//------------------------------// // 84. Tripartite - Part Two // Story: Letters From a Little Princess Monster // by Georg //------------------------------// Letters From a Little Princess Monster Tripartite - Part Two Monster could not have been more terrified while Celestia and Luna’s magic surrounded them, then whisked them away to Canterlot. It was a different fear than she was used to, a tiny sliver of white-hot intensity not having anything to do with fighting or pain, but with loss of a precious thing she had begun to think of as inevitably her own once again. Twilight Sparkle. She had fought so hard to emerge from the Monster she had become, to become Twilight Sparkle again, that the idea of losing herself in the overwhelming power of her old magic was like clutching claws dragging her into destruction. That blessed spark of Twilight was a small flickering fire kept deep within the Monster to protect it, guarded with fierce intensity. To face the chance of losing it was shaking the depths of her soul. It would have been far easier on her shaky willpower to pass the responsibility for fighting the Windigo to the two older alicorns, except for the immeasurably precious specks of life they each carried within themselves. So it was up to her. She would need to become… No. IF she needed to become the Monster once again, she would have to do it quickly, directly, and without hesitation. Only then could she maintain a path back to Twilight, a course of redemption guided by her friends. The room they had appeared in was obviously a study of some sort, filled with bookshelves and broad tables, with a dark fireplace to one side just perfect to rest in front of during a chill winter and read. From the newness of the smaller chairs, Princess Luna had returned to her place within the sister’s comfortable niche, which gave Monster a brief lightening in the iron bands of tension contracting her chest. If Nightmare Moon can be cleansed and return to Celestia’s side, I can bear this. I can be the Monster they need, and still keep the Twilight I fought so hard to recover. “Very well. Now what?” asked Princess Celestia, holding the overfull bowl of ice cream to one side in her magic. “Need a commander for guards. Take me to the griffon’s mountain. Keep them from becoming monsters.” Monster took a series of short breaths while Celestia called out, and a broad-shouldered pegasus in golden armor appeared at the study doorway. “Yes, Your Highnesses,” he intoned, giving Monster a brief dismissive flicker of his eyes. “Commander Ironclad,” began Celestia, “we have need of our Royal Guard. Assemble your troops at once for a flight into the Frozen North, to the—” “No,” said Monster. Through the screaming tension that tied her insides into knots, or perhaps because of it, she could feel a drifting thread of the future, much the same as Scootaloo’s fateful first flight. She walked over to the brawny guard and sniffed him, which he reacted to by making a brief troubled glance at Celestia, then taking a breath which was cut off when Monster lunged toward him and shouted, “Boo!” “Wha?” The armored guard clattered backward, falling on the ground briefly and scrambling back onto his hooves, only to have Monster turn her back on him. “No,” said Monster again, only this time to the alicorn sisters. “Need Fizzy.” “Fizzy?” said the recovering commander. “Tempest Shadow,” clarified Monster. “The Storm King’s commander?” asked Celestia with wide eyes. “She’s still here? Where?!” * * * “I’m bored.” Tempest Shadow glared fiercely at the obstinate stallion who had been placed in front of the Royal Couple’s doorway as if her glare alone could peel the dark Night Guard armor off and reveal the juicy center inside. She was used to a category of minion who could be cowed into submission, and her initial trepidation about being around so many Royal Guards had been tempered by her ability to unnerve them. Except for this one. “Captain said you stay inside,” he rumbled in that deep voice that reminded her of chocolate. “Captain Shining Armor isn’t here,” she said nearly nose-to-nose with the brawny batwinged pegasus. “The perky pregnant princess isn’t here either. I’m pretty sure the rest of your buddies are going to get together and give Old Thunderhead’s Number One a vigorous blanket party once word gets around the palace, so I need to get out of here. NOW!” The rabbit punch was one of her favorites. Shifting to the left, she brought up her armor-clad right hoof in a short but brutal arc that would cave in the unprotected side of a pony’s head, or simply knock a helmeted guard unconscious. It was a simple move that she had planned as the first in a series that took her from this suite of rooms to outside of Canterlot, since the guard was nearly her size, and nopony really looked at a guard who was headed somewhere. The plan had the added advantage of seeing what the hefty stallion looked like under the armor. Unfortunately, the very first step in her plan failed. The guard shifted at almost the same instant she moved, bringing one armor-clad forehoof up to block her blow almost casually in a spray of sparks and the flexing of hidden muscles. Other than that, he remained firmly in place without even cracking a smile. “Whoa, big fellow.” Tempest took a step backward and regarded the hefty hunk with new respect, then shook her head. “Well, I guess I’m stuck in the room, then. Maybe I can order something from room service,” she added, turning around and swinging her tail at the guard’s face, then following it up with a solid double-hind buck that should have dropped him like a sack of potatoes instead of simply pushing him back a half-length when he used both armored forelegs to block, and his wings to remain upright. “I changed my mind,” said Tempest with a slow run of her tongue around her lips. “This place is less boring than I thought.” * * * Monster had never led an army. Until now, she also had never led a parade, even though she had watched one in Ponyville through a house window. Three alicorns trotting through the hallways of the palace attracted other ponies like one of Pinkie Pie’s parties until Monster thought she was leading a parade. A concerned Laminia scurried out of some hidden passage to trot beside Luna like a second shadow. Doctor Horsenpfeffer appeared beside Celestia, still wearing her stethy-scope and carrying a bottle of multi-colored pills. Several guards fell in behind them, as if they wanted to see what was going on but were too shy to ask. An entire bevy of palace servants began to trail along in their wakes. And then came the heavy gold-edged doors with a glittering blue crystal heart sparkling from their surfaces, and a rather large gold-armored pegasus standing uncomfortably in front of them. “Lieutenant Redoubtable,” said Celestia in sharp, clipped tones without breaking stride. “Move.” The pegasus drew himself up into a sharp salute. “No, Your Highnesses. Captain’s orders.” Celestia did stop in the hallway, but from the body language that Trixie had taught Monster, her inevitable motion was only arrested for a brief pause. “Lieutenant, do you know who my niece has in her rooms?” There was a long pause, during which the ground shuddered slightly, and the faint sound of breaking glass could be heard from behind the doors. It sounded like a fight, and Monster fought a quiet battle to keep her inner Twilight Sparkle centered and calm. After all, nopony else looked concerned, and she needed to hold back all of her energy for the upcoming fight with the Windigo. “A guest?” said the guard with no real indication he believed his words. “Commander Tempest Shadow of the Storm King’s army,” snapped Celestia. The guard ever so slowly nodded as a series of solid thuds sounded from behind the door. “Did you know her identity?” asked Luna, who had moved up to be right beside her sister, whether for support or restraint it was rather difficult to tell. Monster tried not to cringe. After all, this was Luna and Celestia’s house, and she had brought a guest inside without telling them, a rather shocking break from the social protocol she had been learning from Sweetie Belle. She watched the guard nod slowly again as another rather louder thump rattled the hallway. “Why, praytell, didst you refrain from informing us?” asked Luna. “Are we not your lieges? Do we not hold command over our own guard?” “She made us promise,” said Redoubtable rapidly. “She stuck her bottom lip out and made those eyes and everything. With sugar on top. Please don’t fire me.” A wash of relief poured over Monster, and she tried not to smile at the memory that bubbled up from the gaps in her healing mind. After all, Cadence had once taught a very small Twilight Sparkle that exact face, and many cookies had been earned by her practice of that lesson. Luna did not lower her fierce glare one bit, but Celestia blinked. “She used the lip and the eyes?⁽*⁾ Was anypony injured?” (*) A powerful combination when used for good. — “Corporal Ironheart,” supplied Doctor Horsenpfeffer. “Minor chest pains. He’ll be out of the infirmary shortly.” “Thank heavens.” Celestia lit up her horn and floated Lieutenant Redoubtable to one side while explaining to her sister. “When Cadence joined the Filly Scout Troop, the guard wound up with a dozen forced retirements and she nearly bankrupted the entire palace staff from cookie purchases. Ah, here we go.” The thick doors swung silently open, revealing a terrible mess. Sections of the carpet had been ripped up, chunks of shattered tables thrown in all directions, and several stuffed chairs and sofas had been violently de-stuffed. Worst of all were the bookshelves broken and cast to all directions, with the books that should have been protected inside similarly damaged and scattered. It was a terrible, horrible scene of destruction that tugged at Monster’s sense of indignation and brought a faint sheen of red down over her eyes, but she pressed that anger back, blocked it, swallowed it up and turned it into the willpower that she was going to need. In the middle of the debris-strewn room were two struggling figures, grunting and groaning like they were having sex instead of just wrestling. Fizzy had wrapped her hind legs around Pumpernickel’s neck, and was twisting one wing up behind his shoulders, while the big pegasus was struggling against the chokehold and flapping the other wing around in an attempt to flip them both over. “Give it up!” snarled Fizzy. “Tap out or I’ll break your— Whoa!” The outstretched wing managed to get underneath a fragment of couch, and Pumpernickel used the resulting leverage to heave Fizzy up into the air, then slam her down on the ground with himself on top. “Give it up!” managed Fizzy from underneath. “I’ll break this wing, I swear.” “Try it!” snarled Pumpernickel back through a mouthful of hair. “You’ll lose a leg to go with that horn.” “Lumpy!” Laminia wedged herself between the two larger alicorns and launched forward with a terrifying screech, only to come up short with Luna’s dark magic around her tail. “Get your hooves off my husband, you hornless hussy!” she screamed. “I’ll tear your—” The bubble of magic expanded to completely cover Laminia, leaving her to silently screech her murderous phrases and claw in the direction of Fizzy without any effect. “Oh. Your Highnesses,” said Fizzy, looking upside-down at the array of princesses drawn up in the room’s doorway. “This isn’t what it looks like.” There was a period of silence, broken only by their low grunting as they continued wrestling for leverage. “Well, I suppose it is. Just a minute, I’ve almost got him— Ow, you fanged monstrosity! Let go of my leg! Alright, alright, I’m tapping out,” she added, tapping one hoof against the cluttered floor. “Best three out of five?” Luna stepped forward, looking down at the two combatants. “What, praytell, are you doing with our guard?” “Oh, he’s yours?” Fizzy blew away a fleck of couch stuffing that was on her nose, but did not completely release the big pegasus from the leg-lock around his neck. “I’ll give you three of my best yeti commandos for him. No, four of the big lugs, and an airship.” “He is not for sale,” said Luna flatly. “And he is married.” “Everything is for sale, for the right price,” said Fizzy. She waggled an eyebrow. “How about six yeti, and I’ll throw in an airship full of pirates that I can’t get any useful work out of?” Her cold teal eyes slid sideways to look at Laminia’s bubble. “What’s with her?” Inside Luna’s magic bubble, Lamina had quit struggling, and was instead looking at Fizzy with the strangest expression while quietly tapping one hoof against the imprisoning magic. “It is of no consequence,” said Luna. “We have considerably greater problems. The Windigo have returned.” “Misty Mountain griffon air… aer… Nest,” managed Monster, although she could not force herself into stepping forward out of Celestia’s sizable shadow. “Read Greenie’s notes. Their leader… drinking blood.” “We appear to have caught the griffons transforming into Windigo at an early stage,” said Celestia while draping one warm wing over Monster and giving her a reassuring stroke of feathers as a mother pegasus might a child. “Twilight Sparkle believes that our Royal Guard needs you to lead it.” “I agree with her,” said Luna with a long glance around the room. “It is, I think, going to be a most harsh and unpleasant business, and will require an extremely harsh and unpleasant kind of pony to see to it.” “Windigo?” Fizzy unwrapped her hind legs from around Pumpernickel’s neck and stood up, with the dark guard slowly unfolding to her side. “Pass.” “Horn,” blurted out Monster. “Heal it. Fix it.” “Wait.” Fizzy walked slowly over to Monster and lowered her head so she she could look the smaller pony in the eyes. “What do you mean, you’ll fix my horn if I agree to go fight your imaginary monsters?” “No.” Monster shook her head, feeling the soft cascade of short mane around her neck that she had just gotten accustomed to after being a monster for so long in the forest. “Fix your horn first. Then we ask. Not force. Ask.” From the way Luna and Celestia exchanged looks, they were skeptical of Monster’s plan, more so when she turned to them and said, “Need your magic. All of it.” “Healing an old break on a horn is an extraordinarily difficult spell,” said Doctor Horsenpfeffer, although she backtracked when Monster turned and looked at her with narrowed eyes. “With the power of three alicorns, however… Oh, my.” “Clear the room,” said Celestia. “Everypony out.” There was a generalized rush for the outside corridor from the watchers who had begun to drift forward. In moments, the room was nearly empty. “That includes you,” said Luna, looking directly at the hefty batpony guard who had placed himself by her side. “Now!” she added when Pumpernickel made to respond. “Come on, Lumpy!” hissed Laminia, giving him a nudge, then continuing when the two of them had made it into the corridor, “You hit her, didn’t you?” “She hit me first,” said Pumpernickel defensively. “Hard.” “Can you go back and hit her again?” asked Laminia before a distant closing door cut off the response. “Oh, yeah. I want that one,” breathed Fizzy before turning her attention back to Monster. “Look, kid. Not that I don’t want to believe you can fix my horn, but you were the one who told me Old Stormy was lying about using the Staff of Sacanas, so why should I believe you?” “We believe in her,” said Celestia to one side. “I owe her a debt which cannot be repaid. If it were not for Twilight Sparkle, I would not have regained my sister.” “And if it were not for her,” said Luna to Monster’s other side, “I would have died within the spell which destroyed the Nightmare, and never escaped. If she says she must have our magic to heal that which is broken, that is all I need. What do you believe, young mare?” “I believe in power. Nothing more. Nothing less.” Fizzy looked up, then right and left to the larger alicorns at Monster’s side. “That’s why I joined the Storm King. My word is power now. With a simple spell call, I can summon enough airships to darken the sky, just like you can summon your Royal Guard. I’m not a powerless child anymore.” “Yes you are,” whispered Monster. The words in her mind swirled around like leaves in a tornado, but deep inside her center, she could feel her Twilight Sparkle gather them together and organize them into sentences that spoke straight from her heart. “You stopped living when you lost your horn, the same way my life stopped when I nearly destroyed Canterlot. You locked yourself in the same cave where you lost your horn, and never had any friends to love you, to care for you, and to bring you out into the light. In your mind, you’re still a powerless child terrified of the Ursa locked in with you.” “That’s…” Fizzy tried to swallow and backed up a step. “You’re wrong.” “I’m right,” said Monster. “Let us be your friends. Let me heal your horn, and we can defeat the Windigo together. Come out of your cave.” She hesitated, trying to come up with some additional reason for the terrified unicorn to trust them. “We have cookies.” Fizzy looked very much like she had just inhaled a bug. She blinked, coughed several times, and shook her head. “Cookies?” Monster nodded. It was a positive sign. Nopony could resist Pinkie Pie’s cookies. After a long silence, Fizzy noded ever so slightly. “I would be a fool to trust you, but I was twice the fool to trust the Storm King. Then again, you are all fools if you think I’ll do what you want after healing my horn. I suppose there’s only one way to find out which of us is the larger fool.” Fizzy sat down on the floor and stuck the stub of her broken horn forward. “Let’s see it.” Both larger alicorns bent down, touched their horns together with Monster… ...and magic happened. * * * It was a con job. It had to be. The Princesses of Equestria were running some sort of deception against the Storm King that called for his top lieutenant to be sucked into helping a kid to… No, a confidence game had to make sense. Maybe they were intending on some sort of mind-magic, or creating a clone of Tempest. Any doubts she had about the sincerity of the Equestrian princesses was blown away like mist when those three horns touched. Once when Tempest was much younger, and dumb enough to fight a thunderstorm, she had traded lightning bolts with a massive thunderhead, blow for electrical blow. It was a matter of willpower over pain, magic over nature, sheer power over stupidity. The sense of raw fury coursing over her coat and hammering down the stub of her horn was a window into her past, a pain that she had conquered and used to become stronger. Pain was weakness, emotional baggage that she had discarded long ago when she abandoned her name and took up the Storm King’s service. That excruciating pain was a mere flyspeck compared to the agony that hammered into her skull as the magic grew, exploding with power and the sound of somepony screaming. Magic filled every cell in her body to overflowing, rupturing nerves like lines of crackling lightning, burning the hair from her body, wracking her mind with such force she could not even breathe. And still the power cascaded in. There is a point where the mind cannot understand any further pain, a state at which it interprets the signals as sight or sound, colors that taste of oblong, or lines of purple dots with wings. Tempest Shadow clung to that pain, knowing that if she was swept away, she would never find her way back again and be lost forever in the screaming void. She fought the pain, tossed about as a pegasus in a hurricane, but she fought nonetheless, facing directly into it and letting the pain boil away her weaknesses. In the same way that steel faced the fire of a forge and emerged stronger, the pain scrubbed away memories, names, fear, emotions, and her very soul… …until darkness engulfed her, and she knew no more.