//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Safe 
// Story: OMAI: The Empire of Storms 
// by VeganSpyro97 
//------------------------------//

After a bit of guidance, the Skylark and the other ship, humorously named “Bait Me”, came to land in the clearing that housed the huge ruin that had once been the Castle of the Two Sisters, settling onto their landing gear with creaking groans of straining metal and wood. It had been a bit of a strange sight, to come up to what had looked like another stretch of nothing but dense forest, only for the illusion to ripple apart as they passed through it, revealing a huge castle and the clearing the ships were now settling in. 
Static’s legs felt like a plate of jello as she tried to stumble her way down the extended cargo ramp. She was tired, and dirty, and covered in all kinds of gunk, and she was worn out in every way. Even the day long journey to reach the Castle hadn’t been enough to recuperate much, since she’d been too worried about the King following them to actually rest. 
Added on top of that was a month long stretch of poor food and an uncomfortable living space, which only made it worse. She’d lost weight and her face felt far too thin. 
A small crowd had emerged from the fortress, the first wave a set of armed guards who quickly put up a call for medics and other assistance once they realized who it was who had found their way to the old castle. Static grunted as she helped support the weight of Princess Celestia, another pony she recognized as a disheveled Fancy Pants on her other side. 
Tempest walked slowly and sullenly behind them, her armour removed and a few guards staying close by, not trusting her apparent capitulation. Her small friends body was draped over her back, the pony not wanting to leave him behind when she left. 
“Sister!” A flurry of wings and hooves carried Princess Luna over to the haggard Princess and her helpers, embracing the exhausted Alicorn in a gentle yet much needed bear hug that was weakly returned. Luna was smeared with mud and was missing pieces of the armoured suit she wore- the same one she had worn during the invasion of Canterlot, which was covered in new scratches and dents that had not been there the last time Static had seen her. 
Luna pulled away from her sister, moving her mane out of Celestia’s eyes so that she could look into them. The grayish magenta of her siblings eyes were slightly misted over by tears of relief. 
“You look terrible.” Luna chuckled, and Celestia joined her, though while Luna was smiling, Celestia was not. “Are you alright?” 
Celestia sighed, looking to her wingless sides. “I have most definitely been better.”
“Come, you need food and medical attention.” Luna picked her sister up in her magic, gently cradling and supporting her. Then, looking at the other escapees, but ignoring Tempest, she hoisted them all into the air, and carried them into the castle.
Within minutes, the group of ponies and avian’s were being fussed over by nurses and doctors. The equipment they were using was old fashioned and crude, fished out of the castle’s old medical facilities and cleaned up. The reason for the lack of decent supplies was from the rushed evacuation of Canterlot and Ponyville, forcing the doctors and nurses who got out to leave much of their equipment behind. What little they had was either scrounged up after the evacuation, or found and refurbished from the castle’s old supplies. 
Wounds were cleaned, some incisions made to help some of those wounds close cleanly, others had flesh that had started to rot cut away. Those with broken bones had them set, a few having to have those bones re-broken- including Static, who shrieked loud enough to startle the entire ward when her rib was re-broken and set using magic.
By the time it was done, Static was very glad for the IV pumping painkillers into her bloodstream, wincing with every breath even with them. Some of her cuts and wounds from the battle had started to rot too, so she’d had to go under the knife for those. 
She was understandably very sore as she lay under the sheets of her makeshift bed. She had no idea what time it was or how long she’d been there. In fact, she was pretty sure that she had been completely blacked out for half of it. At least, she hoped so with how little she remembered. 
She hadn’t been updated on anything either, not since she’d been put in here. 
“Getting bored yet?” Static looked up to the doorway of her relatively private room- relatively, since the only other occupant was gently snoring away, so they were unlikely to overhear anything, or care about the conversation. 
Static broke into a grin, relieved at the sight of her sister standing there. “Rosie.”
“Hey. How are you holding up?” Rose sat herself down at the edge of the bed, wings folding carefully. “I heard you got a pretty hard time up there.”
Static chuckled humorlessly. “Yeah, we all did. Poor food, guards with no sense of humour and generally just uncomfortable living conditions. Oh, and the occasional beating. So yeah, I’m more than a bit worn out.”
`	Rose couldn’t help but lean over to give her sister a hug. 
“How’s Crystal?” 
“Doing okay, for the most part. Fluttershy and I have been taking turns looking after her whenever one of us have to do something. She’s missed you though, a lot.” 
Static nodded. She fumbled with her hooves for a bit, simply out of a desire to move more than she had for the last few hours. “And how’s everything else going….you know….with fighting back?”
Rose didn’t answer. Not immediately, at least. She looks over to the other patient with a tired expression before she finally spoke. “We’re not. We’re too spread out and too weak to even consider fighting back right now. Most of Canterlot’s guard is either lying in a hospital bed, dead or captured. The rest of the Equestrian guard is too busy ensuring the safety of their own cities and civilians to even try fighting back properly. Equestria as a kingdom….it’s almost empty, Static. They’re all fleeing to allied nations in search of sanctuary.”
Static groaned, falling back onto her bed. “So he owns everything, then.”
“Not yet.” Rose shook her head. “While it’s true that we’re at a severe disadvantage right now, the King seems to have only brought an advance force with him, almost half of which was wiped out in the battle.” 
Static blinked in surprise. “He only brought that many troops?”
“Don’t get me wrong, he still brought a huge amount in comparison to what the Guard were able to use, but you made them pay for every inch of ground they took. The King’s been sitting in  Canterlot for all this time because the rest of his army is taking far longer to get here. Your turncoat friend confirmed as much when Princess Luna questioned her.”
“What did she say?”
“I don’t know all the details. Only that the invasion was rushed, for some reason. Most of his army wasn’t ready in time, so he left them behind to finish preparations.”
Static smiled. “Well, that’s some good news. Maybe this isn’t completely hopeless yet.”
“Maybe.” Rose smiled, but she wasn’t very convincing in her attempt to sound hopeful. “I’ll, uh, let you get back to resting, and I’ll let Crystal know you’re back.”
“Thanks.” Static winced again as she felt her ribs twinge, but she chose to just bear with it. 
Rose left the room, trotting off along the corridor and out of the medical wing, navigating the ruined castle with a now practiced ease until she reached the room she, Fluttershy, her brother Zephyr Breeze, and her adopted niece, Crystal Aster, were sharing. Pinkie was also there, her hair hanging straight and darker than normal, a state she had been in since she had left Canterlot.
“Guys. I’ve got some good news for once.” Rose announced with a smile. “Static’s back. She and a bunch of others escaped with Princess Celestia.”
“Mummy’s back?” Crystal jerked upright, eyes wide and lip trembling in excitement. 
“Cellie’s back?” Pinkie gasped, looking up at Rose.
“Yes, mummy’s back, and you can go say hello if you want. Just remember to be gentle.” Both Pinkie and Crystal jumped to their hooves and immediately slammed their faces into the closed door before opening it and charging outside. “Be gentle!!” Rose called out after them, as an equally ecstatic Fluttershy scrambled to her hooves behind Rose, and started following her daughter.
Back in the medical wing, Static heard a few surprised shouts in the distance before smiling. “Three, two, one.” 
The door slammed open, and Crystal came charging in, leaping into the air and coming down hard on her mummy’s belly, knocking the wind out of her in a great wheeze. A Pink blur streaked past, pausing just long enough to look in through the door, before streaking off again. Then, a gasp of realization erupted from just down the hall, before the sound of rapid hoof-beats reversed their direction, and Pinkie Pie came streaking into the room. “CELLIEEEEEEEE!!!!!” 
The other patient bolted upright in shock and surprise at being woken up, before suddenly being smothered by a very relieved and delighted mare whose deep, candy floss mane tickled her nose and ears at the same time that the same pony’s mouth was showering the hapless Princess in kisses. 
Celestia managed to finally pull Pinkie off of her with far more effort than she used to need. “Pinkie! What have we said about this in public!!”
“I don’t care! You’re back, and you’re okay!!” Pinkie squealed, wrapping her legs around the now much smaller former Alicorn and squeezing tightly. 
“Gah!! Pinkie!! Your hugs are too tight!!” 
Pinkie just laughed, patting the top of Celestia’s pink mane. “Ha ha ha, no they’re not.”
Celestia just gave up with a sigh. 
“Mummy!” Crystal beamed into Static’s face, doing her best to hug her adoptive mother to death with an attack of cute that made Static want to squee very, very loudly. “I missed you so much!!” 
“Well, it’s a good thing I’m back then, isn’t it, little bug? Don’t want my little Princess getting too worried about me, do we?”
“Nope!” Crystal chirped. 
Fluttershy chose that moment to crash in through the open door, tripping over her own mane and slamming headfirst onto Static’s bed like a sack of potatoes. She quickly wriggled and wormed her way up the bed and into her shocked lover’s forelegs before contentedly sighing and snuggling as deep into Static’s chest fluff as possible. 
“I take it that Cryssie wasn’t the only one that missed me.” It was more of a statement than a question, and even of it had been, if certainly didn’t need answering. 
Fluttershy just mumbled something about missing Static and how she should never do that again. Static wasn’t overly enthusiastic about arguing against her fiancee, so she stayed quiet and snuggled back. 
“So, uh, which pony do we hug?” Applejack asked from the doorway, hat askew and looking to Rarity for guidance in the matter.
“Static. I think Pinkie would chase off anyone else right now.” Rarity giggled at the sight of Celestia’s scrunched up mouth, as the Princess tried to pretend she wasn’t incredibly happy to have a marefriend kissing her cheek, neck, horn, lips and nibbling on her ears. The corners of Celestia’s mouth were already betraying her inner smile by twisting up a little into a tiny grin. 
Static pretty soon was buried beneath a pile of mares, gasping for breath while trying to laugh at the absurd number of tails all waving around above her while their owners wrapped their forelegs around her, laughing and crying a little in joy at their reunion. Then a rainbow maned Pegasus busted into the room and dog-piled on top of them, making the entire pile topple over and sent most of them sprawling all over the room, just in time for a nurse to look inside, shake her head, and start bossing the excited ponies around, telling them to stop “pestering the Princess and Ser Thunder.” 
So the friends began animatedly retelling their escapes from Canterlot, with most of the attention of Static’s most recent adventure and near execution at the claws of the Storm King’s minions. Once Static was finished, they settled into a comfortable half circle and simply sat together in silence, enjoying the calm and the reprieve, letting their worries take a backseat to their relief at having survived. 
But eventually, the hours passed by, and it was time for her friends to leave Static alone, and for the nurses to find something to use to pry Pinkie off of Celestia, the party mare having fallen asleep where she hung from Celestia’s neck, leaving the diarch to grumble under her breath about drool in her coat. 
But sleep did not come easily to Static, even with the medicine that was on hoof to aid her. She’d told the doctors and nurses to treat everyone else first, but they weren’t interested in listening. 
It was with a weighted mind and an equally heavy heart that Static finally drifted off to sleep, not even trying to slip into the dream realm because of how tired she felt. Her dreams were haunted by the ringing of swords, and the cries and screams of those that had fought and died beside her. The image of a two legged statue lingered in her beleaguered mind, and a burning desire whispered thoughts of vengeance into her head. Oh how she wanted so desperately to return the pain that the King had so generously provided, with interest. 
Those thoughts deepened, turning to the past, revisiting the battle of Vancouver, and the best friend who had died there. Like with Crimson’s petrified body, Anna’s terrified face stayed in the forefront of her mind as she dreamt. 
When her eyes opened in the morning, Static had to blink away the afterimage of her dreams that night, the lingering faces of her friends imprinted into her memory like a brand that faded with the night. 
She shook her head, letting her ratty mane hang over her eyes as she swung her legs and body out from under the covers of her makeshift hospital gurney. Her hooves met the floor with soft clicks of keratin on stone. She felt her tail slowly slide off the mattress and flap limply down behind her. She wondered why her mane and tail had been left uncut by the Jotuns, but decided it wasn’t worth thinking about as she plodded her way out of her room, following her nose until she reached the bathroom. 
After going through the arduous process of relieving herself and cleaning up afterwards, Static shambled back into bed, ignoring the gobsmacked faces of the doctors who said she should barely be able to walk after all of her ordeals over the past month, before climbing back into bed and under the covers. 
She ignored their annoying braying about how she seemed perfectly fine today, when she had been emaciated and starving yesterday. She didn’t care. She was too busy asking about getting some food, since she was starving and her magic felt awfully low. 
“How is this even possible?” One of them asked, to which Static merely grunted and flipped him the Pegasi’s equivalent of the middle finger with a wing- a wing that had apparently had a fracture yesterday, and may have yelled at him to either get her something to eat, let her sleep, or find out how a bedsheet tasted when it was shoved down his throat by an annoyed Pegasus. He had balked pretty quickly, and left with his fellows to have the cooks prepare her something. 
A few hours later and some apologies later for her rudeness, and Static was staring at herself in wonder. The Doctors had been right. Many of the wounds that had been stitched shut had sealed shut and were no longer sore, while her broken rib and fractured wing were mended too. She still had bald patches from where they had stitched her up, and there were some nasty scars there, but she was otherwise okay, if still sore and irritable. 
She was discharged from the medical wing by midday, with orders to go see Twilight, to hopefully get an explanation from the reportedly overworked young Alicorn.
Static found her in the bowels of the Castle’s old dungeon, looking over a multitude of projects done by a team of scientist and thaumatician ponies who were analyzing Storm Empire weapons, working on producing counter-agents to the gas used on Crimson, and various other things. The mare herself was frazzled, her mane wildly sticking out in all directions and her eyes dark with bags that made her look like she had not slept in weeks, which may have been completely true by that point. That Twilight hadn’t even come to see her mentor meant one of two things to Static: One, that Twilight was too busy to come, or two, she was simply so absorbed and consumed by her work that she hadn’t even registered that two of her good friends- that she had probably thought were dead- were alive and safe. Either way, Static didn’t care, she needed to talk to Twilight about her odd recovery, and Twilight needed to talk with someone- anyone.
“Twilight?” Static called as she approached Twilight, who was hunched over a parchment with a quill, a completely unconscious Spike curled around her table in a protective ring of scales and spines. “Twilight?”
“Did you bring the samples I asked for, Moondancer?” Twilight snapped, her voice terse and full of a manic urgency. 
“I’m not Moondancer, Twilight.”
Twilight whirled around, her eyes not even focusing on Static as she almost roared in Static’s face. “Then why are you here? I’m busy! Ask one of my assistants! That’s what they’re here for!” She spun back around to face the table again, too absorbed in her work to even notice who it was asking for her. 
Static frowned, folding her wings in front of her as if they were arms. Such a great welcome back. Static shook her head and thought back over the number of times that her sarcastic retorts had been held back out of politeness. Well not today!
“I would ask them, but they’re a little busy kissing a Princess's ass to pay attention to little old me.” Static said, leaning against a nearby desk. “You wouldn’t happen to know her, would you? Purple? Wings, horn and a silly haircut?” 
Twilight harrumphed, ruffling her feathers and shuffling her papers. She rolled her eyes at Static’s lippy remark, instead choosing to ignore it in favour of looking for a solution to her current problem. “The metal is highly resistant to magic and requires non-magical means of study, and seems to be treated with some kind of chemical which gives it its unique properties, yet attempts to separate or synthesize the chemical mixture result in petrification, similar to the affects observed on Architect Guard member, Cr-” Twilight’s breath caught for a second, before she carried on. “Crimson Pureheart. No known remedy for this petrification. Chemical solutions producing no results so far, and no magic seems capable of loosening the bonds between the reacted atoms…...UGH! There’s something obvious that I’m missing, I just know it! What is it I’m missing, Static? What am I not seeing?”
“Uh-” 
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it in a minute.” Twilight groaned, slapping her papers down on her desk with another moan of woe, slamming her head down onto the wood next to it. Spike remained comatose, having probably stayed up all night to help his adoptive big sister. 
Static smirked, and started flipping the feathers on her right wing down in a count of seconds. 
As her counter hit zero, Twilight’s head perked up, and she turned herself around to look at Static, who did her best to appear as nonchalant as possible. Dazed, Twilight walked over to her, raised her hoof, and gently prodded Static in the chest.
“Boo.” Static grinned. 
“Uh…..Hi.” Twilight mumbled, still taking in her Pegasus friend in all her half-shaven, scarred glory. 
“Hello Twilight. How are you today?” Static asked. 
“Um…..” Judging by how the Princess flung herself onto her friend and started crying, Static guessed that she was very much relieved to see her alive and well. 
Once Twilight was done coating Static’s shoulder in a layer of snot and tears, she pulled back and started spouting off on a tangent of questions, most of which were about who else had escaped. “Is Princess Celestia okay? What about the guards? What about Crimson? Did you see what happened to him? TELL ME HE’S OKAY!!”
“Twi, Twi….Twi….” Static had to wait for her to calm down enough to listen, and her answer wasn’t the hopeful one she wanted to give. She placed her hooves on the younger Princess’s shoulders, looking her dead in the eyes. “Princess Celestia is in the medical wing, recovering from imprisonment. Most of the surviving guards got out… but I have no idea what happened to Crimson. Last I saw, he was standing in the courtyard where we left him.”
“O…..Oh.” Twilight bit her lip and her ears folded back. “I….I should go and see Celestia.” 
“Not yet.” Static inwardly winced at how quickly she spoke, but kept it from showing on her muzzle. “She needs her rest, and Pinkie already wore her out yesterday. Right now, the doctor’s want you to take a look at me.” 
“Yesterday? How long have I been working down here if I missed you coming back?” Twilight asked, before waving the thought away. “Apart from those bald patches and scars, you look okay. Why do they want me to look at you?”
“Because yesterday these were all still open wounds, fresh from the operating table. Now they’re sealed up, and no one cast any rapid healing spells on me. I shouldn’t be up and about already.”
Twilight’s ears twitched and a familiar look settled in her eyes. The need to discover. 
“That is strange, if they’re sure no one cast on you. Come over here, and I’ll start by giving you a quick physical examination so I know what I’m dealing with.”
The physical examination was little more than Twilight looking at Static through several different pairs of magical glasses that had numerous and seemingly random effects, from x-ray enchantments to gingivitis detectors that made Static’s teeth light up red wherever her teeth were in good need of a clean- which thankfully wasn’t much of an issue. The exam lasted only thirty minutes before Twilight reached the same conclusion the Doctor’s had. Static was, for lack of a better phrase, as healthy as healthy can be. No sign of long term injury or damage of any kind, despite the rotten flesh they had removed only the day before. 
“This is strange, and definitely beyond what even a Pegasus like Rainbow is capable of. She can recover from wounds approximately one and a half times faster than an ordinary Pegasus, even serious ones, but you more than doubled that time.” Twilight paused, muttering to herself a bit. “That much Pegasus magic being used at once should leave you drained and exhausted, to the point of falling comatose. But if it is magic that is the cause, then I should be able to detect traces of it in your Thaumic system. Higher than normal blood cells, increased sensory acuteness, hyper-reflexes…..hmmmmm….”
Twilight pondered over it for a bit, before she slit her horn up and started scanning Static’s thaumic systems, before suddenly jumping back in shock. “Whoa!”
“What? That’s not a good sound, Twilight. What’s wrong with me?”
Twilight lit her horn again, only this time, it wasn’t just on herself. Static’s eyes were suddenly open to a whole world of magic, swirling around them and through them. 
“It’s not something wrong with you. It’s something right with you.”
“Okay, now you’ve lost me.”
Twilight groaned. “I told you to study anatomy on your time off!”
“And I said I’d think about it, now spill!”
“Alright, look. Right now, because of the spell I cast to lock your shapeshifting into a single form, you should only have access to Pegasus magic, and nothing else. With me so far?”
“Uh, yeah, I think so.” 
“But what this spell is showing me is much more than just Pegasus magic. There’s an overabundance of unused Changeling, Unicorn and Earth Pony magic as well that's being tapped into.”
“.....My changeling magic is coming back?”
“Yes and no. You can’t consciously use it to shapeshift or use spells because of the damage to your non-Pegasus thaumic systems, but you’ve been in a love rich environment and converting it into magic for nearly two years without using any of it. So it just sits there, doing nothing, until ....” 
“Until the Doctors start using healing magic on me.” Static nodded. “Their spells let the magic loose.”
“Right. They jumpstart your recovery after being imprisoned, and WHAM! That stored up magic suddenly has an outlet to go through! Your body heals rapidly, undoing damage at a rapid pace without leaving you tired or putting you into a coma.”
“Twilight….” 
“Yes?” 
“If I’m using magic to heal myself rapidly, what does that mean for the spell you put on me? Why isn’t that damage being undone?”
“I….I think it might be because my magic is Alicorn magic. Changeling magic and Alicorn magic are similar, but they don’t match up, so….” Twilight scrunched her face up as she did some more mental gymnastics to work out the answer. “So, the spell I cast couldn’t access that magic to jump start the healing process- especially since that magic wasn’t there when I cast the spell. Remember, this is a two year backlog of magic we’re talking about.”
“Right. So if you could rework the spell on me to use the magic my Changeling love conversion produces, then….” 
“Then I could potentially fix your Thaumic systems much faster!” Twilight was excited, hopping on the spot in  an adorable trot. “Instead of the majority of your life, I could fix the damage in as little as a decade!”
“Meaning that I would…..” Static blinked. “I’d stop being a Pegasus.”
“Yeah, and? Isn’t that great? You can go back to being the bronze shelled bug-brain we all know and love!”
Static frowned, folding her ears back and pawing at the ground. “But I like the way I am now.” 
“So? What’s the problem? You could just shapeshift into that body. I mean, you’d feel uncomfortable like that but….” Twilight stopped, as she she realized what Static meant. “You’d stop feeling comfortable in any skin but the Changeling one. You’d have to adjust. Again.”
Static turned her head away, shaking a little in….well, she wasn’t sure what she was feeling.
She’d put so much stock in putting the past behind her, and now all of a sudden, a part of that past was being brought right back into the present. To be a Changeling again felt like a step back. 
“I don’t want it.” Static said. “Just leave me as I am. The magic won’t hurt me, and I get the benefit of being able to recover from major injuries overnight.”
“Static….” 
“Don’t. Just don’t. This isn’t a discussion.”
“Static-”
“I SAID DON’T!” Static thundered, whirling on her friend in an instant. “No more changes, no more adjusting- I’M HAPPY THE WAY I AM, DAMNIT!”
The whole lab had gone quiet, and several pairs of fearful eyes watched on as the scene unfolded. 
“I know.” Twilight sighed. “I just think that maybe you should talk to someone about it. That’s all.”
“Besides, Twilight, didn’t you say before that you couldn’t mess with the spellwork anyway? Too delicate or something?” 
Twilight’s already fading excitement vanished immediately, her smile replaced with a sudden recollective frown. “Oh, yeah… I kind of forgot about that in my excitement. We both did.” She rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish smile. “Even if the spell was stable enough to mess with, I don’t want to force anything on you.” 
Static sighed. “I know.” The two mares shared an awkward silence before Static decided to break off. “The Doctors told me that Luna was asking to talk to me earlier, so I think I’ll go find her. What’ll you do?”
“I’ve got all this research to do…” 
“Twilight.” Static firmly reached up and grabbed her friend by the shoulders. “You’ve been down here for hours already today- and who knows how long before that? Come with me up top. You could do with some fresher air and a break from all this.”
Twilight went to object, but caught sight of her own reflection in a metal plate on the table behind Static. The messy hair and the thick bags under her eyes looked awful, and the whites of her eyes were tinted red. 
“....Okay. I’ll take a break.” Static smiled happily in response, turning and starting to trot out of the room while Twilight slumped her way to the door after her. Her body felt stiff and unresponsive after hours of swift bursts of motion followed by long periods of near perfect stillness. 
Static stayed at a slower pace so that Twilight could keep up. Finding Luna wasn’t too hard, since she had taken to the old throne room with only a little reluctance, and had been held there by a near constant flow of decisions being brought to her about how best to prepare the castle for sheltering it’s new occupants and fending off attack. It was a constant stream of ponies needing approval, and Luna’s completely flat expression showed absolutely no inkling of enjoyment in the repetitive drivel- as if there was any but Twilight who could find hours of sitting in one place and proofreading proposals any kind of enjoyable. The pony stood beside Luna looked just as bored, her quill flicking lazily across her page of parchment. 
“Princess. You wanted to see me?” Static called out, startling the Lunar Princess and making her smile for the first time that day. 
“Static! I am surprised to see you up and moving this early! I thought you would be in bed for days!” 
“A byproduct of me still being a changeling without having any way to use the magic that I’ve produced in the last two years.” Static returned with a smile. “Nothing to worry about.” Static said, making sure that Twilight didn’t try to explain it fully. “But you wanted to see me?”
“Yes, I wanted your opinion on Miss Tempest Shadow. She’s been sitting in a secure room since you arrived yesterday. I questioned her a little, but nowhere near enough.” 
Static pursed her lips. “And you want my opinion on whether or not we should trust her?”
“Indeed. You spent the most time with her.”
“I don’t trust her. Call me stupid, but I make it a point to take anyone who suddenly tells you they’re totally good now with a healthy amount of skepticism. Just because she lost someone she says was a friend doesn’t mean this isn’t some ploy.” Static’s frankly rather brutal honesty had Twilight breathe in sharply just behind where she was standing. 
The throne room was silent, it’s huge, ancient drapes and slightly cleaner floor than Static would expect from a castle this old filled with a heavy air of years untold and a very fresh dose of worry, sadness and fear. 
“I thought you might have been more supportive of her, in all honesty.” Luna admitted. “To hear something so cold from you is unexpected.”
Static’s eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t born a pony, Luna. I think differently to you. When someone with a history of doing wrong suddenly turns around and says they’re good, I won’t be stupid enough to just accept them at their word. They have to prove they’ve changed. If she wants to prove that she really wants to help, she can start by telling us everything she knows about the Storm King and his armies. Their weapons, their strategies, their commanding officers, where they come from and why they do what they do.”
Luna sat back a little in her throne, the dark blue background of the old thing allowing her to almost blend in. She folded her hooves over her chest and steepled them, her head lowered so that her eyes were staring at Static from behind them. “Wise beyond your years, as ever. Wherever did you learn to be like this if you had a boring civilian life?”
“Stories, prudence, and common sense. That and a good understanding of my own people’s history.” Static replied. “You learn a lot about war when your species has spent so long fighting itself that you can barely go a year without someone being at war with someone else.”
Luna nodded in understanding. Her mane wafted in front of her face a little, hiding her right eye from view. “And what does it say of a species that even their most ordinary citizens can learn and apply so much about war with no prior experience the way you did in Vancouver?”
“That this is exactly the kind of time you need someone like me around. A fresh and different perspective can do wonders for problem solving of all kinds.”
“All too true. But it is sad that a race that lives for little time can have the same kind of mindset of an immortal warrior Princess who has had hundreds of years to reach those kinds of thought processes.” Luna frowned. She turned to the pony next to her. “Miss Inkwell, go find your sister. I think she’ll appreciate your company for the afternoon. I have a conversation to have with our resident turncoat.”
The aide nodded, happily placing the papers aside before rushing off out of the throne room in a clatter of hooves and, once she was out the doors, abandoned professionalism and started whooping and hollering in relieved joy. 
“Perhaps I should have her do work when she isn’t by my side?” Luna pondered, a little smile gracing her lips. She stood up and stepped away from the throne, Static and Twilight moving up to walk beside her as the three left, heading down one of the corridors and deeper into the castle. 
Twilight snorted in amusement. “She wouldn’t be very happy about it.” 
“True, but I would find amusement in her annoyance.”
“You would also lose her support very quickly.” Static hummed, making sure she didn’t trip on a few loose bricks on the floor. “Right now you need their support, so staying on their good side is probably for the best.”
“Again wise, if sapping the joy out of a few harmless pranks.” Luna sighed. “Still, you once again display that wisdom. In that regard, what do you suggest we do about the King?”
“Listen to Tempest if she’s willing to talk, then corroborate the information she gives us by studying their movements and their armaments. If what she says is true, we act on it.”
Luna and Twilight exchanged looks before nodding. “You are quite right. I was hoping you would agree with my own opinions, and I am glad you do.”
“Glad the immortal Alicorn with lots of experience agrees with me- cause I’d feel like an idiot if she laughed at me cause I was spouting nonsense.” Static let go of a nervous breath before continuing. “Still, I wouldn’t be anywhere near as good at this without you having taught me.”
“Refining your knowledge with skill makes for a dangerous opponent.” Luna agreed. They turned down yet another corridor, only this one wasn’t empty like the last one. Two guards were standing by a door about halfway down it’s length. “Ah, here we are.”
“Princess.” The guards greeted, bowing at Luna. “Princess.” They inclined their heads in a second bow for Twilight, then turned to Static and gave a salute. “Ser Thunder.”
“Soldiers, at ease. We are here to interrogate the prisoner. She has given you no trouble, I trust?” Luna asked. 
“None, your highness. She asked to bury her friend with your permission.” 
“Supervised the entire time, and not outside of the illusion. I won’t have her giving away our position- even if by accident.” 
The two nodded, then stood aside, allowing the two Princesses and the Knight to step inside.
The room had once been living quarters, but the furniture had all been removed, including the carpets, the curtains, the nails that had held up picture frames and paintings- even the ancient, low tech toilet was gone. There was a bucket in one corner of the room, which Static made sure to steer clear of, and a plate left beside the door. 
Tempest was lying on the sill of the only window, itself sporting a magical shield to keep her from trying to leave through it. She was watching the swaying trees in the bright sunlight with a flat, impassive expression, her ears flat against her neck. 
“Tempest Shadow.” Luna stated, her horn flashing as she summoned up a table with four cups of tea sitting on it. “I have come to talk. Please, sit.”
Tempest, to her credit, only flinched a little at the sudden arrival of three ponies into the quiet of her lonely prison cell, and made her way to the table with no fuss. She sat down and looked at each pony in turn, her gaze lingering on the Alicorn’s horns, and again on Static’s face in recognition. 
“You are looking well.” She said, simply, in Static’s direction. “I had assumed you would be recovering for some time.”
“Call it a stroke of luck.” Static returned. 
“You wish to interrogate me, Princess?”
“Indeed.” Luna said, her tone calm, but slightly flinty. “You claimed you wish to help us?”
Tempest shook her head. “To be honest, I want nothing to do with any of this anymore. I hate him, and I hate what he made me do, but I don’t think I’ll be of much use to you beyond what I know.”
Static watched her face the entire time, and Tempest watched Luna’s the entire time. 
“I see. And you hold to your claim that you were forced to do things against your will.” It wasn’t a question. 
“I do, for some things at least. I accepted his offers when he found me out of ignorance and anger, thinking I could find some manner of justice for the abuse I suffered at my fellow foals and also find a way to fix my horn- and instead was tricked into serving an abuser myself. I did the things I did because he would kill me or beat me if I didn’t, not that my successes stopped him from beating me anyway. Eventually, I came to the realization that whether I did what he said or not, he would hurt me, and keep hurting me, and that I would never get what he promised me. So I decided to leave. It just so happened that he pushed me too far in Canterlot, and breaking Princess Celestia and the others was really just a bonus. One last way to tweak his nose and rebel before I either got killed or got out. Now I am here.”
“So you claim. Forgive me for not trusting you just because you appear to be honest.” Luna retorted, still calmly sipping her tea. Static had to hide a sympathetic wince for her Princess- Luna much preferred coffee to tea, almost to the point of addiction. But not quite.
“I would think you an idiot if you did.” Tempest agreed. “What do I need to do to prove to you I want nothing to do with this anymore?”
“Tell us everything you can.” Static jumped in. “Strategies, weapons, armour, social structure, history, anything we can use.”
“It will take time. I was under his command for a number of years.”
“Then start talking.” Static snapped.
“Easy, my friend.” Luna cautioned. “She will tell us what she can.”
Static grunted and went back to drinking her tea.
Twilight was quiet on her end of the table, watching Tempest carefully as the Commander began to talk. She explained that the Empire had spent the last two hundred years undergoing rapid expansion, separated from the northern half of the continent by a massive storm front that had built up in that time, taking land and slaves at will and using anything they could get their claws on to improve their armies and technology. Airships from sky pirates in the free port of Klugetown, exotic fabrics and various other things from the Abyssinian territories, and huge tracts of farmland from other free nations that now no longer existed. 
“What about the metal you use? The armour and weapons we were able to salvage are all magically resistant. How was that done?” Twilight asked. 
“It’s called Gorgonite. The same material that was in those petrification bombs used on your Architect friend. It's brewed from various ingredients and disastrous if made wrong. It's used to temper the metal during the forging process.”
“You know about Architect’s?” Static asked, surprised. 
“There are many of them in the south.” Tempest said, slowly.  “All of them owned as slaves.”
The three other ponies all stopped, their own expressions going from relatively neutral to nearly pure rage in just seconds. “Did you say, “all as slaves”?”
Tempest nodded. “The Empire was using slaves for thousands of years before it fell out of fashion, but it resurged sometime after King Gaul’s grandfather took the throne.”
“Bastards. I guess that explains the scars around your neck. You were little better than a slave yourself, weren’t you?” Static asked. Tempest’s head drifted downward until she was looking at her hooves. 
“Disgusting. Even as Nightmare Moon, I found the notion of slavery barbaric. It would appear that even my old self was still far from pure evil.” Luna muttered, her expression one of fury. “How many slaves has the Empire taken?”
“I can’t speak for all their history, but my best guess from what I’ve seen is somewhere in the hundred thousands.” Tempest admitted. 
The three ponies immediately felt their anger start to boil over. Without a word, the three vanished, Twilight teleporting somewhere deep in the Everfree, Luna to the moon, and Static vanishing into the Dream Realm. The three of them then proceeded to start breaking everything unimportant and non-alive that was within reach, and they did not stop until they had calmed down. 
When  they returned, Tempest was still staring at the spots they had been in in both wonder and fear, and a guard was standing by the open door,  having just walked in.
The guard quickly went and whispered into Luna’s ear. She thanked him and let him leave, closing the door behind him before returning to the table.
“Alright then, my guard has just informed me of something that occured recently. A large airship and a massive stone structure flew by not far from the castle only half an hour ago It just reached the edge of the forest. Do you know what it is?” Luna asked, and Tempest went rigid for a moment. 
“He’s here.” She mumbled, and Static realized she was actually shaking. 
“Who is here?”
“Commander Gale. King Gaul’s most faithful servant. And he brought the King’s greatest weapon with him.”


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