Chapter Text
Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, stood caged on the open part of the deck that Tempest Shadow had lifted her to during her musical number. The air, though a little chilly, felt nice to be flowing through her mane after being stuck down in that other room for most of the trip. She could hardly focus on that with the view in front of her. Everything seemed grey and lifeless, or a sickly shade of green. If she didn’t directly know what had happened, Twilight would have thought it impossible for Canterlot to reach this kind of state.
She didn’t have time to think about that right now, not yet anyway. She avoided looking out at the destruction of her home -her world- she couldn’t do anything about it right now anyway. “I’m sorry you felt so alone…”
“I saw the truth, my “friends” abandoned me when times got tough. Looks like I’m not the only one…” Tempest Shadow spoke coldly, though the tone of suggestion seeping into the second half of her words wasn’t lost on Twilight. The lavender pony started to turn away, not wanting to see either Tempest Shadow or the far off Canterlot as she felt new waves of shame wash over her. “Face it, Princess, friendship has failed you too.” This time her speech was even softer, Twilight could only assume due to the events that she had just been told about, how Tempest was left all alone.
“Friendship didn’t fail me, I failed friendship…” Twilight Sparkle said as she looked out at all the land they were approaching once more. She didn’t know what to do, she didn’t know what she could do. They were approaching Canterlot fast, there wasn’t much time to do anything if she even could. Any and every pony she trusted were either stranded or captured, and they were on completely opposite sides of Equestria. She couldn’t get any messages out fast, especially not without Spike.
Tempest Shadow hadn’t said anything in the last few silent moments, she too watched off the bannister at the land they were traveling over. The princess sat down, no use standing. Still couldn’t get out of this cage, obviously. It saps magic, way too strong for her to break through on her own. She couldn’t do anything except wait for them to get to their destination.
“Maybe you did.” Tempest Shadow finally started to speak again. Twilight lifted her head, not fully looking at the other pony. “That doesn’t matter now, what matters now is that you can reach your full potential.” She spoke stronger again, but there was less cold indifference in it this time, much to Twilight’s intrigue.
“Huh?” Twilight Sparkle wasn’t sure where this was coming from. Full potential? They were capturing the princesses, wasn’t she the last thing they were after?
“For some reason I feel like there is another way this war will play out. Don’t twist my words, Princess, The Storm King will reign supreme, but perhaps you don’t have to be completely thrown aside in the process. Perhaps I’m being reminded of myself…and like myself, you could offer yourself as an asset to his army. It’s not guaranteed, Princess.” She said the last word with some other emotion. Disdain? Maybe slightly…but it was so much quieter than the others. She seemed to do that a lot. “However, the Storm King might not syphon your magic, not all of it. He might leave you with just a spark, enough to be useful.” She really emphasized the word ‘spark’.
Twilight Sparkle sat in continued silence after Tempest Shadow’s proposition. So this Storm King was after their powerful magic, Twilight was unsure if she had even put that together. She felt like she had some kind of hint of it, from past threats, and the targets being the other princesses besides herself. It didn’t feel good to have the confirmation.
There was so much going on constantly over the last few days and they were always on the move, she just… couldn’t focus on everything at once. But right now, Tempest Shadow was offering her a way out. A firm solid option where to go. She says it’s not guaranteed, but it’s still a possibility. It looked like it could be Twilight’s only possibility. Only chance to safeguard any of the magic.
Twilight Sparkle, unsure of what she could do and almost certain that she wouldn’t be seeing any of her friends again due to them being stranded so far away, not to mention that none of them probably had any idea of what was even happening, she reluctantly tried to find reason to agree. Maybe if she hoped that if it worked out it would buy her more time to figure out what she could do to fix everything that was going wrong. She didn’t even know what happened to her friends. If the Storm Guards went after any of them after they had trapped her. Did they take Spike as well? There were so many things she was concerned about and no way to know.
“I…”
“You don’t need to decide now, but do try to make it quick. We’ll be there soon.” Tempest Shadow said as she turned back towards the door embedded in the side of the ship behind the cage that Twilight was confined in. She could easily figure out that was the door leading back down into the boiler room that they had kept her in for most of the trip. This airship seemed massive.
“I’ll join.” Twilight said solemnly. There was no conviction in her voice, what replaced it was resignation. Tempest side-eyed the princess from over her shoulder, not even turning around.
“Wow, Princess, you’re faster at figuring out what’s good for you than I thought. But it’s not my place to decide that for certain. All I wanted to do was make sure you knew that idea was possibly an option. For the future.” The darker purple pony seemed surprised with how fast Twilight agreed, somewhat suspicious of it even. However, both Tempest Shadow and Twilight Sparkle knew that on the chance that The Storm King would accept her into his army, she’d be on a short leash until they knew they could really trust her to be on their side of this war.
“Farewell for now, Princess.” Tempest’s volume and tone once again sounded rigid and strict. She disappeared through the door, leaving Twilight to think about the option some more as she was slowly sunk back down into the bubbling darkness of the undership as her cage lowered back down for the rest of the trip. The solitude of the boiler room gave her ample time to think.