Twilight x Tempest etude · 4:21pm Aug 26th, 2020
Hmm, gotta break my slumber. I've got some ideas about circumstances Twi and Tempest could start growing closer, so consider this a draft. The setting: Twi has separated with her friends (reason unknown) and got captured by Commander Shadow, being kept in a cage at the latter's flagship, and summoned by her for an interrogation.
Tw.: "So, brought me in to fill the place?" Twilight attempted a joke, following Commander Shadow into her office. She wore a leather strap corset locking her wings, and an enchanted ring on her horn suppressing her magic.
Tp.: "Hush. I'm totally fine with it without you." Tempest proceeded to her seat at a massive desk, gesturing to the alicorn to take place in the opposite. Two illuminators and cold electric lights lit the desk, a couple closets, and a large chest near a map of Equestria on the wall.
Tw.: "Heh. Well, as for me, it's quite comforting to see a pony face among all these trolls. At least we are of the same kind."
Tp.: "Cease this friendship talking, you. One must be a peer to me to even hope to befriend me."
Tw.: "Tells me the mare supposed to capture me weeks ago, backed up with all the power of the Storm King's army."
Tp.: "You weren't the only burr in my mane, so don't think it makes you special. One way or another, now you're going where you are supposed to go."
Tw.: "So devoted. I doubt you do anything here other than eating, training, and sleeping, do you?"
Tp.: "I have a goal to reach. Catching up later."
Tw.: "So you really believe the Storm King will do his part of the deal? I could help you just as well."
Tp.: "Ha, and why would I trust you?"
Tw.: "Because I'm a pony?"
Tp.: "Are you a traveling healer, helping all injured?"
Tw.: "No, but... Let's say, you've got my attention."
Tp.: "How sweet. But you haven't got mine. We're here to speak about you, not me, and not personally. You tell what you know, and go back to the cage."
Twilight stood up, and walked towards the wall map.
Tw.: "I wouldn't think so one-directionally in your place. You've already failed your liege, leaving three alicorns without a proper guard."
Tp.: "Petrified."
Tw.: "Like if that's final."
Tp.: "The Storm King is there himself. He's powerful enough to handle that."
Tw.: "You sure? You're a significant part of his power. But even you the Staff will outshine, Commander Shadow. Will the king recall your little agreement then? About your precious horn..."
Tempest angrily marched towards the other mare and pushed her, pressing her chest to the wall with her elbow, closing their faces.
Tp.: "We're already wasting time here, but watch your tongue when speaking about the Storm King!"
Tw.: "You know," Twilight grinned slyly from behind her eyelashes, "I've red in a book... that it helps to befriend somepony... if you share a secret with them."
Tempest huffed.
Tw.: "I see you use Bright Star's magic blocker here," her eyes pointed to a ring sitting tight at the base of her horn.
Tw.: "My secret is," she leaned slightly towards Tempest's ear, dropping voice to a whisper, her grin growing sharper as her captor's foreleg pressed stronger. "It's a good blocker... But you need a fully-functional unicorn to control it!"
A metallic ringing sound quickly filled Tempest’s ears (in hindsight, it had already been there for a while, just barely detectable). Her captive’s head jerked up, and shards of the blocker ring, torn apart by magic resonance, swished above her mane. The dark mare felt a force pushing her back, and a lightning charge from her ersatz-horn drowned in the enemy magic. Twilight now stood, smiling wide, face-to-face and hoof-to-hoof with Tempest.
Tw.: “Speaking of being peers with somepony...”
They rushed into a wild dance of jumps and kicks. The soldier before Twilight was a tough opponent, though now she felt the sparkling magic better, her actions wouldn't endanger her friends, and the recent days' frustration and fears had given her new energy. Not to say about the pretty mare before her, so desperately calling for friendship.
Tempest's breath had grown heavier. The sudden sparring wasn't going as easy as she had expected, and that soft-flank princess was repeatedly succeeding in parring her attacks. Her lightning charges kept dissipating in a purple mist, and where her strongest strikes would undoubtedly sweep the other mare off her hooves, a magic protection stood in her way, pushing back.
Bitch.
Tempest cursed, as the opposing force now seemed exceeding hers. Her ersatz-horn lacked flexibility, and her muscles were through a matching challenge. Finally, when the combat had led them to standing on their hindlegs in a clench, the alicorn managed to push her off balance, and Tempest ran, her back forward, through a doorway into her private chamber, and stumbled over her bed's edge, falling into the covers. Twilight fell on top, snapping her teeth predatory before Tempest's face.
"Befriend me!"
They froze.
Then Twilight slowly rolled aside, and started to laugh, as much as the exhaustion from the combat led her.
Tempest felt the corners of her lips lifting.
"O-o-ka-a-ay," she drawled, "you've got my attention... princess. But you stand no chance against me without magic!"
She suddenly sprung up, her movement reflecting in the other's mare eyes, and rode her in a split second, pinning her forehooves to the bed.
"Hey!"
Touching that mare skin-to-skin, not through the metal, was strangely pleasant, Tempest thought. Her captive shuffled.
"First of all, without magic, I would avoid getting into a position like this," Twilight said, then grinned. "Maybe."
Tempest snorted.
"And even a foal can tell you that you excel me as a warrior. But I'm a better mage."
Tempest sighed, then dismounted, and lay down slightly aside.
"What now? Things were way simpler when we entered."
"Now I have to prove you that the king is cheating you, and that you belong to Equestria, not here. And all that without any evident deviations from the orders you have received... At least not until you accept my point."
The problem I had with the movie in general was how much was sort of forced to happen for the plot. All the princesses were defeated so easily, the elements were driven off, Twilight acted out of character to keep there from being a simpler solution, ect. It made the charterers we have seen become so competent let themselves fall for everything in service of a rushed story needing a big climax. Honestly this scenario you set out is more like what I wanted to see from the movie. The charterers we love having moments where they get to shine and show what they can do.
Recently I finished a tempest story where Twilight gets busted snooping on a date tempest is on. However she gets busted because tempest is turning her date into a bar room brawl and someone let's lose an ancient cursed object to level the playing field. Twilight steps in, says that's enough, ancient artifact is fired at her, she nullifies it, takes it from it's wielder, and turned it on them without being corrupted by it. She is in complete control of the situation, and it was awesome. Getting to see the charterers have a bada$$ moment like that was so great.
I'd say go with this idea, but you could potentially make it into more of a what if scenario where you reimagine the airship scene from the movie. Change it into a situation where Twilight let herself be caught and the others are actually laying in wait to help her. Then maybe they even come in at the wrong time and discover that Twilight, eh-hem, doesn't need their help at the moment.
5366437
And don't forget the missing Discord!
I must say the movie is quite amazing at picturing the lands of Equestria, and certainly it's given us one of the hottest mares in the world. Though while one half of the movie is the amazing visuals, the other one definitely is mostly plotholes. Rewriting it into a reasonable scenario would require a lot of efforts, so I focused on the part that interested me the most, simply taking "Twi's a prisoner on the ship" as a starting point. It leaves us a freedom of fantasizing about how she has got there.
By the way, what's the name of that story? (Hm, cursed ancient artifacts in Equestria are like mud. Everywhere.)
A Tempestuous, Pharyngeal Engagement is the name of that story. I do recommend it highly.
Btw, I almost added a bit something like, "unless you're into that sort of thing" at the end of my scenario.
And yeah, the discord part just goes to show how far they had to go to make a threat seen credible. I feel like fans probably have rewriting the entire movie, and probably did a better job of it. I was on the fence about the visuals when I first saw them, but you are right, it ended up being visually stunning both in style and scale.
5366482
Ok, pud the story on my ~1200 fics long read-it-later list.
The feeling when watching the movie in a cinema was magical. Like, a milestone in the life of MLP community. Though there was quite few people there, it was my personal day off in the middle of a work week.