The Knights of Tambelon

by Catrina37

The Dark Storm

Chapter 2: The Dark Storm

Meanwhile, back at the celebration/anniversary, everything is all set up. Twilight and Spike are inspecting everything. They notice that a lot of the balloons Pinkie blew are all square, especially when they see her blow up another square balloon not far from a dining table.

“Pinkie? How did you make square balloons?” Twilight asks her with curiosity.

“Simple, Twilight; I blew square breathes,” Pinkie responds, causing Spike and Twilight to look confused.

Suddenly, just when Pinkie was about to blow up another balloon, Rainbow Dash zooms in and crashes at the Town Square, somersaulting until she flops onto her belly a few feet from Twilight.

“Rainbow Dash! Are you okay?” Twilight asks as she runs to her.

“Never mind me, Twilight! Everypony has to get somewhere safe!” Rainbow Dash warns, “A huge storm is coming and it’s heading here!”

All the ponies in Ponyville begin to panic.

“Every pony, get inside the castle! You’ll be safe there!” Twilight commands, “Rainbow Dash, I want you and Fluttershy to do a storm watch! Report on how close it is!”

“You got it!” Rainbow Dash salutes as she speeds off.

“Spike, I need you and the others to gather every civilian and get them to the castle,” Twilight tells him.

“You got it, Twilight!” Spike said, “You can count me.”

Spike runs to get Applejack and the others.

****

Moments later...

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are keeping watch for the storm over the Everfree Forest, keeping constant vigilance for the upcoming danger. So far, there was not a single storm cloud in sight.

Then, just on the horizon Fluttershy suddenly sees something...dark clouds...with a lot of lightning and a tornado, were hovering over the Everfree forest like a flying blanket, covering the trees, and causing small mammals and birds to scatter in order to avoid them.

“Look!” Fluttershy screams as she points her hoof at the storm.

Rainbow Dash sees it too. She also saw that it was coming in very fast.

“How could the rest of the Pegasi create such a storm? Why would they even do that?” Fluttershy asks with horror.

“They didn’t, Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash explains, “The storm is coming from somewhere else. We better fly and tell Twilight.”

But just before they could open their wings...to their horror, a whirlwind suddenly appears out of nowhere and catches the two Pegasi. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are screaming, spinning, and flapping as hard as they can to get out while spinning out of control.

Then, out of nowhere, two lassos appear and tie themselves to the two Pegasi by the belly. Slowly, they are lowered down and out of the whirlwind until they are back on the ground, flopping on their hooves and stomachs as they touched it.

“Thanks, Applejack,” Rainbow Dash says as she sighs with relief.

“Not Applejack, Dashie,” a familiar male voice says.

They quickly turn to find that to their surprise, it wasn’t Applejack that lassoed them. It was Discord! And he was wearing cowboy clothes while spinning two lassos.

“Discord!” Fluttershy happily yells while hugging him.

“What are you doing here?” Rainbow Dash asks.

“Well, I was checking out the storm and doing some wind surfing with my surf board, when, all of a sudden, I saw you two having the most dangerous ride of your lives like fish in a whirlpool,” he replies.

“This storm is not your doing, is it?” Rainbow Dash inquires with her front hooves crossed.

“Oh no no no! In all honesty, it was not my doing! But I sense a magical imbalance in those clouds.”

At the sound of those words, Fluttershy and Rainbow suddenly became even more horrified. Their mouths going agape with shock.

“You’re saying this storm is created by magic?” Fluttershy asks.

“Afraid so, and it’s dark magic! Someone created this storm to do more than just crash the party!”

“We better tell Twilight and fast!” Rainbow exclaims.

And just like that, Rainbow and Fluttershy fly like they were jet propelled straight for Ponyville. Discord meanwhile made a jet pack appear on his back, activated it, and followed close behind the two pegasi, a trail of bubbles being left behind him.

****

Back in Ponyville, the town was getting filled with winds that were going 85 mph. Applejack and Pinkie Pie have herded every pony into the castle. Rarity is using her unicorn magic to help the animals, including their pets, inside. Not far from them, Twilight’s pet owl Owlowicious is in a tree, too afraid to fly.

Inside the castle, every pony in Ponyville was indoors. Applejack and Pinkie Pie are passing out treats like cider and cupcakes to keep the crowd calm. Rarity and Spike are checking off lists on who is present. Twilight is casting a force-field spell that will protect them from the rain.

The force-field won’t let anything in unless it’s of Ponyville. But it was no problem at all for Discord, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. They flew in through the force-field and ran through the front door. They ran past the crowd and made it to the throne room like race contenders making a tie.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy calls.

Twilight’s attention caught, she ran right over to her three friends to see what they wanted.

“Fluttershy? What is it?” she asks Fluttershy.

“Discord discovered something about the storm you should know,” Fluttershy informs her.

****

While the three tell Twilight about the storm, Owlowicious is struggling to fly toward the castle. A branch suddenly falls on his left wing, causing him to get stuck. He hoots as loud as he can, hoping help will come.

****

Inside the castle, Twilight is flabbergasted that the storm is created by someone and some kind of sorcery.

“Someone is using magic to create this storm?! Why?!” Twilight wonders.

“We don’t know!” Rainbow Dash says, “But what we do know is that the storm is heading to Shadow Mountain.”

“What’s there?”

“The Monster of Shadow Pass!” Fluttershy said nervously.

“The what?” Discord asks.

“There have been reports of some kind of shadow monster that scares away travelers who pass there. Most ponies are too afraid to go there,” Rainbow Dash tells him.

Rarity and Spike suddenly run in with scared looks on their faces.

“Twilight!” Spike says while catching his breath, “Rarity and I did the head count to make sure every pony is present and accounted for, and we‘re missing one of the pets!”

“Who’s missing?!” Twilight asks with worry.

“Owlowicious!” Rarity and Spike say in unison, causing Twilight to really worry.

Like a torpedo, she heads straight for the front door of the castle.

****

Twilight rushes outside to find him. But as she did, the winds were getting more and more dangerous, especially to where her mane was being blown in the air.

“Owlowicious! Owlowicious!” she cries.

In the distance, she hears a very familiar sound...it was the sound of her owl hooting. She runs toward the hooting until she sees Owlowicious caught under a tree branch. Twilight rushes over and nudges him to assure him that she’ll help him. She uses her magic to levitate the branch off of him long enough for Owlowicious to fly.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Owlowicious,” Twilight says as she sighs in relief.

Her expression quickly turns into horror when she sees a huge dark tornado heading toward them. Twilight is about to teleport Owlowicious and herself back, but they both get caught in the deadly twister. Twilight was unable to concentrate on using the spell to teleport both of them out because of the winds, but she had all the concentration she needed to still teleport her pet owl out of danger.

“I can’t teleport us both out, Owlowicious, but you can still make it!” she states.

Owlowicious just hoots while nodding no, meaning he won’t leave without her, but Twilight teleports him back to the castle anyway where he’ll be safe, while she is caught in the huge whirlwind.

The twister causes her to spin to where her head would either be upside down or right side up. But her time in the twister soon got worse when a lose tree branch appears of nowhere. With a large smack to the head, she was knocked unconscious and no longer awake.

But none of that could ever compare to what was happening next! The twister was carrying her from Ponyville to the Shadow Mountains!