The Storm and the Scorpion

by BronyWriter

War Council

As promised, the airship reached Griffonia after just over a day of flying. None of us really said anything to each other, and I spent most of the time sleeping. I needed it after everything that had happened. We did have the foresight to take off all of the Storm King symbols on the airship, so we weren't shot out of the sky the second we entered griffin airspace. Even so a group of griffins flew up to us as we approached Iselin. I stood on the bow of the airship and acknowledged them with a wave of my wing. Within a few minutes they had landed on the deck, and I went out to meet them. They lined up on the deck and took their helmets off, while Kristen came out of her cabin to stand next to me. We exchanged brief nods and they all took off their helmets.

"Good day, gentelgriffins," I said as Captain Celaeno came up behind me. "I have come to talk to Empress Kathyrine. We have much to discuss."

"No doubt, said one of the griffins, who was the leader if his armor was any indication. "We have heard that your nation was conquered by someone called the Storm King and that you had escaped. In truth we expected you before now."

"I had some... difficulties getting here," I admitted. "As I'm sure you can imagine, being a fugitive from an invading army poses some challenges."

"Of that I am certain," the captain replied. "In any case, we shall escort you to Empress Kathyrine with all haste. She has already sent emissaries to the Saddle Arabians, minotaurs, zebras and even some Diamond Dog warlords. She had the foresight to realize that we were likely next once you fell."

"A wise move," I replied with an approving nod. "And I can't disagree with the logic. The Storm King is more powerful than any foe we have yet faced. With our might, we can defeat him, though. I am sure of that."

"If you are, then I shall accept that," the griffin said with a bow of his head. "You are the god of war, after all."

My expression flickered into a slight grimace for a few moments, but I managed to shift my expression into a more neutral one. "Yes, well, in any case, I should speak to Empress Kathyrine with all speed. If you don't mind I shall go straight to the palace. Have any of the other leaders arrived?"

The griffin nodded and spread his wings so that the three of us could take flight. "Yes. The President Mando and Sultan Mesud arrived a day after the invasion, while King Grorim arrived yesterday with a few Diamond Dog warlords. Now that you are here we can truly begin discussing defensive measures."

"Defensive?" I frowned and tilted my head as we flew in the direction of the palace. "Why defensive? He's not going to stop because you beat him back once. We have to take the fight to him if we're going to end this threat once and for all."

The griffin shrugged. "That is for you to decide. I am a soldier, not a strategist. If Empress Kathyrine in her wisdom decides that we should retake Equestria than I shall follow her orders."

Well, that simplified things a little bit. It showed me that Kathyrine likely wasn't completely set on just defensive measures and was at least open to the idea of destroying the Storm King with an offensive strike on Canterlot. Her army would be the most vital, not just because of the obvious advantages of an air force, but because it was the most intact one after the end of the last world war. Whatever paltry poisonings and acts of sabotage the Blade Wings did wasn't actually enough to dent their forces, just break their spirit, which was enough.

The three of us were silent as we made the rest of the short flight to Iselin and Kathyrine's palace. We touched down after about an hour or so and a squad of griffins immediately came out to meet us.

"Empress Kathyrine will be informed of your arrival," the captain said. "She was planning a meeting with the rest of the leaders later this afternoon, so you can take some time to rest from your journey here."

"Thank you but no thank you," I said, walking in the direction of Kathryine's throne room. "If you could actually get her to move the meeting up as soon as possible I would appreciate that."

The griffin frowned and sped up to keep pace with me. "Now wait a minute, Empress Kathyrine has many things to do today, and we--"

"Nothing she has to do today is more important than this," I said simply. "She can have the meeting with the rest of the leaders late, but her and I need to talk now."

"Um... TD, we are guests in their country..." Kristen shot the captain an apologetic look, but he didn't acknowledge her. "Maybe we should just take a few hours to--"

"I've rested too much," I growled. "I'll rest when I've rescued my wife and daughters."

I ignored the rest of the captain's protests and went straight into Kathyrine's throne room, not even acknowledging the various guards who tried to get in my way. I was in no mood to waste any more time than I already had. Kathyrine was sitting on her throne reading over some paperwork and talking with a griffin who was probably her secretary. Both of them looked up when I came in. Kathryine's eyes widened and she stood up from her throne.

"Antares?" She frowned and slowly walked up to me. "The heck? I thought you were dead."

I smirked at her and shook my head. "Nope. Pretty close, though. A lot closer than I'd like. As you can imagine, I've had quite the go of it in the last week or so. I should give you the whole story once everything is over."

"I..." Kathyrine blinked and slowly nodded. "I mean... yeah, for sure. I guess we have a lot to talk about, though. I've got Mesud and Mando here and stuff. I guess you want to talk to all of them, too."

"I do. I know you have a meeting scheduled with them this afternoon, but if you could change it to about nowish, I would appreciate that."

"Yeah, that makes sense." Kathyrine nodded again. "I mean, no, yeah, for sure. Right." She took a deep breath and turned to her secretary. "So, uh... yeah, go get the other leaders. We'll meet them in the war room."

"Of course, Empress Kathyrine," the secretary said, bowing low. "I shall have them all there at once."

"Good. Thank you." She turned back to me. "So I guess we'll get over there now."

"Excellent. I look forward to seeing everyone else."

"Yeah, some of them just got here. I'm sure they'll all be interested to hear about what happened and what we should do next."

"No doubt."

Kathyrine led us to a door behind her throne and stepped aside so that we could enter. It was a fairly small, not very well lit room with a large table in the center and several cork boards filled with various papers and maps. There was even a table with various refreshments on it. I didn't care about any of that. I just found the chair right next to the largest one, which I presumed to be Kathyrine's, enlarged it a little so that I could actually sit on it without breaking it, and took my place at the table. Kristen gave Kathyrine an apologetic look, but took her spot next to me.

"Yeah, uh... sit down, I guess." Kathyrine walked over to her chair and sat down. "The others will be here in a few minutes."

"Excellent." The room was silent for a few moments. I saw Kristen scanning the various cork boards, which I'm sure held information that, under different circumstances, might be interesting to know. Probably not huge state secrets or anything, but if we were still at war with the griffins then there might be info in here that I'd want to know. I didn't care about any of that, though. I just stared forward at the door, sparing an occasional glance at Kathyrine.

"So what did you hear?" I asked. "About the Storm King and stuff."

Kathyrine let out a long sigh and looked down at the table. "Yeah, it's complicated things for sure. Most of what I've had to deal with is stuff about trade relations and stuff like that. We heard about it not too long after it happened. Merchants and airships came back here as fast as they could once the Storm King hit, and I was flooded with reports that your entire country had been taken over. I thought for a little bit about maybe coming to help you, but I'd heard reports that Celestia and Luna were captured and you had been killed and I just... didn't want to rush into something without knowing what was going on."

"A wise move," I said with a nod. "In your position we probably would have done the same thing. I heard that the rest of the country put up a bit of a fight, but since there were no leaders there was no real way for the country to organize a quality defense. Did you hear anything more about that, though?"

Kathyrine shrugged. "I've heard a lot, but I'm not sure how much of it is actually true. I heard that the guard captains all got together and organized some kind of defense out of Baltimare, but it's the outcome that I'm not sure about. Obviously it didn't work, but I've heard that none of the captains survived, I've heard that one of them did but the rest didn't, I've heard that they all made it out and are some kind of guerrilla force now... There's really no way to know. The Storm King has the country locked down pretty good."

"Blaze didn't make it," I muttered. "He was killed trying to protect my daughters during the initial invasion."

"Oh." Kathyrine wilted a little bit and stared at the table. "I'm... I'm sorry. I know he was one of the guys who was with you the longest."

"Yeah." I took a deep breath and poked at a loose piece of wood on the table. "But his sacrifice won't be in vain. We will retake my country and rescue my family. No matter what it takes."

"Yeah. Sure."

I could hear the unease in her voice. I guess I couldn't fault her on it. From her perspective I suppose it looked like I was just coming in and taking control of her army to take back my country. That couldn't be easy for her, especially since she wanted to be seen as a strong empress who wasn't some Equestrian puppet ruler. Maybe I did need to tap the brakes a little bit, or at least not be so aggressive with my allies. Still, though, I needed to destroy the Storm King more than I needed to be nice.

It wasn't more than a few minutes before the door opened up again and Sultan Mesud walked in, followed closely by President Mando and their respective bodyguards. Mando raised an eyebrow when he saw me, but didn't say anything as him and Mesud took their seats. Kathyrine stood up and took a deep breath.

"Gentlestallions, it is an honor to have you here and... yeah, we wanna get this stuff settled as soon as we can, so--"

The door opened once more and Grorim walked in followed by a pair of seedy-looking diamond dogs dressed in simple chainmail armor and carrying daggers at their sides. Usually it was a big no-no to carry weapons into a meeting like this, but the diamond dogs were never really ones for that kind of thing. Grorim tilted his head in a nod to me, but the diamond dogs didn't acknowledge me at all, save for one small glance in my direction from one of them.

The newcomers all took their seats and exchanged courteous nods with each other before Kathyrine cleared her throat again and patted down some of the feathers on her head. "Um... yeah, so we all know why we're here. The Storm King took over Equestria and we want to make sure that he can't take over any of us. Thankfully Prince Antares..." she nodded to me in acknowledgement. "And his sister Princess Kristen made it out of Equestria okay, so they want to talk to us about stuff. So I'll just let them..." she started sitting down and motioned to me again. "Let them... yeah. Talk."

"Thank you, Empress Kathyrine." I stood up and nodded to each of the other leaders at the table in turn. "Good day to you, fine sirs. It is an honor to be here with you today. As Empress Kathyrine has stated, and as you can see before you, I survived the Storm King's invasion of my country and am here today to ask for your aid. My wife, Princess Luna, and Princess Cadance have all been captured by the Storm King and his forces, and he is attempting to capture me so that he can drain my magic. Once he has I fear he shall be unstoppable. The time is now to unite and defeat this madman once and for all."

"Prince Antares, I believe I can speak for the rest of us when I say that it is good to see that you are alive," Mesud said as he stood up, though I couldn't help but notice one of the diamond dogs roll his eyes. "We were, of course, all horrified to hear of what happened in Canterlot, and on a day of remembrance, no less. I think we can all agree that something must be done about the Storm King. However, we must all agree about what should be done. I for one am wary of simply gathering my army and charging into an Equestria occupied by an army that so quickly took it over. I am also not alone, I am certain, in being wary of a force that can take out three alicorns. Do they possess Nightmare Weapons?"

I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. "No, they do not. But think on this: I have fought them before. I know their tactics. I know their strengths. They are an army equipped for lightning offense, and so I have my doubts about their abilities to fight a defensive war."

"There is also the matter of them capturing your human weapons, which they would use against us," Mando pointed out. "My troops saw what your tanks and gatling guns did during the war, not to mention your napalm. I do not like the idea of sending my army out to face one with those weapons."

"Unless we could develop some of those weapons in our country to have a fighting chance," Mesud said. "Then--"

"You have been trying to get your hooves on my human weapons since the war, Mesud," I growled. "Same to you, Mando. Don't think I'm not aware that Grorim gave you two my napalm so that you'd go easier on his country."

Mesud and Mando exchanged a quick glance while Grorim didn't move an inch, instead just staring at me with a neutral expression. I could see why. He wasn't sorry he had done it, and I likely might have as well in his position.

"We wonder why we're even here at all," one of the diamond dogs spat. "We know better than any here what it is like to be on the wrong end of Antares's nasty human weapons. Our soldiers still speak of the fire spreading through our tunnels during the war, not to mention the actions taken by Princess Cadenza during her hunt for Nightmare Weapons!"

"Oh, you know what being on the wrong end of the human weapons is like better than anyone, do you?" Grorim said with a raised eyebrow. "I do not recall you fighting their guns and tanks, or even their napalm."

"I don't think that any of us want to fight the human weapons," Mando said. "And what if there are weapons that Antares was developing that we didn't see during the war?" He turned his attention back to me. "I'm just saying that it would be nice to have some of them in order to level the playing field when we fight the Storm King, whether that is on offense or defense. We're not asking for everything, just a few tanks, perhaps. A couple of Gatling Guns? Just enough so that we're not going into a slaughter."

"The tanks were not designed with Storm Creatures in mind," I pointed out. "There is no way that they could work them with their size. It takes several ponies to work one tank, and I can promise you that."

"Which still leaves the Gatling Guns," Mesud said. He nodded in Grorim's direction. "I am certain that he can attest to their efficiency."

"I confess that I am also wary of sending my already war-weary soldiers out to fight against Eqeustrian weapons again, especially in Equestria's defense," Grorim admitted. "I fear that I would have a difficult time of gathering up a force capable of making a difference in the fight."

"Any soldiers you gathered would open up a second front, thereby making the Storm King split his forces," I said. "He is likely already stretched dangerously thin after taking over one of the largest countries in the world, not to mention what forces he has tied up in any other countries that he has taken over. A combined force of our nations would likely obliterate him!"

"Perhaps," Grorim said. "Or it could be an absolute bloodbath on both sides."

"And we are still unsure of why we should join!" the other diamond dog growled. "We came here merely as a courtesy to see if there was some danger to our people. We see no evidence that there is."

"Seriously? Do you think he'll just leave you alone once he takes over the rest of us?" I asked incredulously.

"We shall spend our time underground as we always have," the first diamond dog said. "He is welcome to try to send his troops down there."

"I see your point about needing to unite against him, Antares," Mando said. "However, I do not wish to fight him without something to even the playing field, and I doubt that Sultan Mesud and Empress Kathyrine disagree with me on this point. All of your thoughts of them not being able to use them are simply conjecture. All of your ideas on this are."

"And so are yours, then!" I snapped back. "You have no evidence that they will be able to use them effectively."

"And we would rather err on the side of caution, or at the very least gather more information on the Storm King before we commit to anything," Mesud replied.

"Really? Because from my perspective you're trying to use the situation to get more human weapons out of me," I growled. "If you want them then make them yourself!"

"That will take some time that I am not sure we have," Mando pointed out. "I am not saying that we will not help you take back Canterlot, but we must--"

I'd heard enough. I slammed my hoof on the table with enough force that I cracked it, and spread my wings out to their full length. Kathyrine flinched back and her wings twitched and the other leaders just stared at me.

"All of this talk is getting us nowhere!" I roared. "Whether you like it or not, you are involved in this! The Storm King will not stop at Equestria, especially once he has harnessed the magic of the alicorns! It might not be long before he decides that he doesn't need me and drains the magic of the alicorns that he already has, if he hasn't done that already! Once he does there will be nothing we can do to stop him! We have to fight him now before he comes for you, and he will come for you. Your only chance is to unite and fight him before he gets to that point." My eyes narrowed and I leaned forward, staring each of the other leaders in the eye in turn.

"You can fight together today. Or you can die alone tomorrow! Regardless of what you decide, I am going back to Equestria to save my subjects and family. It will be far easier for me to succeed if I have your support, but I will go on without it if I must. If I fail, he will be completely unstoppable. He will be able to move the sun and moon with a whim. He will have power to rival Discord, but he will not be shy about killing anyone who stands in his way. So what will it be? Will you sit here and squabble about petty things, or will you help me save my subjects and by extension prevent him from slaughtering your own?"

I took a deep breath, folded my wings back at my sides and took my seat again while all of the other leaders stared at me with open jaws and wide eyes. I could see why. An alicorn losing his temper was not a pretty thing. Well, let them be uncomfortable. I was just laying the truth out for them. If they didn't like it then tough.

It was Kathyrine that finally broke the silence. "Um... I think it's a good idea to fight with Antares. If none of the rest of you do, I will. He's right: we have to stop the Storm King before he gets too powerful." She turned to me with a nod and reached out her claw to put it on my shoulder, but I guess she thought better of it because she retracted it quickly. "I mean, if nothing else we should help him take back Baltimare, right? That's where he's probably got a lot of his weapons, so it's a start."

"That might be wise," Mando said. "A foothold in Equestria would give us many options for our next move."

"Thank you," I grumbled. "Grorim? What of you?"

"I think it will still take me time to mobilize any forces," he said. "I am sorry, but I would rather hold back until I at least get news that you have retaken Baltimare. It will be easier to gather soldiers if they believe that they are fighting in a winning effort, and you would likely recapture many of your human weapons."

"I understand." I turned my attention to the diamond dogs. "And you?"

The first one grunted and crossed his arms. "We see no reason to fight. There are no spoils to be gained from taking Equestria back."

"Fine," I said with a shrug. "Although it's possible with the Storm King and his army destroyed his kingdom, wherever that is, will become destabilized and we might have to go in. Could be spoils from that, I suppose. But whatever. You don't want them anyway, so--"

"Wait, wait, perhaps we were a little hasty!" the second Diamond Dog said. "We shall... think about helping you."

"Very well. Don't take too long, though. Alright." I turned my attention to the rest of the leaders at the table. "Let's take back Baltimare."

Comments

[WhatEz]

Jeez, Antares is not in the mood for anyone's sh*t right now.

[More Dakka]

9083468 Let's just hope it doesn't make him reckless

[KnightOfZaku]

Awesome! This chapter was definitely worth the wait.

It's good to see that Antares hasn't lost his touch in putting idiots in their place. Although I'm a little surprised that even though he knew about Grorim and the napalm. He didn't take any action against him or the minotaurs. At the very least I would have thought he'd give them a strong warning about what the consequences would be if he did something like that again.

Anyway, I can't wait to see how the battle to retake Baltimare goes. Hopefully he'll get some info on the Storm King's war plans and where his daughters are being held.

[Grif_Bladefeather]

i should point out, if artanis adjusted these weapons to work for ponies, that alone means that adapting the storm creatures too them would take time he hasn't had, lets remember these creatures are not intelligent from what we saw. on top of that, if you have at least three nations involved and they all pool airships that makes an armada easily bigger then the storm kings.

also it's very likely artanis still has allies in the crystal empire.

[Alkarasu]

9083495
It already did. Not only reckless, he's being downright rude to the one who owns the place.

[Black Ash]

Why do I feel like this isn’t going to be pretty.

[Thatguywholikesfood]

I want a bunch of the Storm King's army dead by the end

[MikiStenbeck]

"If you are, then I shall accept that," the griffin said with a bow of his head. "You are the god of war, after all."

LIES! THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD OF WAR AND HIS NAME IS KRATOS!

[Wydril]

Tap the brakes, indeed. Antares seems to selectively forget the advice others have given him about how his actions have consequences for years to come. Steamrolling your two allies and neutral neighbors while denying all of their requests might seem expedient, but he's setting himself up to be regarded as an ungrateful bully at best and a tyrant at worst.