//------------------------------// // 26 A Tempest in Canterlot // Story: Blitz And Balance // by Ennelly Von Swortts //------------------------------// Author:  Ennelly Von Swortts Co-Author:  ElectroPHX228 (blitz) Chapter Twenty-six:  A Tempest in Canterlot Quick note: MLP Movie spoilers from here on out. YE BE WARNED! Enjoy.   I sighed.  “I’m still surprised he decided to handle this entire event.  With his own money at that.I mean, Blueblood?  Who would have expected it!  I hear he even managed to find Songbird Serenade amidst this war!”  I glanced over at Fancypants as he kept on talking about this festival Blueblood had proposed to Luna and I soon after getting back to Canterlot.  To say we were surprised when he insisted on paying for it himself was an understatement.  A big one.   I relaxed back into a chair sat between Celestia and Luna’s thrones that had been dragged in from some random room for me. It was a good idea, despite it coming out of that Prince’s mouth.  I haven’t been sure what to think of the stallion for the last three days.  But it seems he’d put real effort behind planning the whole thing, to the extent to formally ask, in pony, help from Pinky Pie, who in turn asked her friends to help her help him set the thing up in time.  I wasn’t apposed to it, for the one fact it gave ponies something to focus on.  And from what I heard, the Royal pain in the butt was actually sparing no expense he could on it. Fancypants finally left, allowing me to step out onto a balcony overlooking the streets of Canterlot.  There was the Prince himself overseeing the finishing touches to the stage Rarity was making.  He even had the decency to look guilty every time she gave him a glare.  That wasn’t at all like him.  I had no intention of letting him roam without any sort of control, which is why four Solar Guards were standing close to him with orders to report his actions directly to me.  All he knew was they were there to assist him with his tasks, as well as his protection.   I spotted Pinky on some contraption that looked oddly like a giant whisk as she peddled away, mixing some batter in the biggest mixing bowl I had ever seen.  And that was saying something.  Applejack was refilling a mug with her family’s cider every few seconds as Rainbow dash zipped back and forth draining it between every few clouds she was busting.  Fluttershy was working with a number of birds on the stage.  Twilight was going through her checklist as she double checked everything like the organized mare she was, as spike worked the checklist itself.  Everything seemed to be in order.   Rarity had gotten almost three quarters of the way when I spotted Songbird Serenade making her way toward the castle.  A loud bang drew my attention back toward the stage as a massive cake landed with a wet splat on top of Twilight.  Her head popped out of the mess a few moments later.  “Pinky!”  She yelled out.  I watched as the crowd parted for Songbird as she walked up to the edge of the mess of batter.  Even from where I stood, I could see the singer smiling as Twilight climbed out of the batter.  I almost missed when Twilight accidentally flicked a bit of frosting onto Songbird’s outfit.  I honestly didn’t know to be more surprised with her not moving a muscle, or the casual way one of her two ponies in black flicked it off.  At the vary least, I was disappointed Blueblood didn’t face plant from the shock of what he’d just seen. The sound of an echoing explosion caused me to look up at a black cloud that trailed off to the Southern horizon.  I heard Twilight say something below me.  I glanced down to see her seemingly glare at Rainbow before looking back at the cloud in time to see what looked somewhere between a pair of horns, and a helmet.  It was two squiggly glowing blue lines coming steadily toward me.  Then the airship they were on the front of left the black smoke behind.  It turned as it slowly descended, knocking over a few pillars on the edge of the plaza right below the castle Celestia and Luna called home, with a loud siren like sound. A ramp extended, landing on some balloon animal unlucky enough to be in the way.  Somepony from the crowd, the owner of the air filled rubber, I would have to guess, called out a name I didn’t really care to remember as I was more focused on the little guy carrying what looked to be a box just a little heavy for him.  Luna stepped up beside me.  “What is going on?”  She asked as the box was opened to reveal some kind of amplification device that looked a lot like a record player on steroids.  The guy himself looked like a short Diamond Dog with a white mohawk.   I shrugged.  “Don’t really know.”  I replied softly as the little guy started talking.   “Ponies of Equestria!  We come on behalf of the fearsome, the powerful, the almighty...  Storm king.”  A name I associated with an evil business overlord who I had heard was conquering a number of loveless races beyond the badlands. “But that guy isn’t Good news.”  Luna gave me a questioning look. “And now, to deliver the evil, evil message...  Put your hooves together, for Commander Tempest!!”  I had gotten a pretty good idea of the little guy’s personality.  It was something like an over excited puppy dog.  Then I saw the pony on the airship.  She had a...  Strong presence about her.  Whether from the broken horn, or the way she held herself, or her expression, I knew not.  I recognized the trauma for what it was before Luna made it to the ground.   “What do you want here?!”  Luna demanded.   Commander Tempest smiled.  “ah, I’m so glad you asked, let’s start with your complete and total surrender.”  She stated evenly.  At this point, I ignored them talking in favor of studying the dark purple mare with her mane bordering between dark pink, and red.  The scar over her eye, though she still had use of it.  The black outfit with a storm blue on her back only added to the intimidating appearance. More airships drifted in as large ape like creatures stepped out of the entrance of the airship.  Suddenly the things were everywhere.  Tempest kicked something at Luna, only for iBluebloodi of all ponies to jump in the way with a shield spell that did nothing to even slow the thing down.  I landed from a somewhat controlled free-fall in front of the cloud of green smoke as I looked back at the now black crystal statue of the Prince.  Turning my tail to this... Commander Tempest in favor of studying Blueblood.   “Huh...  Totally did NOT expect that.  Maybe I’ll put him in the garden where Discord was...”  I commented to myself.   “And who are you?”  A slightly irritated voice behind me asked.  I turned and matched Tempest’s raised eyebrow. “I’m Queen Chrysalis, deal with it.”  I shot at her.  “And for your information, if anypony’s going to take Equestria’s power...  It’s going to be me.”  What can I say, four thousand years of being the bad guy verses a few decades of truly happy years at the beginning of my long years of life...  Obviously, being vindictive was going to come more naturally.   I had to focus not to turn around at the annoyance at my words wafting off a certain Princess of the night.  “Chrysalis...”  Luna stated warningly.   I sighed while rolling my eyes.  “Just stating my territory, Luna.”  Her annoyance only grew at my half sarcastic tone.   “I’m sorry, did you say Queen?”  Tempest asked in a slightly mocking tone.  “It’s just, I haven’t heard of a Queen ruling Equestria before.”  The smile on her face only reinforced her emotion of total confidence and mockery.   I smiled at her.  “Oh, did you think I rule Equestria?  Oh no, I may be a lowly Queen, but I have never ruled this land of magical, talking ponies.  It’s always been Princess Sunbutt, and Princess Moonbutt here.”  I’m pretty sure Luna’s eye twitched.   “Chrysalis, now is not the time to get into this.”  She hissed angrily through clenched teeth.  I shot her a raised eyebrow.  I turned back to Tempest in time to watch her kick another one of her orbs at me.  I tried to turn it back at her, but only succeeded to throw it off course over my shoulder.  Hearing a surprised gasp, I turned to see Luna now encased in black crystal.   I turned back to Tempest with a raised eyebrow in time for something to impact my chest.  Instead of turning to crystal like Luna and Blueblood, the magic in the orb was absorbed through my Chitin plates.  I blinked at Tempest as the cloud of green drifted away.  By the time she saw me, my eyebrow was raised again.  “Really.  Using black magic on something that runs on the stuff.  Not a smart move, commander.”  I clearly saw her eye twitch.  “Really, the Queen of the Hipo-“  I dodged to the side as a small bolt of lightning shot at me from her broken horn.  “That was weak compared to what Novo, Queen of the Hipo-“  I dodged another lighting attack.  My eyes narrowed.  “Vary well then, let us get on with this.”  My horn sparked with power as I focused my anger on Tempest. ...0...   Bon Bon paused.  Lyra took five steps before looking back to see her fillyfriend staring intently in the direction of Canterlot.  “Um...  Bons?  What are-“  Bon Bon suddenly jumped to the side, taking Lyra with her moments before something hit the ground as the echo of what sounded like a Sonic Rainboom reached their ears.  Lyra looked at Canterlot, and the trail of what looked like transparent green fireleft behind something that had flown really fast. The trail of fire traveled from the far off city,to the crater where she’d been standing only moments ago. A low groan drifted out of the crater as the last of the dust settled.  Bon Bon stepped over to the edge of the hole in the ground.  “You okay Mom?”  Lyra shook her head before she stood next to the Earth Pony and looked down.  Sure enough, Chrysalis was laying in the bottom groaning. She somewhat dazedly looked up at the two mares.  “Peachy...”  She muttered.  Shaking her head she stood, and almost fell over, before unsteadily climbing out of the hole.  “Canterlot is being taken over by an army of somewhat intelligent creatures, Luna is stuck as a black crystal statue, Twilight is I don’t know where, and a Unicorn with a broken horn blew me away so fast I broke the sound barrier.  So yes, juuuust peachy.”  She scowled.  Then she began to lean to the side slowly, before falling over.  “And I can’t even stand on my own four legs.”  She muttered into the ground.   Bon Bonlooked uncertainly around at the ponies gathering around them, then back at her Mom.  Her face took on a determined expression, only for Chrysalis to look her straight in the eye.  “No.”  Before face planting into the dirt.  Bon Bon raised an eyebrow as she stepped closer.  Chrysalis only groaned into the dirt.  Bon Bon’s stare didn’t waiver in the least.  Chrysalis’ shoulders slumped.  “Fiiiiiiine.”  She groaned out.  Lyra raised her eyebrow when Bon Bon turned to her with part smug satisfaction, and part nervous guilt on her face.   “I’ll explain later.”  Lyra picked up on a Silent ‘if I’m still here’ in there. Bon Bon turned and helped Chrysalis to her feet, before walking toward their home.  Lyra followed, almost fully lost.   Chrysalis watched Lyra out of the corner of her eye.  “Lyra, I’ll warn you now...  What’s about to happen...  Be prepared to take care of your fillyfriend.”  Lyra blinked in surprise.  “She’s going to be really cold.”   Twenty minutes later, Bon Bon and Lyra were snuggling under a thick wool blanket.  Lyra took note of the shivering colder-then-icemare wrapped in her hooves.  “She wasn’t kidding...”  She muttered to herself.  Bon Bon was too busy trying to catch every bit of warmth she could to notice Lyra start to shiver silently.  But the pony wouldn’t have it any other way. ...0...   I came upon Canterlot in chains.  It had been only fourty minutes or so since I’d been blown as if fired from a cannon.  By the time I was back at the palace, Tempest had left.  Where, I had yet to find.  Landing in the courtyard, I instantly blew a group of Storm King forces away.  Once clear, I fired off another spell.  Twilight had gone south, along with her five friends.  Tempest wasn’t far behind.  I smiled as I faced south.  “You can run, but you can’t hide.”  I muttered to myself before taking off.  I had discreetly placed tracking spells on all nine element bearers, and had managed to hit Tempest herself with one.  Of course, this spell was more like a print reader, meaning I have to follow in the hoofsteps of the one I’m tracking.   I flew as fast as I could, quickly passing the Badlands.  My magic stores would only last so long, so I hoped to catch them before I was dry.  A town came into my view, a town I had almost missed.  A smile came to my face at the thought of the chance to say hi to an old friend.  “I wonder, how have you been Virgo?”