Moamer's Return

by bonamb

Chapter 1: Catastrophes and Consequences

Lightning flashed outside her window and Twilight Sparkle fell from her bed with an undignified squawk, landing on the floor with a thump. Pushing herself upright and shuffling her wings, she marshalled her thoughts and counted:

One... Tw-

BOOM

She flinched and her ears flicked back. It was close. Way too close for a storm to be without a warning from the weather team.

Getting up, Twilight opened the bedroom door and quickly trotted past Spike's room who, apparently, was still asleep with his door shut. Filing away the pang of envy at his deep sleeping for later and making her way past the map room, she turned left and hurried up the stairs up into the pegasi loft.

Stepping out onto the main balcony she paused, stunned as she observed the furious storm from the safety of her weatherward. It was... enormous didn’t even begin to describe it. It obviously wasn’t natural, both from the way tropical cyclones simply didn’t occur this far from the sea, and the fact that it’s eye appeared to be centred almost exactly around Canterlot.

A Canterlot that seemed to be... glowing? A brilliant light shone from it, the only reason she could see it at this distance, through the storm.

Everypony in Canterlot must feel like they are staring into a lighthouse!

Twilight turned away, searching for her as of yet unused weather goggles. As she found and levitated them towards her, she paused apprehensively. Even a natural pegasus would find this storm almost impossible to navigate in, so, she thought, moving the goggles in front of her so she could view the storm through them, would she even have a chance?

Another bolt of lightning tore across the sky, searing it's afterimage into the back of her eyes. As Twilight quickly averted her gaze and tried to blink away the light, there was a sudden thud from the pegasus loft above, causing her to look up in panic. What if debri?-

"Twi!"

She squinted up at the blurry cyan shape above her, leaping back as it shook itself, depositing water everywhere before it jumped off and landed in front of her. As her vision focused Rainbow Dash appeared with a panicked expression on her face.

"Twi. Man, you gotta help with this! The weather office is in an emergency state and is gathering volunteers and all able bodied pegasai and you're a princess and have wings and that's the biggest storm I've ever seen so you gotta help."

Twilight blinked again at the smaller pony before catching up. "Yes, I-"

Dash grabbed her hoof and shaking it, continued: "I mean holy horseapples Twi, that’s like a hurricane times a hundred out there and all the princesses are Celestia knows where but you and-"

Pulling her hoof free from the sodden pegasus, Twilight planted her it on Rainbow’s muzzle which seemed to shock her into a state of insensibility for however long. Quickly clearing her throat Twilight carried on where she had left off. "Dash - I was just about to go and volunteer."

Rainbow quickly processed this then nodded, distressed friend gone and back to business, assuming the facade of the weather team captain again. "Good - that's good. So, yeah, we've got our strongest fliers doing a double layered V formation to bust any parts of the storm that come too near to Ponyville. While that’s happening, we're gonna have a team of our best weather-smiths create a wall of cloud braced against your castle as it’s the tallest building we have, which should break the storm around us, uh, if you don’t mind that is."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "I'm fairly sure that this castle is at least in some way, a civic building, so it wouldn’t matter whether I-"

"Great! You're with the weathersmiths. Keep me updated with your magic flare thingies, I'll be heading the wedge."

Dash bent her knees, flared her wings, and with the sound of collapsing air, was gone.

Running over storm protocol in her head – maximum launch distance, away from any surfaces in case of sudden gusts - Twilight donned the goggles and cantered over to the edge. Taking a deep breath and flaring her wings, she too thrust herself out into the storm. As the wind caught her in its grasp, she allowed her heart one last quaver before steeling herself, and doing the job a princess was meant to do.

---

The train rumbled and Twilight opened a sticky eye. From what she could see in the darkness outside the train, they had begun to slow down. Closing it, then bracing herself she opened both her eyes, only to screw them right back up as the sudden flood of light from Canterlot station caused stars to explode somewhere in her skull. Groaning, she stood gradually and opened her eyes again - just a crack, allowing light to seep through without the previously horrific stabbing sensation. Something she wasn’t exactly unfamiliar with, having performed far too many late nighters herself but...

Ugh.

It never got better.

As she stepped towards the end of the carriage, shaking out the kinks as she went and trying to ignore her aching wings, her thoughts moved sluggishly back to the night before. Rainbow Dash's plan had worked almost perfectly. The wedge's concerted efforts had allowed Twilight and the rest of the weathersmiths to create a dense cloud barrier around her castle, diverting most of the storm’s energy around Ponyville. There was some damage, but nowhere near as much as there could have been. She shivered at the thought of the smaller earth pony towns with lower pegasus populations, or resident alicorns, such as those in Whitetail Woods.

Twilight stopped and blinked as she emerged from the carriage and Canterlot's muggy scent hit her nose. It was thick as usual, almost a living soup of smells, but with that extra tang that always appeared around high concentrations of magic. Pillony's second sign actually seemed to have a stronger presence than usual but - What.

The alicorn's mind stuttered for a second as she beheld her home city. It was... damaged.

No, no. Damaged wasn't quite the word. Some buildings looked like they had been physically shredded, like a toddler with so much grass. Others, lower down, looked almost pristine. It had been… played with?

As Twilight’s emotional response quickly collapsed under the weight of her tired brain, she noticed the pattern of destruction appeared to radiate out in expanding curves, which, if simple logic was followed, would mean that this was part of a larger, circular explosion, and the epicentre was...

As her eyes tracked the pattern towards the palace a burgundy earth pony guard around her age in full armour trotted up to her from a squad of nearby guards and bowed.

"Welcome to Canterlot, Princess. Princess Luna has been expecting you and will explain the situation soon. We can take you to her, if you would come with us?"

Thrown out of her sleep deprived mind, Twilight just blinked at her before catching herself and inclining her head in turn. "Just Twilight is fine, thank you. Seeing the Princess would be informative though." Half smiling at the guard to set her at ease, she continued. "Do you know where she is... um?"

The corner of the mare's mouth quirked as her eyes flicked to the bags under Twilight's eyes, and she tapped a pin on her chest. "First Lieutenant Hard Hooves Ma'am. I'm the one in charge of your detail whenever you come to Canterlot. We received the message from your assistant after you got on the train."

"But I sent that message an hour before?"

The Lieutenant's amused expression changed to guarded sympathy as she replied. "Princess Celestia is currently recovering Ma'am. We only found the message after a maid checked on her."

"Recovering?!" Twilight's wings shot open and she winced. Ow.

"Yes Ma'am." The Lieutenant held her gaze. "But only temporarily indisposed, she's just exhausted herself, nothing serious. Although," her eyes flicked to Twilight's wings. "I was going to have the Sergeant and her flight squad fly you up to the Castle so you could get there a little faster and avoid the debris, but I can see that would be a bad idea."

"Yeah..." Twilight shook her head. "All of Ponyville spent last night fighting the storm, so none of us are in particularly good shape." She chuckled "But somepony had to come see what was going on, so at least I got a good nap on the train. I think the others are still working."

"Indeed." The Lieutenant turned and nodded to a light blue, white maned unicorn in her squad who had saddlebags with a red cross on the side. "Medic Stitch, would you mind..?"

The unicorn trotted over and drew a small instrument out of a case in her bag. With an apologetic look on her face, she pressed it gently to Twilight's back. Fireworks went off in the alicorn's mind and she drew in a sharp breath. The medic's eyes, Twilight noted, tightened every time Twilight winced, and after poking a couple more points on the alicorns barrel she floated it back into the case.

As she fitted that back into the bag she moved forwards where Twilight could see her better, but kept a concerned eye on the princess’s wings as they twitched. "Unfortunately, you've damaged some of your major flight muscles your highness, probably due to giving them a greater load than what they are used to. I don’t have much more on hoof than an endothermic compress... if you wouldn’t mind wandering through the city with that on your back?"

Twilight nodded, giving her a appreciative smile. “Anything at all would help after last night, thank you.”

As Stitch hummed in acknowledgement and drew out the compress, Twilight eyed it and pushed her tiredness to the back of her consciousness, focusing on the pad. Drawing and holding a spell-form in her mind's eye she made sure it wouldn't interfere with the current weave. As Stitch affixed the compress to her back Twilight cast the completed spell, causing the compress to turn invisible. The Lieutenant at her side raised her eyebrows at her fellow guard but neither said anything.

Looking back to Twilight, Lieutenant Hooves coughed and continued where she had left off. "There is a route to the palace that isn't blocked your Highness, but it is quite crowded. So, we are going to create a perimeter around you. If you could just stand still for a second and-" She signalled the rest of her squad, who formed a rough diamond around the three, a well-built grey pegasus leading the way. Clearing her throat she bellowed, startling Twilight "CANTERLOT PALACE, CLOVER'S WAY. FORWARD."

As they started off, heading towards a public walkway on the far side of the station, Twilight fought down her claustrophobic feelings and cantered closer to the Lieutenant. Sheepishly, she spoke. "Twilight is fine, really. I don't think a princess of friendship is supposed to be quite as formal as the others! Anyway, you're in charge of my safety whenever I come to Canterlot?"

The Lieutenant blinked, attention drawn away from their surroundings, before her mouth curled into a tight grin. "I am Ma'am, and I'm proud." Nodding to the ponies around her, she continued "We're a fairly recent unit, as under Captain Armour your protection was simply an extension of Princess Celestia's own house guard for logistical reasons, and" she winked at Twilight "guard politics. But after your ascension, and Captain Edge's promotion, he saw fit to create a separate guard unit solely for you. We are normally based here in Canterlot, but we do rotate 8 guards out every month at your palace in Ponyville. We would have had more, and a detail on you at all times, but Princess Celestia ruled against that. I disagree, but can understand her reasoning."

As they passed a large boulder planted in the middle of the road, the Lieutenant continued.

"This is the first time we've been formally introduced because your last two visits were too fleeting to actually schedule a meeting, but as Canterlot has been, well-" She indicated the boulder with her hoof. "It has been decided that your safety is of paramount importance, and that you should know your guard in case something else comes up."

Twilight nodded as she processed this new information, letting her mind flick back to Ponyville, and the guards outside her doors and around the town. Her stomach twisted as she realised that she had never even so much as said hello to any of them. Knowing Celestia though, she had probably argued for her privacy which Twilight appreciated.

Looking up, she noticed they had almost arrived at the Palace. This more sheltered route was unfamiliar to her, as she was used to taking the higher Academic's Road, nearer the school of gifted unicorns. She wrinkled her nose as a gust of wind hit them when they emerged from between the buildings. The tang of magic was far stronger here than it was nearer the station.

Not unusual for an Alicorn residence, but this really takes the cake.

As they trotted into a courtyard which Twilight hadn’t been in before, Lieutenant Hooves stepped in front of her. "If you would care to follow me Ma'am, I can take you to Princess Luna?"

Twilight glanced, puzzled, at her before realising the amount of damage to the palace had probably left some sections unstable. That, and she didn’t know exactly where she was. "Oh, yes! Thank you Lieutenant."

The Lieutenant turned to face her guards, loudly addressing them. " Corporal, you're with me! Sergeant Wings, take the squad back to the room, I'll meet you later."

The large pegasus stallion Twilight had noticed earlier nodded at Lieutenant Hooves and turned, leading six guards and the medic, Stitch, back where they had come from. A faded green pegasus with a brighter mane left her fellows to stand behind Twilight, offering a small smile which the alicorn returned.

"This way if you would, Ma'am."

As Twilight followed the Lieutenant into the palace, she noticed that the damage, while centring somewhere inside it somehow hadn’t affected the interior too badly. Barring she noted, as they took a diversion past a former corridor, fallen towers. Hopefully Luna would have some answers.

And hopefully her old apartment hadn’t fallen on anypony.

Author's Note:

IT'S HERE.
Mostly.
I've got the story as a whole planned out, and the first part in detail. All I now need to do is write it! I will therefore be releasing chapters as they are written. As a student I cannot promise a regular schedule, but I will try my best to never leave you hanging for too long.

I've been sitting on and rewriting this first chapter for a long while now, and the main reason it's out today is because of a comment on my previous story. So please, comment! Criticize! Correct, if you're feeling up to helping lil old me out! It all helps to build my motivation and my skills as a writer which means a better story overall! :P

Also, yes. I really like exclamation marks.

See you in the next chapter!

Comments

[zeafiren]

Seem pretty interesting so far. Let's see where this story goes.