//------------------------------// // Bonus Chapter: Critical Research Failure // Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover // by Tarbtano //------------------------------// ===================================================== Sometime during the time skip in the Rainbow Rocks Arc ===================================================== Uuuu-uurrg… Mind’s… dizzy… what… what happened? Think… retrace your steps… My name is Tempest Shadow… or more correctly that’s what I’m referred to now after joining the Storm King’s army. I haven’t heard or used my birth-name in decades. Fizzlepop Berrytwist doesn’t exactly inspire fear or respect. Storm King approved, said “Tempest” was perfectly “on brand” with a laugh. In hindsight I am still not sure if my liege is a loon or a tactical monster in his bid to become the most powerful creature on the planet. My life on the bet? Probably a little column A, a little column B. Sometimes I ponder if he even could fix my horn to give me my life back. But, event horizon at this point. I’ve lost so much, traveled so far to get it back. I took up this job to regain one I was denied. The world only makes sense when you claw your way through the struggles it lobs at you. In all my days I learned one simple thing: you can’t rely on anyone. Not my troops, not my aide Grubber, not my new liege, not any so-called friends, not even my own species. First time I even saw another bonafide pony in years, it was when I was leading a force to rip through Canterlot like a hurricane. Yes, it was the attack. It seemed to be set up well, if more than a bit rushed. We called off the attack on the Hippogryphs and came ahead of schedule by a wide margin because word through the grapevine said Equestria had “gotten big gains on a massive scale”. It was far too enticing a prospect for Storm King to wait or pass up. I was ambivalent, after all we were going to attack sooner or later. And the sooner the alicorn magic was my liege’s, the sooner I could be granted my prize. By Storm King’s hand… Or taken for myself, should it come to the reality Storm King couldn’t deliver. But… something went amiss. ===================== The Storm Armada’s ships pulled free of the massive storm clouds looming over the unsuspecting city. Tempest regarded the brightness and visible magic in the air with a sneer. Such a waste on the useless. Grubber scampered down the landing ramp to give his introduction as Tempest shrugged and waited for her cue. Grubber always was for theatrics and it came with the bonus of keeping attention on the flagship while the yeti transports circled around. ===================== It seemed to go off without a hitch, the imbecilic ponies seemed so dumbfounded by our approach and Grubber’s introduction that they didn’t react to an invasion. ===================== “-For Comandeeeer Tempeeest!”, Grubber hollered through his projector as his commander stepped up and regarded the crowd below with a stoic glare. She restrained her mild surprise, spying three of the four alicorns surrounded by a menagerie of foreigners. A few yaks, gryphons, zebra, arabian horses, even a mermare and set of seaponies relaxing in a fountain. ===================== It seemed there was some sort of international gathering. Maybe they thought I was some other foreign representative, especially after Grubber called out our liege’s name for all. Did those fools think I came bearing a gift or exchange? I supposed I did introduce them to something in a way however… ===================== The misfortune malachite grenade got lobbed forward at the Crystal Imperial Princess before anypony could react, or felt the need to when she effortlessly caught it with her magic. However, this fel gemstone was something none in any of the gathered kingdoms or republics could have any context for, so when the malachite glowed and exploded to spray a greenish gas inside Princess Cadance’s shield; none could have possibly thought the screaming alicorn would be turned to stone at the breath of a second. The courtyard of Canterlot turned into absolute chaos. Ponies and other races rushing about, yeti troopers rappelling down or bursting into the scene to either give chase to those fleeing or fight it out with those standing their ground. Screams, war cries, shrieks of breaking wood and foundation with the crash of weapons, absolute pandemonium. Princess Celestia vanished suddenly with Captain Frost and Princess Luna busy trying to keep the bystanders out of the crossfire and had lost track of Tempest, just as the unicorn started to barrel at them with the other three malachite grenades prepared. ===================== In the present, Tempest winced as the memories came trickling back like a reassembling puzzle. Yes… I got the first alicorn and was going for Princess Luna since she was closest and distracted. She was shouting something to the guards, but I couldn’t quite catch it. Vanilla? What- what was? ===================== -Vanilla? She’s seriously calling out for vanilla? Urg, these ponies and their priorities are so arrogant. Then again, some of Storm King’s loathing for sugary sights and tastes might be rubbing off on me… Enjoy your cry for confectionery Luna, it’ll be your last bearing magic.- Tempest drew up and started to wind up and pitch the grenade, idly catching a glimpse of Princess Luna shooting at something. In hindsight, she should have noticed the direction of fire was far away from any of her troops or ships and seemed to be just a random burst straight up into the air. Had she not written the Equestrians off so thoroughly, she’d have considered them up to something. But she did, and she smirked while launching the petrification burst at Princess Luna. ===================== In hindsight, I should have been wary of a lot of things. The fourth alicorn wasn’t even present, nor was Princess Celestia as soon as the commotion happened oddly enough, I didn’t account for some present like the royal guard, foreign aid such as the visiting yaks, gryphons, and minotaurs especially helping hold off the troops, and the fact we were almost completely six months out of date in terms of what was going on in Equestria outside of there being a big gathering and the aforementioned “big gains”. Usually that meant a huge haul… Or knowing these ponies, a massive party that was begging for plunder. I couldn’t have ever known it would have arrived… It came out of nowhere. ===================== An enormous surge of red light burst out of the space beyond Canterlot, where Luna had been shooting at. Suddenly a shape barreled down from the sky and slammed into the ground before the grenade could reach Princess Luna to intercept it. It hit the ground so fast and so hard the shockwave knocked Tempest back and sent her sprawling. Through her delirium as she rose, she glimpsed it to be a massive, nearly two story tall spire of crystal that was half turned to stone as it absorbed the petrifying mists through sheer mass. Dumbstruck, Tempest scrambled backwards with her other two grenades at the ready. She backed up towards her flagship and tried to frantically look about and fathom just what was going on when a rush of heat blew over her head. Pitching her eyes up to the near blinding source, she beheld a torrent of orange plasma whirl above her and launch it and its spear-pointed tip at the armada. The energy beam carved through the first armored zepplin’s balloons like a hot knife through butter, before arching around and impaling the second in the same manner. It jumped ship to ship, sending them all on a slow plummet to the grounds. The crews inside would be safe from the burning wreckage atop, but it cast a ghastly sight to the yeti soldiers. But if the sinking of their fleet gave them pause, the roar of the greatest beast many had ever known ringing out caused them all to stop and gape. Tempest felt the air shift behind her, the updraft of something huge coming up beside the platform. ===================== You can’t rely on anything but yourself, so I guess that makes me to blame for failing to spot check… My liege wanted to become the most powerful creature on the planet. He’d have to get in line. ===================== The enormity of the shadow was as breathtaking as it was terrifying, as petrifying as the malachite. Tempest looked left, she looked right, and it just kept coming. An impossibility, something so big it shouldn’t even exist. Gargantuan hands lashed out and grabbed onto the escort ship’s balloons, crushing them with ease and dropping them on the platform as it’s head and shoulders caved through Tempest’s flagship completely unimpeded. Wreckage of the ship snapping in half billowed down massive shoulders adorned with crystal pillars greater in size than the biggest whales, wreathing the face in dust and smoke. When she saw glowing suns, eyes the size of carriages, through the haze glaring down at her as it approached, she was compelled. Either driven by gumption being just that powerful or the panicked flailing a prey feels in the face of a predator, she chucked both the malachite grenades at where the face might be. One froze in midair, suspended by waves of odd yellow hues streaming from the shoulder crystals, though the other seemed to strike home just below the left eye. It didn’t stop the entity in its stalking forward. ===================== Evidently a lot had changed in Equestria since we last heard of a fourth alicorn princess… ===================== The clouds of green petrifying mist work, it worked! But that thing just kept coming, impossible in implacableness as it was impossible in existence. It loomed out of the smoke and she could glimpse it. Eyes burning with starry fire, teeth taller than she was, the burning heat of a roar that engulfed the sound of the world. The very air behind it hit her like a train. The last thing she remembered was the sheer force of the roar sending her flying back and into a stone wall, knocking her out instantly. ===================== The memory pieced back together, Tempest felt the ringing in her ears intensify as the cloud before her eyes was lifting. Consciousness rushed back into her and she gasped back to awareness. Still, the realm outside her eyes was almost as dark as the one behind. She tried to move but found no yield. While the room she was in was extremely poorly lit she could just barely see what was around her, soon finding herself looking at an array of crystals encircling her legs to bind them. To her growing surprise and confusion, attempts to break free only resulted in more crystals merging from the cluster holding her down. They grew up on top of the ones pre-existing and started to engulf her lower chest and stomach. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Tempest froze and tried to get a visual lock on where the voice was coming from when the voice called out from the shade again. “Look up.” Unable to see where it was coming from she shrugged and did so, and when she did she felt her heart stop. Hovering just a mere meter above her head, seemingly suspended in a very thin veil of yellow hued energy, was the last remaining malachite grenade. It was directly above her back in such a way she could only barely see it. “Those crystals help support a lift field that arcs around you in a bubble, helps me to keep your trinket suspended. Break any of that quartz and you’ll be launched up right as you find it dropping down before you have time to get free. And if that happens… Then I suppose you’ll have to make me decide if I want to risk catching your petrified body and keep a lawn ornament, or risk seeing if I have any use for gravel.” The threat caused Tempest to just sneer, unafraid; “Very mouthy for someone not intending to show themselves. Where am-” Her commanding tone was cut off entirely by the voice’s raised volume. She could bark orders that would make thirty armed yeti soldiers quiver, but she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t budging. “Where are you? In a predicament, that’s what. Your men are captive too if you worry for them, the hedgehog… badger… I care not for what he is, is cooperating quite well.” Tempest only grunted as she let her eyes trail around in the darkness, starting to figure out just where her captor was as he talked. She wouldn’t be talked down to without glaring back. “So, I take it you are the fourth alicorn to have done such magic? Could have sworn you were female.” The response she got was only a bemused chuckle, “Poorly boding for you is the fact my knowledge of magic is growing; but I am no alicorn. Then again I never had use for wings to get myself off the ground, even if it would improve agility. Suppose that last comment confirms you have horrible Intel if you were to mistake me for her.” Tempest shifted, able to tell the voice was definitely coming from her left and circling around to be in front of her. She kept him talking to make sure. “Then to whom do I mistake you as?”, She muttered. “Cross me more-” Tempest was given slight pause. She was an exceptionally tall mare, taller than most stallions as a matter of fact. But even if she was used to looking upwards at her hulking troops and towering liege, she was not used to doing so for a pony when out stepped the biggest stallion she’d ever seen in her life. In the shadows cast across his face by the three-pronged horn emerging from his forehead, she could see his eyes glow in a fiery lamp of light. “-And “Death” will suffice. I am called Damien Nassier Xenilla by Equestria, an… ambassador of sorts from where I’m from.” Tempest narrowed her eyes, “And that would be?” The crystals around her legs and stomach tightened even before Xenilla spoke, “Inconsequential.” She winced briefly before blowing off in a scoff. An idle glance was cast upon the malachite above her. “Color me intrigued, but the misfortune malachite usually breaks on contact with magic. And yet I see it up there?” Xenilla rolled his eyes, “Guess that is one thing Equestrians and humans have in common, you tend to use the word magic to describe anything fantastic. Not without reasoning, granted. But I believe I’ve figured out at least how this trinket works now that you mentioned breakage.” Tempest raised an eyebrow as her broken horn start to spark a little, “Oh?” Xenilla started to circle her, just barely staying on the edge of the light to keep some of his features or expressions shadowed, “You were banking on breaking when it hits someone’s magic, as naturally they would try to catch or block it when you launched it at them. Magic shields, at least the ones most use, are air permeable. Otherwise Prince Consort Armor would have choked Canterlot in the lead up to his wedding given that he kept one up for days on end. When these grenades go off, it’s the green gas that petrifies rather than the initial explosion itself. Gas that can go through the air holes, catch the user by surprise.” The crystals surrounding Tempest hummed and emitted a pulse of yellow glow that followed Xenilla around. Looking closer Tempest could glimpse a tiny spark of yellow on his shoulders’ white patches glowing in tandem with the crystals, a link if she ever saw one. “This though? It’s all my telekinesis, but not by spell. Not as precise as a unicorn’s or alicorn’s-” Banking on his attention being away, Tempest gathered her thoughts and thought of everything she hated. The fateful day she lost her horn, the months after in which she was slowly isolated, the years drifting to find a cure, the months of service she honestly hated banking on a promise. It fueled the magic inside her, building up as Xenilla was distracted with his talk. “-lacks finesse as well, but sufficient. Then again, should my attention waver…” There was a gleam in his eyes and crystals stopped humming. The misfortune malachite slipped in the air and dropped down, stopping just a quarter of a meter short of touching Tempest. To her credit she only managed to flinch slightly, glaring at near doom almost hitting her as Xenilla levitated it back to the place after proving his point. “Point. Made,” she growled, “Clearly we’re out of the loop on some details.” Her seriousness was contrasted with her captor’s annoyance, though she thought she could tell there was something hidden behind the ambivalent tone. “Clearly if you mistook me for a pony Princess or the Empress.” Tempest tilted her head and raised an ear slightly, “There’s an Empress now? Last I checked they were all princesses, even the Imperial one.” Xenilla growled and turned away, walking off into the shadow while he was grumbling, “Don’t even get me started again with that.” With his back turned, he didn’t see Tempest smirk as the built up magic inside her vented off. A massive flare of almost firework-like light sprung forth and roared across the room, very briefly illuminating it as it struck Xenilla dead in the center of his back. A bullseye on a big target. He flew back into the wall as Tempest broke herself free of the crystals, nimbly kicking the falling malachite in a leap to strike and petrify the insolent fool who dared underestimate her like so many others had. She then went off to find her troops and salvage this operation… Or at least that’s what she would have done if he hadn’t just stumbled forward and tanked the hit rather than being greatly wounded. His back smoked and Xenilla grunted in obvious pain. His hooves impacted cracked dents into the cobblestone floor hard enough for form a large crater, but he didn’t fall. She only managed to break one hoof out before the crystals tightened down like a vice so sharply it made her grunt in pain. Held down, the glow of the malachite caught her eye. It was about to hit her-! She closed her eyes from it just as the same roar that stole her from the waking world burst across her ears and she felt her mane get blown back by burning breath. She slowly opened her dizzied eyes again, the malachite but a centimeter off from her forehead and Xenilla, having instantly closed the distance, was right in front of her. A very un-equine growl seeped through familiar fangs, “Try that again, and I’m biting off the rest of your horn.” The way he said it made it seem like anything but a bluff. Tempest was frozen stiff, recognizing that roar and those burning eyes. Born more out of shock and confusion than terror, but nonetheless there; for the first time in a long time, she showed some fear. “You…” Her breathlessness was met with a scoff, “First you mistake me for a princess and then you mistake me for an Equestrian. You and your leader really didn’t plan this invasion out. The Princess of Friendship wasn’t even here, she along with my brother and his troop are dealing with issues… across a mirror so to speak.” Between his calm words there was a rage. The room lit up, almost painfully so to her eyes. But it wasn’t the fact she could now see a clearly angered Xenilla, his fur bristling and muscles tensed like a predator about to pounce, that caught her attention. Rather it was the massive hunk of petrified scales, the size of a doorway, leaning up against the wall that did. Xenilla lifted a hoof and tapped at his snout, showing a small mark or recently healing wound just below his tear duct at the start of his snout. “Your weapon lacked volume when it hit me, did no more than just a sliver.” ===================== Hours ago and the gargantuan figure of Xenilla loomed over the city just after knocking out the invader’s leader. He snarled at the still crowd, eyes locking upon each and every one of Tempest’s soldiers. He didn’t even seem to flinch from the piece of his face now encased in rock. One by one, then in droves, they threw down their weapons and held their hands up. After seeing their leader and their strongest weapon be rendered low, morale died. An entire invasion, possibly even a war, brought down in the span of a minute. As the Royal guard and their allies started arresting the yeti, Xenilla leered at the still form of Tempest. Reaching up with a claw, Xenilla wedged it between his still living scales and the petrified ones, painfully peeling the latter off like a torn scab. The patch began to regenerate even before the chunk of discarded rock in the shape of scales impaled the ground beside Tempest. He paid the pain little heed, only shifting to look upon the petrified form of Empress Cadenza as Prince Consort Shining Armor, Armor’s protege Sentry, and the lunar alicorn sister corralled around her. His train car sized, fanged and tusked maw alternated between a snarl and solemn frown. ===================== Xenilla’s growling voice snapped Tempest back to her sense, “-but ripping the stone out was most unpleasant. I’ve had worse… and will do worse if needed!” He snarled, throwing aside the first chunk of cordial formality as he cast out a forelimb. A spark of yellow arced off his shoulder pads and struck the ground, spurring a two meter tall, thin spire of quartz to jut from the floor like a spear. “Your fleet is totaled, your forces captured. And I intend to do worse to your king if I find him. He wouldn’t be the first king I tried to kill since getting here and I have a good track record of playing Mordred.” Another spire shot out of the ground, next to the first but closer. Xenilla’s venom became thicker with every word and the glow upon his eyes built upon itself. “I keep my vows. I vowed to protect the Imperial Crystal family, and you have inconvenienced me.” A third spire shot up, closer still. By now one could see they were definitely heading directly towards Tempest. Xenilla stomped upon the ground and cracked the cobblestone underhoof. “I know what I’ll do to your king, I only question if I must do so for you… You should know after all, the only reason I haven’t already is because I’m honoring the Empress’ and Prince Consort’s rules. But, should my hostess be lost to me, I’ll just use my rules.” “T-This is…”, Tempest was speechless, figuring out just what he intended to do. It seemed so alien coming out of a pony. Xenilla sneered, ”We do things different on Terra.” A fourth spire shot up, this time growing razor edged prongs upon its birth. It was only a meter from Tempest’s prison and the air was heating up around Xenilla, rage visibly broiling off him. “I walked through stars on a whim, risked extinction to stop it, and used royalty as bait to commit regicide, I use any means necessary to get the job done.” A fifth spire erupted, churning the ground so much the rubble of its birth pinged against Tempest’s face. She might have showed no terror, but the coarseness in breath spoke enough. "Th-the alicorn is not dead!" Xenilla whipped around, eyes burning with light as plasma fire flickered out of fanged jaws; giving a distortion and echo to his roar. “And what of her progeny?! You’ve proven poorly planned already, so I doubt you were aware of her pregnancy; and linked system! My vow applies to the child as well and you have tempted to break it!” The spire that shot up directly next to her was taller than the others, shooting up so violently it kept going and impaled the ceiling after scraping across her armor. At last though, Tempest Shadow’s bravado broke. Not out of fear necessarily, but shock. The look she gave Xenilla made it almost seem like he’d run her through already with how wide-eyed and dead quiet it was. “…Ch-Child?! She was?!”, the unicorn’s broken horn smoldered and her face paled in dread. Xenilla narrowed his glowing eyes and snarled like a primal carnivore to give her the answer, a crystal pushing out of the ground directly under Tempest’s body and pushing into her chestplate. The look on the kaiju-pony’s face was absolutely livid, free of restraint as promised. “I made a vow I kept for twenty years, through fire and war. Sacrificed everything for it and was prepared to lose more. I was willing to die for that vow to protect my brother at a moment’s notice and I intend the same for my new charges… So, tell me… Commander Tempest Shadow.” Light flickered out of his fangs as he loomed closer, “Are you vowed to be as loyal?” The crystal pushed up more, starting to bend the metallic armor and put pressure on her ribs. It was to prove a point. If these quartz could ram through solid masonry, her armor and bone wasn’t stopping it; and Xenilla could make it a slow affair. Xenilla towered over the mare, bearing down upon her, “You’re going to tell me everything I need to know… about fixing this mess, or I’m going to be forced to figure it out on my and my colleagues’ own… What… will it… be?” The metal armor started to give more and more, soon it would be her ribs doing the same. Xenilla snarled and Tempest stared back. A liquid drop hit the ground and all stopped. All was silent in the chamber, no crackling of energy, no metal-on-crystal scraping, no enraged interrogation; just a tiny pitter-patter of tears hitting the ground. Tempest didn’t frown, she didn’t emote, she didn’t breathe; but her eyes said it all as her horn started to spark. Xenilla noticed and immediately sneered, cracking the floor underhoof. “I told you to-”, he growled; but now it was his turn to be cut off. Tempest shot her face and neck, her only mobile parts, forward despite it putting more pressure on her chest. “I CAN’T ALWAYS CONTROL IT!”, she shouted with equal parts snappiness and crying as her face dampened more. “I haven’t had full control since I was a filly and I lost it!”, she gasped before continuing her tirade while glaring back at her executioner, “I was good, I tried to be a friend. Just volunteered to go into a deep dark cave to find a lost toy. An Ursa Minor had other plans!” The claw-made scar upon her cheek and brow glistened with a droplet that ran down its length, “I was good. I was always good! I was good after, working hard as I could to keep this broken piece from hurting anyone! But what happened the one or two times I lost control or felt saddened when my friends showed off their magic and grew more distant?! I got scorn, distance, isolation! I wandered about to try and find a way to fix something I never asked for! Living… struggling hoof to mouth and grubbing my way through slum and dredge for years! All this power and glory Equestria has and they squander it while I had mine ripped away from me by an Ursa paw!” She seemed to both look at and look right through Xenilla as she shot closer, “And when I finally, finally get a chance to fix this thing, under someone who gave me the first charity I’ve had in decades; YOU happen!” She leaned up best she could, thoroughly denting her chestplate in the process as she dared to get right into assured death’s face. “So threaten me, run me through or smash me to pulp as what you really are! To death and back I’ll thank you for biting out my horn after I give you the cure, because there sure as Tartarus is no way! My life! Could lose. More!” Xenilla was unmoved as a silence passed through the room, his subtle sneer and stoic glare clashing with Tempest’s persistent will and passion. He leaned in closer, reaching out and swatting one of the crystal spires to shatter it like sugar glass, if only to just demonstrate that he could do the same to who stood before him. “Then tell me. What. Do you know… Of a cure?,” he hissed. Tempest snorted through her nose, “… Whoever made the malachite to begin with ensured a safety, probably if it was used against them. We got that malachite from the felids, they got it from somewhere in your north.” Xenilla rolled his eyes, having suspected something when he heard the words “dark magic” and “gemstone” in the same sentence. -Sombra… of course.- He scoffed, “You wouldn’t carry these with unstable magic, not without a counteragent should things go awry.” “Storm King would sooner destroy me for negligence.” “And you’re not Storm King to me, yet. So what does Commander Tempest do to ensure she doesn’t fail?” The crystals scraped against metal, the sole sound in the chamber being it’s awful hiss. Tempest glared back as she felt the ache in her horn, before relenting to finally get used to it. She paused for a short time before sighing, “Memory spell run through a clairvoyance spell using a focused crystal; that’s what’s needed. Any of the alicorns could do it with a crystal, it’s why I came to get the four by surprise so they couldn’t risk freeing each other. I promise you, it only suspends, it doesn’t freeze. The unborn…” She bowed her head slightly, hoping through the dread, “The child is fine. They’d be suspended just like the parent. I never intended anyone be harmed long term.” “And how am I to know this spell will work?” Tempest couldn’t lift herself up, loss of dreams for a restored life and endangering an infant having drained her, “I tested it on myself once… Proof of concept to Storm King, he thought it was a riot.” Xenilla grunted, “Quite magically savvy for someone in your state.” “I had big aspirations before I lost my horn, maybe to even end up in Canterlot to go to school there.” “Hmph… You’re telling the truth, couldn’t lie after that outburst.“ Tempest swallowed and hung her head, feeling the crystal spire poised towards her heart. Inch or two more or give and it would breach her armor. She felt the end’s eve and shrugged behind closed eyes. “So… Now I’m useless, and the cause of all this. You have me to blame. Just… Let Grubber and the yeti go.” Xenilla raised an eyebrow as he seemed ready to oblige that request, “Friends of yours? Noble of you.” Tempest winced a snarl momentarily before a distant memory flashed back to her. Twas the night she was recruited, when she met the motor-mouthed hedgehog. Grubber was the first to not run from her out-of-control magic eruptions, instead he watched on and applauded. Little fool even had the gall to cheer for her to do it again as some of the yeti applauded. Tempest still hadn’t a clue how to feel about it. She wanted to hate, like she always had; but now? She could only decide it just wasn’t worth it anymore, “No, I’m not and they’re not… But they’re in this because I am. Without me there’d be no invasion. I dug my grave years ago.” Her voice quieted greatly, “Just don’t throw them in with me when you put me in…” Xenilla waited, still as a statue for a time, before his shoulder pads glowed and the crystal shifted upwards. “… Hmph. Make no mistake, I would have four months ago. I would have vaporized you the instant you proved a problem and carried on. The last pony who crossed me and threatened the Empress ended up burned to a cinder after I dragged them through half a castle… and I do literally mean, through the castle. Walls and all.” In an instant, the crystal spires shattered to fine shards that glimmered as they scattered about the floor. Xenilla shrugged as the quartz growths around Tempest eased slightly as not to crush into her as much. “Hate to break it to you, but whatever this Storm King promised you was likely in vain. If he didn’t care enough to check things out this badly, he didn’t care about you. My bet given what Grubber said of him is he’s not magically inclined, alicorn magic or not. In fact, I’d gander there isn’t a known spell outside of maybe what the princesses and empress might know that could fix that horn-” Tempest was dumbstruck for a moment’s breath, unsure of just what was going on when a blue glow crossed her eyes. Xenilla held his hoof out in front of her face, balancing a slowly rotating, neon blue surge crystal on his hoof. “-But this isn’t magic. Been suppressing regeneration on the off chance I could show you this,” he finished. He cracked his neck, telekinetically breaking off a sliver of the surge crystal and crushing it into a powder. Levitating it up to his facial wound, the blue dust crackled and glimmered as it settled in, instantly restoring the skin and muscle tissue to newness. In the span of three seconds, one could never even have distinguished he’d been wounded. Xenilla smirked, “Told you, I’ve had worse. If enough of this could pull my body back together when it was dead set on exploding, a horn should be doable… If you must know I was never going to kill you, just crack through that exterior to see what was there.” He shrugged while giving her a slow nod and subtle smile, “And what’s there isn’t worth the end.” Tempest was wide eyed and thoroughly dumbfounded, beholding and for the first time in years, hoping. But the realization of just what was being offered had caught her completely off guard, “B-But… You’d… The child!?” Xenilla chuckled, “I sensed that child before its mother even did when the Empress just stepped on crystals and now she’s surrounded by them. The Empress and her heir are fine, and will be more so once freed.” Tempest’s face contorted with confusion and clashing emotions as she lurched forward and around the surge crystal, “B-But I’ve dug my grave! I-I led an invasion! Burned and looted! Why would you help me?!” Xenilla practically blew her off, “That grave of yours is a dip in the sand compared to what I’ve done. And yet, someone gave me the chance to fill that grave in. From what I’ve learned, Equestria has a stellar track record for doing that sort of thing. Captain Frost and Princess Luna have already supported finding out more about you and I think they'll agree with what they hear. Listen close.” He sighed and placed a hoof upon her trembling shoulder to stop it, paying a wary eye to her sparking horn before writing it off as involuntary. -Ponies can be so emotional. Even if they just remembered to act like one.- “Four months ago, four years ago, you’d have been me and I know that path. Nothing works for you, terrible things happen regardless of if you try to fix them, and it just results in it getting worse and worse no matter how much you hate it. Four months is a lot of time to change," he frowned, sullen and slowly shaking his head before a sigh shifted his frown into a smile, "If… given the right help and opportunity, like I was. However undeserving I think it. Want to know why I’m giving you this chance? Because I got one and now I’m returning the favor. You know, my family is a varied one, but we agree with the Equestrians on something. Wanna guess?” She was too frozen to do so, unable to take her eyes off Xenilla and the crystal as it levitated closer towards her horn. She could already feel the radiating energy. “You only keep losing if you give up. Storm King is making you do that as his stooge… so, Tempest Shadow. Ready to not give up?” ================== Hours Later ================== Xenilla shrugged as he finished moving several tons of rubble back into place so the teams of unicorns and earth ponies could restore it all. Impressive engineering in Canterlot Castle, he’d give them that. The cobblestones might break off but they snapped back into place pretty easily. Of course having multiple strong yaks, minotaurs, and yeti on hand to help move the heavier loads for the ponies, gryphon and pegasi flight teams to help reposition everything, then mermare and zebra magic to assist the unicorns in fine turning everything sped things along a lot. Another day or so of clean up and Canterlot would barely look like it had ever been invaded… much less had an angry kaiju smash several of said invader’s ships into the main platform. Sitting back to admire the sunset, he absentmindedly touched at his still tingling snout where the wound had been. “You know, if you keep picking at it, it’ll keep tingling.” A sly tone whispered behind him. Xenilla closed his eyes and chuckled, peeking to his right as Blade Dancer flew over next to him and curled her tail around him. “I assure you, I heal a bit different than most, Blades.”, he chuckled slightly with a raised brow. Blade Dancer pouted and poked at his forehead with her hoof, “You imply I care.” That got him to raise his brow, “Oh? You fool my expectations again, Blades. Or am I going to need to worry about you creeping on my brother once he gets back?” Blade Dancer smirked and wiggled her eyebrows with a perked ear, “Xeni, is that jealousy I hear? Thought I took you for smarter.” He shrugged, “Depends on how you read it.” He was about to say more before he was playfully whapped in the face by a pale wing, Blade Dancer snickering as she curled the wing around him and pulled him in closer. “I’m proud of you,” she whispered while rubbing her head up against his collar. Xenilla pulled his neck up and tilted his head in a mildly confused manner reminiscent of a bird or dinosaur. “Hm? Come on, you know taking down a few blimps and screaming at a messed up pony is nothing for me!”, he scoffed. Blade Dancer instead just snuggled up closer and looked up at him with a beaming smile, “I’m not talking about stopping the attack, Xeni; impressive as it was. I’m talking about what you did after.” Xenilla paused before sighing and nodding slightly as he looked off beyond her, actually smiling a bit. The last few hours rushed back to him all at once. Everything from interrogating Tempest, to rushing to help the alicorns make the cure, practically yanking the needed crystal type out of his shoulder to do so, then throwing himself headlong in manual reconstruction to fix up the damages once Cadance was freed and the health of her and her heir were assured. Blade Dancer sighed and whispered, “The jerk I met at the library wouldn’t have done all that.” Xenilla raised his brow while cracking a cheeky expression just barely hidden behind a stiff lip as he joked, “Oh? Point me at the imbecile and I’ll wring him out.” Blade Dancer snorted and snickered, loving that almost goofy way he smiled when he wasn’t acting smug about it. Xenilla just chuckled, “That jerk was a moron too, glad a series of wise souls sent him away. Started with this smart mare who gave him a much-needed slug to the jaw when he was horribly misinformed about love in the empire of it.” Blade Dancer did briefly stifle her laughter enough to calm herself and tapped Xenilla on the sternum, “Were you ever going to kill her? I mean, I understand in a battle. But after the fact when she was helpless. After everything she did.” A long time of thought traveled by before Xenilla’s hoof placed itself upon her’s, “No… Xenilla on Terra would have. But I’ve played the villain a long time to be sick of it; long enough to recognize one when I see it. She wasn’t a Sombra, he was an event horizon that had to be stopped. She was… like me. One bad circumstance after another, a few bad choices, then you’re on a downwards spiral unless someone pulls you out. And if someone like me can be forgiven and given a chance to make right, someone like her could.” “Somepony,” Blade Dancer interjected. Xenilla raised an eyebrow, “Hm?” Blade Dancer shook her head slowly, “It goes ‘Somepony’. If you hadn’t started to make due for what Xenilla of Terra did, you certainly have as Xenilla of Equestria. As you said, the old Xenilla wouldn’t have done what you did-” She raised a hoof, at first playfully booping Xenilla on the nose before smiling and sliding her hoof to his cheek. Xenilla involuntarily sighed and rolled his face towards her velvety’ fur covered wrist. Blade Dancer’s smile widened, “Of Terra or beyond in birth, you’re one of us now.” He said nothing to deny it, he didn’t want to. And he wasn’t the only one considering it. Grubber putzed along with two full pails in hand balancing his awkward gait as he waddled along to the drop off point. As he went down mainstreet, he paid a passing glance to several yeti soldiers going about business. Several were sweeping with undersized brooms, another was helping hold up a wagon wheel as the pony owning said wagon repaired it, others were taking a short break and enjoying a small snack alongside a yak, minotaur, and several ponies. The sight gave the hedgehog more than a few moments of pause and a raised eyebrow. “Huh, that’s kinda surreal…”, he mumbled before noticing a familiar pony up ahead, “Hey, Commander!” The tall unicorn mare turned her head to acknowledge him, Grubber now noticing her scar was a bit more faded than he remembered. “Yes?”, she noted stoically while still doing her work. Grubber set his pails down and plucked up another piece of rubble to place in them whilst glancing at Storm King’s forces doing the opposite of pillage and wreckage to the city. He scratched at the back of his head, “Are we still baddies? I mean plunder, loot, raid, and paste our boss’s merchandise all over it brand baddies.” Tempest looked up to the sky, watching a cloud go by across the evening sky, one still controlled by a sun owned by an unpetrified Princess Luna. She looked back down at her armor and the horned logo upon it. Closing her eyes, the plate bearing the logo was torn free and held before her. She perked her lids up to regard it, seeing a reflection of herself in the dark iron. Without changing her solemn expression, she contemplated simple words. -”Ready to not give up?”- Her cutiemark, a stylized berry pop drink, was revealed to the world for the first time in years. “I’m not giving up,” she whispered as the Storm King logo was tossed aside in the rubbish heap. “-so I quit.” Grubber was, needless to say, more than a bit confused with a cocked eyebrow and hands on his hips; “Eeeeh?” Tempest, reclaiming her true name of Fizzlepop Berrytwist, looked down at her subordinat-... her companion, with the most peaceful expression he’d ever seen her with, one that left him agape. “Staying like this is giving up on a lot of things Grubber, some I’m just realizing. I’m not working for Storm King, and there’s a lot to make up for. So I’m quitting to do that.” “S-Soooo,” the hedgehog tapped at his chin while looking downwards as he tried to think things through, “You’re… NOT giving up… By quitting?” “… Yes.” The realization, and long awaited chance at freedom seemed to hit Grubber’s mind like a lit lightbulb and instantly his perplexed expression turned into a grin. “… I love it!”, he yelped while eagerly tearing off his Storm King logo and Frisbee throwing it into the rubbish pile. His commander actually lifted her brow in a slightly impressed and surprised nature, “You do know we have a lot to make due for.” Grubber just blew a raspberry and waved her off, “Oh pleeeease, we got a good basis as any if we play it right. We’re good aircrews and some of the ship hulls are still in good shape after Dino-Crystal-Guy went all Neighponese monster flick on us for a moment. Maybe could Frankenhoof up a working flagship with a new blimp! Um… Then what though?” Fizzlepop nodded her head to the side, “Privateering and transport protection sounds legal. Captain Celaeno was one before us, I’m sure she’d be eager to help make a fleet.” Grubber nodded and shrugged his shoulders, “Well, mostly legal. It’s okay to loot if it’s the bad guys and board ships if we’re getting paid or asked to do it.” “And of course, there’s the matter of townsfolk being quite appreciative of the help. Harsh world out there and they’d be grateful for the assistance.” Grubber’s eyes widened and his smile grew into a downright giddy grin. “Play to our skill set legally and we get to be the good guys?! Iiiiiii caaaaaaaaan DIG IT!”, he jumped up and punched a fist into the air before scampering off to spread the good news. Fizzle overheard him as he rushed past several yeti, practically bouncing off the ground as he went; “Hey boys, we’re not giving up so we’re quitting! New gig in progress! Going legal and legit once a ships up! I call dibs on First Mate!” Fizzlepop raised her brow in slight bemusement at her aid’s words. -First mate? Is he electing me captain already?- The answer came with a sigh as numerous yeti soldiers came walking by, ripping their logos off and tossing them to the pile; only stopping to salute her. Salute their captain. For the first time in decades, she cracked an honest, heartfelt smile as she turned back to the sky. The horn upon her head, now sporting a slight blueish tint, glowed with restored magic as she lifted up the past and discarded the logos before turning her attention back to restoring an archway stretching across the Equestrian capital’s gate.