House of Sun

by Riossumari

Twilight Captured

The entranceway to the garden exploded open as the Storm King’s forces came pouring in, the soldiers smashing and searching for Twilight. Following behind them all slowly was Tempest and Grubber. The bat ponies all fled in a panic trying to get away, Tempest looked around the town looking for any signs of Twilight.

“Defend the garden!!!” A voice shouted from above, Tempest looked up to see a group of bat ponies in armor led by Night Shade charging at the soldiers. The two groups collided fighting one another as Tempest and Grubber watched. Night Shade charged past all the soldiers and went straight for Tempest however, just as he was about to tackle the unicorn her horn sparked with magic and she blasted him to the ground. Night Shade fell hard and laid on his side dazed from the hit, before he could stand up he felt an armored hoof press him to the ground. He looked up to see Tempest pinning him to the ground,

“Where’s the princess? I know she’s here...talk.” she said. Night Shade grit his teeth in anger and snapped back at her,

“There’s no princess here! You’re wasting your time!” Tempest had enough, chasing Twilight across Equestria having tested her patience.

“Fine, have it your way...tear the town apart until you find her.” Tempest ordered her troops.

Twilight ran as fast she could to the entrance of the city, her friends following close behind. When she finally arrived she saw the bat ponies fighting with Tempest’s forces, then she looked past to see Tempest pinning Night Shade to the ground. Small blasts of magic arced off her horn zapping the stallion and making him scream in pain with each hit. Twilight gasped at the sight and charged forward shouting to Tempest,

“STOP!! Stop hurting them Tempest!!!” Tempest looked up at the sound of Twilight’s voice, and before she could get too close two of the soldiers grabbed the mare picking her up off the ground. Tempest’s gaze focused on Twilight as she walked past the wounded Night Shade and up to Twilight.

“There you are...are you going to run again? You won’t get away as easily this time.” Tempest said. Twilight looked past Tempest to Night Shade again, watching him clutch his chest and wince in pain. The slow realization that this was her fault hitting her hard it reminded her becoming Midnight Sparkle all over again. Twilight looked back to Tempest as she stopped in front of her.

“If I go without a fight, will you leave them alone? The bat ponies, my friends, just leave them alone! They aren’t the ones you want anyway!” Twilight begged.

“Twilight no!!!” a voice shouted, she looked back to see Pinkie and Applejack grab Sweetie Belle as she tried to run to her.

“Don’t do it Twilight! You’ve gotta save every pony back in Canterlot!” Sweetie shouted. Twilight looked at all of her friends and the frightened bat ponies all watching, and she grit her teeth knowing there wasn’t another option. She turned to look back at Tempest,

“I’ll go...without a fight, just leave them alone. Please.” she sobbed. Tempest glared back at Twilight and after a moment she turned and walked towards the entrance,

“We’re leaving, now…” she ordered.

Grubber turned and shouted to the soldiers with them, “Come on you lugs! Get a move on!” he stood and watched as the soldiers all followed Tempest carrying Twilight along with them.

Tempest walked out of the garden, her airship ominously floating over the canyon entrance. Twilight looked back at the garden seeing the mural with their history now damaged, the image of Luna smashed and cracked the doorway not in much better shape. Once they carried Twilight onto the airship they brought her into the lower bowels of the ship, the soldiers throwing her into a large metal cage and slammed the door shut. Tempest stood outside glaring back at Twilight,

“Get us back to Canterlot, and someone contact the King. We’ve finally have all four alicorns.” Tempest said. The engines of the airship rumbled to life and it lifted into the air, Twilight looked at Tempest who stood silently.

“Tempest, why do this? Your a pony just like me, what are you getting out of this?” she asked. Tempest’s gaze moved away from Twilight, her hoof reaching up to rub the scar over her eye. Twilight looked up at Tempest’s horn and then back to her face.

“Is that it? Is that what he promised you? Tempest, there’s no healing magic that can fix that. It’s not like healing an open wound, a broken horn is like a scar. You can’t heal a scar!” Twilight pleaded. Tempest glared back angrily at her words though,

“You know that?! For a fact? All the magic across all of Equestria and you know that there’s no magic that can't fix it? I find that hard to believe, Princess...You don’t have any idea what its been like having to live like I have. Every time I try to do something as simple as levitate an object all that happens is destruction. I’ve lost everything that you’ve taken for granted your whole life.” Tempest said as she walked up to the cage, she leaned towards Twilight magic sparking and flying out of her damaged horn.

“I’m going to get my horn BACK, and you, and all the other princesses are going to help whether you like it or not.” Tempest said before smacking the cage with her hoof and making Twilight flinch.

Back in the garden Applejack held onto Sweetie Belle as she tried to run after Twilight,

“Let go! They took Twilight, we’ve gotta go get her!!! Let go Applejack!” she shouted.

“Calm down now sugar cube, we’re gonna get Twilight back. But we can’t do it by ourselves.” Applejack said. Sweetie didn’t calm down much though still struggling to get away. Lullaby and Pennyworth walked up to Applejack,

“Who was that?! Why did she break in here just to take Twilight?!” Lullaby asked. Applejack looked back at Lullaby and saw all the scared bat ponies, the injured fighters, and lastly Night Shade still hurt. Applejack didn’t know what to say, she wasn’t sure how to not make this sound like it was Twilight’s fault.

“That was who has been chasing us!” Trixie shouted, every pony looked at the blue unicorn as she spoke up.

“That was Tempest Shadow, she works for the Storm King, who invaded Canterlot! She captured every creature there, turned the princesses to stone and now she HAS Twilight too!” Trixie explained.

A bat pony stood forward and suddenly spoke up, “You mean Twilight led them all here?” he asked. Gabby gave a small nudge to the pony, and answered.

“NO WAY! Twilight would never do something like that! She’s one of the nicest ponies ever, and she cares about her friends and family more than anything else!” Trixie stood up on all fours and walked up to the bat ponies,

“And we all came here hoping to get help, and right now we really need it. So please, will you help us all go save Twilight? And not just her, but every pony back in Canterlot?” Trixie asked. All the bat ponies stood silent though, nervously looking back and forth at one another, then Harvest Moon spoke up.

“You, you actually want us to leave the valley? We...we can’t do that! Its too dangerous out there, plus who knows what the other tribes will do if they see us again.” The other bat ponies had mixed reactions but enough agreed with Harvest that it was obvious they weren’t going to help right away. The sight of their hesitation only made Trixie’s blood boil though and her face turned red before she snapped back at them.

“FINE! Stay here then! Wait for your precious Mare of the Moon, or whoever to come tell you its safe to leave! But just remember that Twilight came here to ask for help and make friends with all of you, and she went with Tempest to keep you all safe!” Trixie then turned and began to march towards the exit but looked back at her friends one last time.

“Come on, every pony! We’ve got a friend to rescue!” Trixie announced. Twilight’s friends all cheered and rushed behind Trixie racing out of the garden.

Trixie and the others raced out of the garden and into the canyon, Sweetie clung to Gabby’s back as she flew up to look around for Tempest.

“There!” Gabby shouted as she pointed to the distance, Tempest’s airship was already on the horizon and moving away quickly. Trixie let out a frustrated groan seeing how much of a head start they had on them.

“Fluttershy, Gabby, can you catch up to them? Maybe slow them down?” Trixie asked. Fluttershy shook her head no,

“I’m sorry, I’m not a very good at flying. I don’t think I could.” she replied. Gabby landed and looked back at the ship,

“I don’t think I can either, I’m not that fast.” Gabby added.

Applejack spoke up quick though, “Well then we’ll just follow them back to Canterlot y’all! We already know where their heading, we’ll just save every pony at once!” Every pony happily agreed with Applejack just they turned to leave though a voice called out.

“Wait!!!” They paused and saw Lullaby flying up to them and landing,

“I wanna help too! Twilight’s my friend, and I don’t wanna lose her!” Lullaby said.

“Well then come on, let’s go save Twilight then!” Pinkie announced,

as they were about to run off though Lullaby spoke up again. “So what’s the plan? How are we gonna save her?” Every pony suddenly came to a stop, and looked around at one another.

“She’s right, we can’t just go charging in...Tempest probably has soldiers all over Canterlot by now…” Applejack said.

“So...what do we do?” Fluttershy asked. An uneasy silence fell over the group as they tried to think of a plan,

but then a new voice spoke up from above. “Sounds like you ponies could use some help.” They all looked up and saw a group of figures standing on the ledge above in the center a small and very familiar figure who leapt down to reveal himself. Sweetie Belle hopped off of Gabby and ran up hugging announcing his name,

“SPIKE!!!” A moment later the rest of figures hopped down revealing themselves as a group of Ornithian pirates, the ponies were a little surprised but Spike quickly put them at ease.

“Oh its okay guys, this is Captain Celaeno and her crew. And they’re here to help!”

Author's Note:

I really took too long to get this update out, kept putting it off over and over and then my job got the better of me. But I finally managed to sit down write it all out. And so we're finally heading towards the big finale of the Storm King arc, although next chapter will be a small buffer of sorts to show what Spike has been up to as promised. After all, I wouldn't have been able to bring in Captain Celaeno if it wasn't for him and she was one my favorite characters in the movie. Hope you all enjoy the update, leave the usual like and/or comment and let me know what you think!

Comments

[SpikeSmolder fan]

Damn Tempest's brutal in making Twilight surrender, then again karma's gonna hit her hard regarding Storm King's promise!

Sweet surprise at the end there with Spike bringing in the cavalry in the form of Captain Celeano & her pirate crew, can't wait to hear how he managed that next chapter!

[Comickook]

REALLY good job on this latest chapter. Certainly liked the work that went into the exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up. Certainly appreciated that Twilight getting captured here was more of a non-fatal Heroic Sacrifice deal as well as Trixie giving the Children of the Night that beautifully bittersweet tell-off as she and the others took off in pursuit of Tempest's airship. REALLY liked Spike showing up with Celaeno and her crew. So, the next chapter is going to be kind of a recap of Spike's whereabouts and activities while the gang is making their plan before we get to the final battle of this arc. That's cool. And maybe the Arc after that will be Rarity's locating and rescue. Though I will admit that the latter guess could be wrong.

[midnight arrow]

great chapter

[SuperSonicHeroes]

Twilight sacrificing herself to Tempest to spare the others from torture was brave, but now the others need to save her.

[redandready45]

Poor Twi...

[Melody Song]

Ooh, I can't wait to see what Spike's been doing!

[DavisSentoV5]

Rescue mission is a go!

[furryman]

Captain Celaeno

A parrot pirate. A parrate.