Magical Harmony Spec Ops Friendship

by totallynotabrony

CH11: The Ship and its Captain

Twilight stepped off the airship, back onto solid ground. She had already decided to commandeer it, because there was no way they were getting out of here on the destroyed train car.

Pinkie and Rarity seemed fine, though they were still bandaged to give Fluttershy’s treatment time to work. Back aboard the airship, Fluttershy was tending to Rainbow, who Twilight already knew must be in bad shape. Applejack was battered, but waved off treatment until Rainbow was stable. She was currently watching the former captain of the airship, having hogtied and blindfolded her.

The strange mare with the broken horn gave Twilight pause. There was something inherently imposing about her. Stripping the prisoner’s armor, they’d discovered how powerfully built she was, and the multitude of scars laid across her body.

With all that in mind, Twilight wasn’t comfortable leaving her alone for any length of time, even with another Element, and so she scavenged whatever materials she could from the wrecked car and then herded Pinkie and Rarity onto the airship.

Applejack seemed to have gotten the hang of flying the machine, so Twilight had Pinkie and Rarity replace her on guard duty. Twilight herself went to explore the rest of the ship, to see if she could determine how it nullified magic.

On the way, she encountered Spike, who was standing guard over his own prisoner.

“This guy’s name is Grubber,” said Spike. “The Commander sent him to help Tempest Shadow. That’s her name, by the way.”

“Once the Commander hears about this, you’re all dead!” Grubber said, his face pressed to the deck by Spike’s foot.

Spike wasn’t even that big, but at least he wasn’t a pushover.

“Thanks, Spike, keep an eye on him,” Twilight said.

The airship was a little bigger than the train car, but also made more efficient use of space. Twilight stayed cautious on her self-guided tour, but didn’t encounter any unexpected hostiles. Better yet, she discovered a matrix of wires lining the hull that seemed to be humming with a kind of...negative magic was the best way Twilight could describe the feel.

Tracing them backwards, Twilight opened a panel on the lower deck and discovered a chunk of black stone that seemed to be the nexus. She pried it out of its place inside the keel with her sword and instantly found the magic blocking removed.

She couldn’t pick up the rock with her magic, and it seemed to slowly be draining magic from her the closer she got. Twilight resolved to keep it hidden away and left it deep in the lower deck. She couldn’t feel its effects by the time she returned topside.

“What do you want to bet Tempest Shadow knows where that village is?” Applejack said. She held still as Fluttershy treated her most pressing injuries. “We could get it out of her and go there right now. If we’re quick enough, and flyin’ this ship, we’ll probably still have the advantage of surprise.”

Fluttershy said, “Rainbow isn’t in any condition to fight. Everypony else is tired.”

Not to mention, they had two prisoners to manage. Twilight shook her head. “No, too much risk. Let’s go back to Canterlot and regroup.”

---

Moon Dancer was getting worried. Twilight still hadn’t shown up for school.

She didn’t want to think it was related to the visit from the Elements, but there really wasn’t a better explanation.

Lyra had no such doubts. “I bet the Elements recruited Twilight,” she said over lunch.

“But why?” said Moon Dancer.

“She’s in shape, she’s smart, she’s good with magic, she has a tragic origin story.”

“Origin story?”

“Well, she’s an orphan.” Lyra shrugged.

“But...but why?”

“Now that’s the question.” Lyra glanced around and leaned forward. “I don’t want to freak you out or anything, but I think the Elements are making a comeback.”

“Just because we saw them with our own eyes twice in one week is not a correlation,” said Moon Dancer.

“No correlation - just like how Twilight disappeared after talking one-on-one with the Element of Magic?”

“Well, alright, but why would the Elements need to come back?”

“What do the Elements do?” Lyra asked.

“They fight evil.”

Lyra spread her hooves and leaned back in her chair.

Moon Dancer took a moment to absorb that, eyes widening slowly the more she thought. She leaned forward and said in a high whisper, “This is crazy!”

“I mean, if the Elements are coming back, they’ll protect us, right? After the last war, they know what they’re doing now and I’m interested to see what they pull off this time.”

“War is not a spectator sport!”

Several other students looked in Moon Dancer’s direction. She blushed and lowered her voice. “I just want to make sure Twilight’s okay.”

“She’s with the Elements; she’s fine.”

“We don’t know that!”

“Well, where do you want to start looking?” Lyra asked. “In the few weeks we knew her, she never told us her address. We don’t know where she goes to hang out alone. She’s an orphan so we can’t find out anything about her family.”

“She does have a sister,” said Moon Dancer.

“Oh right,” said Lyra. “What was her name, Cadance or something?”

---

The airship cruised through the night towards Canterlot. It was nice, Twilight had to admit. She leaned on the railing and watched the clouds go by. Fluttershy had managed to pull down enough of them to wash the deck clean of blood with the help of the other girls.

Rainbow was resting. Twilight winced as she thought about the hit she had taken during the battle. Tempest Shadow had nearly killed them all, and she wasn’t even one of the rumored counterfeit Elements. Her attack had been well planned and deadly efficient.

Fluttershy didn’t get enough appreciation, Twilight thought. The Elements were winning battles, but they were only able to keep doing so because of her healing talent. Twilight wasn’t sure if she herself was that vital to the group.

Best not to think about who was better. Rainbow would claim it was herself, anyway.

Twilight’s thoughts turned towards Tempest. Twilight had been the one to finally take her down, though if she judged the situation correctly, she owed Spike thanks. He’d taken out Grubber, who was apparently some kind of dark spirit of magic and may have had something to do with Tempest’s Element-cancelling armor.

Twilight debated, but decided to go see Tempest before they arrived in Canterlot. Maybe they would get something useful out of her and have something to give to Cadance when they arrived.

Tempest was tied up down in the airship’s hold. They’d removed her armor, but left the black bodysuit she wore underneath. Even broken, it had also seemed prudent to inhibit her horn. Rarity was watching her when Twilight appeared. The lamps in the cargo hold swung and flickered slightly with the airship’s movement.

Twilight nodded. Rarity got up from where she had been knitting to pass the time and went up to the main deck.

Twilight transformed into her Element form and pulled Tempest’s blindfold off with magic. Tempest blinked at her, but didn’t move.

“I wanted to ask you a few questions,” said Twilight. “I take it you know who I am?”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh. Well. That makes this easier.” Twilight transformed back.

Tempest was a head taller than her, and quite a bit more muscular and battle-scarred. Even being tied up on the deck, Twilight still felt slightly intimidated. She pushed past it. She’d already beaten Tempest in combat.

“Who is the Commander?” Twilight asked.

Tempest looked away.

Twilight walked back into her field of vision. “How did you know where to find us?”

Tempest again ignored Twilight. Her jaw was set, and she seemed to have gained some tension in her bindings, though they were still easily holding.

Twilight knelt, getting close enough to Tempest’s face that she could no longer turn her head away. “You seem well informed. So you know what we can do to you if you don’t start sharing that information.”

Tempest looked at her directly this time. “Do it.”

Her expression hadn’t changed, perhaps only gaining a sense of grim acceptance. She knew she might be tortured. It didn’t phase her.

“Now that’s interesting,” said Twilight, thinking aloud. “I don’t think I’ve seen conviction like yours before. Trixie was arrogant to her own purpose. Gilda was following the family business. Chrysalis had her hive at stake. What drives you?”

“The Commander.”

“Some sense of loyalty? What could the Commander have given you that they had to coerce out of everypony else?”

Tempest looked away again.

“You know, you’re on the wrong side here. The Elements are trying to save lives and maintain the peace.”

“Don’t feed me your ideology of love and tolerance.”

Wow, a whole sentence, Twilight thought.

Tempest was looking at her again, glaring. “It’s easy to to believe in good and evil when you think there’s a difference. When you haven’t suffered at the hooves of ponies who call themselves good. When ponies haven’t pushed you away for who you are. Open up your eyes. The only pony looking out for you is you.”

Twilight advanced on her, suddenly furious. “So you said you know me? You know how I had a life before the war, before most of my family was killed. You know how I quit the Elements and tried to go back to having friends and a life of my own. But now I’m with the Elements again. I didn’t want to come back! I didn’t want to fight! But I have to, because there is nopony else who can protect innocent lives from ponies like you. You think it’s okay to hurt others because you were hurt? Those girls are all I have because of ponies like you!” Twilight pointed to the upper deck to emphasize her point, though hoping the others hadn’t heard her outburst.

Twilight noted with some satisfaction that Tempest seemed at least slightly taken aback.

Spike opened the door to the cargo hold. “Uh, is this a bad time?”

“No, what is it?” said Twilight, temper cooling.

Spike pulled Grubber down the stairs by one foot, thumping on each step. He dragged the bedraggled hedgehog over to Tempest and stood him up. “Tell her what you told me.”

“Do we have to do this again?” whined Grubber. “The Commander picked Tempest because she was easy to manipulate due to her deep-seated insecurities and withdrawn personality revolving around her childhood trauma.”

“What trauma?” said Twilight.

“She got attacked by an ursa while she was a filly. That’s how her horn got broken. The Commander only had to promise her a new one and she was like a trained dog.” Grubber snorted.

“Why are we even talking to her?” Spike asked. “This guy has all the answers.”

Spike dragged him back out again.

Twilight looked at Tempest, whose entire composure had shattered. Surprised by the sudden turnaround, Twilight took a step closer.

“Kill me,” whispered Tempest. She closed her eyes.

“Wouldn’t you rather see the Commander defeated?”

“I don’t care.”

Twilight was silent for several seconds. “This may be a little insensitive given the conversation of the last few minutes, but what if I offered to look for a way to fix your horn?”

Tempest’s eyes opened and she locked stares with Twilight. “So you can use me?”

“Broadly and honestly, I suppose you could interpret it that way. Though, I’d really like to define it as ‘help you help yourself.’ It doesn’t mean you’d get nothing out of it. Either way, you could help us take down the Commander.”

Tempest stared at her for several more seconds. “Do you promise to fix it?”

“I promise to try.”

“Why should I trust you?”

“What do you have to lose?”

---

Cadance walked through the castle gate and headed for Celestia’s office. She’d read through the reports Twilight had the Elements write. While she didn’t mark them up for points, it did feel a little like grading papers. Well, Sunset had said she was some kind of teacher in an alternate universe.

Still, in this universe, she was unexpectedly distraught over the loss of the café. She could almost have called it her own. Well, yes, and it set the development group back, too. But her thoughts kept turning to cupcake recipes instead of spec ops and secrets.

Celestia invited Cadance into her office and the two of them went over the reports. Cadance had already highlighted the most pertinent sections. Celestia called Sunset to also read them.

“I think I like Twilight’s system,” said Celestia. “It allows those of us who weren’t there to get a better feel for what transpired.”

“If we could only ensure consistent quality across all writers,” said Cadance. They all knew whose reports she was talking about.

“I like the documentation,” said Sunset, reading with interest. “Can I keep copies?”

“Be sure to secure them,” Celestia said.

The intercom beeped. “Princess, we have an airship requesting to land in the castle courtyard. The captain identified themselves as Twilight Sparkle.”

Celestia frowned, but said, “Permission granted.” She got up from her desk, followed by Cadance and Sunset.

Glancing out the window, Cadance saw a purple and black airship that stood silhouetted against the moon. She followed Celestia downstairs.

The courtyard was not a standard landing pad. A few Royal Guards shuffled around as the craft began to descend. Cadance had time to wonder where had Twilight gotten an airship

The wooden keel touched down on the cobblestones with a gentle thud. A gangplank lowered off the side, coming to rest before Celestia. Twilight emerged, trailed slightly by a tall unicorn with a frightfully shattered horn. Whoever she was, she stayed behind Twilight and kept her head down as if somepony had told her that making eye contact would turn her to stone.

“We need to talk,” said Twilight to Celestia, Sunset, and Cadance. “I mean, I’ll be writing a report, too, but we still need to talk.”

Comments

[djthomp]

Tempest was looking at her again, glaring. “It’s easy to to believe in good and evil when you think there’s a difference. When you haven’t suffered at the hooves of ponies who call themselves good. When ponies haven’t pushed you away for who you are. Open up your eyes. The only pony looking out for you is you.”

The argument that good and evil are the same thing because sometimes evil lies and calls itself good is not a particularly good one.

“She got attacked by an ursa while she was a filly. That’s how her horn got broken. The Commander only had to promise her a new one and she was like a trained dog.” Grubber snorted.

And there it is.

Tempest stared at her for several more seconds. “Do you promise to fix it?”

“I promise to try.”

I hope this means we just got a Tempest.

Hey, free airship.