Queen of Storms

by Via

[18] Messenger

Messenger

---

Maybe, if Life and Death did exist they'd give my message to them.

---

Gryphons laid eggs.

This fact was something that tended to make ponies, who gave live birth, a tad bit uncomfortable. Unlike draconics, that gave birth in clutches - labor was an intensive process a few months after fertilization, resulting in one large egg being expelled.

Thirty two years ago, eight years before one Twilight Sparkle had come into this world - one particular egg had hatched a bit too early. There had been a complication in its birth, and the resulting gryphon came out - damaged. Malformed, too small, screaming as it was brought painfully into this world.

Sixty years ago, thirty six years before one Twilight Sparkle had come into this world - Redclaw Belle had been born. The descendant of a powerful mage - and ever so slightly embarrassed about his rather feminine surname - he was a creature of ambition. Hailing from Griffonstone, it was he who laid the roots for the rather aptly named New Empire.

With a rather small regiment of like-minded soldiers, he claimed back Griffonstone - and began to expand. He pushed outwards to the mountains that bordered Sugar Maple Grove, bridged past the Guto River and established Griffonstone Station - a highway right to Rainbow Falls. Boats from Griffonstone began to sail to Trottingham, a strong connection forming between Princess Celestia and, as he was known - Good King Redclaw was formed.

His ever-zealous expansion pushed the borders of its limits though. To the North was territory far too cold for the Gryphons to live comfortable. To the east, the Himallamas presented a dangerous obstacle - as well as the dangerous Banyan Timbers, allegedly home to the last Lupines. To the south, lay dragons - to the west, ocean. Essentially, Redclaw had expanded the gryphon empire as much as he could - and he was content with that.

His son, Steelbeak, was not.

His mother had died after birth. He, himself, was left malformed by a complication during his birth - one that resulted in some notable physical deformities. His heart beat was irregular, his beak was too small for the rest of his face, his wings were lopsided and their feathers grew improperly- but thankfully, with access to the bleeding edge of Equestrian and Minotaur medical technology, he was able to live. Specialized technomagical implants were grafted onto him, to stabilize his heart-rate and restore his ability of flight - but his magic was left irreparably damaged. While even the most magically insensitive gryphons had the ability to manipulate weather in some capacity, Steelbeak could do little more than sit on a cloud with a great deal of focus.

As Steelbeak grew into his own, some of the more powerful members of gryphon society had found his political beliefs increasingly beginning to align with their own. He believed that the gryphons should continue their expansion, pushing past the Himallama's and taking the pony lands. Yes; it would be a declaration of war on the largest and most powerful nation, but Steelbeak was under the belief that they had grown soft and lax in a time of peace - while gryphons had remained tempered through their mandatory military service.

And the people followed him. While ponies were creatures more aligned with Harmony, content with peace and a rather stagnant size of territory - gryphons were creatures more aligned with Chaos.

It wasn't clear between the father and son who was the true ruler of gryphon society. At the end, though: Redclaw had something his son did not. The title. At the end of the day - anything that Steelbeak pushed for, Redclaw could simply veto. Such was his right.

Maybe somewhat surprisingly, Steelbeak loved his father. How could he not? He cared for him as deeply as he did this nation - and he had him to thank for the nation that Steelbeak loved. They disagreed on the finer details, but at the end of the day: they wanted what was best for the Gryphon people.

---

Hermes had been running all his life.

As the Royal Messenger, such was his job. It was he who had pioneered the mail-routes to the neighboring ponies and gryphons, it was he who had petitioned King Redclaw for the establishment of Griffonstone Station. Not only was he damn good at his job - the self-proclaimed fastest gryphon alive, he was proud of it.

Flames rose up around him. Smoke blew around him and lapped at his flesh, embers sinking down into his feathers and flesh - down to the bone, it felt. It had struck - it had struck hard, and he wasn't quite sure what it was. A blur of red, black, and white - and then there was blood, so much blood. If he was just a smidge slower, he would've died. He would've been torn apart - a mess of feathers and dismantled meat.

Murmurs of conversation passed by his ringing ears. Steelbeak stood over his father's mangled body - his expression teary, yet resigned. A unicorn stood by his side, the blue light of her aura beginning to fade.

"-this way-"
"-traitor-"
"-dragons-"
"-false god." Hermes' blurred vision began to clear, the ringing in his ears began to fade. He groaned and peaked his head out around a corner, glancing at the trio.

"I am not devoid of mercy, father." Steelbeak's voice had always unsettled Hermes. It was raspy, pained - but a boring monotony at the same time. "I loved you. I am -" He paused for a moment. "-regretful," he spoke with the slightest hint of emotion, "that it had turned out this way. This was not in the design."

"Your plan will ruin us." He whispered. "The world - the Princesses - they'll destroy you. Destroy us. We - had peace! We didn't..."
"It may be so, father." He shut his eyes. "I am not devoid of mercy." He turned around, his eyes still closed. "Please." He placed his talons on the mare's barrel. "Kill him quickly."

Her horn lit with a blue glow. There was a sudden surge of energy that came rushing from her horn - the air hissing as King Redclaw, king of the gryphons - had his skull melted in a fraction of a second. His blood squirted out onto the two of them, bits of half-melted bone and a sea of discolored viscera washing out onto the floor with a bloody gush.

Hermes couldn't help but vomit. Steelbeak's eyes snapped open. For one, painful second - their eyes met.

"Kill him," he spoke - and Hermes turned around and began to run.

He tore from the ground like a bolt of thunder - but his heart pounded in his body, stronger than any disturbance of the air. His blood was icy fiery sludge in his veins, that filled his muscles with burning adrenaline. His wings beat so hard that he felt as if they might be torn from his back, his muscles beginning to tear from sheer exertion as he leapt from cloud to cloud for more momentum. He was fast. He was the fastest gryphon in Equestria - a blur of brown and red feathers.

He spun through the air with a speed that would make any winged creature blush. His grace was borderline divine as he duck, bobbed and wove through bolts of magic that tore up from the ground after him - in his escape, he was in his element. The sound barrier wrapped around him like a familiar friend as he rushed towards Griffonstone station -

only for a claw to pierce his skull from above, killing him instantly.

---

Ghastly Gorge is a dangerous location. It's a place that only those with a death-wish - or particularly brave ponies go to. As diverse as near utter desolation - vast planes of sand and rock near Appleloosa, or a lush green canyon with a river rushing through its path - and taking its part in forming the canyon, The river was an oddity - an offshoot of the river that ran from the South Luna Ocean to the Celestial Sea and cut through the Everfree, pooling up in the gorge and seeming to simply - disappear. Investigations had proved futile.

As water flowed, so did magic. Thousands of years ago - a few centuries before Pulsera Zelrardottir had been born, a squad of eels had travelled from the South Luna ocean - or, the South Máni ocean as it had been known, had made their way into the Chained Forest. They rapidly adapted to the significantly different habitat - until a certain surge of chaotic energy rushed over the now-Everfree, and began its infection. Thousands of years later - as the Everfree was further tainted by chaotic and dark magic as a result of Discord and Nightmare Moon, these eels began to mutate.

Evolution took its course - and now, a little over a thousand years later, they were known as Quarry Eels. They were incredibly long creatures that curled throughout the gorge - the children that peaked up at the surface being able to swallow a carriage whole. Eventually, as they grew older - they began to hibernate in the deepest roots of the gorge, where chaotically tainted water had been pooling up. They needed no sustenance, existing solely off magic - but they did stir long enough to gobble up any creature that had stumbled into their caverns.

Most of the time.

One creature, entered Ghastly Gorge. She had been instructed to, you see - it was a few miles to the east of where her old home had been, before she had destroyed it, and it was one of the few locations in Equestria big enough to house her. As the details on publication and the flow of information was being controlled, the official story - for now, was that a dragon from Pre-Discordian times had been woken up and relocated by the Princesses. It was close enough to the truth - but Tempest did express her distaste at being referred to as a dragon.

Regardless: Tempest moved with the rigidity of all of her aspects as well as its fluidity - each of her steps carrying with her the force of the Storm. She had taken an equine form, intentionally making herself look vulnerable. She was hungry, you see.

She patiently crept along the floor of the canyon. Eventually: she was rewarded as the ground rumbled, nearly imperceptibly. Waves of rock splashed over her as the wall shattered - and teeth dug down into her midsection.

They broke. Tempest couldn't help but let a grin that showed far too many sharp teeth for an equine to have form on her face. As the eel pulled backwards - Tempest's form began to shift. And shift. She couldn't quite reach up to her full size - but she was able to take the shape of a smaller variant of her true form. It was uncomfortable, like wearing clothes many sizes too small, but necessary for the time being.

The eel was bestial, but had just enough intelligence to realize that it had done something wrong. It didn't have too much time to contemplate this, before Tempest grabbed a claw around its neck. Her mother had eaten many large eels when she was young - and she had shown her the rather grisly way to eat it. She deftly tore the eel out from its hole and snapped its neck, before tearing it off with a bloody twist. She dropped the skull down, and used her claws to tear the spine out in one fluid motion. Sure - she could use her magic, but the whole fun of this was that she had gotten to hunt.

She stuck a bit of it in her mouth - and then swallowed it whole with a slurp, much like how you'd eat spaghetti. She licked her lips.

Delicious.

---

The eels had carved an intricate system of tunnels all throughout Ghastly Gorge - to the point where Tempest was surprised that it hadn't collapsed. Underneath the earth, she felt...caged. It quite literally weakened her connection to her element - but she didn't find much of an issue with that. The world - was different. It didn't need someone like Tempest - someone with her violence.

Until she got settled in though, she would be alone. And she would have to discover what she was. Her limits, her talents, her likes, her dislikes - she felt as if she had been given a blank slate, and it felt...nice. A weight, lifted from her shoulders. The world felt light.

Eventually, she made her way to her destination. The central chaotic pool where the eels lay - huge, gigantic things, easily as large as Tempest's current form and much longer - sleeping as they floated like a bundle of rats tied together in the water. A bubbling furnace of mercurial chaos and vitriolic dark magic. Tempest dipped a claw into it, then winced as she pulled it out - bubbling curls of black smoke rising from the keratin appendage before they were drawn up into the thaumosphere.

Tempest had been able to detect this pool of chaos magic - pool in both a literal and figurative sense - from miles away. It had stood out like a sore thumb to her, a blighted spot on the land - a landmine waiting to blow if any pony had disturbed it. There was a non-insignificant chance that no one knew it existed here save Discord, thankfully - but Tempest still wanted to prevent any problems that came from having concentrated chaos in one location.

But she couldn't.
It's too much. I - I can't purify it.
And why not?
It's too concentrated. We'd have better luck trying to purify Discord.
My Storm. Can you not feel what your rest has wrought? The World itself flows through you.
What do you mean?
That there is no way to know what you are capable of, until you do as such.

Harmony and Order were a constant in her head. Bickering, back and forth as siblings did - playful barbs, but rarely in agreement. Tempest shut her eyes. Her antlers began to glow - and she let the World flow through her.

Harmony and Order wove spells together in nothing less than a masterpiece. Dozens of spells, all useless on their own - but working together in a perfect Harmony. Each spell perfect, ordered into intricate patterns that the more rational part of Tempest's mind couldn't even begin to understand. Magic fought to expand - it hated being close together, and that's why the complexity of a spell went up as the glyph count rose - as well as the toll it took on mana and mind. It was an uphill battle - one that the caster would inevitably lose, which is why spells couldn't be prepared in advance unless they were woven into physical components. Their spellwork was beautiful, their spellwork was perfect: but it defied the laws of magic.

Harmony and Order were the architects. But Tempest was the conduit. Where the Essential Spirits wove beauty, Tempest's magic was much more - primal. It was beyond glyphs. It was a force of nature - as The Storm, she Asked - and so the World gave.

The air rippled and shimmered as her spell trailed through the aether itself sluggishly. The water rippled much in kind - until it began to glow with a bright, searing light and rang with a crystalline chime. The light grew brighter and brighter, as the chime grew louder and louder - until both reached a crescendo, and then pulsed.

The air rippled. Tempest stumbled backwards, her horns stinging from exertion. The magic she had used hadn't drained her magic pool anything remotely close to significant - but channeling the force of the world itself was something that should've been impossible.

Clap. Clap. Clap. The familiar smack of talon against lion paw. Her skin crawled - her scales felt as if they might fall off at any moment.

Just his echo. Not him.

"Chaos Shadow." She spoke with as little vitriol in her tone she could manage. Her words came out as a hateful snarl.
"Tempest." He retaliated as he cut space and formed in-front of me with a pop. "Hm. Not quite a fan of what you've done with the place." He waved his hand before he stuck one of his talons into the pool, then winced as he quickly pulled it out as it had begun to turn gray. He snapped his talon off and threw it to the side. "But, your style - your style."

"How long have you been here?"
"As long as you have, yet longer. I can't help but be - accutely aware of these little pockets of chaos magic spread all over the world. They're like - candy, almost. I can't help but savor them."
"Do you attempt to re-corrupt this pool?" Her eyes narrowed.

"Not at all, mon cherie!" He said in a sing-song voice. "While I'm not going to hand out their locations to you - I certainly have no qualms with you purifying them." He tucked his hands behind his back.
"Does the fact that I am able to kill you, slowly and painfully have anything to do with this fact?" Tempest couldn't help herself. She couldn't help but hate him. She wore the flesh of the creature who had killed her mother, who had tormented her so - who had stripped her from the Sun and Moon. Order and Harmony's constant arguing in her head didn't help her keep a calm handle on the situation either.

"H-heh. I'd be lying if I said that it wouldn't, and you know I'm not a liar."
Tempest tilted her head to the side. She didn't say anything more.
"...I have been known to smidge the truth occasionally." He held his hand flat out and wiggled it side to side. Around Tempest, he was significantly less - lively. Instead of his jokes melding with his magic, he simply moved around and fidgeted a lot.
"Why are you here?" She turned her head to the side and inspected the eels. She picked one up - and while looking Discord dead in the eye, snapped the gargantuan beast's neck and swallowed it like a strand of pasta.

"Why - to offer you a gift."
"A gift." She said flatly.
"You are not the only one who struggled with their identity, dear. I was created with all of His memories, you know. Initially: I was just as bloodthirsty as him."
"Tread carefully," Tempest whispered.
Discord raised his hands in a show of peace. "I - changed. I for one, find more beauty in...hm. Distortion. Freedom. Liberation. Every other aspect of chaos, I suppose." He thought for a few moments. "Regardless, I for one - struggled to find myself. To distinct myself from my predecessor."
"And you're here to offer your sympathy?" Her eyes narrowed.
"Not at all." He shrugged. "You hate me, and everything I stand for. Our natures are antithetical to each other. I'm not here to offer you support - simply...a chance." His talons began to glow. "To find yourself."
"And what are you proposing?"
"A simple little experiment. You'll live a dozen lives, as a dozen creatures - all of them being Tempest. And then you'll wake up, right here - seconds for us, centuries for you. And you'll have found yourself."
"For some reason, I'm not inclined to trust you - after you admitted that your magic is antithetical to mine."
"Smart thinking. I wouldn't trust you either. But I don't have the power to affect Harmony or Order - so I can't send them back. At least, I can't send them back if they don't let me. So - it would be your mind, and they could snap you out of it or tear me to shreds if it doesn't succeed."

Tempest shut her eyes.
He's lying.
In a regard, my brother. He is right that we would be able to stop him from adversely affecting you, my storm. But - he could instead drive you to insanity. If you were insane...you would be as great a threat as his predecessor.
Would he truly throw his life away for this? There would be no chaos that he would bear witness to.
Enough. We will debate this unendingly. Harmony will vote yes, I will vote no - and the Storm will break the tie.
Then - I am inclined to trust him. If Celestia does - then so shall I.

Tempest opened her eyes. "I accept."
Discord rubbed his hands together - and then tapped a talon on her head. Her body slumped to the floor, moments later.

---

A stallion that wasn't a stallion, the shadow of a mare, a robotic gryphon, and a dead satyr walked into a bar.

This is not the setup to a mediocre punchline, but rather an apt description of the events that set the apocalypse into place. Although, it wasn't a bar - no. It was a spiraling tower, owned by one Storm King.

But he was not the ruler of the Storms. The Storms had rejected him - and left him as a hollow husk. A hollow husk that had been an invitation for something.

"His work was sloppy, as always." Steelbeak inspected his talons. "A survivor was left. Who almost escaped."
"Nothing should've survived that blast. He was clearly abnormal." The stallion that wasn't a stallion snarled, stepping forward towards the Husk-That-Once-Was-King.
"If abnormal, you mean fast. Then I suppose he was abnormal."
"Unlike me - you are not essential to this, bird-brain." He hissed.
"Hm. It's mostly metal, at this point. Wire, too." Steelbeak rapped against his skull with a hollow, metallic thud.
"Watch yourself. We have waited centuries. I will wait another decade."
"No," The Husk spoke - and the two listened. It's voice was wrong. An abomination - something that didn't belong in this world. It grated against their ears, it spoke into their very soul. "We must speed up our time-table. You will invade Equestria, within the year."
Steelbeak arched an eyebrow. "Suicide." His tone hadn't changed in the slightest.
"You're resourceful. You will think of something." It was equal parts an expectation and a statement - yes, Steelbeak would think of something: the alternative was worse than death.

"Leave us, gryphon. Gorolich - we will return."
Gorolich's eyes went wide. He stumbled backwards. "Sire, I-"
The two disappeared with a surge of black unlight.

Steelbeak swallowed. He did not envy Gorolich.

For Tambelon was a fate worse than death.

-

Author's Note:

It is Griffonstone, not Gryphonstone.

Shorter chapter. Setting up the future - giving Tempest some much needed characterization past her vengeance and love of magic, as well as a new plot to move towards.

The next chapter, "Fragments", will be coming soon.

Can you hear the bells?

Comments

[FullMoon]

Damn. Reading Hermes getting killed off so fast kinda depresses me. He was described as FAST- but apparently Steelbeak- one of the villains- is faster.

I really want to know just how fast Steelbeak was in that scene, and just how fast Rainbowdash is in comparison. Otherwise I fear for her. I remember Tempest breaking the "magic barrier" during her fight with past-Discord... is Rainbowdash's sonic rainboom an act of breaking the magic barrier I wonder? But then there's when current-Discord was running from Tempest when she first woke up, and he didn't break anything other than the sound barrier- and he was described as faster than Rainbowdash when using his magic- so it's unlikely.

Ugh, I want to dislike that scene- because the power gaps (between mortals) make me depressed- but at the same time this just pulls me in.

[Via]

10856379
All your questions will eventually be answered: but I’ll say this much. Rainbow Dash is faster than Hermes- and by a significant margin.

Edit: Its also worth noting that Steelbeak is not faster than Hermes - and that gryphon claws are described as talons, not claws.

[FullMoon]

10856957
Do you mean to hint that Steelbeak did not kill Hermes, because his claws would've been described as talons?

If so, I think you might want to change this line.

"His work was sloppy, as always." Steelbeak inspected his claws. "A survivor was left. Who almost escaped."

Since, you know- it says claws and not talons.