//------------------------------// // Game Over // Story: The Red Cyclone // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "Millions in damage, thousands scared by the event of having their magic stolen and a cyclone created that devastated the land in such a way that none before and most likely none will ever see again. It's official, you are the most innocent destructive force that has ever come to this land," Chrysalis said with a laugh as she spoke to the metallic head that rested on a table before her. Her daughter and the princesses were also within the room with her, a room at the hospital in Ponyville that had be modified incase Zangief ever wound up there. "Gahahaha! As long as Tenna was defeated and the children believe in heroes once again then I care not for buildings or cyclones!" a metallic head, all that was left of the Steel Tornado, laughed while doing it's best to smile. Despite being just a head, Zangief's spirits had never been higher, for at least twice every hour ponies would come in to the room to express their gratitude or just marvel at his ultimate attack. He was happy, despite the lack of a body. "I don't know if I can get used to this," Insectum muttered with worry as she moved her head closer to Zangief's, sighing at the talking head. "I mean it was weird enough back when you were trapped in the metallic body, but now you're just a talking head. please tell me Luna that you can get Gief back into his old body," Insectum begged as she looked over at Luna. "I do not see why it matters whether I have my body or not. As long as I am the champion of the children, then I do not need a body to be Zangief!" "That's fine Zangief, but I do believe that we should return you to your original form," Luna advised as she and the others in the room turned (except for Zangief who had issues looking around given his predicament) to a bed next to the table that Zangief rested upon, the bed being home to Zangief's original body, which was covered head to toe in one massive cast that had been strengthened to support his bulk. "That reminds me, has Tenna woken up since the battle?" Zanigef asked once Insectum had been kind enough to turn his head towards his body. "No, it seems that you beat him literally out of your mind," Chrysalis said with a chuckle as she walked over and smacked the cast body, getting no response. "That means that once again the empty house that is your mind is looking for someone to fill it, but unfortunately it seems that it will be stuck with you once again." "That is fine. As much as it is interesting to be a floating head, I do wish to return to my body once again. I miss my muscles," Zangief said with a laugh. "Are you sure you want to go back so soon? You broke everything," Insectum reminded him. "Ha, pain is nothing to me." "No, she's means that you broke everything literally," Chrysalis butted in with a smirk. "You broke your body, the Steel Tornado's body, the stadium in which the two of you were fighting, the machine that Tenna had created to kill all of us, the sound barrier, the laws of physics and I'm fairly certain that Twilight is in an insane asylum because of you. I couldn't be any prouder." "Chrysalis's joking aside, the experience will be painful. Are you certain that you do not wish to wait until you are fully healed?" Celestia asked with compassion in her voice, but when she was met with a steeled glare she nodded with a smile as both her and Luna's horn began to glow. Twin streams of magic burst from their horns and engulfed both Zangief's body and the Steel Tornado's head, covering them in magical energy. The changelings covered their eyes until the magic died down, revealing a now lifeless Steel Tornado skull and the slightly moving body of Zangief. "It would seem that the spell worked," Celestia said with a smile as she saw the casts rocking slightly, telling her that the rightful owner of that body was back in possession of what had been stolen from him. "Try not to move too much Zangief, or you might open the wounds that took a while to-" Like a mummy bursting forth from their sarcophagus Zangief leapt off of the bed still trapped in his cast in one swift motion, looking like something out of a horror move before with a flex of muscles that no plaster could hold he shattered the cast that had covered his form, forcing the ponies and changelings to take shelter behind walls of magic to protect themselves from the pelting of shattered plaster. The dumbfounded rulers looked out from behind their barriers to see Zangief standing in the center of the hospital room while he flexed his mighty muscles, with the smile on his face shining like the sun as he laughed at being home once again. "But...but until a moment ago his bones were all broken?" Insectum recounted with a look of utter bafflement on her face." How is he-?" "Don't question it daughter or you might end up like Twilight," Chrysalis advised with a smirk as she walked over to the restored Red Cyclone and smacked him in the arm, gaining his attention. "Glad to see that you're back to your original, annoying self. Good thing to, because I was thinking of selling your mechanical body for scrap metal." "It is indeed great to be back and to be with my friends once again," he said with a huge smile, a smile that was as contagious as it was happy and within moments the others in the room were smiling along with him. That was until Insectum's smile faltered and she looked up at Zangief with guilty eyes, something that was not lost on the Cyclone. "What is the matter tiny princess, something has cast the smile from your face?" "I gave up on you," Insectum admitted sadly as she found herself unable to look up at her hero and instead found the tiles on the floor to be far easier to anguish at. "Even after all you had done for us and all the impossibilities that you overcame, I still gave up on you once when you lost for the first time. And that lost was because Tenna cheated and stole your body and yet I still gave up. How can I call myself your fan, let alone your friend if I could give up on you so easily?" Chrysalis and the princesses looked at the little changeling with compassionate eyes, but Zangief let a small chuckle escape his lips before he knelt down so that he could move his eyes closer to the princess. "There is nothing wrong with losing faith in your hero when they fail you, for it is a natural reaction. It is my fault for your loss of belief, for once I had lost my body I put my own sorrow over the fans that I had sworn to fight for. But in the final battle, when all seemed lost, you and the others chose to believe in me one last time despite my failures. And because of that, you all gave me the strength needed to win." Insectum smiled at Zangief's words before looking up at the titan with a look of realization. "And it's just like you said. Somepony who fights for themselves, like Tenna did, was only stronger than you until we believed in you again." "And that is because no matter how strong someone is, if they fight for themselves then they are alone. But despite him being stronger than me, I had the love and support of you and all of the changelings, with all of you lending me your strength. And with so many supporting me, how could I lose?" Insectum smiled with tears forming in her eyes before she walked forward to gently hug Zangief, who returned the gesture with a small smile. He then released her and rose to his full height, looking out the window of his room towards the town. "But now that I am back in my own body, there are a number of things I must do! I seem to recall that Rainbow Dash sought to have a rematch that I never got around to finishing," Zangief remembered with a smile before the door to the room opened and two stunned doctors walked in to see Zangief standing. "No time to stick around for exams, for the sound of combat calls to me! Come my friends and watch me defeat the sparrow once again!" He leapt through the window as he said this, yet once again he had forgotten of how large he was and instead of breaking just the window, he also took a large chunk of the wall with him which left a hole in the shape of a certain wrestler who was now racing into the town. The ponies in the room watched him go with dropped jaws while Chrysalis had to lean against the bed to keep herself from falling over with laughter. ←↙↓↘→↗+H A train whistle blew loudly, informing all who were standing on the platform that the train was about to depart, though it was a mostly ignored whistle as there were only pedestrians on the platform that would be departing by that train. One of them had gotten stuck in the door frame when he had tried to enter the train and the other two were talking to the princesses, either not aware or straight up ignoring Zangief's cries for aid. "I would say that I'm sad to go home, but honestly I'm tired of throwing up every ten feet as I walk down the streets of Ponyville," Chrysalis said to the princesses while making a gagging sound, before she tilted her head to side as she ignored another cry. "Not to mention the hive's still a wreck since I let Luna try to be a queen, which explains why she remains a princess, so I've got to go back and clean up your mess. You can expect a bill in the next few weeks." "I don't know if you're joking or not," Celestia mused as Chrysalis shrugged with a smirk before Celestia turned her gaze to the small princess who looked up at them with thoughtful eyes. "But I will admit that as chaotic as it is dealing with your mother, I am glad that I got to meet you young Insectum. I am certain that one day when you are queen of the changelings the three of us will get along just fine." "Don't bet on it tank flank, I'm already teaching her the best of insults to throw at you rainbow colored annoyances." The train whistle blew loud once again, getting a string of insults thrown at the conductor by the queen, and Insectum waved Farewell to the two princesses as Chrysalis forced Zangief into the train with a blast of magic. The train then began to move slowly out of the station, leaving Celestia and Luna to watch as it got farther and farther out of sight. "You know, I'm actually going to miss them," Celestia said with a sad smile before giving a quick glance to Luna. "Insectum and Zangief I mean. I will not being insulted every few feet by Chrysalis. The sooner she gets off the throne the sooner I feel that our nations will be at peace." "Maybe you are right Celestia," Luna said with a smile as she turned her eyes to the train one last time. 'Or maybe a cyclone has blown a new wind through the changeling hive, a wind that brings about a change that will benefit everypony.' ←↙↓↘→↗+H "I swear to Faust almighty that if another one of our public bathrooms clogs one more time, I'm just going to burn the place down instead of trying to fix it," Chrysalis grumbled to the assistant besides her as she and the changeling that was a good two feet smaller than her walked through the streets of the hive, the assistant smirking at the anger coming from the now slightly smelly queen. "Fire all of our plumbers and get new ones. Hell, I'm pretty sure that Fluttershy knows more about plumbing than those idjits do." "I will get right on it my queen." Chrysalis sighed before a ray of sunlight fell onto her face, getting her to look up with a smile to se a bright blue sky over her head. She then looked around at the rays of sunlight coming down across the entire hive and her smile widened, the sight getting a sigh of peace to emerge from her lips. 'It was the right decision to tear down the dome that had covered our hive. I've never seen this place look more alive.' "Queen Chrysalis, we must move on to the next item on our list," the changeling advisor said, abruptly cutting off Insectum's peaceful thoughts. "Next on our agenda is the issue with the salt mines, so if you would please come with me-" "Oh would you look at the time I need to go meet up with my daughter and Gief why don't you take care of that bye!" Chrysalis was gone before the changeling had time to process what the changeling queen had said, allowing her to sigh in relief as she sailed across the city to a play ground at the edge of the school. 'And just as I predicted, they're both right here,' Chrysalis mused as she floated down at the edge of the swing sets, spotting Zangief flexing for both children and teachers alike whereas Insectum seemed to be the only one focused on their classes. Upon seeing her arrival the children all waved her over, though she was not surprised that they quickly turned their attention back to Zangief instead of focusing on their ruler. "Glad to see that everything is back to normal. Or as normal as being stuck with you gets," Chrysalis said with a smirk as she walked over to the mighty Russian, who laughed heartily at her words. "And I am glad to see that you are back to being you. I must admit that as nice as it is to hear how you truly believe in me, it does place me slightly on edge to see you so friendly," Zangief admitted with another bellowing laugh. Insectum sighed in defeat before closing her books, figuring that she wasn't going to get any work done with her family there. "Well don't you worry too much about that, I promise that I will show as little kindness to you as I can," Chrysalis promised before one of Zangief's massive arms reached around her, yanking her off of her hooves and into a massive bear hug that squeezed the life out of her. "Now there is the Chrysalis that I have come to respect!" Zangief said with another thunderous round of laughter. Chrysalis escaped certain doom by teleporting herself a few feet back, where she took in a few deep breaths before rounding on Zangief with a fury flashing in her green eyes. "You oaf! You could have crushed me to death there!" she roared at Zangief, who still had a shining smile on his face. "I swear to Faust that one of these days I just might..." Everything went silent as Chrysalis and all the other changelings looked skyward to see a radiant beam of light descending into the center of the playground, their eyes shrinking as they spotted a being floating down from the beam of light. The being was a tall alicorn with a transcendent white coat that shone far brighter than Celestia's could ever hope to, making her shine like a star. Her fiery red mane cascaded down onto her shoulders and onto her wings, looking like a blazing sea. Finally there was the mark upon her flank, which was a quill dipping into a pot of ink. Despite Zangief raising an eyebrow at the showy appearance of the new pony, all of the changelings, even Chrysalis, slowly bowed. "Oh my Faust," she whispered weakly, getting the alicorn to turn her head towards Chrysalis and nod with a smile on her face. "Hello, my little changelings," the alicorn said in a radiant voice that filled all of the changelings with awe. "I am here because over the last week I have heard more demands for my appearance than in any other place in the last hundred years, most of them coming from a certain changeling," the alicorn said as she looked over at Chrysalis with another nod. "Most of them seemed to be complaints about a being called Zangief. I assume that is you?" "Well well, it seems that my name is famous even among the divine!" Zangief said as he threw his head back and laughed with a joyful ringing in his voice, before he looked back at the alicorn with a smile the changelings knew all too well. "And there can only be one reason that you are here. You wish to fight me. Very well!" Zangief said as he took up a fighting stance, getting the alicorn to raise her eyebrows at him before a small smile broke out on her face as well. "Let us fight then!" "Mom?" Insectum asked weakly as all of the changelings backed away from an image that none of them would forget for the rest of their lives. "Is Zangief about to wrestle who I think she is?" The sky itself seemed to brighten as the two faced off, one with an amused smile upon their face while the other had a wide smile that was filled with anticipation. Somewhere, off in the unknown, a saxophone began to play. "Yes Insectum yes he is," Chrysalis said with a shake of her head as she sat back to watch the show. "And if I know this idiot, he may just find a way to win."