I’ve never been much of an attention seeker, I never liked the unintentional stares and whispers I got. But here I am, walking down the streets of Ponyville, everypony just watching me, whispering about me like I couldn’t hear them. But I could, and it hurt everytime.
I mean, I understand why they were hating on me, I didn’t exactly make the best first impression. Oh, who am I kidding?! I made the worst first impression I could’ve ever made.
Sure I got Twilight and them to be my friends, but even they’re feeling a little sketchy around me. I can’t blame them though, what I did wasn’t great.
I eventually decided to drown my sorrow in a cup of coffee at the local cafe. The moment got a seat, everypony’s eyes were on me and none of them were taken off. I just ignored them the best I can and waited for the waitress to take my order.
And I’ve been waiting for 5 minutes straight and the waitress still didn’t come to my table. I wanted to call to her but I didn’t want to do something I’d regret. Besides she had a lot of customers that were either already seated or coming in. So I just waited patiently.
But after waiting an additional 10 more minutes, my patience ran out and I was about to leave the cafe when a pony called my name.
“You’re Tempest Shadow, right?” The mare asked.
I looked towards the mare and saw she was a light pink unicorn with a darkish pink mane and tail with a lightish blue highlight. She had darkish pink eyes and wore a simple white t-shirt and grey pants with boots. I stared at her for a while before answering, “Yes that’s me, but you can call me Fizzlepop Berrytwist.” I introduced.
She smiles, “I like the name ‘Tempest Shadow’ more.” She admits before sitting down, “How about I call you ‘Shade’?” She asked.
I was a little surprised, nopony has ever given me a nickname, but ‘Shade’ had a nice ring to it, so why not? I nodded, “Sure, do whatever you want.” I replied getting up.
“Wait, where’re you going?” The unicorn mare asked.
I shrugged, “I don’t really know, I’m just going home I guess.” I guessed.
She looks at me puzzled, “Why not stay?” She questioned.
I sighed, “Look at them, they’re either staring at me, whispering about me, or ignoring me.” I said pointing to the customers and the waitress.
She then stifles a chuckle, “A little staring and gossiping is what you’re worried about?” She asked.
“What did you say?” I asked rhetorically.
She chuckles again, “You heard me.” She replied, “A little gossiping and staring is all you’re getting?” She asked again with the smuggest of grins on her face.
My horn, or lack thereof, sparked in anger, “You take that back, now.” I demanded.
She shakes her head, “And why should I?” She questioned.
I slammed my hand on the table with enough force to crack it, buying everypony’s attention, “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.” I warned.
She then lets out a full blown laugh, she was laughing so hard she started to cry. And just as abruptly as it started, her laughter stopped and her voice was replaced with a much more sinister tone as her horn sparked as well as she said this, “No, you don’t know who you’re dealing with.”
My horn’s spark became more apparent as I applied more force to the table, “Why don’t you show me?” I challenged.
Next thing I know, I’m hit with a blast of energy so strong, I made a line in the road. I was in so much pain, I’ve never been hit with force as strong as this since I was a filly.
“You still want to fight?” The mare challenged.
My horn sparked with anger as I stood up and got into a fighting stance, “You’re going to regret that.” I assured, charging my horn.
(Play this song: Sakkaku)
She replicates my action and crouches down in a defensive stance. And without saying a word, we both rushed towards each other and started to trade blows.
One of our blows resulted in our arms crossing each other, I took this opportunity to lock my arm with hers and throw over my shoulder.
She sticks the landing and sweeps my leg and as I fell, I only had enough time to roll out the way to avoid having my mid section crushed by her foot. I eventually got on my feet but was too slow to react to a foot smashing into my face that sent me hurling towards a small building making a dent in the wood.
I stood up in pain just to see the mare teleport in front of me throwing a punch. And in pure reflex, I charged my horn up and released a powerful blast of energy, sending her flying.
She gets on her feet almost immediately after she lands on the floor. She cracks a smile and her horns starts sparkling, “I can tell this is going to get a little explosive, so let’s take this elsewhere.” She says and in a flash of light, we were no longer in Ponyville; rather, we were in a jet black, dimension, that’s the only way I could describe it, with diamond’s all over the place.
The first thing I noticed was that this place was freezing cold, like below zero cold. But yet, I still didn’t freeze my ass to death, weird. But the next thing I felt was a huge, terrifying presence, I turned my head towards the source and all I see is the mare with this crazy aura of magic surrounding her.
“I bet you’re wondering what this place is.” She guessed, “This place is a dimension StarSwirl the Bearded figured out when he was a young stallion, this place is more or less a pocket dimension only the strongest of Unicorns can enter, it not only provided a great place to hide your enemies, but it’s also seen as a place for Unicorns to go all out in battle.” She explained, “And this aura…” She trailed off, “Shows the amount of energy the Unicorn is using at the moment.”
My eyes widened in fear, what I was seeing around this Unicorn was a massive pillar of energy. I felt weak in the knees, there’s no way I can compete with that strength.
She seemed to catch onto my fear, “Oh, don’t back down now, I was just about to have some fun.” She taunts, summoning two swords, one for me and one for her.
I grabbed the sword and swallowed whatever spit was in my mouth, getting into a defensive stance. She points the blade at me and smiles, “The real battle, starts now!” She declares.
(Play this song: Bleach OST- BL_86)
Not even a minute later, we began clashing with our swords fiercely, so much so that whatever ground we stood under was smashed just by the sheer force of our magic. Magic I never knew I even had.
“You’re pretty strong for a Unicorn with no horn!” She complimented.
I ignored her compliment and continued to clash head on with her. We eventually became stuck in a stand still.
And in a burst of energy, that standstill was broken and we began clashing once more, going at it none stop.
(6 hours late, also, stop playing the song.)
It’s been 6 hours since we were clashing, and my fatigue was finally starting to catch up with me, my movements became slow and sloppy. I soon couldn’t take the pain anymore and kneeled on the ground.
But the mare on the other hand, oh no, she was still standing, and looked as if she was still able to go one.
(Play this song: Ryuga's Theme.)
She smirked and dropped her sword, “You did well to stand against my power this long.” She congratulated, “Even if I was only using a quarter of my power, I still can’t remember the last time anypony had taken so many of my direct hits without collapsing, not even Princess Twilight could match your strength right now.” She proclaimed.
My eyes widened in shock; she’s only been using a quarter of her power all this time?! Just how strong is she.
“And since you’ve done so well to stand against me, I’ll give you a little taste of my full power.” She states and her power started growing rapidly to no end. Once she was done charging, one word slipped out her mouth, “Armageddon.”
I stood up immediately and gathered whatever power I had left to conjure a force field to at least try to slow down the blast.
My shield didn’t even last a full 5 seconds before shattering and allowing me to take the full force of the attack.
The force of the attack was monstrously powerful and sent me through a wall of diamond that fell once the attack reached it.
I landed firmly on my back, surprise that I wasn’t dead yet. And despite the pain, I tried to stand up, only resulting in me kneeling on the ground.
(Stop playing the song)
I heard the pop sound of teleportation, and the mare was standing in front of me, no longer was her playful expression plastered on her face, rather, it was a stern look.
(Play this song: Never Meant To Belong.)
“I know how you feel.” She says, completely out of the blue.
I look up at her with rage in my eyes, “You have no idea how I feel!” I shouted, “You’ve never been through any of what I’ve been through; abandonment, loneliness, betrayal, none of it, you’ve never ever been through anything similar!” I lashed out.
She shakes her head, “No, I haven’t, I’ve been through worse.” She states, “When I was younger, I lived in a village to the far east, it was a small village that wasn’t rich, it was pretty poor, and I was orphaned at a young age, I had no friends, except for one, his name was Sunburst. And he was the best friend I’ve ever had, and we had the same goal, to come to Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns and bring money to our village.” She started, “Every spare penny spent on magic lessons and every spare minute was spent learning about magician’s from the old days. And then the day came, the day Sunburst got his Cutie Mark and his parents took him to Celestia’s School For Gifted Unicorns without a second thought, not even letting me say goodbye…” She trailed off as a tear came running down her face, “I was heartbroken, my friend was taken away from me, but I wasn’t ready to give up, no, I trained way harder than before, I jumped from beginner Unicorn magic to advanced within a month, and when I tried to enroll, they declined me because what I had wasn’t gifted to me, it was the result of grueling training that nopony would even think of.” She paused, more tears streaming down her face, “With nowhere to go, I blamed everything on the one thing that led to all this, Cutie Marks, and then I sprung my trap, I took control of a small village and took their Cutie Marks. They were under my rule for a year, nothing went wrong, until Twilight and her friends came and thwarted my plans.” She continued, “I swore revenge on the ones that took away my perfect utopia and did something so drastic, that I should be dead by now.”
She stopped and gathered her thoughts, “What I did was that I destroyed Equastria, 20 times over by turing back time and separating the Elements of Harmony.” She states, shocking the hell out of me, “It was only by Twilight’s kind heart that she found it everypony to forgive me, but forgiving somebody isn’t the same as accepting them, they resented me and I only made their hatred towards me grew the more mistakes I made!!” She shouts, her tears becoming more apparent and her power becoming more intense, “SO DON’T COME TO ME COMPLAINING ABOUT YOUR PAIN, YOUR PAIN DOESN’T EVEN HOLD A CANDLE TO MINE!!!” She bellows, frightening the ever living shit out of me.
I try to back away but she grips my shirt and looks me in the eye, “If you think they won’t forgive you for what you've done, then take a good look at me!” She demands, “They forgave me, but not before I saved them from Queen Chrysalis, and even then they still look at me like I’m a psychopath!” She adds, “They will forgive you if they forgave me!” She assured, “But most of all, it doesn’t matter if they forgive you, it matters if you forgive yourself.” She states, “But I know that forgiving yourself is hard without knowing if nopony else forgives you, so I forgive you.” She proclaimed.
Her last statement hit me in chest and I did something I haven’t done in so long; I cried. I cried my eyes out and hugged her, and it didn’t take long before she returned the hug, and we both cried.
I didn’t come out of this encounter empty handed, I came out with a friend.
Author's Note
Am I the only one who thought of this.