A/N: To avoid boredom, time skips have been made.

Chapter 2

Month 2 of Training

One month had passed, and Storm Shadows had stopped his insanity on the upper levels, and was now giving them head-on advice.

"Come on!" Storm urged Seafoam, "I know you can do better than that!"

"I'm trying!" Seafoam Shells whined. She was trying to make herself walk on water, to little avail. She had managed to get herself out as far as her knees once, but only once. Since then, she hadn't managed to get past the chest.

"I'll give you all candy if you complete your tasks!" Storm exclaimed. "Everypony likes candy!"

Indeed, they did like candy. Though they had already matured once, their foal-like desires had returned with their youth.

"Really?" Seafoam confirmed excitedly. In the small happiness of the moment, she had risen to the top of the pool, and stayed there.

"That worked even better than I expected," Storm observed.

"What work-" Seafoam looked down. "I'm walking on water!"

"Yes, yes you are. Here." He conjured up a small hard candy, and stuck it in her mouth.

Seafoam lost her focus when she tasted the apple-flavored sweet, and fell back into the water. She smiled happily.

"Cyclone! I want to hear the wind in my ears!" Storm shouted. "Remember the candy!"

He was having the most difficulty with his own element. There was a lot of air, and he had a hard time focusing on any of it at one time.

"Yes!" a shout of victory was heard from Scootaloo. She had successfully set the dummy on fire with the flame wires. She then tasted the apple candy.

"Starstreak!" Storm exclaimed. "Throw a rock at me!"

He had already gotten moving small rocks down, and was circling then around in the air. He was easily the best at the time. "Alright then..." He launched a rock from his floating arsenal, and though it didn't go very fast, it reached it's target.

However, as soon as came within a foot of their instructor, it was repealed at high speeds, right back at Starstreak. Luckily, the colt managed to suspend it back in his circle, just barely keeping it from hitting him.

"Don't throw rocks at me!" Storm yelled. "I'm your superior! Also, nice catch!" He conjured up another candy, and tossed it over to Starstreak, who lost his focus to catch it in his mouth, though he was confused. His rocks dropped to the ground.

"Looklooklook!" Cyclone shouted. He had created a small tornado on the ground, barely up the his knee. "I made a tornado!"

"Not the assignment, but I'll take it," Storm said with assent. "Incoming candy!" He tossed the candy into the tornado, it's controller losing focus to pick it up.

"They're going good," Rainbow said from the balcony.

"Indeed!" Storm agreed. "Now, I think I'll let them pick the next activity. Any suggestions?"

Cyclone raised a hoof. "A break?"

Storm sighed. "Fine. A day off can't hurt anypony. Well, not me. You can't touch me unless I want you to."

"Yeah, we know," Rainbow agreed. "You're the all-powerful Melon Lord. Can we go outside? Haven't felt anything but magic air in over a month."

"Yes!" Seafoam agreed.

"Fine. Be warned though, melons will fly," Storm threatened. They trotted up the stairs, and Storm unlocked the portal with his scythe. They proceeded through, only to be met with a truly unfortunate sight.

The checkered clouds were back.

"These damn things followed us here!" Rainbow shouted in annoyance.

"Laser Cannon Pony?" Storm asked permission.

"No lasers," Dash required. If it wasn't mentioned earlier, she had become a great deal more serious about things that aren't athletics.

"Aww..."

"Can I try?" Cyclone requested.

"Worth a shot as anything else, I suppose," Storm said. "Lucky she's here, lest there be lasers and melons flying through the air at the speed my fillyfriend."

Rainbow blushed a bit. "Thanks."

"Here we go!" Cyclone prepped himself, and concentrated on moving the air to create wind. The group felt a small breeze blow by, but nothing more. "Whelp, That was underwhelming."

"You'll get better," Storm consoled. "Besides, I have a pretty good idea of who's making these. Obviously, they're not normal. So, what creates utter chaos?"

They all knew the answer. "Discord."

"I'll be right back. I have to have some words with him. Meaning I'm going to beat him up until he tells me why in Tartarus he's making these. I thought he was reformed!" With that, the white Pegasus teleported to castle doors, and amplified his voice. He kicked open the doors, and yelled, "DISCORD!"

Naturally, the sight of a Pegasus with the voice of a thundercloud surprised everypony in the room, most of which proceeded to run. "No need to yell," Discord said from the potted plant. "What's the trouble?"

"Like you don't know. The checkered clouds!"

"What checkered clouds?" He replied with a shoulder shrug.

"You know I can beat you down. Get rid of them. They're causing war flashbacks for the foals who kept their memories."

"I didn't make them, so just go. But if it helps, I'll try to get rid of them," Discord said gruffly. Storm nodded in disbelief, but returned to the others, where the clouds were nowhere to be seen.

"Looks like it went well," Rainbow said.

"Uh... Guys?" Seafoam said, but got no attention.

"I had to threaten him, but it worked," Storm said.

"Guys!" Seafoam tried again.

"You should have just hit him. I don't care if he's reformed, he's still a jerk," Dash replied.

"GUYS!" Seafoam yelled.

"Wha-" Storm turned around, but was cut short by the sight of what Seafoam had been trying to get their attention about. A creature the size and shape of a stallion stood before them, but he was made of dark red mist. His eyes were bright yellow, and appeared to float in the vapor.

"You ruined my fun! I figured everypony would just assume it was Discord, but I didn't think anypony would actually do anything about it!" The mist pony said with exasperation.

"And who," Storm said with absolutely no panic in his voice. "Are you?"

"Demons don't get names in Tartarus. Just know me as one of the wind demons," It replied.

"Rainbow?" Storm asked.

"Yeah?"

"Run. Take them and run. I'm about to take care of a few things, meaning I'm gonna have to fight. This is a demon, one of the ones that belong in the depths of Tartarus. For some reason, my Grandad is slipping."

"Bu-" Rainbow tried to rebuff.

"No buts, just get them out of here! If I know anything about demons, which I do, this one could kill any one of you any second! I however, am a Conduit, so it doesn't matter! Go!" Giving them no more choice, Storm teleported his five members of his group to the top of the nearby hill. They were still just within earshot of the fight.

"I hate it when he does this," Rainbow said with irratance. "I know I can't help much, but I don't care. I'll give him for it later. later. For now, you four get to see my coltfriend kick flank, and with front-row seats."

"This is gonna be so cool," Scootaloo said excitedly.

"Will there be explosions?" Starstreak asked.

"Knowing him, yes."

Back down at the scene of the fight, Storm was already preparing himself. "How'd you get out?"

"I'll never tell," The demon replied.

"Then I'll just have to put you away again," Storm replied.

The demon burst out laughing. "You! A Pegasus! I might be able to understand a Unicorn, but you?!"

It was Storm's turn to laugh. "You really don't know who I am, do you?"

"Who? The overconfidence colt?" He said in another fit of laughter.

"Wrong. I'm the one who's going to kick your flanks."

All but Rainbow Dash had never seen Storm in close combat, even while he was a human, so what happened next astounded the group of foals.

"Shame. I was kind of hoping I'd have to change forms for this fight, but I don't really think I'll have to." With inequestrian speeds, the white stallion moved forward, turned around, and delivered a swift kick to the demon's face. It contacted, and the surprised demon flew backwards.

The demon stood up, a look of astonishment on it's face. "Well. Certainly wasn't expecting that." With no more words, the demon charged the Conduit, only to have him disappear. Storm appeared behind him, but a massive gust of wind came from the ground, and sent Storm flying into the air. A ring of dark red mist came and bound his wings to his sides, taking away the ability of flight. The gust of wind sent him several feet into the sky, with no means to stop.

Oh, except for this.

"Either I'm getting stronger, or demon curses are getting weaker," Storm said to himself while still flying upwards. He easily broke free of the misty binds, and decided to end it now.

Two giant circles of white light appeared in the air next to him.

"He isn't," Dash said in disbelief.

"ALL HAIL THE LASER CANNON PONY!"

"He is."

The demon's eyes went wide with fear.

"FIRE!" The two circles shot downward, and the light engulfed the demon entirely.

"AUUUUGH!" the demon shouted before he was returned to his place in the place of eternal punishment. The rest of the group galloped back to where Storm had landed on the ground.

Rainbow Dash punched him in the side. "I told you to stop with the lasers!"

"I won, didn't I?" Storm defended. He knew Rainbow had become a great deal more serious in just a few months, but he still liked it.

Starstreak prodded at the ground where the laser had hit. "Wow. Not even a scratch. How?"

"Trade secret," Storm joked.

"It was awesome!" Seafoam cheered.

"See? Somepony likes the lasers."

"Meh," Rainbow Dash said indifferently.

"How'd a demon get out?" Cyclone asked.

"That," Storm admitted, "I have clue about. Nothing gets out of Tartarus. My own Grandad makes sure of that. So either he's slipping, or something's terribly wrong in the worst place in existence."

"Your Grandad?" Seafoam wondered.

"That's right, I never told you. I'm directly related to the god of Death. Fun, right?"

That got everypony but Scootaloo and Dash stunned. Their trainer was both insanely powerful, and the descendant of a god. None of them actually thought gods existed, but they knew better than to question Storm.

"I'll just get to Tartarus, and be back within a few minutes. Of course, that's assuming the gates holding everything in hasn't broken open, and I'll have to fight everything. Bye!" Storm teleported.

"So... What now?" Starstreak asked.

"We can't open the portal without Storm's thingy," Seafoam said, trying to remember what it was called.

"The scythe?" Rainbow Dash corrected.

"Yeah! The scythe!"

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to work on getting better control of my powers," Cyclone stated.

"Good enough for me," Starstreak said in assent, then lifted up a small rock. He began spinning it around casually.

"I can't make fire yet, so I guess I'm stuck," Scootaloo complained.

"No water around here," Seafoam said.

Any conversation was stopped by an ear-ringing explosion that sounded from the mountains.

"Was that Storm?" Cyclone asked.

"No," Rainbow responded. "That's not his power. Don't let your guard down, and be ready to run."

The four foals crouched at the ready, waiting for anything to happen.

Storm appeared in front of them, startling the group. "Get inside! Don't ask questions!" He unlocked the portal, and the six ponies sprinted inside as fast as they could. On the other side, they all caught their breaths.

"What *pant* happened?" Cyclone asked.

"First of all, we need to speed your training along as fast as we can. Second, the world is in crisis again," Storm explained.

"Celestia's mane, what is it now?" Rainbow asked irately.

"Well.."

«{[()]}»

In Tartarus

Storm had teleported directly to Rokon's palace, ready to scold him. He stepped into the throne room, ready to belittle a god. He couldn't have been more disappointed. On the throne sat not his grandfather, but the being that realized his worst fears.

Tanner.

Tanner was sitting on the throne.

"Well would you look at this. Bradford's here," Tanner said condescendingly.

"I don't go by that name anymore. Call me Storm."

"Fine, Storm."

"Why are you here?" Storm asked angrily.

"Did you know," Tanner mentioned while spinning a black sword in his hand, "That in our last battle, we had the power of the gods at our fingertips? I recently got the god of death's level of power, only to find that it was around fifty million. A little absorbing demons for a while, and I got what I needed. So, I killed him."

Storm was stunned. Despite his disguise, he had still been absorbing power constantly, and was probably around that, but Tanner had both escaped his eternal punishment, and killed The God of Death.

"YOU WHAT?!" Storm yelled.

"I killed him. Now I've got all the demons at my control. I already sent one, did you meet him?"

"I killed him!"

"Good. I wasn't expecting any less of you," Tanner said.

"What is it with you and war? Didn't you have enough when I put your sorry ass away?" Storm mocked.

"This isn't about conquest anymore," Tanner said, leaning towards his adversary, "This is about revenge. I'll kill everyone you know, especially your little girlfriend."

"Don't you fucking touch her."

"Looks like I hit a nerve. Now get out of here before I summon the guards."

Storm complied.

«{[()]}»

"So, yeah. That's how things are going down, and it's our job to stop it. And no, you don't have a choice," Storm stated. "I'm not fighting this one alone, and according to my theories, you all have a literally unlimited amount of potential. As long as your element's around you, you should be able to do what you want with it. There are no limitations, and theoretically, you should be on par with me when you get total control of your powers."

"So... How are you gonna get us there?" Seafoam inquired.

"I won't. You will. The four of you will stay here with Rainbow. Sorry, but I need to figure out if there's a way I can block any demons sent out by Tanner. Rainbow, I can't say how much I hate this situation, and I love you, but this requires us to be apart."

"I know. I know that both of us hate this, and I love you too. I'll see you when you get back," Rainbow Dash said sadly.

"I'm sorry. I'll be back as soon as I can, and here are your goals. Scootaloo, I want you to be able to make fire at will by the time I get back. Seafoam, I want you able to breath under the water. Not sure how you'll get that done, but I want it. Starstreak, I want you able to stand on a floating rock, and fly around with it. Cyclone, I want to hear the wind from Tartarus. Really get it going."

The foals nodded, and Rainbow Dash smiled. Storm hated these parts of his life.

The stallion turned and galloped out the portal.