children were forced to take on the punishment. The ponies had been friends ever since then, even if the king didn’t approve of his daughter having a non-pegasus friend.
“Listen Dash, yer room may be soundproof but with yer door open it isn’t…” Applejack gave Dash the same dead air look that she often had when talking to the Princess.
“So what if you’re a bit informal? I’m always informal no matter where I’m at.” Another ne’er do well smile from the Princess, she was obviously remembering some of her famous antics.
“That’s different, yer the princess. Y’all can afford that, ah can’t. Ah break the formality and somepony hears it…ah’m fired. An’ when ah say fired…ah’m pretty sure ah would literally be set on fire.” Applejack just watched as her charge stretched her wings and plucked a rogue feather from it. Obviously she didn’t quite care…royalty. “Anyways, yer dad…yeah he was gonna punish some unicorn and she hit ‘im with a blast of magic.”
Rainbow’s head perked up at that. “Is he alright? Did he turn into something?” She looked genuinely worried about her father. Sure she often had a devil may care attitude but she genuinely cared for her father. After all, he was her only family.
“He’s fine, jus’ ticked off. Guess ya could say royally ticked off.” The maid chuckled at her own pun and patted the princess on her shoulder.
“These unicorns are going to be the death of him, I swear…” She got a distant look in her magenta eyes, staring at some far-away incident.
“Oh, and Gilda is here to see ya too. She’s in the sittin’ room on the fourth floor whenever yer ready to chat.” With that, Applejack left the Princess to her own affairs.
--
“Heed the warning of the wise queen, my flock!” Starlit Reaches, the priestess of the Pegopolis Church threw her voice across the masses. Her flock of over three thousand stuck to her every word, clinging to the scripture as if their lives depended on it. “‘For the horn allows the power of Discord to flow through them, the unicorn’s magic is but chaos warping the world and the laws around it.’ Hurricane 5:21. Does any of my younger flock know how we stem the power of Discord that flows from the heretic’s bodies?” A young orange filly with a purple mane raised her hoof highly. “Yes, young Scootaloo?”
“We grind their horns down so Discord can’t use them?” The priestess smiled at her flock and nodded.
“The young ones even know that the unicorns must be saved by our hooves, saved from the grasps of Discord!” The congregation let out a mighty cheer, filling the whole room with a sense of righteous spirit.
--
“‘Bout time you got down here, squirt.” Gilda, daughter of the Griffon chancellor, sat proudly in a chair by the stone fireplace in the sitting room. The room itself was coated in hues of blue and green, the choice colors of King Typhoon.
The Griffon Lady did not wear any of the traditional Griffon garb, much like Dash she had an attitude problem and did not like formality. Her glorious plumage was royal white, purple feathers made shadows around her eyes, making looking directly into them intimidating.
“Sorry, dad had a bit of a meltdown after some unicorn tried to kill him…” Dash lay down on the couch across from her friend. The Griffon kingdom, being winged creatures like the Pegasi, were close friends of Equestria. “If I know him he’s somewhere in the dungeons torturing something…”
Gilda simply shrugged. “The wretches should know better than to go after the King, it just hurts them in the end…” The Griffon raised a hand and snapped two talons together. In no time flat a white unicorn with a luxurious purple mane was at her side. The unicorn, horn ground down, was a gift to Gilda from the King himself. Unicorns who survived the horn grounding process without some mental defect were rare, so one that was fully intact and as beautiful as this one were rare indeed. “Isn’t that right, Rarity? Aren’t you all just gluttons for punishment…?” Gilda ran a talon along the mare’s pearly white face, making the pony flinch.
“Y-yes Mistress…” Rarity’s voice barely held it’s composure under the touch. The unicorn had volunteered for this position, at first it was her younger sister who she was found with that was supposed to be Gilda’s, but Rarity had given up her life in order to protect her sister’s.
“Dash, I gotta tell you, these personal unicorns are amazing. You really have to ask your father for one…” A sly grin crossed the Griffon’s beak. “They really know their way around with whatever horn they have left…” Talons went through the unicorn’s mane, not ruining the style but getting a couple of hairs out of place.
“Uhh…no thanks, Gilda. I’m not into…unicorns…I prefer my own race…” Rainbow always felt nervous around Gilda. The Griffon was a sexual deviant in the purest sense of the word, she enjoyed the taboo of keeping a unicorn for one’s sexual gratification…and that was just plain gross to Dash. If the King ever caught her with a unicorn, he would have both of their heads.
“Suit yourself…” The Griffon shrugged and patted her unicorn on the head.
“RAINBOW DASH!” The call didn’t come from this floor, but it echoed madly through the whole castle. It was her father, and he was still mad. “WAR ROOM, NOW!” The Griffon across from her simply looked at her unicorn slave, not saying a word. Dash took this as her cue to leave and attend to her father’s rage.
The halls of the castle were deserted; most of the servants were hiding from the wrath of their king. Getting in the way of the raging monarch was a one-way ticket to the dungeon…or a long fall from a high balcony.
Dash flew through the castle, going between floors through passageways made specifically for pegasi. The stairs were for the earth pony servants and prisoners, not for the highest and fairest race.
Third floor: parliament chambers, press room, and diplomatic chambers.
Second floor: Griffon Embassy, Kitchen, Dining hall.
First floor: Throne room, Execution chambers, Hall of ancestors.
Sub-Level One: War room.
Dash alighted on a stool that was provided. A number of the stools surrounded a large round table that had the map of Equestria chiseled onto it. It had miniature metal pegasi troops stationed all around it, and metal unicorns in other places. It was how the King kept track of where his troops had searched and where they were going next.
Her father, the wise King Typhoon, sat across from her at the table. His wings moved a pegasus figurine across the map to Whitetail Wood. He was still seething with rage; she could see it in his body language. The tension in his shoulders, the way his yellow eyes threatened to throw lightning bolts at whomever he looked at.
“You called father…?” Even Dash knew when her sharp tongue needed to be dulled; during her father’s rage was one of those times.
“A…beast tainted me with her magic today….” The King looked up at her, righteous fury in his eyes. “They are getting smarter, allowing capture to attempt assassinations.” A blue wing picked up a unicorn figurine and threw it across the room with great disdain. “If we cannot quell this…plague soon…it may be the end of me.” His head fell, attitude sobered.
“Don’t talk like that, dad. You’ll get ‘em.” She flared her wings and puffed out her chest. “I’ll even help! The Wonderbolts could use a new member, and I know I can do it.” It was a last ditch effort, sure. But maybe in his current state her father would agree to it.
The King simply laughed. “I admire your spirit, daughter…but with their continuing efforts to take me down I need you here, in case they succeed…” She knew what he was suggesting, that he would die at the horns of the enemy. “If they do dethrone me, you must know the greatest of our Kingdom’s greatest secret…” He leaned in, his eyes heavy with untold burdens. “Almost a thousand years ago, toward the end of Hurricane’s reign, they settled a capital at the top of this mountain.”
Dash nodded, it was in all of the storybooks and taught in all of the churches.
“However, they found something in the mountain…two creatures.” Dash’s ears perked up. “They were both unicorn and pegasus, hybrids. At first Hurricane’s advisors wanted them killed, thrown off of the mountain to their death, for you see they were but fledglings, barely able to stand let alone fly. But Hurricane refused, they might have been the key to defeating the unicorn menace…”
Hybrids? She knew nothing of such creatures.
Her father stood and trotted over to a stone wall. “It came to light that these two creatures, the hybrids, were of immense power. When they cried, the sun and moon waned, when they were happy the sun and moon shone brighter than ever…they were Gods.” He slammed his hoof into the wall, a proud look crossing his features. “And we had them; we had Gods at our control. Generations passed, the creatures did not perish from old age or hunger, they simply persisted.” The stone wall started to move. “So Queen Tornado, Hurricane’s great-great-granddaughter, decided she could control them, use them as pawns….” The whole wall shifted and it revealed a large cave, two creatures huddled next to each other in the farthest reaches of the space. “She named them Celestia and Luna.”
--
“Twilight…may I speak with you?” A carnation pink earth pony with a lighter pink mane tapped the lead unicorn on her shoulder. The unicorn in question, Twilight Sparkle, was tending to a couple of hungry foals.
“Good news, Cheerilee?” Twilight turned, her horn was one of the few in the camp that still stood proudly. It poked between her three-tone purple mane, casting a light shadow across her face. Most ponies thought that the horn drew attention away from her one cloudy eye. Years ago she got into a scuffle with a Wonderbolt and escaped with only a scarred cornea.
“No…just the opposite.” Cheerilee frowned deeply. She hated being the bearer of bad news but it was her job. She was the unicorn camp’s one link to the outside world, their one lifeline. “Lyra was caught while on patrol…she attacked the King when she was put on trial and…and…” She couldn’t finish the though, she didn’t even want to think about it.
“It’s alright…she was a brave mare…” Twilight put a hoof on the earth pony’s shoulder. “Her sacrifice will be remembered…” Cheerilee nodded. “Now go, we need your eyes and ears out there, in here you are as blind as us.” Once again a nod from the teacher, then she turned and left.
Twilight had been leading these ponies, these fugitives, for years now. Just a couple of months ago she lead them into the Everfree Forest on the outskirts of a little town at the base of the great mountain. Many of her followers thought her mad, but when she set up camp in the darkest part of the woods across a gorge and surrounded by a natural stone fortress…well all of a sudden she was a savior, not a nut.
She knew that there was one place the Wonderbolts could not see, one place no pegasus would dare venture, the Everfree. However, if trained properly, unicorn magic could turn this place into a paradise. If only the magic texts weren’t locked up in the royal library, then Twilight could properly train her people instead of going off of pure instinct.
Some days Twilight wished that she could just give in and take her punishment, then she saw the faces of unicorn foals who would never be able to learn magic, who would never be able to function properly and then she snapped back to the cold harsh reality. The world would never allow unicorns to live in peace as long as the Pegasus regime remained in power. It was her job to do this, to usurp the unicorn King…and she had just the plan.
In a few days the Princess was due to make an appearance in Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration…and King Typhoon, seeing his little Princess as the light of the world, sent her to whatever city would host the event. This year: Ponyville.
Twilight had enough spies in the earth pony town that at the right moment when the sun would be hitting the crowd and blind them. At that time some of her spies would snatch up the Princess and bring her back here. After that was still up to debate, half of the ponies here wanted the Princess to be executed and her head sent to the King, the other said hold her for ransom. Twilight was partial to the ransom plan, after all killing the Princess would only bring the wrath of the King down harder than ever.
It was all just so overwhelming, Twilight didn’t want to think about it right now. The lead unicorn trotted off towards her hut, a modest thing made out of mud and twigs. It was no bigger than anypony else’s, she was in the same position as them and would not be treated differently.
Maybe one day, perhaps, just perhaps, she could trade this hut for a proper house...a proper house with pegasi and earth pony neighbors. It was a dream, and only a dream.
