Queen of Storms

by Via

[6] Ashes

Ashes

---

Ex Nihilo

---

The smell of taffy haunts my nightmares. Vanilla. Caramel. Salt. Sugar and butter. Sometimes the nightmares are just pure void with the scent permeating every corner. Sometimes I'm drowning in it. Suffocating in it. Choking in it. But no, I will never forget the taffy scented apocalypse that destroyed my home. So when I woke up from a dreamless sleep and smelled taffy...I immediately knew something was wrong.

I stood up and bolted out towards the door. It had been seven days since Discord said he would attack. What had I been thinking? Going to sleep, unprepared, totally unaware of how long it had been? How stupid was I? I moved to smash through the door. I had to get to Gryphus. I smashed through the door and managed to peak out at the window and immediately I gasped. The entire city was in chaos. Chaos Beasts fighting groups of guards, the corpses of both beasts and guards turning into pools of flesh, blood and muscle that created "hives" of sort that produced any number of bees, butterflies, or wolves. The chaos wolves were especially brutal, made purely of muscle and bone, hunting down gryphons and tearing them to tiny shreds. Buildings exploding into butterflies, candy, blood, or the bodies of the fallen, or sometimes just floating off into space or forming small "planets" that fell down. I saw Adreus fighting a chaos beast with his sword by his lonesome, cleaving the beast into pieces, before the pieces turned into abominations of blood that tore him to shreds.

And then, in the distance, I saw a thin squiggly shape. The shape from my nightmares. The shape that had enough power to tear a dragon out of a mountain and replace my leg with a mere thought. Just that faint shape was enough to paralyze me for a moment before I jolted into action and began running towards Gryphus' room. I eventually decided running was too slow and then, charging up my horns and teleporting in front of Gryphus' room. I knocked on the door before immediately opening it.

Astrabelle and Gryphus were both wearing armor. Gryphus had a silver blade that crackled with energy on his back, Astrabelle with a horn blade. Astrabelle turned to look at me and blink, Gryphus following suit. And then I saw Gryphus' shadow rising up behind him, morphing and taking shape. An antler and a horn, lion paw and eagle talon. As the pony head formed I realized what I was looking at - maybe too late at the glass in Gryphus' room began to glow. Gryphus' room was a large circular room at the top of a tower with many, many windows as well as an observation deck.

"DISCORD!" I managed to yell out past my fear, interrupting whatever Astrabelle was saying and pointing behind Gryphus. Gryphus jolted and spun around before maddening laughter erupted out of the room. The windows all exploded into shards that rested on the floor before the window sockets themselves disappeared, the door disappearing and suddenly the screams and yells of fear outside were deafened and the room went dark.

There was a gentle hiss of fire, the beast's lions thumb aflame as he was curled around Gryphus. His sickening face was softly illuminated in the firelight. Gryphus suddenly appeared by my side, his lips curled into a frown. Astrabelle made her way to Gryphus' side as Discord leaned down and suddenly a large roaring, crackling fire appeared in the center of the room. Discord was leaning back on a swiveling chair, sipping a cup of tea. "Hello, Gryphus. Tempest. And...oh. Is this your archmage? How painfully cute." Discord then just blinked as Astrabelle charged her magic and let out a blast of power from her horns that shot towards Discord. It was fast, lightning fast, but it just turned into water that splattered onto the ground. Astrabelle stepped back in fear and shock, but I wasn't surprised. Discord had been able to deal with Bellum, one of the strongest Spirits. Gryphus was really the only one Discord would have to actually try to kill.

"Discord." Gryphus spoke in a shaky tone before clearing his throat. "This is your only warning. Leave my land. Undo your chaos - and then I won't hunt you down to the ends of the world and-"
Discord began wheezing with laughter, doubling over. "O...oh! Oh my lord. You really do know how to crack a good one, Gryphus. Really. See - the difference between you and the other spirits are," he stood up, "is that you are a coward. You are. You have been. You always will be." He dropped onto his fours and walked towards Gryphus. "Three spirits of air, you're the third. And those first two - oh, they were fearsome. Powerful warriors. If Zeus had been here, I would actually maybe have to try. But you? You're just going to run, run, run."

"I beat Ouranus." Gryphus said quietly. "I killed him and I tore him apart. Am I still a coward?"
"Both you and I know exactly how that fight went down. That help from Serenity didn't go unnoticed by entirely everyone, despite how stupid Ouranus was. She masked it well enough, honestly. Using old magic. Magic so old I can barely remember it, and I've been alive since Lady Life dropped down from the sky."
Gryphus steeled himself and planted his paws down on the ground. "Discord. This isn't a request - leave." He repeated. Discord tilted his head to the side, and he seemed honestly confused.
"Why would I do that? I'm here. I already plan to kill you, so why would I suddenly up and leave? It makes no sense." He shrugged. "And this is coming from me. Whatever. I've never been able to understand you other Spirits. It's strange." Discord shot forward and curled himself around Gryphus, causing him to flinch, his mouth right next to where his jugular vein was. Gryphus was suddenly on the opposite side of the room and then he shot towards Discord. Discord dodged his stab with the lightning-covered blade before the glass on the floor moved and flew at me, Gryphus, and Astrabelle. Gryphus dodged easily, Astrabelle and me both calling up shields. But then as the glass touched our shields it turned into flame, moving through our shields. The flame did nothing to me. I was a drakon, born in flame. But to Astrabelle? It pierced through her shield and slid down her throat before her flesh began glowing red. She barely had time to scream before there was a hiss and she was cooked alive, falling down onto the ground. I heard silence then, and it was more deafening then any noise could have been.

He didn't even care. He didn't even blink. He didn't even notice or make a comment on it.

Gryphus turned to me and yelled, "RUN!"

But I could barely hear him over the silence. And then, and then, ending the painful silence was laughter, maddening laughter that made me crave that silence once more. Discord wasn't there anymore. Gryphus was yelling something, I couldn't hear what. I could only hear the laughter. Wheezing, gasping for air, cackling, just laughing. And then the tower began glowing before it exploded.

I was in free-fall for a moment, falling from the sky. Gryphus looked angry. I could faintly see Discord, high above the cloud layer. Then, Gryphus and I were on the ground in front of the castle. I hadn't moved. She had been killed. Discarded without a second thought, and Gryphus didn't even care. Was that what we were to Spirits? Mortal? Fragile? Discardable?

Gryphus gripped onto my shoulders and shook me out of my stunned state. "Tempest. We have to run. Discord can't track you, and I can escape from him. Find the tree, and we can meet up there."

I snarled and stamped my claws. "We can't just leave!" I growled. "He...he killed her! And you don't even care!"
Gryphus glared at me, lightning crackling over his feathers. His tone was deathly quiet, and despite my rage I could feel shudders run over my back. "Watch. Your. Tone." He huffed. "This is not a debate Tempest. We are going to run and-" There was a boom. A white wave in the distance, rolling over everything in sight, flattening buildings before they inflated into balloons or spiders or frogs or any number of animals. Then, suddenly, there was a soft hiss. "You know how it is with teenagers, Gryphus." Discord whispered into his ear. Gryphus jolted and spun around, claws slashing at Discord's stomach. Discord dodged and retaliated with a pie to the face, but the pie was aflame. Gryphus narrowly managed to dodge. "They never listen to those in charge."

Gryphus and I were suddenly at Guard Point. He growled and turned to me once more. "TEMPEST, RUN!" He yelled. I decided to follow his advice and start running - before Discord was coiled around my neck and grinning at me. I had to hold back a shriek as I stopped myself mid-moment, heart pounding. "Trying to escape? Really, Gryphus." With a snap of his claws Gryphus, me and Discord were all there. Gryphus and I were side by side, and Discord was opposite us. Gryphus was tensed and ready to run, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I didn't know what to do. What to say. How to help. My fear overwhelmed my rage.

"See, Gryphus - the thing with you...is that you aren't like the other Spirits. They all stand up to me. Bellum fights me tooth and claw. Draelos ambushes me with Misika. But you? You just run away, and tell your little drakon to do the same. The old Spirits of Air, oh they were fearsome.
Your cowardice has always been disgusting. Nothing like Aeyrie or Zeus. They were brave. They were strong. But you, Gryphus? You're weak. A weak, coward. So, go on now. Run. Run and let me chase you." As he said this he was walking towards us, holding a rubber ball and tossing it into the air. When he caught it, it turned into the head of a dead gryphon with its tongue sticking out. Discord reached down and yanked the beak off the gryphon with a bloody tear before popping it into his mouth and chewing on it. "Mm. Candycorn." Then, he picked up the gryphon's head and it grew a horn before morphing into Astrabelle's cooked head. He snapped the horn off and popped it into his mouth. "Or, candy-horn?"

My rage came back, a hundred-fold. The attack was fast and vicious. Mys, Tesfyrd, Dos. Magic - Lightning of Order. The bolt actually stunned Discord, causing him to lean backwards, and struck him before he could even react. I summoned up two waves of force on both his sides and moved them to crush him, but his tail just whipped through the air and sliced through the magic. I was stunned. That was impossible - unless you were the aether itself, you couldn't affect magic in the physical world. Discord glared at me. "Now, now, Tempest. Good effort - but the adults are talking." Chains of fire wrapped around me and held me tight, which made no sense cause it didn't really have weight, but I'd chalk it up to magic.

Gryphus was trembling, his eyes shut. "No, Discord. No more. No more running. No more letting others to die. I make my stand, Discord." He pointed at me. "Tempest. Leave."

Discord shook his head. "Nope. Not this time. Not ever again." Then, I could see them again, for a moment. The threads of magic appeared and Discord was teleporting towards me - but Gryphus was already there, his blade slashing at Discord's midsection. Discord was cleaved in half, but there was no blood, his body turned into cotton candy before it reformed. And then I began to run.

Gryphus had been the first to strike, but his strike had been rendered ineffective by Discord's magic. Gryphus and Discord now stood opposite one another, magic flowing around them. Discord giggled playfully, while Gryphus gripped his blade tighter. Gryphus struck again, three balls of heated air lobbing themselves at Discord while Gryphus used his air magic to turn his body into air that then reappeared behind Discord. But where he had reformed he immediately had to dodge, as a blade of water moved to cleave Gryphus' head off in one smooth motion. Gryphus had dodged before retaliating with a lunging jab at Discord's stomach. Discord blocked it with a shard of bone before one of the planets of rubble shot towards Gryphus.

There were two deafening blast of thunder. One was so powerful with its sound alone that every piece of glass in a mile radius shattered. A bolt of lightning had destroyed the rubble ball, the other blast of thunder coming from Gryphus as he spun around and sent a lightning bolt from his paws directly into Discord. Discord responded by holding a bat in his tail and smacking it away, the lightning reflecting off into space. "Strike ONE!" Discord yelled. His tail whipped forwards and smacked Gryphus across the chest. There was a crack before Gryphus was air once more and reformed above Discord, flapping his wings. Gryphus shot forwards despite his damaged if not broken ribs and, just as a glowing pink Discord tilted his head up to look at him Gryphus stabbed Discord through the head and pinned him to the ground. Gryphus fell down behind him, grunting as he tore the blade from his head.

Discord exploded into acid. Gryphus had to pull away but he was already screaming, his paws red hot with lances of pain shooting through him into his bones as he stumbled backwards. He pushed his magic into his paws to help them heal faster, while Discord stood in front of him, grinning. "That trick always works on you Spirits." He tutted. "So obsessed with an honest fight. Never understanding that sometimes your opponent just tricks you. It's disgusting. And stupid."

"I've always had a...distaste for primals. Water. Fire. Air. Three of the most chaotic elements, ever-changing, ever-destructive. Earth is orderly so I couldn't care less about him, but fire? Water? Air? They should belong to me, not some upstart gryphon." He glared. Gryphus' paws had finally healed, causing him to get into a fighting stance once more with lightning sparking off of him.

"So, lets see." His hand burst into flames, the firelight illuminating his face as Discord got brighter while everything but him and Gryphus were drained of color. "What does cooked gryphon taste like?" An orb of fire formed around Gryphus and began to close up tightly. Gryphus grunted and turned himself into air. He then would have screamed if he could as the fire began to absorb him, hungrily licking up the air as Gryphus realized why Discord had switched to fire. Earth and Air. Fire and Water. These were the primal elements, their two pairs - their opposites. But there was also a circle of sorts. Water extinguished fire. Fire ate air. Air eroded earth. Earth held back water.

Fire ate air.

He immediately solidified himself, budgeting his magic. He didn't regenerate any non-vital organs out of efficiency's sake, they wouldn't be important for this fight, but he did need his body and his wings. He burst through the flame, holding back a grunt of pain as the flames licked over him. Discord responded by sending three waves of fire at Gryphus, each hot enough to melt stone on contact. Gryphus managed to dodge two of them, but the third one grazed his wings and immediately the feathers burst into fire. Gryphus fell to the ground, screaming out in pain as the most sensitive organ of his was attacked by Discord. He pushed himself up slowly but was immediately met with a flash of red light, before two super-heated needles burst through Gryphus' heart.

Discord tutted and calmly walked towards Gryphus who was writhing on the ground in pain. Discord leaned down. "You're strong, Gryphus. Don't get me wrong. But you are painfully, painfully weak compared to any other Spirit - and I am the strongest Spirit." He stood up and gripped onto both of Gryphus' wings. Gryphus paled. "N...NO! Discord, you cant!" He pleaded.

"Can't I?" And then he began to pull. Gryphus suddenly turned into lightning that struck Discord directly in the face before bouncing off.

Gryphus landed down next to me. I had already exited Gryphum, causing me to jolt. I then felt relief wash over me. If Gryphus was alive, that meant that he had killed Disc-

"I'm dying, Tempest. I don't have much time. Listen." And immediately my hopes were dashed.
"With my death, there will be six spirits. Do you understand me? Six. Discord won't help you - the other five will. Search for them. Find Starswirl the Bearded - only he can find them. Find them. Find Harmony. And find-"

"GRYPHUS!" Discord roared out, smashing down behind the two of us. I didn't even have time to react to how fast the two moved. One moment, Gryphus and Discord stood there. The next, Discord had torn both of Gryphus' wings off, and just as he moved to snap his neck I could feel the world fade below me and then there was no more.

Across the world, over the ocean was a swirling Nexus of magic. The walls of the maelstrom were made of nullstone, barely containing the magic contained within. So much that it was liquid, solidified. So much that it could kill someone if they were dropped into it without the capability to ascend. And from that Nexus, the last living spirit of Liogella wove magic that would change the world forever.

---

The phoenix is a remarkable animal. Under the kingdom of "Fae," a phoenix is loosely related to the original draconics but more closely related to the Thunderbirds born from when natural lightning strikes a birds nest. It's a cousin, of sorts, to the windigo. The exact genealogy and ancestry isn't known to me, but for most purposes they can be called "Fae." It's a favored pet, for the Spirits, who find themselves just as ageless as their phoenixes. They're powerful animals of life and healing, as well as death and fire. They aren't immortal, although you'd find yourself hard pressed to kill one. Their flames are known as "Eternal Flames," or "Phoenixfyre." Unless their flames are extinguished, they heal from most anything, and they can vaporize water if they so wish. The tears or feather can heal any non-mortal wound, and as long as it's administered within fifteen minutes a potion made from their blood could cure any disease. Slowly, as they age, their feathers begin to molt and their physical health begins to decay while their flames grow brighter and brighter. Eventually their flames grow too powerful and it consumes them, before from their ashes they're born again. That "born again" part is a little strange, I'm not exactly sure how hard it works. But I know it does.

A book I had read cited someone as saying, "From the ashes of a phoenix rises life anew." From the Ashes, life. And it was this quote that made me feel quite like a phoenix indeed. The cycle of a phoenix is life, death, then starting all over agone ad infinitem. Life and death and life and death and life and death. I had been born, I made friends, I practiced magic. Life. Discord comes. Death. I find my way to Olympus and gather what I need. Life. Discord comes. Death. I find my way to Gryphum. Life. And now, Discord came to destroy what I knew. He killed Astrabelle, and King Gryphus, the coward kin- No. Gryphus had been a coward in life, but he had died honorably. He had sacrificed himself to save me. I squashed that train of thought and gathered myself.

I came to to desolation. A land, unknown to me, razed by fire and force. Corpses with no care administered to them, messily thrown to the side. Impaled on the rubble of where there were once buildings, flames and embers decorating the landscape, a trail of destruction leading away from the small, ruined town. Life would not rise anew here. This was just ash. Mindless destruction for destruction's sake. I had learned why storms were necessary. They brought change, scattered seeds, brought unity to help shelter from their destruction, and they weren't destructive because of destruction but rather that was what they did. With or without storm mages to control them, there would always be storms. (There are Storm Mages, Solar Mages, and Lunar Mages, all trained for the absence of a Spirit, and during a time where the Alicorn Spirits were all missing for some reason unbeknownst to me the Solar and Lunar ponies were the ones to raise and lower the sun and held it as a bargaining chip.) But this? This was sickening. This was disgusting. I could see the yellow lines, tainting the air, and I realized...

This was chaos.

The first thing I decided to do was figure out what had happened. I had deduced that the threads of magic I was able to see was probably due to my limbs being lost partially in the aether, meaning maybe some...aether juice? Was in me? I'm not sure if that would actually do anything, or if that was even possible. Nonetheless, from when it had happened, it happened when there was high magic quantities. I channeled my magic into my eyes - oh, yes. That's something I've forgotten to mention. Magic runs through your body from your soul like blood through your ley. Ley connects to the brain, mostly, but sometimes it can connect to muscle and blood which in turn is connected to the brain. This is also why magic can be corruptive - dark magic channels that power directly into your brain, and also why magic overloads are so fatal. But there's enough trace ley in the entire body that it can be channeled, with focus, internally into any part of the body. This can be done for a number of reasons. To make it stronger. To make it heal faster.

Channeling enough magic into my eyes that i'd use for a teleport, I switched my sight to my magic sight. And the world shifted, and I saw threads. There were threads of magic, woven around me, around the bag on my throat. They were connected to a dense white orb inside of me, that was "leaking" almost down into the ground, into the crystalline leylines deep below. Magic was being regurgitated from the ground into the leylines and from the leylines into the ground, but something was wrong. Wild Magic in its purest form is purple, violet, lavender, et cetera. Wild Magic was the mana that saturated the air and our bodies, it wasn't usable magic - usable magic, or Refined Magic came from the natural processes of the body that converted Wild into Refined. The Wild magic in the area had been tainted, with yellow parasites latched onto it and suckling away at the leylines. No doubt Discord's work. The leylines seemed to be sucking up magic as opposed to pumping it out, and after throwing my magic senses out I could feel a very subtle drain on my magic. Faintly, I could see a thin line that seemed to "point" towards the town in general, pulsating with white magic. I frowned. That was probably the spell that had teleported me here.

That was bad news, though. If I was able to see it and track it, that meant that others could too. I gathered up my magic, seeing how the dense white orb that was my magic allowed energy to flow upwards through my bones and blood and flesh into my horns in the span of a second. They alit with soft white energy, and I began to get to work. Magic in its raw state wouldn't accomplish what I wanted to do, so I applied a Creut glyph to it, as well as another glyph of Mys. Mys, Creut, Mys. Magic - Cut Magic. While this could also be interpreted as Magic - Magic Cut, there are a few things that prevent this from happening. Two glyphs of the same type cannot interact. "Mys, Dos, Dos" is impossible because glyphs tend to apply to what comes before them. Mys, Dos, Dis, the Dis applies to Dos, the Mys acts as the "start point." This isn't a 100% rule, but this is how it almost always works. Series of glyphs tend to be even because of this.

I ran my magical senses alongside the string, using it to carry me almost. It was more magic than i had to spare to completely destroy the line of magic and make me untraceable, but I was able to reach down very, very far and slash the line of magic open. This didn't work, however. So I then tried to apply a glyph to it. This did work, converting the leftover remnant into a weak spell. I ended the spell. Then, it changed from a remnant of a powerful spell into a leftover string of magic. It was honestly mildly frightening how fast it was consumed due to leyline pull. If you throw magic up into the air with no purpose and without anyone maintaining it, the leylines will tear it up and cannibalize it. I wasn't completely untraceable, but I had severed most of the thread that had given away my location. I was hard to find, now. Now I had to find out where to focus my attention.

There was a general path of destruction away from the town. I could tell towards because of the markings, and some...prints. I couldn't tell what animal they were. There was paw, but there was also tentacle, and then just...large swaths of mark. I had a feeling it was a Chaos Beast trail, and that Discord had sent his Chaos Beasts over the world. Let me explain in more detail what a Chaos Beast is. There are three types of Chaos Beasts. Randomized, Selected, and Crafted. But to understand this, you need to understand what a golem is. A golem is a physical construct imbued with magic to fill out predetermined actions. "Lift this, and heat it." That would be described in runes (probably along the lines of Moreut Oes Fyrd Oes which means Move Object Heat Object) and it's usually an art that is studied in schools then forgotten about. But there are golemancers. I had heard of a dragon with a hoard of infinite gold guarded by hundreds of thousands of golems.

There are three types of chaos beasts. Randomized Beasts are constructs made of flesh that are filled with chaos magic. They mutate randomly and gain any number of traits, powers, weaknesses. They're usually made for mass production. Selected Beasts are made from some animals thrown into a pool of chaos magic. Crafted is when chaos is painstakingly shaped into choosing very specific traits, which is something that is nearly impossible for chaos to do. There had been attempts for chaos mages to perform hostile takeovers of towns and cities before, and usually their armies were composed of randomized and selected chaos beasts. Crafted beasts are possible, but honestly? Not really worth the effort, when you could achieve the same level of strength from a Selected beast.

Damn it. I had gone off topic. Where was I before? Oh, yes. What I would be doing next. Gryphus...dying words. Gryphus had died for me.

He had died. For me.

Oh.

The realization fully set in. I could feel that ball of ice, thicker and stronger than ever before, settling in my chest. What was wrong with me? How could I forget that someone had sacrificed their life, for me? I would have just let him die in vain, wouldn't I have? Disgusting. In my mind I paraded myself as the hero to a story, but in the end, was I any better than Discord? How many people had died for me, because of my actions? No. No. They had chosen to die for me. They had chosen to sacrifice themselves. I didn't ask them to - I never asked them to. I never compelled them to. This wasn't a productive line of thought. It was just delaying my task. My mission. To kill Discord. To kill Discord.

...To kill Discord.

Gryphus' dying words had told me much. Six spirits, including Discord. Five spirits that can help me. Starswirl the Bearded. Find Harmony. While it didn't seem like a lot when put like that, it told me exactly what I had to do. Find Starswirl the Bearded, the most powerful mortal mage alive and the most powerful unicorn mage period. The man who sealed the Gates of Tartarus and bound the overlord of Tambelon. The creator of the amniomorphic spell, and the father of time magic. I didn't really know where to start looking though - I was kind of at a dead end. But, then I had to wonder. Gryphus' last action on this mortal plane, as far as I was aware, was teleporting me away. Did he just fling me across the world with no regard to where I would end up? Or did he choose where he would send me? Let's assume it was the latter, for this chain of thought. That meant that I was somewhere that he chose. Somewhere significant. A ruined town? No, maybe the ambient chaos here drew me in?

...But then I noticed something. An average pony couldn't kill a chaos beasts. Unless decapitated with a blade imbued with Order, or through freezing they'll regenerate (I'd also like to note). This was clearly a pony settlement, from the corpses as mutilated as they were, I could still make out features, colors, and some details. Enough to make the assumption that it was pony. But there were also chaos beast remnants amongst the corpses. Severed flesh, pools of black liquid. Well - I assumed it was chaos beasts. After death, all magic was thrown to the leylines and sent hurtling towards the Nexus before it was thrown back out into the world. This small town wasn't right on top of a leyline, so the drain wouldn't be instant, but it was close enough that this desolation could have happened days ago, hours ago, or even minutes ago. It was a bit on the recent side, as the ash hadn't scattered entirely.

So let's say this had happened sometime under six hours ago. Wait. What time was it? A quick glance to the sky alerted me of the information I sought. The sun had been high over head when Discord had attacked. Now? It was lower, but not significantly lower. While King Apollo was dead, the Sunraiser Unicorns had probably taken over the deed. The sun itself wasn't very large, smaller than the planet of Liogella and held tightly together by magic, and only slightly larger than the moon, and it wasn't telekinesis that moved the moon or sun (as that would require twelve hours of intense focus,) but rather two spells. I'm not sure of the glyphs for either, as they're a secret known only to the Raisers and the Alicorns, but it basically...spins the sun and moon and sets their rise and fall into motion.

So that meant in all likelihood, this had happened within the span of three to six hours ago, and I had been teleported there one or two hours ago. Damn it, if only there was a spell to tell me what time it was, and what day. I had lost all track of months, days and weeks ever since the...extinction of my species. ...When I put it like that, so casually, I sound insane, don't I? Damn it, I'm getting myself into this again. Stop it, Tempest. Where was I? Oh, yes. If I followed the trail and see where it lead, then I would probably find something. Something had happened here recently. Gryphus had sent me here for a reason, that was the conclusion I had come to. So let's see what it was.

Let's put what I had together. Gryphus had sent me somewhere, probably intentionally. Something had happened recently and there were corpses of chaos beasts, something that could only be done by people with knowledge of what they were and more power than the average pony. I was significantly stronger than any pony, by virtue of my draconic nature alone. I had a bit more magic to spare than Astrabelle, but was sadly lacking in the experience or skill so she'd still be...stronger than me, I suppose. Not that I'm happy to admit that. Draconics by their nature have prideful or greedy tendencies. Dragons tend to have more physical greed, drakons more greed in a not physical way (knowledge power and influence,) wyverns and quetzals more pride. It didn't make me feel better to admit that someone was stronger than me. Even admitting that Discord was infinitely out of my league was painful, but it was the truth.

Damn it, I keep getting off topic! Anyways, putting the evidence together it was pretty clear what had happened here - someone of high power, maybe a unicorn mage with a beard, walked through a town and killed some Chaos Beasts that were terrorizing the populace. But what about the tracks? I had been following the trail without any luck for a few minutes. It seemed to avoid the forest. This town was right by the forest, maybe a minute walk from the far edge of it and I had woken up on the closest edge. The path the Chaos Beasts had made started from the center of the town, where there was a large hole (not a gaping abyss into Tartarus but rather just a hole with nothing down at the bottom dissapointingly,) curling through the back end of the town before coming back to the other side of the town which is where the corpse trail picked up, and then exiting the town and moving towards the forest, moving away from the forest the last minute before impact and then heading over a hill so I couldn't see. I just passed over that hill, and I saw...not that surprisingly, more destruction. But not total. Not rampant, like in the tiny town I had woken up in.

There were large pools of corpses of chaos beasts and pony alike. The beasts made my skin crawl to look at - red or black flesh, slick with slime and blood and ash. The moment I drew near to the pile the beasts started twitching, which caused me to jolt out and fire a bolt of ice so fast I didn't even realize I had summoned up the magic. Disgusting. Vile creatures. The pony corpses were of no use or interest to me, so I walked past and went towards where there were survivors. I had seen them from my outlook above town. The town had been burnt and razed, but there were still enough survivors to rebuild. Slowly though. Although slowly would be an understatement and a half. It would probably take months, or they'd just abandon the ground and build anew elsewhere.

They were quite like a phoenix too. From their ashes, life. But not immediately - just give it a bit of time. Time overcomes all obstacles and opposition. Nothing can escape time.

I walked towards the survivors. A unicorn, three pegasi, and a lot of earth ponies had gathered up and were collecting the dead and throwing them into piles. The second the pegasi, with the best eyesight saw me they turned and began screaming. Immediately I raised my hands up and yelled,

"Wait!" This caused them to blink and settle down, but they were still on edge. Some of the earth ponies had picked up crude weapons (bricks, rebar, wood,) one of the Pegasi had an actual sword but it was bent out of shape and the other two were just using their hooves, and the unicorn had his horn lit up. I think it was a him, he did seem a little bulkier than Astrabelle but honestly? It's hard to tell with ponies.

The unicorn, with a blue mane and white coat, let out a growl. "What is it that you want, dragon?" I slightly frowned at this. He probably wasn't educated enough to tell the difference, was he? Hmph. "We have no land, no jewels, no offerings to give. Leave us to our own devices." I internally frowned more. He was treating me like I was an elder dragon - oh. Yes. Ponies were usually four or five feet. And I was...about three times his size. I hadn't really considered that, had I? But I could use that to my advantage. I forced a wicked grin onto my face and spoke in a deep voice,

"I am Tempest of the White Way," I had white scales and they didn't know anything about dragons if they couldn't tell me apart from a dragon, so I could pass that off, "and I have come with questions. Answer my questions and I will leave you be. And if you don't - well, I'll suppose I'll learn what pony meat tastes like, hm?" If it wasn't obvious, a total bluff. Alicorn meat I had eaten purely out of necessity and it wasn't that good, I doubt pony would be any better. I was much more partial to boar and cow. I conjured up a spell of Fyrd, but channeled only enough power into it to cause sparks and embers to drip from my mouth. The ponies shuddered, the unicorn's eyes went wide but it seemed to do the trick.
"...ask away, o' great Tempest of the White Way." The unicorn said after a moment. They were scared of me, and while they wouldn't go easy ideally they'd like to avoid a fight altogether. I could see some the pegasi shifting uncomfortably though. I don't think they were happy with the unicorn speaking for them.

"This town. How did it deal with the beasts?" There were some shifty looks. The unicorn was silent for a moment before he answered,
"...I killed them." He said quietly. One of the pegasi snarled. "W-" She began, before another pegasi clamped his hooves over her mouth and whispered something to her. Ugh. He was obviously lying. I had to hold back from rolling my eyes. Strike one.
"Really? You did? So I must be talking to a mage of great renown and great power. O', fearsome mage, tell me how you killed these beasts."
"I called up spells of...of fire-" strike two "-and ground them into dust." I actually did roll my eyes this time. This pony was an idiot. Clearly he wasn't a mage, probably just the run of the mill unicorn with some basic magical knowledge. But saying that he ground them into dust using fire spells? Where was this dust? How come there wasn't a lot more fire? How come he didn't seem magically drained? Maker almighty.

"Now, my little pony. Why, oh why would you lie to me?" He stepped backwards, the pegasi shivering and their wings spreading. "I told you what would happen."

"W-wait!" One of the earth ponies yelled, stamping his hoof down. "Ignore what this idiot said! I ain't lettin' no dragon eat me! Screw what that hornhead said!" I had stopped to listen. The unicorn turned to him, snarling. "That unicorn is an archmage of the highest degree, and he deserves your respect!" There was some more meaningless argument between the two that I didn't particularly care for, an exchanging of racial slurs...but I had gotten what I needed. Although, I would need a bit more confirmation. Go for intimidation.

Mys, Tesrun, Fres, Auden. Four glyphs, but the effect was noticeable. One of my horns cast this spell, as the other cast a basic Mys, Tesfryd, spell and the rest of my magic called up a gust of wind. Thunder, Lightning, and Wind. The thunder was deafening, the lightning slamming down behind me and drawing attention to me, the ponies collectively flinching and cowering, the wind blowing. I thundered,

"Enough of this. Explain to me exactly who killed them. And why."

Before the unicorn could speak, one of the pegasi stepped forward. Her voice was loud, but a bit shaky. Brave. "It was a...uhm, unicorn stallion. The chaos beasts saw him and went wild. Ran towards him fast as...uh, lightning, and then just as fast they were all dead. We were being slaughtered." The pegasi mare was orange with dark yellow hair swept to one side with a streak of blue through it.
"Thank you, for your help." My voice softened immensely. "And where did the stallion go?" I turned my head to the side.
"Towards the forest, back over there. Just a few minutes ago, actually. The beasts followed him there. From what I saw though they were kinda...scared, of something. I'm not sure."
"Mm. Thank you." I nodded once more. "That'll be all." I turned off and began to head back towards the forest.

I learned a few important things just then. One - that the chaos beasts were afraid of the forest. Two - that I was a draconic, and was very intimidating to anything that wasn't draconic or older or infinitely more powerful than me. Three - ponies seemed pretty stupid. As I neared the edge of the forest I immediately found what I was looking for. A set of hoof prints, followed by paw prints and wet blood. Then the hoofprints came to a stop. And the paw prints split into two groups. Damn it. Left or right? The left path curled backwards closer to where I came from, and the right path lead deeper into the forest. I followed along the right path accordingly.

I must have been following it for a solid three minutes before I heard a faint growling coming from where the track seemed to lead. I shifted from a brisk walk into a run, stampeding through the forest towards there - and I found a cave, a wounded unicorn stallion at its forefront. And he was surrounded by wolves, made from wood. There were about seven of them, with glittering emerald eyes and an awful stench emnating from their mouths. I had to hold back my vomit from the pure pungency of the smell.

The stallion was clearly on his last legs, a bloody gash from his back right leg to his shoulder. I activated my magical sight and gaped. His orb of magic was almost three quarters of the way drained, and while there's no...exact words to describe it, I could still tell that he had half as much as my entire magic pool in a weakened state. This stallion was powerful. At full capacity, he'd probably be unstoppable by any non-divine entity.

One of the wooden wolves leaped at him. With an ingenious bit of spellcrafting, he summoned up a wall of force and slammed it into the wolf. It was quite literally like a brick wall had rammed into him, the wolf being sprawled out. The other wolves took this as an opportunity to strike. He met two of them with the same walls of force before he dispelled them and called up a telekinetic blade. He slashed through one of the wolves, but ended up spinning away from a wooden wolf and then as the wolf leaped - and I knew he would die. He was exhausted and wounded, magically, mentally and physically. His eyes met with mine. Mine met with him.

My mind went into overdrive, an adrenaline rush hitting me. Lightning? No, too slow at casting. Ice? Wouldn't do much. Fire? He'd still die, the wolf would still be able to bite. Force? Yes, but none of the strategies I had for applying brute force to something would work. A beam of force wouldn't impact fast enough, it took time to travel. Ideally, it would have to impact instantly.

Then, I realized. My magic sight was still active - and there was no hold on the wolves. No magic holding them together, rather they were just animated wood held together by a thin core of chaos magic that wasn't theirs. Chaos magic was durable, and while it wasn't a permanent solution it would save him. Mys, Dos. A pulse of order magic ran over everything in sight. The wolves stumbled down and began crumbling into pieces, the one that was mid-motion towards the unicorn completely gone. Then, they immediately began reforming, and I got to work. I ran forward a bit and stamped my claws down, letting out a loud roar. The stallion didn't seem all that fazed, his eyes gravitating to my black leg. He just blinked before a golden glow erupted around his horn, and a white glow around my horns. He got to work on those walls of force, grinding the wolves into powder. I picked him up in a claw and held him close to my chest as I called up a circular wave of force and sent them hurtling into the trees and ground, before stepping back and setting him down. He fixed his hat, and I examined him.

He was a frail, old stallion with grey fur and a beard that transitioned into bushy white, a wizard's hat on his head and a robe with many bells on it. A necklace around his throat with a blue jewel around it.

"Drakon." He spoke in a calm and even tone. "I thank you for the assistance, but it wasn't necessary." I gaped. Was he serious? On the literal verge of death, and the he says he didn't need my he- A roar threw me out of my thoughts. Bounding from the forest came a ten foot tall juggernaut of wood, the stench of this creature made me gag.

"Timberwolf." He, who was probably, probably Starswirl, whispered and slammed his hoof into his face and dragged it down. I had conjured up a wave of force to push the creature backwards while he spoke. "Fire, drakon. Fire." His horn began glowing red, flames licking around him. I wanted to facepalm just as much as he did. Wooden wolves and I slammed force into them instead of using fire. Maker almighty. I then frowned and decided to experiment - using a fire spell I conjured up a torrent of flame from my horns and sprayed it out in a general fan, making sure to avoid the unicorn and target the wooden beast. Then I created a telekinetic orb and condensed all the fire into it, creating a fireball.

The fireball was very hot, but it just splashed against the beast weakly. Then, the beast leapt forward - and I realized that I probably wasn't strong enough to kill this beast by my lonesome. It stung my pride but I just didn't. So I conjured up a huge wave of force, one of the strongest I had done and sent the creature hurtling into a tree and smashed it into pieces. It drained my magic reserves significantly, but gave me time and that was all I needed. Starswirl turned to me with a frown on his face and began to speak, but honestly? I ignored him. Now, I cast a spell made of three glyphs. Mys, Aer, Mys. Magic - Magic of Aether. I used it to create a strong thread of magic stolen from the aether held together by my will power alone and connected it to Starswirl's dense magical core. I could feel his eyes widen before I sent my magic hurtling down the current, filling him with almost all of my magic reserves. He was a stronger, better, faster and more experienced caster on me. While he couldn't move as much and it had less physical drain on my body, he could also do things I had no idea how to do. Those walls of force were incredibly useful, and way beyond my current understanding of magic.

Starswirl had more magic than me, now. But I still had something of use. As the wooden beast regenerated I used what was left of my magic to imbue my mouth with fire. I opened my mouth and let it splash out over the timberwolf just as I tackled it and pinned it to the ground. Starswirl conjured up fire, red that turned to orange then to yellow tipped, tinged and edged with white that was so hot even I was uncomfortable. The wolf began to burn, letting out an unholy scream as it was slowly consumed by flame. It struggled and thrash but to no avail. Honestly? I was probably one of the physically strongest creatures on the planet, if only by process of elimination. Discord with magical enhancement was able to knock around Bellum, and I wasn't entirely sure what he had done to the dragons. Say he wiped them out like he did the drakons, in that case, I would be the last draconic alive. And therefore, probably one of the physically strongest people on the planet. Draconics were generally the physically strongest and most magically...gifted? No. Wrong word. They had the largest mana pools, naturally. While others could surpass them and others had more natural skill, even a young draconic was a force to be reckoned with. I was a bit on the weaker and smaller side, but my sheer size alone made me able to pin down something a good five feet shorter than me.

Although, chaos beasts did count as creatures...and there was that one in Gryphum that was over four times my size and strength...

...Nevermind. Not important. The beast was just a pile of ash now, that I quickly scattered with a gust of magical wind. But my supplies were dangerously low, and I could feel the toll it was taking on my body as the adrenaline of battle wore off. My head was throbbing, and I could taste iron. My scales had protected me from any physical damage, but despite this I was exhausted. Not panting or in need of air, but just exhausted. So, I inverted the current that had fueled my magic into his. I had never ended the spell, and began to slowly drain his magic.

I was not stealing his magic, nor was he stealing mine. Nor could this be weaponized. Sharing magic was when you opened an aetheric current between your mana pool and someone else's mana pool, and it was either one way or two ways. But it had to be accepted. You couldn't drain someone dry of magic unless they allowed you do. If Starswirl wanted to, he could blink and crush the connection in a moment. But he didn't, and let me feast gluttonously on the buffet of magic. I could almost feel myself swelling up with invisible strength.

Now, that it was over, I looked at him. "Didn't need my help?" I said dryly.
"...Hmph." He was silent for a moment, and I was too. His head tilted to the side. "Name."
At least he was straight forward, if arrogant. Maybe he had some dragon blood in him. There were half-breeds between dragons and ponies, kirin or draquines were they called. Draconequui had some pony in them, too. "Tempest Pulseradottir. You're Starswirl the Bearded?"
A thin smile painted his features. "Yes. I am. Or maybe I was. I know who you are, too. We'll get to that. Pulseradottir, as in Pulsera, the drakoness who refined the universal spell of light?" He tilted his head to the side. I blinked. I...hadn't known that. Not the universal spell, that is. I actually didn't know much about my mother. "I'm not sure." I responded with uncertainty in my voice.

"Mm. I don't believe drakons have multiple names, so I'd say yes."
"I don't know that spell." I shook my head. "I never...studied it." The word felt weird to say, but what else would I call my foray into magic?
"You understand the meaning of light, I hope. Mys, Lusm, Vor, Doreus. Magic - Light that Denies Void." With a flick of his horn the series of glyphs formed in mid air. I believe I have mentioned the physical components of glyphs before, but they weren't quite as important to describe as knowing the words and the meaning. The knowing of the physical glyph (called a rune) is necessary for the casting part, but in the end you usually just call it a glyph.

"...Thank you. But I'm not here to learn magic - although that would be nice. I'm here because King Gryphus told me to find you."
Starswirl stared at me. His eyes ran over my black leg and he frowned. His gaze turned to the crystal in my leg, that had almost incorporated itself into my flesh, scales and flesh growing around it. I honestly couldn't even feel it anymore. Then, the faint glowing mark on my neck. It was so faint you'd actually have to lean in to see it, but its glow gave clue to its location. I shivered at his silent inspection. He nodded sagely and turned around. "...Come with me." And he began walking into the cave. I followed him closely, having to kind of squat down to be able to move.

The cave entrance lead into a large circular stone room. This had clearly been molded and morphed by magic, no stalactites or stalagmites present. There was a crack at the end of the room, and Starswirl spun around to face me.

"I am Starswirl the Bearded," he spoke, and the room was enveloped in a vast starry void. I couldn't see the entrance (exit I suppose), only him and me. "And my power is the power that shapes the universe." There wasn't even a pop of aetheric energy as he teleported next to me, but there was the flash. "I am the strongest unicorn, ever. And I am the strongest mortal mage alive. I have done things - done so many things. Searched for magic under trees so old no one has seen them. Sealed away beasts so old, evil and powerful that no one can or wants to remember. Understand who I am - and understand that I am nothing. At least - not anymore.

I'm past my prime, Tempest. I'm just a puppet. Just like you. And in the games of the Spirits, in the games of the Divines...the puppets cannot defeat the puppetmaster. Do not think me blind to the world, Drakon. I have noticed the deaths of the Spirits. I have noticed Discord's rise to power. But I am powerless to do anything. The moment Bellum fell, the fate of the Spirits was set in stone. I know about the extinction of your species. The fall of the dragon and gryphon kingdoms. Do not think me for a second unaware. But what was I to do? Throw my life away meaninglessly? No, no." Starswirl shook his head and he stood up and looked me in the eye.

"I found the only ponies, people that matter. The only people that might be able to defeat the mad tyrant. And it is not you. Not me, either. Despite all my knowledge and my mastery of time magic, it is impossible for either of us to scratch him. Understand this Tempest." And then, what I had recognized to be the aether brought into the world closed around us. A moment later, we reappeared in a cavern - with two sleeping fillies.

"And understand that these are the last hope in this cruel world." Starswirl used a hoof to gesture at the two fillies. My eyes ran over them.

"Tempest," Starswirl spoke as I took in their coat colors, their mane colors, their horns and their-

wings.

"meet Celestia and Luna. The Spirit of Sun and the Spirit of Moon."

-