Shock and Awe
Deep in the center of the city of Unicornia, within one of the tallest towers of the mighty city, stood a pony known throughout the entire nation. He was a white-coated stallion with a vibrant forest-green mane. Clover was his name, though most ponies knew him as Clover the Clever.
The title had been bestowed upon him, alluding to his great intellect and keen mind. Granted to the once-in-a-generation genius that had managed the nigh impossible feat of receiving the acknowledgment of Arch-mage Star Swirl and becoming his apprentice. Given to the peerless mind whose management skills had managed to impress the crown itself, and so he was given the position of Princess Platinum's direct aide.
And yet, standing within a small but very well-stocked kitchen deep within Star Swirl's tower, tired eyes intently stared at the teapot that had just started to whistle and spit out steam, and Clover couldn't help but muse that a truly clever pony would have managed to avoid ending up as basically the caretaker of a bunch of very high-maintenance and self-absorbed individuals.
Yet, here he was...
Letting out a barely audible sigh, Clover staved off the coming headache with the long practice painfully given to him during his tenure as the Archmage's apprentice. This was by no means the most demeaning or irritating chore his master had ever given him, nor was it the oddest. But it was definitely near the top of the list.
Alas, his master had spoken, and so Clover diligently grabbed some of the tea leaves that were his master's favorites and proceeded to make tea for him and his guest. A guest who had, but minutes ago, soundly trounced half the Celestial Guard in open combat with nothing but a slightly annoyed look to show for it. A guest that had nearly overwhelmed him even as he put every bit of his magical might and knowledge to use. A guest that had matched spells against even Star Swirl himself!
Letting the tea leaves settle for a moment, Clover sighed again and proceeded to check the biscuits he had put in the oven, and seeing they were done proceeded to remove them from it and put them on a decorated plate. Star Swirl hadn't directly asked for them, but Clover knew his master well enough to know that appearing with only the tea and nothing to nibble alongside it would get him a disappointed look and an order to correct the issue.
Truly, the things he had learned under Star Swirl's tutelage were many and varied!
He let out another sigh as he arranged the tea and biscuits on a silver tray. Clover knew he was being unfair and that it was more the tiredness and aggravation of everything that had happened these past few days speaking than anything else. His arcane knowledge had expanded by leaps and bounds ever since Star Swirl had started to teach him, the old pony going so far as teaching Clover several spell matrices that no one else but the archmage himself knew! Being his apprentice was a tremendous honor and Clover was deeply grateful for it!
Yet, that didn't change the fact that his master could be downright aggravating at the best of times...
The fact was, Star Swirl was a once in a millennium genius. The Archmage had invented over half the spells that most war mages used regularly these days, and drastically improved the efficiency of the remaining half. He was a peerless caster, the pinnacle of magecraft as unicorns knew it, and a genius spell crafter. And, much to the detriment of Clover's continued mental health, Star Swirl was perfectly aware of those facts.
As his master once bluntly stated to a noble, who had since made himself scarce from court, it was not hubris if you could actually back it up. And Star Swirl could more than back up everything that was said about him, and more.
Sadly, that meant Star Swirl had a massive ego, that was a fact. But he could not only live up to but actually surpass everything his ego could boast about. And therein laid the problem, for Clover's genius master could barely fathom the troubles the ordinary mage had while trying to learn their craft. And the less said about the troubles of the everyday pony regarding the mysteries of magic, the better!
In Star Swirl's eyes, if a mage struggled to learn a new spell he only had to apply himself harder. After all, he himself had done so with no trouble at all. Laziness must be the only possible explanation for them not mastering it. And so, the fact that they failed to learn what he considered 'basic spells' was, simply put, insulting. All the while ignoring the fact that most war mages barely managed to learn said 'basic' spells...
The only pony Clover had ever seen Star Swirl show any respect to was the late King Bullion, an extremely strong war mage in his own right and a superb administrator and politician. And to a far lesser extent, Clover himself, the Archmage's apprentice and someone lauded as a once-in-a-generation genius in his own right. Well, as far as saying that 'with enough work, we may turn you into a half-decent mage' was a show of respect. But since that was the 'friendliest' Clover had ever seen his master address anyone save the late king, he would take what he could.
The friendliest Clover had ever seen his master address anyone save the late king before today, that is...
As he busied himself finishing the jasmine tea his master preferred, Clover had to fight back a shudder as his master's jovial voice reached his ears through the door that led to the lounge right next door, years of hard-earned instincts screaming at him at how unnatural that was.
He had never heard his master sound that cheerful and upbeat, and that made something deep within him want to run and hide.
"Clover, you are safe!" Princess Platinum's voice came from the opposite door, breaking him from the growing panicky spiral his thoughts had been turning to. The ruler of all unicorns had just rushed into the tiny kitchen, a relieved look on her features before she seemed to realize that and quickly hid it behind her usual royal facade. "We mean, we are glad to see that things seemed to have resolved themselves in regards to the earlier altercation. We trust that Star Swirl managed to contain the situation?"
"In a manner of speaking," Clover replied while inwardly cringing, wondering if inviting the intruder to tea could be counted as such. The unknown war mage was no longer rampaging and taking down unicorn soldiers like newborn foals, so an argument could be made that Star Swirl had contained the situation, after all.
Princess Platinum stared at her aide for a long moment. The princess knew Star Swirl since she was a young filly, after all. And so could easily hear what Clover was not saying.
"Clover, what did the Archmage do in regards to the rogue war mage?" the white-coated princess asked him. Letting out another small sigh, Clover wondered how best to word his answer, before another bout of jovial laughter once more entered the small kitchen as if in answer to the princess's question.
A very odd look overtook her features, as Platinum clearly recognized the laughter, and yet her mind seemed unable to reconcile it with who the owner of said voice was. The platinum-maned mare walked past Clover's very tired-looking form, approached the door of the lounge, and peeked inside.
For a long moment, the princess stood there unmoving, her back towards Clover as she simply stared. Then the ruler of all unicorns slowly started to move backward and away from the door until she was standing right next to her trusty aide, shocked disbelieving eyes fixed upon the door.
"Clover, Star Swirl is smiling," Princess Platinum urgently whispered to the green-maned mage. Her blue eyes were still locked upon the half-open door that led to the lounge where his master was entertaining his guest.
"I know," Clover whispered back with a resigned sigh, head hanging low.
"No, I don't think you do!" Platinum immediately shot back, wide eyes turning toward him, the urgent tone never leaving her still whispering voice. "Clover, he is not smirking, or grinning, or even condescendingly sneering down at somepony,
"Clover, he is honestly full-blown smiling!" the princess whisper-shouted, an edge of panic entering her voice.
"I know!" Clover whisper-shouted back as he grabbed the plate with the tea and biscuits with his magic. His own hard-won patience started to fray after this latest blow against it.
And so with a final sigh, he ventured forward into the lounge in order to deliver the requested tea, all the while thinking that, yes, a truly clever pony would have never gotten himself tangled in this mess.
The first thing that Wonder Bolt noticed as he slowly recovered his senses was the smell. It was a harshly clean antiseptic smell that all pegasi on the Armada eventually came to know during their years of service, and did their very best to avoid experiencing, if they could.
He was in a sick bay.
That fact was confirmed further by the, somehow, soft but hard surface he was laid upon. Soft enough to allow adequate rest, while somehow being just hard enough to not actually be comfortable, making it so one wanted to get up as soon as possible.
The second thing that he noticed was that his everything ached. Muscles he didn't even know could get sore were screaming at him in protest over the abuse they had been put under. But, considering what exactly he had been attempting to do last he had been conscious, and exactly under what circumstances, he probably should have felt lucky he could even feel his muscles screaming at him right now.
Opening his eyes, he was greeted by the plain white walls of a cloud-building. But oddly enough, when he turned his head to the side he saw shelves and closets filled with medicinal supplies, and when he turned it to the other there was a small desk and a door. Nowhere in sight were the dozens upon dozens of packed cots that were common for the sick bays destined for the lower ranks of the Armada.
In fact, his current dwelling looked suspiciously like the private sick bays reserved for the higher officers amidst the pegasus forces.
Shaking his head clear of such useless thoughts, something he immediately regretted since it made him feel like a burly earth pony was hitting him on the head with a mallet, Wonder Bolt started to assess his current state.
He was covered in bandages that had a faint herbal scent to them, and once again considering his screaming muscles, he could easily guess their purpose, but nothing seemed to be broken. He had his full range of movement, even if moving caused a new wave of protests from said aching muscles. He was deeply tired and his magical reserves were lower than he ever remembered them being, but he didn't think he was at risk of immediately collapsing.
That would have to be good enough.
With a grunt of effort, Wonder Bolt pushed himself out of bed and started to slowly walk towards the door, not trusting using his wings to hold his weight at the moment unless he really had to.
He needed answers. The last Bolt remembered was managing to somehow deliver his explosive payload to the heart of the wraiths' blizzard, and then darkness. And by the great winds, there was no way he was staying in a sick bay if his brethren were still fighting the beasts!
Opening the door with a small grunt of effort, the azure-coated pony was greeted by the far more familiar sight of a large expansive room, filled to the brim with cots tightly packed together, several of them with pegasi suffering varying levels of injuries, while the medics of Armada rushed all around as they treated their patients.
He briefly looked backward, to the private room he had been placed in, and then looked at the unused cots clear in the room, before he brushed off the mystery of why exactly he had been mistakenly placed in an 'officer's only' room as inconsequential. He had far more important things to think about.
He couldn't hear any sound of thunder or lightning, but considering how well-insulated and protected the Armada's sick rooms were, that meant nothing. A pegasus could unleash an entire thundercloud but meters outside the room and the ponies within would barely hear it. And, considering how deeply entrenched into the cloud fortress said rooms tended to be, second only to where the young ones were kept in times of crisis, the battle may well still be raging at the battlements of Pegasopolis.
"Sir, you really shouldn't be out of your bed!" a young-looking doctor stated as he swiftly flew to his side, while an odd sort of silence filled the massive room as several eyes landed upon Bolt's bandage-wrapped form, those eyes filled with something Bolt couldn't really identify.
Also ignoring that oddity, Bolt pushed onwards. Considering how vehemently Bolt's muscles seemed to agree with the young doctor's words, he was probably right, but if there was something that the azure-coated pegasus had recently learned was at times you had to be able to outstubborn such paltry things to get things done.
"Report, how fares the battle!" Bolt asked far more harshly than he had intended due to a sudden spike in pain as his muscles disagreed with his current course of action.
"Sir, after the destruction of the storm's heart our troops managed to deal with the remaining wraith attacking forces!" the doctor promptly replied while falling back into a salute. Wait, what? But before he could focus on that odd fact the doctor continued. "Afterwards, considering the approach of the main force of the enemy, Colonel Winter Gale organized his forces for a delaying action while the remainder of the Armada with the help of the Storm Caller set forth to sail the inner citadel of Pegasopolis towards Unicornia, sir!"
Bolt simply stared at the still-saluting young doctor, trying to make sense of what he had just heard for a moment before a simple word found its way toward his mouth.
"What?"
"It is something you have to see to believe I suppose," a posh yet familiar voice came from Bolt's other side. Turning around he saw the cream-coated form of Colonel Shake Spear calmly walking toward him, a small bandage on a forehoof and his ornate spear at his side.
"Colonel, Sir!" Bolt promptly saluted, while doing his best to hide the grimace he wanted to make due to how little his body enjoyed doing the sharp motion.
"Now, now, if anypony earned a temporary reprieve from all these formalities it is you," the Colonel jovially said with a small shake of his head that caused his golden curls to swing. "Glad to see you are up and about, Bolt my boy!
"I must admit you did worry us somewhat with your latest stunt," Shake Spear continued, waving the doctor away with a wing-shake and leading Bolt out of the sick bay. "Even if it was a most fortuitous one for the defense of our dear home!"
"I apologize for any worry I may have caused, sir," Bolt replied, not really sure how to react. That was not helped by how basically every pegasus they passed stopped what they were doing to offer the Colonel escorting him a salute in respect.
"Think nothing of it, my boy," the colonel promptly replied as they crossed another corridor that ended up upon an open courtyard. "Now, for your earlier question.
"As the good doctor was saying, thanks to your intervention the attack by the beasts was thwarted with minimal losses. Alas, considering the approach of the enemy's main forces, a very unique approach was taken to ensure the well-being of our kind."
With those words, Shake Spear gestured with a wing towards the very windy courtyard. For a moment Bolt simply took in the scene before him, not really understanding what he was seeing.
Dozens of Spring Shower's teams of weather pegasi were flitting one way and then another amidst the oddly strong wind currents, adjusting what looked like large planes of solidified clouds in what looked like an attempt to better capture the blowing gale
At the center of it all was a green-coated figure that Bolt would recognize anywhere. Link calmly played his flute while what looked like a miniature hurricane screamed but hooves away from him.
Looking to the side, Wonder Bolt saw the land down below, the scenery passing by at speed. And so he realized what both the doctor and the colonel were talking about.
It was as if a small hurricane had been summoned and then bound to the very center of the pegasus citadel, its mighty walls having been repurposed into massive white fluffy sails that were capturing the gale force winds produced by the bound weather phenomenon. They had turned the whole structure into the equivalent of a massive fluffy sail-boat that was soaring through the heavens fed by hurricane-force winds.
As he took in the impossible sight, he mused that one day, he would learn to stop being surprised by the impossible stuff that Link could apparently pull out of seemingly nowhere, but today was not that day.
A wall of clouds so dark it made one believe that once more the Celestial Spheres had gone out of control, turning day into night. A wall of dark clouds so vast that it seemed to hide the very horizon. A vast wall of dark clouds, that if left alone would herald the end of everything they had ever known.
As she flew in place amidst the freezing winds blowing from the north, that was what Fierce Breeze and the rest of the scouting force under her command had borne witness to.
"The great winds protect us, it's getting bigger, isn't it?" the pegasus soldier to her immediate right frightfully whispered, a shiver running down his body that had nothing to do with the biting cold.
"Quiet, corporal! If I ever have need of your useless prattle I'll ask for it!" Fierce Breeze harshly admonished the pegasus who had just spoken before his words could damage the group's morale any further. "Now keep your mouth shut and eyes open! We do not want to be surprised by any wraiths scouting ahead!"
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" the three pegasi that composed their scouting party replied as one, earning a fierce nod from the pink-coated sergeant.
But even as she turned her head back towards the far horizon, sharp eyes scanning for threats, she had to fight back the curses that wanted to spill out of her mouth. The corporal was winds-damned right.
The horizon-spanning storm was somehow even bigger than it had been yesterday. Worse, its clouds were darker and thicker, the freezing gales coming from it were even colder, and to top it all it was advancing even faster than before!
"We have to report this back to the caravan!" the sergeant declared after a few more minutes, making sure there was no more new information about the threat they could gleam. "Move it, soldiers, on the double!"
With their prior sightings, it was believed that the storm would hit Unicornia in a matter of four to five days, and with the civilian caravan now less than a day from the unicorn capital that would have given them some time to prepare. But now... now she would give it two days if they were lucky, one if they were not.
As she started to put forth every bit of speed she could as they flew back towards the others, a freezing gale hounding every moment of their journey, Fierce Breeze doubted that luck was on their side.