(Present Chapter 10): Come True
Celestia stares at the crystal statue now adorning the Ponyville Sporting Field, while Sunset looks incredibly nervous.
"D-"
"Did he just kill her?" Sunset asks, unsure what just happened.
Celestia shakes her head. "Check the Grimoire Weiss. I believe he calls it his 'Merciful Flash'. It's a variant of the crystal petrification curse geared towards medical use."
Sunset does as she's ordered, and begins flipping through the book, eventually finding the page.
Sunset's face scrunches up with confusion. "I don't actually know when this entry was written, as he didn't actually organize this book's physical pages chronologically. A lot of it has been marked over and torn."
After a moment rapidly reading through the entry and it's diagrams as well as she can, she's unable to piece out how the spell works, with so much of the entry marked over and torn out.
"...The rest of the entry has been scribbled out."
Celestia just hums to herself, as Weiss is surrounded by Tempest Shadow's soldiers, who look violently angry at what had just occurred.
The smallest one, Grubber, takes point, and looks uncharacteristically upset.
"Fix it," he says, glaring up at the aloof Weiss.
"Fix what?" Weiss says, stretching with a yawn.
"Your stupid spell, take it off her, you prick!" The squat hedgehog curses.
The soldiers balk slightly at his harsh language, while Weiss just picks at his ear with a pinkie.
"I didn't quite hear that. You wanted me to fix something?"
He looks over at the petrified Tempest Shadow, and puts a hand to his mouth in mock shock. "Oh, right."
"Well, far be it from me to not correct a mistake. Come to my tower with your ship and your men, alone. If you do this, then I'll gladly return your commander. As unharmed as the day she was born."
Weiss throws his head up in the air, dragging Tempest and himself away in a blast of lightning.
"No!" Grubber shouts, trying to leap for them before they can get away. But it's too late, and he just leaps into the grass.
"Everyone, back on the ship, we're going to get Tempest!"
They all raise a shout as they stomp to their airship with intent to cause havok for the pony who would dare to hurt their Commander.
Tempest Shadow awakens with a gasp, looking around with wide eyes.
The bed that she's on, unadorned walls, a window made of slats instead of glass. An empty doorway, devoid of any sort of door. 'Some sort of prison?'
Something feels... different. Something she can't put her hoof on.
What happened? Suddenly, she remembers. 'I challenged that pony, but he just toyed with me, I wasn't able to leave a mark on him... And then..!'
She looks over her body, checking for any remaining traces of the curse. Nothing out of the ordinary.
"Oh, good, you're awake. I've never had to do this sort of operation myself, you know. Although I certainly knew what I was doing."
Her head shoots up, glaring at Weiss, who is leaning on the doorway, two more sets of limbs stuck on him now with that same flaming hair stuck on his head, just larger than before.
So he had been hiding his real power this whole time.
"What did you do to me? Some kind of poison? I know you've done something to me," her eyes narrow.
The bastard just shrugs with glitter in his eyes. "Just some insurance to ensure that you hear my offer," He gestures upward, jutting his nose up for a moment along with his pointer finger.
Slowly, her eyes trail up, and her heart freezes in her chest as her eyes widen.
it can't be real
Her hoof slowly raises up and...
Clunk!
Tempest jumps a bit, startled at feeling the horn on her forehead, recognizing the feeling she had since she woke up.
"I'm whole..?"
It was her, all of her.
is this a dream?
Quickly, she looks around the room and finds a vase with some old flowers in it. Igniting her horn, she slowly pulls it over to herself, in a...
Telekinetic grip!
She laughs, softly at first, but before long, she's waving the vase around, laughing and laughing and sobbing with relief, decades of suffering, of that bone-deep emptiness that came with her lacking her horn, endless nights of desperately searching for anything to fix her, of her doing anything to get back what she knew in her heart of hearts that she needed to satisfy that core desire every pony has to fulfill their destiny.
Oh sure, it might be a funnier shade than she's used to, it might even be cursed. Ok, who is she kidding, the fact that the regenerated part of her horn is a brighter shade of purple than the rest of the plum-colored bone means that it is definitely cursed.
'But it's still whole!' her being screams at her, as she skips around the room, lost in mind-shattering relief and joy as her eyes cross to keep looking at her horn and burn the sight into her memory.
Eventually, she stops running around the room, wipes the nasty tears off of her face, and tries to get serious, as she turns to Weiss, daring him to mock her with a glare no less sharp than the ones she has always been capable of.
"Why? Why do this?" She questions, needing the answer before she can be wholly at ease.
Weiss chuckles, walking forward.
He whispers, in a smooth, resonant tone. "Because I'd like to be friends, Fizzlepop. You're a very useful pony to have on one's team."
"Friendship is worthless," Tempest responds insistently.
Weiss laughs. "Then I'm offering you a good deal."
"But no, I'm afraid you've simply got a... Narrower view of friendship than most are used to."
"Friends are supposed to... be there for one another, to help each other out, yes? But that's not how it always works in the real world, is it, Fizzlepop."
Tempest doesn't respond, but she agrees wholeheartedly.
"So what's your real offer. What's to stop me from walking out this building right now, and never looking back?" She says firmly.
Weiss shrugs. "Not a damn thing. You could walk out of that door right now, horn intact, and never see me again, I assume. And if you did, it would still play right into my hands."
He continues. "But I haven't finished my offer."
"I want you on retainer. You'll be paid monthly wages, and room and board will be provided free of charge."
Pausing to let her take it in, he continues when she doesn't respond immediately.
"You're gone, Tempest. Dead and gone, metaphorically. What else would you do?
"Go back to the Storm King? I'm sure he's the type of person to trust in your loyalty when he can no longer dangle your heart's desire in front of you."
"Live here in Equestria? Go back to the life you had as though nothing ever happened? Fat chance of that. And you wouldn't want to anyway."
"Or maybe you'll go out into the world and drift aimlessly, now that the tool you've forged yourself into no longer has a use? I think we both know that wouldn't satisfy you."
Weiss walks up until he is inches away from Tempest's face.
"Face it. You're aimless. Aimless and alone. No threat to anyone without that painful desperation in your heart giving you your unstoppable determination. You were willing to serve the Storm King until the day your horn was restored, some unknowable amount of time in the future. It could have been a few more days, or it could have been the rest of your life. All I've done is pay you in advance to transfer that loyalty to me."
The world fades to grey as Weiss's face becomes neutral, and he speaks seriously for the first time since she had met him.
"So here's my question, Fizzlepop Berrytwist. How many years of your life have I just bought from you?"
Tempest is unable to keep eye contact with the mad sage, and turns away.
"I won't abandon my crew," She offers.
Weiss chuckles, banishing the oppressive atmosphere. "Well, they're right outside, trying to bash down my front door. I'll hire them too."
She snarls, but oddly, can't seem to force very much into her tone. "They are loyal to the Storm King alone."
Weiss shrugs. "I believe they hold loyalty to another. Let's find out who's right," he says abruptly, encasing them both in magic that shifts them away.
Teleporting them both to the gigantic double doors, they arrive just in time for a gigantic hook to smash through Weiss's door and force it open, as Grubber and the Storm Soldiers rush in, weapons drawn and ship floating menacingly in front of his tower, thick chains trailing from the hook to the ship.
"Give us Tempest! Oh... Hi Tempest!" Grubber waves cheerfully.
Spike is there too, though he's more disgruntled at the fact that he had to bum a ride from the storm dudes.
Tempest waves back awkwardly.
Weiss suddenly gives them all his best salesman grin, before speaking aloud. "Hello, all of you! I've made our mutual friend here an offer, and I'll make a modified version of it to you!"
"I'll hire you all out from under the Storm King, monthly wages and free room-and-board, for all of you and your commander."
"Anyone who doesn't care for the idea, you can walk right back out of my doors, and the guards Celestia posted roughly one-hundred meters from my tower will arrest you on the spot!"
"So how about it?!" He says, making all of the Storm Troopers pause at the confusing juxtaposition, and of course, Tempest Shadow's shiny purple horn. What she's going to pick seems obvious to a few of them because of that.
Grubber searches Weiss's face for any trace of deception, before turning to Tempest.
After a long few minutes, he asks the one pony in charge to answer for him.
"Well? What's the call, Tempest? Are we working for this guy now?"
Tempest is shocked at this. "Pardon?"
Grubber gives her a funny look that she doesn't quite understand. "Well we're obviously all going to pick whatever you pick. You're our commander!"
She looks to see if any of the other Storm Creatures hold this level of... misattributed loyalties.
Why are they all nodding in agreement? They're not supposed to be loyal to her, they're supposed to be loyal to the Storm King through her!
She looks out into the treeline past the entrance to Weiss's tower, to see if Weiss was bluffing, but the Anti-ship balistae poking out of the bushes imply that, somehow, Celestia knew they would land their ship here to try and rescue her.
She's really not a big fan of the smug look on Weiss's face right now, but she's also fairly certain that there's zero danger of the Storm King somehow defeating Weiss, considering what she has seen.
She can't believe she's been played like this, but the feeling of being whole is making it really hard for her to feel anything negative right now.
"Well... I'm obviously not going to choose prison," She half-mumbles, half shouts for all of them to hear.
This is met with a loud cheer. Sweet Celestia, were they always this quick to betray the Storm King?
Weiss walks up close enough to whisper. "See, Fizzy? Friendship isn't useless. You just had useless friends. And my friendships don't contain useless ponies."
Before she can respond, Weiss shouts to all of the Storm Troopers. "Get that fucking ship in here before Celestia decides to shoot it down just to spite me! I know she'll do it, too!"
They don't listen, instead waiting explicitly for Tempest's go-ahead.
She nods in affirmation, but by that point, it's too late.
A bolt flies out of the treeline, intent on making a truther out of Weiss, before a pink glow grabs the log-sized arrow out of the air, and drops it.
Tempest's horn stops being surrounded by it's smooth, reflecting-pool-like aura, and she starts shouting.
"You heard the stallion, get your flanks in gear!"
They hastily bring the ship down as low as it will go, so it can fit through the gigantic double doors of Weiss's tower and into the safety within.
She shoots Weiss a smirk as he stares at the log she stopped via her telekinetic grip at about fifty yards. Is that a drop of sweat she spies?
Now isn't that an interesting thing for somepony to have when they were previously mocking her for being unable to harm him?
...Then again, maybe it would be wise to cut the pony who just gave her a new lease on life in the span of a day some slack.
She'll just have to try and figure out how ponies are supposed to show gratitude for a Hearth's Warming gift that large. Maybe try that 'friendship' thing again.
'I mean... He did pay in advance for it.'
"You know, one thing I still don't understand." Tempest asks, as she stares at her new boss working on whatever it is he's working on.
Weiss mumbles something indistinct to prompt her to continue.
"How did you hit me, when we fought? I know I dodged your attack."
"Portals. It's dragon magic so it didn't break the rules." Weiss mumbles with a wrench between his teeth, pulling a bolt off of his work-in-progress mecha.
Tempest's jaw drops. She's never heard of a pony cheating by doing something harder than the actual challenge at hand, but that definitely sounds like it qualifies.
"Well well, if it isn't 'Tricked Lunatic'. Come to see what artistry looks like?" Full House sneers at Trixie in triplicate.
Trixie bites back easily. "Oh no, Trixie heard that you planned on embarrassing yourselves in front of thousands of ponies, and simply had to come see it."
Full House chortles "The only embarrassment here is you, Trixie. The best act you've ever pulled was dropping out of performance school. Tata!"
As the mare(s) trot off, backstage, Trixie's snarl prompts Twilight.
"What the hay was that all about?" Twilight questions.
"The only reason Trixie 'Dropped Out' was because Full House forged letters getting her expelled! By the time Trixie realized what had happened, she had already been in Baltimare, trying to eke out a living."
Gilda puts a talon on Trixie's back. "You know we don't have to watch this if you don't want to, right?"
Trixie shakes her head. "No. Trixie needs to see this, so she'll know exactly how to blow Full House's act out of the water."
Nothing left to say between the three women, they find their seats, and wait for the show to start.
Soft violin music marks the curtains opening, as three unicorns slowly drift down in a cloud of glitter, swirling slowly around one another in a spiral as they smile faintly through the veils they wear over their faces.
One by one, they gently fall onto the floor, before trotting around one another in unison, as the violin music is matched by an ethereal flute.
The ponies turn inward towards one another, and take a running start, before the wires on their back allow them to jump between one another, landing on opposite sides.
Running around now in a full gallop, the ponies use their wires and their grace to run in sync while leaping over and under one another.
One of them lights their horn, releasing blue smoke into the air, then, another one begins releasing a deep green smoke, with the final one unleashing a red smoke.
In the stage lights' glow, the smoke wafts down, covering all three of the mares before being blown away to reveal them standing on top of one another's shoulders.
Looking over the crowd smugly, their eyes land on Trixie, and with a wink, the trio leans down, and leaps into the air off of each other's backs, performing a series of flips that land them in a straight line behind one another, throwing up a small cloud of glitter.
The mare bows briefly to the cheering, before attempting to continue her act, wires dragging the hers into place, an odd expression crosses her faces before she hiccups nervously, her horn letting out a faint "pop!" as she does so. Another pony appears on the stage, flopping over like a ragdoll as it is thrown free from one of the mares.
Breaking out into a cold sweat, Full House attempts to continue her act as though nothing is wrong while a stagehand subtly drags the extra copy off stage.
As she begins running around again, this time waving ribbons in her telekinetic grip to weave them into one another as a giant colorful ring, she lets out another hiccup, and then a third one following that immediately.
Two more pops herald two more clones being flung free of her magic, and the audience lets out a low murmur of laughter as these ones are also dragged off the stage, throwing off Full House's groove.
Her act is noticeably more jerky now with the extra clones being wrangled into harnesses backstage to keep from hurting themselves, but she attempts to push forward with her best trick.
Two pegasus mares wearing flamboyant outfits walk on stage for the next part of her act, as her wire rig pulls the three of her up onto one another's backs again.
Once, twice, and a third time Full House does some test jumps, throwing herselves in the air and then back down again.
Eventually, she is leaping high enough that the pegasi who are a part of her act can quickly swoop in, flying underneath her each time she jumps.
The audience is impressed with this feat of timing and perfect synchronization, until the death-blow hiccup throws her off, one of her legs buckles, and the mare and her body doubles collapse to the ground bonelessly, trying to get up while hiccuping over and over helplessly as her stagehands attempt to help her get back on her feet while she flings clones everywhere.
The curtains draw closed to a room filled with deafening laughter and faint hiccups.
Gilda, at this point is chuckling herself as they walk out of the theater. "See Trixie? That hack's got nothing on you," She says, turning to see Trixie with a look of horror plastered on her face.
"Whoa, what's wrong?"
Trixie shakes her head. "Trixie can't do this. T-that could have been me up there getting laughed at!"
And indeed, that's exactly the moment she had flashed back to, her being humiliated in front of Ponyville, but on an even larger scale than before.
Gilda grabs Trixie's face, smooshing the confused mare's cheeks slightly. "Look at me. We've got this. You're not going to screw it up, and even if you did, we'll be right there to pick up your slack. This is your Dream, right?!" Gilda squawks.
Trixie nods nervously, her smooshed cheeks shifting under Gilda's grip.
"Then you've got this. You just need the Courage to go out there and take it! Tomorrow, we're going to blow the roof off of this place."
"We'll just have to make sure they swept all the Full House off the stage first. Wouldn't want to trip over some garbage," Gilda jokes.
Trixie nods more firmly. "Very well. Can you let go of Trixie's face now, she would prefer it return to it's normal shape," she mumbles out.
Gilda flushes with a small amount of embarrassment, dropping the mare's head like a hot stove. Loudly and noticeably.
Twilight goes over her checklist for the twenty-second time in as many minutes.
"So, the prismatic pyrotechnic projectiles are prepared, the hoops are hopefully hanging overhead, the false floorboards are fixed, and I think we've already touched on Trixie's trick-toting tophat twenty-two times today."
Before this farce can go on any longer, the stage director informs them that it's almost showtime.
Trixie breaks out in a cold sweat as she adjusts her new star-spangled blue top hat and cape, swallows loudly, and trots out on stage.
The curtains open, as Gilda watches confidently, and Twilight nibbles her hooves with worry.
As soon as Trixie sees her audience, she manages to put on her old mask, and belts out boldly. "Fillies and Gentlecolts, thank you and welcome, for you now shall witness the amazing feats of Equestria's flashiest unicorn, The Great and Powerful Trixie!"
With her opening words spoken, the stage erupts in light and fire, awing the crowd briefly.
"But Trixie is sure that words alone will not convince ponies as savvy as Las Pegasus's finest, so allow me instead, to show you all exactly who stands before you! With the help of her lovely assistant, the High Flying Gilda!"
With that, Gilda swoops down from the rafters above, crashing to the ground with a deafening thud, a screech of predatory might, and flared, glitter-coated wings as the spotlight settles down on the griffon.
"Oh yes indeed, she will play an important role in Trixie's first trick, the flaming huntress!"
With a flourish from her hat, Trixie reveals three flaming spheres, each with a long handle poking out from them.
"Behold, the prey!"
With a burst of telekinesis, the spheres are flung into the air as she begins to juggle them one after another, while Gilda tenses up and leaps into the air in a glide.
Trixie carefully watches Gilda weave between the flaming spheres, swooping down and then up again in between each one.
"Gilda stalks her prey with ease, tracking them down, moving silently between the flames!" Trixie shouts.
After a short period of this, Trixie tosses them higher than before, and Gilda responds by performing three back-to-back loops, grabbing each one, before throwing them into the crowd, who gasp, before Trixie's three beams of magic turn the blazing spheres into pie-tins filled with flowers!
"Ahh, it seems the hunt was successful, wouldn't you all agree!?" She shouts to the ponies in the crowd, who are cheering and laughing at the act.
"But it's not all fun and games for Trixie and Gilda, no, we have faced trials as well, ones such as... The Thunderbird!"
Fireworks shoot off from below the stage, erupting into the yellow outline of a fearsome monster, swaying from side to side as large, crackling hoops are dropped down in front of it, looking as though they are erupting from the beast's mouth and wings.
"Yes, indeed, and only by performing the rare and dangerous flying horn could we have ever defeated such a creature!" Trixie shouts as Gilda flies down, picking her up and lifting her to the electrical rings, prepared to fly through them with her passenger in tow.
Once, twice, and a third time Gilda loops in the air, building up speed, but she spots Trixie's nervousness.
"You've got this, alright!?" Gilda says just loud enough for Trixie to hear, before flinging her forward, cape flapping in the wind as her arc takes her right to the illusory bird.
As Trixie passes through the hoops, she spots the crowd. If she messed this up..!
Then her friends will be there to pick up her slack!
Her horn ignites, and she unleashes enough fireworks to dazzle the crowd, and completely hide her landing off stage on the padded pillows that were prepared.
She rapidly runs under the stage, for her grand re-entry, as Gilda lands above her on the fake floor.
"Oh indeed, Trixie's sacrifice would have been a grand one, to defeat the dreaded Thunderbird..!" Trixie hears the mumble of Gilda speaking melodramatically through the floorboards.
She flips the board over in a puff of smoke, obscuring her appearance, and shouts out for the entire crowd to hear.
"But with someone as Great and Powerful as Trixie, it was as easy as..."
A fourth Pie-tin filled with roses falls from the rafters into her outstretched hoof.
"Pie!"
A few moments of silence from the audience leave Trixie feeling extremely nervous.
But then the cheering nearly blows her hat off... and it's like a dream come true.
"So you two are really going to start doing shows together?" Rainbow Dash questions, looking at Gilda curiously.
Gilda shrugs. "I mean, It's not like we're ditching Ponyville. We'll still be hanging out here between our acts, but it's been pretty fun, so I figure I should keep doing it."
Trixie nods. "Trixie has never felt as fulfilled as she did yesterday, and is more than excited to begin performing professionally. Now that she's not a one-mare act, it's like a whole new world has opened up for her!"
Twilight smiles. "Sounds like somepony may have learned a lesson about friendship. Would you like me to take a letter?"
Trixie shrugs as Gilda flaps off to look over their new cart, a real top-of-the-line cart, too.
"Trixie supposes she did learn something, yes."
Gilda, satisfied with her quality-assurance, notices something odd.
"Hey, Twilight, what's this button on your doorway for?" Gilda asks, going over to the Library and pushing it.
The loud doorbell noise that rings out from her home makes Twilight literally explode with rage. The literal portion being her eyes, mane and tail erupting into flames as she leaps in the air.
"WEISS!"
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today I've learned that when you're feeling in a slump, and feel like things just never seem to change, sometimes all you need is a brief change of scenery, a short break from your dull routine, and friends to help push you somewhere fun. If it weren't for my courageous and bold friend, I doubt I ever would have gotten the chance to perform in Las Pegasus, and I certainly wouldn't have had as much fun doing it.
Trixie Lulamoon, and her incredible stunt-flying assistant, Gilda Grizelda Gruff.
P.S. This is Twilight Sparkle, I hope you don't mind, Princess Celestia, but I'm also sending evidence of fraudulent forgeries with intent to cause misfortune. I've already cast the Sender-sensor charm, and confirmed the guilty party. I believe a pony named Full House may be guilty of some sizable crimes, which she has avoided punishment for.
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tempest shadow and Weiss good foeship in the making? or at least a partnership that pays for skills and talents I wonder what spike learned from Weiss?
9690949
Well we know she can fairly casually atomize metal statues.
Well this was a very nice chapter, loved the scene with Tempest and with Trixie. I expect that Tempest will really not like Sunset seeing her as just another back stabbing suck up that is trying to get all of Weiss' secrets and get rid of him just as soon, just as he had put up at the Storm King's court and had to do more then a few political assassinations to make sure he would hold up his promise to her. Heck, seeing how much roughless she is, I am guessing that she would us Sunset's proof of treachery as a demonstration of her absolute loyalty to Weiss. On Sunset's side I would imagine that she see's Tempest as competition, along with a bloody fug, that is little more then a criminal, a slaver and would do all in her power to sway Celestia to imprison her for 'national security' of course.
The way you showed the crew as actually being loyal to her rather then SK was great, especially Grober who was really adamant to get Tempest back safe and sound.
9691761
I think the best thing gonna be Weiss proving himself to tempest despite his quirks he has been known for being loyal to his people and allies something he really needs Weiss better boss then storm king so i think tempest shall be happy
Nothing remotely bad to say about this chapter, flowed well, was entertaining and was overall a great chapter.
Nice chapter, my dude.
9691761
the terrible foeship of sunset and tempest legendary epic in the making!
These guys are surprisingly sensitive
He did tell you he would get his revenge