//------------------------------// // Part V --- The Power of the Tempest // Story: Reformation... It's a Pony Thing // by Lets Do This //------------------------------// Aboard the Phoenix, the battle was becoming more intense by the second. More and more hippogriff guards were landing on the deck all the time. Celaeno and her crew were being steadily driven back across the deck, toward the aft bulkhead door. Still, even in a corner, Celaeno's crew fought like dynamos, and Tempest's soldiers swung their spears unceasingly, managing to hold back the increasing wall of guards facing them. Celaeno yelled excitedly, leading strike after strike against the ever-increasing numbers, proud of how her crew, her team, her family, fought so steadily and unreservedly. But then finally the hippogriff guards gained an advantage. Boyle took a spear-swipe to the head, sending him to his knees. Even with Mullet and Tempest's soldiers leaping to his aid, the hippogriffs managed to drive a wedge through their defenses, splitting the pirates up. Skyranger, seeing his advantage, suddenly dove through his guards, got behind Celaeno, and pinned her by the throat with the edge of his ceremonial blade. "Drop your weapons!" He called to the other pirates. "This ends now!" Silence fell, the guards and pirates watching tensely. "Cap'n?" Mullet called, worried. Celaeno glanced around, considered the odds. Reluctantly, she nodded. Dispiritedly, the pirates set down their weapons, allowing themselves to be taken by the guards. Mullet and Lix moved to help Boyle stand up. There was no sign of Squabble. Strife smiled confidently. "And now, Captain Skyranger, I think it's time we inspected the device they were keeping in the aft compartment. I believe you'll find it quite interesting." Having disarmed Celaeno, Skyranger handed her off to a group of his guards, then approached the bulkhead door. He nodded to the contingent of griffs standing to either side of it. Cautiously, they moved to the door, and hauled it open. The compartment beyond was empty. Celaeno smiled craftily. "Still certain you should trust Strife's word, Skyranger?" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - In her coral palace, Mama Orcina laughed hugely. "My boys rough you up a bit now, ponies. Teach you lesson. Then Mama keep you all here until you give what Mama wants! You not leave until you tell Mama spell to give Mama horn!" She laughed again. "Is only rule down here... what Mama want, Mama get!" "No." Everyone, including the three looming orcas, stared at Tempest. Mama glared at her, head tilted, as if baffled that anyone could contradict her. "Who are you, pony, to speak to Mama like that?" Tempest eyed Mama Orcina unflinchingly. And smiled. "Oh, I am sorry," she said, languidly and unhurriedly. "We haven't been formally introduced yet. I am Commander Tempest Shadow, personal bodyguard to Her Majesty, Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria." She gestured grandly with a forehoof towards Twilight. "And do you know what Twilight's the Princess of? Friendship! She can be the very best friend you'll ever have, trust me on this. She's kind and understanding and forgiving... often to a fault." Tempest's expression darkened. Her horn sparked. "But if you can't accept that... if she's not your friend... then you have just made the very worst enemy you'll ever make... ... me!" "Tempest..." Twilight said, worriedly. "Princess. Do me a favor..." "Ummm..." Twilight gritted her teeth, and then nodded. "All right, Tempest. Do as you think best!" With a flick of her tail, Tempest darted upward, to hover level with the three orcas. "Okay, boys, because this is the Friendship Army, I just want you to know that it's nothing personal..." She smirked. "You're just in my way!" Grubber swam up next to her. "Uh, you sure about this, boss?" he whispered uneasily. "When I say break... break," she whispered back. "Oh, boy... here we go..." Tempest flung up a forehoof. And every one of her soldiers launched in a different direction, darting and rising and diving through the water all around her, obscuring both her and Grubber from sight. Then she darted off in one direction, and Grubber fled belatedly in another. The grey-flanked soldiers neatly split up into two groups to accompany them. The orcas glanced about, annoyed, trying to spot them. Then they launched after the two clouds of soldiers, trying to keep up as the soldiers rose and fell, swerved and dived. They attempted to swat the soldiers aside with massive blows from flippers and flukes, but somehow their strokes always failed to connect, throwing them off balance; they kept having to recover and catch up. Annoyed, they gave chase, spinning and wheeling and dodging, faster and faster, unable to keep up. Soon they were blindly, furiously pounding the water, snapping at the grey, darting forms with their teeth, determined to land a killing blow. Tempest kept dodging and swerving agilely, just fast enough so the two orcas trailing after her never quite fell behind... and just erratically enough so the third one never quite caught up with Grubber. "Tempest!" Grubber shouted, "I can't get away from this guy forever!" "Grubber..." "Yeah, boss?" "Break!" Grubber darted left. Tempest went right. The two clouds of soldiers simply passed through each other like smoke. The orcas were not so lucky. Two of them collided thunderously, almost head-on, with a horrid crack of bone on bone. One fell steadily to the coral floor below, unconscious. The other shook its head, momentarily stunned. And the third came after Tempest and Grubber, now hotly furious. "Uh, I got nothin' boss. Whadda you got?" "My horn," she said. "... and my capable assistant!" Grubber was suddenly grabbed by a sweep of her forehoof. "Gluk!" Timing it exactly, Tempest let loose a blast from her horn straight up... and then darted straight down. The orca ponderously turned and dove... and found Tempest rocketing past again, upwards this time. The orca attempted to come about... ... and was clobbered by the massive tree of coral that Tempest's blast had just knocked loose, through which Tempest had quickly and neatly threaded herself. The orca ended up pinned to the gem-studded floor, out cold. "Nice one, boss!" Grubber said, once she'd released him. "Uhp! We still got one left!" The remaining orca had recovered, and was turning towards them. This time, it wasn't about to be fooled. It glared at them narrowly. And advanced on them, steadily and relentlessly. "You know, Grubber..." Tempest said, softly and languidly, apparently completely at ease, "I've been pretty gentle with these guys so far. Wouldn't you say?" "Uhhh... if you say so, boss..." "And I've always wanted to show everyone what I can really do, given a reason..." Her horn crackled and sparked, boiling the seawater around it. Her head lowered, her eyes narrowed evilly. The orca came to a halt. Tempest's absolute confidence was unnerving even him. "And all I need... is one clear shot..." She stabbed a forehoof, straight at the orca. And every single one of her soldiers descended on him, grabbing hold of flippers and tail flukes with their teeth. Enraged, the orca attempted to fling them loose, or turn to bite them, but the extra resistance made it impossible for him to move very fast, no matter how forcefully he attempted to thrash about. And Tempest suddenly shot upwards, high overhead... and then came down like a bullet. Her horn flared, and released a tremendous blast of energy... right at the orca's blowhole. And a moment later her forehooves smacked down on it, hard. The orca jerked, then thrashed his head about, eyes rolling in increasing terror. Suddenly panicking, he sped away frantically towards the surface, and the open air. Tempest watched him go, carefully. "He should be alright," she said, casually. "Once he clears his sinuses a bit. But if he thinks it might be permanent, maybe he won't be in such a hurry to return... and maybe he'll be a little more polite from now on!" Grubber wriggled up to swim beside her. "Okay boss, that was cool, I'll grant you! But I get an extra slice of cake as hazard pay, huh?" "I'll bake it myself." Tempest grinned. "Better yet, we'll ask Pinkie Pie. She might do a better job." "Woo hoo! Yay Tempest!" Pinkie cried. "Nicely done, y'all!" Applejack called. "You showed them what's what!" "You bet! That was somethin' else!" Rainbow crowed. Tempest smiled thankfully, looking little embarrassed by the praise. She glanced at the two still-unconscious orcas, and saw that Princess Skystar had thoughtfully already applied the air-bubble spell to one of them, and was working on applying it to the other. Nodding, she turned her attention back to Mama Orcina. "Well, Mama? Have your boys finished teaching me a lesson?" Mama Orcina stared up at her, astonished. "Ha! Pony fight excellently! Mama impressed!" "Oh," Tempest replied dryly. "We're so glad you approve." "But pony's magic flawed," Mama shook her head derisively. "Pony's horn broken... pony need soldiers to fight for her!" Tempest tensed, glaring hotly. Grubber, hanging next to her in the water, hunched in on himself defensively. "Uh... oh..." "Do you want to see what my magic is capable of?" Tempest snarled dangerously, her horn gleaming. For a moment, it looked like she was going to attack Mama herself. And then Fluttershy spoke up. "Um, Tempest?" She was listening intently to the soldier floating next to her, and she was looking more and more worried every second. "What was that, Fred? Oh, my! Um, excuse me, Tempest, but Fred says the hippogriffs are attacking Celaeno's ship... and it's not going well up there!" Everyone looked upward. Through the rippling water's surface, they could see the Phoenix holding station overhead. And they could also see the wing of hippogriff guards circling it, several still flying in towards its main deck. "What's that, Fred?" Fluttershy went on. "Uh, what? Oh, dear!" She looked around, confused. "Fred says not to worry, though... the rest of the ships have just arrived!" "The rest of the ships?" Rainbow objected. "We left them all behind in Canterlot!" Twilight's eyes went wide. "The other crystals!" she cried, shocked and amazed at the same time. "Tempest! You said there must have been one of them on each of the ships!" "So..." Tempest said, astonished by it herself, "when I used my magic to power one of the crystals... I was actually powering all of them?" Looking up, they could see now that there were a dozen more of the black airships, the gleaming berry-red double-bolt icon on their prows, already closing with the Phoenix. "Woah..." Grubber said, eyes wide. "I am really glad I'm on your side, boss!" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The pirates were as surprised as the hippogriffs at the sudden approach of the armada of black ships. But when they saw the railings of the ships were bristling with more of Tempest's soldiers, they let up a rousing cheer. "This fight's not over yet!" Celaeno cried. She ducked and rolled, bowling over the guard holding her sword. She came up, sword in hand, and beat back the guards holding her crew, allowing them to reclaim their own weapons. Some of the soldiers on the arriving ships were in winged form. In tandem the soldiers launched from their ships and converged on the Phoenix in pairs, winged soldiers carrying ground troops. The hippogriff guards still in the air attempted to hold them back, but their spear thrusts and swipes simply passed through the incoming soldiers. Soon the soldiers were landing on the deck of the Phoenix, and quickly trading spear-swings with the hippogriffs. The griffs found themselves rapidly overpowered and outmatched by the soldiers' bizarrely efficient ferocity: the furred soldiers swung and shoulder-thrust and clubbed their way through the melee without hesitation, yet the moment a hippogriff guard was down or disarmed or incapacitated, they were simply ignored, the soldiers pressing onward through those still fighting. In swift order, Tempest's soldiers took Skyranger and his lieutenants captive, and brought them over to Celaeno and her crew. Who put up their weapons at once, seeing the fight was over. "Now this is more like it!" Celaeno said breezily. "Sometimes it really pays to surrender, huh?" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "Pony use magic to bring other ships here?" Mama Orcina eyed Tempest speculatively. "Perhaps Mama speak hastily. Mama have need of strong pony magic. Maybe Tempest willing to work for Mama?" Tempest eyed her sardonically. "I'm listening. What do you have to offer?" "You work for Mama, you have power, authority! All the sharks in south bays bow to Mama!" "I already have an absolutely loyal army," Tempest replied. "Seems powerful enough. What else have you got?" "Mama make you wealthy, respected -- you be well-treated by Mama!" "I already have a pretty nice working relationship as commander of Princess Twilight's Friendship Army. She understands me, and she lets me get the job done... my way." "Ahem," Twilight interrupted. "Friendship Army?" "The name's a work in progress, Your Highness." She returned her attention to Orcina. "And you know... the funny thing is... I've never had much use for wealth and riches myself. I've really always wanted just one thing..." "Da!" Orcina interrupted quickly. "Da! Da! Mama know how to fix! When Mama get horn-spell, Mama fix pony's horn! Pony's magic be all better! Pony have everything she wants!" There was a lengthy silence, from everyone. The look on Tempest's face was terrifying to behold. "Oooh," she finally whispered, her voice silky-soft, "big mistake, lady. Big!" She darted forward to glare at the orca, her horn sparking madly. "You see, I've been offered that promise before... AND I NO LONGER BELIEVE IN IT!" Mama Orcina actually flinched, drawing back from Tempest's ferocity. Her flipper swept out, caught the chain pinning Rarity's hind leg. She hauled the terrified pony close, then motioned with the tip of her other flipper toward the air-bubble around her head. "You no threaten Mama! Mama pop bubble! Pony drown!"