OMAI: The Empire of Storms

by VeganSpyro97

Chapter 5: The King's Demand

The unicorn trudged down the gangplank, with her head held high, her ears slightly pulled back in a display of control and reserve that bordered on emotionlessness. Her face was unreadable as she descended the plank, her eyes sweeping across the gathered ponies impassively. She treaded slowly, methodically, stoic in every sense of the word. Her armoured hooves clinked harshly on the ramp as she traversed its length, before finally alighting on the marble slabs that made up the concourse.

As she did, a small, diminutive figure appeared at the top of the ramp, and quickly rattled down the ramp to join the broken horned unicorn, his own armour loose and ill fitted due to his tiny size. He carried with him a box with a gramophone style horn sticking out of the top. As he and the Unicorn came to a stop, he laid the box on the ground and pulled some kind of speaker or receiver from the gramophone’s chassis, and set up a little stand in front of the Unicorn.

No one spoke as the Unicorn stepped up to the odd microphone.

“Citizens of Equestria.” The Unicorn announced, her voice as cold and detached as her expression. “It is my honour to bring to you glad tidings. For your new King is here.”

Static’s brow furrowed. She turned to glance at Twilight, whose face was also twisted into an unpleasant grimace.

“He is the Conquerer of Nations, the Ruler of Storms, King and Emperor of the Southern World.” The Unicorn spoke flatly, not indicating any personal stance on these titles or their implications. “He is the Storm King, Ruler of all Jotunns and soon to be…” The Unicorn paused, and Static narrowed her eyes. Was that a….did she smell blood? “King of the World.”

There was a dull murmuring throughout the crowd of guards now, angry mutterings of rejection and detestation. Emperor of the World? Just how arrogant was this creature?

“The King requests that you lay down your arms, and surrender now, to spare yourselves pain, and to avoid harm that would make you useless to him and the Empire.”

That sent alarm bells ringing through Static’s head. He wanted bodies for something.

Princess Celestia had apparantly decided that she was done listening, and Princess Luna looked positively livid. They marched forward in perfect unison, their imposing stature enough to make the small creature beside the Unicorn cower a little. Not the Unicorn. Either she was used to staring down much larger creatures, or she was as robbed of emotions as her eyes.

“And if we should deny his demands?” Celestia prompted. She was standing perfectly still, staring the strange pony in the eyes. “What then?”

The Unicorn went to answer, only to be cut off.

“Then I take what I came here for by force.”

All eyes went back to the ship.

Standing in the entryway, was a figure that dwarfed all others present, not due to sheer size- though that was an enormous factor, but instead in presence. Him simply being there made many of the ponies balk, nervously eyeing the nearest way out of the courtyard and wondering if it was perhaps a better idea to gallop as fast as possible away from this creature.

He was tall, easily twelve feet tall and covered in thick armour plates. His blue eyes shone dangerously in the dim light, and his staff, a deep blue thing capped with a sparking, lighter blue crystal hung easily in his grip, point down. A pair of massive swords, each one easily as big as a pony, were strapped to his back, and his helmet sported a pair of horns that made his head look far wider than it actually was.

His face, equipped with a cruel sneer, twisted into a sick grin at the sight of the gathered ponies in their armour. “It seems that these ponies aren’t as soft and defenseless as you thought, Commander Tempest.” He noted, drawing the first real reaction from the mauve unicorn since her arrival, a quick but very noticeable wince. “I shall have to remind you to take better care when surveilling our targets in future.”

He strutted the rest of the way down the gangplank, a long, furry white tail drifting lazily behind him. He ignored the threat of the canterlot guard entirely, instead walking directly up to the two Princesses. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you, Princesses. I have heard more than a great deal about you.” He came to a pause in front of them. “Now, I’ll make this quite simple.” He extended his hand, not in a welcoming gesture, but instead as a ruler, demanding supplication. “Surrender your magic to me.”

Celestia looked around at her guards and gave a sad smile. “You say you have read the stories about me. Surely you must know who you are dealing with?”

“Yes, I know full well. The Unconquered Sun. The Solar Diarch. The Scourge of Dragons! Conquerer of the Northern Darkness! I know who you are, and what you have done.”

Celestia’s smile vanished. “And yet you still believe it wise to challenge me.”

“I do.”

“Then I’m afraid you’re about to be disappointed. My sister and I will not be surrendering to you.”

The Storm King chuckled, sweeping his staff out in a broad arc. “I’m afraid you misunderstand, Princess. When I said your magic, I did not mean you and your sister- at least, not just you and your sister.”

Celestia actually growled then, stepping right into the Storm Kings personal space. “Touch my fellow Princesses, or even one of my subjects, and I will burn your ships and your army to ashes.”

“And anything my sister misses, I shall be sure to finish.” Luna snarled, stepping up as well.

The Storm King raised his hands, and backed away. “Fine. I shall return when you are feeling more up to sharing.”

He began to turn away, but, as it happened, he was still facing Static when he attempted his deception. He pulled an orb free of a small pouch that he had sequestered beneath his breastplate, and span on his back foot, casting his arm out in a throw that would have sent the orb hurtling at Celestia’s face.

A bronze hoof intercepted it, hooking around from behind it and slowing it’s momentum down safely, before the Pegasus landed, orb in hoof and glaring at the King.

“I believe this is yours.” She snarled, and hurled it back at him with her wing.

Chaos erupted as the King dove to the side, and his troops began to pour out of his ships like a hive of ants, big lumbering brutes interspersed with smaller, more agile creatures, all dressed in matching, dark armour plates that bore the Kings sigil, two simple lightning bolt marks that were angled slightly towards each other.

Static was able to catch a glimpse of the unfortunate Jotunns caught in the Orb’s effect, a cloud of as expanding from the fractured orb and devouring their flesh, replacing it with a reflective, volcanic stone. Then the King was charging at her, his staff unleashing a torrent of lightning her way that snapped and hissed as it hit the stones were she had been standing. Celestia and Luna met the Jotuns with fire and silvery moonlight, carving through them with only a little trouble, while the guards had considerably more difficulty combating the much larger soldiers that had invaded their city. They combated this obstacle with teamwork, working in threes, a pegasus, a unicorn and an earth pony to each triad, using their abilities in tandem.

As Static dodged another blast of lightning, a rainbow blur shot by, knocking the King’s staff wide and giving Static an opening to counterattack. Thanking Rainbow in a brief mutter, Static plunged into the fray, rolling underneath the staff as the king brought it whistling back over her head. She came to a stop directly in front of him, hind legs curled up beneath her. Then she leaped, shoving the ground away from herself and upwards into a brutal uppercut that slammed her gauntleted hoof into the King’s unprotected chin with a sickening crack.

The King stumbled back, hand flying to his lip as a trickle of blood leaked from the split lip Static had given him. He seemed otherwise unharmed.

“Very nice. And you haven’t even drawn your weapon.” He commented, spitting out a wad of blood and sliding his staff into a holster on his back, between his twin swords. Those twin swords replaced the staff, and the king raised them in a brief salute. Static didn’t bother with a reply, instead choosing to launch herself forwards into another attack.

The blades came whistling towards her, but Static was concentrating, her mind acknowledging her surroundings and taking note of the myriad threats around her. Applejack was brawling with several Jotuns at once, while Rarity watched her back, her rapier flashing in quick jabs that poked holes in eyes or throats when they could be reached.

Twilight had produced her staff, and was using her magic to rapidly spin it in a helicopter motion behind her as she let loose magical blasts that seemed far less effective than they should have been.

Rainbow was doing what she did best, causing havoc from above, while Pinkie was introducing the business end of her warhammer to as many of King’s troops as possible. Fluttershy had retreated to the rear of the courtyard, her arrows silently ending a few soldiers before they could make their own kills.

Static jumped and rolled over the Storm King’s arm as he tried to get a proper hit on her, while she simply dodged and analyzed him. He favoured broad swings because of the size of his weapons, and was slowed down by his armour. However, the sheer thickness of those plates and the strange resistance to magic that his guards armour displayed was likely going to make trying to get through it incredibly difficult. Side step. Roll. Dive, roll. Leap, somersault. Static noticed his intense stare and recognized that he was analyzing her as well. Hence why she was giving him little to analyze.

Then that choice was taken from her. Tempest appeared, another orb in hoof that she was aiming at Static, intending on taking her out of the fight and freeing the King to pursue the Princesses.

The orb came flying towards Static and she had no other way of evading. She reached into the dream realm, and pulled free some magic, forming it into a lashing tentacle that deflected the orb and sent it hurling into the side of a tower some seventy meters away.

Seeing no point at letting the tentacle not see more use, Static lashed it out at Tempest with a thought while she continued to evade the King. Tempest tried to punch through it, rearing up and delivering a swift strike to the magic limb, only for it to instead coil around her own leg and throw her bodily across the courtyard.

The Canterlot guard, brave as they were, and even backed up by the Princesses, were barely holding their ground. It took two teams of three to properly fight one of the Jotuns, and there simply weren’t enough guards to match them all. The line faltered, pushed back by the scrum of larger Storm Creatures, and hounded by the smaller ones, which were armed with deadly dual claw blades that were attached to their bracers.

The Guard were being forced to retreat from the courtyard, slowly inching back to the various entryways into the city streets, which were thankfully more narrow and easier to defend.

However, this was not good news for Static. Her friends and the Princesses were acting as the rear guard, delaying the Jotuns as the Canterlot guard formed a barricade out of the festival vendor booths. With the Guard almost all gone, the brunt of the attack now fell on the Princesses and the Element bearers, who had managed to at least find each other and form a semicircle that was slowly tightening in front of the closest street entrance.

Static’s dodging game came to an end, vaulting away from the King and Tempest, leaping over the Jotuns and falling into place in the semicircle.

Before long, the semicircle had become a line that was being pushed down the street, barely holding back the assault. Luna and Celestia stood side by side, sword made of fire and scythe made of moonlight twisting aside pikes and swords and leaving openings for Twilight and Static to thrust and slash at their opponents as the group was pressed back. When they were about halfway to the barricade, Celestia lit her horn and teleported, carrying them all behind the line of guards and out of reach, letting the friends breathe.

“There are too many sister.” Luna grunted, sending a spell blast over the guards heads and slamming into a Jotunn. “And by the looks of things, he brought more!”

More ships were emerging from the clouds and heading to the Courtyard.

“We will be overrun before we can even call for reinforcements.” Celestia concluded.

“Not so, Princess!” A soldier arrived, quickly removing his helmet and saluting. “Major Cloud Burst, ma’am.”

“Report, major.”

“The guests from the other races, they all promised they would return with their own troops as quickly as possible. And Prince Blueblood sent out a messenger for the nearest garrison. So a call for reinforcements has gone out, ma’am.”

Celestia frowned. “It will be too late by the time they arrive.” She paused, eyes flicking to sky with worry. “Send out another messenger to intercept those messenges, tell them that they shall meet us in the Everfree Forest, at the castle of the Two Sisters. Quickly now!”

The Major nodded, and hurried on his way.

“Our old castle, sister? Is that not too close?”

“After Static suggested her failsafe’s and evacuation plans, I determined that the castle can be fortified and defended, even hidden from an invading army, should the need arise. The only other closest defendable position is the Crystal Empire, and if we attempt to flee there, we will have nowhere else to go once we do.” Celestia gave a spell blast of her own, sending several jotuns falling to ground and trying to put out their burning fur. “Take as many ponies south as you can, Luna. Use spells to conceal your movements, and wait for our reinforcements. I will hold the King here as long as I can.”

“But sister-”

“THAT IS AN ORDER, LUNA!” Celestia thundered, stamping her hoof. “NOW GET MOVING!”

Luna winced, then took off, flying low over the rooftops and away from the invasion.

Celestia turned to Twilight and the Elements. “You as well.”

“But, Celestia!” Twilight protested.

“Twilight.” The Princess did not raise her voice this time, but her tone was final. “The Elements of Harmony have been a symbol of Equestrian heroism and hope for some time now. Our ponies will need you. Now go.”

“But-”

“Go.”

The six mares reluctantly turned away, and started to follow after Princess Luna, galloping down the street as fast as they could go.

“You too Static.” Celestia turned back to the battle, the Jotuns getting close to breaking through the barricade.

“With respect Princess, but I’m not an Element, and I’m no symbol of hope. You need me here.”

The Princess stared at Static for a moment, then nodded grimly. “Then prepare to fight.”

****************************************

Author's Note:

The war against the Storm King begins.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

What's OMAI stand for?

[VeganSpyro97]

10032971
Of Men and Insects. Because it's a true sequel to the original.