Author's Note

I'm really, really sorry this took so long...
It was a trainwreck that spent a lot of time in editing and adjusting, with me basically needed to scrap the first draft and rewrite it.
I hope it's at least decent now^^

A new full lockdown starts at my place coming Wednesday, so I should have way more time to write...
Yay...

Hurt Souls

Hurt Souls

No matter what she did, Twilight was unfindable. Tempest sighed. Of course, she wouldn’t be found if she didn’t want to be, and Tempest had covered every spot she knew, except for one important one. One she dreaded.

The guards all looked at her suspiciously, but let her into the castle and through the halls. Everything went fine until she stood in front of the throne room.

“Tell us again why we should let you through,” the left guard asked, really testing Tempest’s patience.

Growling, she put a hoof to her forehead before answering. “Because I’m the captain of Princess Twilight’s guard, and you will let me through to Princess Celestia because it is a matter concerning Princess Twilight. But if you want to explain to your boss why her former student is hurt because you didn’t let me speak with her, be my guest.”

She turned around and moved away, her hope faltering before the right guard stomped his hoof onto the ground. “Alright, you can enter. But no funny business!”

Tempest breathed out and turned yet again, quickly going through the opening doors. “Thanks,” she mumbled, trying to be as fast as possible.

“Tempest Shadow, I’m surprised to see you here. Is there anything I can do for you?” Celestia asked, immediately spotting her. “Is something amiss?”

“I’m looking for Twilight. We wanted to look more into the theft of the communication pool, your majesty.”

Celestia looked at her, the gaze not unfriendly, but Tempest felt as if the alicorn scanned her, revealing everything about the situation. “Is that all, Captain?” As the mare in front of her gulped and looked at her hooves, she added. “Tempest, you can talk freely to me. Twilight trusts you, and as my former student and now fellow princess, I trust her judgment.”

“I just don’t know if I can talk with you about that topic, your majesty,” Tempest sighed.

There was a pause as Celestia seemed to judge her. She had made her mind up quickly, because she waved a wing, then whispered into the ear of the guard that appeared. The guard’s eyes went wide in surprise, but quickly nodded and went past Tempest and outside. “Follow me, Tempest,” Celestia said, walking past the aisle before her throne and through a door to the side. With a confused look, Tempest followed.

After a few hallways, they entered a small study. Celestia closed the door behind Tempest with her magic before sitting down on a big cushion, motioning the unicorn to do the same. “Maybe this is a better way and place to talk?”

Tempest hesitated, shuffling forth and back on her hooves before finally settling down. The tenseness of her body, however, stayed. Seconds passed by, but after a long breath, she started. “I think Twilight panicked, at least her reaction spoke of it. She teleported away and I haven’t been able to find her since that moment.” Nothing forced her to speak of everything, right?

“This does sound like Twilight, even if those episodes are few and far between by now,” Celestia hummed, then smiled slightly. “I still can’t shake the feeling that there is more, Tempest.”

“As I said, I don’t know if I can talk with you about that. It is rather personal after all, but I also didn’t hurt her if that is what you’re afraid of.”

“No, I think you wouldn’t misuse our trust like that, even if my sister might still need time to come around.”

“She hates me,” Tempest growled, “and forgets her own past at the same time.”

“I don’t think she hates you or forgets her past.” Celestia smiled sadly. “It is more that she often rushes headfirst into situations, and since Twilight was her very first friend after her banishment, she feels especially strongly for her.”

“I trust this isn’t going to be a problem? I’m not above kicking her flank,” Tempest grinned with a raised eyebrow.

Celestia’s gaze suddenly darkened. “Do not underestimate her. She was responsible for our military in the past, and her battle experience never vanished. You might have surprised us the last time, but if she was to unleash her full power, you’d die in a matter of seconds.”

“I doubt that…” Tempest started, just to gasp as the room seemed to warm up. “What are you doing?!”

The temperature raised more and more, Celestia’s mane looking more like flames as she gazed at Tempest. “My little pony, never underestimate the power of your rulers. I am stronger than my sister, but only by a relatively small margin.” She smiled. “I am currently not even using a feather’s weight of my power. And Twilight’s raw magical power is even stronger than mine.”

“Got it,” Tempest gulped.

“Good.”

Slowly, the heat dispersed, and Tempest tried to relax, but it wasn’t easy. “Can I ask you a question, Princess?”

“Of course, go ahead.”

“You’ve been with Twilight nearly her whole life, right?”

“Not as much as I’d have liked, but her time as a filly in my castle was a dear one,” Celestia chuckled. “Why do you ask?”

There it was again. Tempest scratched her head with a hoof, trying to think of a way to ask. “How much experience does Twilight have when it comes to love and its… byproducts?”

There was silence. Before Celestia suddenly started laughing. “Byproducts? My dear Tempest, you should get the, how was the saying, military stick out of your flank. I’m not going to bite your head off, and you can ask me anything within reasonable limits.” The white alicorn laughed a bit more before wiping the tears from her eyes. “Aaah, but back to your question. Besides some small bouts of admiration, while she was a filly and one big heartbreak as an adult, I can think of none.”

“Mind elaborating on that, princess?” Tempest asked carefully, a bit irked by how she got the answer.

“As a filly, she had a lot of… let’s say crushes on a few colts and stallions. That passed fine enough until she found out where her heart truly lies.”

“With mares?”

“Well, I think she is more the type for both stallions and mares, but yes. Sadly, her first big love was a guard that didn’t care much for her. That particular guard thought it was just a crush and couldn’t see more in her than the bookish, adorable filly running through the castle’s halls, and in the process broke her heart.”

“So she got no experience at all,” Tempest growled. “That’s just great.”

“Is that such a bad thing to you?”

“None of it her fault, but mine. I simply don’t know how to behave towards her most of the time. Is it the right moment? Can I do this now? Should I stop? Is she ready? What is a relationship to her?” the unicorn groaned. “Lots of stuff I normally don’t worry about!”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Because you usually take what you want?”

“What?!”

“Don’t play coy with me, Tempest. Despite what others may think, Twilight did write a report about what happened. Since she said you bettered yourself and made me promise to keep it to myself, I thought everything would be fine in the future.”

Tempest was flabbergasted. “Is this what you call a friendly talk? I feel this turns more and more into an interrogation and pointing out of my mistakes and flaws!”

“I have to protect my little ponies, Tempest. And that counts for my fellow princesses, especially Twilight.” Celestia ruffled her wings, looking deep into her eyes. “I’m sure you can understand that even though I trust you, there is a certain limit to how far my trust will go, especially concerning your past.”

“And you could not tell me that in your throne room?” Tempest spat. “Why do I even come to you, worrying about Twilight, when all you do is play the two-face mother for her? On one side you trust me, on the other side you threaten me with your horn to my throat!”

“Because Twilight is a sensitive soul. She isn’t like you.”

“I don’t like that wording, princess.”

“I guess you will have to live with it.” Celestia hummed and suddenly, with a flash of her horn, a tea set appeared. “Now that my role as a guardian is done, would you care for some tea?”

“Are you bucking kidding me?!”

“Not at all,” Celestia smirked. “Despite what I just told you, I see that she likes you and will just sit back and see what happens. This was just the, ahem, stern parent slash guardian talk?” At Tempest’s look, she snickered. “Twilight was always like a daughter to me. Be grateful you got this talk from me and not Cadance or Luna!”

“Yeah, I’d rather not spend time on the moon…”

“Or being mentally manipulated by the magic of love. Those are always a mess to clean up,” Celestia sighed.

“...I’ll take your word for it.”

“We steered away from our topic. From the hushed whispers going around the castle staff, Twilight and you already have a more intimate relationship.” She ignored Tempest’s look and continued. “Am I right to assume that your matter connects to this?”

The unicorn looked away, a lone tear making its way down her cheek. “There is a matter in my past that… prevents me from enjoying certain things… I don’t want to go too deep into this, but Twilight tried to steer it into that direction and panicked when I told her no. I just couldn’t, it’s connected with too much pain…”

“What happened?”

“Princess, I don’t think-” Tempest started, but was cut off.

“Those wounds will never heal if you don’t talk about it, and believe me, I know what I’m talking about. A thousand years of pain is unforgettable.”

There was a long pause between the two, with Celestia worrying that she maybe went too far and too personal in this. She nearly missed the response, as it was barely a whisper.

“I was bound in steel and tortured.”

It was all Celestia needed to hear before quickly getting up and walking to Tempest, closing the unicorn into a deep, winged embrace as she broke down. She may be a princess, but she would be always there for her dearest ones. Tempest, as Twilight’s captain and partner, did count for that too. And she would lie if she didn’t sympathize with the broken unicorn.

After several minutes, Tempest calmed down enough to wiggle out of Celestia’s wings and the princess let her go. “Do you want to tell me what happened with Twilight? Maybe I can tell you why she panicked?”

There was another silence for several minutes while Tempest calmed down, in her mind multiple voices screaming about what happened, why Celestia would do this, and why she was so weak in this matter. She shook her head and tried to keep it as short as possible. “We played, and she took the dominant role this time, tying me with ropes… It was all fine until she went too far. I could feel the bile, the pain… the fear… before it was too much I quickly told her no. Twilight… she just asked if I would trust her, but I couldn’t with this. I told her no and to take them off. Well, she did and teleported away, crying.”

“So she asked you if you trust her, and you simply told her no?”

“Kinda?”

Celestia hummed, seemingly deep in thought and Tempest waited. Currently, the alicorn was the closest way she had to find Twilight. The waiting time seemed endless.

“It doesn’t make anything stand out that she told me or I heard over the years. Is there anything else you could tell me? Specifics maybe? I promise that it will not leave this room.”

“...”

“I didn’t hear, Tempest, please speak up.”

“She used magic reinforced hoof cuffs to bind me.”

Celestia visibly flinched at this confirmation, her gaze radiating empathy for the unicorn and she sighed. “Given what you told me, I can understand why this is a line not to be crossed for you. I still think explaining yourself would have defused the situation quite substantially.”

“Oh, sure, I will let you try and defuse a situation while it goes in a direction that triggers your deepest fears.!” Tempest snapped back. “Maybe a few thousand years eliminated your weaknesses, but I can’t forget things mere years in the past that fast!”

“You could have also set up rules before hoof. I think that is a common practice for that kind of play, but you’d have to ask Cadance for details… or Luna…”

“Princess! I mean no disrespect, but I’m trying to fix this and find Twilight, not be lectured by you for the next few hours,” Tempest growled. “I know there could have been better ways, but this was more of a spontaneous reaction. If you can’t help me find Twilight, I’ll take my leave.”

“There was something I wanted to ask you once I got the chance, and now is as good as ever.” Celestia spoke up as Tempest got up and walked to the doors, stopping in her tracks. “Do you have any idea what happened to Captain Moon Shield?” Tempest felt a cold shiver run over her back. “She was supposed to report in with her investigations on the mirror pool incident, but her report never reached my sister or me.”

“I have no idea, and I don’t think Luna or her guards like me anyway. May I leave now?”

She didn’t turn around, just standing in front of the door, waiting. If Celestia noted anything strange, she didn’t mention it as the door was washed in a golden glow before opening. Tempest didn’t even bother with anything more as she was dashing outside, her heart pounding in her chest. This talk was nothing like she imagined or feared, but it was strange and scary at the same time.

Now, where could she be?

It was prominent in Tempest’s mind, but at the same time, her body reminded her of how little sleep she had had. Deciding that using all of her energy up seeking an alicorn that didn’t want to be found was a fool’s errand, she made her way back to Twilight’s tower.

Just to run headfirst into a certain purple alicorn, currently trying her best to sneak out of the room.

“Tempest! Where were you? I was looking for you to… apologize,” Twilight said once she shook the shock away. “I’m sorry for teleporting away without saying anything.”

“It’s not your fault. I should’ve communicated more and better with you. There is a reason from my past why I absolutely can’t stand having my hoofs cuffed or otherwise completely immobilized…” Tempest sighed, avoiding Twilight’s gaze.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tempest, but I know it’s not your fault. If I hadn’t panicked, then everything would be fine. I was so stupid and reacted while overthinking. I was scared that you would just leave me like everypony else…” She shuffled nervously on her hooves before continuing. “I am inexperienced. Very. Yes, I told you, but you don’t know that I tried to start a relationship before, and I understood the signals wrong, ruining everything… I don’t want that to happen between us, even though we said we don’t know yet what exactly we are! And it’s confusing me! I want to be more, I want-”

Twilight’s rant was interrupted as the unicorn pressed her muzzle against her own, drowning any rant that was still coming with a kiss. “Shut up, egghead,” Tempest smiled before nudging the alicorn into the tower. “We should sleep and worry about the rest tomorrow, alright?”

“But I wanted to see Celestia and ask-”

“Shush, Twilight. It is late and I’m sure Celestia will retire soon. Besides, I already bothered her. So, bed, now!”

“Y-Yes, Captain…”

Slowly, Tempest nudged her to the bed, only for the alicorn to slump down, exhausted by the day. She smiled upon the view and with a gentle tug from her muzzle, loosened the blanket before settling it over Twilight. She followed suit, wiggling under the sheets.

“Good night, Twilight.”

“Good night, Tempest.”

They soon found themselves in each other's embrace, smiles tugging at their muzzles as sleep took them. Whatever there was to explain or clear up, it could definitely wait till the next day.

They didn’t hear nor notice the dark figure spying into the room through the upper windows.

“That’s so cute I think I’ll get sick,” Moon Shield smiled before moving away. “And now to get chewed out by a princess because of a missing report…”