Life is A Tempest
by Old Goat Abadeer
First published
Tempest is no longer a servent of The Storm King and with her new found freedom looks for a second chance at life as the first royal guard to be assigned to Princess Twilight Sparkle. But will she get a fresh start or will old wounds still haunt her?
Tempest has had a rough life. Losing her horn, her fillyhood friends abandoning her, spending years traveling the harsh deserts and harsher cities of the lands beyond Equestria and becoming a servent of the Storm King and doing horrible things in his name. But now thanks to Princess Twilight Sparkle she is free of The Storm King's grasp as well as the obsession of restoring her horn. She has been given a second chance, but will she be able to make the most out of life as Twilight's Royal Guardspony, or will old wounds be opened up once more?
Prologue: Joining The Guard
It had been a little over a week since The Storm King & his forces had invaded Equestria and been defeated by the hands of Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Elements of Harmony. With their homeland and many lands beyond now freed from the tyrant's grasp Celestia had sent members of her peace corps to help restore nation's like Capper's home Abnysia and Skystar's origional home Mt. Arias to their former glory *though she had heard some of the Hippogryphs decided to stay in Seaquestria perfering the Seapony form meaning Queen Nuvo now had two nations to protect. They were also working with already allied nations like Griffenstone and the Changling Hive to help send additional forces to get Klugtown and its rather large organized crime element under control. Mix that with Captian Celano being givin an official buckannering licsense by both Celestia & Queen Nuvo things seemed to be on the up for not just Equestria but the lands beyond as well.
There was still one or two issues to deal with however. The first being the Storm King's forces. The brutish looking Storm Beasts were actually quite docile without the Storm King bossing them around but the Princesses knew that most ponies would not be too keen on them staying in Equestria so Cadence was working to broker a deal with the Yak's to allow them to make a new settlement up on the mountain next to theirs. And then of course there was Commander Tempest Shadow and her annoying sidekick Grubber.
Tempest under any normal circumstance in any other nation would have no doubt been executed for her crimes against the crown and betraying her nation. But given the death penalty had been outlawed in Equestria for over a thousand years Celestia came-up with a much more beneficial "punishment" Tempest would repent for her crimes by joining the royal guard and being the first guardspony assigned to protect Princess Twilight Sparkle. Oh and her little friend Grubber would share her fate as well of course. But before she could become a guard, she had to clear her training at the academy, and before she could start that, came paperwork of course.
Commander Goldspark set behind his desk looking at the assortment of creatures infront of him. To his left a small Dragon, next to him a young purple alicorn princess with an akward smile on her face. Then next to her a rather intemidating unicorn with a broken horn, scared eye and rather blank flank. And finally a short, well he wasn't sure what it was, a short fat Diamond Dog/Storm Beast hybrid perhaps?
Thd commander cleared his throat. "So let me get this straight. Celestia wants me to add a last minute edition to my current royal guard academy training program but you can't even properly fill out the paperwork?" He huffed.
"Well, we ah, filled out what we could" Twilight laughed nervously.
"Right" Goldspark replied sarcastically looking down at the paper.
NAME: Fizzlepop Berrytwist but prefers Tempest Shadow
GENDER: Female
Age: Unknown
Hometown: Unknown
Cutie Mark: None
Disabilities: Broken Horn
Emergency Contact: Princess Twilight Sparkle
Letters of Reccomindation: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, Princess Twilight Sparkle
Other/additional noted: Allergic to annoying ponies/creatures. Pretty sure being stuck with Grubber is my real punishment.
"So Ms. Berrytwist, you don't know your own age or name of your home town? You don't have any family to add as emergency contacts? No other friends?"
"W, well about that...." Tempest began
"C'mon brah is it really that surprising!?" Grubber interuppted "This mare ran away from home when she was like a little filly and she spent years, years traveling through the deserts and the outlands obsessing over restoring her horn. I mean pretty easy to lose track of time doing that man. Ecspecially when you got a hole in your head, desert sun will fry your brain!"
"My brain is quite functional thank you very much Grubber, but you may not be for long if you interrupt me again!" Tempest scowled, her broken horn flaring as she looked at him.
"Uh huh, ok. But not remembering the name of your hometwon, your parents?" The unicorn stallion asked.
"Well, uh....." Tempest stammered
"Well you see commander" Twilight interjected "Tempest suffered a severe trauma at a very young age. It only makes sense her mind would black out a handful of painful memories to cope."
The stallion just looked at the group. "OK, fine. Not like I can say no to a request by all four princesses anyway. Tempest can join the training program, but don't expect me to go easy on her." He huffed.
"That's fine, I don't expect to go easy on you or your guards either." Tempest replied with a confident smirk on her face.
The commander just smiled. "Hehe, I like your style kid. Welcome to the royal guard training program. Hope you survive the experience" he replied as he shook Tempest's hoof. "Now follow ol Flash Sentry over there and he'll take you to your room." He said pointing at the yellow pegasus in crytal guard attire.
Tempest just rolled her eyes and did as she was told as Grubber wobbled close behind.
"Good luck." Twilight whisper-yelled at her as she waved goodbye to her new friend before turning her attention to the gruff old unicorn stallion. "Don't worry about the rest of the paperwork commander, Luna is sending some of her night corps intel agents to gather information about Tempest's past. Hopefully we should be able to fill those holes eventually. " She said as she smiled nervously.
The commander just rolled his eyes. This was going to be an interesting class to say the least he thought.
Author's Notes:
New Story, yay! And its about Tempest! Woohoo! This is probably gonna be a super long one, so please bear with me as I get my Tempest obsession out of my system in the coming months!
Chapter 1:Tempest Guardian of Friendship & The Party of Celebration
Twilight paced back and fourth. She wanted everything to be perfect. After hearing that Tempest had successfully passed all of her classes and graduated after only four months and in a six month course no less. "Truly an impressive feat " Twilight thought as she made sure everything on the dinner table was organized properly. "Everypony will be here soon and I want Tempest's graduation party to be perfect!" Twilight said to herself.
"Well then its a good thing you're a perfectionist" a voice from the door chimed. Twilight turned to see Spike standing at the door with a smile.
"Oh, hey Spike? Is everything on schedule?" Twilight asked nervously.
"Yep, all our friends are on their way here and Starlight & Maud are helping Trixie set-up the stage out back for the special after dinner show." The young dragon joyfully replied as he walked towards Twilight.
"Glad to hear it. We're on schedule for once ." she sighed in relief.
"And that must make you one super happy nerd." She heard another voice chuckle. As she looked up and saw Rainbow Dash.
"Haha, very funny Rainbow" Twilight huffed.
"Actually it was kind of funny, mean, but funny." Pinkie Pie chimmed in as she appeared out of seemingly nowhere causing Spike & Twy to jump back a foot.
"Y'all quit teasin Twy like that!" Applejack said as she walked in through the door.
"Yes, can't you see she's nervous as is darling." Rarity chimmed in trotting close behind the farm pony.
"Oh, I'm sure everything will work out just fine." Fluttershy chimed in softly as she entered behind Rarity.
"Thanks for coming girls" Twilight replied looking around the room at her friends. "Tempest has worked hard for this chance to turn her life around, and I want to show how much we support her" Twilight exclaimed.
"No prob Twy, I can't wait to hear all about ol Fizzy's adventures at the academy." Pinkie squeed.
"Uh, I think she still preferes to be called Tempest, Pinks" Dash replied
"Aww, but Fizzypop Berrytwist is such a cute name." Pinke pouted.
"That may be darling, but we must respect her wishes. If we are to show her we are indeed good friends we must acknowledge her with the name she chose to identify with." Rarity retorted.
Twilight smiled as she watched her friends chat as they walked towards their seats. Shortly after Starlight and the others returned inside as well and told Twilight they had finished setting up the stage. Now all the party was missing was Tempest.
Tempest walked slowly towards the rather large and somewhat intimidating castle of friendship. "Maybe we should wait and just say we couldn't make the party" Tempest said a nervous look on her face.
"What!? No way!" Grubber replied. "You spent like months training in Canterlot to be Princess Twilight's bodyguard! You did like a million sit-ups every morning, ate nasty army food and creepily stared at that picture of you & Princess Twilight from the Friendship Festival like every day!" Grubber blurted out. "You've earned this! Plus they made you that neat armor you're wearing now just for this job!"
"But, what, what if I mess up and say something that insults the princess or her friends, what if I, if I..." Tempest stuttered nervously.
"Hey, you got this." Grubber assured her "We got this."
Tempest just smiled down at her friend. "OK, lets do this" She replied excitedly.
"I'm hungry, is she here yet?" Pinkie pouted
"No Pinkie if she was here we'd be eatin" Applejack huffed.
"I'm sure she'll be here any minute, right Twy?" Starlight replied looking at Twilight.
"Uh, Ahh...." Twilight sputtered nervously before she & the others heard the doors slam open.
"Introducing, the one, the only, the phenominal Tempest Shadow: Guardian of Friendship!" Grubber exclaimed as he slid into the room and pointed his claws to the pony behind him.
There in the doorway stood Tempest, her face confident, her mohawk style mane & tail as awesome and ever and a new set of armor, silver & soft purple embroiderd with Twilight's cutie mark replacing her old Storm King armor. She slowly approached Twilight still sitting in her seat & bowed.
"My Princess. I Tempest Shadow have finished my training and am ready to pledge my fielty & loyalty to you for all time." The unicorn mare stated.
Twilight got up and stood infront of Tempest. "As your princess I accept your pledge. Now rise Tempest Shadow, hold your head high as a proud servent of Equestria. And on top of that, most importantly, let's get this dinner party started!" She said with a wink as Tempest's eyes met hers.
"Thank you Princess Twilight" Tempest smiled. "You have no idea how long its been since Grubber & I have had a decent meal."
"Yeah, that academy food sucks!" The little beast chimed in.
Twilight just laughed as she wrapped her wings around the two and showed them to their seats.
After everypony had finished their rather large meal a sense of relaxation & satisfaction swept over the room.
"That meal, was awesome!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed with a burp
"Soo good!" Pinkie agreed rubbing her bloated stomach
"You said it" Spike & Grubber replied in unison.
Twilight looked over at Tempest. "So, what did you think?" Twilight asked
"The meal was phenominal Princess" Tempest replied.
"C'mon Tempest, no need for such formalities tonight. This is your party, and we're friends, just Twilight is fine. You don't officially start till tomorrow after all." She told her with a smile.
"As you wish Pr, Twilight" Tempest replied. "Thank you and yes the dinner was spectacular. I can tell you put a lot of heart & effort into its preperation." Tempest smiled.
"And you were worth every bit of it." Twilight smiled.
"Speaking of effort" Rarity chimed in. "I made our new friend a small gift." Rarity smiled levitating a small package over her head and over to Tempest who just stared at it befuddled.
"Well darling, go ahead and open it." Rarity chuckled. Tempest slowly opened the package with her hooves and saw inside was a beautiful black dress made to fit and accent her figure perfectly.
"Pheeww. Now that is a super nice dress!" Trixie whistled
"I, I don't know what to say Ms. Rarity, its, its perfection." Tempest awed
"Of course darling. I never cut corners on a dress, ecspecially not one for a friend. Now if you ever feel like going out on the town you'll be the envy off all Equestria!" She exclaimed with a wink.
"Yes, i'm sure it'll look quite lovely on you." Twilight agreed. Tempest just bit her lip as she did her best to hide her blush.
"OK, enough of the gifts, time for the best part. Time for the show!" Trixie shouted as the rest just rolled their eyes.
"Show?" Tempest asked looking at Twilight confused.
"Well its no Friendship Festival, but I think you'll enoy it none the less." Twilight chuckled grabbing Tempest's hoof with her wing and leading her out of the room.
The ponies had all gathered bebind the castle and were sitting on a rather large picnic cloth staring-up at the stage as Starlight & Trixie performed their magic act. Tempest was in awe. She had heard of such shows and had rough knowledge of illusionists & performers from second hand accounts but she had never seen a show in person. The two ponies on stage were in perfect sync as they performed each trick, culmimating in a beautiful fireworks show at the end.
"Its beautiful." Tempest exclaimed
"Yes, yes it is. And its all for you Tempest. Welcome to Ponyville. Welcome to your new home." Twilight smiled as she wrapped her wing around the unicorn, bringing her in for a hug.
Tempest just smiled and blushed as she did her best to hold back the tears of joy building up in her eyes.
Author's Notes:
This is just the begining. Much more Tempest & Twy to come! Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 2: First Day Jitters
Tempest Shadow slowly and groggily stretched her body as she slowly opened her eyes. As her vision came into focus she let out a sigh if relief. It had'nt been a dream she really was where she wanted to be. She looked around the bedroom she had been given with a soft smile. Like every other room in the castle it seemed to be made of the same crystal, yet it didn't make the room feel cold "must be the magic of the tree it bore from keeping it the right temperature at all times." She thought to herself as she slowly set up and got out of bed. Stretching her hooves as she did so to prevent any cramps. She looked down and noticed her companion Grubber still quite out of it despite his small bed which honestly looked like something a pet dog would sleep in being right under a window with Celestia's morning sun shining in.
"Wake up now little one" Tempest chuckled as she softly nudged the little beast on the side with her hoof.
"Just 5 more minutes mah" he yawned" I almost got the high score...." Grubber mumbled still asleep slowly tossing over to the other side. Tempest just rolled her eyes.
"Fine, stay in bed. More breakfast for me then" Tempest whispered into his ear and slowly got up and began walking towards the door. "3....2...1" she counted down in her head.
"Did somebody say breakfast? Cause you know I could really go for an omellette right now!" Grubber replied as he jumped up and jumped out of bed.
"I figured that would work." Tempest chuckled. Now lets get cleaned up and get ready. It would be unfitting for us to be late on our first day." Tempest stated in a calm yet serious manner.
After finishing her shower and making sure both she and Grubber were quite clean Tempest stared at herself in the restroom mirror. She wasn't a vain pony mind you but she did want to make sure she looked presentable for the Princess. Sadly all she could do was let out a sad sigh.
"Whats wrong now?" Grubber asked as he shook trying to get the lingering water out of his fur.
"Honestly, i'm still....a bit nervous" Tempest stuttered in reply holding her right hoof up to her chest clinching the edge of the left one. "What if I mess up, what if i'm not really good enough to be a guardspony. What if people think less of the princess for having a guard with a broken horn, or....." Tempest began to ramble on.
Grubber jumped up on the sink and put his hand on tempest muzzle. "Or, and hear me out, what if you're awesome!? Cause I think we're gonna be awesome." Grubber said with a smile wide upon his face.
Tempest just looked at her friend and smiled doing her best to calm herself. "Fine, have it your way, we'll be awesome. Now lets finish getting ready before we're late." Tempest chuckled playfully pushing the little beast off the sink.
Spike hummed the latest Songbird Serenade single as he set the table for breakfast making sure everything was in order before running back towards the kitchen. "Hey Starlight, Trixie, are those pancakes ready yet?" The dragon asked as he ran through the kitchen doors.
"Almost Spike. I think we have enough here for everypony. Right Trix?" Starlight said looking over at her friend.
"We were supposed to make pancakes? I thought you said waffles?" The showmare replied
"What!?" Starlight & Spike shouted nervously.
"Kidding, Kidding" Trixie chuckled as she turned her stack of waffles back into pancakes. "Man I love that transmogrification spell!" She smiled. Spike and Starlight just looked at each other & sighed.
"Well hurry up, Twilight & Tempest will be up any second!" Spike chimed in. "Lets do Twy proud and show our new roommate some good old fashioned Ponyville hospitality!"
Twilight slowly trotted down the halls yawning as she did. Last night had been a success as far as she was concerned and she hoped Tempest felt the same. She looked out the Windows as she trotted along watching Celestia's morning sun dance across the sky down to the earth below revealing the subtle beauty of the Fall day as leaves slowly fell from trees and what was no doubt a cold wind blew across catching the leaves as if asking them to join in on the dance. "Hmm, looks chilly, i'll have to be sure and remember to wear a scarf today." The alicorn mare said to herself as she entered the dining room seeing Spike and the others already there with a large batch of fresh and fluffy pancakes sitting in the middle of the table. Twilight licked her lips. "Mmm, looks delicious" She exclaimed. "I'm sure Tempest will love it. Speaking of which, where is she?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, i'm sure she'll be along any second now." Spike replied.
Tempest did her best to remain calm, breathing slow and heavy as she slowly trotted towards the dining room, Grubber by her side.
"Calm down Tempest, I already told you, you got this. Now pick up the pace, I smell food!" He cheered clapping his claws and licking his lips. Tempest just let out an annoyed chorttle and rolled her eyes. "Food is all this one ever thinks about." She thought as they made their final approach.
Opening the doors to the dining room Tempest could see Twilight, Spike and the others already sitting down. She steadily trotted up to the Princess & bowed. "Apologies for my tardiness Princess. My morning preperations took slightly longer then I expected" She stated.
"Oh, no need for apologies, I actually just got her myself." Twilight Chuckled. "But now that you're here, how do pancakes sound?" She asked.
Tempest rose up and with a soft smile replied. "They sound lovely princess."
"Good, now lets dig in, i'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" Grubber exclaimed as he grabbed a clawful of pancakes as the others just stared at him with confusion and disgust over the saying.
"What am I going to do with you?" Tempest huffed under her breath.
The morning air was indeed cold as Twilight predicted. She was glad she brought her scarf and booties with her. She looked to her left to see Spike shivering despite also being scarved. "You know you could have stayed in the castle if you wanted" she told Spike, a concerned look on her face. "A, and miss you impress p, ponyville w, with your awesome new royal guard? N, no way" He replied his teeth chatering. Twilight just sighed and turned her attention to Grubber & Tempest over to her right. "What about you two, are you ok, not too cold?" She asked
"Naw i'm cool, I got like, loads of insulation and stuff" He chuckled as he boastfully patted his belly.
"And you Tempest?" Twilight asked.
"I an fine Princess. You need not concern yourself with my personal comfort. I am your guard my duty is to protect you, all else is irrelivent" She stated non-chelantly
"Oh, uh, ok." Twilight replied looking a bit disheartened by the reply.
The truth however was quite different. Tempest was quite chilled by the cold air of the Fall's morning breeze and the cold steel armor and boots didn't help things, but it was her job as the Princess's bodyguard to protect her and make her worry less, not more.
The group arrived in Ponyville and found the small village to be quite lively despite the chill in the air. Papercolts were selling the latest copy of the Ponyville Gazette & Canterlot Chronicle. Vendors were setting-up their stands and the few remaining songbirds still waiting to migrate sang in the trees.
"So, where shall we go first Princess?" Tempest asked.
"Well, I don't have to be at my appointment with the Mayor till noon so I thought i'd kill some time at Sugarcube Corner and see if Pinkie needs any help with the morning rush" She replied with a smile.
"Very well, lead the way Princess" Tempest responded as she followed by her side.
The inside of the colorful confectionary was brimming with life as ponies set at tables talking and enjoying their sweet treats. Tempest noticed one mare in particular a crosseyed Pegasus was quite enjoying her plate of muffins.
"Hiya Twilight! Fizzy!" Pinkie exclaimed as she once again seemed to appear out of nowhere and embraced the two in a hug. "What yea doin this fine autumn morn?" She asked with a chuckle, still holding the two tightly.
"We came to help you with the morning rush." Twilight exclaimed using her magic to pry the pink pony off of them.
"Oh goody! You're just in time!" Pinkie cheered.
"In time for what?" Spike asked.
"Just in time to help me deliver the four dozen doughnuts to Cheeriee's schoolhouse!" She replied in glee
"Four dozen doughnuts?" Twilight asked in surprise.
"Four dozen doughnuts." Grubber aped droll forming around his mouth.
"Well yea, you see Twist recently won the regional Jr Eggheads Spelling Bee and Ms. Cheerilee wants to celebrate with the class so she placed an order for four dozen doughnuts to be delivered today. Think you could do it?" Pink asksplained with a chuckle.
"Of course Pinkie, we'd love to. Right Tempest?" Twilight asked looking over at her guard.
Tempest nodded in agreement. "It would be our honor Ms. Pie."
Pinkie squeed with happiness "OK great, i'll go get the doughnuts, be right back." She smiled as she sped off.
Cheerilee looked at her students sitting at their desks staring at her with anticipation. "Well class I want to congradulate you all again for your heart work at the spelling bee last week and of course Twist for helping us bring home 1st prize!" Cheerilee exclaimed pointing her hoof at Twist as the rest of the class cheered. The young filly blushing in kind. "Aww schucks, it was nothin" she spat.
All of a sudden there was a knock on the schoolhouse door. Cheerilee opened it to see Twilight there levitating the boxes of doughnuts above her head. And a rather intimidating guardsmare by her side.
"Well, this is a surprise indeed. It seems class we not only get doughnuts and punch today but a visit from Princess Twilight as well. Cheerilee exclaimed as the schoolponies cheered.
"Good morning everypony" Twilight beamed as she carefully set the boxes of sweet treats on Cheerilee's desk. "I heard somepony won a spelling bee, congratulations!" She cheered, but the room was silent. Twilight looked around and suddenly realized all the children were staring at Tempest.
"Who's that?" Snips asked
"Yeah, she looks scary" Snails chimmed in.
Tempest took a step forward. "I am Tempest Shadow of the Royal Guard. I was assigned by Celestia to protect the Princess of Friendship from harm." She stated in a serious yet confident tone.
"Wow, you have your own royal guard now?" Diamond Tiara asked in awe.
"That is so cool!" Silver Spoon squeed.
"But ah, what happened to her horn? Rumble asked. Pointing at the chipped, broken appendage on top of the guardpony's head.
"Rumble, what the hay is wrong with you!?" Scootaloo shouted slapping the colt in the back of the head. "You can't just ask ponies personal questions out of the blue like that!" The orange pegasus filly exclaimed.
"Yea, rude much." Sweetie Belle chimmed in.
"Uh huh." Applebloom agreed.
"Jeez, fine, i'm sorry." Rumble huffed, rubbing the back of his head
"Hehe, you kind of trotted into that one." Pip chuckled.
"OK, ok class, calm down. I'm sure Ms. Tempest here has better things to do then listen to you children squabble. Now, who wants a doughnut?" Cheerilee asked.
"Oh Me!" The class all replied in unison. Twilight just chuckled as she watched the fillies & colts run towards the boxes of sweets like their was no tomorow. Tempest however just frowned as she touched her broken horn.
Later at Mayor Mare's office Twilight set in the waiting room along with Tempest, Spike & Grubber.
"Ugg, this is soo boring, we've been sitting here for half an hour!" Spike whinned. "Yeah, totally boring." Grubber agreed
"Well the Mayor is still setting things-up, she needs me to help her conienvce a large contracter to build a fancy new hotel here in Ponyville for half the usual price. She just wants everything to be perfect." Twilight explained. Though I guess it is taking a bit long, huh Tempest." Twilight sighed looking back at the guardspony. Tempest however seemed to be lost in thought in her own little world.
Tempest poked her broken horn. She hated to admit it but the young pegasus colt's question had gotten to her more then it should have. Then there was the fact ponies would look at her walking alongside Twilight and begin to whisper. Given she had no proof they were talking about her horn, or blank flank or one of her various other aspects she viewed as personal imperfections, but still.
"Earth to tempest, you in there?" She heard Twilight ask.
Tempest snapped back to her senses. "Ah, yes, apologies Princess, you were saying?"
"Well I was just asking if...." But before Twilight could finish the door swung open. "Mayor Mare will see you now" the secretary exclaimed.
"Finally!" Spike cheered as he and Grubber hoped up and ran towards the office door.
"Let the negotiations begin." Twilight chuckled.
Twilight huffed exhausted on her way back to the palace. Six hours of intense negotiation and she only managed to get the contracters to agree to drop their price by 30%. "Not the half price deal the Mayor wanted, but better then nothing I suppose." Twilight said to herself.
"Man I never knew negotiating could be so intense." Grubber huffed.
"And that Mr. Coldstone had quite the mouth on him" Tempest chimed in.
"Eh. Thats a Neigh Jersey pony for yea." Spike replied.
"Well I just hope Starlight & Trixe have dinner ready. I'm starved!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Yes, a warm meal does sound nice." Tempest agreed. Overall it had been a good, if not somewhat uneventful first day on duty she thought to herself. And despite a few lingering insecurities and a slightly rude child and mouthy business pony things had gone off without a hitch. Maybe this was going to be a good turn around for her and Grubber after all.
Little did she know that the next day would not be a good one for her, infact things were about to get very, very bad.
Author's Notes:
Thanks for reading. Sorry for a kind of boring chapter, but you gotta have a calm before the storm. Hope you enjoyed none the less. And get ready cause next time things get sad, and full of feels, oh so many heart-tugging feels!
Chapter 3: Fizzlepop Berrytwist's Aweful No Good Very Bad Day
Tempest felt an aching pain coming from her horn followed by a heavy heat growing around her eyes. She instantly woke up to see it was still somewhat dark the sun not quite ready to be awoken by Celestia quite yet. The only light in the room eminating from the hole in the stub of her horn as it fizzled & popped. "Oh, no no no!" Tempest paniced as she ran towards the bathroom. She looked in the mirror and saw her stub flaring as energy welled up sparks fizzing more intensly. "Damn it, I thought I was over this." She hissed as she looked around for something she could use to contain her unintentional erruption of magical energy. She finally settled on a nearbye aluminum waste basket and held it atop her horn as the built-up magic released and sparked and bounced inside the trash container warping itself until it fizzled out completly.
Tempest just stared at the now deformed trash recepticle and let out a sad low moan. Over the years she had learned to control the magic that flared from what remained of her horn for the most part, but once in a blue moon she would have flair-ups that despite herself she just could not contain. "Well this is a bucking fine way to start the day." Tempest huffed as she turned around and decided to go ahead and take a shower given she was already up. She turned the knob with her hoof hoping the warm water would relieve her only to be hit with a cold spree of droplettes. "Ugg, wrong one." she hissed as she quickly moved her hoof to turn it off and turn on the right one. Relieved when the warm water began to flow down over her mane. "It's ok Fizzy, today is going to be good you'll see she told herself as she looked at her reflection in the crysteline tile. "You are strong, you are a Tempest, you can do this. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed is nothing. Happens to everyone." She reassured herself.
Spike yawned as he walked down the hall towards the kitchen, looking out the windows as he did so seeing Celestia's sun begining to peak up over the horizon as Luna's moon sunk and the stars returned to their rest. He sighed as he had a sinking feeling that today was going to be a long day. All of a sudden he felt himself bump into something cold & metal. He looked up and saw that he had bumped into Tempest already wide awake and wearing her armor.
"Uhh, hey Tempest, you're up early." He said in a akward and confused manner looking up at the unicorn mare.
"Yes, well I was having a bit of trouble staying asleep so I figured I would get ready and make my morning rounds before the princess woke up." She replied her voice somewhat more raspy then usual.
"Uh huh, well i'm off to get breakfast started." Anything in particular you would care for?" Spike asked as politley as a still groggy dragon could.
"No, anything you feel like preparing is fine. I'll go wake Grubber and tell him to get ready. I have a feeling today is going to be a long day." Tempest sighed.
"Haha, you and me both." Spike laughed as he continued his trek towards the kitchen.
Twilight yawned as she did every morning as she spread her wings and stretched her neck. She looked around her room and used her horn to levitate her crown off the nightstand on to her head. She looked at the clock on her wall and realizes she had overslept by a good hour. "Oh my, I was tired." She thought to herself. As she headed out and went to join the others who were no doubt already eating breakfast.
Twilight approached the dining room and saw that unsurprisingly Grubber was already stuffing his face as was Spike. Tempest however set as still as a stone at attention next to Twilight's chair.
"Good morning Tempest." She smiled.
"Good morning princess" Tempest replied.
"Not hungry?" Twilight asked "Are you feeling ok?" Twilight asked a concerned look on her face as she stared at the mare.
"I am fine princess, I just felt it inapropriate for a guard such as myself to eat before her princess." Tempest replied in a calm but stern tone.
"Well I appriciate your concern but I promise I wouldn't be offended if you didn't wait. Afterall I can't have my royal guard passing out from hunger now can I?" She chuckled giving Tempest a playful wink.
Tempest merely nodded in agreement.
The town of Ponyville was not much different then the morning before. Ponies up bright and early as they headed to work or to the Sugarcube corner or a nearbye bistro to pick up some breakfast. Ponies sipping coffee as they read the days paper. And leaves falling off the trees as a chilly wind blew through the small borough.
"So what's on the docket today Twilight?" Spike asked.
"Well, I was supposed to fill out some zoning documents for Celestia and the Mayor today but things got held-up on the Neigh Jersy end of things so I probably won't get what I need for another couple of days. So I guess today is just restock." She smiled.
"Huh?" Grubber asked. A confused look on his face.
"She means we're going to be running errands all day." Spike huffed.
"Aww, bummer." Grubber sighed
"C'mon it's just a couple of errands. How bad could it be?" Tempest thought to herself. A thought she would soon regret.
The errands didn't get off to the best start to say the least. Twilight's first stop was the Parchement shop where she came to pick up a rather large order of quills, ink and of course parchment. The unicorn running the shop being busy talking to the princess instinctivly levitateted the sacks towards Tempest most likely expecting her to catch them with her magic. Before she could alert the sellspony though the magic around the bags dissipated and they fell to the floor, the contents dumping out on the ground.
The shop keep and Twilight looked towards the sound and saw Tempest doing her best to pick things up with her hooves and the shop keep apologized as he finally noticed Tempest's broken horn. Twilight said it was fine and levitated the remaining contents back into their bags and handed them to Spike. Tempest just blushed, emberrased with Twilight just giving her one of those "hey, its ok" looks in return. This incident alone wouldn't be too bad had it been the only emberassment of the day. Sadly however that was not the case.
After the parchment store, next up was the book shop where the annoying old earthpony mare that ran it kept asking Tempest the same questions over & over. If she was new in town, what her name was, what happened to her horn. If she knew where the old mare had left her hearing aid. Sufficed to say it was an aggrivating experience and Tempest was glad when they finally left
Next they went to the convenient store where Tempest ran into and tripped over a display of canned pumpkins in the middle of the isle due to the fact she had been preoccupied talking to Grubber. She looked up to see a very disgruntled employee staring up at her. She merely stood up, dusted off her armor and told the pony not to worry, She & Grubber would clean up the mess. This thankfully seemed to appease the store clerk abit as he shrugged and trotted off.
The worst part however was lunch. Princess Twilight had suggested Hay Burger, not the best place to eat but Tempest was in no posistion to disagree. As they waited in line Tempest heard a young filly ask her mother over & over why the pony in front of them didn't have a cutie mark. The mother merely replied by telling the filly to hush but the curious child would not relent. Shortly after they had finally gotten their order and set down Tempest's horn began to flare up again. She ran to the public restroom and stuck her head in the sink as bursts of energy bounced around one jumping out and zapping a pony in the stall behind Tempest.
Tempest moaned in despair as she trotted alongside Twilight and the others doing her best to keep her head held high and not show any signs of weakness as not to put the princess in jepordy.
"Its ok Tempest, everypony has an off day. Its nothing to worry about, really." Twilight said trying to reassure her friend. "Oh, I bet I know what will cheer you up. We could go to the comic shop. Spike loves to go there and I bet you and Grubber would enjoy it too!" Twilight smiled. "And just between you and me, i'm kind of a fan of the Power Ponies comics myself now thanks to Spike." She chuckled.
"Sure, why not." Tempest replied. "Not like my day could get any worse." She huffed.
Thankfully it seemed the group was given a brief respite as the comic shop did turn out to be an enjoyable outing. The young fillies and colts were in awe at Tempest and asked if she was cosplaying as some new anti-hero, and even more amazed to find out she was a actual royal guard. Meanwhile Grubber was playing a game of ogres & obulettes with a group of ponies at the table in the back and Spike and Twilight were busy looking through the Power Ponies & Daring-Do comics.
Some hours later the group finally left the shop as they realized they had been there for hours and the shop keep was getting ready to close-up.
"See, the day wasn't all bad, was it?" Twilight asked with a knowing smile.
"I guess not. But did you really have to buy an entire cart full of comics?" Tempest asked pointing to Grubber & Spike pulling a large cart behind them . "Of course we did." Spike replied. "Totally worth it."
The group chuckled but soon an old Earth pony stallion came bolting towards them.
"Princess Twilight. There's some kind of hooplah going on in the Farmer's Market. Think you could come help us out?" The tired old pony asked.
Twilight looked at the old pony, obviously he was quite nervous. "Of course we can help. C'mon Tempest, Spike, let's go." She said as she went to follow the old pony to the market.
"Finally, some action!" Tempest thought to herself as she followed behind the princess in earnest.
Grubber just watched as the others ran off. "Ok, yea, whatever, i'll just stay here and read some comics I guess."
As the group arrived at the Farmer's Market Twilight saw what the problem was. Three large brutish Pegasi stallions were taunting and tormenting a Unicorn Stallion who was cowering down his hooves over his head.
"Ugg, those three" Twilight hissed in disgust
"You know them princess?" Tempest asked
"Yes, they are a trio of pegasi that constantly harrased my friends Fluttershy & Rainbow Dash when they were fillies. And it seems they never learned that such behavior is inaporopriate." Twilight scowled.
"Then perhaps its time to teach them a lesson." Tempest chuckled as she moved forward towards the pack of stallions.
"Excuse me gentlemen, it seems you are causing quite the scene here. Perhaps you should move on." Tempest said in a intemidating of a voice as possible. The trio turned around and looked at the guardpony. "Yea, and what are yea gonna do if we don't?" The middle one asked.
"Oh you don't want to know" Tempest chuckled emiting a small fritz from her stub.
"Ha, big talk for a unicorn with no horn!" The shorter one on the left exclaimed as he flew over to her side. And look, she ain't got no cutie mark neither!" He exclaimed with a chuckle.
"Haha, weak!" The last one laughed
"Bite your tounges!" Tempest shouted, ready to attack, sparks fizzing above her.
"Hey, loser, catch!" The tall bulky one said throwing a tomato smack dab in the middle of her horn. Tempest paniced and the magic reacted to the fruit causing it to explode and hot tomato juice fell all over her face runing down into and burning her eyes.
The three pegasi laughed.
All of a sudden a loud voice boomed.
"HOW DARE YOU! HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO MY FRIEND!" The voice wailed
The three Pegasi looked to see Princess Twilight her eyes glowing pure white her horn eminating a powerful glow. The three bullies froze where they stood.
"LEAVE, NOW!" Twilight shouted in the loudest royal voice she could muster. The Pegesai obeyed soaring off as fast as they could. And the crowd of ponies cheered.
Twilight didn't care about that though as she saw the red juice on Tempest's face, the pony holding her eyes closed obviously trying to hold back her tears. As if out of instinct Twilight grabbed Tempest and Spike with her wings and teleported them all back to the castle.
Back at the castle of friendship Twilight set with Tempest in the study. Her armor off to the side on the floor and the mare trying to hold back her tears as Twilight cleaned her face with a cool washcloth. "I'm so sorry Tempest, i'm so so sorry" Twilight said but the guardspony didn't reply and just stared forward trying to retain what little composer she had left.
All of a sudden there was a knock on the study door and the two looked at each other. Slowly the door opened and a thestral wearing sunglasses slowly walked in.
"May I help you?" Twilight asked, somewhat confused.
The batpony mare took off her sunglasses and replied. " i'm Lavender Nightsbane with the intel corps. I am here to relay the information about Guard Tempest Shadow's friends and family that we have acquired on the behest of Princess Luna." The batpony stated, looking at the two. "Did I come at a bad time?" She asked.
"You could say that." Twilight chuckled. "But i'm glad you're here. We could use some good news." She sighed.
"Oh really?" The batpony gulped. She really had come at a bad time.
The batpony sat across from Tempest & Twilight and explained they had visited many small towns around Canterlot and beyond. They had discovered the town Tempest came from had been abandoned some time ago and that many of the residents had moved off to different towns and cities. One pony they believed to have been Tempest's friend a yellow unicorn mare had moved off to Manehatten and started a bakery. The other a blue colt had moved to Trottingham to start a clock repair business.
"Well I am glad to hear they are doing well I suppose. Despite what they did to me." Tempest sighed. "Thank you for letting me know."
"Of course." The batpony replied.
"But what of, what of my parents? My birth cirtificate?" Tempest asked.
"Well, you see..." The thestral paused as she sipped her tea. "The village you came from, Prancesen. It was quite small, it only had a population of 120 ponies, smaller even then Ponyville or the rock farms. It, didn't have the most effecent record keeping" The pony nervously replied.
"And, my parents." Tempest asked. Did you find them?" Tempest asked, quite anxious at this point.
The bat pony froze. Her entire body seemed to shake with fear.
"Um' are you ok?" Twilight asked.
The theastral took a deep breath. "Your parents, they were co-Mayors of the village. Your father's name was Tangy Pop and your mother was Cherry Fizzle." She stuttered.
"What do you mean by were and was? " Tempest asked quite nervous at this point.
The batpony took one final gulp of her tea, knowing no matter how she worded this, the band-aid would hurt like Tartarus when she ripped it off.
"Your parents looked for you for many moons, when they could not find you, they feared the worst. With such a feeling of loss and grief ponies can do crazy things. They burned their manor, your home to the ground, with themselves and what we believe to have been the only copy of your birth cirtificate still inside. I, i'm sorry." The thestral replied.
Tempest entire body froze as she felt something inside her break completly and all higher functions shut down.
"I should go" the bat pony gulped as she sped out through one of the window's above.
"Tempest?" Twilight said as she looked at her friend who rose out of her seat and just stood there.
"Tempest, I, i'm so sorry I...." But before Twilight could finish the distraught mare began to dry heave as tears rolled down her eyes.
"Ma, ma, mama." Tempest sobbed tears running down her face. "M, my mother, my father, d, dead, because of me i, i, i, i'll never see them again." Tempest bawled.
"T, town, home, gone, abandoned, and for what? A, a horn i'll never get ba, back. Everything gone everyone gone because of m,m,me." She sobbed wet, warm tears rolling down her eyes.
"Tempest, that's not...." Twilight tried to consule her friend but only had her hoof slapped away.
"All the things I did, all the things the Storm King made me do, the innocents I hurt, and for what. I have no horn, no family, no past. My legacy is nothing but death, despair and pain." The unicorn sobbed.
"TEMPEST!" Twilight tried to interject. As the mare still sobbed.
"I, i'm nothing, i'm worthless, i'd be better off dead!" She cried.
"FIZZLEPOP BERRYTWIST YOU BE QUITE RIGHT NOW!!" Twilight boomed in her royal voice.
Tempest looked at Twilight as the alicorn wrapped her wings around the sad pony and embraced her in a hug.
"Don't say that. Don't you ever say that again." Twilight sobbed. "You made mistakes, you were young and scared & angry. You had no idea what would happen. Its not your fault, its not your fault. Your parents made their choice, that is on them, not you. Don't ever forget that." She said as she gently stroked the sobbing mares back. "And never forget that you are not alone, you are loved. By me, by Spike & Grubber and i'm sure so many more then you can ever imagine. Your old home may be gone. But you have one here now." Twilight softly spoke as she let Tempest finish up.
Tempest absorbed Twilight's words like a sponge. She was right, as long as she had Twilight she had purpose. Twilight was all that mattered now, Twilight was her world.
Author's Notes:
Ok, last chapter this week, i'm exhausted! More this Sunday though.
And yes I know, poor Grubber got left behind. Don't worry, i'm sure he'll be fine.
As for Starlight, she was off doing Startrix stuff obviously.
Well hope you enjoyed. This was a long one, i'll come back and fix spelling errors and stuff later. :p
Chapter 4: Tempest's Day Off. A.K.A. Sorrow & Self Loathing in Ponyville
Tempest hurt. She didn't know why but everything hurt. Her horn, her eyes, her chest, her lungs. She opened her eyes to everything being a blur. She blinked until her surroundings slowly came into focus. As her facilties returned to her she quickly realized that she was not in her bedroom. The bed she was lying on was much larger and more exquisite. The sheets a smooth soft satin and much more ornaite designs and decorations on the bedding and the walls. And books everywhere, on the floor, on shelves and on a nearbye desk. There was no doubt about it. This was Princess Twilight's bedroom.
"But what am I doing in..." she began to whisper as the memories of last night came flooding back instantaniously. The horrible revelation of the fate of her parents, her past. How she had spent all night sobbing under the princess's wing until she finally had cried herself to sleep. "But, where is she now?" Tempest rasped.
"Probably off looking for a royal guard that is actually worth something." A voice growled angrily.
Tempest looked around, surprised, but saw no one. "Who's there? Show yourself!" She muttered. "Oh you silly little foal, there's no one here but me, myself and,I" the voice chuckled." Suddenly Tempest recognized the voice, it was her's. She looked and in the reflection of the crystal walls saw Commander Tempest full Storm King armor and all staring at her, that same menacing smile she used to make, mocking her.
"NO!" She shouted jumping off the bed stomping her hooves as hard as she could. And just like that the apparition was gone. Tempest breathed heavily. She looked at the door and trotted out as fast as she could.
Tempest ran through the castle looking for Twilight, but she was not in the study, the library, or the map room. Finally Tempest slowly trotted towards the dining room, hoping that maybe she would be there. She opened the door, but sadly no princess. Only a lone Grubber chowing down on a bag of apple chips.
"Oh, hey Tempest, sup?" The little beast said as he gobbled down his snack.
"Where's the princess?" Tempest asked.
"Dunno" Grubber responded as he continued eating his chips. "Thanks for leaving me behind yesterday by the way. Not like I spent hours waiting by a cart full of comics until some big red stallion dude offered to help me pull them back to the castle, nah i'm totally fine." He huffed.
"Sorry" Tempest softly replied.
She walked to her seat and noticed a letter on the table infront of her chair. She opened the seal and began to read.
Dear Tempest.
I'm so sorry. I know I should be there to comfort you, but Celestia has called a mandatory council meeting. Apperantly the efforts to repair the lands broken by the Storm King is going to be a greater task then previously imagined. I will be meeting with the other Princcesses and our allies leaders to help them re-evaluate Equestria's approach to helping restore the lands beyond our borders. I should be back by Sunset. And remember, you are not alone and if you need anything at all I am sure Starlight will be happy to oblige.
Sincerly, your dear friend: Princess Twilight Sparkle
"Well, looks like we have the day off." Tempest sighed.
"Noice" Exclaimed Grubber. "In that case, i'm going back to bed!" He smiled as he jumped out of the seat and ran out the door back to their bedroom.
Tempest looked back at the letter and let out a low sad moan. She understood the princess had a responsibilty to Equestria, but the thought of not seeing her all day made the mare's already heavy heart feel even more weighted down.
"Oh, there you are." A perky upbeat voice chimed. Tempest looked up and saw Starlight Glimmer with two rather large saddlebags on her side prance toward her with a smile.
"Oh, hello Ms. Glimmer." Tempest weakly greeted as the pony approached her.
"So, I ah, I heard about yesterday. Are you ok?" Starlight asked nervously.
"You what!?" Tempest responded in a panic.
"Yeah, sorry, I know you probably don't want to talk about it. But hey, it's nothing to feel bad about, we've all dealt with jerky stallions at one point or another." Starlight tried to reassure her.
"Oh that." Tempest sighed, relieved that Starlight was not aware of the true reason for her current less then steller state of being.
"Yea, so....anyway, I was going to go fly kites with the girls today? You wanna come along?" Starlight asked. A nervous smile on her face.
"I appriciate the offer Ms. Glimmer, but truthfully I do not know if I have the strength to face the world today." Tempest replied, her ears falling further down than before.
Starlight took a deep breath. "OK, listen. I know you're in a bad place right now. Yesterday wasn't so great for you. But trust me, staying here in the castle all day sulking won't do you any good. Trust me, I know from experience." She chuckled.
"I appriciate your concern, but I promise you I am quite alright." Tempest replied.
"Liar!" She heard a small filly's voice shout.
"What was...?" Tempest asked looking around seeing no one but Starlight in the room.
"Uh, are you sure you're ok?" Starlight asked a confused look upon her face.
Tempest paused. "On second thought Ms. Glimmer, perhaps getting out of the castle isn't such a bad idea after all."
"Oh great. I just know Maud & Trixie are gonna love you!" Starlight smiled as she happily pranced out the door.
Tempest trotted slowly behind Starlight on their way to Trixie's wagon. Tempest was glad to find out that the pony lived on the outskirts of town as she was not certain that she felt like walking through the village again after all she had been through yesterday. So taking the scienic route around the town on the outskirts of the white-tail woods was a much more relaxing and enjoyable experience.
"Welp, looks like we're here." Starlight gleefully announced. Tempest looked down and saw a somewhat rundown carriage at the bottom of the hill. "C'mon, lets go!" Starlight said with a smile.
Down at the carriage Trixie lazily walked out, still in her nightcap despite it being almost 11:00 at this point. Starlight noticed this and taunted the showmare for being so lazy. Trixie respponded with a witty retort before pausing and noticing that Tempest had come along with her friend.
"What's she doing here?" Trixie asked.
"Well, Tempest has the day off while Twilight's away in Canterlot. So I said she could join us. Is, is that ok?" Starlight asked a sheepish grin on her face.
"I suppose. Just don't expect me to share any of my nuts with her." She huffed.
"What?" Tempest asked, somewhat confused by the statement.
"Hehe, ah, inside joke. Don't worry about it." Starlight chuckled.
Later after picking up Starlight's second friend Maud Pie, the group made their way to the park. Tempest still didn't feel comfortable walking through the town, but at least she wasn't alone, which was good, she guessed.
As they reached the entrence of the park Tempest looked around. Thankfully there weren't many other ponies there. Just a old earth pony couple throwing out seed for the birds and two twin pegasus mares out for a jog. "Ok, let's find a good place to set-up and get to making those kites!" Starlight squeed.
"We, have to make our own kites?" Tempest asked, somewhat confused.
"Oh yea, that's part of the fun. And I have all the materials I need here in my saddlebags." She squeed again.
"How should we design them?" Tempest asked. "Oh anyway you want." Starlight replied. "You can make them any shape and color and use any design or image. You could add a picture of your favorite food or singer or book or maybe you're cutie ma...." Starlight paused staring at Tempest rembering the unicorn was still a blank flank "ma, ma, a picture of a cute mare or stallion you like." She akwardly stammered.
"Oh, smooth save there, Star" Trixie taunted.
"I don't know. I found it to be a bit of a rocky transistion." Maud chimed in with her ever monotone sardonic wit. The rest just staring at her silently.
"OK, anyway let's get started." Starlight replied removing the wood, string and fabric from her saddlebags.
Sometime later the four ponies had finished their kites. Maud having a simple grey kite with a picture of her pet rock Boulder on it. Trixie making her's look like herself. And Starlight going for a more complex lantern style design with the faces of all her friends on it. And Tempest, well....
"Is that a purple kite with a large picture of Twilight's cutie mark on it?" Trixie asked in disgust.
"Um' yes." Tempest blushed.
"And it is a perfectly fine kite. Isn't it Trixie." Starlight interjected.
"Oh yea, sure. Doesn't at all scream i'm a shameless Princess Twilight fangirl" Trixie chuckled. Starlight angrily jabbing her in the side.
"Ok, enough small talk, lets get these girls airborn." Maud monotonaly stated.
"Good idea." Starlight replied. Lifting the kites with her magic until they were at a point the wind took hold.
It took awhile but Tempest eventually got the hang of flying a kite. As she steadied it at the proper altitude she watched it waft in the breeze. "Maybe getting out of the castle was a good idea after all." She said to herself. "Yeah, this is fun!" She heard a filly's voice say. Tempest looked around but saw nothing but herself and the others. She shook her head. "Must have just been the wind." She told herself as she turned her attention back to her kite.
Sometime later after everypony had their fill of Starlight's prefered activity the group gathered around a small picnic area and enjoyed a late lunch of carrot dogs and cinnamon roasted nuts they had gotten from a nearbye foodstand. Tempest took a bite of the carrotdog, a bit sour, but not too bad, but needed a sip of soda to help balance out the flavor.
"So, what now?" Tempest asked as she swallowed her food.
"Well, it's only 3:30. We still have plenty of time to enjoy the park." Starlight replied.
"Boulder and I are going to find a good place to meditate." Maud replied.
"Trixie thinks she will take a dip in the lake." She responded in a sultry tone. "Care to join us Starlight?" Starlight just blushed and let out a nervous laugh.
"Well, I think i'll just find a nice place to sit and collect my thoughts for awhile." Tempest sighed, looking at a nearbye tree that still had quite afew leaves on it.
Tempest walked over to the tree and made herself comfortable. She closed her eyes and began to slowly focus on her breathing. Before she knew it, though not intentional, she found herself fast asleep.
Darkness, only darkness. No matter which way she looked all she could see was nothing. All of a sudden she heard a cruel yet familiar laugh. Around her the world started to form. She found her self in a cage, just like the one she had put Princess Twilight in not to long ago. Outside it she saw herself. Or the pony she used to be. Commander Tempest stood outside her cage, staring at her with a cruel mocking smile. "Hello little one? Are we comfy?" She cackled.
"What is this?" Tempest paniced as the dark copy of herself slowly walked around the cage like a lion circiling its prey.
"Oh, this is just me coming to tell you how weak and pathetic you are." Commander Tempest laughed. "How you are nothing without your armies, without the Storm King, and ecspecially without your horn." The old Tempest hissed.
"No, that's not true, Twilight said that..."
"Twilight said, Twilight said" The Commander mocked. "You could have had it all. You had the most powerful army at your command. You helped conquer and destroy nations. You could have easily stabbed that idiotic monkey king in the back and taken the staff for yourself. With all of it's magic not only could you have restored your horn but ruled over this world with an iron hoof. But you gave it all up. And for what?" Commander Tempest hissed.
"F, for friendship" Tempest stuttered.
"Well, fat load of good that's done you" The Commander scoffed. "Face it, you're weak, you're a failure. Just a sad little filly that runs away. A sad little filly that lets her parents die of broken hearts. A sad little filly that can't even protect herself from a tomato, why would Princess Twilight ever care about you!?" The Commander asked, laughing maniacly.
"Sh, shut-up, that's not true, that's not true!" Tempest shouted.
But the commander just lunged towards the cage. "Yes it is!" She scowled. "Open up your eyes!" She sang as Tempest looked inside seeing in their reflection herself as a small filly, as little Fizzypop all alone & crying.
"NO!" Tempest shouted as she woke-up in a panic. She looked around to see that she was safe. Still at the park under the tree. She could see the sun setting as Starlight and Trixie were lying on the sand at the edge of the lake and Maud was skipping stones across the water.
"A dream, just a dream" she wheezed. Lying back down to catch her breath. Soon however she heard a voice in the distance.
"See Spike, I told you they'd still be here."
Tempest looked around and saw Spike & Princess Twilight walking towards them. Tempest quickly got up and with out thinking ran towards Twilight. "Princess, you're back!" Tempest joyfully shouted as she stopped with a skid bowing right at Twilight's hoof.
"Well, somepony's happy to see you." Spike chuckled. Tempest just blushed. "So, um, how was your meeting." She asked.
"Uhgg, Exhausting!" Twilight huffed. "I'm just glad that it's over and I can spend a relaxing evening with some of my friends." Twilight replied as she wrapped her wing around Tempest. Tempest's heart just skipped a beat as a wave of happiness washed over her and in the back of her mind a small filly cheered exclaiming "Yay, Mama's home!"
Author's Notes:
Welp, seems like Tempest might have a few extra ponies knocking aroud upstairs.... don't worry, i'm sure it'll be fine...maybe. Hopefully.
And I know I said I was gonna wait till Sunday before another update, but I just couldn't help myself. Sorry. Will try to slow down abit so I don't wear myself or you guys out.
Anywho still lots of ground to cover. Next time more actual guardsponying, some annoyed ponies and maybe some feels.
Beyond that, maybe see what Fizzypop's Fillyhood friends have been up to. Maybe they were never quite as innocent as they seemed.
Chapter 5: The Three Faces of Fizz PT. 1
Twilight trotted down the castle hall feeling refreshed and energized after a good night's sleep. She smiled thinking of all the possibilities the day could bring. Maybe she'd go see if Rarity was free for a trip to the spa. Or she could see if Rainbow Dash was free for some chillaxing as the pegasus called it. Maybe help AJ at Sweet Apple Acres. Or she could go to Fluttershy's cottage and introduce Tempest & Grubber to Discord. "Ok, maybe that last one isn't such a good idea." She chuckled to herself as she continued down the hall. Her trek was brought to an abrupt stop however when she noticed Grubber outside the library door, looking around nervously.
"Oh, good morning Grubber. What brings you by the library?" She asked somewhat confused having expected the chubby little beast to be in the dining room with Spike chowing down on a large stack of pancakes.
"Oh, ah, hey princess, i'm just waitin on Tempest. She's been ahh, actin kinda weird this morning." Grubber responded, a concerned look on his face.
"Weird? How so?" Twilight asked.
"Well she got up super early, which isn't really weird for her I guess. But she woke me up too and she was kinda rude and stuff. And then when she was in the restroom I could hear her talking to herself, like alot and she had like three different voices, it was creepy." Grubber explained to Twilight.
Twilight shook her head absorbing all the information she had just recieved. Looking down at the anxious Grubber. "Well thats. ...interesting, but it still doesn't explain what you're doing in front of the library." She chuckled.
"Oh yea, that. Well that's because after she got her armor on and everything she just trotted in there and slammed the door." Grubber exclaimed.
Twilight looked at the door and opened it with her magic. Trotting into the room she saw Tempest sitting in her chair reading a book. "Good morning Tempest." She sang greeting her friend with a smile.
Tempest looked up from her tome. "Oh, good morning princess." She replied in a tone somewhat more gruff and much less respectful then she had the past few days.
"So what are you reading?" Twilight asked. A curious look on her face.
"Oh, just.....brushing up." Tempest chuckled slyly as she put the book down. Twilight now being able to see the front, noticing it was her brother's old copy of A Guide to Guardsponying: Rules & Regulations for The Ages that he donated to her new library after Golden Oaks had been destroyed.
"Well i'm always happy to see a friend interested in reading." Twilight grinned. "But maybe next time let Grubber join in on the fun." She nervously added.
Tempest just looked at Twilight, her eyes like knives that cut through her very soul. "Honestly, I don't think that one even knows how to read." She scoffed.
"OK, obviously somepony woke up on the wrong side of the bed" Twilight thought to herself. "Well i'm going to go see if Spike's finished breakfast, wanna come with? She nervously asked the mare.
"I'll be along in a minute." The hornless unicorn non-chelauntly replied.
"Well, ok then." Twilight responded as she slowly left the room.
"You should'nt be so disrespectful to her
She is our princess." Tempest's voice echoed. "Yea, don't be mean to mama!" The young filly Fizzypop chimmed in. "Oh be quite you two." The commander huffed. "I already told you, i'm the one incharge today. Now sitback and see how a real warrior protects royalty." The Commander cackled, taunting her other two selves.
After a rather akward breakfast Twilight left the castle with Tempest in tow. Spike & Grubber opting to stay at the castle. Twilight looked over at her friend and couldn't help but notice that she did indeed seem to have a more ominous air about her then usual. Her facial expression much more serious then usual, her hoofsteps much more tense and rigid.
Twilight gulped. "So ah, I was thinking of visiting my friends today. I'm sure they'll be happy to see you agiain." She nervously grinned.
"Wether they are happy to see me or not is irrelivant. I am here to do my job as a royal guard, nothing more." The unicorn stated matter of factly.
" Oh, ok." Twilight sighed letting out a sad whinny. Something was deffinently wrong with her friend. She knew Tempest had a rough go of it, both in life and not to long ago as her royal guard, but she thought the two had grown close enough to share their problems with each other. The fact that she was now retreating back behind her walls and acting so cold made Twilight feel as if she was failing her new friend.
Twilght and Tempest continued their slow, akward trek through Ponyville when all of a sudden a pink blur tackled the pony princess. "Good morning Twilight! What yea doin!?" Pinkie smiled still atop her friend. Twilight was about to respond when she heard Tempest growl. "Ms. Pie get yourself off the princess this minute."
Pinkie Pie just jumped off of Twilight and meeped. Tempest slowly trotted up to the Pink Pony "Section 18 Rule #184-2. Any impromptu, unapproved or unwanted physical interaction with a princess is punishable with two weeks of community service and a 500 bit fine." The Commander sneered.
"Five hundred bits!?" Pinkie shreeked. A shocked and confused look on her face. "Well, it was nice to see yea Twilight, later.
" she chuckled nervously as she ran off in a pink puff.
"What the hay was that Tempest?" Twilight huffed.
"Just doing my job princess. Rules are rules." She smiled maniacly. "And Pinkie's my friend" Twilight huffed in retort. "Then she needs to learn to follow the rules." Tempest replied. Twilight just huffed again as she began to trot off towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Sadly the rest of the rest of the day didn't go much better as Tempest spent the entire time pointing out every little infraction or imperfecion AJ was guilty of regarding her interactions with the princess or the state of her farm. Later at Rarity's Tempest scared Sweetie Bell & Opal so bad Twilight had to leave before Rarity snapped and attacked the guardspony. Rainbow Dash fell asleep listening to all the rules and regulations regarding the proper ways to fly alongside a princess being woken-up by a zap from Tempest's stub of a horn and Fluttershy was in shock when the guardspony dropkicked and beat-up Discord quicker then even the lord of chaos could react. And of course what day would be complete without listening to Starlight & Trixie complain about Tempest barging into Star's bedroom telling them to quite down while they were in the middle of their "funtime." Tempest however continually defending herself stating that she was just following the proper rules & regulations and that it was her friend's faults for not knowing them. Twilight went to bed frustrated & exhausted hoping that tomorrow would be a better day.
Twilight opened-up her eyes, stretching her hooves yawning as her wings stretched out. All of a sudden she paused noticing Tempest was sitting at the foot of her bed.
"Eeayahh!" Twilight screamed jumping up and nearly hitting the ceiling in reaction to the unexpected site.
"Good morning princess." Tempest cheered. Her voice a bit more high pitched then usual. "Ready to play?" The unicorn asked in happy upbeat tone.
"Ready to what?" Twilight asked, a very confused look on her face. "Oh, ah, I mean, ready for the day." Tempest blushed.
"Ok." Twilight replied still somewhat unsure of what had gotten into her friend. "I'll, i'll go get ready and you, you just wait here." Twilight told the filly. "Okie-dokie!" Fizzypop smiled as Twilight akwardly slinked into her bathroom.
"Oh real smooth, not suspicious at all." The commanders voice mocked. "C'mon now, give her a chance." Tempest retorted.
Fizzlepop just rolled her eyes. "You'll see, as long as we're nice mama will love us best, you'll see."
As the day before Twilight and Tempest left the castle, though today Twilight noticed her friend was in a much more positive mood. Her steps a happy prance, her smile wide and her eyes full of filly like innocence.
"Well, i'm glad to see you're feeling better today Tempest." Twilight smiled back at her friend.
"Me too. And i'm sorry I was such a grumpy pants yesterday princess." Tempest replied.
"Grumpy Pants, really?" Twilight thought to herself. Coming from Tempest that didn't sound right. None the less Twilight brushed it off "ah, well, don't worry about it. We all have our off days." She reassured her friend. Tempest just chuckled happily as she continued to prance alongside her.
Once they got to Ponyville Twilight decided to stop by Sugarcube Corner and check-up on Pinkie. Inside the confectionary ponies were chatting and enjoying their brunch and snacks. Twilight approached the counter and greeted her friend. "Good morning Pinkie Pie" She sang as she put her front hooves up on the counter.
"Oh, heya Twilight morning." She smiled at the alicorn before letting out a nervous gulp as she saw Tempest. "Ha, heya Fizzy how yea doin." She nervously chuckled a single bead of sweat rolling down her face.
Fizzlepop noticed how nervous the pink pony was and lowered her head. "I'm sorry I was such a meanie yesterday Pinkie. I was a, just, not in the best mood." Fizzlepop blushed.
Pinkie smiled as wide as ponialy possible and drew Fizzlepop in for a hug. "Aww, it's ok Fizzy, I know ponies can be grumpy sometimes." She replied, tightly hugging the mare. "Hey, I know, how's a super fizzy soda on the house sound?" Pinkie asked with a chuckle. "Oh, yes please!" Fizzlepop replied.
Twilight looked on confused. She still had no idea what had caused this change in her friend but she was glad that she was getting along with Pinkie again.
The rest of the day went along pretty smoothly. Tempest apologized to all of their friends for the day before and even offered to help them out. At AJ's she helped buck apples and feed the chickens. She even helped Applebloom fix a small hole in the roof of the CMC's club house. At Rarity's she played with Sweetie Bell and Opal while Twilight helped the fashionista pick the final designs for her new Nightmare Night inspired fashion line. And at the park she and Scootaloo cheered Twilight and Dash on as they flew. Finally they had a nice relaxing tea with Fluttershy. Tempest apologizing to Discord, the draconiques begrudingly accepting. The only minor incidents the entire day were Tempest stopping Lyra & Bon-Bon as they attempted to come up to talk to her telling the princess that she might be in stranger danger, though once Twilight explained they were friends as well she backed down an apologized to the two. Then there was an akward moment where Twilight couldn't pry Tempest away from a toy store window as she stared wide-eyed at a cutesy Songbird Serenade plush that Twilight eventually caved and ended-up buying her.
Back at the castle Twilght was exhausted and ready for bed. She set down her saddle bags and yawned. "I'm pooped" she yawned and stretched out her legs. Looking back at Tempest who had followed her into her bedroom. "Ahh, you don't have to keep guarding me, day's over." She akwardly told the mare.
"Oh, ok" Tempest pouted, hugging her Songbird plush tightly. Twilight saw the sad look on her friends face and her heart sank.
"Well, I guess you can stay in here tonight if you want." She sighed. Tempest beamed as she jumped up on Twilights bed and curled-up. Twilight just rolled her eyes. Today had been another weird day, but at least her friends were happy, Tempest was happy. So maybe a little weirdness wasn't too bad.
Author's Notes:
Welp, that was interesting.
Next time a brief interlude, then back to the split-personality goodness!
As always will comeback and try to fix errors later.
Interlude: Does She Know What We Did That Summer?
4 Months Ago: Canterlot-The Storm King's Invasion
Glitter Drops was afraid, more so then she had been in many moons. Not that such a feeling was unique to her at the moment. No the entire city of Canterlot was gripped in fear. Ponies ran in every which direction as giant masked beasts jumped out and grabbed them. Capturing them and throwing them in magic canceling cages, or shackeling them in chains putting magic nullifier's on unicorn's horns to prevent them from escaping and tying pegasi wings down. No help coming from the three princesses now turned to crystal or the Elements of Harmony that had seemingly dissapeared during the fight.
But surprisingly all of this is not what had brought fear into Glitter's heart. Like most ponies she knew that eventually the elements would return to save Equestria, they always did. No what struck fear into her heart this day was the pony that had led this invasion. A pony that despite being older now was one she knew quite well, one that she and the others had all believed to be dead. But there she was as plain as day, her childhood friend Fizzlepop, alive and leading an army of monsters!
"Buck, Buck, Buck!" Glitter repeated over and over as she ran. All she knew was that she couldn't get caught, no matter what she had to get out of Canterlot, if Fizzlepop saw her, she was a dead mare walking.
She twisted and turned through the streets of Canterlot as ponies screamed in terror and storm beasts grunted and howled. A million thoughts raced through her mind "Did Fizzy know we threw the ball into the Ursa cave on purpose? Does she know we were jealous? Does she know about what happened to her... " But before she could finish her thought a storm beast jumped out in front of her.
"Pretty green pony!" The beast growled as it set its eyes on Glitter. "Oh no, no way in Tartarus, not today you freak!" She shouted as she shot sparks of glitter from her horn, temporarily blinding the beast. As she slid between its legs and continued her fast paced trot. Looking around she saw a rather large storm drain and without thinking dove right in.
Glitter druddged through the grime & muck of the Canterlot underground as she slowly followed the path of the water to what she was sure would be her way out. "Oh this is sooo gross!" She shreiked internally. "It's ok Glitter, calm down, you didn't have a choice. You're safe and those beasts can't get you, she can't get you!" She reassured herself. "Now just trot your nasty flank back to Whinnypeg, take a nice warm bath and lay low till Princess Twilight and her friends take care of this and it'll all blow over!" She told herself. "Or would it?" She thought. "I mean sure those beasts & their boss will get the boot, but Fizzlepops a pony, crap they'll go easy on her won't they, no, no she's commited treason against the crown, that's gotta put her behind bars right? Which means i'll be safe right!?" Glitter asked herself in a panic as the rushing water drowned out the sound of the brewing storm above.
2 months Later-Manehatten.
Lemon Crescent hummed her favorite Saphire Shores song as she organized the displays in her shop. Lemon brownies, lemon pie, lemon cake, lemonade, you name it, she had it. Infact as far as she was concerned she had the best Lemon Sweets shop in all the city. "Ahh, time to open up shop and let the lemony fresh goodness brighten the day of all Manehatten!" The yellow unicorn cheered as she levitated the key and unlocked the door, changing her sign from closed to open.
Not more then two minutes after she opened did she hear the door open and the bell ring. "Welcome to Lemon Delights, i'm Lemon Crescent and I hope you'll love my....." Lemon froze as she saw who was standing at the door. The pony's dark green mane was a disheveled mess and her light green fur looked rough and tangled, and she was wearing a rather gauche grey hooded cloak but she recognized the mare none the less. "Glitter!" Lemon Crescent shrieked in surprise and terror.
"Nice to see you too old friend." Glitter Drops wheezed. "Looks like you're doing well." She chuckled between coughs.
"I wish I could say the same for you." Lemon replied "But quite frankly you look like something Cerberus dragged in." She hissed mockingly at her old friend. "And I thought we all agreed to never see each other again after, you know, the incident." She added.
"If I had any other choice, I wouldn't be here, but you were the easiest of us to track down. I need your help." Glitter wheezed. "Please"
Lemon paused for a moment. Truthfully she didn't want to have anything to do with Glitter or any of her other so called old friends, but she could see the mare was desperate, so she begrudingly decided to ask what was wrong.
"Ok, what do you need?" She asked with a huff.
"You know the attack on Canterlot a couple months back?" Glitter nervously asked.
"Yea, read about it in the paper, some creppy guy called the Storm King invaded and tried to take over, Elements of Harmony came back and kicked the bad guy's butt like they always do. What of it?" Lemon replied
"There's more too it then that, the royals are trying to cover it up, but the invasion, it was led by a unicorn." Glitter replied in a panic. "And not just any unicorn, it was her, it was Fizzlepop, she's alive Lemon. Godess help us she's alive!" Glitter cried as she began to hyperventilate.
Lemon froze. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. But the look on Glitter's face was plain as day, she wasn't lying and she was justifiably scared. "Even if what you say is true. Why should I be worried?" She asked nervously. "You and Spring were the one's who tricked her, the ones who abandoned her." She scowled.
"Only because you wouldn't stop annoying us to let you play with us!" Glitter screeched
"Only because you had that stupid rule that your group could only have three at a time!" Lemon hissed. "I'm not responsible for what you did. She lost her horn because of you, not me!"
"Maybe so, but i'm sure as Tartarus not responsible for what happened to her parents afterwords!" Glitter screeched.
Lemon froze. Anger filled ever fiber of her being as she levitated Glitter up with her horn, using her magic to slowly tighten the hood around her neck, nearly choaking the mare. "Don't you dare! Don't you dare blame that on me!" She cried. "So what, just because I was his marefriend when it happened means it was my fault!? Just because it was my suggestion to go over there and try to cheer them up, come clean if we had to, that it's my fault!?" Lemon screamed. "No way, no bucking way! That is on him, it's all on him, I, you, we didn't do a damn thing! Got it!' She growled as she finally let Glitter down.
"Bu, but she's back, she's out there, the princesses didn't punish her, she's free, she's going to find us." Glitter coughed and hacked as she tried to get air back into her now burning lungs.
"That's your problem, not mine, I have a good life here Glitter, I have made peace with my past sins and have moved on. I won't let you bring me down just because you can't do the same." She calmly replied, "now leave and never ever come back."
Glitter slowly picked herself up defeated as she limped out of the bakery, silently sobbing. "Why did you do it Spring? Why'd you have to ruin all our lives?"
Neigh Jersey Slums-Present Day.
Glitter shook as the cold wind blew through the old delapedated building she had come to call home. She missed Whinnypeg, but she knew as long as Fizzlepop was out there she could never go home, she could never let the mare she betrayed, who's family she betrayed find her. She curled up under a dirty old blanket and shook.
All of a sudden Glitter heard a noise and looked up. In the moonlight she saw it, the glowing eyes and the sleek outline, the batlike wings slowly folding in.
"A thestral? What's one of Luna's night guard doing here...unless?" Instantly a wave of panic poured over her. "NO!" She cried as she jumped up and ran, foolishly alerting the batpony to her posistion. Quickly the bat tackled her and she was flat on her back on the ground.
"My name is Lavender Nightsbane." The batpony announced. "Some time ago my unit was charged with digging up information for a pony named Fizzlepop Berrytwist. We compiled and relayed as much information as we could in the short time alloted to us as vauge as it was, but personally, I was not satisfied with the results." The batpony hissed.
"Y, you weren't?" Glitter gulped.
"No, I was not, so I decided to do an investigation on my own, and I find out about you Ms. Glitter, curious how such a successful party planner would just run away from home after Ms. Fizzlepop returns to Equestria, no?" The bat asked in a playful tone.
Glitter paniced. "No, no, I won't let you take me, I won't go to jail for his crimes. I won't confront her, I won't make you make me face her, not now, not ever!" Glitter screamed as her horn began to glow with an intense white aura.
"By the Moon, what is this!?" The batpony asked as she covered her eyes with her wing.
"No more, I can't, I won't, let me free!" Glitter yelled as she zapped herself with her own magical energy, her eyes going pure white as she collapsed to the ground, foam running from her mouth.
"In the name of the sisters what fresh madness is this?" The thestral asked as she walked up to the now unconcious mare, looking down at Glitter, Lavender just stared and wondered. "What could make a unicorn so scared that they would resort to using a mind scrambling spell on themselves?"
Lavender just sighed. "Another dead end. Oh well, suppose I best get this one to a hospital." She huffed as she lifted-up the limp, unconious shell of the pony formally known as Glitter. "Hopefully she'll still have a few memories when she wakes-up." The bat sighed as she flew through the night towards Neighton Heights General Hospital.
Author's Notes:
Here dear reader we have witnessed a story of a pony so afraid of what might happen that it led her down a path to her own destruction. But what secret could breed such fear into a unicorn that she would rather scramble her own mind then face those she has wronged? Perhaps someday we will find out.
Next time we return to our mane story with Three Faces of Fizzle PT II.
Chapter 6: The Three Faces of Fizz PT. 2
Twilight rolled around in her bed her wing instinctivly covering her head as Celestia's sun began to shine through the window "Morning already?" She thought to herself as she finally relented to the sun's demands and opened up her eyes to greet the day around her. She looked around her room, everything seemed to be in place, books, more books, parchment, ink, saddlebags, Tempest's armor. "Wait what?" She asked herself. Then she remembered Tempest's behaviour from the day before as she heard the tiniest of whinny-snores to her left.
Twight looked down and saw Tempest sleeping soundly by her side, still tightly clutching the Songbird Serenade plush the princess had gifted her the day before. Twilight couldn't help but chuckle. "Sweet Celestia she's too cute when she's sleeping." The princess thought to herself with a blush. Though as Tempted as Twilight was to just sit there and watch the pony sleep she knew she had to get ready for the day. As Celestia had taught her "When the sun rises so must a princess." She recited as she hopped out of bed and began to head towards the master bathroom.
Suddenly though Twilight heard a small rustling from the bed and saw that Tempest was waking-up as well. The mare's eyes slowly opened up as she stretched and yawned, like Twilight before her taking in her surroundings, her eyes and ears becoming aleart when she realized she wasn't in her bedroom. Darting up Tempest looked around until her eyes met Twilight's. "Good morning little one." Twilight jokingly cooed, smiling at her friend. "P, princess, w,what am, why am I in your chambers, in your bed?" Tempest stuttered and blushed.
Twilight approached her friend levitating the nervous unicorn out of her bed. "Well you were quite insistant on an impromotu sleepover last night." The princess replied as she slowly put the paniced pony on the ground. "Oh, yes, well..." Tempest blushed. "I, i apologize for my unprofessional behavior then. I over stepped my bounds, It will not happen again." Tempest stated as she set the Songbird Serenade plush on a nearbye nightstand.
Twilight trotted-up and wrapped her wing around Tempest. "Don't be sorry. You're not just my guard Tempest, you're my friend. And sleepovers, no matter how last minute they are, well thats something friends do." Twilight responded with a smile.
Tempest just looked at her friend and sighed. "Still, I do know I have not been the easiest mare to deal with these past few days, and for that I am truly sorry princess." She responded.
"Well, maybe a nice warm bath will help you clear your head." Twilight chuckled. Tempest now noticing the princess had led them into the masterbath as they talked. Tempest froze as her face turned bright red. "Yay, bathtime with mama!" Filly Fizzle cheered inside Tempest's mind. "Huh, so the rumors are true, alicorn's are huge perverts." The commander's voice cackled in return.
Tempest looked at the master bath. The large square tub built into the floor could easily fit six or seven ponies inside it. "This is practically a small pool!" She thought to herself, watching the warm steamy water slowly swirl around. "You know, you're not going to get clean just by staring at it." Twilight chuckled as she playfully splashed some water in Tempest's direction. Tempest just looked at the princess whose wet mane glistened in the light. "I, I still do not think it would be appropriate for me to use what is your princess" Tempest nervously replied.
"Nonsense." Twilight interjected. "Spike uses this tub all the time for his seven hour bubblebaths and Rarity comes over and commenders it whenever the spa is closed for repairs. What kind of princess of friendship would I be if I didn't share such luxeries with the ponies I cared about." She exclaimed giving Tempest a playful wink.
"I suppose that makes sense." Tempest replied as she slowly but surely entered the tub with the princess. "See, that wasn't so hard, was it." Twilight chuckled, a sly look on her face. "I suppose not." Tempest chuckled in kind.
The bathwater was nice and warm, the bubbles tickeling Tempest's fur, the steam helping her relax. She set there for minutes just relaxing when she felt something bump up next to her. She opened her eyes and saw Twilight sitting right next to her. "Princess!" Tempest nervously exclaimed. Splashing water as she moved. Twilight just chuckled "At ease soldier." Tempest stopped and blushed. Twilight with a devious smile on her face levitated a bottle of shampoo and a scrubing brush above her. "Now, lets get you cleaned-up." Tempest just let out a small nervous whinny.
After Tempest's enjoyable if not somewhat akward bath with the princess she went to her bedroom to retrieve Grubber who was unsuprisingly still asleep. Meanwhile Twilight had managed to round-up Spike and Starlight and the group headed to Mayor Mare's office.
"I still don't see why we all had to come along just to go to the Mayor's office." Spike huffed. "That place is so boring!"
"Yea, totally boring." Grubber agreed in kind.
Twilight just rolled her eyes. "Well the zoning papers for the new hotel finally came in so i'll be filling those out while Starlight helps the Mayors secretary draw-up plans for this years Nightmare Night festivities. And besides, everything is always better with friends, right Tempest?" The unicorn said giving her friend a knowing smile.
"Um, yes, that is correct." Tempest responded trying her best to sound serious and proffessional.
"Fine" spike huffed. "But I get to pick where we eat lunch today, if we even get to eat lunch." He pouted. Twilight just rolled her eyes and gave the little dragon a soft smile.
At the Mayor's office things ran rather smoothly as Mayor Mare had all the paperwork organized properly much to Twilight's surprise. Starlight and the mayor's secretary swapped stories about their marefriends over coffee as they planned the coming Nightmare Nights celebration and Spike and Grubber spent most of the time annoying the janitor asking him questions like what the grossest thing he had ever cleaned up or if it was true that the Mayor only dyed her hair grey and so on.
After the groups had finished their tasks they were preparing to leave when the mayor spoke up. "Before you go princess Twilight, I had a favor I would like to ask of you."
"Of course, anything Mayor, what is it?" Twilight asked.
"Well, you see..." The mayor chuckled, a bit nervously. "I had planned to have a small get together for the fillies & colts of Ponyville in the park tomorrow. Nothing too big, just a little fall fun, a bounce house, some ballons and snacks from sugarcube corner, stuff like that." The mayor replied.
"I'm sure they'll love it." Twilight replied. "But ah, what does that have to do with me?" She asked.
"Well, the thing is...." The mayor gulped. "I had also booked for Countess Coloratura to come and sign autographs, but her new agent called me this morning and said she was sick with hoofing cough. So I was hoping maybe, you could come and spend time with the children in her place?" The mayor smiled sheepishly.
Twilight smiled at the mayor. "Of course, we'd be honored. Right guys?" Twilight said staring back at her crew.
"Sounds fun to me." Spike chimed in.
"Totally!" Grubber agreed.
"Sure, why not." Starlight replied.
"As you wish Princess " Tempest nodded in compliance. "Oh, yay playtime with Mama!" Filly Fizzlepop cheered. "Not for you little one, tommorow is my turn." The commander sneered. "B, but playtime!?" The filly cried. "Hush you two!" Tempest whispered. "We'll work something out, just be quite."
The next day Twilight and the others arrived at the park bright & early to help the mayor get things set up.
"OK Everypony. Are you ready to brighten some colts & fillys day!?" She asked her friends.
"Yea!" They shouted in unison.
"Yes Princ..." Tempest began to respond stopped as a sever pain stampeded through her skull as she put her hoof up to her head & whinced.
"Are you ok Tempest?" Twilight asked, a concerned look on her face .
"Oh, yes, I will be fine princess, its just a headache, nothing I can't handle." She huffed with a forced smile.
"Ok then." She replied, her look still one of concern. "Well I better go find Mayor Mare and see what she needs us to do." Twilight stated as she slowly trotted off. Tempest just nodded as she watched Twilight walk off.
"Let me out. Its my turn and you know it!" The commander hissed. "No, I wanna play with mama!" Filly Fizzlepop whinned. "Both of you just stop!" Tempest shouted internally. "We, we'll just take turns today? Ok?" She begged the voices. Their was a short pause, but eventually she heard the two begrudgingly say "OK"
Twilight was concerned about Tempest, despite the guardspony telling her it was only a headache she had a feeling in her gut that something else was up. She watched Tempest out of the corner of her eye. Seeing the subtle changes as she walked through the park. Noticing that she stayed calm and reserved around Starlight as they organized the displays & decorations, but quickly got angered with Grubber and Pinkie Pie as they tried to get her to sample some cupcakes, yet she smiled with an innocent filly like glee as she helped Spike and the Crusaders inflate the bounce house. "Hmm?" Twilight exclaimed under her breath. Something was going on with that pony, and it was more then just a headache.
"Rainbow Dash. Get your lazy flank out of that tree right now!" The commander hissed looking up at the pegasus.
"Jeez, Chill out Tempest. I was just taking a short break." The perky pegasus replied.
"Perhaps, but the children will be here any minute and I am sure they wouldn't be to impressed by a Wonderbolt lazily napping in a tree. Now would they?" She calmly replied.
"Hehe, guess not." Dash grinned sheepishly before jumping out of the tree to resume her assigned set-up duties.
"Good, the sooner this gets started the sooner we can leave." The commander hissed. "No, the sooner we can play with mama!" Filly Fizzlepop cheered.
Twilight looked on at her friend, now noticing that she seemed to be talking to herself. She just sighed anxiously "I really hope nothing bad happens today."
Author's Notes:
Next time: Something bad happens.
After That: Enter Princess Luna
Chapter 7: Honey I Scared The Fillies. Or, Run Fizzle Run!
The Mayor's small Fall Fest in the park seemed to be getting off to a good start. Young fillies and colts were slowly trotting in with their parents or legal guardians and joy and laughter could be heard throughout.
Twilight looked around and saw Spike jumping around in the bounce house with Snips and Snails and Applebloom & Sweetie Belle were over at the petting zoo AJ and Fluttershy had set-up apperantly trying to get Diamond Tiara to pet a chicken. And Scootaloo was sitting by Rumble watching Rainbow Dash perform tricks. All around young fillies and colts seemed to be enjoying themselves.
"So far so good." Twilight chuckled to herself with a sigh of relief. Although soon her calm mood was interupted by a loud rumbling over in the concession stands.
"I saw you take those nuts you little thief!" The Commander growled as she stared meanicingly at young Earth pony colt she had pinned under her hoof.
"I, I was gonna pay for em, I promise! I was just going to go get the bits from my mom is all." The young colt cried.
"A likely story" Tempest sneered. Her hot breath beating down on the frightened young colt.
"What in Equestria is going on her?" Twilight asked a rather confused and paniced look on her face.
All of a sudden Tempest took her focus off the frightened Earth pony and on to Twilight. "Princess. I caught this miscriant trying to steal food from one of the concession stands." Tempest replied, saluting Twilight as the alicorn slowly trotted near.
"Is this true little one?" Twilight asked looking at the frightened foal
"Heck no!" The pony angrily replied. "I told the guy at the nut stand I didn't have any bits on me but I would go get my mom and she'd pay him. He said that was fine but then as soon as I started walking away this crazy guardsmare jumped me!" The Earth colt screamed.
"Tempest!? Is that true? What were you thinking!?" Twilight scolded.
All of a sudden Twilight noticed it, it was very subtle but there it was a change in Tempest's eyes. The anger gone replaced with a look of sorrow & remorse.
"I, I'm sorry princess." Tempest replied holding her hoof up to her head. "I acted, rashly, Jumped to conclusions, it, it won't happen again." Tempest exclaimed looking back down at the now angry Earth pony. 'I apologize little one. I should not have scared you so." She rasped.
"Yea, whatever." The angry colt replied as he dusted off his mane and trotted off in a huff. The other ponies that had witnessed the event still looking on in anger.
"You should keep that guard of yours on a leash princess, she's too dangerous to leave unsupervised." Filthy Rich scoffed.
"Yea, whats she think she's doing scaring a kid like that!" Another angry pony chimmed in. Twilight noticed the growing tension in the surrounding crowd and quickly grabbed Tempest under her wing and trotted off.
"What was that?" Twilight asked her friend in a panic. "Tempest you're a grown mare you know better then to attack a child!" Twilight yelled.
"I, I'm sorry princess. I don't know what came over me." Tempest replied, her head still throbbing.
Twilight just stared at Tempest and sighed. "Maybe its best if you just go back to the castle and rest." Twilight huffed.
"P, Please, n, no let me stay princess. I'll be good I promise." Fizzlepop cried.
Twilight looked back at her friend and saw it once more, the change in her eyes. Now she looked in and saw the eyes of a young filly begging, pleading not to be abandoned.
"Ok, fine. You can stay" Twilight sighed. "But maybe its best if you stay by me for the rest the day."
"Ok, Princess." Fizzlepop replied with a small akward smile.
"Ok, hopefully that's the end of that." Twilight thought to herself as Tempest trotted alongside.
Sadly of course as fate would have it, that would not be the end of it. As Twilight made her way through the fair to help entertain the young fillies and colts Tempest continued to be a nuisance. She shouted at a group of fillies for being too loud while Twilight was trying to read a group of school ponies a story. She got into a fight with another young colt over who the best Princess in Equestria was and then she wouldn't stop begging Twilight to give her bits so she could play the ringtoss and try to win a lifesize Saphire Shores plush. The worst of it however came when Twilight was sitting down signing autographs and she chewed out a filly and her mother for trying to get an autograph a minute late.
"The royal signing session ended at 5:00 P.M. sharp. It is now 5:01." The Commander hissed.
"Oh c'mon its just one minute for Celestia's sake!" The mother angrily replied. "She's been wanting an autograph from the princess all day!" The mother huffed pointing to the now sobbing filly.
"Well, then she should have gotten in line earlier." The Commander sneered.
"That is enough!" Twilight shouted loud enough for the entire park to hear. Everypony including Tempest now staring at her.
"I have no idea what has gotten into you Tempest, but this kind of behaviour is unacceptable!" Twilight exclaimed her eyes beaming with anger.
"P, princess." Tempest stuttered. "I, I was just trying to do my job, trying to please you." Tempest replied. Her head throbbing once more.
"Please me!? And how exactly is being rude to and scaring everypony supposed to please me!?" Twilight huffed.
"I, I don't" Tempest sputtered. "Pl, please Twilight, everything I do, I do for you." Tempest pleaded.
"Well then stop!" Twilight yelled "If you think being my guard means treating others like that, maybe I don't need a guard. Maybe I don't need you!" Twilight screeched her wings furled up in anger.
Tempest stood there frozen. An expression of pure shock on her face that quickly turned to one of deep sorrow as tears began to roll down her face. "I, i'm sorry mama!" She sobbed, her voice scratchy and high pitched.
"Mama!?" Twilight asked, a confused look upon her face.
All of a sudden Tempest's horn began to flare-up and three balls of light exploded from the top creating three firework like explosions in the sky. The group of ponies looked up at the display, both mesmarized and confused. And when they looked back. Tempest was gone.
"Oh no." Twilight whispered in a panic. "What have I done?"
Fizzlepop ran as fast as she could. She didn't know where to, she just knew she had to run. And run she did, straight into the Everfree Forest.
"No, no, no,no,no" Twilight paniced as she flew over Ponyville looking frantically to find Tempest.
"Twilight, hold-up!" She heard a voice shout from behind her. Twilight looked back and saw Rainbow Dash & Fluttershy behind her quickly catching-up to her pace.
"So what was that back there?" Dash asked the alicorn.
"Is Tempest ok?" Fluttershy asked, a concerned look on her face.
"I don't know. I mean I thought she was, but the past few days, I don't know, I." Twilight rambled in a panic as she bit her lip and tried to hold back the tears.
"Oh, its ok. We'll find her, i'm sure she'll be fine." Fluttershy softly replied, doing her best to try to reassure Twilight. The princess just nodded in agreement as she wipped the tears from her eyes. She was still worried about Tempest, but she knew with her friends help they would find the guardsmare in no time. Or so she hoped.
Tempest had ran until she was too tired to run anymore and stopped at a nearbye creek and began to sob. "M, mama hates us!" Fizzlepop cried. "And it's all your fault!" She screeched looking at her reflection in the water. "Look who's talking brat!" The commander sneered. "You're just a big a pain in her flank as I am!" She cackled. "Ugg, both of you stop it, right now!" Tempest pleaded.
All of a sudden she heard a rustling and saw what she had previously thought to be a random pile of boulders start to move and stretch out. Bright yellow beady eyes opening to stare at the poor mare. This was no pile of rocks, but instead a rather large and rather angry rockadile. Tempest just looked at it as it slowly began to crawl towards her and froze.
"Twilight, down there!" Rainbow Dash alerted her friend as she pointed down to something glistening below. The three ponies made their decent to get a better look at what they saw. And there at the edge of the Everfree strewn out in every direction was Tempest's Armor.
"Oh my!" Fluttershy whispered.
"Oh no." Twilight sobbed.
All of a sudden though the group heard a loud scream.
"Tempest!" Twilight paniced as she flew off into the woods.
"Twy wait..." But before Rainbow could finish Twilight was gone.
Tempest screamed as she backed-up in a panic as the Rockadile slithered ever closer. Each step of its mighty claws making the ground below shake. To scared and weakened from her fight with herself to react Tempest just closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. However all she heard was a loud "kapow" and the rockadile howl in pain. Tempest looked up to see Twilight in front of her, her horn glowing and wings spread out as she stared down the beast. For awhile time seemed as if it had stopped as the alicorn princess and the beast stared each other down like two timberwolves fighting over a jackalope. Eventually however the rocky gator huffed and relented to the pony slowly crawling into the creek and swimming away.
"P, princess, I..." But before Tempest could finish Twilight just turned around and hugged her as tightly as she had ever been so in her life. "Don't ever scare me like that again." Twilight sobbed.
Tempest too began to sob as she returned the princess's embrace. "Princess, no, Twilight. I, i think there's something wrong with me. I, i think I need help." She stated as they both continued to sob as they continued to embrace one another.
Author's Notes:
Next Time: Luna & Twy explore Tempest's mindscape.
After that: The truth of the past slowly comes to light as the Reconicliation arc begins!
Chapter 8: Moon Shines of The Spotted Mind
Twilight Sparkle paced back & fourth nervously in her study as she waited for her special guest to arrive. "Oh, what if she gets busy helping other ponies with their dreams and can't make it!? What if the letter didn't make it to her, what if she thinks this is all my fault and tells Celestia!?!" Twilight paniced.
"Relax Twilight. Everything will be fine. Luna will get here on time and you'll figure out a way to help Tempest, together." Spike stated, trying his best to calm the paniced princess.
"I hope you're right Spike." Twilight sighed as she stared worringly at Tempest who was laying on a nearbye couch, tossing and turning in a cold sweat.
"I used a sedation spell to try to relax her. Not enough to put her in REM sleep, but enough to make it where Luna and I could do what we need to." Twilight explained as she rubbed Tempest's face lovingly with her hoof.
All of a sudden the study door slammed open and two nightguards trotted in to announce. "THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT HAS ARRIVED!"
Spike startled by this nearly fell out of his chair. "Sheesh, ever hear of inside voices?" Spiked scowled.
"You will have to forgive my guards young dragon. They can get a bit, overzealous." She chuckled, looking back at the two blushing batpony stallions.
"Oh Princess Luna i'm so glad you're here!" Twilight exclaimed running up to the night loving mare and giving her a tight happy hug.
"Oof"." Luna puffed. "I am always happy to assist those in need Twilight. Though I prefer to be able to breath while doing so." She wheezed.
"Oh, ah, sorry." Twilight nervously chuckled as she released the lunar leader from her grasp giving a sheepish grin.
Luna trotted towards Tempest who was still lying on the couch, tossing and turning cold beads of sweat coming from a hot body. Luna could tell whatever had been happening to the mare had indeed been taking a toll on her in body as well as mind. Large bags underher eyes, shaking despite not feeling as if she had any temperature and a facial expression that was a unnatural mix of fear, sorrow, and anger.
"Can you help her?" Twilight asked, a concernred and sorrowful look upon her face.
"Walking through a pony's mind is not the same as walking through their dreams." Luna replied with a heavy sigh. "It can be done, but it is dangerous, we must be careful or we could just make the damage worse." She stated turning back around to face Twilight. "Knowing that, do you still wish to procced?" Luna asked, her face quite serious.
Twilight looked down at her reflection on the crystline floor and then over at Luna & Tempest. "Yes. Yes I do. Tempest is my friend, and she's in pain, I want to, no, I have to help her. It is my obligation as the princess of friendship to do so!" Twilight boldly stated.
Luna softly smiled as she nodded in agreement. "Very well, take my hoof. Let us begin." Luna replied.
Twilight gulped as she nervously took the dream queens hoof around her own as Luna's eyes began to glow pure white, strong magic eminnating from her horn. Twilight followed suite and soon everything around them faded to black.
Twilight opened her eyes and blinked as she looked around. Nothing but darkness save for a small light surrounding her and Princess Luna. "Did we make it?" She asked. "There doesn't seem to be much here."
"That is because this is merely the enterence, to truly get to where we need to be we must travel beyond the gate." Luna replied pointing to a large somewhat rusted dark purple gate ahead. "Shall we begin?" Luna asked smiling at Twilight.
"Yes, lets." Twilight replied. "Don't worry Tempest, we're coming." Twilight thought to herself as they trotted forward.
Arriving at the gate Twilight couldn't help but marvel at the size and intrecate design. "Looks like old gothic architecture. Tempest has good taste." Twilight said to herself.
"Halt, who goes there?" She heard a voice ask as she jumped back in surprise. Twilight looked straight forward and was surprised to see Grubber decked out in full guard armor.
"Grubber? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked rather confused.
Luna simply moved forward with a chuckle. "This is not actually the one you call Grubber, merely a metaphysical manifistation created by Tempest's subconcious to protect her mind from tresspassers." Luna explained.
"Oh, right." Twilight blushed.
"So, like whadda you guys doin in here anyways?" The armored grubber asked.
"We came to help Tempest, she's not well, her mind is in turmoil and we have to try to fix it. Can you please let us through." Twilight pleaded.
Grubber rubbed his chin for awhile as if deep in thought. "Well, it has been kinda loud on the other side of that gate lately, but still, i'm not really supposed to let anybody in." He replied.
"Not even friends?" Luna asked.
"Hmm, well...maybe. But only if I get a slice of spongecake in return." Grubber replied a sly smile on his face.
"What!" Twilight yelled. "Our friends mind might be literally coming apart and you'll only let us in if we give you cake!?" She angrily huffed.
"Hey, yea wanna go through the gate, yea gotta pay the toll." The chubby beast snickered.
"Why I oughtta!" Twilight angrily sneered as her horn began to glow.
"Calm yourslef young one." Luna told Twilight as she put her hoof between the princess and the beast. "If he wants cake, let him eat cake." Luna smiled her horn glowing as a entire sponge cake appeared in front of the beast. "Ohh, yummy!" Grubber cheered as he ran towards the cake.
"See, easy as pie, er cake." Luna chuckled as the small beast dug in and the gate began to open, a blinding light coming from the other side.
Luna and Twilight walked to the other side of the gate and were bombarded with colors and noises. Mixtures of laughs and screams, feelings,of joy and sorrow swirled around in a flurry. "It is worse then I thought." Luna exclaimed as she looked around. "We must work to find a stable memory before we are consumed by these raw emotions."
All of a sudden a bright light appeared in front of the duo and Twilight and Luna quickly seeing their opporunity and jumped in.
Slowly but surely the world began to form around the two princesses as they saw a small quite town with rather rustic homes, elderly ponies slowly trotting along the cobblestone streets, young fillies and colts laughing as they played.
"This is...." Twilight gasped realizing where they were.
"Yes, Tempest's childhood home." Luna replied, a somber look on her face as she looked onto the nearbye woods.
"This, this is the day it happened, isn't it? The day the Ursa attacked, the day she lost her horn." Twilight nervously gulped.
"I would imagine so." Luna replied "For better or worse it is a key memory."
Suddenly Twilight saw a young filly that looked just like Tempest trotting and laughing with a young green unicorn filly and a blue colt as a yellow unicorn filly looked on angrily from an ally. As if compelled by some unknown force Twilight followed the group into the woods watching them frollic and play until their ball rolled into a cave.
"Oh no, what now?" Glitter Drops whinned.
"Well, one of us should go in and get it duh!" Spring Rain mocked
"B, but that sign says there's an Ursa in there." Glitter gulped.
"Pfftt, Ursa's are just an old mares tell parents made up to scare kids so we won't play in the woods." Spring huffed.
"Then you go in." Glitter nervously replied.
"As if. There could still be bats and stuff in there. No thanks." Spring sneered.
"Well then, c, could you go get my ball Fizzy?" Glitter asked, a sad begging look upon her face.
Fizzlepop hesitated at first but eventually gave in. "Fine, i'll go get the ball yea big babies. You sit and watch see how a real hero saves the day." She cockily exclaimed as she slowly but surely entered the cave.
Twilight paniced, she knew what was coming she had to do something to save her friend. But she found herself frozen, unable to move as Luna stood beside her once more. "I am sorry Twilight. No matter how painful this memory is we cannot interfer, we cannot alter it. As tragic as it may be this is the moment the Tempest you know was born, it is her foundation, without it she would cease to be." Luna explained as Twilight could do nothing but watch as a spark of magic errupted from the cave followed by the growl of an ursa and a loud scream. Twilight couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks as Luna embraced her under her wings and the world around them began to change once more.
Twilight looked up and saw they were in a young filly's bedroom. Along the walls were posters of the princesses. Celestia tall and regal, Luna in her intimidating Nightmare Moon form and a young cheerful Cadence. Looking up at the posters was a sad now hornless fizzlepop a bandage over her eye hiding the fresh scar from infection.
"I'll never b, b, be a princess now." She sobbed. "Mommy always said that I could be whatever I wanted, but she lied!" Fizzlepop cried angrily staring at the posters. "How can I ever be as beautiful as you when I look like this!" Fizzlepop screamed at her Princess Cadence poster as she ripped off her bandages. "How can I ever be a mighty warrior if I don't even have a horn to fight with!?" She screeched at the Nightmare Moon poster. "How can I be a wise leader when I was stupid enough to let this happen!?" She cried staring at the poster of Celestia before trotting to the window and crying as the rain fell down outside. "There's no way Celestia's school would ever accept someone like me anyway. No pony wants to be around somepony who's......broken." she rasped as she began to sob once more.
Twilight felt her chest tighten. "She was so hard on herself for something that wasn't even her fault." Twilight choked. "If she had just gone to the school i'm sure she would've been accepted, maybe if I had met her back then I could have...." Twilight began to sob once more.
"We cannot focus on the missed opportunities of the past, we must take the chance we have now make a brighter future for her, that is all we can do." Luna somberly replied. Twilight merely looked-up and nodded as the room faded and a new scene began to play.
Twilight looked around and saw desert all around, the wind blowing creating small flurries. She looked forward and saw a cloaked pony trying her best to fight the harsh winds as she made her way through the desert. Eventually as the sands onslaught slowed the cloaked mare saw a path and a city infront of her. Pulling down her cloak Twilight saw the pony was a somewhat older Fizzlepop, most likely just hit puberty, her legs longer but not quite fully grown yet her face still more rounded and her body somewhat shorter in length then her current apperance. "Finally, somewhere to rest." The young and rather tired filly sighed in relief.
Walking into Klugetown the pony realized she was rather parched. Looking around she came upon a stand called Stan's Exotic Beverages. Slowly trotting up to the stand Fizzlepop weakly rasped. "Please....nee, need water." The large turtle like creature behind the stand merely looked down and smirked. "How many storm bucks yea got?" The creature asked. "St, storm what? I, i don't know what those are!" The pony replied in a panic. "Hmph, no money, no water." The beast growled.
"Please, please i'm so thirsty I haven't had anything to drink in days!" Fizzlepop whinned. The beast just stopped and slowly turned back around. "Yea want somethin, yea gotta give somethin, ain't no hand outs in Klugetown kid, so since yea ain't got no money, whay else can yea offer?" The sandturtle asked.
Fizzlepop sighed, she knew she would have to save any real valuables she had left in her saddlebag to barter for shelter, but she did have one thing. Fizzlepop picked a rather old warn Princess Celestia plush with a button eye missing out her bag. "My mother made this for me when I was just a babe, I know it may not be worth much, but...." the weary mare sighed.
The beast looked down at the doll. "Memories are the money of the soul I suppose." It replied. "Besides i'm sure my daughter would appriciate a new toy. Yea have a deal lass." The sandturtle replied as he handed her a large canteen filled to the brim with fresh water.
"Oh thank you sir, thank you so much!" Fizzlepop cried as she began to drink.
The sandturtle just chuckled. "Just be on your guard missy, not everyone in this town is as nice as me." But Fizzlepop sadly had already started trotting off in hopes of finding shelter. "Eh, I tried to warn her." The old man huffed as he returned to his work.
Fizzlepop trotted through the town but couldn't seem to find an inn anywhere. "Lookin for somethin miss?" She heard a voice ask as she looked and saw a fox crawl out of the ally. "Um, yes." She nervously replied. "I, I was looking for an inn to stay the night."
"Ahh, that be a problem, ain't no inns in Klugetown no more. Count Vertgo ain't too fond of guests." The fox sneered.
"Ahh, I see, well perhaps I could barter with you for shelter?" Fizzlepop asked.
"Perhaps" The fox slyly replied. "What yea got?'
Fizzlepop dug a medium sized gemstone out of her saddlebag and showed it to the fox. The beast just smiled. "She's got gems boys!" He yelled excitedly as a rather large rat and sharklike creature jumped out from the shadows to surround her.
"What, but, why!?" Fizzlepop asked in a panic as she looked around at her attackers. "Cause that's just the way things work in Klugetown little one." The fox laughed as he and the others began to beat the pony clawing body and ripping her saddlebag as she tried to escape.
Later as the day fadded into night a beaten and bruised Fizzlepop lie inside an empty trashcan shivering having no blanket to protect her from the cold desert air as she tied to sleep.
This time it was Luna's turn to cry. "I am sorry little one. If I had been there instead of stuck in the damndable moon I could have at least consuled you in your dreams." She sobbed.
Twilight looked up at the princess. "Stay strong, I don't think this is over quite yet." And Twilight was right as the world around them shifted once more and sand turned to snow.
Twilight and Luna looked around and saw a destroyed caravan a full grown Fizzlepop sitting in the snow, starring up at the Storm King.
"You're friends have abandoned you." The storm king meanicingly chuckled looking down at the mare.
"They were never my friends." She calmly replied. " Just creatures I was traveling with."
The storm king laughed. "That rock around your neck, do you know what it is?" The king growled.
"Something rare & powerful if you want it so bad I imagine." She sighed
"It is the misfortune mallachite, it fell through my grasp recently and I wish to have it back." The Storm King sneered.
Fizzlepop gulped and slowly handed the green rock to the beast. "What now?" She nervously asked.
"Now, I make my own luck." The beast sneered destroying the glowing green gem in his hands. "As for you, tell me why I should let you live?"
Fizzlepop gulped. "I, I know of many lands with powerful magical artifacts, I, I am sure that would interest you."
"Yes, yes it does. I like power, I like it quite alot infact." The storm king laughed. "Show me these lands and I shall reward you with more then just the gift of life, but anything you desire." He smiled devilishly.
"Anything, could, could you restore my horn!?" The despersate pony asked.
The Storm King chuckled. "But of course little one, serve me well and I shall make you whole again."
"Oh, th, thank you." Fizzlepop exclaimed as she bowed
"Now My Little Pony, what is your name?" The Storm King asked a sly smile on his face.
Fizzlepop thought for a minute and looked up at the beast. "Tempest, call me Tempest." She replied.
Twilight just looked on and let out a sad whinny.
All of a sudden Twilight and Luna found themselves once more in a dark space, this time on a small floating piece of glass. In front of them Tempest standing on another piece of glass, this one cracking with versions oh her past selves slowly crawling out and attacking her.
"We are here, finally." Luna replied as she lit her horn and blue chains came out of nowhere binding her filly & commander personas and extending to stabilize the breaking glass.
"So is that it? We did it?" Twilight asked confused.
"Not quite." Luna replied. But this should keep her stable enough to do what we need to do to fix things." Luna replied.
"And what would that be?" Twilight asked.
"We have to have Tempest confront and come to terms with her past in the real world. And I think I know just where to begin!" Luna exclaimed as her eyes & horn began to glow bright as she prepared to exit Tempests mind and start fixing the real problem.
Author's Notes:
Long chapter, i'm pooped. Poor Fizzy, such a rough life.
As always will go back and fix errors later.
Next time: Tempest confronts old friends and enimies.
Chapter 9: Reconciliation I: Glitter of Catharsis
The midnight train to Canterlot quietly steamed ahead through the moonlit mountain pass, only occassionally interupted by the dark embrace of the tunnels etched into the terrain. Twilight Sparkle looked around the lunar locamotive and found it to be quite empty save for a rather weary earth pony with baggy eyes, his suite and tie somewhat worse for wear. Whereever he had been it had not been kind to him. Then there was an old unicorn mare, most likely returning from visiting her grandfoals snoring in the back.
Those ponies however, no matter how interesting their stories may be were not who she was concerned about at the moment. Twilight looked down at the sleeping visage of her friend Tempest and slowly stroked her mane.
"You truly care about her, don't you?" A soft voice asked. Twilight looked up at Princess Luna who was sitting in the seat across from her, the two nightguards ironically fast asleep on each side of the night mare.
"Of course I do, I care about all my friends, I mean kind of comes with the whole princess of friendship thing." Twilight akwardly replied.
"And that is all it is?" Luna chuckled.
"Of course, why would it be anything else?" Twilight replied trying to hide her blush.
"Hmm, perhaps I have been spending too much time visiting Cadences dreams of late, but I imagine a pony lovingly stroking another's mane could be taken as a romantic gesture no?" Luna chuckled pointing out how Twilight was still stroking the mare.
Twilight a bit emberrased just put both of her hooves under her arms and blushed. "I mean don't get me wrong, I care about Tempest I do. I mean I was the one that convinced you and the others to give her a chance, and our night together at the friendship festival was pretty fun. She's the first pony that actually complimented my dance moves without making fun of them. And yes she's smart, and strong and adorable when she's sad or nervous and maybe I did invite her to take a bath with me not to long ago and....." Twilight stopped mid rant and froze as the realization hit her.
"Oh my." She gulped.
"Oh yes." Luna chuckled.
Twilight just blushed. "Well I guess that would explain why I thought about her so often when she was off training at the academy those four months." Twilight chuckled her cheeks blushing red. "But, however I do or don't feel, that's not important right now, what is important is that we help Tempest." Twilight stated her eyes now serious fixated on the sleeping mare.
"Agreed young one. And we shall do so at first mornings light." Luna reassured her as the train pulled into the station.
Tempest ached, she felt stiff as if she had been asleep or at least unconcious for quite some time. She slowly opened her eyes and blinked as things came into focus. She was on her side and right in front of her scope of vision to her left was a sleeping Princess Twilight.
"P, princess?" She rasped, her voice weak and dry.
Twilight yawned and slowly opened her eyes. "How are you feeling?" She asked, smiling at Tempest.
"Stiff, and thirsty." The hornless unicorn chuckled. "What happened?"
"You were out of it for quite awhile, but Princess Luna and I did manage to contain the fracture in your psyche." Twilight replied.
All of a sudden it all came back to Tempest. Her breakdown, running into the Everfree Forest, Twilight saving her and her crying in the princess's arms as she admitted to needing help. "So, i'm good now?" She asked.
"Well, yes and no." Twilight sighed. "We managed to contain the fracture and keep it from getting worse, but Luna says you are the only one who can truly fix it."
"And how do I do that?" Tempest growled, her voice nervous and angry.
"Y, you have to confront and come to terms with your past." Twilight gulped.
Tempest's eyes got wide and Twilight could see the fear building up within them as she moved to embrace the mare. "But its ok, you don't have to do it alone, i'll be with you every step of the way, I promise." She reassured Tempest as she embraced the mare with her hooves and wings.
All of a sudden a royal guard entered the room and cleared his throat. "Ahem, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna wish for me to inform you that breakfast is ready and they hope you will join them at your earliest convienience." The guard stated as serious as ever before trotting off.
Twilight just chuckled as she got out of bed and helped Tempest up as well. "A royal breakfast sounds wonderful, but perhaps first a shower to wake us up." Twilight smiled looking back at Tempest who just slightly blushed and nodded in agreement.
Down at the royal dining hall Twilight looked in awe at the spread before them. Fresh Fruit, wheat toast, cinnamon rolls and of course her very own plate of freshly baked by Celestia herself smiley face pancakes!
Celestia just looked at her prized pupil's happy drooling face and laughed. "I take you like what you see Twilight?"
"Oh, um yes, it all looks quite delicious." Twilight blushed.
All of a sudden the doors slammed open and Luna grogily barged in. "Apologies for my tardiness dear sister and guests. Catching up on my duties in the dream realm took somewhat longer then expected." She yawned.
Celestia just looked at her sister and smiled as she wrapped her wing around her. "Tis quite alright dear sister. I know how hard you work to keep the ponies of Equestria's slumbers safe. I am just glad you are able to join us."
"And i'm sorry for putting you off schedule in the first place." Twilight nervously chimed in.
"No need dear Twilight. As I said last night, I am always here for the ponies of Equestria, helping Tempest and yourself is a more then worthwhile endeavour." She replied as she levitated a banana towards herself and took out a rather large bite.
"Now then, let us get ready for the day." Celestia smiled leading the others back towards the table.
Twilight, Tempest and Luna slowly trotted through the streets of Canterlot as they headed to their first destination. "So, why are we going to the hospital again?" Twilight asked somewhat confused. "And what does it have to do with me?" Tempest chimed in.
"As I told you during breakfast one of my agents found one of Tempest's old friends rather worse for wear out in the Neigh Jersey slums. As soon as I was informed of this I had her transfered to the hospital here in Canterlot." Luna replied matter of factly.
"So what, seeing a fillyhood friend in a hospital bed is supposed to help me?" Tempest huffed.
"No, but talking to her will." Luna retorted. "It will help give you the clouser you need to move on, as will the others."
"I suppose." Tempest sighed.
"Oh look, we're here." Twilight exclaimed as she pointed her hoof at the hospital trying to break the tension in the air.
"And so we are. Shall we procced?" Luna asked Twilight and Tempest. The two ponies just looked at each other and then back at Princess Luna and with a nervous gulp nodded "Yes."
In the hospital there was a calvacade of noises little foals crying, old stallions coughing, doctors and nurses running around, equipment beeping and old timey music playing over the chaos. Despite this however the three ponies made their way to the 4th floor where Tempest's old friend was being held. When they got there however Tempest was not ready for what she saw. In front of the door a female thestral guard stood in attention as she saluted the princesses. Next to her a large glass observation window looking into Glitter Drops room. The pony unconcious with an IV, heart & brainwave monitors hooked-up to her.
"What happened?" Tempest asked aghast as she looked through the observation window.
"She paniced when I found her." The female thestral replied. "I dunno why, but she cast some kind of spell on herself ta scramble her mind, and now, now she's like this."
"It is ok Lavender, you could not have known this is what she would have done." Luna reassured her patting the batpony mare on her head with her wing.
Tempest let out an angry growl as she slammed her hooves against the glass. "Wake her up, wake her up now!" She demanded.
"As you wish." Luna replied as she opened the door and motioned for Tempest and Twilight to follow. Tempest angrily trotted towards the room as Twilight just nervously gulped as she was not certain she felt too sure about what was about to happen.
Inside the room the ponies just stared at the unconcious Glitter Drops as Princess Luna waved her wing infront of the pony's face causing her as if like magic to wake from her slumber. As soon as doing so however she just darted up and looked around the room letting out small paniced whines.
"Hello Glitter." Tempest growled.
The green unicorn mare just looked at Tempest confused, now even more scared at the pony's angry voice as she began to shake.
"So, do you remember me? I heard you had a pretty nasty accident, you know that seems to happen a lot, doesn't it." Tempest scoffed pointing at her horn.
The green unicorn mare just hid under the covers as she continued to shake.
"Oh no you don't. You don't get to hide from this anymore you coward!" Tempest screeched as she ripped the sheets off the hospital bed. "You, you abandoned me when I needed you most! You betrayed me! did you even look for me when I ran away? Did you even care!?" Tempest sobbed.
Glitter Drops however just continued to shake as she hid her face behind her hooves. The heart moniter now beeping quite fast.
Tempest just sorrowfully sighed. "Look at you now. Pathetic. I'm doing everything I can to get my mind right and you willingly shattered yours." The pony sighed once more as she turned around. "I wish I could be the bigger mare and say I forgive you, but I don't. I wish I could say I feel sorry for you, but I don't. This, this is what you deserve Glitter. If you thought differently you wouldn't have done it to yourself." Tempest huffed as she wipped the tears from her eyes.
Twilight silently wrapped her wing around Tempest. "Are you ok?" She asked the sad mare.
"No, but, I guess in some weird way I do feel a bit better. It was cathartic to get that out of my system. Are, are you mad at me for not forgiving her?" Tempest asked.
"No, i'm not. I may not agree, but I completly understand. The wound still hurts. I know it'll take time." Twilight replied, rubbing her face against Tempest's.
All of a sudden Glitter let out a loud shriek and began to repeat the same word over and over. "Yemon, Yemon, Yemon, Yemom!!" She exclaimed as a nurse ran in to sedate the paniced pony once more.
"Yemon?" Twilight asked rather confused.
"Yemon, ye..." Tempest contimplated rubbing her chin with her hoof. Then it hit her. "Lemon!" She gasped.
"Lemon?" Twilight asked, still confused.
Tempest turned towards Princess Luna. "I think I know who we need to find next." She stated excitedly. Princess Luna just smiled and nodded in agreement.
Author's Notes:
Poor Glitter, fear really is the mind killer. Oh well at least Tempest got to get some stuff off her chest.
Next time the group is manehatten bound as they confront Lemon Crescent and Tempest learns the truth of the tragidies of her past.
Chapter 10: A Clockwork Lemon
The afternoon train to Manehatten chugged along towards the eastern costal city as steady winds beat against the locamotive, passangers whispering and gossiping to one another amazed to see not one but two princesses riding the train like normal ponies.
"You know princess, we could have easily payed for a private car. Would probably be alot quiter and less, well less this." Lavender sneered as she watched two young foals blowing spit wads at each others across the isles through rather twisty crazy straws.
"Perhaps" Luna chuckled. "But I quite enjoy being amoungst my subjects. So often I only get to see them in their dreams its nice to be in their company like a normal pony." The princess smiled.
Lavender just pouted. "I still would've prefered a private car."
"I hate to interrupt" Twilight interjected. "But I think its important we remain on task." She stated pointing to Tempest who was seemingly deep in her own thoughts staring out the window.
Luna just nodded in agreement as she adressed the rather dower hornless mare. "So Tempest, what can you tell us about this Lemon Crescent?" Luna asked non-chelauntly.
Tempest turned away from the window to look at the princess and sighed. "Not much I am afraid." She sighed once more. "Despite the repairs you and Twilight made while inside my mind, my past is, still rather fuzzy." Tempest frowned.
"It's OK." Twilight reassured her putting her hoof on Tempest's shoulder. "I am sure everything will become clear in time." She softly smiled.
Tempest returned a small smile back at Twilight and nodded. "There is one thing I do remember." Tempest replied. "Lemon was always scowling. I know not why, but for some reason, I, i feel she was always mad at me, even if she wouldn't admit to it."
"Well then, when we get to Manehatten we will just have to ask her, won't we?" Luna replied with a devious smile.
Lemon Crescent hummed a happy tune as she was hard at work in the back of her bakery preparing her sweet treats. "Oh so many orders to fill!" She smiled with glee. "Four dozen lemon squares for the foals at Manehatten Elementary, two dozen lemon marange pies for the Manehatten Historical Society. And 1000 lemon candies for Mayor Hardhoof's Nightmare Night Party later this month. Fall is great!" She cheered. Her celebrations of her businesses success interupted as she heard the front door open and the bell at the top ding.
"Coming!" She sang as she trotted out of the kitchen to the front of the store. "Welcome, i'm Lemon Crescent and this is my sweet shop how may I help you!?" She said with a smile as she greeted her guests. Suddenly her happy mood dissapeared as she saw who had come into her shop. She gulped as she saw the visage of not one, but two princesses, a batpony silently hovering above and in the middle, the most terrifying sight of all. A hornless unicorn mare, a scar upon her cheek and a rather serious stare upon her face.
"H,h, he, hello." She nervously meeped.
"Hello, Lemon, long time no see." Tempest greeted in kind.
"Um, yea, same." Lemon nervously chuckled trying to slowly back-up, every fiber of her being yelling at her tellling her to run back into the kitchen and hide, only to feel her flank bump into something, looking back only to see the thestral guard had managed to sneak up behind her and block her path.
Lemon gulped. "So, what can I do for you?"
"Oh not much, we just need you to answer a few questions." Luna smirked.
"If you don't mind that is." Twilight added.
"Oh, of, of course not." Lemon replied as she felt a chill run down her spine. "And answer honestly or else." Lavender threatened from behind baring her fangs.
Tempest slowly trotted up to the lemon loving unicorn and and let out a deep heavy sigh. "When we were foals, why were you mad at me all the time?" Tempest asked, her eyes wide and sorrowful.
"Me, mad, at you? Pfft, no, no of course not." She stammered. Trying to fain innocence until she felt the Batpony's fangs against her rump. "Eeeep!" She shook that cold chill reaching her spine once more. "Ok, ok, I, I was jealous. I wasn't mad I was jealous! Just don't let her bite me. I need my blood!" Lemon Screeched.
"Jealous? Why?" Tempest asked rather confused.
"Because everypony loved you, they adored you and your parents, when they should have been adoring me!" She whined. "My magic was just as strong as yours. My parents were just as rich as yours, but you got all the affection, all the praise, all the friends! I couldn't stand it!" She sneered. "That's why I convinced Glitter & Spring to help me scare you!" She cried.
"You did what!?" Tempest angrily huffed.
"I didn't know what would happen though." She stammered. "Spring came up with the plan. He was getting jealous too. And Glitter, that stupid bitch was always a coward, of course she'd follow along. I just wanted you to be scared, if you were at home hiding under your bed for awhile, I could get the attention, the friends I deserved. I didn't know the Ursa had woken up from its hibernation. I didn't know you'd lose your horn!" Lemon sobbed now huddled down on the floor her hooves over her eyes.
Tempest just stood there, staring down at the mare, a mixture of anger and sorrow welling up inside her.
"So what you're saying is, because of your vanity, your petty jealousy I have spent most of my life angry, hornless and alone?" Tempest scowled.
"Mmm hmm" Lemon sobbed.
Tempest just sat down next to Lemon and whispered into her ear. "You are a sad, weak, pathetic little mare. And guess what, your plan backfired. I'm still here, and I have friends, real friends. And they care for me. I am loved by them more then anypony will ever love you in all your days on this earth."
Tempest stood back up over Lemon, a malevolent smile upon her face.
"I, i'm sorry, i'm sorry." Lemon sobbed.
"I know you are. But it doesn't change what happened, what you did. What you let them do." Tempest huffed.
Lemon slowly wobbled back onto her hooves. "I know. But, it was Spring Rain who.." she stopped herself mid-sentence, she was already in trouble and she couldn't handle anymore.
"Spring Rain who what?" Tempest asked with an angry growl.
"No, no more, i've had enough of this. I, I already made my confession! If you want to know how Spring wronged you, then you go and track him down and ask him yourself!" Lemon angrily screeched.
"And so we shall." Princess Luna Chimed in. "Could you be so kind as to tell us his where abouts?" She politely asked.
"I don't know where he is." Lemon huffed. "All I know is he wanted to follow the clouds & the rain to follow his calling! He was obsessed with rainy days, he wanted to live somewhere that was cloudy all the time."
"Well that narrows things down quite abit then." Twilight cheerfully interjected. " The only two towns in Equestria with more cloudy days then sunny ones are Hollow Shades and...."
"Trottingham" Lavender interrupted with a devious smile.
"Well then, Trottingham is where we'll go." Tempest replied. "Oh and Lemon, if I were you i'd watch my back, I think Luna's little pet has taken quite the liking to you." Tempest chuckled pointing to Lavender who was smiling wide baring her fangs and licking her lips. "So do try to behave from now on. No more scheming to ruin ponies lives." She sneered. And as the group began to trot out of the store Lavender turned around and winked "see you soon little one."
Lemon just gulped as she felt her heart sink like a rock. "I am so bucked." She whinned as the once bright shop seemed to now be tainted by her own sins, her own darkness.
On the way back to the train station Tempest did her best to keep a strong front, but eventually found herself breaking down and sobbing. "I, I lost my horn because of her, and for such stupid, petty reasons!" She cried.
Twilight embraced the mare and did her best to calm her. "I know, I know. What she did was wrong. I know hearing it hurt. But you were so strong back there. I'm proud of you for facing her. Even if things did get kind of, intense."
Tempest just looked into Twilight's eyes. "How can somepony so good care for someone as bad as me?"
"Because I can see the real you. I see a strong, smart, beautiful mare. Yes she is hurting, yes she was angry and lonely for a very long time. But she found her way home, despite everything she had been through that light inside, no matter how small it became never truly went out." Twilight smiled as she wiped the tears from Tempest's eyes.
"Oh just kiss already!" Lavender howled.
"Wha, what!?" The two replied in a panic quickly unraveling from their embrace and blushing bright red.
"Hmm, hmm, their will be time for that later." Luna chuckled. "But for now, I do believe we have a 6:15 train to Trottingham to catch."
Luna was right, this wasn't over yet. They still had one pony yet to confront. One pony left to help bring peace to Tempest's weathered spirit. Little did they know, Tempest's reunion with Spring Rain would be the most painful one of all.
Author's Notes:
Well Happy Halloween everbody. Hope you enjoyed this new chapter, sorry for the shortness & slower releases.
Anyway, come back next time as Tempest confronts Spring Rain and learns the truth about her parents demise!
Chapter 11: Rains Over Trottingham
The Trottingham Train station seemed rather barren and bleak as not hardly a soul was present save for a couple employees sweeping and dusting trying their best to make the old delapedated building look presentable. Tempest, Twilight and company merely kept to themelves as they walked outside.
Outside Luna's night had overtaken the land and the thick clouds made things even darker. Thankfully old oil filled street lamps shined brightly giving some breaks in the darkness showing the subtle beauty of the cobblestone streets below.
"Well, it is rather....rustic." Lavender chuckled. "Even in comparison to Canterlot."
"Well Trottingham is one of the oldest cities in Equestria." Twilight remarked. "Infact I believe Starswirl actually helped the origional baron of the land plan the cities layout.
"That he did." Luna agreed. "I was just a little filly back then myself, but I remember him bragging to everypony he'd meet about how proud he was of the project. " Luna chuckled.
"That's nice and all" Tempest interjected. "But maybe we save the history lessons for afterwards" She scowled as she trotted down the steps in a huff.
"Tempest is right. We need to focus on finding an inn for the night and making a plan on how we'll locate Spring Rain." Twilight stated.
"And so we shall. Now come, I know just the place." Luna smiled.
Twilight looked around admitingly somewhat confused. She had expected Luna to take them to some old manor or maybe a cottage by Lake Ness, but instead they were at some dive called "The Rusty Horseshoe Bar + Inn. Around them were drunken Earth ponies arguing, Griffons and Dragons gambling and some unicorn mares Twilight could only guess were offering the stallions in the joint a very specific kind of company.
"This? This is where we're staying? A dive bar!?" Twilight asked Luna rather paniced.
"Yes, and do not be so quick to judge Twilight Sparkle." Luna replied in a serious tone. "This dive as you call it was a favorite of Starswirl's and I myself am well aquainted with the current owner." Luna smiled.
"Basically we stay here we get rooms for free" Lavander chimmed in.
Twilight just rolled her eyes and huffed. She still didn't agree, but its not like she could change Luna's mind, even if she tried.
"Well Tempest. Looks like we're roughing it tonight." She chuckled. Looking over only to find Tempest no longer by her side. "Tempest!? Tempest!?" She paniced looking around the dive.
"You ahh *burp* lookin fer that filly with the broken horn yea came in with? " Twilight heard a old raspy voice ask. Twilight turned around to see a rather gruff looking Diamond Dog.
"Yes, have you seen her?" Twilight asked, rather worried.
"Yea, *hic* saw her go up to the bar, guess *burp* she wanted a drink." The Dog chuckled.
"Well, ah, thank you" Twilight akwardly smiled as she rushed off to find Tempest and get away from the intoxicated mutt.
Tempest just starred into her mug of cider and sloshed it around watching her reflection shake in the liquid. "You know, getting a drink is more fun with friends." She heard a soft voice tell her. Tempest looked around to see Twilight. "Oh, hey." She sighed.
Twilight set in the seat beside her, a concerned look on her face. "Hey, what's wrong?" She asked putting her hoof on Tempest's.
"I guess, i'm just....nervous." Tempest sighed.
"Why?" Twilight asked, now even more concerned.
"I, I just have a feeling, deep in my gut, I, I feel like something really bad is going to happen tommorow when we confront Spring." Tempest sighed as she took a rather large swig of her cider.
"Don't worry. No matter what happens i'll be right there by your side." Twilight reassured her.
"Well then, here's to friends" Tempest chuckled holding up her mug. "To friends" Twilight replied in turn holding up her own glass and clanging it against Tempest's as the two set and drank together.
"How many glasses of cider did you two drink!?" Luna asked rather angrily as she levitated Twilight and Tempest up the stairs towards their rooms.
"Juss...juss a cup, cupple *hic*" Twilight replied. "Yea, juss, a f, few too take off the edge fa tamarrow" Tempest chimed in with a rather unlady like burp.
"And of course they mean a couple dozen no doubt." Lavender chuckled.
"I can't believe you two!" Luna scolded. "You're all concerned about staying on task and you get sloshed!" Luna angrily huffed as she opened the door to Twilight's and Tempests room, tossing them on their bed.
"I'll use a sobering spell on you in the morning if you need one, but for now you'll have to deal with the ramifications of your actions." The princess huffed as she slammed the door to head to her and Lavender's room.
"Thoose princesses *burp* are succc hyp, hypocrates." Tempest blurted.
"Hay, don't *hic* inuslt my sisters" Twilight drunkingly huffed.
"Thay, day aren't yer sisters" Tempest laughed.
"Yea huh!" Twilight argued. "My broffer married Cadence, who is Celestia's niece so *burp* that means by marriage all other princesses are my sisters." Twilight laughed.
"I don think thats how that works" Tempest interjected. "Is too" Twilight huffed.
"Well then maybe I should marry a princess so *hic* i'll be their sister too" Tempest chuckled.
"You, you bettte naught. If, if you try, if you marry any, any pony other then m, then me i, i'll send em to the moon!" Twilight objected.
"Well, good thing you're a princess too then." Tempest replied.
Twilight just paused for a minute. "Oh....yea." she realized "that's good." She chuckled as she felt a sudden wave of tirdness wash over her as she slowly fell asleep as she embraced Tempest.
"Mmm, hmmm" Tempest replied as she two fell victim to her own exhaustion & intoxication.
"My head is killing me!" Twilight whinned as she sipped her morning tea.
"Ugg" Tempest agreed in kind.
"Good, maybe next time you'll be both less judgemental and more responsible." Luna sneered at the two.
"Uhuhhuh. Sobering spell, now. Please" Tempest whinned.
Luna just smiled deviously "Only after Lavender has returned with her intel and we know where we need to go."
"You're so mean." Twilight pouted.
"Tough love is often the best kind to teach one a lesson" Luna stated.
Thankfully however as soon as Luna finished Lavender barged in. "I found it. Spring's shop. I know where to go!" She smiled triumphantly.
"Ok, now you may have relief." Luna smiled.
The group slowly trotted down the cobblestone streets of Trottingham. The sky cloudy as a light sprinkle of rain fell from the heavens to the ground below as the citizens of the town slowly went about their business. A young colt selling papers on a street corner, an old earth stallion selling some less then fresh looking fruit and a pegasus mare doing her best to set-up her tent so she could start selling her wears for the day, whatever they may be .
Tempest just looked around the old city as the nervous feeling inside her grew. Luna may have healed her and Twilight's hangover, but the feeling of dread from the night before still hung over her.
"Are you ok?" Twilight asked in her now all to familiar concerned tone.
"Honestly, I am not sure." Tempest sighed. "Being here, it's just. I know Trottingham is much larger then my fillyhood home, but the Cobblestone streets, the rustic design, it reminds me so much of Pranceton, it is....unnerving" Tempest stuttered.
"It's ok. Remember, we're all here for you. I'm here for you." Twilight softly smiled as she put her wing around Tempest's torso.
"And I am very greatful for that." Tempest softly smiled as she looked back at her princess.
"So, what can you tell us of this Spring Rain we will soon meet?" Luna asked from behind.
"Well..." Tempest sighed as she searched for memories through her still healing mind. "He, he was a very....serious young colt. He had a short temper, and would often get mad at Glitter and I for not playing games right, whatever that means." She chuckled. "I would often get into arguments with him over such, though that isn't anything odd is it?" She asked.
"Of course not." Twilight chuckled. "I used to argue with Spike & Shining Armor all the time when I was a filly."
"This childhood reminiscing is cute and all." Lavender interrupted. "But we're here."
Tempest and Twilight just looked-up and saw the little shop with a sign in the center that read. "Spring's Clockwork Emporium." The two just looked at each other and gulped. "Well, I guess its now or never." Tempest rasped as she slowly trotted towards the enterance.
Spring Rain set behind the display as he fiddled with a pocket watch he had promised to fix for a customer as hundreds of other clocks & watches ticked and tocked around him. "Any minute now." He sighed as she set the watch down and looked at his reflection in the glass of the display case. His dark blue mane well brushed and his light blue fur accented well by his white button-up suite and brown sleveless jacket atop it making him look rather dashing.
"Well old being, if you're going to go out, might as well go out in style." He chuckled as he stroked his mane. All of a sudden the door opened and the bell chimed. "Ahh, right on time he thought."
The unicorn stallion just watched as the group entered his shop and stared at him coldly, then quickly becoming rather confused by his lack of reaction.
"Hello Berry, long time no see." He replied in a non-chelaunt tone.
"Hello Spring." She scowled.
"I was wondering how long it would take for you to find me Fizzy. I've been waiting you know." Spring Rain chuckled as he went back to fiddling with the pocket watch.
"Is that so." Tempest sneered doing her best to keep her cool at the obvious lack at her old friends surprise to see her alive and well.
"Yes quite. You see i've had this nagging feeling for months now. At first I thought my horn was on the fritz, but then I realized it was more of one of those silly sixth sense things about something ominious on the horizon, so I eventually came to the conclusion that you had returned. Though I admit I didn't expect you to bring princesses along with you." He mocked.
"So then you know why i'm here." Tempest huffed, her anxiety and anger rising.
"I imagine so." He replied. "No doubt you already tracked down Glitter and Lemon and got their stories, so now you just need mine." He sighed.
"More or less" Tempest huffed.
"Fair enough." He chuckled deviously. Then i'll gladly give it to you."
Twilight and the others were in awe at the audacity of this pony, completly ignoring princesses of Equestria to focuses solely on taunting and mocking Tempest.
Spring Rain's horn began to glow as the room became dim and a projection eminated off the reflections of the various clockfaces.
"Once upon a time there was a young colt, and all things considered he was happy." Spring sighed. "He was friends with the mayor's daughter and the baron's daughter and, whatever the heck Glitter's parents were." He laughed. "But his happiness didn't last, his mother left his father for some fancy pegasus and his home made him sad." Spring sighed once more. "After that the colt's father, the only guardspony in town grew distant as well and the colt's heart began to grow cold. He noticed how his friends were happy, how one in particular had such a perfect life with loving parents and ever growing magic powers." Spring scowled as an image of Fizzlepop and her parents appeared. " Then one day the Baron's daughter told the colt how she too was jealous of the filly and suggested we find a way to scare her. The young colt agreed and concoted a plan. Though, he didn't just want her scared, he wanted her gone!" Spring screeched.
"What!?" Tempest gasped.
"That's right, I knew the Ursa was there. I knew it would be awake. The others just wanted you scared. But I wanted you dead!" Spring laughed.
"Why, you!" Twilight growled, enraged ready to strike the pony. "No wait. Let him finish." Tempest interjected as she put her hoof infront of Twilight, her face serious, a mixture of rage and sorrow.
Spring just chuckled. "And though you survived the attack, you did lose your horn, so in the end the colt was satisfied with that. And even happier when you ran away. Though the rest of the town wasn't." He huffed angrily. "For years your parents and the townsponies looked for you endlessly until Lemon sadly grew a concious and told me we should go to your parents and offer to help look as well, even come clean if nessecary." He scowled as an image of Tempest's childhood home appeared. "So we did."
"I don't like where this is going." Lavander whispered to Luna.
Spring cleared his throat. "Of course while there Glitter & Lemon came clean about the incident and your father was quite enraged by it, your mother in tears. Your father and I got into a fight as Glitter and Lemon ran like cowards. The next thing I knew he was throwinng anything his magic could grab at me, so I did the same. I threw a log from the fireplace right at his horn and there was an explosion. I made it out by the skin of my flank, but i'm afraid your parents weren't so lucky and burned down with the manor.'' Spring mockingly sobbed. "But of course with no witnesses coming forward it was merely believed that two grieving parents had fallen to sorrow and decided to burn it all to ash." He finished.
Tempest just stood there and shook as tears rolled down her eyes to her cheeks and the floor below. The story had been too much, the projections too vivid, she couldn't take it, she was disgusted by Spring's words but she was to engulfed to sorrow to react in anger.
"You monster! You psychopath!!" Twilight shouted as her wings unfirled and her horn began to glow with an intense force.
"You think just because she was happy she deserved to be punished!?" Twilight sceamed as she shot a burst of energy at the display shatering it.
"You think just because her parents loved each other, loved her and yours didn't you had the right to take that away!?" Twilight screeched blowing up more of the clocks with magical bursts. "I should end you Spring Rain, I should end you right here and now!" Twilight sobbed.
"That is quite enough Ms. Sparkle Luna interrupted as she slowly walked past the young princess and towards the stallion.
"Spring Rain, for the crimes of Conspiracy, Attempted Murder, Arson, and two counts of Ponyslaughter you are to be placed under arrest by the authority of myself and the royal guard. You will be transported to the Canterlot dungeons where you shall stay until your trial where my sister and I shall pass sentence on you for your crimes." Luna stated as Lavender approached the stallion and slapped his hoofs in chains.
Twilight calmed down as she saw the sight and looked back at Tempest who was still shaking and sobbing, her hooves over her eyes. Twilight ran over to the mare and embraced her hoof and wing and did her best to consoul her. "Sshh, shh, it's ok, its ok. He won't hurt you ever again, I promise." Twilight sobbed in kind. "It's over now, it's over, the princesses will put him in Tartarus for his crimes, he will never hurt you or any pony ever again, its over." Twilight tried to reassure here.
"N, no its not." Tempest exclaimed between sobs. "I, I still need t, to go home. I, i still need to go home, t, to apologize and s, say goodbye to my parents, p, properly. W, we need to go back to Pranceton." Tempest exclaimed as she continued to sob into Twilight's fur. The rain outside falling ever faster.
Author's Notes:
Well that was super intense. Spring you sociopath may you rot in Tartarus!
It's ok Tempest, Twilight will always be there to comfort you.
Anywho only 2 chapters left. Next Time: Tempest returns home as we wrap-up the reconciliation arc and head to our feels filled finale!
Chapter 12: Home, But Not Alone.
Twilight starred out the castle window and sighed as the cloud and rains slowly danced with the wind outside. It had been a week since she and Tempest had confronted Spring Rain and learned the horrible truth about Tempest's parents demise. And though she knew that the sociopathic unicorn was locked away in the dungeons below Canterlot and it would only be a matter of time till Celestia and Luna would sentence him to an eternity locked away in Tartarus it still didn't undo what he had done. Twilight walked back towards her bed where Tempest still slept soundly, still recovering of the events of the past week. Twilight just stared sorrowfully at the unicorn mare and stroked her mane. All of a sudden her still sleeping form began to wiggle as she yawned and opened her eyes.
"Good morning princess" she rasped as she broke from her slumber.
"Good morning Tempest" Twilight responded in kind, smiling at her friend.
"so, today's the day, isn't it?" Tempest asked, her voice a bit nervous yet also excited.
"Yes, i'm afraid it is, though I, i still wish you would wait a bit longer." Twilight sighed.
"Apologies Twilight, but i've already waited long enough. I wanted to return to Pranceton as soon as Luna spent Spring off in chains to the dungeon, but I headed your advice and gave myself a week to grieve, to heal my wounds as best I could and get myself together. I know that returning to my childhood home shall not be easy, but if I am ever to have proper closer on my past I need to do so." Tempest stated in a confident and serious tone.
The princess just sighed "I know, I know you need to do this, its just...." Twilight paused as she did her best to retain her composure. "That day in Trottingham, seeing how much Spring's words hurt you, I, i don't want to have to put you through something like that again." Twilight exclaimed as she looked back at the mare her eyes wide and sorrowful as she remembered the sight of Tempest breaking down in tears, barely able to stand as she sobbed into Twilight's chest.
"And I am grateful that you care for me so Twilight, but you know as well as I do the longer I put this off the harder it will be to do it." Tempest argued. Twilight just sighed once more as she nodded in agreement. She knew Tempest had to do this, she had to have the chance to put the past behind her once and for all. And at least she wouldn't be alone, Twilight would be there for her, right by her side, always.
Being a small village to the northeast of Canterlot, Pranceton did not have a train station in which ponies could easily gain access to it, only a single dirt road leading to and from the small borough. Thankfully Princess Celestia had gifted Twilight one of her chariots for the day so getting to the town was not the hard part, the four pegusi guards pulling the golden cart were more then capable of getting both Twilight and Tempest to the edge of the town. As the chariot slowed and reached its descent Twilight and Tempest hopped off, Twilight turning around to thank the guards and asking them kindly to wait until their business here was finished.
Tempest and Twilight walked down the simple dirt road until they reached the enterance to the small town where the dirt gave way to smooth and fine cobblestone streets, a small sign above saying "Welcome to Pranceton: The Small Town With A Big Heart." Tempest and Twilight looked around seeing that despite the sublte earthy beauty of the old town, it was as they had been told all but abandoned. The shops windows gathered with years of dust and the hay on the roofs looking rather ragged, the bricks molded and cracked. Tempest walked around and looked at the old shops, as she did memories flooding back to her as she began to feel a trickle of water slowly fall from her eyes.
"Are you ok?" Twilight asked, the concern ever evident in her voice.
"Yes" Tempest sniffed. "It's just, its all still here, its a tad worse for wear, but its all still hear." She joyfully exclaimed as tears rolled down her muzzle. "The bakery where father and I would get our favorite tea cakes, the fabric shop mother went to, where she and her friends made my very first Nightmare Night costume. I was Nightmare Moon" She chuckled her happy memories returning with each step she took into the town. "And the toy shop where Glitter and I would always beg our parents for one of those ridiculously overpriced life-sized Celestia plush, until my mother just got fed-up and made us both our own set of princess plushies." She laughed.
"It sounds like your mother was a pretty good pony" Twilight chuckled back.
"She was" Tempest replied, "Father too." She melancholicly sighed as she and Twilight continued to trek through the tiny town. Soon after walking through the shops and a couple of rather winding neighborhoods they came to what Twilight could only guess was the center of the town, abandoned carts and stands that most likely sold things like produce and papers still standing but abandoned and full of cobwebs and dust. In the middle however a statue, and not just and statue, but one bright and shiny and bronze, with three ponies lovingly embracing each other, a tall unicorn stallion, a medium sized unicorn mare, and a small unicorn filly. Tempest and Twilight freezing at the sight as they come to the realization as to what it was. Gulping Tempest slowly trotted up to the memorial and read the plaque below.
"This statue is dedicated to the Fizzle Family." Tempest nervously read aloud. " Our beloved mayors Tangy Pop, Cherry Fizzle and their beautiful daughter Fizzlepop Berrytwist." Tempest continued to read as she did her best not to choke up. "They were the light and life of this town, and though they may be gone they will never be forgotten, may all who read this plaque know that they were loved and will always be in the hearts and memories of those that lived in this town, as the stories of their kindness will be told by all for generations to come." Tempest finished as she let the tears roll out full force.
Twilight trotted up to the mare and embraced her with her wing. "The ponies here really did love you and your family, didn't they?" She softly acknowledged as she rubbed her cheeks against Tempest's, the mare just wiping her face with her hooves in and replying "yeah, yea I guess they did." She softly smiled.
All of a sudden the moment was interrupted as the two ponies heard hoof-steps against the cobblestone heading their way. The duo just stood still as they slowly looked at the path they heard the steps coming from and slowly an old earth pony stallion came into view, his light brown fur and grey mane indicating he was much older then the princess and Tempest, and his thick silver beard helping to concrete this. The old stallion just looked up at the two and his eyes became large and wide, he gasped as if he could not believe his eyes, as if he had just seen a ghost.
"I dun believe it!" The old stallion exclaimed as he trotted towards Tempest. "Lil Fizzy? Lil Fizzy dat you!?" The old stallion asked excitedly.
"Um, yes, but, who are..." Tempest began to ask as another flash of memories suddenly came back to her. "U, Uncle Dusty!?" Tempest asked her voice happy yet anxious.
"Why as I live & breath it tis, it tis you!" The old earthpony exclaimed as he embraced the still somewhat surprised mare.
"I'm sorry, uhh, but what's going on here?" Twilight asked rather confused by the whole display.
"Oh, ahh, pardon mah excitement." Dusty exclaimed as he released Tempest from his grip and bowed to Twilight. "The names Dusty Roads, but all the lil colts n fillies used ta call me Unca Dusty" he laughed.
"Dusty was one of my father's closest friends" Tempest explained. "He was in charge of town maintenance, we'd always see him dusting the streets or helping somepony repair the front of their shop, he was the all in one town handyman." She chuckled with a smile.
"Aww, t'wernt nothing, just helpin mah fellow ponies, s'all" Dusty blushed. "But, where in the three rings of harmony have you been!?" Dusty asked Tempest, his tone now rather serious and somewhat angry. "Yer parents and I looked fer you fer years! Do you know how hurt they were, how hard everypony and town looked for you, right, right up until, the incident" He huffed as his ears fell down and his beard began to sag.
Tempest walked up to the old man and sighed "I'm sorry, I know, i've been told of everything that happened here after I left, the horrid fate that befell my parents, how the village was abandoned, I, i'm sorry." Tempest sobbed as she embraced the old stallion.
"aww, I ain't mad." Dusty replied. "yea was juss a lil filly, and yea was hurtin after the accident with that Ursa, I know yea were just angry and scared, yea didn't know any bettah." He sighed as he moved a few steps back. "How bout you and yer friend dere come over ta my place, we'll get some warm tea and catch up." The old earth pony nervously chuckled.
"A warm cup of tea sounds lovely. Thank you Mr. Roads." Twilight replied as she put her wing back around Tempest who merely nodded in kind.
"So, that's what really happened" Dusty sighed as he put down his cup of tea. "I can't hardly believe it, I always thought that yer friends were such nice lil ponies, but stabbin yea in the back like that, over such silly things. And then Spring, well, what that bastard did is just dern unforgivable!" Dusty huffed.
"I agree, infact, that's why we're here" Twilight exclaimed, looking over at Tempest. Tempest just let out a low sorrowful sigh as she looked over at her dear uncle "I need to go and see it, where the manor used to be, either that or my parents graves. I need to apologize to them, I, I need to tell them how sorry I am that I ran away, how much pain and heartache I brought them, how I wasn't there to save them when they needed me most." Tempest exclaimed as she did her best to hold back the tears as a knot developed in her guts.
"I undastand sugah, and i'll help yea as best I can." Dusty replied as he took Tempest's hoof in his. "Yer daddy was the best friend I evah had, and i'll do anything to help his kin. We may not be blood but we's still family" Dusty stated as he sniffled trying to hold back tears of his own at this point.
"Thank you" Tempest sniffled as she wiped the tears from her eyes. "Yes, thank you very much" Twilight chimmed in.
"well then" Dusty said as he slowly got out of his chair. "We best get goin, should probably get up the hill fer the rain starts back up" He chuckled.
The three ponies slowly trotted up to the hill where at the top Tempest's family manor once resided. The trek was a tense one as no pony dare speak a word for they knew not what to say. Twilight's mind raced with potential comments or topics of conversation starters to help lighten the mood, but she knew nothing of the sort would be appropriate. Dusty just trotted in front occasionally looking back and letting giving Tempest and Twilight a soft smile before returning to his slow but steady trot. And finally Tempest was doing her best to prepare herself, it had been so very many moons since she had walked along this path, since she had seen her childhood home, as they approached the top of the hill, all she could do breath heavily and close her eyes before opening them once more to take in the sight.
Tempest looked around the gate at the front had partially fallen down, the rocky fence left untouched as moss grew, the remains of her playground rotting to the left as the sandbox was more of a sand sinkhole now, the slide twisted and halfway fallen and the swings broken the bars rusting and the metal on its last leg. To the right nothing but ash where a garden once stood and the fountain scorched and deformed. In the center nothing, no remnants of her manor or child hood home remained. Instead just two large gravestones with pictures of her parents cutie marks carved in them.
"Tweren't really nothing left ta bury, but we still thought we'd giv e em proper headstones anywho, put what was left o yer dad's favorite pipe under his and what was left a yer mom's sewin kit under hers." Dusty sadly stated.
"I see, thank you." Tempest sorrowfully replied. "And I guess you're the reason there isn't one for me" she sorrowfully chuckled. Dusty nodded "Tweren't ever any evidence yea were gone and I knew yea was still alive no mattah what anypony else said, I wasn't gonna let everpony else just act like y'all were all gone fer good when there was still hope." He sniffled.
"Well thank you for that, Uncle Dusty" Tempest replied. as she slowly trotted up to the graves and sighed. "If you don't mind, I, I think I would like a minute alone with my parents." Tempest sniffled as she looked back at Dusty & Twilight.
"Of course." Twilight acknowledged as she nodded in agreement and motioned for Dusty to follow her back down the hill. After the two were out of sight Tempest turned back towards the headstones and let out a deep breath before speaking.
"Hey mom, hey dad, how yea been." She nervously chuckled. "I, I just wanted to say, that..." She stopped as she bit her lip, unsure if she'd be able to do this without breaking down and crying, but she persisted none the less. "I just wanted to say that i'm sorry, i'm sorry that I ran away, I know, i know it was wrong, but I was just so angry, and sad and scared. I was just a filly and I, it felt right, at the time, nothing you or the doctors did was fixing my horn and I just, I just wanted it back so bad." She pointed to her stub as she began to cry. "I, I wish I had been there though, I wish I had been there to save you from the fire, to protect you from Spring, but I wasn't and i'm sorry!" She began to sob.
"Oh, this, this is just stupid!" She exclaimed as she slammed her hoof on the ground. "Why am I even doing this, its not like they can really hear me!" she screeched as she slammed her hooves against the concrete slabs right at her parents faces. All of a sudden the wind picked up and the etchings in the rock began to glow white, Tempest was moved back confused by what she saw, then there was a bolt of lightning striking right in front of her and everything went black.
Tempest's head was throbbing, she blinked and opened-up here eyes and all around here was, well she wasn't sure what it was, lights, like millions of little stars just lights floating in a see of purple and blue energy. "is, is this dream realm?" She asked herself. "Is this, this my mind?" She asked again. "Close, but not quite." She heard a familiar voice exclaim. Tempest looked back to see Princess Luna.
"Princess Luna?" Tempest asked rather confused.
"This young Fizzlepop is the space between, a nexus between the worlds of the living and the dead, not many are allowed to venture here, talking to the deceased is often unwise, but I cannot let a friend such as yourself lie in anguish, so I shall let you speak to them, but only for a minute or two, as even my power cannot penetrate this space for long. "Luna replied."
"Speak? Speak to who?" Tempest asked.
"Why us of course, you silly little filly" she heard a loving voice chuckle. Tempest looked around to see a bright light and out of it two unicorns walked out, but not just any unicorns, but Tempest's own parents.
"Mom!? Dad!?" Tempest cried in joy as she ran to embrace her parents. "I, is, is this real, not just some cruel dream!?" She asked.
"its real dear" Her father said as he gave her the strongest embrace she had felt in a long time. "But how!?" Tempest asked.
"As I told you, this is a nexus between our world and the next, this is my gift to you Tempest, but as I said I can not keep this portal open for long, so please, do make the most of it." Luna chuckled.
Tempest just looked at her parents her eyes like pools of joy and sorrow and every other emotion imaginable. "I, i'm so sorry" She sobbed "I'm so sorry, for everything, I, I shouldn't have ran away, I was just, just so angry, nothing was working, nothing fixed my horn and I wanted it back so bad." She sobbed.
"Sssh, sssh, it's OK" Her mother reassured her as she embraced her. "We know dear, its not your fault." Cherry Fizzle exclaimed.
"and, its not just that, I, I really lost my way" Fizzlepop stated as she continued to cry "I, I went to work for a very bad man and I did very bad things in his name, I know you taught me better but, but I did it anyway, just because he said he could get my horn back, I, i'm sorry" She exclaimed as tears continued to roll down. "I, I even gave away the Princcess Celestia Doll you gave me." She added.
Her mother just looked at her and chuckled. "We know dear, we may be dead but we aren't deaf, even after we were gone from this world we were watching over you." Cherry replied. I am so sorry that we couldn't be there for you, if I could've I would have saved you from it all Fizzy, that mean old desert, that mean ol Storm King." Her mother sighed, but all I could do was watch and beg the goddess that you would stay safe and find your way home someday." The mother somberly replied.
"And I knew it would all work out" Her father chuckled "You were always so brave and strong, Nothing was gonna get you down." He added as he once again joined his wife in embracing his daughter.
"Thank you, both of you." Tempest chuckled as she wiped the tears from here eyes. "I, I love you, and, and I really miss you." She chuckled once more as she did her best not to cry.
"Do not worry little one, we will be watching over you, always." Fizzlepop's father exclaimed as he held up her head with his hoof. "And we will never stop loving you." Her mother added giving her a kiss on the forehead below her horn.
"Thank you, thank you both." Tempest sniffed as she looked again at her parents.
All of a sudden the bright light began to shine again. "Welp, looks like our time's up. See yea round kiddo" Tangy chuckled. "Be well, and tell that Twilight I approve, she's a real keeper." He added. Cherry just chuckled as she gave one last hug to her daughter and waved goodbye as the two dissipated back into the light.
Tempest just turned around and bowed "Thank you Princess Luna, thank you for everything" Tempest exclaimed.
Luna just nodded and dissapeared back into the ether.
Tempest shot-up as she found herself back where she was before, only now the sky was clearing-up and the white glow of her parents gravestones was gone. "Tempest? Are you OK!?" She heard a nervous voice ask in a rather high pitched tone. She looked back to see Twilight running towards her.
"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, Dusty and I saw the lightning and, ahh, I was afraid you were struck by it, I am so glad that you're ok!" Twilight nervously ranted as she embraced the mare.
"I'm fine, more then fine, infact you know, for the first time in a long time, I think, I actually feel whole." Tempest smiled as she returned the princesses embrace.
The group headed towards the exit of the town Twilight rather glad this ordeal was finally over, but suddenly stopped as she noticed Tempest was no longer at her side. She looked around and saw the mare staring back at the town.
"Um. is, is everything OK Tempest?" Twilight asked.
"I, I think i'm gonna stay here for awhile." Tempest replied.
"What!?" Twilight nervously shrieked "WHY!?"
"This town, everything, it, it was my parents legacy. I can't just leave it abandoned like this. I have to fix it, ponies can live hear again, Pranceton can know laughter and joy again, it just needs somepony to help it." Tempest replied with a smile.
"But, but." Twilight stuttered. Tempest stopping her putting her hoof on Twilight's mouth
"Don't worry princess, i'm not abandoning you, i'll be back, I Promise. Just give me two months, two months for Dusty and I to fix this place-up and i'll be back in time for Hearthswarming. I promise." Tempest replied as she gave Twilight a kiss on the cheek.
Twilight just blushed as stuttered, uncertain how to react. "Uh,uh, OK" She snorted. "But you know this is still a pretty big job for two ponies to do alone, I could maybe, talk to the other princesses and get them to send some ponies over to help with the repairs, uhh, if you want." Twilight blushed.
"Why that sounds mighty fine ta me!" Dusty chimed in. Tempest just nodded in agreement.
"OK, and just two months right?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, just give me time to get things right here, help find a new mayor, and two months from this day we'll meet in Canterlot, just you and me, an official first date." Tempest boldly stated.
Twilight just blushed. "Um, ok, sounds good, well, ahh...see you soon I guess" she nervously chuckled as she awkwardly blew a kiss towards Tempest's direction and trotted out the town doing her best to hide her beet red face as she approached Celesta's carriage.
Tempest just chuckled and turned around looking back at the small town. "C'mon old man, we've got work to do." She chuckled as she motioned for Dusty to come along and the two trotted back into town the sun slowly shining down through the lingering clouds.
Author's Notes:
Man, now that was one long chapter. But hey at least Tempest finally got to come to terms with her past and her happy memories are back. Nice of Luna to let her see her parents again.
Anywho thanks for reading this rather long and ridiculous penultimate chapter. Come back next time for the Finale of Life Is A Tempest as Tempest and Twy go on their first date and we learn the final fates of Spring Rain, Lemon Crescent and Glitter Drops. Oh and I guess touch on what Grubber has been up to while all this has been going on I guess. NO I didn't forget he existed, I promise!
Anywho thanks for reading, and as per usual will try to come back and fix errors later on!
Finale: Snowflakes & First Dates
Twilight Sparkle trotted anxiously through the snow covered streets of Canterlot as she headed towards her destination, her mind examining every scenario of how her reunion with Tempest could go, ranging from perfect to horribly, horribly wrong! "Oh, I really hope I don't mess this up!" She nervously exclaimed as the cold air whipped around her. "Brr, Good thing I wore a jacket" she thought to herself as she continued her steady and anxious pace.
Tempest waited inside the restaurant, the low lighting and lone candles set on the middle of each table gave the establishment a relaxing and homely feel. Tempest was glad that she was able to get reservations at The Tasty Treat as apparently ever since Rarity and Pinkie had helped the family that owned the establishment get word out it had become one of the most renowned restaurants in Canterlot even having to hire extra staff to keep up with the ever increasing number of ponies and other creatures that considered themselves avid foodies that came to visit and get a taste of the delicious and exotic meals.
All of a sudden Tempest was broken out of her thoughts as she heard a familiar voice tell the waiter at the front she was here to meet someone. Tempest looked on and saw Princess Twilight levitating off her coat and revealing a beautiful red dress that fit her form perfectly, highlighting every curve. The silver sparkles embedded in it adding even more beauty to an already gorgeous mare. Tempest couldn't help but stare in awe at the beautiful sight of the princess as she slowly trotted near.
"Long time no see" Twilight chuckled as she took the seat straight across from her date. "Oh, Uh, yea." Tempest blushed still at a loss for words. "You look nice." Twilight stated, taking in Tempest in her subtle but beautiful black dress, also embossed with small silver star-like sequins, that like Twilight's accented her form perfectly.
"Um, thanks" Tempest blushed "But you, your, wow, just wow. Rarity really outdid herself with that one" Tempest exclaimed pointing to Twilight's dress.
"Yea, well, you know, I just wanted everything to be perfect for tonight." Twilight blushed in return.
"Trust me princess, as long as you're here there's no way tonight could be anything but." Tempest reassured her.
Twilight just chuckled giving off yet another blush but before she could respond a waitress came-up and asked to take their order.
Tempest slowly sipped her wine as if to savor every drop. "So, how have things been in Ponyville?" She asked Twilight.
"Oh, more or less the same" Twilight chuckled. "AJ & her family are hosting the Hearthswarming festivities this year so they've been pretty preoccupied with that. Pinkie has become pen-pals with Princcess Skystar, and Discord finally had the courage to take Fluttershy out on a proper date." Twilight chuckled. "So how are things with you?" She asked.
"Well" Tempest sighed. "The repairs to Pranceton have been completed and I actually convinced Dusty to be the new mayor, at least until some ponies started moving back into town and he thought he could find someone worthy of the position." she replied. "I got to hang out with Grubber for a bit when he brought me my dress, he says he's going to the new Storm Beast colony up north, teach his old buddies how to party properly." she chuckled.
"That's good, though i'm sure Spike will miss having someone his size around the palace" Twilight chuckled. Tempest laughing nodded in agreement.
"And, what of the....others?" Twilight nervously asked. "I, I imagine the princesses have told you how Spring's trial turned out, and the fate of your other um, old friends" Twilight gulped.
"Yes, i'm aware, as i'm sure you are as well, at least in regards to Spring." She sighed "A three thousand year prison sentence to the pits of Tartarus is more then fitting, but still a bit light if you ask me." Tempest scowled. "Then again its not like a pony as weak as him will survive that long down there anyway" She chuckled.
"And, the other two?" Twilight asked.
"From what I have been told by Luna Lemon had all her assets & belongings seized by the crown, and was given the option of either helping take care of Glitter or be put on trial herself." Tempest replied.
"So Glitter Drops is out of the Hospital?" Twilight asked.
"It would seem so, but her mind is still a mess, i've been told she doesn't remember a thing from the past and has more or less been mentally reduced to a young filly." Tempest sighed. "I guess the princesses feel that getting Lemon to care for someone other than herself might make her a better pony." Tempest huffed.
"And what do you think?" Twilight asked Tempest slowly moving her hoof across the table to touch her's.
"I think it was a wise decision. Glitter was the least guilty of them I suppose, I would rather see her be in the care of someone who knows her then be locked away in a padded cell in some asylum in Manehatten, scared and all alone." she sighed. "Though I don't know if Lemon will ever change, I don't think she's the kind of pony who can care about anyone but herself, but I pray i'm wrong." She sorrowfully replied.
Twilight just grabbed her mare-friends hoof and held it tight. "I'm sure everything will work out, everything will get better for everyone, especially us." She chuckled as she looked lovingly into Tempest's eyes. The two leaned closer to one another and.....
"Dinner is served!" They heard the waitress cheer.
"Well thanks a lot for killing the moment!" Tempest internally screamed at the young mare as she set Twilight and Tempest's meal on the table. Twilight just thanking her for the food as the waitress smiled and trotted off.
"Well, time to eat I guess" Tempest chuckled.
"Guess so." Twilight agreed as the two prepared to eat their meals.
Later as the snow continued its soft fall Twilight and Tempest walked through Canterlot park and looked up at the clear winter nights sky.
"It's beautiful, isn't it" Twilight asked in awe as she stared at the beauty of the bright stars filling the winter sky.
"Yea, I guess, but not as beautiful as you." Tempest replied as she rubbed her face against Twilight's, the princess just letting out an adorkable snort of a laugh as she blushed. "Oh, you're not to bad yourself yea know" She replied in kind.
Tempest merely looked up at the night sky as tears began to roll down her cheeks.
"Whats wrong Fizzy?" Twilight asked in a panic.
"Oh, Nothing," Tempest replied, "It's just, after all these years, I never imagined, I never even dreamed that I would know happiness like this again." She exclaimed as joyful tears continued to trickle down. "After everything that happened, after everything that I've done, getting to be here with you, getting a chance to live, to love. It's almost too much." She laughed.
"Well" Twilight interjected. "I don't think its unbelievable at all. You're an amazing pony who against all odds not only managed to survive in the bad lands for years, but also led an entire army of Storm Beasts and even helped save Equestria from her own crazy boss!" Twilight chuckled. "I'd say you've more then earned your happy ending." She exclaimed as she gave Tempest a soft loving kiss on the cheek.
"So, what now?" Tempest asked.
"Well, I was thinking we go get on the train back to Ponyvillle, go to my castle and then have a very special sleep over in my chambers." Twilight seductively cooed.
"You know princess, I think that sounds perfect." Tempest replied as put her hoof around her marefriend as the two lovers trotted off into the snowy night.
Author's Notes:
Welp, that's a wrap folks! Thank you all so much for reading and supporting this story. I was glad I was able to do it and I look forward to bringing you more LIAT continuity stories in the future. As for Tempest and Twy themselves, best we give them a bit of privacy, we've been stalking em a little to long, why not check out and see what other ponies are up to!? Princcess Skystar and Pinkie Pie being pen pals sounded interesting, wonder if that will lead to anything!?
But yea, thanks again for reading and as always will try to come back and fix mistakes in the future. And be on the look out for more LIAT stories and an upcoming EQG project from this crazy old goat popping-up soon. More info on my Blog page. But yea, hope you'll stick around to see what the future has in store for these crazy ponies and their friends!