The End Game
Twilight Sparkle had finally returned to the throne room, though not of her own volition. She was locked in a conical cage of iron bars, suspended from a pole held by two of the yeti guards. A smug looking Tempest Shadow followed her.
A half dozen yeti guards were standing around the edges of the room, silent and intimidating. The Storm King lounged on Celestia's throne, toying with the Staff of Sacanas and looking bored. The huge, satyr-like creature perked up when he saw what was being brought in.
"So, you finally found one of those pegacorn princesses. And it only took you like... four days?" His tone was sarcastic. "At this rate, we'll have the whole set by no later than, what, next century?"
"I'm sorry, your Excellency!" Tempest Shadow bowed. "She proved tricky to find. But she's the key to the others. She stole away Celestia's statue, and she knows where the other princesses are hiding. Once we have all four, you can empower the Staff with their magics and control not just storms, but the sun and moon as well!"
"So you say, but so far, I'm holding a stick here, and hanging around this cutsie-poo pretty pony princess castle. Cute is not my brand, do you get me? I don't like cute! I never did like cute! Doesn't really go with my whole 'big bad powerful magic guy' thing, does it?!"
Tempest bowed again. "I will bring them to you, all of them! And when I do, you'll restore my horn?"
"Yeah, yeah, you'll get what's coming to you." The Storm King waved his staff negligently. "So get on with it."
Tempest turned to Twilight, a sneer on her lips. "So, all your clever little tricks and you still failed. Your friends are gone, you're imprisoned and at my mercy. Open your eyes, friendship has failed you."
"The only reason I surrendered was because you decided to threaten the ponies of Canterlot." Twilight replied.
"When you care about others you leave yourself vulnerable, weak. That's why I rely only on my own strength. Now, you will tell us where you hid Celestia's statue for a start, or I'll order the guards to drag a dozen of those mewling wastes of food into this throne room and kill them in front of you. You can look into their eyes as the light goes out of them. Maybe if we kill enough of them, we'll come to some-pony you care for."
"Hardball, I like it!" The Storm King commented.
Twilight hung her head. She'd done her best to distract and delay Tempest, starting with teleporting to the plaza and away with Celestia's statue, which was hidden in a cave high on Mount Canterhorn that she and Shiny had discovered as foals. Unfortunately, Tempest was too clever, and once she'd realised that she didn't have to attack Twilight directly to defeat her, the game was up. Though she'd been shocked to find any-pony was so callous as to threaten to murder ponies.
Suddenly there was a thunping at the door, and a dozen yetis marched in, two columns escorting a manacled prisoner between them. Twilight's eyes widened in shock. "Spike!"
"Oh, maybe we have someone already!" Tempest chuckled. "Your pet dragon, no less!"
They brought him up to the cage, alongside Tempest, and Twilight's heart sank into her hooves. Had her friends failed?
"I'm sorry Twilight, I tried to sneak back in, wanted to find you and help you escape. The others are scattered all over Equestria and beyond." Spike's voice was downcast, but out of line of sight of Tempest or the King he winked. Twilight's heart leapt back up, but she kept her expression miserable. Spike looked up at the guards.
"I did my best, but the guards managed to spot me and swarmed me to fast to change my hiding place." He coughed. "Caught me right in the pharynx." He winked again on the words 'swarm' and 'change' and 'Pharynx'.
"Enough chit-chat!" Tempest yelled. "Tell me where Celestia is or he dies!"
Spike coughed again. "Uh, miss Temper Tantrum?"
"Tempest Shadow!" Tempest snarled.
"You forgot one thing."
"WHAT!"
"I'm a fire breathing dragon!" With that, he drew in a breath, and blew out a stream of flame. It wasn't his regular plume, this was a tightly focused stream that hit the bottom of one of the bars and melted it clean through in seconds.
"Stop him you idiots!" Tempest screamed.
One of the yeti reached down and picked Spike up like a toy, only to hold him next to the top of the bar. The others blazed with a green fire of their own, and turned into a variety of huge, imposing shapes from nightmarish spiders to bears and even a manticore. Half sprang outwards, towards the yeti guards, while the others formed a cordon to protect Spike and Twilight. One became a purple Changeling that cast a spell out through the open balcony.
The spell exploded like a flare high over Canterlot, and was answered by a Sonic Rainboom that swept away the clouds to reveal a swarm of figures, decending on the hovering air-ships. Night Guard, Royal Guard, Changelings, Gryphons, Hippogryphs and even several dragons, all decending on Canterlot like the world's angriest thunderstorm. Princess Luna and Queen Nova were in the van, along with Dragonlord Ember and Thorax calling out encouragement and orders to their subjects.
The skeleton crews remaining on the air-ships were not ready for a fight, and hopelessly outnumbered, even without the flashes of magic and bursts of fire that harried them. They might be bigger and tougher than most of their foes, but they were still quickly overwhelmed, and the air-borne army continued to descend on Canterlot proper almost without stopping.
Inside the throne room, things had gotten just as interesting. Even as Spike was being lifted up, the manacles vanished and he passed a vial of glowing white liquid through the bars. "Present from Zecora."
As she gulped it down, he went to work on the top bar, and Tempest finally unfroze and got her act together. Jumping up, she kicked the changeling black bear in front of her in the head, then grabbed his outstretched arms and tossed him up and over to land stunned behind her. She blasted the changeling holding Spike with an explosion from her horn, sending them both flying into the changeling on the far side of the cordon, and they went down in a heap.
The top of the cage bar was glowing white hot but not quite severed as she stalked towards the fallen trio, the changelings now out of disguise, horn glowing and sparking. However, that didn't stop it flying outwards from an Applejack-worthy buck with both of Twiilght's hooves and smacking her across the side of the head, staggering her. The potion had completely washed away Twilight's fatigue and replenished her mana pool. She cast an Icy blast spell through the opening, cooling the bar ends enough to wriggle through and further disorienting the broken horned unicorn who was caught in the edge effect.
The Storm King started to rise with a roar, "This is how you run an invasion?"
Grubber ran through the open doors. "Boss, we've got trouble! Big hairy trouble! A herd of yaks just stormed the gate and they're going around stomping everything in sight! There's all sorts of pony guards with them, hundreds of them, and our spears are turning into candy canes... have I come at a bad time?"
Tempest Shadow shook her head to clear it and took in the situation. The shapeshifters had engaged the guards and were either still fighting them or had them bound to the walls with some sort of green goo. Three of them had charged the Storm king and were getting thrown aside with sweeps of his staff. Grubber was running away from a fire spouting baby dragon with a mad on, spines on fire where Spike had already hit. The only one not engaged was the damned purple pony, barely free of her cage and still finding her bearings.
"No more!" Tempest summoned an obsidian orb. "You've humiliated me for the last time!"
She flung it, straight and true at practically point-blank range. Twilight had no time to react, no time to do anything but watch it strike her... except it didn't. A rip in space formed that showed her the back of Celestia's throne, and the orb flew into the other side, and out through the matching hole just behind the Storm King. It smashed into him as he was charging forward down the steps, and he fell, already petrifying, tumbling down the stairs in front of Celetsia's throne, to smash into a thousand pieces at the bottom.
"NOOO!" Tempest screamed as she was hauled into the air. She looked to Twilight but the unicorn's horn wasn't glowing.
"Now, now, you should watch that temper my dear." Discord faded into visibility, larger than normal, his clawed hand holding her around the midriff like a pocket sized, not-so-cuddly toy. She turned her head, horn sparking and rage in her eyes, only to have him reach up with his other paw and pluck the broken stub of her horn, still sparking, right off her forehead.
He flipped it in the air and ate it, crunching it a few times before swallowing. "Mmmm! Tingly!"
The remaining guards were quickly subdued, and Tempest placed in the same cage Twilight had been in, repaired courtesy of Discord. Twilight galloped over and hugged Spike. "Oh Spike, I'm so happy to see you! But why did you do that! You knew how dangerous it was!"
Spike blushed. "The changelings had already infiltrated the city and everything was in place when they found out you'd been captured. So everyone decided to hold off the attack until you could be rescued. Luna figured the bars would be magic resistant, so I was the only one who could cut you free. After all, they could have held you hostage, like they did the townsfolk."
Twilight looked out over the balcony edge, and saw that the fighting below seemed to have mostly stopped. Ponies were being freed from cages and chains by Yak stomps and magic spells. Up above the gryphons were already holding out tankards and drinking something that probably wasn't hot chocolate. Pharynx stepped up beside her.
"Throne room is secured." He grinned. "How did you like our entrance? Since Thorax put me in charge of defending the hive, we've been practicing. Just because we're in touch with our feelings, doesn't mean we can't kick tail!"
"You were amazing. You were all amazing." Twilight turned back to face Discord, who was looking a little down. She stepped up and hugged him. "Thank you!"
Discord looked shocked, then relaxed with a grin of his own. "Well, I didn't really get to cut loose, but the level of chaos in here was still quite enjoyable."
He clicked his fingers, and everyone in the throne room was transported to the main plaza, where a party was already starting up. She was almost instantly glomphed by her big brother. "Twily, you're okay!"
"Thanks to Spike, Discord and the changelings."
"I never thought I'd be thanking changelings, but, thank you!"
Luna came in to land beside them, along with a tall hippogryph. "Twilight Sparkle! Your plan was a success! Congratulations!"
"You were the ones who made it work." Twilight bowed to the hippogryph. "You are the Queen of the Hippogryphs, your majesty?"
"Oh, I like this one!"" The hippogryph said to Luna. "I'm Queen Novo, and yes, me and my people are here to help out. What happened to that Storm King fella?"
Discord grinned and snapped his fingers again, "He had a shattering experience!"
The pile of Storm King fragments appeared in the middle of the plaza.
Luna's eyes widened, "What of my sister, please tell me she is unharmed!"
"Safely away in a mountain cave, Shiny, you know the one we used to play in as foals?"
"I remember." Shining Armour soke to some Royal Guards, and a chariot quickly departed in the direction of the cave.
Twilight didn't notice as she was suddenly pony-piled by her friends. "Sugarcube, we're glad you're okay!"
Twilight looked around as they released her, they were all there, Starlight Glimmer, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash....
"Where's Pinkie Pie?"
Rainbow shrugged. "Said she had to fetch some extra party supplies."
"She's been getting on really well with Princess Skystar." Rarity added, "So graceful, these hippogryphs."
Twilight noticed a duplicate set of ponies standing further back, wearing rather more clothing. By them were Sunset Shimmer and a unicorn version of herself, wearing glasses.
Double-dash blurred and appeared right in front of her. "Gotta say, Princess, you know how to throw a party!"
The others came forward, Sci-Twi exclaiming, "This is all so fascinating! How does this city even support itself, some sort of cantilever, and the magic and all these different species...?"
"It's okay Twi, you'll have plenty of time to ask questions later." Sunset interjected, cutting her off in mid flow.
Prince Rutherford, Gilda and Ember joined the party, with Thorax flying down to stand with Pharynx.
"Ha! We yaks stomp yetis good! Defend pony-friends and have great time too! Puny yetis no match for mighty yak hooves, yes?" There was a distinctly Viking cheer from the other yaks.
"I hope you don't mind that we inflitrated Canterlot again." Thorax said, getting a hoof in the shoulder from a grinning Pharynx.
"Yeah, that was totally amazing and cool!" Gilda exclaimed, exchanging a hoof-bump with Rainbow. "Beat an evil tyrant and take his stuff too? Double win!"
"Well, we dragons don't do altruism." Ember said, "Okay, I did sort of come because Spike asked me to, but just because I could order the other dragons to come help, doesn't mean I can ask them to come all this way for nothing. He said you promised gems?"
"And you'll get them, piles of them, but we may need a little time to get them together." Twilight replied.
"Or you could just take these ones!" Pinkie Pie was somehow pronking along, despite being attached to a cart piled high with gem stones. The rest of her family poldded along behind her with similarly laden carts.
"Pinkie!" Twilight exclaimed happily. "So that's where you were!"
"Silly Twilight!" Pinkie replied, "You don't think I'd throw any party without taking care of the catering? On the way to the Crystal Empire I stopped off at the farm and asked my family to get together as many gems as they could."
Ember drooled slightly, but quickly composed herself. "That should help, but will there be enough for all of us?"
"Oh don't worry, Princess Cadence is bringing the rest!"
There was a hooting sound, and the Crystal Express steamed into Canterlot station. The front carriage was the Royal Coach, but the dozen or so trucks behind it were filled with glittering crystal. Cadence came across the plaza and into a tight hug and deep kiss from her husband. Flurry Heart was cloose behind, carried by Sunburst.
"Cadence? You risked coming here before you knew the Storm King was defeated?" Twilight asked.
She smiled back. "I had faith in your plan, and I was right."
The chariot came back, carrying the petrified figure of Celestia, and Luna turned her glare on Tempest Shadow, who was slumped in her cage in a picture of abject misery.
"Tempest Shadow, you have committed grave crimes against Equestria. Invasion, attacking a princess, usurpation, theft, slavery, even threatening to murder innocent ponies to achieve your ends. If you wish to gain any clemency, tell us how to reverse this evil spell!"
Tempest showed a spark of her old spirit. "And if I do, everything will be sunshine and rainbows?"
"Oh trust me, it will definitely be better for you if you do." Discord punched his balled paw into his clawed palm and his eyes glowed red. "You may get off with imprisonment, or even just banishment. Otherwise I may ask to oversee your punishment. You hurt my friends and made Fluttershy cry. I have every reason to be... creative."
The last word somehow conveyed utter doom without actually saying it, and even Tempest quailed.
Twilight took over. "You were willing to sell out Equestria, hurt and enslave an entire nation, turn the powers of the Princess over to a power-mad tyrant, all so you could get your horn fixed."
"Whoa, and I thought my revenge scheme was the most disproportionate level of retribution ever!" Starlight Glimmer exclaimed, then looked round at the glares she was recieving and added, "Shutting up now."
Twilight continued. "You said you relied on yourself, but he was the one you were relying on to fix your horn. You think he'd even have followed through? I saw how he treated you, he'd have thrown you aside as soon as you were of no more use to him."
"What does it matter, I don't even have a stub of a horn left, thanks to you!" Tempest replied, choking on tears.
"You could have just come and asked." Twilight said. "Discord, please?"
He glowered for a second, then reached out, a hole appearing in space. In Kludgetown, a clawed hand swiped a unicorn horn off a peddlers stall, and left a pile of golden bits. Discord pulled it back and ate it in one bite, chewing and crunching. He coughed something up and swirled it around in his mouth. Then he hawked and spat, and out of his mouth flew a purple horn, which flew through the bars and neatly stuck itself to her forehead.
Tempest reached up, feeling her new horn, the length of it, lighting it up with an expression of wonder. Then she crumpled, sobbing hopelessly.
"Well?" Luna asked, "How do we break the spell?"
Tempest sniffled, and cried out, "I don't know! The orbs were something the Storm King had. They were supposed to contain even alicorn magic, the most powerful magic of all."
"Not the most powerful." Twilight said gently, and looked to her friends. They nodded, and took positions around the chariot. Each of them closed their eyes and started to glow. Their hair grew out and their cutie marks spread to form patterns all over their bodies as they rose into the air. A polychromatic light expanded around and over them, encompasing the statue, and it started to flake away, revealing Celestia.
As the last shards of stone fell away, she took a convulsive gasp of air and dropped to all fours. She gasped a few more breaths and looked around her smiling with relief at what she saw. "Thank you, my little ponies, and your friends and allies. Together you have saved me, and Equestria, once again."
"Don't look at us, it was all down to Twilight's plan." said Rainbow Dash. "She got the other Princesses to safety and figured out how to bring everyone together."
Pinkie added. "Yeah, if Twilight hadn't had a plan, we might have just ran off willy nilly, got swept over a waterfall, tried to find the Queen of the Hippos ourselves and ended up in all sorts of trouble, almost getting enslaved, thrown of an airship, and finding the hipppogryphs only to alienate them and strain our friendship to breaking point, with the strain on Twilight making her act all distrustful and sneaky and generally out of character to generate some cheap conflict and drama for plot purposes. Or not."
Tempest shook her head in disbelief. "How... how can this even be happening?"
"The magic of friendship." Twilight replied. "You relied on only your own strength. I relied on the strength of my friends and the strength of the friendships they made with others. Maybe you should try it?"
Tempest slumped where she stood. "It's rather too late for that."
"Maybe not, if you're willing to try."
"Wait a second!" Discord said, "After all she's done you want to redeem her?"
"Sugarcube, if Celestia hadn't taken a chance on you being worth saving, where would you be right now?" Applejack asked.
"Entertaining pigeons in Celestia's statue garden. Okay, I get your point." Fluttershy flew up and hugged him, and he brightened up.
"Even if you want to offer it, there's no way the other Princesses will agree." Tempest said, mournfully.
Celestia looked to Luna and Cadence and a wordless agreement passed between them. "Twilight Sparkle is the Princess of Friendship. If she says you're worth a chance at redemption, that is her decision and her responsibility, and we will honour it."
Twilight lit her horn, and the bars of the cage glowed. "The question is, Tempest Shadow, do you want to try?"
The lean unicorn ducked her head, and took a deep breath, then looked up. "Not Tempest Shadow. My real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist."
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The following comment has been made before reading the story.
Dude... seriously?
The following comment has been made after reading the story.
So... you couldn't decide what the most logical way for Twilight to plan for an invasion was, so you just had her plan to throw everyone in the world at the problem. Yes, this is totally how it should have gone. Almost surprised you didn't have scenes of all the totally awesome background ponies fighting back.
I feel like it should be pointed out that Twilight Sparkle is not Batman, her checklists are universally just checklists for stuff like how to organize parties or run a bake sale, and she cracks under pressure.
Also, you just had to drag in Starlight Glimmer and get in another joke at her expense, while implying that having a part of your body ripped off and being shunned for being a cripple is somehow even more trivial than your best friend moving away. Classy.
No. It didn't have to be written. That is a very simple fact. You did not have to write this. You could have blogged about it. You could have written a version that just had her invite everypony who could possibly save the world to the party, wrapping it up at barely a thousand words. You could have even, and I know this sounds really preposterous, just called the movie stupid and walked away.
End result: I, for one, am no longer waiting for your other stories. Have a good day.
8502333
And amazingly, the two of us agree on something.
Let me guess: Discord fixes everything.
8502401
Who are you again?
Cute story.
As someone, who enjoys HISHE videos on a regular basis, I would like to say that this story is rather dull. Basically, you just tell about Twilight devising a plan, that consists of rallying Equestria's allies. And then this plan is executed without any flaws and hiccups. Which is not only boring but also not very likely. Changelings definitely were not effective, when they fought Maulworth, for example. So they hardly were able to infiltrate on the large scale. And so on.
Also, Tempest and Grubber made reconnaissance before the assault (see chapter books and other materials) so in fact, HISHE should have them better prepared. Probably have a scenario with Tempest sneaking at the Festival and stoning princesses by surprise.
well it might seem like Tempest got off easy... Till you compare her actions to some of the others that got forgiven. Especially Discord. Got a feeling Equestrian only saves "real" punishment for stuff like torture and murder. Rebellion? Sedition? Your now the property of the Princess of Friendship.
8502720 On the first point, I just wanted a curb stomp, so I wrote a curb stomp. Considering the original involved the most egregious example of nerfing I've seen in the entire franchise, I just once wanted to show what the good guys should be capable of if they got it together, rather than being weighed down by plot induced stupid.
I may well rewrite this into a full story, of the sort A Different Bridal Path was, but for now I have other stories to write.
Second, my head canon is that Chrysalis had them on starvation rations, so big, powerful transofrmations were beyond them. Even against the mole crature they were finding their hooves. But this is after Pharynx has taken charge of the defence force, training them to use their shapeshifting as a combat multiplier the way he did. How do you think Thorax learned that 'turn into a bear' tactic in Triple Threat? Plus they now have an ample supply of magical energy to support more extravagant magic.
Third. I don't have the chapter books. But you're right, However, they didn't. Against any kind of preparation, Tempest would have crashed and burned. The invasion is not an example of her tactical genius, it's an example of Equestrian ineffectiveness.
8969696
I'm being serious here.
8969731
Thanks for reply. What took you so long? I've already made HISHE of my own.
8502281 The following comment has been made in response to your comment.
I've re-read my story and thoroughly enjoyed it. If you don't, don't read it. So, yes, seriously. Though that was my reaction when I watched the actual movie.
wow, this was great!