Turmoil Rising

by JFT

Chapter 59: Timely Interventions

Author's Note:

Once again, the chapter went longer than I had originally thought, so I had to cut it down a bit, as we move into the final of the Anger arc.

Thunder clashed across the sky above Griffinstone, twisted into an unbearable sound, generated by its player. For hours the Storm King had been plucking the lightning strings, generating music while safely within the giant storm cloud that was shaped like his head, all the while making sure to keep the town below isolated until the ram and the centaur returned. Nobody’s been trying to get out in the open for a while now and he believed it would remain so. However, he eventually paused momentarily, as he noticed something. Somewhere in the distance, he could see a strange blue light approaching across the air. He was unsure what it was, but just in case it would pose an inconvenience to what he was doing, he shot a lightning bolt at it. To his surprise, the blue light was unaffected, in fact, it was approaching faster. He shot at it again and again, yet nothing changed, the strange thing was completely undeterred by what he was doing. The light finally reached Griffinstone and proceeded to fly through the streets before it disappeared into one of the buildings.

“What the…” he thought to himself, confused.

He looked about, trying to see if anything else was coming nearby that he likely couldn’t shoot down, he’d be in a real pickle if this was a scout and a superior force was coming his way. But soon, the light from earlier came out of the house in which it disappeared and then flew off in the same direction that it came from. He let the thought linger for a while, and when it became apparent nothing was going to happen he simply shrugged and then resumed playing his music. After a while though, as he stopped for but a moment, he suddenly noticed a bright flash below. Out of the building that the light came and left from, there was a blue figure dressed in purple, with a large trunk by its side.

The look from above was betrayed by an illusion from below. A large pony head made of bread and colored blue was standing on a wooden construction that was covered in purple cloth, and under it, the Vice-headstallion and the Consular were huddled together.

“Trixie, this is either a brilliant or a crazy plan, and I honestly can’t tell which is it.”

“Brilliance is often confused with craziness, Sunburst. Then again, we had to make due considering what we had to work with.”

“And the fact that your reputation is on the line,” he made a smug remark.

“You heard what Zecora said!” she began imitating her voice. “Miss Trixie, surely you can figure out a distraction, that will lead the Storm King to inaction. And while you have his attention, it will keep him blind to our intervention.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that you still had your metal rings from your magic show in your prop trunk so we could create a lightning rod and connect it from the horn and into the trunk so it can fire back.”

“But you’ve seen the face Gilda made when I told her I’ll need a lot of baked dough to make a fitting resemblance of myself.”

“You’re paying for that, you hear?” the aforementioned griffin yelled through the closed door.

The blue unicorn rolled her eyes and went to the megaphone. “Let the show begin!” she said and yelled. “HEY STORM KING, REMEMBER ME? I AM THE GREAT AND POWERFUL SCHOOL CONSULAR TRIXIE!”

His voice called from above. “I remember you! The tripping blue horse from Crystal Empire!”

“WELL, I DO HOPE YOU’VE HAD A GREAT FALL,” she answered back.

“Oh, you think you’re funny? Well here’s something to laugh about!” and immediately a lightning bolt shot from the clouds above.

It hit the horn, causing the electricity to travel through the iron wiring from the wooden construct and over to the trunk, where it was shot out again and back to the sender.

“It worked!” both unicorns cheered.

But the Storm King was not happy one bit. And in turn, began raining lightning upon the blue pony below, yet all his attacks came right back, even if they did not affect him. Despite all, he kept doing it and he wasn’t sure how long the process was being repeated and how much time had passed when all of a sudden…

“STORM KIIIIIIIIIING!”

He stopped himself before he could finish charging up his attack. That shrieking echoing voice! He knew it all too well! He turned in its direction and he saw a large spot flying in his direction, the buzzing noise growing louder by the moment. The Queen of Changelings was fast approaching him, with an angry expression on her face.

“Oh, there you are, queenie,” he answered. “I hadn’t expected to see you here of all places.”

She flew in and their bodies made contact, the changeling tried to pounce on the stone construct but she wasn’t strong enough to do it so she simply pressed her hooves against him. “You’re one to talk! You have the NERVE to leave me in the lurch and have me do all the heavy lifting all by myself!”

“By yourself? P-huh-leas! I’d hardly call having your minions do all the hard labor “doing it yourself”. Oh, and by the way, it’s not the Storm King anymore - it’s the SL/SK.”

“What?! What in the world does that even-?!”

“Broodmother, be quiet,” a voice interrupted her ranting, as a weaselly vapor finally came close to them, before facing the construct. “Scourgelord, you have some explaining to do. Why are you here?”

“Don’t call me Scourgelord either,” he huffed. “I’m both that and what I once was. That’s why I’m now SL/SK. But I digress. I’m here because gramps requested me to go here, and he took the wildebeest with him after they dropped out of the portal.”

Doubt’s eyes expanded. “The Shaper and the Devourer... they’re both here?”

“Wait, hold on!” Chrysalis jumped in. “Tirek and Grogar have been here this whole time?! Why?!”

“The old goat apparently wanted to retrieve a minion that he’s been lacking and he had to bring it back,” he explained. “But after he got it, he told me to isolate the whole half-bird town and make sure nothing leaves and enters it. After which they descended into “the great divide”.” He pointed to the great chasm that was splitting the mountain in half, the Abysmal Abyss.

“I’ll go and look for them,” the wisp answered. “You two stay here and-“

“Hey! Rumbly McCloud’s Dale!” an irritating voice from below called. “I’m still waiting for you to give me your best shot!”

The construct glanced downwards and quickly shot a bolt of lightning at the pony below, only for the bolt to come back not a moment later, zipping right past the changeling. “I swear this blue one’s been really annoying for a while now,” Storm King explained. “Just give me a few minutes and I can-“

“We don’t have a few minutes, Storm King!” Chrysalis snapped at him.

“We don’t have any time at all. Look.” Doubt turned into the direction from which they just came.

Even in the near darkness, they could see it: A vessel was flying in their direction, a boat-like body attached to a large blimp in a rainbow color scheme.

“They’re here already?!” Chrysalis freaked out. “There’s no way they managed to get out of that jam so quickly!”

“And yet they did, didn’t they?” the shadow voiced its curiosity.

“Nothing a bolt or two can’t fix,” the stone satyr hmphed.

Soon after, from the clouds above it, a lightning bolt shot out of it and straight at the zeppelin. Before it could make contact, it crashed and exploded against a purple shield that was protecting it from strikes. A noise of confusion slipped from the construct before another bolt fired, and the same result was there. This time a sound of frustration escaped him and lightning rained from above, and still, all the projectiles bounced off.

“Knock it off already, Storm King,” the changeling queen groaned. “You can clearly see they’re protected.”

“Yes… almost as if they were prepared for it.” Doubt rubbed its chin with its tail, before turning to face the caster. “Scourgelord, are you certain that nothing left the settlement while you stood watching?”

“It’s SL/SK! Get it right!” he corrected it. “And no. Ever since the wildebeest, gramps, and his pet descended into the chasm nothing escaped me… Except for some time ago, a blue light came to town, entered one of its houses, and then left in the same direction that you two just came…” He went quiet after the realization. “Oh… That’s what it was, wasn’t it?”

“YOU THINK?!” The Pillar of Hatred pressed her face against his in anger. “And you didn’t even try to stop it?!”

“It’s not that I didn’t try! All my attacks went straight through it!”

“Quiet you two,” Doubt shut their quarreling. “So, something managed to get here ahead of us and warn them. That would explain their preparation.” Its gaze turned downwards where the blue pony was. “And it would explain why that one came out to play with you, Scourgelord - to distract you.”

“It’s SL/SK!” he repeated.

“Who cares!” she shut him. “They’re coming here! They come too close and they’ll blast us with friendship magic! What do we do?!”

THUDD!

They all got caught by surprise. This wasn’t a crack of lightning that they just heard, it came from below. Not far above Griffinstone, a large portal opened in the sky and from it, a red-skinned black-furred centaur, so large that he could measure up to some of the houses, crashed on the ground, so loud he was that just about everybody took notice.

“Lord Tirek?! And in his prime too?!”

“He’s almost as big as the time I fought him,” the construct mused.

“Wait, what?”

“Too long a story for what’s happening right now. Wispy, out with it, what do we do?”

But the shade didn’t answer right away, it was just staring in the distance as if it wasn’t fully present. “It’s here…”

“What is?”

“Anger… I can feel its presence. Which means, its container must’ve been weakened.” It turned to face the pillars. “Stall them. If the Devourer appeared just now it means he must have it on his person. They must not get a hold of it before it is liberated.” And it flew off to the town below.

“Stall them?! Did it just say “stall them”?! How are we supposed to do that when I can’t even touch them?!”

She chuckled. “Simpleton. The ship is only being protected from your lightning but that doesn’t mean it is foolproof. Besides, look.”

The changeling pointed back to the approaching vessel. There was a figure that just flew out of it and approached the town below. There was only one that she knew would go and face the centaur lord since only she had the power to do it… and she was unaware of her presence.

“She’s split from her friends, which makes them vulnerable.” A grisly grin appeared on her face. “You continue doing what you do while I come up close. They’ll never see it coming.”

“They really came,” Sunburst said gazing up from under the giant colored bread statue of Trixie. “But how are they gonna deal with him?”

“Never mind them! Look!” The mare pointed in the direction of where the giant centaur just emerged; It was them – the kids! “I’m so glad they’re okay!” she sighed in relief.

“That doesn’t mean they’re safe yet. Not with Tirek right there in the open. We have to find a way to distract him.”

The door to Gilda’s place creaked open and the two female griffins poked their heads out. “Need help with that?” the lively one offered.

“Thanks, but I don’t think that’d be safe for either of you,” the yellow unicorn declined. “We need to find some long-distance measures.

Trixie thought for a bit. Sunburst was right, there was no way to come out safely and grab the centaur’s attention while the giant angry cloud was above them as well. Then she got an idea and began pushing her magic box until it was tilted to forty-five degrees, aiming in the direction of the giant.

“Hey, a little help holding it still over here,” she requested from the rest. “Not you two!” she halted the younger pony and the yak when they tried to get out of the shelter.

The group grabbed the box and held it still.

“Trixie, what are you planning?” the unkempt stallion questioned.

“Just hold it still.” She approached the horn that was connected to the loudspeaker and took in a deep breath. “Hey, you colossal Thunderhead! I’m still waiting for that bolt of yours to tickle me!”

After a moment of quiet, there was the sound of thunder rumbling, and then a bolt shot from the sky at their location, striking the horn which acted as a lightning rod, the power surge traveling from it to the coil that was hidden inside her box of magic tricks, and the lightning bolt that was meant for her shot out of it, arcing across the air and striking the ground in front of the centaur lord.

“You missed!” Gilda pointed out.

The supposed target though quickly turned to face the sky and shook his fist in its direction. “Hey, Thunderhead! What’s wrong with your aim?!”

“Nope. That did it,” the blue unicorn pointed out as they saw the group that was either hiding or was out in the open, making a run for it while the attention was not set on them. “You two, stay in there, got it?” she ordered Sandbar and Yona before motioning to the other older unicorn and two griffins to move out.

Yet as they left the cover, Gilda stopped, looking to the sky.

“Gilda, you coming?” Gabby asked.

“You go ahead without me. Somebody else will need my help more than the kids.” And with that, she took off.

“Wait, what?! Come back, you can’t just leave us!” the student consular called back to her but her cry fell on deaf ears.

“No time now, Trixie,” the stallion pushed her. “We have priorities.”

“Right…” she composed herself and they went off.

Tirek was angry. There was only one creature who he knew could hurl thunderbolts at will and he was right above him. The nerve of him! But his attention soon changed as he saw the airship approach as it was pelted by the aforementioned “Thunderhead” above. There was a small shape that flew out of the airship and began to approach him, but at the distance and visibility, he couldn’t quite see what it was.

“Give it back!” Grandpa Gruff yelled.

“Grandpa Gruff, stop!” both Gallus and Silverstream cried out as he broke from their grips and flew off.

Tirek felt something cling to his fingers. There he was again, that silly old griffin, desperately trying to rip out the Idol of Boreas that was lodged between his index finger and thumb. He simply reached out with his other hand and flicked the old griffin away, sending him flying at high speed at the nearby building. Before he could splatter against the wall, however, he was enveloped in a purple aura and ground to a halt at the last minute. The centaur lord noticed it, and it quickly became clear to him: There was only one creature who knew had powerful magic and was willing to take him on in his current state, and she flew into view not far from the old griffin.

“Princess Twilight!” the two avian hybrids screamed in joy.

She levitated the elder to their side. “Take him away, quickly!”

They both nodded and dragged Grandpa Gruff away from the site, while the alicorn faced her imposing opposition.

“Well, well, well,” Tirek chuckled, “Princess Twilight Sparkle, quite a surprise, I must say.”

“Spare me your snide remarks, Tirek,” she told him. “So, you got released from your punishment as well then, just like Chrysalis?”

“Yes. Both of us were part of that unfortunate fate that your senior, her sister, and that backstabber thrust upon us,” he let his tone of anger get noticed. “And now that I’m free I’m going to get my vengeance!”

“I’m not going to let that happen, Tirek! I don’t know how you managed to grow this much, but I know for a matter of fact you didn’t just consume all the pony magic in Equestria, nor did you devour Discord’s magic. You stand no chance!”

He chuckled. “Funny. Last I recall, you don’t have all the alicorn magic either so that levels the playing field… No, scratch that. The favor is tipped in my favor. Thanks to THIS!” He raised his hand and showed the artifact to his opponent.

Twilight had to squint for a bit, but it soon became apparent what he was holding, and fear set into her. He had the idol!

“Where did you get that?!” she inquired.

“Funny thing about it, old Grogar told me about it and where to get it,” he explained. “He was a fool to trust me to find it and bring it back to him. I’m keeping it. It is an unlimited fountain of magic.”

“Tirek, you don’t know what you’re doing! That thing’s dangerous!”

“To you, maybe.” He opened his mouth and popped the Idol of Boreas in, then closed it shut. “You see as long as this thing is safely inside I’ll only keep growing stronger ever so slightly, while you keep getting weaker.”

“How would you figure that?”

“Oh please, Twilight Sparkle, do you think I didn’t notice?” He turned skywards in the direction of the approaching airship that was still protected by the purple shield while the bolts of lightning rained on it. “At this moment, your magic is the only thing that’s keeping your friends safe. Your full concentration must be focused on keeping that shield up if you don’t want your friends to get a nasty zap. And that means…” His hind legs suddenly bent and he launched himself forward, preparing to swing his fist. “You can’t fight back!”

Twilight saw him coming. She quickly closed her wings and she dropped like a rock, evading the centaur’s attack, which ended up landing in the building, punching a large hole through it, and then she opened them again, the drop speed propelling her forward, flying between his legs and landing further away where he stood earlier.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Tirek,” the princess said as she turned to face him. “We came prepared.”

The changeling queen flew off in the direction of the airship. The rain of bolts soon began and they all bounced off as they saw earlier, but upon closer inspection, Chrysalis noticed that it only covered three-quarters of the ship’s size, while leaving the bottom exposed. She used this chance to fly in past the barrier and peeked over the edge of the ship’s railing. All the equines were gathered, as well as the purple and red dragon, while the blue pony was on the opposite side of the ship’s railing.

“Y’all know what to do, right?” the country pony said just as she was done talking to the pegasus, turning to face them. “We get down and we save the kids, that’ll give Twilight free room to fight back against Tirek. We just need to wait for HER to show up.”

“Assuming you can even get down!” Chrysalis stated as she finally flew up and landed on the deck.

They jumped in shock at the sight of her. “That’s the queue, Dash! Go go go!” Applejack ordered, and the wonderbolt lept over the edge of the airship.

“That’s not going to help you!” the changeling queen declared. “Your princess made a poor decision in leaving your ship and you undefended just to go and chase Lord Tirek. You lot cannot even stand up to my knees in terms of power. She’s going to regret making such a stupid decis-“

“CHRYSALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!”

She didn’t notice the owner, but her loud yell turned into a roar, and then a burst of pink flame followed, giving the Queen of Changelings only a split second to react, leaping backward and flying off, almost immediately hitting the protective barrier, causing her wings to shut and she ended up sliding off the ship’s proximity until she finally stopped in midair a short distance below the vessel. She wasn’t sure who just interfered, but that answer would soon come, as a figure dived right after her, revealing herself to be the Dragon Lord with an absolutely furious expression on her face. The Pillar dodged, while Ember quickly navigated to get right back to her target.

“Turn my dad back to normal! NOOOOOOOOOOOW!” the blue dragon raged, her scream turning into a bellow that ushered a blast of flame.

The changeling queen managed to evade her attack and then a taunting smile appeared on her face, realizing what she was talking about. “Make me.”

The Storm King watched as the bug queen flew under the shield while he pelted it with his attacks, and a few moments later she dropped down, being chased by fire, accompanied by full of sound and fury.

“What was she thinking… That it was going to be this easy?” he thought to himself, yet as he continued to trail her battle above the town, he suddenly spotted shapes moving through the streets. “Hey! Who said you could leave!? Get back inside right-!” A sudden force pushed the giant head to the side, nearly having him fall out of the cloud’s mouth. “What the… What was that?” He waited for a moment, yet nothing happened. “Oh well.” He shrugged and prepared himself to strike at the beings below, only for the said force to push him from the other direction. “Hey! Who’s the wise guy here?! You think this is funny?!”

A head suddenly popped up, its rainbow mane hanging down the upper end of the open mouth of the giant cloud. “It’s a wise girl… And yeah, I find this funny,” Rainbow Dash grinned.

She stomped the upper side of the cloud head, closing its mouth shut, before bucking right in its eye, making it roar. The pegasus galloped on the cloud’s back, entering the gargantuan mass that covered the whole town, and came out on the very top of it where there were no clouds, only the sight of the sun that had just set over the horizon. The wonderbolt felt the ground under her beginning to wobble – he was gonna show up any moment. And not a second later he did, his giant head breached the surface, angrily looking about for its target. There was a tap on its side, and the head turned in its direction, only to have a swift buck delivered in the eye again. He yelped once more only to see the pegasus dive and disappear in the sea of clouds again, the head diving after her. She came up again, waiting, the head emerged, looking for her, she got its attention and then kicked it in the eye again, before hiding in the field of clouds once more, with the Storm King’s head in hot pursuit. Yet when she tried to repeat the process, she waited but felt no rumbling this time. All of a sudden, a lasso made of lightning string sprung out from under her, wrapped around her hind leg, and dragged her through the clouds and back under them until she ended up hanging upside down. She couldn’t move a muscle as she got shocked, being pulled up by its caster who was standing on the edge of the opened mouth of his giant head.

“You thought that trick would work for the third time? Even a monkey would’ve caught it at this point,” he bragged, before finally pulling her up and grabbing her with the other hand. “Don’t worry. This’ll be quick.”

The hand in which the Staff of Sacanas was embedded flared up with a flickering bright light, and he prepared himself to unleash the light’s destructive power upon the pony who was at his mercy now, unable to escape his grip. A powerful blast was unleashed, creating a streak across the sky that cut even through the clouds. When the flashing light caused by the attack disappeared, the satyr’s hands were empty.

“Huh… This hit harder than I had expected… There’s nothing left of that one,” he thought to himself before he finally heard loud wing beats close by.

Much to his disappointment and great frustration, he discovered that the pegasus managed to get away at the critical moment, or rather, she was saved. A white-headed brown-bodied griffin was flying away from him, carrying her off.

“Hey! Get back here!” he yelled and the head charged after them as they disappeared into the clouds above.

The Storm King’s head pushed through and breach the surface of the sky, looking about, expecting that they would be hiding in the vicinity, but couldn’t find them, as they were hiding right under a patch of clouds that obscured them, gazing at the monstrosity not far.

“Gilda, you’ve no idea how glad I am to see you right now,” the wonderbolt told her.

“Same here, Dash. Seriously though, what’s up with you? I’ve never seen you get tangled up like this, you’d normally just dash away.”

“Yeah…” She rubbed the back of her head. “This is kinda awkward to say, but I’ve had an incident with what’s happening here so my wings aren’t fully healed yet. I need you to help me keep at the higher elevation so we can keep this guy busy while Twilight takes care of Tirek. Can I count on you, G.?”

“Sha, you have to ask?”

The two faculty members and the messenger ran through the streets to Griffinstone, they had to make sure that the four kids and the elder were safe, and while the thundering above ceased, there was now another problem, as a giant centaur rampaged through the city, trying to strike the flying princess.

“Let me go! He’s got the Idol of Boreas, I must get it back!”

“That thing’s gonna be useless to you if he steps on you, you deranged old beak!

It was them! Even in the chaos that was overshadowing everything, their struggle with the elder griffin made their presence noticeable.

“Gallus!” the unkempt unicorn called out.

A moment later a blue avian head popped up from around the corner of one of the houses. “Vice-headstallion Sunburst!” He tried to move past the cover only to be held back by an obstruction her was holding onto. “Come on already!”

Moments later, Silverstream appeared as well, both of them dragging Grandpa Gruff, who they had to tie up and gag to keep him grounded and quiet. After that, the reformed changeling and the dragon also appeared.

“They’re all here!” the school consular shook her co-worker. “We’re gonna live!”

Words that she would regret, for as the students ran in their direction to reunite with them, Tirek had a bright idea of uprooting one of the houses and tossed it in alicorn’s direction, who just so happened to be in the direction where the non-combatants were. The structure crashed against the one they were near, making them all freeze on spot. Then the cracking sound followed as the stationary building began breaking down and a large mass began falling in their direction. When the dust settled, the students we cowering on the ground, realizing they were unharmed – and for a good reason, as a giant mass of muscle and fur stood in over them, holding all the wooden rubble from falling on top of them.

“Guys, move, quick!” Sandbar ordered as he stood close by, helping to pull the old bound griffin away, and soon the rest of the group made a run for it before the yak finally tipped and let the collapsed building fall.

“Sandbar! Yona!” Trixie voiced her anger. “I thought I told you both to stay behind!”

“Yeah, sorry, but we really couldn’t do that,” the lime pony gave a non-answer.

Nearby though one could hear the sound of groaning, as the largest of the six students grasped the four and crushed them in her embrace. “Yona’s so happy that Yona’s friends okay!”

“Yona… too tight…!” Ocellus struggled to utter words.

“Let’s just get out of here, this area isn’t safe,” Gabby suggested.

As soon as she said that, another house landed in their direction. “Agreed. Back to Gilda’s place!” Trixie yelled.

The yak dropped her friends and they ran off back to the baker’s house. Meanwhile, the battle continued to rage between the centaur and the alicorn, during which he uprooted another building and tossed it right in the way of the escapees. The orange dragon saw it coming in time - she inhaled and blew out a blue-yellowish flame, cutting through the incoming projectile and making it miss its trajectory. But not a moment later, a giant hunk of wood came flying in the same direction at an increased speed, and she didn’t have enough time to perform the same action again, all she could do was cover her face. Another burst of yellow flames suddenly punctured a hole in the piece of wood, creating a giant hole that simply fell on the group’s surroundings. Another dragon appeared, flying down and landing not far from them: This one was red, and the smaller one knew him all too well.

“Garble?! What are you doing here?” Smolder reacted in shock.

“What do you think? When I heard that my little sis was gonna get in trouble, did you think I was just gonna stand by and watch?”

“Awww, come here.” The orange dragon flew up to him and pulled him into an embrace. “You’re such a big softy, Gar-Gar.” Nobody could tell from his red scales, but it could clearly be seen that he felt a bit awkward. “Wait, hold on,” something dawned on Smolder, “how did you even get here? You don’t even know where Griffinstone is.”

“That’s cuz he came with us... unannounced.”

The voice was somebody else’s entire. From behind one of the buildings, four out of six Elements of Harmony appeared, accompanied by a purple dragon and a zebra. With the danger above distracted their airship managed to land and they made their way to those in need of rescuing.

“Miss Applejack! You’ve no idea how glad we are to see you!” Sandbar sighed in relief.

“Yeah, with all that’s been happening, we thought nocreature was gonna come to help us… Hold on though, where’s Rainbow Dash? I only see Princess Twilight fighting Tirek,” Silverstream wondered.

“She’s gone up to distract the Storm King. Should help her speed up her recovery with all that activity she’ll have to put in,” Pinkie Pie explained.

“And Ember’s distracting Chrysalis as well,” Spike added.

“You guys have no idea how much trouble we’ve been having through the whole day because of that guy. The unpleasant noise, the lightning strikes, the-“ Sunburst began counting, only to be interrupted by his co-worker who couldn’t help herself but notice one of the mares looked off. “Rarity, what’s with that color? Trying out a new style?”

Almost instantly they could feel heat around them rising as the expression on the fashionista’s face betrayed frustration, trying to bottle it down. “No... This is just a little… interference from the opposition.”

The rest of the students were glad that help from outside finally arrived. The shy pegasus though noticed that an elder griffin who was with them was tied and gagged and couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Yet the moment when she pulled the rag out of his mouth…

“Let me go!” he screamed. “I have to go back! The big one’s got the Idol of Boreas with him! I have to-“

Gallus quickly zipped over to him and clap his beak shut. “Please don’t do that, Miss Fluttershy. He’s been nothing but a deterrent.”

“Wait… what did he say about the Idol of Boreas?” the purple dragon quickly noticed.

“It’s a long story, but when we were at the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss we came across the Idol, and now Tirek’s got it.”

When they heard that, the rescue group quickly turned to the battlefield. He had it with him?

“We have to help Twilight now if that’s the case!” the country pony declared. “We have to get together and blast him.”

“One problem,” the party planner pointed out. “We’re one Dashy short… AGAIN!”

“And I fear we’ve got an even bigger problem, you guys!” Gabby finally spoke, as she was standing on the outer edge of the large piece of wood. “If that big guy continues to rampage through the town there’s gonna be nothing left of it. We have to go and evacuate all the residents!”

“Well, then let’s not waste any more time!” Applejack yelled. “All of you spread throughout the settlement, get the griffins to-“

Before she could finish, a bright light suddenly exploded in the sky, blinding everybody for a brief moment. They couldn’t understand what it was, so the pink earth pony pulled out a spyglass and looked through it.

“Uh oh,” was the only word she said.

“Pinkie, what is it?” the little dragon inquired, to which he was given the instrument to see for himself.

Spike looked through the spyglass in the direction of where the light came from. Suddenly, he spotted Chrysalis flying on the spot and laughing. He zoomed down in the direction where she was staring and suddenly noticed the blue dragon, who was spinning downwards towards the ground.

“EMBER!” Spike screamed and immediately flew off.

“Spike, don’t!” Rarity tried to stop him.

“Don’t worry.” Smolder took off. “I’ll go with him to make sure-“

Before she could leave the group, she got enveloped in a pink aura and was left frozen in place. “Oh no, you’re not!” Trixie argued. “You girls have already gotten yourself into so much trouble when you left earlier, I’m not having you do any more heroics!”

“But-!”

“Besides, we’ve got to evacuate the civilians from their homes before Tirek destroys the town! Come on!”

In the sky above the town, the Queen of Changelings and the Dragon Lords fought for supremacy, the dragon flying after her target, to try and burn her, yet she easily dodged, while at the same time, the changeling tried to shoot her down with green shots from her horn, yet she received the same result; both fighters were on equal footing. Ember decided to try something else this time. She generated flame and doused it inside her mouth, creating a thick veil of smoke which she then used to surround the enemy. Chrysalis was caught off guard, unable to see. Before she could do anything, she suddenly felt something grip her horn. She tried to move, but she was held in place. By the time the smoke screen cleared, it was clear that Ember had the upper hand.

“Don’t move a muscle!” she threatened her. “Now you’re going to surrender and come back to Dragons Lands with me and undo the spell you’ve put my dad under. Refuse, and you’ll get burnt!”

If she expected her to play along she was in for a surprise, as she started laughing. “I don’t think so.”

Suddenly, her horn began to glow brighter until it caused a flashing eruption, and at this distance, the instant burst of green light blinded the blue dragon. She let go of the horn to instinctively cover her eyes. All Chrysalis did was simply fly behind her, opened her mouth, and regurgitated green gelatinous goo all over her wings, making them go still and causing her to fall. Ember panicked – she couldn’t see and she couldn’t fly, and she could feel an increased acceleration, knowing any moment she was going to hit the ground. Suddenly she felt a tug at her tail, followed by a strong pull, as somebody halted her fall, allowing her impact to get softened.

“Don’t worry, Ember I got you,” a familiar voice said.

“Spike? Spike, is that you? I… I can’t see…”

“We need to get away, Ember, any moment now she’s gonna…”

The little dragon’s voice halted when he realized he was too late on what he was about to say, since it only took a moment for him to hear the loud buzzing sound, and the changeling queen appeared before them. He tried to put on a brave face and stood between her and the incapacitated Dragon Lord, battle ready.

“Oh, so brave,” she taunted him, “like the princess, like the pet. You do know that you stand no chance against me, right? You didn’t last time you fought me, and I was nowhere near in terms of power that I am now. So, now I’m gonna-“ She suddenly stopped and looked to her right. “What?! Can’t you see I’m in the middle of something here? Can’t you get the “Cloudy” to do it?” She groaned. “Okay fine.” And with that, she simply turned and flew off back to town, leaving the two dragons behind.

“Spike, what’s just happened? I can hear the buzzing going away,” Ember inquired.

“I’m not sure. She just… left.”

“We need to go after her,” she urged.

“Can you even see yet?”

“No…”

“And you can’t fly either.” He quickly went behind her back and started to scrape away the green gelatinous goo that was beginning to harden at this point.

“Hey Dash, you know what this reminds me of?”

“Lemme guess - back in flight school when we used to sneak out in the middle of the night and taunt the instructors while we were hiding by banging on the door of their rooms?”

The Griffin and the pegasus were hiding in the seat of clouds just beneath the surface, and they were peaking at the white giant tower that stuck out of it, with the head of the Storm King looking about its surroundings, trying to find them.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Gilda said. “The only difference is that back then we just got detention for getting caught. This time though, if we get caught by that thing…”

“Relax, G. He may be watch tower, but in this dark, he can’t really see us even if his eyes are lit up. Come on.” She motioned.

They crawled closer to the towering structure of cloud, and when the head’s gaze was turned away from them, the wonderbolt lept out of hiding and bucked at its base, taking bits out of it and having it tip over in one direction, before quickly jumping back into hiding and changing their location because as soon as she did that, the giant head turned and lightning raining into the clouds where they were before.

“I’VE JUST ABOUT HAD IT WITH YOU TWO!” Storm King raged. “You can’t keep doing this forever!”

The due couldn’t help but snicker at the fact that a childish prank like this was keeping him occupied. But the creature’s ranting soon went silent, something that they noticed, including its head, turning in a specific direction, and they swore they could hear him talking.

“What? You want me to zap who exactly? You’re joking… Isn’t that counterproductive to what we’re doing? Fine… fine, I’ll do it.”

The giant head leaped off its attachment and dived into the sea of clouds, disappearing.

Rainbow Dash crawled out of her hiding place, now surrounded in near complete darkness. “What the… Where the hay did it go?!”

“No idea, but my guess is that it went back to Griffinstone. Let’s go, Dashinator!” And they both jumped into the clouds.

Back on the colossal tree, the town turned into a battlefield between the alicorn princess and the centaur lord. Twilight did her best to fight back, now that her friends managed to land and the storm above was distracted, she didn’t have to focus on holding up the protective shield and focus on battle. That however proved to be more difficult, as she noticed progressively that her attacks were showing little to no effect on Tirek. Not only that, he seemed to have been growing bigger and stronger during battle and he was showing no signs of exhaustion – the magic that he was leaching off the Idol of Boreas kept fueling him. In comparison to her, she only kept growing tired. This situation felt familiar, she experienced it when she fought Chrysalis on her own, and she kept growing stronger during the battle from her hatred being constantly fueled. If that was the case then there was only one way to defeat him…

“Come on, I grow tired of this!” Tirek ranted. “FIGHT ME! You can’t just keep dodging my attacks forever!”

As he shot a beam from his hands at her she quickly teleported away. “I don’t have to fight you when I can just tire you out.”

“Hah! Not gonna happen! And if you won’t face me willingly…” He turned in the direction of the part of the town that wasn’t demolished yet, and even though night had fallen, thanks to the lighting flashes above, he could see figures coming out of their houses in the distance and running away. “Then I’ll make you!”

A red orb began manifesting between his horns and it kept growing larger. When Twilight saw what he was doing she knew she was being drawn into a confrontation, yet even so she had to do it. She teleported before him and at that precise moment Tirek unleashed a powerful beam, and she countered it with her own. Her thought was correct with what she assumed earlier - the centaur was strong, really strong at this point; it was taking everything she had right now to keep his attack at bay.

“HAH! I knew it!” he bragged. “Raise a hand against the weak and even if you’re weak yourself, you’ll come running!” Tirek intensified his channeled beam, putting even more pressure on the princess as it began to overwhelm her. “You made a huge mistake, Princess Twilight. Had you and all your friends come at me together from the start, maybe you could’ve still had a chance of beating me with the magic of friendship, but you chose to spread them out, to distract the talking pebble and Chrysalis just to get to me. You’ve set yourself up for failure.” He began walking towards her, while she continued to struggle to make sure the beam wouldn’t hit those behind her. “Go on. Call for help now. Scream! Because your dear friends won’t be able to save you now.”

Twilight was beginning to realize that her opponent may have been right, but what other choice did she have? This was the best she could do with what she had at her disposal and she couldn’t risk the locals getting hurt. And Tirek could do nothing but gloat… so much in fact that he didn’t realize that the surroundings became awfully quiet and that the only light that was now illuminating the surroundings was their projections of power. It wasn’t until he felt the rain falling that he realized something’s changed. And then…

KRAKOOM!

A lightning bolt struck from above, hitting the centaur in the rear, causing him to cry out in pain and disrupting his channeling, which in the end resulted in the alicorn’s attack hitting him in the face and knocking him down. She just stood there, unsure of what had just happened.

The centaur groaned and managed to get back on his feet, furious. “You idiot! I told you earlier to watch your aim!” The Storm King’s face was flying above him, unmoving, staring directly at him. “Why are you giving me that look…?” And soon after the face spat out a lightning bolt, which Tirek dodged at the last moment, realizing what happened before. “You… YOU’RE TRYING TO STRIKE ME?!” And soon after another bolt fell, which he countered with a blast from his hands. “FINE! You want round two?! I’ll give it to you!”

A red orb formed above Tirek’s head and he shot a beam at the face, which then quickly dodged. As the centaur kept assaulting his attacking ally, the alicorn just stood there, confused about what was happening. And in all the flashing lights, from the corner of her eye, she noticed a shape moving through the dark, trying not to get noticed, making a fluttering sound with its wings every now and then, slowly approaching Tirek.

“You know what happened last time!” he continued to rage and shoot beams at Storm King’s face, while it kept dodging. “This time I’m going to reduce you to rubble without a second thought!”

TK-TK-TK!

He ceased his assault. He felt something tapping him on the side of his left horn. He turned his head, and in the dark, he couldn’t quite make out the shape, but he did recognize a pair of sickly green-teal eyes.

“Say cheese!” the voice of chrysalis said.

Her horn began to glow brightly until it generated a strong green flashing light, and this close to Tirek’s face it instantly blinded him. He screamed in agony, and if he could barely see in the dark, now he saw nothing, as he staggered about from the shock.

KRAKOOM!

The thunder roared above and the lightning rained, and this time Tirek couldn’t do anything. It hit its mark and knocked the centaur to the ground, twitching from being struck by an electric attack. Then another fell, and another, he was being pelted by bolts of lightning. Twilight saw this and realized she couldn’t just stand there anymore and made a run for it. Meanwhile, the victim contorted on the ground, all muscled in his body twitching from the attacks he was receiving, with no sign of reprieve. And yet, it finally came: A few seconds passed and he didn’t feel a strike made at him for a while, finally sighing in relief. And then something happened. He still couldn’t see anything, but he felt static in the air as his hair began standing up straight and he could hear a strange cracking sound coming from above. He knew what was coming; there was only one thing he could do at this moment. He quickly erected a shield and a second later he could feel a powerful burst of energy pressing down on him, and it didn’t seem it would stop any time soon. He couldn’t believe this was happening – he was unbeatable and not a moment later he was on the verge of defeat.

“How does it feel, Devourer? Having your only allies in the world turn on you? Betrayal is repaid with betrayal.”

That voice, he heard it earlier, the sinister whisper he didn’t want to listen to and yet it was here now… taunting him. “Do something! Help me!” he cried out in desperation.

“I can’t do anything to help you, Devourer,” Doubt said. “I don’t have the ability to do anything. The only one who can save you now is… yourself.”

“How?! Tell me how?! Quick!”

“What I told you earlier when you refused to heed me,” it commanded. “Take the Idol of Boreas and break it open… Set Anger free.”

He was desperate enough. He freed one of his hands that was channeling the protective barrier, making it difficult to do it with a single hand as the barrier started to get distorted. He stuck his hand in his mouth and pulled the artifact out of his mouth; it was so small compared to how it was earlier that he could barely feel it between his fingers. He began squeezing it to try and destroy it but it didn’t work, despite all the strength he had, at this critical moment he was too weak and worrying about his own safety.

Doubt formed a grin. “Is that how it’s going to end for you, “Lord TIrek”? What do you think your father would’ve said if he saw you now? Would he call you… weak?”

That was a taunt too far for him. Anger, that’s what he felt right now, unrestrained, anger, so strong it was that his yellow eyes turned fiery red. He needed to release it and there was only one arm he could use right now to do it. He applied pressure on it and…

CRACK!

Somewhere safe, the Eye of Arimaspi was showing the events play out.

“So, you chose to surrender yourself to your own inner turmoil, boy?” its watcher spoke in an unamused tone. “I had expected as much and I’m still disappointed, falsely hoping you might be stronger than that. You’re going to regret this decision for the rest of your life… which won’t be long.”

Comments

[nightshroud96]

The bit with Spike was nice

Looks like Tirek will bite off more he can chew

[Doctor_Den]

I used to think there are three conflicting parties, each of which pursues its own goal, but it looks like there are even four of them.