//------------------------------// // Raining on the parade // Story: My Little Mages: Amicitiae Tempestate // by Foxhelm //------------------------------// The city of Chantalot was abuzz with foot traffic was hustling and bustling with a wide array of booths, small shops, carnival-like games, etc, from all over Mystica. What should shock but didn’t was only the presence of the three races that found Mystica, the Earthborn, Skyborn, and Magicborn, but also a variable assortment of the nation’s minor races and residences from the neighboring ally nations. Among a few groups of the Skyborn were their nocturnal offshoots noted for having bat-like ethereal wings and noticeably larger canine teeth, the Nightborn. While among other groups were the harpies of Gryphonstone. Most notable of the harpies, was one that had gamboge brown wings, gold talons. She also had bright amber eyes and white feather-like hair, some of it going over her face with pink edges. The other had turquoise eyes and had dark blueish gray wings with her hair being of arctic bluish and cyan-ish gray. The later also wore a badge that looked like a heater shield that was purple, white and red in color with a darker purple shine rendering and a pink trophy. On the ground amongst the Earthborn and Magicborn were Magicborn, Earthborn, and Skyborn that seemed to have a crystalline over-skin. Also, there were humanoid looking being that were slightly taller than most humans, most noticeable among them was one with moderate tangelo hair that covered his face with a beard with a golden band around it of a slightly darker shade as his hair. Also on his head was a set of large gray horns and a crown of black metal. Over his shoulders was a light green shawl over a grayish-blue shirt that went down to his knees with brown pants that went to his ankles with grayish-blue leggings with sandals that gave it an appearance of hooves. In addition to these more bruting looking humans were more eloquent looking humanoids, noted with pointed ears. Most notable among them was a man with eyes were moderate rose and his hair was a light rose. His clothes changed as well. His shawl became long open sleeves that were moderate blue-violet in color with dark fuchsia shoulders that was under an upper chest piece that was lime green and faded int bright gamboge in color with three light blue crystals. He wore what only be seen as lime green pants under an emerald robe and shoes that looked like their inspired by leaves in their design, and on his head was crown that looked like it was made of plant-life and resembled the antlers of a deer that was bright orange in color with some green. In addition to the three humanoid races, in addition to Skyborn, Magicborn, and Earthborn, there were also a few dozen dragons, some much closer to the size of humans, one or two closer to what most view. Most notable of the dragons was a blue-scaled one who also wore golden scaled theme half-plate armor. She was standing on her two hind legs and wasn’t be much different in stature than a woman in her mid to late twenties. She wielded a staff with a massive red gem at the top in her left talon. Watching all this from one of the balconies of the palace were Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity. “Let’s see, clear skies?” Applejack asked as she looked at a list. Rainbow looked at the sky, “hold on a second.” she said as she bolted into the sky to a small cloud in the sky and scattered the cloud to it’s finest parts. She landed back in about a second, “Cleck!” Applejack rolled her eyes as she checked an item off the list. “Catering?”, she then gave a snorty laugh, as if it was ever a question, “Check.” Applejack then checked the item off. “Stage for Songbird Serenade’s number?” Rarity gave her hair a fluff, “Daring, this is me you’re asking me about.” Applejack gave the enchantress a bemused expression, “Is it done or are still working on making it look perfectly fabulous?” Rarity groaned, “It’s done.” she stated, “Although if I had a little more…” “And check.” Applejack cut her off as she checked off the item on the list. “Bird chorus?” she asked as she turned to Fluttershy. Fluttershy held out a hand as a sparrow landed. She whispered to the bird and the bird tweeted in response. Fluttershy turned back to Applejack and nodded. “Check.” Applejack then checked off the item on the list, “Let’s see decar…” Applejack stopped as she saw Pinkie make another balloon animal, this one was shaped like Discord in a serpentine version of his natural state. “How could Ah forget?” Applejack asked herself as she rolled her keys, “Check.” She then looked at last item. “Okay, that leaves Twilight’s pitch to the other princesses to use their magic for lighting.” Applejack then put the list down. “Hey, you forgot the musical number to get Twilight out her funk if the other princesses turn her idea down,” Pinkie point out as she tied the balloon to a string and rock, “HEY, PARTY FAVOR! CHEESE! DON’T FORGET A COUPLE DOZEN OF THESES!!!” the jester shouted as she let the balloon float down to the two men she called to. Applejack shook her head, “If Twilight needs a song and dance routine to remind her that as along we six have each other’s back nothing will stand in our way, there are a lot more pressing matters.” the paladin replied. She then looked towards the part of the palace with the throne room and then turn to the sky in the south. She squinted her eyes as if she thought she saw something. “Applejack, hello. You there?” Rainbow questioned. Applejack the snapped out of it, “Sorry, thought I felt something.” Applejack shook it off, “Well, let’s just get ready for whatever result Twilight gets.” “First round on me if Celestia says ‘No’.” Rainbow offered. “YOU STILL HAVEN’T PAID OFF THE LAST BET YOU LOST!” the four other shouted as they called out Rainbow’s repayment problem. As everyone then laughed Applejack turned her gaze to a window with a stained glass rendering of Twilight. On the other side of the stained glass window of Twilight, said demigod seemed to meditate. “Ommmmm…” she hummed. “Ohhhhhhh” she started to chant and then started to panic, “mmmmy goodness,” she said as she started to pace back and forth, “I can't handle this!” she then stopped and shivered in fright, “Ooh! Nothing is working!” She then looked up to the window. She paused as she recalled how regal she can be. “I just have to get it together! Just go in there! And ask! This is your Friendship Festival! Everybody's happiness rests in your hands.” she tried to psyche herself up. She then facepalmed herself. “Okay, Twilight. Got all your charts and graphs.” Spike said as he came down the hallway from the door opposite the throne room as he had an armful of scrolls and pulled a whiteboard. As soon as he got within a meter he stopped, “Let me guess, you’re nervous that Celestia, Luna, and Cadance will say ‘no’.” Twilight turned to face Spike. “Yeah, you remember that master-familiar link, well it’s still there.” Spike reminded her. “Oh, Spike, what do I do?” she asked as she turned to look at the doors. Spike rolled his eyes, “Twilight you’re forgetting something very important. And it’s not the visual aids.” As Twilight tried to figure out Spike’s riddle, the dragon groaned and pointed to the tiara on Twilight’s head, “You’re a princess too.” Twilight smiled as she hugged Spike, “Thanks, Spike.” Twilight said as she then took a breath and opened the door. Inside, the throne room not far from the entrance Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Princess Cadance and seemed to be chatting with each other as Cadance held her daughter, Princess Flurry Heart. “Good Morning, thank you for meeting me.” Celestia, Luna, and Cadance turned to greet Twilight. “How’s my favorite niece?” she asked Flurry only for her to babble happily to see the B.est A.unt E.ver. “So what can we do for you?” Celestia asked after the other princess had a few giggles at the cute sight. “I have an idea that will make the first Friendship Festival the most wonderful celebration Mystica has ever seen!” Twilight cheered as Spike prepared the whiteboard. “And the fact that the inhabitants of Gryphonstone, Caer Sith, the Dragon Lands, and Yakyakistan are here along with all of Mystica have been arriving here all morning is so underwhelming.” Luna pointed out as she rolled her eyes, her tone supersaturated with sarcasm. Cadance had a laugh as Twilight pouted and Celestia just smiled and shook her head. “Well, Songbird Serenade is going to be a fairly big attraction.” Cadance pointed out.” “Yes, she is the... "mane" event!” Twilight giggled at her own pun. This didn’t get the laugh from the other princesses, even Flurry was not amused. Twilight coughed. “Well to make this an extra special, I could use your help.” Twilight continued as Spike prepared a maker to draw what Twilight would dictate. “Now Songbird Serenade's performance is not scheduled to start until after sunset. And based on my precise calculation, to get the very best lighting for the stage,” Twilight turned her focus to Celestia as Spike drew the stage and started to draw out the part of the pitch that involved the sun, “Princess Celestia, I was hoping you could make sure the sun stays about 28.1º to the south,” Twilight finished this part of the pitch as Spike finished the drawing that part of the pitch he began to draw the part that dealt with the moon. Twilight then turned to Luna, “and, Princess Luna, if you could raise the moon 62º to the north at the same time, it would reflect the sunlight on the other side and really frame the entire stage perfectly!” she shouted with a cheer. The three other adult demigods looked at each other a little unsure about the prospects of what Twilight wanted. Luna and Cadance looked at Celestia, both with a slight scowl. Celestia sighed, “Well, Twilight…” Celestia started only to be cut off by Twilight as the youngest adult demigod turned to Cadance. “But wait! There's more!” Twilight shouted as Spike climbed on the board and started to draw the final part of the pitch, “Cadance, if you could use your crystal magic to create an aurora above the stage, the sun and the moon will shine through it and create a truly amazing light show!” She finished as gave a massive grin on her face. The other princesses looked at Celestia again, with a bemused expression on their faces, even Flurry. Celestia rolled her eyes and sighed. “Twilight, we understand that you want us to move the very celestial bodies to assist with the party.” Celestia started. Before she could be interrupted, “but the magic that each of us has is meant for a specific role and use that power without any regard to the long-term consequences could result in disaster, even the slightest of changes can be devastation.” Twilight’s smile faded into a frown, “So… that’s a no?” she asked. Celestia then placed her hand on Twilight’s shoulder, “As the Princess of Friendship, you have access to all the magic you need, and you don’t have far to look as there six sources that are always close to you.” “Also if you had elected to hold of the Festival until Midsummer’s Eve, the sun and moon were going to set and rise respectively at the angles you desire and there is aurora forecasted to appear at that time,” Luna added which earned a slight glare from Celestia and Cadance. “Are We wrong?” Luna asked. Twilight then turned to head out of the room, “Well thanks for hearing me out.” About thirty minutes later, Twilight and Spike arrived at the balcony where Applejack et al were watching over the festival. “So did they say yes?” Rainbow asked as she was the first to spot the demigod. Twilight sighed at first as he went to the railing and leaned on them, “They think I can make today perfect without their magic.” Twilight answered. Rarity was the first to step up to their dejected friend, “And they are absolutely right, darling.” the enchantress declared as she forced Twilight to actually look at the huzel and buzel and the other interactions. “This festival is your brilliant idea and we know you're up to the task!” Rarity added as she attempted to boost Twilight’s confidence. “But what if I'm not?!” Twilight asked as she turned away from Rarity, “What if Songbird Serenade hates the stage?!” “Then she has no taste, Sugarcube. This is a Rarity unique stage after all.” Applejack replied as she too stepped up. “Or nobody makes a new friend?!” “Yeah... you might want to take another look at what’s going on. Because if you look over to the cider stand, you’ll see Rutherford and Rockfoot in an ork blood-brother drink off.”Rainbow said as she pointed to a table where the two were and drank cider with their right arms crossing each other at the elbow. “Still if I failed the festival, then who am I?!” Pinkie took a breath as if she was about to give Twilight a speech when Fluttershy tapped her on the shoulder. The jester turned to the druid to see Fluttershy shake her head before the druid flew up to Twilight. “I know you’re nervous about everything. But Princess Celestia gave you the test of completing Star Swirl’s unfinished spell because she knew you could solve it. Ever task, trail, and test she gave you, she knew you would pass them. And time and time again you showed her, Luna, and even Cadance that you can meet any challenge and succeed. You are Twilight Sparkle, stop defining yourself by your title.” Fluttershy said with an almost uncharacteristic degree of confidence and force. After about a second, as Twilight started to recover, Pinkie then stepped in, “I was just going to say that we cut the whole song and dance musical number, I’m just going to get the message of it,” Pinkie started. Before anyone could question. “You got this because we got this because we got this together.” Pinkie summed up. Pinkie then looked to a nearby clock tower. “Look at the time, Songbird’s going to be here to check out the stage.” Pinkie then grabbed everyone into a hug and jumped on to the rallying. “Three, two, one.” Pinkie counted before she jumped down and landed with just a boing bounce after a couple second fall. Pinkie then checked the watch on her wrist, “Shoot I’ll meet you at the stage.” Pinkie then bolted leaving the others utterly bewildered. They all took a breath before they walked to stage Rarity had set up. To say it was fabulous would actually be an insult to Rarity’s attention to detail. The cloth that hid the woodwork of the stage was a regal purple. Around it evenly spaced to the precise nanometer, were red bows with clear white crystals in the center. “Wow, Rarity you outdid yourself,” Twilight commented. She then looked at the sage, it was long and high enough that no one would have a hard time to see the performance. At the back of the stage was series of racks that functioned as a series of preaches for the birds that would perform as well. “Well it looks’ like Pinkie was right, we do got this together.” Just Twilight landed background, the was a sudden boom as everyone turned only to see what seemed to be a large layered cake fired from a massive party canon fly towards the group. The group tried to run away, but the cake was, in fact, unfinished and landed on Twilight with a clear spalt. Twilight climbed through the cake and took a gasp as she tried to dig herself out of the cake. Pinkie then arrived on the scene as Twilight got out the cake. “Oopsie!” Pinkie said as she whipped the batter off of Twilight, “Guess my easy bake party cake cannon needs a little bit more fine tuning!” Twilight only rolled her eyes and groan as she let Pinkie try to clean up her mess. “I was told I’d need to make an entrance, but I don’t know if I can top that.” came a female voice, the group turned to see a Skyborn woman. Her hair was half black and half blonde, with bangs that covered her eyes with a large pink bow in the back. Her ethereal wings looked like song notes and she was dressed in a dress that top was shirt-like that was black in color that had the area of the waist colored and designed like a cloud with the skirt part of the dress was a quasi-clear purple with a series of hearts of different colors. On her hands were black gloves. “Songbird Serenade?” Twilight asked in a near panic. “You’re early.” Songbird smirked, “Sapphire Shores and Countess Coloratura suggested that I should meet up with the woman in charge.” She then looked among the lot and the look solely at Twilight, “Given that you’re the only one here with a crown, I am guessing you are.” “Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said as she offered her hand. Songbird didn’t take the hand but instead curtsy to Twilight. Twilight was slightly taken aback but she recalled that she was, in fact, a princess. “You’re early for your sound check,” Twilight said as she looked at a nearby clock. “Never too early to make sure the sound in right.” Songbird said as she hovered up to the stage. She was about to take a breath but the as sudden and extremely loud roar of thunder that caused everything to come to a halt. Everyone turned to the south to see storm clouds drifting towards the city. Twilight and her friends went to the south entrance of the city, “Storm clouds?” Twilight asked in utter shock. “They sky was forecasted to be clear!” she almost shouted. She then turned towards Rainbow, who was tasked to keep track of the weather, “Rainbow Dash?!” she asked with irritation in her voice. Rainbow looked at the cloud, but it didn’t match any storm cloud she seen. She also looked to see Applejack’s right hand drift towards her sword, “I... don't think those are storm clouds.” As the cloud continued to approach the city the ESM started to form a defensive perimeter, while others started to direct the civilians away from towards the more easily protected areas of the city. At the same time, Twilight et al were joined by Shining Armor, dressed in his purple armor and his spear in head, Flash Sentry with a buckler on his left hand and his sword drawn in his right, Flash Magnus with Netitus on his left arm and a khopesh (likely a gift from Somnabula) in his right, Rockfoot with his trusty shovel, and the other demigods. From the cloud a set of what like turquoise colored horns on a large dirigible crept forward as the dirigible began to land. “Ooh! I bet those are the clowns I ordered!” Pinkie cheered as before she saw how the craft was landing and seemed to disregard the stand of balloons that was there. Pinkie had to take a step back, “Or definitely not the clowns I ordered.” she acknowledged with a weak teehee. Once the dirigible landed a ramp lowered and an anthropomorphic hedgehog with a dark gray-blue with a white mane and light blue eyes. He wore a black shirt with the same insignia that was on the dirigible, as he dragged a sort sound set up behind him. As he walked down he was short of breath and grunted. Once he was at the bottom of the ramp he set up the sound box to be a massive megaphone. The hedgehog cleared his throat, “Peopleth of Mythica, we come on behalf of the fearsome, the powerful, the almighty...Thtorm King!” the hedgehog announced as along the side of the dirigible a banner was unfolded. The banner was a rendering of what seemed to be a man in his forties with bluish-gray hair and light blue eyes dressed in white fur and a black band like crown with two horn-like prongs and a black breastplate with the same insignia. The hedgehog then stopped for a second before he turned to the top of the ramp, “And now, to deliver the methage, put your handth together for Commander Tempeeeetht Thhadoooow!” he completed as a woman stepped out of a mist inside the dirigible. The woman was a Mystican with bronze tanned skin, with moderate rose hair and opal eyes. She was dressed in a partially- plated armor dark purple in color with a black shirt and pants and orchard lining. On her pauldron was the same insignia as the hedgehog. However what stood out the most was the scar on her face. The scar looked like a tilted cross on the forehead with the longer part going down the right side of her face under her eye. However, there was more to the scar, a shattered and embedded focus gem. “Thank you, Grubber,” Tempest said as walked down the ramp. Shining Armor stepped to the front, “I am Grand Marshall Shining Armor.” he introduced himself. “State your business Commander Shadow’ unless I am mistaken.” he greeted her. “I prefer ‘Tempest’, Grand Marshall Armor.” Tempest clarified. “But I am so glad that you asked.” Tempest could not help but laugh with some delight. “Let’s start with the complete and total surrender of the princesses, shall we?” Tempest asked as she looked from Shining towards Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, the three of who unconsciously formed a human wall in front of Twilight. Cautiously Twilight stepped from behind the older princesses. “Excuse me.” she said weakly, everyone turned to see the younger princess, “Hi there. Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship,” she said as she waved her right hand. “Not exactly sure what's going on, but I know we can talk things out.” Tempest had a small chuckle and as she ended her descent down the ramp and looked at Twilight. “Oh, goody.” she then clapped her hands together in some joy. “All four of you makes this a lot easier.” she said as she looked to Celestia then to Cadance and then to Luna, “Here's the deal, ladies. I need your magic. Give it up nicely, please, or we make it difficult for everyone!” as she spoke she shifted her focus among the princesses. “ALEXANDROS MEGALYTERI!” Shining shouted as he raised his spear and then planted the base of it as his focus gem glowed to form a bubble shield which surrounded the city, keeping the smoke that lingered out and separated Shining from Tempest. “Not gonna happen,” he said with a great amount of defiance. “MAGNUS!” he shouted as he turned to Flash Magnus. “SOLDIERS! SHIELDS UP! DRAW ARM! ARCHERS! READY BOWS! KNOT ARROWS! MAGES PREPARE SPELLS!” Magnus began to call out orders and the ESM obey. Joining them were some of the other humanoids and dragons. Shining then turned back to Tempest, “Come and get it if you can.” he taunted. Tempest chuckled, “I was hoping you'd choose ‘difficult’.” She said as she stepped through the bubble. Before anyone could do anything, she pulled a lime green orb out of a pouch and throw it at Shining. Shining tried to conjure a shield to protect him, but the orb shattered on his magical shield and a black crystal started to grow around the shield. “SHINING!!!” Cadance shouted as she rushed to provide her magic to empower him. However, it was not soon as the city-size bubble shield that Shining cast to collapse. As for both Cadance and Flurry attempted to empower Shining, they too got caught in the crystal that grew around Shining. As the shield fell large white-furred monstrous humanoids dressed in fuller armor version of what Tempest wore with helms with battle masks came out of the ship with the first three throw out at least a dozen a piece of the same orbs that Tempest threw. These orbs exploded on the shields and much like the one Tempest threw, black crystals started to grow and rapidly encompass those struck by them. As that happened, more ships made themselves visible and more of the white-furred beast-men jumped from them throwing more of the orbs and nets that gave off sparks indicating that once they made contact with a person, the person would be shocked with electricity. Swiftly, Celestia took Twilight by her shoulders, “Go south, past the Badlands, to the end of the continent and seek Queen Novo. GO! GO!! GO!!!” Celestia ordered as she and Luna took a breath to then cast a light that temporarily blinded all the monsters, Tempest and Grubber, even as more and more of the monsters joined the fray, using more of those orbs and nets rendering more and more of ESM and Mystica’s allies incapacitated. Twilight was about to protest before she was caught in a bubble and shaved away. It was a blink of an eye, but she then saw that one of those green orbs were thrown at where she was and in her place at the time of the impact was Brighteyes. However Brighteyes wasn’t the only one that an orb was thrown at, Luna and Celestia too were struck. As Tempest recovered from the blinding spell and saw both Celestia and Luna encased in the same type of crystal as Shining, Cadance and Flurry, and many more of the ESM., “Even with the light of the sun and moon,” she then started to chuckle. “Easy as pie.” she finished as she turned to Grubber. “You go, boss, you totally got all four Printhetheththe!” Grubber cheered on Tempest’s accomplishment. Tempest smiled until she took a good look at the fourth ‘princess’ and saw that it was a particle mail woman. “That's not the Princess!” she shouted more so to herself and her miss. “HEY!” Grubber shouted towards a handful of the beast-men. The five turned to him, “Guyth, we gotta get the Princess!” he said as he looked and then spotted where the bubble burst. “THITH WAY!” he said as he dropped to all for and ran with the beast-men following him. Tempest watched on and had a slight smile as she turned and watched Grubber lead. She then returned to the rest of the battle at hand as she took on Rockfoot, Flash Magnus, King Thorax and Dragonlord Ember. At where Grubber spotted Twilight, Twilight was joined by Applejack, Spike, et al as they directed her towards one of the streets heading towards one of the southern gates. “Come on!” Applejack ordered as she was pushing as Rainbow pulled everyone on. After nearly fifteen seconds of running, they arrived at bridge only to have the southern sided blocked by half a dozen of the white-furred beast-men as Grubber lead five more trapping them from the north. Spotting this from the brawl, Flash whispered to his buckler, “Skyboom Shield.” and threw it at the seven. “HEADS UP CRASH!” As he shouted Rainbow caught the buckler. She then saw Flash aim his hand crossbow at her. Rainbow then stepped to be next to a keystone of the bridge, “FIRE, CRASH!” she shouted back. “REQUIEM BLASTER!!!” Flash shouted as he pulled the trigger. Instead of a normal crossbow bolt, the hand crossbow fired a bolt of plasma that flew true and collided with the force shield projected from the buckler. The resting impact didn’t harm Rainbow or anyone, as the Skyboom Shield disputed the blow from the Requiem Blaster into the very stone of the bridge causing it to shatter. All but Rainbow screamed as they all fell with the bridge into the river that flowed in the city towards the waterfall just east of the city’s southern exit. The lot gasped as they recovered from the initial plummet only for all to scream as they went over the waterfall. Back at the bridge, Grubber had watched the fall and turned towards the beast-men with him, “So, which one of you guyth ith goin' down there?” he asked them. They all growled and grunted in protest. Grubber sighed. “Tempeth ithn’t gonna like thith.”