adventure Elements of Equestria 2: Chapter 20

[DivineMist1000 71,102]

Chapter 20: Retaking Ponyville

A few days later...

Lee and Storm walked down the main road out of Hydrea and they made their way towards Ponyville, but after an hour of walking, Storm stopped to see a huge storm system boiling overhead. Lee looked at the same dark clouds and started to hear rumbles of thunder in the distance.

"Hold on. I'll get a view from above." Lee said.

Quick as he could, Lee took off from the ground and flew up above the trees, but he felt his heart sink as he looked at what laid before him:

All of Ponyville had been reduced to grey fields, buildings which were now rubble and fires were burning out of control, but Lee’s horror only increased when he looked towards Canterlot and saw that the royal castle was now in ruins.

"I-I don't believe it..."

As he tried to focus on the matter at hand, Lee heard Storm yelling at him from below and asked him if everything was okay. A moment later, Lee flew back down and landed next to Storm, who saw the saddened look on his face.

"Lee? What did you see?" Storm asked.

"It's worse than I could have imagined. Everything has been destroyed..."

Storm looked towards the direction of the storm system and had a concerned look on her face for a second before turning back to Lee with a look of confidence.

"This is only temporary, Lee. We will fix all of this once we defeat Malice and now... now we have everything we need to do this!"

A moment later, Lee watched as a huge group of ponies gathered behind him and Storm. Each one was armed with ropes and traps and everypony was also wearing armor from the Hydrea barracks.

"I am so happy that you all are here. Together we will put a stop to this evil and take back our lands!"

As everypony heard Storm say all of this, they all stomped their hooves in determination, with Lee joining in a moment later. Lee got his confidence back as Storm patted him on the back and all the ponies looked towards him.

"Alright, here is the plan: We're gonna start by retaking Ponyville. Now remember, all of the ponies there are under Malice's control, so do not hurt them whatsoever. We just need to trap them and make sure that they don't go anywhere."

"We need someplace to hold them, where they can't escape. Any ideas, Lee?" Storm asked.

"Haven't thought that far ahead... Let's just get in there and work with what we got right now."

Everypony agreed with the plan and they all followed as Lee and Storm led them towards Ponyville. Lee stopped when he made it to a hill and got a better view of the destruction and chaos below, with Storm feeling the same sadness as she approached the hill too.

"This tyranny will not last, Storm! I'm going to make sure of that! We got this if we stick together, right?"

"You are absolutely right, Lee. We fight for Tempest, we fight for everypony and we fight for Equestria!"

Lee smiled as he turned to the army of ponies behind him and placed a hoof over his heart, knowing exactly what he was fighting for.

"FOR EQUESTRIA!!!"

The entire crowd erupted in applause and Lee signaled for everypony to follow him into the heart of Ponyville.
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As the forces of Hydrea entered Ponyville, everything was eerily quiet and all that could be heard was the sound of a lonely wind. All of this emptiness around only made everypony feel uneasy, especially Lee.

All around were burned out buildings, but Lee looked ahead when he saw a huge structure toppled over before him.

Lee looked closer at the rubble and saw a purple star insignia shining faintly, which he recognized instantly.

“Twilight… That’s her castle.”

Just beyond the remains of Twilight’s castle was a pile of rubble that used to be Sugarcube Corner, but Lee looked away from this site to focus on the matter at hand.

“Where is everypony?” Storm asked.

“I don’t know. Keep your guard up…”

Everypony did as Lee said and they all scouted the area as Lee and Storm flew into the air to get a better look.

Storm looked all around the remains of Ponyville, but still saw nopony around. After a few minutes of searching however, she and Lee suddenly heard screaming coming from below and they both hurried to investigate.

At the remains of a bridge going over a river, Lee and Storm saw a lone pony from Hydrea running from the bridge, but Lee saw another pony on the bridge facing the water and he landed next to the pony.

“Hey! Who are you?” Lee asked.

The pony only tilted their head a bit before they faced Lee with a pair of blackened eyes and fur turned to grey. Lee jumped back at the sight, but he then heard the pony whistle loudly.

“What the-“

Lee was interrupted by Storm calling his name and saw that she was surrounded by more ponies with blackened eyes.

Quick as he could, Lee joined Storm and he recognized the seven ponies before him as the Mane 6 and Starlight Glimmer, but Lee looked towards the lead pony with the purple fur and star cutie mark.

“T-Twilight… Twilight, can you hear me? This is Lee.”

Twilight and her friends simply stared Lee down and Twilight tilted her head at him.

“Lee? I know that name. You are a threat to the Master…”

“W-What? No! Twilight, snap out of this! You have to fight his control!”

Lee continued to plead for Twilight to fight Malice’s influence, but Storm had to stop Lee from getting any closer to Twilight.

“Lee, we can’t help her or any of them right now! Let’s just get out of here!”

Before the two of them could take off though, they both saw a huge army of corrupted ponies massing behind Twilight and her friends. Both Lee and Storm backed away but Twilight only laughed at the two of them as they remained on guard.

“You dare resist the Master? You shall perish!”

Before Twilight could do anything, she was surprised when she saw the ponies of Hydrea gather behind Lee and Storm.

As the two of them witnessed this happen, Lee and Storm looked towards the Hydrea army and nodded to them all in confidence before they both flew into the air and looked down upon the two armies.

“Whatever you guys do, do not hurt them! Just find a way to keep them distracted long enough for me and Storm to stop Malice.”

The crowd agreed with Lee’s words and they all faced the army of corrupted ponies. A moment later, Twilight commanded the corrupted towards the Hydrea army and both groups ran at each other.

Both armies clashed and the corrupted ponies tried blasting the Hydrea army with magic, knocking them down and kicking them away.

At the same time however, the Hydrea army used a combination of ropes, luck and cunning strategies to fool the corrupted ponies into various traps set up all over the town.

“Lee, let’s go!” Storm said out loud.

Lee did as Storm said and they both took off into the sky, making their way towards Canterlot.
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High up in the clouds, Lee and Storm remained vigilant for any other ponies who might hinder them, but they both seemed to be in the clear at the moment. As they both continued flying, Storm suddenly heard the sound of coming closer to her and looked towards Lee.

"Lee, watch out!!"

Before he could react however, a huge blast of magic whizzed past Lee's head and he quickly stopped and rolled to avoid the blast. Lee then looked behind him to see a huge group of corrupted Pegasus ponies, led by the corrupted Twilight, chasing him and Storm.

"Well, that's not good! Storm, let's go!"

Twilight surged forward and tried to get ahead of Lee and Storm, blasting at them along the way, but Storm blew her back with a huge thrust of her wings and sent her hurling into a patch of clouds. Twilight quickly recovered however, and told the Pegasus ponies to stop Lee and Storm.

At that command, more Pegasus ponies chased after Lee and Storm and Lee recognized the Pegasus pony with a rainbow colored mane leading the pack as Rainbow Dash.

"No way we're gonna outfly her! Storm, we can't dodge these guys forever!"

Storm dodged another magic attack from Twilight, as well as a few attacks from Rainbow Dash before she spoke to Lee.

"Well then, now's a good time to think of a plan, don't you think?"

Lee twisted his way through the oncoming attacks and he desperately searched the land below for anything they could use to trap the ponies.

"Lee! Now means now!! What do we do?" Storm asked.

"I don't know! Give me a minute, will you?"

Just then, Lee gasped when he saw a huge red structure below and he pointed Storm towards the structure, but only had a confused look on her face.

"Lee, that's a barn!!"

"I know, but it'll have to do for right now! Just follow me!"

Lee dived down below the clouds with Storm beside him and the army of Pegasus ponies close behind him. The two of them then came closer to a large field of apple trees and the huge red barn close by to the fields.

"Uhh Lee, we got more company!"

As he heard Storm say these words, Lee looked off in the distance to see a huge group of unicorns and earth ponies closing in on the apple fields, but also saw some of the Hydrea ponies in front of them too.

Storm had a worried look on her face, but she looked over at Lee to see how determined he was at that moment. Lee rushed ahead and quickly stopped to speak to the group of Hydrea ponies below.

"All of you, listen to me: lead those ponies over there to that barn and keep them cornered in there!"

The Hydrea ponies did as Lee said, even though some had very confused looks on their faces. Lee flew ahead towards the barn, but Storm quickly joined him after seeing what the Hydrea army was doing.

“Lee, what are you doing?”

“Trust me, Storm. I’ve got a plan!”

Lee landed next to the barn and he and Storm quickly opened both doors. Lee looked inside and was relieved with how spacious it was.

“This’ll do! Alright Storm, get ready!”

Storm looked above to see all the Pegasus ponies coming towards them and looked off in the distance and saw the Hydrea army leading all the corrupted unicorns and earth ponies.

“Uhh Lee?”

“Hold on, not yet!”

As the army of corrupted ponies closed in on them both, Storm became increasingly panicked while Lee held his ground.

“Lee?!”

“Almost there…”

The Hydrea army then came towards Lee and Storm with the corrupted ponies close behind them, but Lee still stayed put for a few more moments.

“LEE!!!”

“NOW!!!”

Lee, Storm and the Hydrea army all moved out of the way in an instant and the huge mass of corrupted ponies flooded into the barn.

As the last of the corrupted ponies finally herded into the barn, Lee and Storm quickly closed the doors and the Hydrea ponies surrounded the barn to make sure that nopony escaped.

“That’s not going to be enough. We need something to reinforce the barn..."

Lee looked around the area for something that might help and he suddenly fixed his eyes upon a huge metal water tower nearby, which gave him another idea to work with.

“Unicorns, with me!”

A group of unicorns joined Lee and they made their way over to the water tower as the rest of the army and Storm kept the barn secured.

“Hurry up Lee! We can’t hold it much longer!”

Lee made it to the water tower and waited for the unicorns to gather around him before he told them of his plan.

“I need you guys to use your magic and take all that metal. Use as much as you can to reinforce the barn and make sure that nopony can escape.”

The unicorns did as Lee asked and they all worked together to take the water tower apart. As the unicorns took all of the metal away, Lee gasped when he saw a huge stream of water pouring out of the tower.

Just before all of the water inside fell onto the unicorns, Lee used his lightning powers to quickly vaporize all of the water and turned it into a warm steam.

“Phew! That was too close!"

A couple minutes later, Lee led the unicorns back over to the barn, who were carrying loads of steel and metal together. Once they reached the barn again, the unicorns started setting up steel bars around the outside of the barn and putting metal plates against the doors and windows.

Everypony lended a hoof as the unicorns stretched out the steel to make it fit over the entire barn, the Pegasus ponies put metal plates on the roof and earth ponies tied the steel bars down deep into the ground.
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Once the barn was tightly secured, Lee took a moment to catch his breath and thought to himself.

"That won't hold them for long, but it's the best we can do to delay them..."

Lee jumped back a bit when he saw the barn shaking violently and hearing all the ponies inside trying to break out. The Hydrea army and Storm kept all of the corrupted ponies inside, but Lee knew it was only a matter of time before they all escaped.

"I can't let anypony else get hurt. Storm..."

As he tried to figure out what to do, Lee looked towards the horizon and saw the ruins of Canterlot, making Lee think about the evil hiding there.

"Malice... I won't let you hurt my sister!"

Frantically, Lee constantly looked back and forth between Storm and Canterlot before he closed his eyes and slowly decided what the best course of action was now.

"I have to do this... This is the only way to protect her!"

Before anypony else could witness it, Lee took off from the ground alone and looked back at Storm for a moment before he quickly made his way towards Canterlot with a look of absolute determination.

"I'm coming Malice..."

A/N: The battle to take back Ponyville begins! What will become of Lee and Storm? Find out next time!

Edited May 8, 2022 by DivineFive1000

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

Ah man, I was really hoping for Evil Rarity to get some spotlight. I know she was corrupted too, but I guess just Evil Twilight's good enough. Thrilling chapter, I just hope the ponies don't have to stay locked in a barn for long. 

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

I’m so excited for the fight!  This sounds so promising!  I’m hoping Ponyville, Canterlot and of course the Mane Six can be fixed. 

[DivineMist1000 71,102]

@CloudMistDragon @TomDaBombMLP What did you guys think of Lee and Storm in this chapter?

[Tom Gallagher 33,521]

7 minutes ago, DivineFive1000 said:

@CloudMistDragon @TomDaBombMLP What did you guys think of Lee and Storm in this chapter?

They’re heroes! They’re legends! I hope they succeed. 

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

1 hour ago, DivineFive1000 said:

@CloudMistDragon @TomDaBombMLP What did you guys think of Lee and Storm in this chapter?

I thought they handled themselves very well, against all odds, of course!