Thunder Interlude
Ironhoof glared at the fading rainbow trail. One pony. Eleven elite guards against a single unarmed and exhausted filly, and the cyan mare had managed to get away. On the other hand, he’d obviously been right not to deal with the brat himself. Whatever treachery Celestia had placed on her had obviously enabled the Element of Loyalty to escape. Unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected.
He hadn’t really expected her to join him, though that would have been an unbelievable coup. There was a reason that he’d placed a full squad of ponies outside his room, after all. He’d thought about simply killing her himself, but he’d been wary of Celestia’s precautions. There was no way that one of the six Elements of Harmony wouldn’t have protective enchantments on her, and he didn’t dare trigger them himself.
He gnashed his teeth. Even if he had planned for it, he’d hoped that they’d still be able to take her down. He’d carefully measured her stamina and strength throughout her Wonderbolt training, and had ordered Spitfire to increase the final test accordingly. She should have been too tired to fight, let alone trigger yet another of her signature Rainbooms as she escaped.
Malevolent plans came together behind his ebony eyes as he watched a legion of pegasi return from Canterlot. Things were in motion now, and no one, not even the precious princesses, could stop the coming storm.
The dark grey pony smirked savagely as he looked over the map of Equestria. With casual ease, he crushed a miniature town beneath a single hoof, destroying the mock town on the three dimensional map. Everything had gone according to plan. It had been weeks of careful manipulation, but it had paid off in the end. Manehattan had been completely obliterated by the massive storm. He had no illusions about the process being successful on a much wider scale, but it was still a major success, and one that he knew would be repeated in the coming days. Per his orders, clouds were now blocking out the sky across the whole country. Equestria was going to fall, and the pegasi would take their place as the rightful rulers of ponykind.
Ironhoof stared into the basin with relish. It was an old artifact, one that had been quite difficult to acquire. It allowed one to see great distances. Essentially, the bowl was linked to any water placed within it. If somepony should remove some water and carry it with them, then the bowl could be used to watch everything that occurred around them. It was very limited, and often stopped functioning for no reason, but it was still enormously useful.
He’d given a small container of water to the leader of his strike force so he could personally see the effects of the Battle Cloud. It was his secret weapon. He’d had ponies working on it for years, and it had only recently been completed. Effectively, the clouds were immune to both unicorn and earth pony magic, and even resistant to conventional damage. They would still detonate if ruptured or if they struck with sufficient force, but attacking them with projectiles was futile. It was an extremely delicate process to fill them with unrefined liquid rainbow. However, the result was a weapon of incomparable power.
He knew the clouds worked on a small scale, but this would be the first true combat test. Of course, with any luck, the actual combat test would be postponed. If the enormous Super Battle Cloud worked, it would destroy the village completely.
He’d picked the home of Celestia’s secret weapon, Ponyville, for the test. If it worked, the threat of the Elements of Harmony would be eradicated. Even if the giant cloud failed, he had sent enough battle clouds to reduce most of the town to rubble. It would be another great show of the power of the pegasi.
Ironhoof watched with great anticipation as the giant cloud neared the small village. He frowned as he saw a cyan figure fly towards the cloud. It had to be Rainbow Dash. He smirked. She might be able to stop the cloud, but not without killing herself in the process. The blue blur paused for a moment, hurling something at it. Nothing happened, obviously, so he knew she would proceed to try and break it like she would any other. He grinned savagely as he watched eagerly.
Sure enough, the blue pony flew into the cloud. He cursed as a rainbow propelled her away from the explosion. How? He’d studied her abilities, and there was no way that she could trigger one of her signature Rainbooms in the complete opposite direction of her flight.
He watched her plummet towards the ground, propelled by the blast. She was going too fast for even a pegasus to survive, he thought gleefully. Unfortunately, she had already gone beyond the range of the bowl, so he couldn’t watch her body collide with the ground.
A moment later, a huge dome of energy materialized over the town. A lavender figure stepped out of it. It could only be Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s protégé. He felt hatred build within him. Despite his rage, he could only watch as the unicorn decimated his forces, the surface of the bowl going dark as the pegasus carrying the water hit the ground, obviously breaking the vessel containing it.
He roared in absolute fury as he struck the basin. The stone bowl fell to the reinforced cloud floor, the water within spilling out in an instant. His black eyes seem to burn, growing even darker. They seemed to emanate a foul light.
Ironhoof stood on one of Cloudsdale’s new walls, staring into the distance. Celestia had returned not long after her student had foiled his plan with the Super Battle Cloud. Her presence meant that he had to move much more carefully. As he had been one of her top advisors, he had a better idea than most of just what she was capable of. Because of that, he knew his moves had to be planned carefully.
He’d planned out an ambush for the reinforcements from the Crystal Empire. His second in command, Spitfire, was in charge of more than two hundred and fifty pegasi for this attack. He’d picked out a point along their probable route and had planned everything out.
Everything had been going according to plan, until the basin failed. Unfortunately, there was no way to reestablish a link, so he was forced to wait for the return of his army.
Hours later, he finally saw ponies coming towards him. In the lead was Spitfire, but almost all of them, even the captain of the Wonderbolts, were injured. What’s more, there were far fewer ponies than there should be.
Ironhoof listened coldly as Spitfire gave her report. He heard of Twilight Sparkle’s creation, of how her insignificant ‘Twilight Brigade’ managed to overcome his pegasi, saving the wounded Crystal Empire forces. He ordered her to the medical wing without betraying an ounce of emotion.
Once the returning ponies were gone, he allowed his emotions to boil forth. Black smoke actually emerged from his eyes as he roared to the evening sky.
“Twilight Sparkle!” He roared, his voice filled with pure hatred.
He smashed his hoof into the ground, tearing the reinforced cloud beneath, which was stronger than steel. A massive gash was ripped in the wall, large enough for even a pony of his large size to walk through with ease. Considering the wall shielded the entirety of Cloudsdale, a rift of this size would take days to repair.
His anger temporarily sated, he stalked away from the wall. He had plans to make. Celestia and her precious Equestria would fall, and Twilight Sparkle would be nothing more than a minor obstacle, even if he had to kill her himself.