Cadance The Crystal Princess

by Sean Tan the Brony

Chapter 4 - The Storm: Part 1

Celestia's sun shifted significantly as Cadance left the train station to meet her sister-in-law after bringing some of her things from her old room to the Crystal Train. The Friendship Festival is now in full effect as ponies were starting to crowd around the stage. Amidst the crowd, she saw Twilight standing near the stage.

Just as she reached her younger sister's position, a multi-layered cake suddenly landed on Twilight, splatting the batter everywhere. Cadance was able to stop some of the cake batters by using one of her wings to shield herself from splatting onto her.

She couldn't stopped herself from giggling while the Princess of Friendship was now glaring angrily at Pinkie Pie as the cake batter slowly slide down Twilight's body.

Then, two security guard ponies approached with a white furred pony with a yellow and black mane covering her eyes, with a matching tail, and a huge pink bowtie on her mane, arriving at the stage from the crowd of ponies.

"Hi. I'm looking for the pony in charge." The mare spoke as Photo Finish managed to snap a few quick photos of her. “I need to set up for my sound check.”

She then turned her head toward the Princess of Love and said: " You must be the one in charge of the Friendship Festival. Hi, my name is Songbird Serenade. Pleased to meet your acquaintance." She reached out her hoof for a hoof-shake.

Cadance returned the gesture, smiling sincerely at the popstar singer before replying. "Pleased to meet you too, Miss Songbird, but I'm not the one in charge of this festival. My sister-in-law, Twilight Sparkle, is.

The popstar blinked her eyes at her before rubbing her head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Songbird said to Cadance before turning her head toward the Princess of Friendship trying to get rid of the cake batters.

"I'm here for my sound check, Princess Twilight." Songbird spoke.

"Ah, Ms. Songbird Serenade?" Twilight recognised the mare. "Welcome!” She greeted as she approached her. “So glad you could make it.” She added as she tried to remove the batters. “I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I apologize for the mess. I'm usually not so…”

Only for her to stop when she accidentally splatted some cake batters on Songbird's jacket, to which she blushed at her own action.

“Caked in cake?” the popstar singer jokingly figured.

Cadance covered her mouth with her hoof to stop herself from snickering at Songbird's joke.

All of a sudden, a black storm cloud appears in the sky over Canterlot, causing everypony to look up at the cloud fearfully. It was later followed by multiple airships before a larger airship landed on the festival ground. A small hedgehog then came out of the ship.

"PONIES OF EQUESTRIA! WE COME ON BEHALF OF THE FEARSOME! THE MIGHTY!! STORM KING!!" The hedgehog announced. "AND NOW! TO DELIVER THE EVIL EVIL MESSAGE! PUT YOUR HOOVES TOGETHER FOR COMMANDER TEMPEST!!"

At the call of the name, a unicorn mare with dark orchid coat, with moderate rose with lighter edge mane and a broken horn, emerged from the airship. The appearance of the unicorn pony earned everypony gasps and shocked expression.

"Tempest, is it?" Celestia began with a raised eyebrow, her tone guarded. "How may we help you?"

"Ah, I'm so glad you asked. How about we start with your complete and total surrender!" She declared imperiously, as both the solar and lunar princesses gave angry frowns at her. However, Twilight walked past Cadance toward the Storm King's lieutenant.

"Hi, Princess of Friendship, not really sure what's going on, but, I'm sure we can talk this out?" Twilight asked to which Tempest gave the Princess of Friendship most unimpressed look.

"How cute. . . ." Tempest replied, before raising her voice. "Here's the deal ladies, I need your magic. Give it up nicely please or we make it difficult. . . for everyone!" At that moment, the four princesses' expressions became like stone.

"Did you bring an army, miss Tempest?" Asked Celestia, her tone being calm. No sooner the solar princess asked the question, ranks of monstrous storm beasts filed out from the airship the Storm King's lieutenant was standing on, shields and spears held at the ready. As the troops from the larger airship got into formation, more Storm Guards from multiple airships, jumped down in front of the terrified crowds of ponies.

"As a matter of fact, I did." She drawled, smirking at four frowning princesses.

Cadance turned her head to see her aunt Lulu stepped forward as the lunar princess glared angrily at Tempest.

"Look Tempest," Luna started. "We ponies are reasonable and that's why we're going to give you... ONE LAST CHANCE TO STOP ALL THIS NONSENSE!" She finished with her Royal Canterlot Voice. Celestia nodded as she spoke up.

"This doesn't need to end in violence Tempest. Perhaps if you explain why you and this. . . 'Storm King' need our magic, then we can find a way to help you?" Tempest narrowed her gaze at the solar princess, as she retrieved a small orb, from a pouch hidden beneath her mane.

"I don't think you princesses understand the position you're in. Let me help illustrate it for you." She declared with a cold smirk, as she tossed the orb into the air. With an acrobatic twirl, Tempest struck the orb with her back hoof, aiming it directly at Princess Luna. As her soldiers locked shields, and surged forward.

Cadance stared at the orb that was flying straight to her auntie Lulu before widened her eye in horror as she sensed dark magic coming from it, before quickly calling out to her.

"Auntie Lulu! Look out! It's dark magic!!!"

The Princess of the Moon, upon hearing what her adoptive niece had said, tried to block it with her magic shield. After struggling for a minute against the orb’s powers, she got hit by it as black magic dust surrounded her and began turning her into statue.

"Luna!!!" Celestia cried out in horror.

“Aah..I…I can’t stop it!” Luna screamed as she was turned to dark crystal statue. Both sister-in-laws stared at now petrified Princess of the Moon in shock.

All of Canterlot was immediately thrown into chaos as the storm beast rushed forward. The Royal Guard had responded immediately, but the sheer size and strength of the invasion force meant they were quickly outnumbered and subdued.

Twilight, Spike, Cadance, Celestia and the rest of the bearers of Harmony tried desperately fight as many Storm Guards off as they can.

"There's too many of them!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she uppercut one of the storm beast in the face.

"Ya think, Rainbow?!" Applejack answered sarcastically as she bucked one of them with both of her hindlegs.

"Twilight! Cadance!" The solar princess called them as she smashed ten of Storm King's soldiers into the ground with an effortless pulse of magic. "Go south beyond the Badlands! Seek help from the Queen of the Hippo-"

Celestia would never get to finish her sentence as she was hit by another orb, turning her into statue.

"Princess Celestia!"

"Auntie Celly!"

The Storm King's lieutenant, using Twilight's disbelief as an opportunity, immediately fired another orb at Twilight. Cadance saw that and her eyes widened in horror before quickly pushed her sister-in-law out of harm's way, the orb hitting her instead.

"NOOOO!!!" The Princess of Friendship screamed.

Tempest smiled with a sadistic glee as the Princess of Love was covered with black magic dust. But when the dust finally settled, her smile was replaced with disbelief as her jaw dropped at the sight before her.

Princess Cadance was standing on the ground unscathed, her face full of confusion as she stared at her body. Twilight and her friends were all staring in shock.

After staring at her own body, she immediately enveloped the Mane 6 and Spike in her telekinetic grip before sprinting away.

Tempest shook her head. "Grubber! Soldiers!" She commanded them upon seeing the two princesses, Spike and the Mane 5 escaping. "Go get those two princesses! Find them!"

After the Princess of Love got a fair distance away from the invasion force, she gently put them down on the ground. After that, all seven ponies and a dragon quickly run, dodging the soldiers' attempt to grab them before finding themselves cornered on the bridge by two soldiers blocking off each side of the bridge.

Cadance tried blasting them with her magic, but one of her magic ended up reflecting off one of their shields and destroyed the bridge they're standing on, plummeting themselves into the river and over a waterfall.

The small hedgehog, Grubber, and several of the soldiers all arrived on the scene, but could not spot them from down below.

Grubber groaned while pinching the bridge of his nose with his hand. "Great. Boss is so not going to like this."

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Just Below Canterlot

The seven ponies and a dragon regained their consciences after falling over the waterfall and quickly swam toward the shore. As they dried themselves up, Applejack started the conversation.

"Everypony okay?" Applejack asked.

“Okay?! We just got our cupcakes handed to us by the worst party crashers ever!” Pinkie exclaimed in defeat.

“I said we go back up there and fight!” Rainbow Dash told everypony, not wanting to give up on Equestria just yet.

"Are you crazy?!" Spike exclaimed. "You saw the size of those goons! Not to mention, you saw what Tempest is capable of. You seriously wanna go back and challenge her?!" Spike almost shouted.

"Spiky-Wikey's right, darling!" Rarity agreed. "Tempest was able to capture both Princesses Celestia and Luna with those orbs of her."

“So now what? We can't hide here forever.” Applejack pointed out. “And let's be honest, we can't go back to the castle after what Tempest did to the Princesses. We gotta keep them from Twilight and Princess Cadance.”

"Speaking of Princess Cadance..." Fluttershy added as she turned her head toward her and asked. "How come the orb didn't turned you into... you know... the crystal statue?"

As soon as Fluttershy finished his questions, all of them stopped their conversation and turned their head to Cadance.

"Yeah, how come you didn't get turned into statue when Tempest threw the orb at you? " Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow. "Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna got turned into statue after that unicorn threw the orbs at them."

Cadance could only shrugged and said truthfully. "Honestly, I don't know. A defected orb, I guess?"

The six ponies and a dragon all stared at her, which started to make her sweat. Then, Twilight sighed and turned to get her friends attention.

"We figure it out later once we liberate the Canterlot castle from the Storm King's army." Everypony nodded in agreement, to which Twilight continued. "Right now, we need to go south beyond the Badlands. Princess Celestia said to seek help from the Queen of the Hippos."

"Hippogriffs." Cadance interjected. "Auntie Celly said to seek help from the Queen of the Hippogriffs. She told me that she knew the queen when I was visiting her back in Canterlot."

"Right, Hippogriffs. And she is beyond the Badlands which means we'll have to leave Equestria." Twilight added grimly.

The Mane 5 and Spike shared a look with worry before Cadance interrupted them.

"Guys, listen!" She called out. "You girls have travelled all around the Equestria, not to mention saved the world many times." She continued with a smile and gestured her hoof to herself. "Beside, you have me."

Twilight's friends all looked at each other before nodding their head with determination.

"All rightly! Let's go find this Queen of the Hippogriffs!" Pinkie declared as she bounced off northwards.

"Uh Pinkie.” Twilight called out to her. “South would be that way.” She said as she pointed her to the right direction.

"Okie dokey loki!" The party mare happily said before bouncing off ahead in the right direction.

While the rest of Twilight's friend followed Pinkie, Twilight stayed behind to talk to Cadance.

"Thank you for saving me, Cadance." Twilight happily said to her sister-in-law. "How can I even repay you?"

Cadance smiled before replying. "There's no need to. I'm just looking out for my sister-in-law."

Twilight giggled before looking out at the distance. "Do you think the Queen of the Hippogriffs will help us?" She asked.

"I'm sure... she will..." Was all Cadance said before she started coughing.

Twilight turned her head, concern on her face, asked. "Hey, are you okay?"

The Princess of Love stopped coughing after a while and said, "I'm fine. Let's just go and find the queen. The fate of Equestria is in our hooves." She finished with a smile.

Twilight looked at Cadance for a while before nodding and went to catch up with her friends.

Cadance watched at her sister-in-law talking to her friends while thinking about what had happened at Canterlot.

'Why didn't I get petrified like both of my aunties?' She thought to herself.

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Back in Canterlot, all of the captured ponies have everypony restrained and muzzled as they are all escorted by the soldiers while the other’s cause the balloons hanging around to float away after cutting the strings holding them down.

On the balcony of the castle, Tempest Shadow oversaw as the soldiers does their work as the balloons floated up to the sky. Her mind was currently on the Princess of Love. 'Why didn't the Obsidian Orb turned her into statue? It worked for the other two princesses .' She said to herself in her mind.

Sighing to herself, she made her way back inside the throne room where the two petrified princesses were now standing in the middle of the room.

Two of the Storm King’s soldiers approach her in front of a circular bowl shaped table separating them with a potion making a ring-tone like noise.

“Well? Answer it!” Tempest irritably ordered them to do so as they poured the potion into the bowl sized table into the potion inside. The blue smoke appeared from the bowl of chemicals as the Storm King appeared from the smoke from the magical phone call spell.

"There you are." The Storm King said. "Report."

“Successful, everything went exactly as you planned.” She reported.

“Good!” The Storm King said very pleased to hear that. “Now do we have all four Pegacornicuseses, or whatever you call them?”

"They are called alicorns, and all but two." She honestly reported without fear in her eyes, before adding. "Which reminds me..."

The Storm King arched a eyebrow at her, to which the lieutenant continued.

"I threw one of the Obsidian Orb at the Princess of Love and the orb hit her directly, but somehow she didn't get petrified like the other two princesses." She said.

Storm King stared at her for a minute, before he said. "Ok, I will admit that I did not see that coming. We may have to improve the Obsidian Orb to prevent that from happening."

Tempest nodded her head before she was interrupted.

"But, you are going to get them right?!” The Storm King asked with brewing fury.

“Of course!” Tempest calmly replied before continuing. "Give me three days! I'll have everything ready for your arrival. And by then, you will all have what you came for once I have captured the remaining princesses.”

“All right then.” The Storm King nodded his head in agreement. “Just remember, Tempest. Only I have the power to make you whole. Make this staff work, and you'll get your reward. Fail me, and your horn won't be the only thing that's broken.” He venomously warned the unicorn.

“It won't be a problem.” Tempest replied unfazed to the threat.

“Great!” The Storm King replied suddenly upbeat as the spell started to wear off. “I'm ready to power up, crash and bash, and be the biggest, baddest bugaloooooo...”

As the spell wore off, Storm King's lieutenant saw Grubber standing in front of her.

“Do you have the princesses?” Tempest asked him.

"Yeah. About that... both the princesses might have... got away... " Grubber hesitantly answered as he fidgeted his fingers nervously.

The lieutenant stared at him before zapping him with her magic who screamed in pain.

“We need all four for the staff to work.” Tempest stressed the importance of having all four princesses here, before raising her voice.

"Those two princesses are not gonna keep me from getting my horn back! Prepare my ship!!!" Tempest threatened Grubber, to which he immediately obeyed with a salute before running off in fright.

After the hedgehog left the throne room, the Storm King's lieutenant stared at the double doors for a while before turning around and walked out to the balcony.

"You can run, princesses." Tempest started before raising her voice again. "But you can't hide forever! I will find you!" She finished with a determined face, looking out at a distance.

Author's Note:

It begins...

Instead of Cadance being the first to be petrified, I decided to make Luna the first to be petrified.

You guys will soon find out why Cadance didn't get petrified like the other two princesses.

Also, I want to thank Bronyshot2020 for his help. Shout out to him!

Comments

[MrInfinity69]

I guess it's crystal details she has in this fic.

[Luckyfanisaac]

The seven ponies and a dragon regained their consciences after falling over the waterfall and quickly swam toward the shore.(—— As they dried themselves up, Applejack started the conversation.

——)”Yeah. About that... both the princesses might have... got away... " Grubber hesitantly answered as he fidgeted his fingers nervously.

How much of the movie are you gonna spoil? And how much of it is gonna be different.