It seems like just yesterday I was busy taking over the world.

The air smelled damp and moist. My fur stood up on end as the Storm King swirled the clouds like a blender. A bolt of lightning cracked to my right. A church bell tolled to my left.

That was the first time I felt fear in a long, long time.

Steel your nerves, I whispered to myself. The Princess of Friendship was staring at me now, her eyes wide with... something. Anger? No. Pity? Must have been, the scum. Pity for my situation, pity of my shattered horn. Pity like all the others who have come and gone in my life.

Seeing it as pity was far easier than seeing it as empathy.

Weakness, I heard echo in my mind. Weakness. You're weak. Weakling. She sees straight through your weakness, Tempest. She knows how scared you are. No...

"Hahaha, yes!" The Storm King roared out, pure delight and fillylike joy plastered across his face. "Finally! I can make the nations tremble under my might! They shall bow under the strength of the Storm King!"

"Yes," I cried, but my voice is drowned out by the wind. "Yes! It's exactly as I said! Now sir, my horn!"

"What did you say?"

"Sir, my horn!" The pleadingness seeped into my voice before I had a chance to stop it.

"Bah, when will you understand?" The Storm King turned to me with a wicked smile. My jaw — and my heart — instantly dropped.

"W-what?" I strained to hear him clearer over the dizzying storm.

"When... will you... un-der-stand?" He sounded out each individual syllable, spelled it out for me like I was a young filly. "I used you," he said, this time crystal clear. "I used you to get what I want."

Pain stabbed through my chest. Disgust. Horror. Betrayal. My head spun with a flurry of emotions, emotions I long thought I lost. I sought to be by myself. To be alone. To be free of the rejection and backstabbing that I felt when I was a filly so long ago.

I couldn't understand why he would do such a thing. I was loyal. I gave him everything that he wanted. By doing so, I thought I insured he would fulfill his promise. I thought he would like me enough to grant me my only request.

That is when the truth dawned upon me, like the sun breaking through on a cloudy day. Maybe I was desperate. Maybe I longed to make him happy so much, I was blind to his plans to betray me all along. Maybe I wanted approval so much from someone, for something, I ignored the signs.

Maybe that's all I'm ever good for. Being used, then thrown away.

I didn't get any more time to think when the Storm King pointed the staff at me. The crystal at the tip swirled with magic, then lurched forward. I attempted to parry with a beam, but instead of hitting the staff, it impacted into his own beam and exploded.

The world spun around. Pain shot through my chest. I was airborne.

I gasped out for air, but it came in hoarse and ragged. Agony writhed through my veins with every little movement, with every inhale and exhale.

Cracked rib, I thought to myself. Lower right rung. I can't fight long.

I gritted my teeth, forced myself to regain my balance. My hooves spun and flailed, desperately searching for something, anything, that could ground me.

My left hoof found purchase on the balcony railing, but just barely. I pulled with all my might to grab with my other hoof, to steady myself so I could get back on the balcony. The adrenaline and fear coursed through my blood, gave me the strength I needed to survive.

But the storm was too strong.

With every pull, every flex of my muscles, the hurricane seemed to pull and flex twicefold, arresting me in place. The harder I tried, the harder the storm blew and howled and whirled around me, until my leg and chest burned and I had no more energy left to use.

My grip began to slip. Then slide. Panic set in, then exhaustion, then apathy.

I deserved this.

It was karma at its finest, a pony caught in the winds of her own storm. A storm that she created. A storm that she unleashed onto the world. What was the point of fighting if this was truly fate's wishes?

I deserved to die.

And so I closed my eyes. Then let go.

I let the world spin around me once more, let the wind and the storm drown everything out until there was nothing left. Nothing left, but the silence and the screams of my own demise.

That was when she grabbed me, and never let go.

When I came to, I was in a bed.

The sheets were crisp and blue, and the walls were painted as bland as the inside of a bottle of mayonnaise. A curtain sheet divider separated me from the commotion going on outside. I looked toward my left foreleg, found a hoofcuff securing me tight to the post on my bed.

Great, I thought to myself as I gave the restraint a tug. Just great. I began sitting up, but stopped when pain seared through my veins just above my right hip. My rib, I thought to myself. Not going anywhere fast. That's going to be a problem.

I looked down to the lock around my cuff. The restraint itself was two gold cylinders linked by a beautiful chain. When activated, a magical blue band sprung into existence from each cylinder's face, making two loops connected by the chain. When worn, the cuffs dramatically reduced the user's magical affinity, essentially stripping the wearer of their magic.

I recognized the mechanism well from my 'employment' with the Storm King. We used a similar design when imprisoning unicorns or other magically affluent races, such as changelings and hippogriffs. They proved quite useful to break the spirits of any magic users vying for an escape.

Or a rebellion.

Ironic for me that the weapon I used against my prisoners would be the very same one choking my freedom now.

As I leaned down toward the chain, about to test my chance of gnawing through the metal to freedom, the curtain pulled back. Standing there were two Royal Guards, adorned in their tacky gold armor and flamboyant blue plume. Their eyes stared me down like a dog would stare at its chew-toy — unrelenting and without mercy.

"Tempest Shadow," one of them said.

"Nurses," I responded mockingly, then sat up taller. "Are you here to change my sheets? Or are you what passes as a sorry excuse of a guard around here?"

They responded with silence. Typical.

"Tempest Shadow," the guard repeated again. "You are under arrest by the Equestrian Royal Guard for multiple severe charges. These include malicious destruction of property, unlawfully restraining of ponies against their will, conspiring to levy war against the monarchy, and accomplice of the voluntary ponyslaughter of 13 citizens, as well as countless injuries."

Wait, ponyslaughter? My eyes turned to the guard, and for a moment, they betrayed a look of confusion. Ponyslaughter, I asked myself. How did anyone die?

Despite following the Storm King's bidding to a tee, he was not one for death. He saw it as messy and unnecessary, and instead adopted other ways to bend societies to his will. Many times, there was little need for violence at all, as a grand majority of civilizations posed little threat to the might of the Storm Guard.

The storm, I thought to myself, and the answer suddenly dawned upon me. Voluntary ponyslaughter during the storm, of course. My thoughts flashed back to Canterlot during the raid from the Princess and her friends, remembered the scores of helpless ponies chained in the streets leading up to the castle. The Storm Guard could run, they could flee when the hurricane was summoned.

The ponies, on the other hand...

The guards must have saw my confusion, as they stared at me with raised eyebrows now. The guard from earlier continued on. "You will now be escorted to the Canterlot Royal Castle for your sentencing. Before that, however, you will be brought before Princess Twilight. She says there are some... 'unusual actions'... she must speak with you about first."

Unusual actions? I asked myself again, then suddenly wondered if I bumped my head during the fight at the castle. Do I have amnesia? What happened?

I replayed the fight in my head, watched the world spin dizzying circles before latching on and dangling on the railing. I tried pulling myself back, but the storm raged on harder. My grip began to slip. I closed my eyes and surrendered. The world spun once more.

It was then when she caught me.

My eyes widened as I recalled the memory. I remembered dangling by a hoof, held only by the Princess' grasp and my outstretched leg. I remembered my mouth moving by it's own volition. I remembered it asking the princess five gut-wrenching words.

Why are you saving me?

I could see the look in her eyes when she replied, the smile that stretched across her face soon after. It was like a window opening up, a window to who she was and what she truly believed inside.

Because this is what friends do.

A heat rushed into my cheeks, a heat I quickly shook off. Something about that moment touched me. Something that reached deep inside and scooped something that I didn't know still existed. It was like she was still holding onto me, still latched on even long after the storm.

The guard interrupted me from my lingering thoughts. "Is that understood, Tempest Shadow?" I could only respond with a simple nod.

"Good," he replied back. "The nurses will now help you change."

I began rising out of the bed, only to be arrested with a surge of pain. "I'm hurt," I replied in a flat, biting voice.

Something told me it took every bone in the guardspony body to resist saying 'good'. "You broke a rib, and fractured two others," he said.

At least I wasn't too far off, I thought to myself.

"The doctors here have mended your bones," he continued on. "But it will take at least a week to heal. Two is recommended."

Two weeks?!?! I jolted in the bed in protest, but as if on cue, my injury kicked me right back in the stomach. It took all my willpower to stop from screaming in pain.

"Were it not for your injury, you would be put under far greater security. Even without your magic."

I glared lasers at him. His face was stern, stoic, like how you expect a Protective Pony Platoon member to be. I could tell on the inside however, he was laughing it up at the sight of my suffering. He must've been.

"Fine," I said through gritted teeth. "Will I at least be given a wheelchair?"

"One can be appointed to you. If you suffer too much pain to walk."

We'll see who's suffering when I stick my hoof up your rear, I thought bitterly to myself.

After the guards left, the nurses came to my bed. I was offered a set of common pony clothes and a black coat. They told me the fight did a toll on my immune system, and that I should bundle up to avoid getting sick or infecting the injury. That's fine, I thought to myself. The faster I get better, the faster I can make my escape.

I absolutely refused to let them change me however. No matter how much it hurt, there was no way I'd let the nurses pamper me like I was a filly. They may have taken me captive, but they wouldn't break my spirits.

Not again, at least.

After some resisting and growling, I finally got the nurses to leave me alone for two minutes. Two minutes of freedom, I reminded myself. Don't waste it.

I spent some time inching and crawling my way out of bed. The task was far harder than I originally thought it would be. By the time I was out of bed, I could taste blood from biting my lip so much. I then took a moment to do a quick examination in the mirror.

My face looked the same as always, minus the bloody lip. I leaned in to examine the scar over my eye. It hurt like Tartarus when I got it as a filly, and bled absolutely everywhere. Now however, it healed to be two violet marks just above and below the iris. It was almost decorative, I thought to myself.

I took two steps around, ran my eyes over my left side. I could see some scuffs here and there, some minor bruises and scratches that would heal over my slim, but powerful side. The dark lavender fur disguised the monstrously able muscles underneath.

My hooves took another step, took a moment to look at my rear. They were round and spherical as usual, with just a wee bit of heft to show their decent weight. I didn't have the bubbliest flank in all of Equestria, I admitted that.

But I'd be lying if I said they didn't look attractive.

I flicked my tail aside, took a good look at my back entrance and flower. My tailhole was star-shaped and slightly puckered, while my vulva was spread open like half an almond on a summer day. I blushed at the beads of moisture bordering my nether lips. I wondered what happened that got me so excited.

When the Princess of Friendship flashed before my eyes, I had to mentally slap myself to get rid of her. No, I thought to myself. Nonsense. Focus, Tempest. Focus.

I continued rotating around, got a better look at my right side, and my injury.

What I saw became my nightmare for several nights after that.

Author's Note

Pre-reading for this chapter done by my good friend WordSPark37. Without him, this likely never would have been published.

This was my first piece of fiction in nearly 4 years of hiatus. After watching MLP: The Movie, I just had to write a Twilight x Tempest shipfic. That blush during the party was just too cute.

Do you think I should continue this? Like and comment below to let me know!

Thanks for reading!