//------------------------------// // 74 Thunderous Skies // Story: Errant Finale // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// April 5th, 1001 Domina Solaria “Pinkie Pie, I can’t believe you got an Equestria wide party going this quickly,” Doug says from his seated position inside a small booth. It’s open to the front with bright and happy colors, and contains not much else. “I can’t believe you want us to stay here the entire time,” Discord whines from next to Doug, in his own booth. Above them reads a giant banner, ‘We’re Sorry We Nearly Destroyed All Of Equestria! Please, Pretty Please, Give Us A Hug To Show You Forgive Us!’ Long rows of amusement park barriers cordon off the area, and ponies are already starting to line up. “Do I have to?” continues Discord, pointing at the bright pink chains chaining him to an even brighter pink ball. He rattles them for effect, but it somehow comes out sounding jolly. Pinkie Pie pronks closer, her grin only getting cheerier and cheerier as she gets closer. A worried look crosses Discord’s long face as he backs up to the very edge of his restraints. “You don’t have to,” Pinkie Pie beams, Discord’s pupils turning to pinpricks. “You get to.” “Do I have to?” asks Doug with a bit of an upswing in his voice. He motions to the rest of Canterlot Square, the party just getting started. Pinkie Pie turns to Doug, none of her smile fading. “The rest looks really fun, too.” Pinkie Pie pensively strokes her chin with a hoof, peering at Doug. “Yes,” she slowly replies. Doug’s face falls. “It does look really fun.” A spark of hope flickers. “Will you have fun at the party?” “Yes?” Doug says, the question mark so obvious Discord puts it there in a white cloud. Pinkie Pie nods. “You can leave after everypony who wants a hug gets one.” Pinkie Pie turns from Doug to Discord. “You have to stay in case more ponies decide they want one.” “But what if Canterlot is invaded and you need my help in order to defend it?” Discord asks plaintively. Pinkie Pie rears up, thrusting her head into Discord’s and staring into his eyes. “Then I expect you to sit there and think about what happened the last time you tried to ‘help’.”   “Yes’m,” Discord ekes out, shrinking down. “I’ll just be right here.” “Good.” Pinkie Pie slowly backs up, unblinking eyes never leaving Discord. Then she whirls around, pronking off to make sure the rest of the party is progressing smoothly. “Have a nice day!” Doug’s first ‘customer’ is Princess Twilight Sparkle, and many of the ponies in line seem to be there purely because she is doing it. After she gets a hug from a reluctant Discord, peeling the ‘kick me’ sign off her dock, she settles next to Doug, checking off yet another item from her checklist. “Things going well?” Doug says, cheerfully hugging the next pony in line. “Here? Yes, couldn’t be better,” Twilight says absentmindedly, scanning over her checklist and isolating the boxes yet to be marked. “We still couldn’t figure that map out, though. What our cutie marks were doing so far to the south.” “I’m sure you’ll find out,” Doug says between hugs. “I really have no idea what I was doing at the time.” “And there was nothing there!” Twilight throws her hooves in the air, pacing back and forth while her lists levitate next to her. “It was frustrating enough traveling south of Dodge City, and between Pinkie Pie explaining exactly what she would have been decorating if we weren’t wasting our time there, and Rarity whining about her coat getting all dirty-” “I wasn’t whining, I was complaining,” Rarity says as she walks by, both of them sharing a smile. She cuts the line to hug Doug, then Discord, coming back from the draconequus with hair straighter than a depressed Pinkie Pie. “At least we made it back in time before that nasty storm hit.” “Badlands weather,” Twilight commiserates, shaking her head. She levitates her checklist. “Decorations on the stage complete?” “Minus one or two gems that may or may not be unaccounted for, yes,” Rarity says, glancing off to the side, flipping her mane and restoring her curls. “I’ll put that down as a tentative yes, just let me know if you run into trouble finding replacements.” Twilight sighs, knowing exactly where the ‘unaccounted for’ gems probably disappeared to. She rolls her checklist up, going to find Applejack. The line of ponies peters out quickly, as many of the horde follows Twilight in some massive song and dance routine as they get the last of the preparations ready.  “Have fun,” Doug says to Discord as he hugs the last of the ponies, his tone conveying exactly how much ‘fun’ he expects the draconequus to have. “If only,” Discord says, bored already, resting his head on his claws and glaring at everypony walking by who so much as glances his way. A few daring ponies head over, and Doug hastily exits before they have a chance to demand a hug from him, too. Doug slows down only as he passes by a truly massive cake, so large that even if everypony in Canterlot got a slice Princess Celestia would still have trouble finishing it. And there are thousands of extra ponies in Canterlot, all there for the ‘We’re Very Sorry That Everypony Nearly Got Their Magic Sucked Into A Bottomless Pit, So Here’s A Slice Of Cake To Make Up For It’.  Doug stands underneath one of the signs proclaiming exactly such, admiring the hoofwork and how the scroll kind of spills down the pole it’s attached to. Twilight comes up behind him, and he can hear her long, exasperated sigh. “I thought you said, after the first banner, to never let Trixie help.” “Well, we were short of ponies to complete everything in time after we lost a day yesterday,” Twilight explains, “and somehow ‘Festival of Friendship’ wasn’t enough of a mouthful for her.” “Yup,” Doug says as Pinkie Pie buzzes past with a pink blur, ending up with a plate of cake, a fork, and a party hat on his head. He takes a bite, Twilight doing the same to her own cake. “So, what’s going to go horribly wrong here?” “Well, seeing how the preparations all got completed on time, Discord has agreed to his ‘time out spot’, and Tirek is back in Tartarus? It’s going to have to be something worse than the death of everypony in Equestria.” “Sooo,” Doug draws out, “the enslavement and subjugation of everypony in Equestria?” The two watch as a sparkly Chrysalis walks by, party hat perched precariously on her crownless black head, scowling at the cake that has appeared in her hooves. She takes a bite, chewing slowly, her scowl deepening. Then she takes another bite, and another, crumpling up the empty paper plate and igniting it. “Please don’t give her any ideas,” Twilight whispers. “She’s still a little sore.” “Hi, Scinty!” Cadance greets Chrysalis, an overexuberant grin on the pink alicorn. “It’s positively scintillating to see you! Love what you’ve done with your look!” “Are you going to follow me around the entire time?” Chrysalis demands with a glare that just ignited a paper plate. “It’s bad enough you wanted me here for the festivities, just to parade around your ‘conquest’.” “I don’t know,” Doug says, coming to Chrysalis’ rescue. He runs a hand through her thick, braided mane, playfully whacking a few against her chitin. She contorts her head around to find his hand, then directs a questioning look to his eyes. “I’d say she looks even better than you.”  Cadance exaggerates a pout at Doug, tears threatening to break the surface. Then she breaks into a smile as Chrysalis snuggles next to Doug, his arm wrapping definitely-not-protectively around her. “I’m okay if it’s him,” she whispers to Chrysalis, winking to the two of them, and cantering off. “For the record, I seduced you,” Chrysalis states, glaring at Twilight, daring the alicorn to correct her. “Yes, yes, you’re enticing, entrancing, exotic,” Doug says with a smirk and flick of her ear.  “You don’t have time before the opening song,” Twilight says neutrally, glancing towards Songbird Serenade’s entourage as the pop star approaches the giant stage, newly constructed in the middle of one of the pavilions. “Would you prefer during?” Chrysalis asks with a gleam in her eye as dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of ponies stream into the area from every angle. Twilight sighs, resignedly closing her eyes. “You foals do what you want. Chrysalis, I expect to see you ready to go on stage immediately after her song ends. Doug, backstage in case we need you, but nothing is planned with you as of yet.” A massive cannon goes off, a pink monstrosity flying into the air. Twilight glances up at it, gritting her teeth. “Sorry, I’m late to be covered in cake. You know, to break the tension.”  She disappears in a flash, reappearing underneath the cake just in time for it to smash into the ground around her. “So?” Chrysalis asks, glancing at Doug, admiring his lean form. “So,” Doug replies, his hand moving from her neck along her back, rubbing the base of her wings. They never get the chance as massive black storm clouds billow up from the south, what had previously been a thousand feet below their elevation rising up. “No, no, no!” Twilight's exasperated shout can be heard clear across the pavilion. “I ordered clear skies! Rainbow Dash!” Any further exchange is lost as a massive black airship pierces through the roiling storm. Pinkie Pie raises a hoof, “Okay, who saw this coming?” Somewhere in Canterlot a yellow leonine paw raises. Doug and Chrysalis hustle towards Twilight Sparkle as Celestia, Luna, and Cadance land next to the lavender alicorn. Her eyes shine white, mumbling to herself. “Analysis?” demands Celestia, her own eyes joining Twilight's in scanning the cloud behind the airship as its belly opens up. “Ninety five percent chance it’s the Storm King’s armada. With no advance notice or warning-” “-We watched them sail northwards for two days,” Luna interrupts. “-no communication from them, we can only insinuate that their intentions are hostile. They have taken the Lightning Storm package and modified it to be deployable from an airship.” “Equestria is an arms dealer?” Chrysalis whispers to Doug, getting a nod in response. “That would have… I mean, what sort of madcreature would attack Equestria?” “I am sorry our ventures so frequently get twisted in that direction,” Celestia says sorrowfully, glancing backwards at Chrysalis. Twilight continues, “Anti-magic is also present, in large scale along the airship itself - I’m having some difficulty piercing through some areas - and infantry level armaments and munitions. Do not count on a shield stopping their shots, and somepony should warn Armor about this.”  “Options?” Celestia asks, standing straighter. Twilight frowns as a walkway extends from the airship to the pavilion. “Their airships are built for war, and have conquered nations. Physical attacks are a necessity; pegasi should stay clear of any clouds and the airships themselves or risk losing their flight magic long enough to become a crater. That goes for alicorns, too.” “I suppose Heaven’s Light is out as well,” Celestia says dryly. “Not unless you wish Canterlot to be ‘acceptable collateral damage’.” Twilight glances at Celestia, seeing the smirk. “Oh, you were joking.” A squat gray creature with a long white mane walks down, carrying a crate with the Storm King’s dual teal lightning bolt insignia. Grubber gives the crate a kick; it unpacks with a myriad of loud cranks and grinding, expanding out to form a giant megaphone. “I guess we’ll hear what they have to say,” Twilight says, relieved it isn’t some bomb they kindly gave them the opportunity to deploy. She and the other three Princesses walk forward, ponies parting ways to allow them to get to the front. “Ponies of Equestria!” the gray creature bellows, megaphone amplifying his raspy words. He pulls out a piece of paper, clearing his throat. “We come on behalf of the fearsome, the powerful, the almighty, Storm King!” A huge banner unfurls off the deck of the closest airship, a depiction of the Storm King in all his terrible glory. The gray, bipedal creature bears a bit of a resemblance to Doug, if not for the white, bushy beard, maniacal grin, and Storm King branding, and more than a few ponies turn to compare him to the banner. “Now, to deliver the...” Grubber stops as he squints at the page, his mumbling picked up by the microphone, “Council-ordered summons? Bureaucratic… subpoenas?” He begins to trail off even more, ponies just glancing at each other as even his enhanced mumblings become unrecognizable. He finally stands up, sweeping an arm backwards to the walkway. “Now, to deliver the evil, evil message, Commander Tempest!” With a switch that would probably get a sound minion fired, and if he’s lucky only out of a cannon, a microphone turns on. A male voice argues, “But, you don’t send the Shock and Awe armada as a glorified... taxi service! You send it to obliterate whatever pathetic defenses are there, and install a temporary regime until the Council can figure out what to do with the rubble!” “And that’s why we’re here, to form a provisional government while the Princesses are… indisposed.” The female voice sighs heavily. “Look, I’m up now. We can continue this later.” “All I’m saying is, you don’t get Awe without the Sh-” A deep red unicorn with a broken horn, mane a fiery rose, imperiously strides out from the airship. She focuses on the four Princesses as she walks down, muttering to herself as she gets to the bottom. “Tempest, is it?” Celestia asks, her voice hard. “How may we help you?” “I’m so glad you asked,” Commander Tempest says, savoring every word. Her eyes sweep between the four alicorns before glancing at the paper Grubber is holding. “I’ll make this simple for you. We’ll start with your complete and total surrender.” “Hi, there,” Twilight Sparkle says, swooping forwards. “Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship here. I’m sure we can talk this out!” “Here’s the deal, ladies,” Commander Tempest says, ignoring Twilight, “I need your magic. Give it up nicely, or we make things… difficult.” “And why should you expect us to comply?” Luna demands. “I was hoping you’d choose… difficult,” Commander Tempest says with an evil grin, her broken horn sparking. She takes a deep breath as dozens of beady blue eyes peek out from every airship. “You see,” Commander Tempest says, pulling out a scroll of her own, “The Council of Creatures has decreed during the emergency session brought on by the events of four days ago, hereby dubbed the ‘Tirek Incident’, that the Diarchs of Equestria are no longer fit to serve as the sole caretakers of the Sun and the Moon. The Tirek Incident was not an isolated one, and the repeated offenses indicate a dereliction of duty that is unacceptable in the Council’s eyes, especially with objects as vital to everycreature's survival as the Sun and Moon. In addition to the aforementioned offenses, reports of Unlicensed Regicide have been received. Without proper authorization - which we, the Storm King’s Armada, have obtained - this also constitutes a serious offense. In addition to Regicide is the unauthorized annexation of a signatory to the original accords, in this case the Crystal Empire, by itself an offense worthy of losing your throne and any positions of delegated power. Fourthly is the harboring of known fugitive, and herself an unlawful Deposer of Nations, the being known as Queen Chrysalis. You have knowingly provided her with safe refuge and failed to extradite her to the Council of Creatures for proper punishment, as you have promised to do by previous accords to which you are signatory. Dozens of other minor infractions remain, but each of the aforementioned offenses by themselves would be sufficient to require your presence in front of the Council to answer for your misdeeds and accept the proper punishment.” Commander Tempest rolls up her scroll, looking over the ponies in front of her. Only the four alicorns seem to be paying attention. She demands harshly, “Your response?” “Yes,” answers Princess Celestia. “...Yes?” asks Commander Tempest. “Yes,” replies Princess Celestia. “You may inform the Council of Creatures that I, and my fellow rulers of Equestria,” she indicates the other three alicorns, “will appear in front of said Council of Creatures to determine the proper procedure and penalties for our actions during these trying circumstances. However, I regret to inform you that your airships are, sadly, unsuitable for our transportation.” She reaches back to pat her belly. “We will follow you in our own, remaining within eyesight at all times, clouds permitting. If that is acceptable to you.” Celestia motions towards a cobalt airship docked nearby. “Oh.” Commander Tempest looks down at her paper, then back up at Celestia. “You sure you don’t want to refuse?” She chuckles. “I’d look kind of silly bringing all this,” she motions towards the dozen airships and all the giant yeti creatures lurking inside, “just for you to drive yourself.” “Again,” Celestia says, rubbing her belly, “while I’m sure that would be exciting and a great learning experience, I must decline.”  “...Right.” Commander Tempest coughs. “You ready to depart now?” “Within the hour,” Celestia says, “But I will need to confirm with my pilot.” “I guess we pack this all up, then.” Commander Tempest sighs, disappointed, as she walks back up the ramp to the airship. She glances back. “Are you sure? Absolutely?” Princess Celestia smiles noncommittally. “Perhaps another time.”