Part 15: Open Up Your Eyes
The interior of the zeppelin was very dark, only a few hanging lights provided any sort of illumination. And they bathed their surroundings in an ominous red glow.
Tempest soon strolled in. She smiled as she looked at the cage and beheld her captive: Princess Twilight Sparkle in all her glory. And unlike the other princesses, she had been captured without the need to be turned to crystal. The Storm King was sure not to mind that.
Twilight, for her part, remained silent and forlorn. She just stared off into the distance. She wasn't crying or sobbing. In fact, she seemed to not be moving at all. One could've been mistaken for thinking that she was just a frozen statue and not the real thing.
Tempest trotted towards the cage, eager to chat with her captive and get in a few teasing remarks while she could. "Gotta say, I'm surprised: I expected you to make it difficult for me to find you, princess," She humped and frowned a bit. "To think, you could've just surrendered to me back in Ponyville. We could've saved all this trouble and no one would've needed to get hurt. But you insisted on making me chase you to the ends of the world and back. Yet when I most expected you to fight, you chose to give yourself up. You continue to baffle me."
The captive alicorn still said nothing. She remained silent and just sat there.
The hornless unicorn snorted, narrowing her eyes as she pressed the stub on her forehead up against the cage. "Oh come on! Now you're all silent! You're taking all the fun out of this!" She stomped a hoof down in frustration! "I thought capturing you would give me satisfaction, but all I have is this empty feeling. What's the point of me capturing you if you're just going to throw your life away? No chat, no defiance, no anything. It's almost like you wanted me to take you prisoner. But come on, surely the princess of friendship isn't like that. You must've given yourself up for your friends, perhaps even your 'son', Spike."
Yet Twilight still refused to say or do anything. She seemed to have lost any will to do anything at all.
Tempest gave a low growl and turned her back to the princess. "This is a waste of my time. I might as well have turned you to crystal too."
At last, Twilight spoke. She spoke in a slow, sorrowful tone. And she said only one word. It was spoken so softly it was hard to hear her. "Why?"
Tempest spun around, perplexed by the princess' proclamation. "'Why' what?"
Twilight seemed to find the courage to speak as she clarified her question. "Why do all this, Tempest? Why side with the Storm King? How can you turn your back on Equestria, on your own kind?"
The hornless unicorn rolled her eyes. "Really, you're gonna ask that? I don't have a choice, princess. What the Storm King wants, the Storm King gets. Whatever he decides to do is no concern of mine. As long as I stay on his good side, that's all that really matters." It was possible to notice the faintest hint of regret creeping into her tone of voice, even though she was doing a good job of trying to mask it.
The young alicorn continued. "But I don't understand why, or how. Why would you give yourself over to someone like the Storm King in the first place? Why betray your roots and your home country? You're a pony, like me."
Those words appeared to touch a nerve of some sort with Tempest. She trotted up to the cage with gritted teeth, pressing the stub on her forehead up to its metal bars as it sparked and crackled ominously. "That's where you're wrong, princess. I may be a pony, but I'm not like you: Never was and never will be! You may not see it my way yet, but you will soon enough!" And with that, she launched into a song, singing angrily and coldly:
It's time you learned a lesson,
It's that you understand.
Don't ever count on anyone else,
In this or any other land.
I once hoped for friendship,
To find a place among my kind.
But such was mere childish thinking,
Friendship was just a lie!
Suddenly, as she sang, plumes of reddish-orange smoke shot up from underneath the cage Twilight was in! They flooded the room with light, casting shadows on the walls that seemed to move around with Tempest. Strangely enough, the shadows were uneven: The ones on the left depicted her with a full horn, while the ones on the right reflected her as she was (without a horn). All the while, she was singing loudly:
Open up your eeeeyes!
See the world from where I stand.
Me among the might.
You caged at my command.
Open up your eeeeyes!
Give up your sweet, fantasy land.
It's time to grow up, and get wise.
So come now, little one.
Open up your eyes!
When Tempest had finished singing, she trotted back to the cage and locked eyes with her prisoner. "I know what you must be thinking: 'Tempest, what made you what you are?' Well, if you want to know so badly, take a look for yourself," She gestured to the alicorn's horn. "Go ahead. I won't stop you."
Reluctantly, Twilight lit up her horn. And once it was glowing brightly, she pressed the tip of it to Tempest's head, just above the eyes. There was a flash, and the alicorn's surroundings were bathed in brilliant white light!
When the light finally faded, Twilight found herself looking at scenes that appeared to be rendered as if they were in a child's storybook. There was what appeared to be a younger, blank flanked Tempest, still with a horn. And she was happily running and playing with two other unicorns: One a lime green in color, and the other a shade of metalic blue. The three unicorn fillies were happily bouncing a ball back and forth to each other via their magic. And they didn't seem to have a care in the world.
The memories were interrupted only briefly by the voice of Tempest from the present, who called to the alicorn. "You can see it now, can't you? The day it all changed for me. The day I realized how cruel and unforgiving the world really is, and how little good the magic of friendship does to those who need it most." The memories then resumed playing, all the while Tempest could be heard singing:
We all start out the same,
With simple, naive trust.
Always shielded from the many ways,
That life isn't fair or just.
But then there comes a moment,
A simple truth that you must face.
That if you depend on others:
You'll never find your place!
As the singing ended, the memories shifted. The unicorn fillies stopped playing when their ball accidentally bounced right into a cave. The two other unicorns looked to the blank flanked Tempest and seemed to encourage her to go into the cave to retrieve the ball. The filly Tempest obeyed despite her visible hesitation.
Soon, little Tempest had retrieved the ball. But before she could leave the cave and get back to the other unicorns, there came a thunderous roar! The filly looked up, and almost dropped dead at the sight! There stood an ursa minor, apparently fully grown and very angry at having its cave intruded into.
The filly Tempest tried to light up her horn and teleport away, but she was so frightened that she couldn't concentrate! All her horn could do was spark in vain. And before she could do anything else, it was too late! The ursa minor swung at her with its sharp claws, one of which struck her across the face! The claw knocked the filly's horn clean off! It fell upon the ground and shattered into pieces, leaving Tempest with just a little stub where her horn should be.
Despite being badly wounded, however, the now hornless unicorn somehow managed to get away from the ursa minor. But once she was outside the cave, she only had enough strength to roll the ball forward a few inches before collapsing! The other two unicorns rushed to her side, horrified at the sight! But it was clear from the looks on their faces that they didn't know what to do in this situation.
The memories changed rapidly. Everything seemed to be happening so fast. The hornless Tempest was rushed to what appeared to be a small hospital of some sorts, doctors working on her with rapid precision as they attempted to stabilize her! The surgery appeared to be succesful, because the filly was able to recover. But she was forever altered as a result of the attack: Her right eye now displayed the visible scar from where the ursa minor's claw had struck her after knocking off her horn. And it was soon clear that the doctors had not been able to reattach the shattered horn, telling the still blank flanked filly in no uncertain terms that her horn was gone forever.
A sorrowful Tempest was heartbroken at the news! But her sorrow quickly turned to anger and frustration as she looked out the window! She could see other ponies, especially unicorns. and they were all running around as happy as can be. None of them seemed to have a care in the world. It seemed like nopony truly cared what had happened to her. Even the two other unicorns she had been with had not showed up to her hospital room. It was like they'd already forgotten all about her. Now that she was without a horn, she was basically cut off from ponykind.
So it was that, with tears in her eyes and the stub on her forehead sparking and crackling that the blank flanked Tempest took off! She didn't look back once, even as she swore she could hear ponies shouting at her, begging her to come back! But all she could think about was how the world had wronged her, and how it had robbed her of all that mattered. In one fell swoop she had lost her horn, her magic, and her innocence.
Then, as the memories began to fade, an image appeared of the still blank flanked filly Tempest looking up to the sky. She saw storm clouds rumbling, flashing with lightning. And the last thing that was seen was her being approached by a figure that was unmistakably the Storm King. He spoke not a word, but looked upon the hornless unicorn with a sinister smile. It seemed he had plans for her, and was ready to take her in.
When the memories disappeared a moment later and Twilight returned to reality, she could hear Tempest singing in a sorrowful, bitter tone:
Then as you take that first step,
Down a path that's all your own.
You see it all so clearly,
The best way to survive is all alone!
"Well, now you know," Tempest coldly replied. "And I don't need your pity! I don't need anyone's pity! It couldn't bring back my horn, it couldn't bring back my friends, it couldn't bring back anything! Equestria had cut me off whether it meant to or not. I never even planned to join the Storm King. I just knew I had to get away. I had to go somewhere, anywhere. I made my choice long ago. There's no turning back now."
To say that Twilight was shocked by how hardened Tempest had become as a result of that childhood accident would be an understatement. To think that anypony could've experienced such tramua at such a young age, and yet no one had been there to help. Was it just an isolated incident? Or were there more ponies like Tempest out there who had been robbed of so much, and gotten so little in return?
Without waiting for any kind of reply from the princess, Tempest just started to sing again as she pressed a button and made Twilight's cage begin to rise:
Open up your eeeeyes!
See the world from where I stand.
Me among the might.
You caged at my command.
Yes, open up your eeeeyes!
And behold, the faded light!
It's time to grow up, and get wise.
So come now, little one,
Open up your eyes.
Open up your eeeeyes!
As the singing ended, the roof of the zeppelin opened up. And Twilight took in a most horrifying sight! Ponyville was completely covered in storm clouds, which blocked out all natural light. In the amount of time she had been gone, the town appeared to have fallen into a state of despair and decay.
"Do you see now, princess?" Tempest coldy, cruely taunted. "This is what the magic of friendship has brought: Nothing but pain and misery. When it matters most, it's nowhere to be found. And the outside world is even worse: You have to fight just to survive. You may have believed otherwise, but now you see the world as I see it: Cruel, unforgiving, without mercy. Still believe friendship is magic? Still believe that friendship can fix anything? Or have you finally seen the reality of the situation? Face it, princess, friendship has failed us both."
But Twilight could only shake her head and glumly replied. "Friendship didn't fail me, I failed friendship."
The hornless unicorn scoffed at the remark. "Hmph, still with the self rightuious talk, I see. Well, I guess you can cling to hope for a little longer. One way or another, though, the Storm King will take it from you like he will take your magic. And you've only yourself to blame."
"Tempest, please!" Twilight desperately pleaded! "It's not too late, even for you!"
Tempest would hear nothing of such talk. "It's hopeless, princess. I'm already too far gone to be saved. And soon, all of Equestria will meet the same fate." With that, she turned and trotted away.
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Well, all I can say is excellent job, again, on the modifications to the exchange, characterizations and future chapter set-up. The reason for the re-write also makes a great deal of sense and I'm looking forward to more of this.
11903112
No, still not weird.
Especially if he's hanging out with his older sibling and is kind of closer to their age anyway.
Why he hangs with them than just the CMC? Because his bond with the Mane 6, with Twilight
They literally just did forced themselves into one interpritation by saying he's a pet/property to Twilight, which is literally the worst choice by making him a dog.
He's both like a son and a BROTHER to Twilight.
The EQG side could be a nod to the fact he's is also basically her little brother too.
So him being human WOULD work in his rewrites if he does EQG.
11904502 I hadn't considered the teleportation prospect. But the idea is that Twilight surrendered because she felt that there was no point trying to keep running after her actions in Seaquestria backfired.
11904647
And then how do you answer the question on if Spike hangs out with friends his own age if he were a human? Or address why Spike never hangs out with friends that are closer to his age?
You also didn't answer my ask to name one preteen boy character in a piece of media that hangs out with a bunch of older female teenagers instead of friends his own age? At least answer that.
And how is the CMC's bond with the Mane 6 any weaker than Spike's bond with the Mane 6? They're essentially the younger siblings of Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Rarity so how would it be any different than Spike?
How would human Spike have even met Sci-Twi anyway? At least in the pony world, we have Pony Twilight hatched Spike when he was an egg for how they met. How would we get that to translate in how human Spike and Sci-Twi met in a similar circumstance to the Equestria counterparts?
So, who would be Sci-Twi's pet in the short Pet Project then? Sci-Twi still needs a pet.
And you act like people don't consider their dogs family. I've seen plenty of animated shows with talking dogs where the talking animal is considered part of the family.
And why do you get so worked up about Spike being a dog? It's like you can't even try to enjoy anything else about Equestria Girls. Like, why can't you ever try to enjoy Sunset, Sci-Twi, and the rest of the Rainbooms? Especially since Sunset and Sci-Twi are the main protagonists of the spin off anyway.