Chapter 2

Betray or be Betrayed

Each time Luna had visited the Storm King in his dreams so far, she had seen events that had never happened or places that didn't really exist, things that he conjured up himself out of his own imagination...but this time, that didn't seem to be the case.

In fact, the place she was seeing right now was one she was very much familiar with.

Canterlot...

...The Royal Palace...

...Balcony...

...and on it, stood the Storm King himself in all his glory...along with two ponies, one Luna recognised as her sister's faithful student Princess Twilight Sparkle...and the other as the scarred unicorn with the broken horn who lead the tyrant's forces to the city in the first place: Tempest Shadow.

Twilight looked like a mess, her mane showing several burn marks, and the fact that she was surrounded by debris from not only the cage she was recently contained in, but also parts of the cracked wall, made it clear that she had been hit by a significantly powerful blast of raw magic.

The source of that magic became all too clear when the Storm King stepped forward wielding a staff with a sparkling blue gem at its end.

"Not bad," he commented in an excited tone. "Actually, kinda first rate! What else does it do?" he asked before giving the glowing magical crystal a small poke with his claw.

"Your excellency..." Tempest's voice called out as she made an effort to keep up with him. "You promised to restore my horn and give me even greater-"

Before she got a chance to finish that sentence, the Storm King held up a hand and interrupted, "Be-be-be-be! Okay, hang on, I want to blast that pony again..."

He pulled up his staff to prepare for his next strike, but when he did so, the entire sun suddenly flew across the sky faster than it had any right to do.

Surprised by this development, he moved it around a bit more, and let out an amazed gasp to see that the mighty celestial body was following his every move.

"You got to be kidding me! I can move the sun!? HA-HA-HAA!" He took a few steps over to the edge of the balcony, "WOW! Now this is what I'm talking about!"

Out of the corner of her eye, Luna briefly saw a moment of vulnerability on the usually stoic face of Tempest Shadow, but the scarred unicorn quickly shrugged it off and took a few steps to approach her master.

"HA-HAAA! Time to play!" the energetic voice of the Storm King beckoned as he aimed the staff at the horizon while keeping a massive grin on his face.

Then, not entirely unlike a child having way too much fun playing with their new toy, the mighty Storm King flipped his staff back and forth repeatedly, causing the sun and moon to fly across the sky so quickly that day and night ended up lasting mere seconds.

"TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY! DAY...NIGHT...DAY...NIGHT...DAY...NIGHT, DAY-NIGHT, DAY-NIGHT, SUNRISE, SUNSET, TAM-TAM, BADABADDA-BUM-BUM-BAM-BAM-BAM!"

He was even dancing like a monkey on his cloven hooves while he did this. He was just that happy.

Princess Luna on the other hand felt pretty much anything but happiness at the sight. In fact, seeing her beloved moon and also her home for the last thousand years, as well as the majestic sun that her older sister cared so much for, be tossed around and treated as playthings downright sickened her to the bone.

If Luna had been able to move at the time, she swore she would have done everything in her power to make this self-proclaimed king of storms stop his reckless tampering with the laws of nature and have him punished for even attempting such a thing.

However, that was not why she was here.

No, Luna's task was to help reform the Storm King, to show him why conquering entire lands was a bad thing, and how being a good guy might be better for him...or at the very least find out the reason why he was so evil in the first place.

So why was she seeing this moment? Sure, she had of course heard what happened...literally...meaning while she couldn't walk around or turn her head to see the action, she could hear just about everything from the next room during her short time as an immobile statue, but she hadn't actually witnessed what happened with her own eyes until now.

Seeing it like this gave her a bit of a different perspective on the event for sure...but what was the Storm King's reason for dreaming of this specific moment, Luna pondered.

Was he simply remembering his final moments as a living breathing organism with a hint of nostalgia or regret, or was this particular moment precious to him in some way?

She could not answer those questions herself, especially since she had trouble verifying if this truly was going on exactly as it happened.

As stated previously, she hadn't actually seen this moment with her own eyes until now due to her having been frozen in obsidian at the time as a result of an impact with a magical orb, rendering her helpless and immobile. Probably one of the few times in her long life when her imprisonment in the moon felt like a welcome alternative.

Where did the Storm King find those orbs anyway, Luna just considered as she thought about her petrification. She had never seen anything quite like them before, and from what she had been told from Celestia's and Shining Armour's interrogation of his former minions, apparently not even Tempest, Grubber or the Storm Guards seemed to have any idea where their king got his hands on them in the first place.

All they knew was that he was very protective of the orbs he had and never let anyone even touch them without his permission. Even Tempest Shadow was only allowed to carry four of them for her attack on Canterlot...and that was only after she explained in detail just how powerful the four alicorn princesses were, and the measures they needed to take in order to successfully capture them.

Whatever they were though, they were definitively powerful. In fact, aside from the magic-absorbing throne of one Queen Chrysalis, Luna had never seen nor heard of any object that could nullify outside magic so effectively. She'd bet that if Discord had been hit by one of them, probably not even he would be able to stop himself from being turned to stone...an experience that he was pretty familiar with so far, she was sure.

Power like that was not something to take lightly, and if the Storm King could find them, then it would be a logical assumption to make that other potential enemies of Equestria could discover and use them too. Therefore was finding out the origin of those Obsidian Orbs one of Luna's top priorities.

Something to ask him about later, perhaps?

"...and now...I'm bored," the Storm King eventually said in an unimpressed tone that was even followed by a yawn. He also let the sun stay back in the sky now that he had had his fun with it.

Seeing an opening, Tempest Shadow took this opportunity to ask, "Your Excellency, I did my part of the-"

"Not until I know for sure this staff is all it's cracked up to be!" he interrupted without turning around to face her. "Sun and moon control is all well and good, plus there's the whole zappy-zappy-thing, buuuuuut...I think you said something about 'the power of a thousand armies' or something, right? Why don't we put that to the test first?"

Tempest clenched her jaw in order to curb her impatience a bit. "Very well. Should I find you a target, sir?"

On cue, the sound of some kind of commotion could be heard in the distance, drawing the attention of not only the Storm King, but also that of the two ponies that were on the balcony with him.

Down below, the Storm Guards were growing anxious, with some rushing to investigate what was going on while many more grouped together to form a defensive blockade around the entrance to the palace.

"No need, Tempest..." the Storm King answered in a sinister voice, a viscous smile forming on his face. "Now let's get this storm started...OH, I JUST LOVE SAYING THAT! Hey, is it too late to make it my new catchphrase?!"

Tempest wasn't really paying that much attention to him though, and took a few steps to look over the railing and see what in the world was going on down there.

Her eyes widened in disbelief when she saw the same Abyssinian con-man she supposedly blew into smithereens suddenly show up alongside five very familiar ponies and one baby dragon. Questions like how the heck was he still alive, how did they all show up here so quickly, and how did they get past all the guards swam around in her head, and nothing seemed to be able to provide her with an answer.

It got even weirder when the cat picked up the dragon and began to use him as a living flamethrower, scaring off a whole platoon of (apparently very flammable) Storm Guards from their posts without much of a fight.

"What! HOW!?" the flabbergasted unicorn asked in utter confusion.

After having stayed silent and mopey for most of the time all this was going on, Twilight Sparkle's eyes lit up with hope, and she started to say, "It's...it's the magic of-"

But was cut off when the Storm King waltzed in with a happy strut and said "Yeah, yeah...", then grabbed both Twilight and Tempest and pulled them both into a tight hug, "...friendship and flowers and ponies and...BLEH!" he finished with a gag so majestic he even stuck his tongue out in disgust.

"I'm so totally over the whole cute pony thing..." the Storm King then commented in a dry tone...before he raised his voice and shouted, "...this ends NOW!"

With a glint of sadistic glee in his face, he raised the magically imbued staff skyward, sending a bright bolt of lightning into the clouds above him...all while cackling like a madman.

Under the mighty alicorn magic contained in the Staff of Sacanas, the clouds were pulled out of the sky and formed a huge devastating tornado right in the middle of Canterlot, nearly ripping the city apart in the process.

Faced with an obstacle so great, the small group of would-be-heroes had to flee from the storm while many Storm Guards were helplessly swallowed up by the strong winds.

In the eye of the storm, the Storm King bellowed, "NOW I TRULY AM THE STORM KING...AND THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BOW TO MY BA-BA-BA-BOOM, BABY!" complete with fist-pumping and pelvis-thrusting.

He had succeeded. After all this time and effort, he had finally become the true king of storms, a mighty force of nature that would not bow to anything. Nothing would stand in his way ever again, and he was at long last free to do whatever he wanted.

Realising this, Tempest once again pleaded, "Yes, yes, you are every bit as powerful as I promised, sire. Now restore my horn and I swear to use my magic to serve you," even bowing before him to show her sincerity.

Luna knew what happened at this point. She knew that he didn't keep his word, and threw Tempest aside thinking he had no further use for her even with her horn and magic intact, and she also knew that that decision backfired in a way that eventually left him but a pile of shattered pieces of crystal.

That was what she knew was going to happen. That is what she had heard, and what she was told happened.

So imagine her surprise when that didn't happen at all...

Instead, the Storm King put his claws on his chin in thought for a second before he decided, "Ah, what the heck? One dinky little unicorn horn coming up!"

He aimed the magical gem at the end of the staff at the base of the broken remains of her horn and began to pour magic into it. Though unlike the destructive bolts of lightning he set off before when he used the staff, now a multicoloured wave of healing magic radiated from it instead.

And before she knew it, Tempest Shadow's horn was back in its full glory.

After all this time, the part that was taken from her so long ago had finally been given back to her. She was now fully restored and more powerful than ever before.

Pleased with his good work, the Storm King smiled a bit. "There you go, so would you please do me one itty-bitty tiny little favour and STOP WHINE ABOUT IT!?"

Tempest didn't say anything. She was just too lost for words as she began to feel her magic start to build up in her new horn.

"So where to now? Oh, should we invade the dragons, or maybe those change-thingies, or how about the-" he suddenly stopped talking when a magenta-coloured magical aura enveloped his staff. "What the?!"

It was then harshly pulled out of his claws by a very strong force before it gently floated over towards Tempest, whom he only now realised had the same-coloured aura emanating from her newly restored horn.

With a devilish smirk on her face, and with cold bloodthirsty eyes, Tempest commented, "Now I'll show you what I can really do."

Lost for words, the schocked Storm King asked, "Tempest? You...betrayed me?"

She chuckled evilly, "Hehehe...no, Storm King. As you said, friends can betray you..." her voice turning less feminine and more raspy for every word she...or rather 'he' spoke. "I merely have my own goals...and they do not include you!"

Suddenly, the image of Tempest Shadow started to fade away as she was soon replaced by a gangly-looking, two-armed, legless, gaseous being with a pair of black sinister eyes that stared directly into the Storm King's soul. He was also now holding the staff in his creepy-looking hands rather than a magical unicorn aura.

With no time given to evade or defend himself, the smoke creature unleashed a powerful bolt of lightning right into the Storm King's chest, blasting his chestplate to pieces and sending him flying straight into the very cyclone he had himself just created.

The irony was not lost to him as he was swept up by the force of the storm and tossed around like a rag-doll among all sorts of debris that the tornado had picked up.

In just one moment, all that he had worked for, bled for, fought for, had been undone by a single mistake. He was a fool to put his trust in anyone but himself, to let them have power he should only keep for himself, and believe for even a second that they would hesitate to betray him if given an opportunity.

However, with a brief flash of her horn, Princess Luna made the tornado vanish into nothing while the image of Canterlot was replaced with an endless star-filled void.

This was the dreamscape, Princess Luna's true domain.

The Storm King looked around a bit in confusion at the sudden change of scenery, as well as the fact that he was still standing on something despite not feeling himself ever hitting any ground.

Then he realised what happened and let out a long drawn out sigh. "Let me guess...this is just another dream, isn't it?"

"Correct," Luna answered while she gently trotted towards him.

He looked at her and rolled his eyes, "Is there a way to get rid of you? Like, can I make my head horse-proof or something? Because this is starting to get REALLY ANNOYING!"

Having gotten used to his sudden bouts of shouting for the last three nights, Luna didn't even flinch when he did it this time, and instead calmly replied, "Like it or not, Storm King, I am the only one who can communicate with you in your current state. But if you would prefer to be alone for the rest of your existence...then by all means."

The Storm King growled at that comment, his deep voice making the noise more felt rather than heard. Then he let out an indignant huff and turned away from her while crossing his arms.

After a moment of tense silence, Luna asked, "Who was it that betrayed you?"

He gave her a surprised glance over his shoulder, "Uhh...what the heck are you talking about?"

"I have walked among the dreams of countless beings for more than a thousand years. I know how to interpret a dream's meaning...even within the mind of someone like you."

An image of Tempest Shadow materialised next to Luna, her head held high with a confident look on her face...and then...an image of the strange smokey creature faded into existence on the other side of her, his ghostly hands clasping each other in a way that betrayed his treacherous nature.

The appearance of the creature made the Storm King's eyes flash bright with anger, especially with Tempest there as well. And if only that purple alicorn had been there too, then he would have been subjected to the sight of the four beings in the whole world he despised the most.

Noticing his reaction, Luna continued. "I understand now your reasoning for not upholding your end of the bargain you had with Tempest Shadow. And I think we both know that it has something to do with the creature on my right, am I correct?"

While just barely managing to keep his rage from erupting, the Storm King took a few angry steps towards her.

When he got close enough, he physically tried to punch her in the face, only for his hand to phase through her as if she wasn't even there. He let out a loud but short growl, then tried to do the same to the vision of Tempest, and then to the smoke creature...but he still couldn't even touch them.

Frustrated by this, he stormed away (heh) from them all and let out a long and enraged scream that was so powerful that it distorted the dreamscape around him with visible ripples.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAAA! YOU STUPID, MISERABLE PIECE OF PONY TRASH! WHO GAVE YOU PONIES THE RIGHT TO POKE INTO MY BRAIN AFTER HUMILIATING ME TO THE WHOLE STINKING WOLRD?!"

And just when the Storm King seemed to have broken the record for loudest voice of all time, Princess Luna used her own Royal Canterlot Voice to prove him wrong.

"AND WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT TO PLUNDER EVERY LAND IN YOUR PATH JUST TO SATISFY YOUR OWN OVER-INFLATED EGO!?"

The force of her voice was enough to make the much larger Storm King have to take a few steps back to avoid falling off his hooves by it. To put it bluntly...he did not see that one coming.

"Now, for the love of Equestria, would you cease acting like an entitled brat and stop blaming everyone else but yourself!?" the princess finished in a slightly less powerful tone.

The Storm King just stood there flabbergasted, with his eyes opened wide and his jaw nearly hitting the ground. Then he shook his head and gasped, "WOW! Now those were some mean pipes you got there! Is it just something in the dream world or are you actually that loud?"

"Um...it is not just in the dreamscape," Luna answered awkwardly. Clearly, that was not the reaction she was expecting of him.

"Ha-ha, is that right? Shame I didn't meet you sooner. With your voice we wouldn't even need Grubber's gramophone thingy to announce our invasions every time!"

"Did you listen to a word I just said?" Luna deadpanned.

"Hmmm...I guess a little of it. Something about 'blah blah', and 'beh beh beh', and 'oh look, I don't care'."

Luna facehoofed and groaned.

"Actually, hehe, I heard everything! I just wanted to see the look on your face, Ah-HA hahahahahaha!"

He even showed what could only be described as a troll smile on his face after he admitted that.

"Is everything a joke to you?!" she asked in a frustrated voice.

"Funny, I was just about to ask you the same thing, considering I'm not the one who's probing inside someone else's head!"

Seeing that this was getting her nowhere, Luna stomped her hoof on the ground with a hard clang, changing the backdrop to something very different to the current one.

Instead of being in an endless void this time, the two of them were now in some kind of luxurious garden full of tables stacked to the brim with all sorts of delicious-looking food, from exotic fruits to roasted meat, which, while being a foreign food concept to ponies, was something that the Storm King was quite familiar with.

The Storm King himself was now seated in a luxurious throne befitting of his ego and several floating fans were giving him a light breeze even with no creature actually holding onto them.

He looked around quizzically, not knowing if he should feel flattered or insulted by his surroundings. "Umm...what's this?"

"A mere taste of my power," Luna explained. "As the princess of the night, I can conjure up any scenario you can possibly imagine for your pleasure. Any wish granted, any possibility made real, and anything you could ever want to do or be can be made real at your convenience. All you have to do...is ask."

The Storm King picked up a pineapple from a nearby table and gave it a bite, and even let out a small gasp as he realised that it tasted just as real as they did when he was awake. "Oh, that's delicious! So...you would do this? Just like that? What's the catch? There's gotta be a catch, right?"

"Indeed there is," Luna replied ominously. "In return, I want you to tell me something about yourself."

"Like...what?"

The images of Tempest and the smoke being reappeared next to Luna, though by doing so, she was actually spoiling the perfect scenario she had created for him somewhat. "First off, I want to know what this creature is, and how he relates to Tempest Shadow."

The king thought about her proposal for a second, even pinching the bridge of his flat nose while he did so.

After about half a minute of considering it, he decided, "FINE! I'll tell you, but you gotta do something else for me first!"

"And what would that be?"

"I want you to make that Tempest Shadow over there physical, so I can touch her, and then...I want her to come over here. Do that, and I'll tell you everything about about that idiot you could possibly want to know. Deal?"

Princess Luna was a bit uneasy about his request, but decided to honour it anyway. It was unlikely she would ever get an opportunity like this again, and whatever it was he actually wanted right now, she knew it wouldn't hurt anyone in the real world...which, at the end of the day, was the only world that really mattered when it came down to it. So with a brief flash of her horn, 'Tempest' came to life and began to trot over to the Storm King.

"What do you want from me, your excellency?" she asked in her usual voice.

When she came close enough to him though, he answered her question by grabbing her by the throat so hard that she couldn't breathe.

"To put it bluntly, Tempest...I want you...dead," he said before squeezing her hard enough that her eyes rolled back in their sockets, a sickening cracking noise rang off as her neck snapped, and she soon began to hang limply in his claws.

Then he tossed the dead Tempest Shadow image aside without a second glance, now turning his attention back to Luna who was visibly horrified by the sight, with her eyes wide open in shock.

"Ahhh...that felt good," he idly commentated, showing not a speck of sympathy or regret for what he just did. "Now, let's start with the basics! His name's Strife, he's a living cloud...thingy, and he's Tempest's predecessor. I met him back when I first started out with the whole 'Storm King thing'. Good at reading maps and finding magical knickknacks, but kinda sucks at pretty much anything else. Still, the only other guys I had with me at the time were an army of those mush-brained brutes and that little spineless hedgehog, so I made him second in command of my armada, and we simply had the best of times! I let him pick a destination, then we smacked down, tore the land apart and ran off with whatever we could carry. Together, we plundered the penguins, hippogriffs, lizard-people, parrots, centaurs, gargoyles, minotaurs and a few more I don't remember.

"Then, after we finished mopping up Abyssinia, that little fart stole all my loot to join up with those damn birds! After everything we've been through, he just decided to betray me as soon as he saw an opportunity! Can you believe him!?"

"You were afraid that Tempest would do the same," Luna observed, having gotten over the senseless, if imaginary, murder of a pony in front of her. "That's why you chose to betray her first."

The Storm King picked up a roasted piece of chicken and took a hearty bite out of it. "Well...DUH! Thought I already explained this whole thing though," he said while chewing obnoxiously. "Why would I ever give someone else the power to stab me in the back!?"

"Have you ever considered that that wasn't what she was planning at all, and that your own paranoia and trust issues caused the very problem you were trying to prevent?"

"Eh...no. Why would I? It was obvious she gonna betray me, so why bother?"

Luna looked away for a moment, her hoof now kept on her chin in thought, "Hmmm...now why don't we take a look then?"

"What are you-"

In an instant, the dream changed yet again, but back to a familiar scenario.

In the eye of the storm, the Storm King bellowed, "NOW I TRULY AM THE STORM KING...AND THE ENTIRE WORLD WILL BOW TO MY BA-BA-BA-BOOM, BABY!" complete with fist-pumping and pelvis-thrusting.

He had succeeded. After all this time and effort, he had finally become the true king of storms, a mighty force of nature that would not bow to anything. Nothing would stand in his way ever again, and he was at long last free to do whatever he wanted.

Realising this, Tempest once again pleaded, "Yes, yes, you are every bit as powerful as I promised, sire. Now restore my horn and I swear to use my magic to serve you," even bowing before him to show her sincerity.

The Storm King put his claws on his chin in thought for a second before he decided, "Ah, what the heck? One dinky little unicorn horn coming up!"

He aimed the magical gem at the end of the staff at the base of the broken remains of her horn and began to pour magic into it. Though unlike the destructive bolts of lightning he set off before when he used the staff, now a multicoloured wave of healing magic radiated from it instead.

And before she knew it, Tempest Shadow's horn was back in its full glory.

After all this time, the part that was taken from her so long ago had been given back to her. She was now fully restored and more powerful than ever before.

Pleased with his good work, the Storm King smiled a bit. "There you go, so would you please do me one itty-bitty tiny little favour and STOP WHINE ABOUT IT!?"

Tempest didn't say anything. She was just too lost for words as she began to feel her magic start to build up in her new horn.

"So where to now? Oh, should we invade the dragons, or maybe those change-thingies, or how about the Yaks? Any ideas?"

After collecting herself thoroughly, Tempest noticed something in the corner of her eye and lit her horn. This time however, instead of trying to take his staff away from him, she created a protective shield in front of her master just before a cannonball of five ponies and a dragon could hit him at terminal velocity.

With her newly restored horn's added power, it was more than enough to send them all flying in separate directions. Though, with the tornado right next to them, all of them soon ended up being swallowed up by it and left at the raging storm's mercy, scattering them to the wind.

Seeing this, Princess Twilight let out a heart-wrenching "NOOOOOOOoooooo!" as she saw her closest friends be taken away from her and consumed by the mighty tornado.

With a flash of anger, the alicorn faced the Storm King and asked, "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS!? What could you possibly hope to gain from destroying our homes!? Our friends?! WHAT'S IT ALL FOR!?"

The Storm King stayed silent for a moment, an unreadable expression crossing his face, then he looked at her and spoke in a surprisingly calm voice by his standards. "Hurts, doesn't it? All your friends, all your loved ones, your homes, all of it just go...POOF! That's life for ya. It isn't getting any better...believe me."

Then he glanced at Tempest Shadow, who regarded him with a blank look, as if she didn't really know what to do with herself. "Oh, and thanks for the assist, Tempest, remind me to get you something nice from the next place on the list."

Twilight's face started to sprout tears as she hunched over in despair, and the sound of her sobbing started to fill the air.

Paying her no further mind, the Storm King hit the ground with the butt of his staff, dispelling the tornado in the process, and then began to head towards the exit. "Come on then, time to leave this sappy little candyland for good!"

In a flash, Princess Luna and the Storm King found themselves back in the empty dreamscape again.

He regarded her with a strange look, almost as if he himself didn't know what to think of her. Though Luna could tell that one of the few things he most likely didn't regard her with right now...was hatred. For the first time since they met didn't he seem to actually be angry with her...even if he seemed to look at her with some kind of emotion.

"Perhaps you should consider that the next time you decide to think the worst of someone on principle," Luna suggested, "because maybe...just maybe, a little trust and kindness can go a long way."

He didn't respond to that...at least not verbally. Instead, he turned away from her with a look on his face that Luna could have sworn showed just the tiniest hint of regret...which was one emotion she had not seem him experience until now.

"I...I eh, can you...leave me alone for the rest of the night?"

The calmness in his voice took her off-guard a bit, but what really got to her was the sincerity in it as well.

He even looked at her in the eye and finished with a strangely gentle "Please."

Princess Luna nodded, then in a bright flash, she promptly disappeared from his dream.

She refrained from letting optimism cloud her judgement, but something told her that she may have finally been making at least some progress in her mission. Though only time would tell if that was so.

Author Notes:

Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out. I had to focus on my other fanfic a bit first before I could get back to this one, and...well, honestly, I had a hard time deciding what this chapter was even gonna be about.

That's why for future reference I would actually welcome your input on what I can do from here on. While I do have a pretty solid plan as to what I want to do with this story, any ideas you can provide would be much appreciated.

Oh, and one thing I may want to mention is that I will treat the My Little Pony the Prequel comic as canon to this story, and will make references to it from time to time. If you haven't read it yet, then I highly recommend you do so, for it is really good, and goes a long way to flesh out the characters that appear in the movie...especially Storm King.

If you're wondering where to find it, well, Google it and then you might find one for purchase.