The next morning, Celestia and Luna led several of their best guards ponies towards the Crystal Mountains, knowing that they needed to get to the bottom of why the Storm Creatures did what they did. Both sisters knew that the sooner this problem was solved, the sooner Tempest Shadow's problem would (hopefully) be solved. As they arrived near the Crystal Empire, they saw Cadence with several of her Crystal guards.
"Thank you for coming, Cadence," Celestia greeted, briefly hugging her niece. "Has the tribe been notified of us coming?"
"Not yet," Cadence answered, looking towards the path that supposedly went towards the tribe site. "But, we need to only do what we need to do, and nothing else. I don't want to be away from Flurry Heart any more than I should. I was absent from her for a long time for the summit, and I know she misses me."
"I understand, being a mother is never easy,” Celestia nodded. “We’d best get going then. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get to the bottom of things."
The winds began to howl loudly as the three alicorns and the guards assigned to them, made their way up into the snow-covered mountains. The journey was treacherous, but they needed to carry on, going back wasn’t an option they wished to consider. Finally, after what seemed like forever, they managed to reach a small settlement that had nothing but teepees and wigwams, along with a few areas were tortures would take place. However, the three alicorns were starting to worry about something else.
"Where is everyone?" Luna wondered aloud, looking out among the abandoned tribe site, and then to Celestia. "I know that we have some of the guards in captivity, but…you'd think that there’d be someone here."
"I completely agree,” Celesia nodded. “Stay on your guard, everypony. They might be plotting an ambush, we don’t know how they deal with intruders. Spread out and see what you can find, and alert me if you spot anything suspicious."
The other princesses nodded, and activating their horns they broke up and went off in different directions, hoping to find any clues as to why the Storm King did what he did. They went through every teepee, every wigwam and then, finally Cadence let out a sharp scream. "Aunt Celestia, Aunt Luna! Come quick!"
The two sisters ran straight to the wigwam where Cadence was, and what they saw inside the wigwam sent shockwaves through their bodies!
"What in Equestria?!" Celestia gasped, her eyes wide open and her mouth hanging in shock at what she saw! In front of her was the head of a storm creature, laying against the wigwam, with its mouth hanging open. "This…this…this…search every single one of these teepees and wigwams! I want more evidence!" She ordered to the guards!
Doing as they were told, the guards went about going through the wigwams, looking for anything. The alicorns also began searching through the wigwams as well, hoping they’d find someone living. However, there was one particularly large wigwam that they had their eyes on.
"This must be the Storm King's wigwam," Luna commented, eyeing the huge construct. "I think we need to go inside and investigate. There’s got to be something in there that can function as a clue."
Reluctantly agreeing, Celestia and Cadence joined Luna as they went inside with a few extra guards for protection. Looking inside the interior of the wigwam, they knew that something about it wasn't right. It gave off a vibe that indicated outsiders weren’t welcome within the wigwam’s confines.
"Do you notice something?" Celestia asked as she looked around the wigwam. "There's no throne anywhere."
"You're right, sister," Luna remarked, looking at a portrait of the Storm King. Then something else caught her eye. "Look over here!" Luna was looking at a large red book with gold letters on it that said "MY FIGHT."
Luna used her magic to open the book for the three of them to read it. As they skimmed through the pages, the alicorns had no idea of the troubling words that sat before them. Once they had finish skimming the book though, all three alicorns had troubling looks on their face.
"This…this…this is deplorable!" Celestia cried, in a fit of disgust, snatching the book and slamming it down on the ground! "No wonder the Storm King did what he did to us."
"If he even is a king, which I know that he is not, I can’t imagine he’d do such things," Luna sneered. "What is worse is that he has warped ideologies! He claimed his ideas would make Equestria better!"
"So, what do we do now?" Cadence asked. “Should we go back?”
"No, we keep looking," Celestia firmly instructed, turning her attention over to the library that was at the corner of the wigwam. "I want to find more books that are just like this book. If there are more, then we might be dealing with something far worse than what we make out to be."
So, the three alicorns broke up and went through every book in the library of the wigwam. Those that didn't raise any suspicions were left alone, while others were placed into a pile at the far right corner end of the designated shelves. An hour went by and finally they stopped.
"These books are just an example of why the Storm King did what he did," Celestia sighed. "I want to look at these a little more in Canterlot. Something tells me that we’re dealing with an evil that is beyond all imagination."
Just then, the sounds of hoofbeats were heard at a rapid pace, and a guardspony came running into the wigwam! "Your highnesses," He panted, bowing to them hastily. "We…we made a horrific discovery!"
"What is it?!" All three alicorns asked at once!
"There is a gorge not too far from here and…excuse me!" The guard suddenly trailed off! He ran off towards an open window and vomited loudly, leaving an uneasy feeling in the princesses' stomachs. Nevertheless, they left the wigwam and went over to where a small group of guards ponies were standing and looking down into the gorge.
"What's going on…?" Celestia started to ask and then let out a loud gasp at what she saw in the gorge! Bodies of dead storm creatures, some partially decomposed and others fully decomposed, showing off their skeletons.
Cadence began to silently cry and Luna was beginning to feel sick to her stomach.
Celestia could only stand there frozen, and watch the horror unfold before her eyes, as a very unsuspecting and unsettling thought crept into her mind. "Was this what the Storm King was planning to do?" She thought to herself. "To have our subjects end up like these creatures? Was this what he wanted to do to our world? Then, he must have been training Tempest Shadow to do this kind of action as well!"