adventure Elements of Equestria 2: Chapter 22

[DivineMist1000 71,102]

Chapter 22 Redux: The Rescue

Back down in Ponyville, Storm and the forces of Hydrea were all standing around the red barn that they used to trap all of the corrupted ponies of Ponyville.

Everypony helped out to keep the barn secure: As a group of Pegasi flew around the barn, Unicorns were helping out by keeping the corrupted ponies contained inside while Earth ponies reinforced the barn with more metal.

“We’ll go and get some more metal! Unicorns, keep up the good work!” said one of the leaders.

“I’ll help you out…” said Storm who was still catching her breath.

Storm walked close by to the Pegasus leader and she helped gather some metal from the water tower they took down earlier. As the Pegasus leader heaved a huge pile of metal onto his back, he turned his attention to Storm to speak with her.

“Storm, I gotta say that that was some plan. Quite unpredictable on Mister Lee’s part, but we actually got all of those corrupted ponies mostly contained now.”

“Thank you all for your help in this predicament, Nimbus. I don’t think we would have made it this far without your assistance…”

Following the Nimbus’s lead, Storm returned to the barn with much metal on her back and they both sat the metal down in front of the Unicorns, who picked up the metal and fastened it around the barn.

“That should be enough for right now, but seriously, how long are we supposed to hold all of those corrupted?” Nimbus asked Storm.

Before she could give him an answer, both Storm and Nimbus jumped a little bit when they heard the barn shake violently from all of the commotion inside.

“Hold that thought…”

As she saw Nimbus run to help the rest of the Hydrea ponies, Storm took this opportunity to let out a sigh of relief and look to the sky.

“I’m still contemplating how that worked myself… but we still did it, didn’t we Lee?”

Storm paused to let Lee speak, but was surprised when she heard nothing but the wind and the commotion from the barn.

“Lee? Lee, are you even listening to me?”

But when she turned around to look at Lee, Storm didn’t see anypony else around her, which only gave her a confused look. She looked around the entire area, but still saw no sign of Lee anywhere and she repeatedly called his name.

“Come on Lee, where are you?” Storm asked as she continued looking around.

Unable to stand still any longer, Storm decided to get a better view from up above and quickly opened her wings as she flew upwards.

High above the trees, Storm scanned the horizon for any sign of Lee, but still saw nothing. She then turned her gaze to the royal castle of Canterlot far off in the distance and suddenly had a sinking feeling in her stomach.

“No… no no no! He did not-“

Storm could only groan at the realization about where Lee went and shook in her head in massive disapproval of Lee’s actions.

“Lee, you complete and utter fool! Don’t tell me you’re going to take on Malice by yourself…”

As a mixture of emotions swirled in her head about what Lee had done, Storm returned to the ground and tried to think of a plan, but she kept throwing away all the ideas she had and just rambled to herself instead.

“I have to go after him… but I can’t go by myself. Malice will have an army surrounding him no doubt and there is no way Lee will be able to get to him…”

Close by, the Pegasus leader Nimbus from before saw Storm muttering to herself and quickly approached her to see what the fuss was about.

“Storm, what’s up? Everything alright?” Nimbus asked.

“No, everything is NOT alright actually, Nimbus! Lee went to Canterlot to take on Malice…”

“What?! By himself?! That’s madness!! There’s no way one pony can take on his army!”

“Don’t you think I know that? Argh, Lee’s in danger… My brother is in danger…”

The only response Storm gave to Nimbus after those words was a loud groan and a small laugh of disbelief directed towards Lee, but Nimbus knew how serious the situation was nonetheless.

As Storm looked back to the sky for an answer, Nimbus looked over at his fellow Hydrea ponies who were keeping the barn secure and formed an idea in his head.

“If Lee’s in danger… then we go and get him!”

Storm looked back at Nimbus, but he had already gone towards the rest of the Hydrea ponies and she went after him instead.

Once she had approached the barn, Storm heard Nimbus speaking to the others about what had happened to Lee and saw a few ponies express their disbelief at Lee’s actions, but they all had a look of desire to help nonetheless.

“Nimbus, what do you guys think you’re doing?” Storm asked.

“Lee is the reason we are all here fighting the good fight, and if he is in trouble, you can bet your feathers that we’ll help him!”

The rest of the Hydrea ponies shouted in agreement to Nimbus’s words and Storm was surprised to see how determined they all were to help Lee.

“Guys… all of you. I-I don’t know what to say…”

“No need to say anything, Storm! We’ll get Lee back together, won’t we?”

The ponies of Hydrea yelled in triumph together again and a smile ran across Storm’s face when she heard this.

“Together… yes you are absolutely right! Together we will go to Canterlot and rescue Lee and not even Malice will stop us from getting our friend back!”

All of the ponies shouted in unison once more and they all disbanded to prepare for the journey to Canterlot. Storm was then left by herself and she placed a hoof over her heart as she thought about Lee.

“And I will rescue my brother… My one and only brother.”
——————————————————————————————————————————

Up on the highest balcony of Canterlot Castle that overlooked the rest of the castle, The Spirit of Malice stood by his lonesome as he simply twirled the Soul Scepter in his hooves and muttered strange words to himself.

Malice closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he continued to feel the power of the scepter course inside of him.

The Soul Scepter then emitted a faint red glow and Malice opened his eyes once more to face the dark and stormy weather all around him.

“The time is almost here… Very soon.”

At that moment though, Malice’s thoughts were interrupted by a commotion coming from inside and he groaned in annoyance as he faced the door at the far end of the room.

Entering through the door was the corrupted forms of Princess Celestia and Luna, Queen Chrysalis and Tempest and Malice saw that Celestia and Luna were carrying a tied up brown Pegasus pony.

A smile of menace came across Malice’s face as he saw this Pegasus pony and he decided to shout towards him.

“Ahh, Lee… How good of you to join us. You two, drop him before me!”

Celestia and Luna did as Malice asked and dropped Lee at Malice’s feet with a large thud and Lee let out a small groan of pain.

Malice knelt down to look at Lee, but Lee said nothing as he just stared at the ground in anger. Malice became annoyed at Lee’s silence and he kicked Lee in torso to try and get his attention.

“What? Got nothing to say now? I figured you were going to give me some inspirational speech about why I’ll lose…”

Lee closed his eyes and felt a lot more pain all over now, but he still remained silent and didn’t look at Malice.

“When will you realize that no matter how much inconvenience you cause me, you always end up the same way: helpless against my power?”

Malice laughed more as he looked at the Soul Scepter, but he still heard nothing from Lee, which only increased his annoyance and his anger.

“Fool, you will look at me when I speak to you!!”

Using the power of the Soul Scepter, Malice raised Lee up until he was just floating in mid-air and the two of them were face to face with each other.

More pain raced through Lee’s veins, but he didn’t back down as just glared in utter anger at Malice, who just smiled in contempt at Lee.

“What do you have to say now, Lee?”

As a response to Malice’s question, Lee suddenly thrusted his head forward and connected it against Malice’s own head. This action made Malice drop Lee as he held his face and Lee fell back down with a little smile on his face.

“ARGH!!! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!!!”

In a fit of rage, Malice picked up Lee again and started beating on his face until it was covered in bruises. Lee was then blasted back towards the wall and he left a huge crater on impact before he fell back down to the ground wincing in pain.

Malice approached Lee again and kicked him in the face to make him look at him, but Lee still said nothing despite the pain he had.

“Find then… If you prefer your silence then just stay that way. It doesn’t matter to me because soon all of you ponies will be under my control and I will rule over all of Equestria!!”

As he turned to walk away and back to the balcony, Malice finally heard some choice words from Lee and he turned back around to face him.

“You won’t win…”

A sinister smile appeared on Malice’s face at hearing these words from Lee and he walked back towards him while powering up the Soul Scepter

“Let’s see: Your precious friends are under my control, everything you care about has been destroyed and I have all the power in the WORLD!!!”

Malice held the Soul Scepter skyward and a huge burst of energy shot out from the top.

“So tell me, where exactly is my disadvantage?” Malice asked.

“As long as there is one pony to stand against you-“

Before he could finish, Malice interrupted him by laughing hysterically at Lee and pointed the Soul Scepter directly at Lee.

“And who exactly is that “one pony”? You? You could hardly take on your dear friends so what chance do you have against me?”

“Unlike you, I know what friendship and love and loyalty is! They are my friends and I would never hurt them!!”

Malice simply let out a disgusted sound as as a response.

“Oh please you must spare me your preaching!! Who needs any of that weakness when I have the power to destroy anypony that gets in my way?”

Lee was the one to laugh this time and smiled with a little bit of confidence in his voice.

“And that there is why you will lose Malice…”

“Well, we will soon see won’t we? The Soul Scepter is nearly at full power and once it is… then we will see who will lose.”

Malice blasted Lee with the scepter again and Lee was left in a pile of rubble as he watched Malice walk back towards the balcony, with Lee’s corrupted friends standing beside him.

“What do I do? What can I do? Tempest… Tempest I need you.”

Lee looked over at Tempest, who stood in silence as she looked up at the ceiling. Lee sighed at her still corrupted form, but still felt a small smile on his face at seeing her beauty.

“I need you and he took you away from me…”
—————————————————————————————————————————-

Nearing closer and closer to the city of Canterlot, Storm and a small army of Pegasi were hovering all over the skies as Storm got a better look at the surrounding area.

Storm saw a huge force of corrupted Pegasi surrounding the castle and she took a deep breath as she faced back towards the Hydrea ponies.

“Well, are you all ready for this? This is gonna be a tough battle but we’re here to rescue Lee and be rid of Malice once and more all.”

All of the Pegasi around Storm were indeed ready for battle and seeing such confidence and determination made Storm smile widely at her fellow Hydrea friends.

“Alright then… LET’S DO THIS!!!”

Storm charged forward with the rest of the Pegasi trailing after her. Malice’s forces saw the Hydrea ponies bearing down on them and they barely had time to react to this.

“G-Get them!! Get them!! Don’t let them reach the Master!!”

Just then, a huge group of corrupted Pegasi charged at Hydrea ponies and they soon collided with each other.

Storm pushed back two Pegasi by herself with a very powerful wing attack and created a huge vortex of wind that sent the two corrupted ponies flying away.

As she caught her breath, Storm suddenly heard somepony yelling for her and looked towards the rest of the Hydrea ponies, who were struggling to hold the corrupted Pegasi.

“Hold on! I’m coming!”

Quick as she could, Storm dashed back towards the battle and she helped her friends take care of the corrupted. As they all attempted to push back, Storm thought of an idea to get rid of the rest of the corrupted.

“Come on! We’ll push them back together!!” Storm shouted.

All together with Storm, the Hydrea ponies flew backwards and they all flung their wings back before they thrusted them forward again. This action created a huge tunnel of strong wind and all of the corrupted Pegasi were blown away in an instant.

When she realized that the skies were clear for now, Storm saw the castle before her and readied herself for whatever would be inside.

“Come on!! We got our window!!” Storm shouted.

Storm flew fast towards Canterlot Castle and she soon came to a series of broken windows high up on the structure.

As she crashed through one of the windows and into a dark corridor, Storm soon saw two corrupted Unicorns on both sides of her, but she took care of them quickly by kicking them down the hallway and blowing them back further with her wings.

“You won’t stop me! Don’t even try to!”

Storm ran through the ruined corridors and swiftly dealt with any corrupted pony that she came into contact with. After traversing three floors and shouting for Lee, Storm finally came to the very top of the castle and saw a peculiar sight before her.

Way at the end of the hall was a small army of corrupted ponies and they all faced Storm with spears and shields held up. Storm saw a huge door behind the corrupted and she knew immediately that that was where Lee was.

“So that’s where he is…”

One of the corrupted ponies told Storm to surrender and to not try anything. Storm cracked her neck and readied herself for the battle coming up.

“Surrender? I don’t know the meaning of that word!”

Storm then charged towards the corrupted ponies and they all did the same…

A/N: This is a redo of the chapter because I wasn’t happy with the first version of it. Hopefully everyone enjoys the new version

Edited September 28, 2022 by DivineZipp1000

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

So many short chapters with long delays, ah!  That's no criticism of you, I'm just itching to finally see the grand finale! For now though, I have a good feeling that Storm's coming rescue will give Tempest that final push she needs to break Malice's mind control! 

[DivineMist1000 71,102]

10 hours ago, CloudMistDragon said:

So many short chapters with long delays, ah!  That's no criticism of you, I'm just itching to finally see the grand finale! For now though, I have a good feeling that Storm's coming rescue will give Tempest that final push she needs to break Malice's mind control! 

Thank you for reading it and I promise that the next chapter will come much faster.

[DivineMist1000 71,102]

@CloudMistDragon I’ve finally finished my redo if you want to read it! I think it’s a lot better than the first version! 

[Misty Shadow 7,084]

6 hours ago, DivineZipp1000 said:

@CloudMistDragon I’ve finally finished my redo if you want to read it! I think it’s a lot better than the first version! 

Indeed it is, the cliffhanger and the buildup to it are much better this time!