OMAI: The Empire of Storms

by VeganSpyro97

Chapter 10: A Spark

“What else?”

“The King’s guards serve him out of loyalty, they are, for the most part, totally fanatic, drawn from the first three houses of the Empire, primarily the first, being his own House.” Tempest explained as Princess Luna and Princess Twilight listened to their prisoner. They had been at it for hours, and she was not feeling particularly well after spending so long awake. Her eyelids felt heavy and her thoughts were slowed. Perhaps that was why she wasn’t complaining. It was somewhat justified for the Princesses to interrogate her so thoroughly, after so long in the enemy’s council. If only she could get her body to agree with her. “The Lords of both the other Houses follow the old traditions of the Empire, just like the King does. Might makes right, the weak serve the strong, or are killed. It’s a brutal system. Anyone who doesn’t serve the King willingly, serves him anyway because he’d just have them killed if they proved too much of a burden.”

Princess Luna grimaced. “And what of the rest of the Empire? Those who do not belong to the first three Houses?”

Tempest had to search her memory a bit to recall everything that would be of use, but she did it anyway. “The fourth House is House Silverwood, whose power and influence come from the near total control and management of all the viable farmland in the region. Lord Silverwood has expressed….disdain for the King’s methods before, but has never outright gone against him. Since his House has been the feeding trough of the Empire for so long, most other Houses wouldn’t know how to handle food production if House Silverwood was removed from play. That’s probably why Lord Silverwood is still alive.”

Luna was pensive as Twilight took notes, quill scribbling down as much detail as she could manage without making the page ilegible. The Lunar Princess twisted her lips before she asked her next question. “And what of the Slaves? How integral are they to the inner workings of the Houses?”

“Completely.” Tempest was able to answer that one immediately. “Each House depends upon the slaves they own to do the dirtier jobs no Jotun wants to do. House Silverwood at least treats theirs with respect, but the other great Houses treat slaves the way they treat everything else. Harshly.”

Static listened in from her side of the table as the interrogation went on. She had woken up that morning and gone down to check on the Princesses, only for Luna to ask her to sit in on the questioning the moment she arrived. She hadn’t used the Dream Realm, otherwise Static would probably have realized. Static chalked it up to Luna having either really good hearing, or really good guards.

Still, she was essentially just listening in on a conversation between two ponies and a transcriber, so she felt quite useless.

“I think we should take a break for now. Miss Shadow needs at least some rest.” Luna suggested, draining a cup of water before standing up and moving across to the door. She looked over to Static and jerked her head towards the door. Static groaned a little from muscle stiffness as she clambered to her hooves, but followed her teacher out of the door, glancing back to Tempest past Twilight as she closed the door behind them. Luna turned to her student with a tired but thoughtful expression. “Well, my friends, what do we think of Miss Tempest’s knowledge?”

Static frowned a bit and ruffled her feathers. “Well, I think she’s telling us as much as she can remember. She seems to be being honest.”

“And most of what she is saying does fit with their actions.” Twilight agreed. "Capturing and using our people for labour would greatly increase their effectiveness, since they would be reducing our pool of able bodied workers and warriors, while increasing their own. It also means they have a trump card should we try to fight back. Hostages. It would be highly effective, if it weren’t for one thing.”

“And what is that, Princess Sparkle?” Luna asked, cocking her head to one side.

“Slave revolts. While ponies are mostly passive in nature, we also have a great capacity for ferocity when we feel threatened, or if we feel our herd is threatened. Right now, a lot of ponies are currently cooped up together under threat. Eventually, the tension will override their fear and they will try to fight back.” Twilight explained. “So soon enough, they’ll have open rebellion in the ranks of their slave count, reducing effectiveness and eliminating their prior advantages. Hostage situations only work while the hostage is alive. Once they are dead or free, then it’s game over. Hostage situations usually end with the person who took the hostage being defeated, either imprisoned or killed after the fact.”

“Interesting. There may be some way to capitalize on their reliance on slavery.” Luna surmised. “But for now, there are things to attend to that are not our imprisoned Unicorn. I suggest you get to them while the daylight is still present.”

Static nodded. “I still need to visit the armourer to commision a new set of gear. Otherwise I’ll be fighting the Jotunn’s with my bare hooves.”

“Then get to it, my friend. Forged Blade will not be happy that you have yet another project for him.”

Static nodded in agreement and turned away, bidding goodbye to the Princesses as she went. She trotted down the corridors leading to an open courtyard outside the rear of the catle’s main structure, where Forged Blade had set up his ramshackle, low quality forge, built out of rubble and scraps to make a vaguely functional forgery with bellows and various other pieces of equipment.

When she reached the pile of rocks that could barely be referred to as a Blacksmith’s workplace, she found Forged, a grizzled Earth Pony smith who was several times Static’s age of a meager twenty six, with several scars and burn marks permanently etched into his face and forelegs, giving his fur an uneven and patchy appearance. A scar in the shape of a semicircle was just under his left eye, where, as the story was told by the castle guards, a shard of metal had flown out of his forge and hit his goggles, which had dug into his face and left him with a scar to remember the chunk of metal by. The one time Static had had the time and the curiosity to ask him about it, he had vehemently denied the entire thing, telling her it was actually from an altercation with some stallions in a bar who had been bad mouthing Princess Luna not long after her return. Having met the repentent and remorseful Princess during his time in the palace, he had very much resented their comments, and decided to teach the pair some manners, which had spurred Princess Luna to guiltily fret over him for his choices.

Static hadn’t the heart to tell him that Luna had also denied his claim. While blushing.

Forged was currently heaving a sledgehammer around in his teeth,wearing some kind of padded brace that wrapped around his neck and also into his mouth to protect his teeth. He was slamming the hammer repeatedly onto the beginnings of a sword blade, teasing out a new shape from the metal.

His ears perked as Static stepped on some of the few remaining bits of rubble from the mostly cleared courtyard, and he looked up at her before grunting. “S’pose you’ve got more work for me, have ya?”

Static let her wince show, her ears folding back a little bit. “Sorry. My old armour got totaled in the fight, and….well, I need a new set.”

Forged looked at the mare for a second before letting out a frustrated sigh. “Get your arse over there then. I’ll take your measurements when I’m done with this.” He pointed to a small tent standing off to the side, a few pieces of measuring tape and armour templates all cluttering the small space in what Rarity would call ‘Organized Chaos’.

Static hummed as she stood on the spot for a while, waiting for Forged to finish up his piece before measuring her. He was at it for quite a while, so she managed to get through the Equestrian national anthem, Canada’s national anthem, and even a few songs she knew, by which point she’d layed down to save herself the trouble of staying upright.

Forged then finally came over to do his measurements, and he gave her a critical eye in doing so. “Yer a might bit skinny for a fighter, lass.”

“I did just get out of a month long imprisonment.” Static reasoned. “I doubt King Gaul likes keeping his prisoners and slaves well fed. Wouldn’t want them getting any ideas.”

Forged grunted, scribbling down a few notes and occasionally poking her to see how much muscle and fat she did have. While her muscles had yet to truly atrophy, the fat she’d been trying to work off had vanished. Perhaps not the best weight loss diet to choose from, but it certainly got the job done. When Static made that remark to Forged, he gave a half amused snort and continued measuring around her barrel.

While the wait time had been quite long, the actual measurement taking was not. In under twenty minutes, Forged had everything he needed and waved her out of the tent.

“Three days. Three days and I can cobble together something for ya, lass, but it won’t be as pretty as that dream magic armour you and the Princess like to use so much.”

Static nodded her thanks to the older stallion and went on her way, trying to decide what to do next. She quickly looked in on Twilight in her science dungeon, before she made her way over to the training grounds.

The training grounds had once been the royal gardens, but since the Everfree had reclaimed most of it, the once expansive open fields Luna and Celestia had boasted about had been largely swallowed up by thick tree trunks and dense underbrush, leaving a field perhaps the size of a large hoof-ball pitch to use. The skirmishes held there by the Guards were often one on one, swift, brutal and far more vicious thanks to the reality check that two fully fledged wars in three years had given them.

Moving up to a good viewing spot on a set of ramshackle bleachers, Static folded her forelegs in front of her body and settled down to watch as two Earth ponies tried very hard to dent each other’s new silvery grey armour.

As she sat, she thought. She thought about the meeting with Luna, Twilight and Tempest, and the things that Tempest had said. How could the Empire’s reliance on slavery be exploited as a weakness? They were used as a workforce, as hostages, or as meat shields, abused, mistreated and downright de-equinized. Or was it still de-humanized? Who cared at this point. It meant the same, anyway.

Her mind started to drift back through her history classes, trying to think of examples of slavery being used as a weakness, but just ended up reliving having to listen to the droning teacher ramble on and on about ancient cultures in a completely non-engaging, disinterested way. Like then, the words blended in to each other and she almost fell asleep.

When her head jerked back up from it’s slow slump, Static nearly had a heart-attack from the wall of pink and blue in front of her face. “Gah!!”

“Hiya, Static!” Pinkie cheered, hopping into a perfectly copied version of Static’s own crossed arms rest. “Watching the matches? Should we tell Fluttershy that you’ve got an appreciation for guys who roll around on the floor with each other?”

Static looked at her friend and had to bite back a smirk. “Do you actually plan to say things like that? Or does it just happen?”

“I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Pinkie said with a beaming grin.

“Bite me- OW!”

“Eh, could use some salt.”

“Pinks?”

Pinkie turned to look at Static with her biggest, most innocent, adorable puppy dog eyes ever. “Yeeeeees?”

“Go jump in a lake.”

“Eh, I don’t feel like it.”

Static rolled her eyes and hunkered back down to watch the match.

“So watcha thinkin’ about?”

“Stuff, Pinks. Got a lot on my mind right now.”

Static shifted again, trying to get comfortable on the rough hewn wood.

“Thinkin’ bout how to win, huh?” Pinkie asked, plopping herself down besides her winged friend with a soft whump. The shorter mare looked up at Static with a grin. “Everyone’s thinking about it.”

Static smiled a little at that. “Well, more heads are better than just one.”

“Someone should tell that to the slaves. Maybe they could get themselves out if they worked together. Like a great big party for freedom!”

“Yeah, and maybe the poorly armed and armoured slaves could then show King Gaul his baby pictures and turn him good.” Static mused, only half listening to Pinkie, her eyes having drifted and her mind already back to trying to solve her problem.

Pinkie didn’t miss a beat. “If only they had someone to show them how to do it. It’d be easier with someone to lead them.”

“Maybe bring out a few of his old toys too. That’ll really do him in.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes and stood up, before leaving Static to her musings. “I’m gonna go help Twilight in the lab. Maybe she can figure out ways to get people inspired. She’s always got some revolutionary new thing to do.”

Static’s ears perked up at that. “Wait…..revolutionary? Pinkie, say that again!”

“Maybe I can go help Twilight in the lab?” Pinkie asked, tilting her head to one side like a confused puppy.

“No! The bit after that!”

“Uh...maybe she can figure out ways to get people inspired?”

“No! The last bit!”

“She’s always got some revolutionary new thing to do?”

“Yes! That! That’s exactly what we need! I’d dismissed it out of hoof because revolutions usually end badly, but with so much of the King’s forces up here, it’s the perfect time for one! Luna and Twilight were right! If we can show the slaves that they can fight for their freedom and win, then maybe, just maybe, we can bring the empire crashing down on itself! Pinkie, I could kiss you!”

Pinkie just held up a hoof and tossed her head away from Static before the pegasus could even jokingly move to do so. “Only if Cellie and Shy say it’s okay.”

Static laughed, hopping away and bounding down the stairs and back towards the castle. “Pinkie, never change!”

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“You want to do what?” Celestia sat up in her seat, still being worried over by a plethora of nurses who couldn’t take a hint that the Princess had recovered as much as she possibly could without her Alicorn powers. The fallen Princess was still weak, but getting stronger by the day, capable of taking quick walks and even discussing with Luna about getting back into the action. That still left her as a Princess with a kingdom to run, which was why Luna, Static and Twilight were all gathered together to discuss Static’s proposal.

“Revolution. Twilight was right when she talked about slave revolts eroding the Empire’s foundations, but if we could actually twist that to our advantage, we could spark a revolution in the Empire itself, bolster our forces with freed slaves, conquered nations and whoever else we can find. It served the dual purpose of destroying the King’s positions of power while regaining ours.” Static spoke quickly, eagerly. “With the Empire’s main workforce no longer supporting them, and actively fighting them, the Empire would struggle to maintain its war efforts, and factor in a multi-prong guerilla war up here in the north, and Gaul would be fighting a war on a multitude of fronts. He would be stretched thin and pushed to the limit. We’d be forcing him to fight on our terms. If he tries to gather his forces up and bulldoze over any of us, each individual nation and fighting forces would be able to evade him far easier than he could find them. All the while, he’d be bleeding resources and troops. Death by a thousand cuts, instead of a straight up confrontation. It could work.”

“But eventually, you would need to confront him at some point. He could well force the issue by attacking the Crystal Empire before stealing our powers.”

“If it comes to that, then we would have to fight, but if we do this right, he’ll be far weaker by the time he gets there anyway. At the very least, we’ll leave his Empire in chaos and disarray for decades to come.” Static admitted. “It’s not the best plan, and we don’t have much of a chance as we are, but that’s the point. The longer this goes on, the stronger we get and the better our chances are. This can work.”

Luna and Celestia drew aside to discuss the idea between themselves, while Twilight approached Static.

“It’s a start at least,” The book loving Princess said, trying to straighten her knotted and tangled mane. “And it’s better than just charging into Canterlot like a lunatic.”

Static nodded, letting out an uneasy breath. “It’s a lot of if, maybe and possibly, but right now, that’s all we’ve got. We might as well be throwing broken beer bottles at them from behind a tree. Or a bar. Damn, I could go for a drink right about now.”

“Let’s not get ourselves black-out drunk in the middle of a crisis, please.” Twilight chuckled. “This will be difficult enough as it is already.”

Luna and Celestia finished their discussions before Static could offer a reply of some kind, the two sisters turning back to Static and Twilight with unreadable faces. “Twilight, what are your thoughts on Static’s idea?”

Twilight’s eyes widened for a moment before she turned away, compiling a quick summary of her thoughts while nervously twiddling a few strands of her mane. “I think it’s a good start, but highly reliant on luck, the cooperation of complete strangers in a strange land and conditional circumstances to pull us through, rather than solid strategy and planning. It’s impulsive, reckless, foolish and rash….and that if we can pull it off, it might be the best we can hope for.”

The Sisters turned to each other before nodding grimly. “It does seem that way. As Princesses of Equestria, we hereby anoint Princess Twilight Sparkle the leader of this task, and those that follow her, and we recommend Static Thunder as advisor and second in command, as formulator of this plan.”

The two friends sat in dumbfounded silence for a little while, before they bowed.

“We won’t let you down, your Highnesses.”

“We have one other request regarding this mission.” Celestia added.

“Yes, Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked.

Celestia asked her question, and Twilight gave her answer.

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Tempest jumped at the sound of her cell door being opened, and several guards being let inside, followed by the dark form of Princess Luna, the lighter and smaller forms of Princess Celestia, Twilight and Ser Thunder entering behind her.

The broken horned Unicorn felt herself shrink into the mattress, not wanting to be in the presence of so many imposing and important figures at once.

“Tempest Shadow. Rise.” Luna commanded, as she came to a halt before the bed.

Tempest did as she was instructed, slowly climbing off the bed before she was left standing before the Princesses, who made no indication as to their intentions. The three mares stepped a little closer, while Static stayed back, not a part of whatever they were doing.

“Tempest Shadow.” Princess Celestia began, her voice strong and unwavering, like it was in Canterlot. “You have given us information vital to Equestria’s survival, and saved the lives of many, including myself, at great risk to your own.”

“You have claimed to reject the Storm King Gaul, and have claimed you wish to aid our struggle against him.” Twilight continued, though her voice wavered, uncertainty lingering in what were obviously rehearsed words. “And you have so far shown no intent of harming our ponies.”

“We hearby offer you a chance to prove you are as honest as you claim, by joining a task force bound for the Storm Empire, where you will continue to offer information, as well as your physical capabilities in time of need, in order to help this task force achieve its goal.” Luna spoke coldly, her deep blue eyes locked on Tempest’s pale blue ones. She stood tall, the tallest creature in the room by far, after her sister’s loss.

“Know that should you show any sign of betraying us, we authorize the use of lethal force in order to prevent such treachery from causing our cause or our ponies harm.” Celestia intoned. “Do you accept these terms, for the chance to be free, and whole again?”

Tempest’s face was shocked for a moment, her features stretched as her mouth had fallen open and her eyes gone wide. But then those features shrank back, suspicion and anger creeping onto her face. “So you offer me my horn back, in return for my obedience. I’ve heard that promise before, and I was stupid enough to believe him. I won’t fall for it a second time.”

“There are no tricks. Should we prove victorious, we shall restore thy horn, miss Shadow.” Luna growled, baring her teeth in a snarl. “We are not Gaul, and we do not break our promises to those we pledge our aid to. The procedure to restore a Unicorn’s horn is difficult and dangerous, but it will be done.”

Tempest felt her mouth falling open again. “There is a procedure?”

“Thou art not the first to suffer this ailment. Nor will you be the last. While modern medical magic and science has yet to replicate the feat, my sister and I have been called upon to mend such wounds before.” Luna said, letting her snarl drop in favour of her more neutral expression. “We remember the methods used, and if we cannot do it, then we will teach someone else how.”

Tempest could feel liquid pooling in her eyes, and the familiar sting of angry tears wormed into her brain. She turned away from her guests and walked across to the window of her tiny little room. “All this time, and there was a way to fix my horn, right here in Equestria….” Tempest growled. “Why did I never hear of this before I left?!”

“Didst thou ever try to ask us?”

Tempest stopped, going rigid, as she remembered her parents words just days before she left. “We’ll try to petition the Princesses! They have to know!” If only she had waited a few more days. Just a few more days and she would have found out. Anger at herself. Anger at Gaul.

Her horn crackled and sparks spat out of it, snapping against the wall around the window, and out through the window itself. The pressure built, the familiar surge rushing to the cracked stump of her horn before a blast of crackling lightning streaked across the open miles under the cover of the Everfree’s natural clouds.

The release of power felt good, draining her fury away just a bit, allowing Tempest to breath. She looked back over her shoulder towards the Princesses, and Ser Thunder, the remains of that fury still smouldering behind her retinas.

“When do we start?”

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