A Gift of Life Without Friendship
Celestia watched with a smile as the erstwhile Commander Tempest was swarmed by Twilight and her friends. She wanted to approach, but didn’t know what she might say. She wanted to know if her past had been the reason for joining the storm king in the latter days of her life. She had always feared the mare had been trapped somewhere for all these centuries, or had died confused and scared. But then, out of nowhere she arrived, prepared to take over Equestria. It wasn’t one of the options she had considered, but it was still Celestia’s worst fears come to life. The only consolation was that in the end friendship had once again saved them all. Friendship that Fizzlepop Berrytwist had never before known. That Celestia had certainly never provided her with.
Kibitz, Celestia’s aide, saw her thoughtful gaze and approached from behind, carrying a tray with tea and some of the refreshments from the friendship festival. “You seem unusually interested in the former commander Tempest, your majesty. It’s not my place, but are you still worried she will turn on us again?”
Celestia lifted the cup to her lips and took a small sip. “No, it’s not that. I am worried she will remember me.”
“Everypony knows you, your majesty. You have been around longer than anypony else alive. They all remember you.”
“This is very different, Kibitz. We have… history. Let me ask my sister if she remembers, then I will explain.”
“I believe Princess Luna is enjoying some of that immense cake provided by the element of laughter at the moment.”
“Then follow me. A third party should hear what I have to say.”
Kibitz looked confused, but obediently followed Celestia around the festival. Celestia waved and nodded to her subjects who inevitably stopped whatever they were doing to bow or genuflect as she walked by. She tried to hurry. Her presence prevented ponies from fully enjoying themselves as they were wary of doing something to offend her. She knew that, which was why she typically watched the festivities from afar.
Luna was not so disciplined.
The younger sister had dug her way into a cake bigger than she was. Icing coated her mane and a candle was stuck to the end of her horn. She was gobbling down chunks of fluffy dessert, shoveling it into her mouth with crazed abandon, the ponies around her cheering her on. The cheering stopped when Celestia approached, and the crowd parted to make way for her. Luna continued eating until she noticed the cheering had stopped. She turned to look and saw her sister looking down at her covered in cake. Even she stopped acting out when Celestia came by, and wiped herself down with magic, standing up straight.
“Hello, sister. I’m glad you decided to come out to the festival. Have you tried some of the cake? It is delicious.”
“I have, Luna, Thank you. Will you speak with me?”
“Of course.” Luna waved goodbye to the crowd, who all waved back, then when the two princesses had gained some distance, a new pony dove into the cake and the cheering picked up again.
Luna was silent, staring at the ground or the buildings nearby, but specifically avoiding Celestia’s gaze. Finally, when she could take it no longer, she broke the silence. “What exactly did you wish to speak to me about?”
Celestia looked around to make sure they were alone. Kibitz was following close behind, but as they got closer to the castle, there were fewer and fewer ponies nearby. “I wanted to ask you about Tempest Shadow. What do you think of her?”
“Tempest? I hear them say her real name is Fizzlepop Berrytwist, but I think she is quite nice. She lacks social skills, but she is otherwise kind enough. I’m sure spending some time with her new friends will help her. Why do you ask?”
“Have you not wondered why she is so much larger and physically stronger than a typical unicorn mare?”
“I cannot say that I have. I thought her strength was just due to training, and her size was an unusual growth spurt.”
Kibitz interjected with his own thoughts. “I, also, thought that her fighting skills were merely due to training. Seeing as her horn has been broken, she was forced to compensate.”
Celestia looked over at her sister. “You do not… remember her at all?”
“Remember her? Sister, I have only been back a few short years. Has she visited the castle in that time? If it was the day court, do remember I would not have been present.”
“No, I mean… before,” Celestia said, her voice cracking.
“Before—? Oh.” Realization crossed Luna’s face and she looked down. “I do not.”
“I thought not. It would have been Nightmare Moon at that time.”
Kibitz gave an exclamation of surprise. “Your majesty! Are you implying that Tempest Shadow is as old as that?”
Celestia nodded slowly. She gazed around the throne room she had brought them to and shut the doors from afar with her magic. “Tempest Shadow is one thousand years old at least, but she does not seem to remember. I would keep it that way, because I thought she was long since dead. Now that she has come back, sister, I want you to know who she is.”
Kibitz bowed and made to leave.
“You may stay, Kibitz. I trust you to keep the secret.”
“Thank you, your majesty.”
Luna looked at Celestia curiously. “How did she come to be that old and still live? She doesn’t look a day over twenty-five, and she certainly isn’t an alicorn.”
“That is a long and terrible tale. One of which I am not proud, but it begins with my beloved sister falling to evil. I only hope that you will forgive me.”
“We already have, sister. This will not change that.”
“Thank you, Luna. Now, it begins on a dark night, one that was intended to last forever…”
I was young at the time. Both of us were. I received accolades and praise from ponies all over Equestria for my work in raising the sun and making the days beautiful. Luna, however, did not receive as much praise for her work in making the night sky twinkle. Ponies would sleep during the night. But I’m sure you know all this. The point is that she became Nightmare Moon.
Most ponies believe that we fought and I banished Nightmare Moon all in one night. I have spread rumors to that effect for some time, and now ponies believe that to be the truth. It was a great battle, destroying our castle in the Everfree Forest, whereupon I found the elements of Harmony and banished her to the moon.
But that isn’t the case.
When we first fought, I was sent running. She had all the dark powers of the night at her disposal. Those nefarious skills combined with Luna’s magic made her a terrifying force indeed. She beat me back, and after that first fight, I barely escaped with my life. Luna, do you remember all the secret passages you built into the castle?
“I do, sister.”
Well, those passages saved me. To get back at you for making our castle into such a maze, I had created my own passages in secret. Rooms where I could escape from you and the servants that were always demanding so much of my time.
“There aren’t any of those in this castle, are there?” Kibitz asked warily.
If there were, Kibitz, I certainly wouldn’t tell you.
I retreated to those passages under the castle. Nightmare Moon hunted for me, and I could hear her and sometimes see her through the passages as I traveled around the castle searching for an opportunity to attack. I found none. Nightmare Moon did not sleep.
My subjects needed me, however, this much I knew. I was their best and only hope of driving Nightmare Moon out of my sister and saving Equestria from eternal night. But I couldn’t do it alone.
At first, I snuck out of the castle using one of the many passages to look for help. If there was to be any opportunity to attack Nightmare Moon, I thought attacking her in the castle would be the best opportunity. The servants helped her, but only under duress, and any resistance that I brought in would make their attack from inside. All attempts failed.
The ponies I attacked with were all too weak. Most weren’t warriors, just determined civilians, and didn’t come close to the pillars of Old Equestria. With the pillars gone, I was all alone. I tried to find them, of course. I hunted around Equestria as best I could, trying to remain disguised so that I might make my inquiries in secret, but after two weeks of hunting, I found nothing. My disguises failed me due to my size, and so I had to go back into hiding. I returned to the castle and my hidden tunnels. I couldn’t let the night remain for much longer. Something had to be done, and I was the only pony who could do it.
But I wasn’t able to stop her alone. I needed help. I needed a warrior. I needed a pony that would rival the strength of the pillars of old Equestria, with magic, cleverness, and strength. And if nopony like that existed, I determined I would make one.
“Make one? Celestia, what do you mean?” Luna asked.
It is precisely as you imagine. I built one.
“Out of?”
The previously failed attempts at dethroning Nightmare Moon. Their bodies had been thrown aside, but they were the strongest I had been able to find. I had preserved their bodies, or what was left of them, to immortalize their memories once I had deposed Nightmare Moon. I see now that they certainly are immortalized, but not in the way I had imagined.
You see, I had a lab deep beneath the castle where I dabbled in arcane and alchemical matters both sinister and sweet. Testing magic that I knew most ponies frowned upon. I thought it best to educate myself on everything from necromancy to divination. I was to be a ruler, and I meant to make of myself the most benevolent and powerful ruler possible. To do that I would need to defend against any attack, and that meant understanding the sinister spells my enemies would use. Since I needed a helping hoof, I needed a pony, and that meant necromancy.
But it wouldn’t do to just raise a corpse. They had been flimsy before, I needed to improve my champion. First, I needed strength of body. Nightmare Moon was powerful. Her hooves were sharp and her tongue was sharper. She threw insults as readily as her hooves could cut, and if the pony who was to help me was to survive, they would need solid bones.
For this reason, the pony could not be a pegasus. They are swift and strong, but their bones are light for flight, and so I removed the bones from several of the earth ponies I had found. I reinforced them with magic, giving them further resilience and strength, and assembled the frame of the pony I would create. Bones of iron and steel were what I created. Able to survive the strongest hit and recover quickly, a pony that could take it and deliver at the same level.
Surely you looked upon Tempest and wondered why she was so tall and yet so strong? There are mares that tall, but they are usually slender. Tempest is powerful. You can see it in the way she walks. Her hoofsteps are heavy, and if you were to try to lift her, you would notice it immediately.
“This is… disturbing, sister.”
It is. I am not proud of what I have done. Please reserve judgment until the end, however. You know I took back Equestria.
“…”
But just the body was not enough by itself, and an earth pony would not be enough to take back the kingdom. If I was going to create a pony powerful enough to fight a living nightmare, they would need magic. I needed a unicorn. I needed a unicorn’s skull.
I don’t know how much either of you know about unicorn magic, but the system suffuses their entire body. The skull is the focal point, with the horn as the antenna, focusing and directing the magic. The pony’s brain controls it and decides what they want it to do. A particularly gifted pony, such as Starswirl or my student Twilight Sparkle can perform great feats of magic, but the horn needs the magic to be grounded somehow through the rest of the body.
I spent an entire day of careful work, laying the right pathways for the magic to be grounded in my champion. Etchings on the bones and hair-thin tunnels to allow excess magic to diffuse throughout the body. I could go into greater detail, but that’s not important. What is important is that her entire body was a conduit, tuned and refined to excess. When I was done, I prepared a skull and attached it to the rest of the bones. Then I needed a brain.
With the brain, I was going to need a nervous system. One that could handle the magic that would be passing through this pony, and one that was clever enough to think of responses to what Nightmare Moon could throw at us. Unfortunately, I only had a few brains to work with. I chose the best I could, but I believe this was where the problems began, as the brain belonged to a pegasus and not a unicorn. The pegasus in question was quick-witted and his reflexes were swift enough to stop lightning. I thought him the perfect choice, as he was intelligent as well as fast. I fear this was her undoing.
When I had the nervous system laid out over the body, I took flesh and covered it. Muscles from several different bodies, protected with magic and strengthened with the same, I created a body that could survive impacts that would kill anypony lesser. I gave her strength to fight back, and strength to defend, and yes. I created a ‘her’. If she would fight by my side, she would be a mare of strength, both mental and physical, but have the gentle but protective power of a fierce matron.
The skin was my own creation. I took a sample of each pony who had helped me, combined the colours of their coats and magically cultured a new batch of skin that would be laid over the muscles. I pared away the excess as it grew, making sure it was a good fit, and planted her mane and tail as I sealed away the seams. When I was done I looked her over, pleased with myself. I had assembled my champion, but now I needed to give her the one thing she lacked: Life.
“You created a pony? Just… made one?”
I did, and I would do so again. I needed help, but the ponies of Equestria could not give it to me. They were not enough.
“But, that’s…”
Please, I asked you to withhold judgment for now. Let me explain what happened.
I know necromancy is frowned upon. I have made it illegal to practice and my own actions are the reason for that. I have never performed such magic since, and I would not allow anypony else to do so. The spells are simple enough, but to create life—actual sapient life—requires much more than the simple animation of a corpse. In addition, I was working with pieces of multiple corpses and fabricated flesh. Animating one corpse would result in a few muscles working and maybe the brain, but I had to go above and beyond simply that. I needed to connect these disparate pieces to each other as if they were a single pony.
Kibitz stared in confusion and fear. “That sounds horrible.”
It was. I will not explain the spell, but what it did was animate the meat, bones, and flesh as objects instead of living creatures. I then did the same with the brain. Instead of trying to recreate the body of the ponies the pieces were, I created a moving object. It’s a fine difference, but it lacks the instinctual skills of any living creature.
Luna’s brow furrowed as she glared at her sister. “So, it lived but did not ‘live’?”
Precisely. It breathed, it’s heart pumped. I had to help create blood to jumpstart the body, but it was alive. It had no cutie mark, but was fully adult. It had no memories, but functioned autonomously. I had my pony. But it was nothing but a lump of flesh and bone. It had life, but now it needed to ‘be’.
This next part took a lot of time. I could not recreate it if you asked, but I was driven by a mad desire to save my ponies from eternal night. I thought anything would be worth the cost, no matter what happened. I don’t know if it was worth it, but night does not reign, so I accept the responsibility for my actions. I made her a life. I made it all up, and laid this skeletal framework of a pony over the body.
I made memories.
False ones, and flimsy. I suspect that is why she does not remember. I needed my champion to fight just long enough for me to win, and then I was planning to dispose of her. She could fall apart and decompose after the battle, just as long as we won. It was selfish, and cruel, but I did it anyway.
I gave her a foalhood. Pleasant, and simple. She was… she was from the country. She was an only foal, with loving and caring parents. She left her foalhood home to come work at the castle as a guardsmare. She kept in touch with her parents through regular letters home every week, and she looked forward to receiving letters from home every week as well. Her parents were so proud of her. In these memories they were all she had. I didn’t think to give her anypony else. No friends, no lover, nopony. Just her parents.
Then I took them away.
Killed by Nightmare Moon in her mad rampage across Equestria searching for me. I was everything left in her existence. I alone knew who she was and what her goals were in life. She wanted to be a member of the royal guard, and she had accomplished that. Now, with the monarchy under threat, she had one purpose left in life, and only one pony left that mattered to her: Me.
“You gave her no other memories than that?” Luna asked.
None, save for her name: Tempest Shadow. She was to be a storm in the darkness. I was pressed for time and my little ponies needed me to stop Nightmare Moon, they had been without sunlight for weeks now, and the longer I delayed, the more entrenched Nightmare Moon’s power would become. My champion was alive, and I needed her to fight. I gave her a reason, and I gave her skills. All I could provide were my own fighting abilities and some of my spells, but with her augmented body, that would prove enough.
“So, then you attacked,” Kibitz said.
We attacked. I was worried that Nightmare Moon would have guards waiting for us in the castle. I worried her paranoia at not seeing my body lying on the floor would keep her alert. That was thankfully not the case. Enough time had passed that Nightmare Moon had become complacent. She might have assumed I had fled for other lands, leaving ponies to their fates, or she might have assumed I died of my wounds from our first battle. No matter what she thought, it was enough to catch her by surprise.
“But what of your champion? Surely somepony who just wakes up would say something, especially a pony you built!” Kibitz asked.
Ah, of course. Her reaction. I had done something unprecedented. Never before successfully done by anypony alive or dead, even to this day. I had created life.
For me, it was a profound and enlightening moment. I held in my hooves the ability to bring life to the lifeless. ‘True’ life, with memories, wants, dislikes, desires, love… and hate. Ohhh, could she hate. I suppose you want to know her first words?
The moment she opened her eyes and looked at me, and I saw the pony that lay within, I knew I had done wrong. Her first words were: “I will kill her.”
“She meant Nightmare Moon?”
Yes. She didn’t ask me if I was okay. She didn’t try to protect her princess or make sure I was uninjured. She didn’t even check herself for injury despite having been laying on the cold ground. For my part, I was impressed that her violet fur had grown in so well, and I was mesmerized by the motion of the thick muscles: my unicorn champion lived! I did not concern myself much with her state of being. We both cared for each other only as much as the function we served.
So she lived, but oh! did she rage. Her existence was focused on one thing: killing Nightmare Moon. Out of concern, I asked her about her parents and her response was merely: “They’re dead. I must protect the princess of Equestria.” She was focused. Disturbingly so.
In hindsight, having given her no hobbies meant that her work was also her play. Her entire being was focused on being a guardsmare. Her job was to keep the princess alive, and so without her parents, everything she was coalesced into that same focus. I don’t know for certain, but it probably could have been stopped before it got out of hoof, but she was what I had created.
Despite my insistence on letting me examine her for further injury, she rebuffed me. She insisted she was fine and only allowed me a quick look. I knew she wasn’t injured, but I couldn’t think of any other way to get her to sit still.
“Surely she would have obeyed an order from her princess?” Kibitz said.
She would not. She told me that Equestria was in crisis, and her guardspony expertise was necessary to get me out of it alive and well. Equestria needed me, but not her. She took charge, exactly as I had instructed the guardsponies to do in the case of just such a crisis. She was exactly what I had created, physically and mentally. She lived only to see the proper crown returned to power.
She led the way through the passages Luna and I had created. Her knowledge of them was equivalent to my own, as was her knowledge of the castle. She led the way, confident and dangerous, until we were at the throne room. She peered out of secret holes that only I knew of, spying on the ponies as they came and went. Nightmare Moon was present, and so she insisted we wait. And wait we did.
I had to fidget while we sat in the cramped passage. Tempest looked at me with a chiding expression a parent would give a foal. For her part, she didn’t move. She was strong enough and disciplined enough with the false personality I had gifted her with. She was the ultimate soldier.
We waited all through the ‘day’ for ponies to finish their business about the castle. They scurried about, pandering to Nightmare Moon’s every whim out of fear for their lives. They scuttled through the shadows, fearful of the disapproving glance of their new ruler, scared to speak or even cough.
While we waited I got a glimpse of the kind of ruler Nightmare Moon would be. It was effective, and she was fair, but she had no emotion, and no patience for petty squabbling. Nightmare Moon held court, exactly as I would have, but ruled with an iron hoof. She ordered ponies to obey, ordered them to get along, ordered them to share, to be kind, to stop arguing. She demanded they check their emotions and do as she said. Her decisions were not terrible, but she wanted to control every aspect of their lives. I have no doubt it would have been a powerful kingdom, but it would be bereft of freedom. I couldn’t allow it. It was time to act.
The moment the last pony left the throne room, and Nightmare Moon dismissed the last servant, Tempest attacked. She burst out of the hiding spot we were in, said not a word and made no noise beyond the sound of her hooves striking the floor, and went straight for the kill. A blade of magic sliced through the air at Nightmare Moon’s back, and it likely would have killed her had I not cried out.
A shield went up the moment she heard my voice. Nightmare Moon was protected, but the blow sent her sliding across the throne room. Both she and Tempest turned to look at me in unison, and I received the same look from both: they were the same angry, frustrated looks of ponies who had only one thing in mind: death.
Tempest looked back at Nightmare Moon, and received a look of hate in turn. They shared no words, but attacked each other with a ferocity and violence that frightened me. Much of the destruction of the old castle came about during their fight.
Beams of power illuminated the night. Explosions shook the stones and the sounds of hooves meeting hooves rang out. They used everything they could, matching strength with strength, and magic with magic. I did not join in. I was paralyzed with fear of both of them. I watched them fight, and they seemed equal.
Until Nightmare Moon flew.
Tempest leapt into the air as though to follow her, but sprawled to the ground. She pulled herself up and tried again with the same result. She tried again, then stood up after the third time and looked at me. She was afraid.
Nightmare Moon just laughed. “What do you think you’re doing, little creature? You have no wings!” she said.
Tempest’s eyes widened and she stared through me. I could see panic taking over as she realized deep down something was wrong. She couldn’t place it, but she knew.
“I… I should have wings. I feel it. I know how to fly, but I have none.” She looked at me a pleading look in her eye. She knew I was responsible. She was right. The brain I had given her knew, deep down, but it couldn’t make sense of the reason they didn’t exist. All that knowledge I had given her, and I hadn’t removed the things she ‘couldn’t’ do. Because of that, her entire personality, flimsy as it was, had begun to fall apart.
I had no answer for her. I couldn’t answer, because she wouldn’t be able to make sense of it. She would know why she should have wings, but then she would know the truth of her existence. She would know she was only meant to live as long as this fight, then she would die. I would put her back to rest, as the dead are meant to.
Nightmare Moon wasn’t going to let that go so easily, though. She saw my moment of weakness and she meant to take advantage of it. I don’t know what memories of yours she had access to, Luna, but she found ones that explained what she was seeing, and she thought to turn my creation against me.
“Oh, Celestia. Playing with your toy ponies again? This one seems a lot smarter than the last few. It’s even wondering where its wings are. I’ll tell you, my dear, that Celestia just needed a brain, and yours was the unlucky winner of her latest misguided attempt at a warrior to defeat me!”
Tempest was conflicted, of course. She still had the memories I had given her, and emotions are powerful things. Despite her confusion, she knew that I was the ruler of Equestria, and that Nightmare Moon was wicked. She chose to help me, but maybe she only did so because she had no other purpose. She would help, but the damage had been done.
Tempest was confused, and angry. She channeled that into the fight, and fired magic up at Nightmare Moon. Beams, bursts of light, fire, and force all flew from Tempest’s horn into the sky. Nightmare Moon dodged them all, and Tempest got angrier. I flew up to try to help, to drive Nightmare Moon down from the sky and fight, but I was tired, and weak. I had been unable to sleep well, for fear of being discovered, compounded with my efforts to create Tempest I had been left exhausted. My attempt was short-lived, and I was quickly blasted down into the chamber with the elements of harmony, leaving the two of them to fight.
I don’t remember much after that. I was dazed and confused at the time, but from what I do recall it was really no contest once Nightmare Moon knew Tempest’s weakness. Poor Tempest couldn’t hope to match Nightmare Moon’s agility in the air. She tried shields and blockades, tried to force her to land or even grab her, but Nightmare Moon was too swift, and her own magic too strong. It wasn’t long at all until Nightmare Moon struck Tempest was fighting back, pushing her way closer. When she neared Tempest, she deflected a spell and swooped down to strike Tempest with a hoof, knocking her up against a wall. This I remember quite well, as it was the last thing that happened before I banished Nightmare Moon.
She laughed and finally landed. She stood over Tempest, imperious and haughty, confident her victory was properly achieved. She took another look down at Tempest then she blasted her with magic. Nightmare Moon’s horn glowed, and a beam of dark force poured out, scorching the walls and washing over Tempest. To my credit, her body survived. Tempest was still moving, even after an attack like that. Her fur was singed, but she was not dead. I thought Nightmare Moon would finish her quickly then come for me, but she didn’t. She seemed interested in Tempest, and attacked again.
She shot another beam of magic, and I saw ice form around the edges of the spell that shattered when she stopped. I thought she would be frozen stiff but still Tempest struggled to stand. Nightmare Moon attacked again; waves of dark energy, crushing force, biting cold, searing heat, and tearing winds. Somewhere in the onslaught, Tempest’s horn snapped off from the sheer force of the magic. Her body was torn, bleeding, and finally broken, but she lived. Her chest rose and fell with fast and labored breaths. She no longer tried to rise, but she was alive.
Alive, confused, and in pain, and it was my fault.
I knew my pain was minor compared to hers. I was weak, but my weakness came from weeks of struggles to try and take back my throne. Tempest had only existed for a few hours, and now she had received the full brunt of Nightmare Moon’s fury. The story of my confrontation with Nightmare Moon you know, when I banished her with the elements, but it was not the grand fight you think it was. I caught Nightmare Moon unaware.
You see, unable to destroy Tempest’s body with magic alone, Nightmare Moon tried to tear her apart. She lifted her into the sky, likely intent on tearing her body and letting me watch the pieces fall to the ground, but her muscles and bones were too strong. She flew high, high into the sky, silhouetted against the moon, and, unable to tear her limb from limb, threw her away into the forest.
After that, you know what happened. I banished Nightmare Moon, but Tempest was gone. I never found her. But neither did I find her body. I found a spot I assumed must have been it, with broken trees and scarred ground, but I never found my creation after that.
Until today.
Celestia turned to look at Kibitz and Luna, smiling. “From what Twilight has been willing to share, she had not known friendship for a thousand years. She had been lost, broken, and confused. I imagine the confused pegasus brain inside her rebelled against her existence. It must have been terrifying, not knowing who or what she was, wandering from place to place, living like a wild animal. But, ponies are resilient. I imagine we shall have to keep this secret for quite some time.” Celestia stood and led the way out onto a nearby balcony. She looked down at the celebration below, smiling. “My mistakes have been repaired, but not by my own hooves. I brought a pony into this life and treated her like a tool. I did not appreciate the responsibility in my youth, so I am gladdened to see her, knowing she now has what I neglected to give her.”
“Do you not want her to know, sister?”
Celestia shook her head. “She should forget the pain of her uncaring mother. Her mind has concocted for her a past that fits, and I do not wish to take that away from her. There would be no point in dredging up memories she does not recall. I am, however, happy to see my daughter doing so well. I know not what she has been through all these years, but to find friends at the end of it makes me glad. The one thing I did not provide, she found on her own.”
The End.
A Gift of Life Without Friendship
Hearthswarming eve was here, and Tempest Shadow was nervous. Her new… friend, Twilight Sparkle, had decided that the princesses simply must gather together for Hearthswarming and share stories and catch up with each other. What Twilight had failed to mention was that Tempest herself was going to be invited. She couldn’t refuse an invitation from a princess! What if it was seen as rude? What if she offended someone, er… somepony important and she got exiled because of a misunderstanding?
She felt awkward, sitting at the table with all the princesses of Equestria around her, but she did what she had done with the Storm King: She sat, silent, and resolved not to respond to anything unless it was a direct order.
It worked, for the most part. Twilight had so much to say to all the other princesses that there was barely any time for any of the others to talk. She babbled on about all of the friendship lessons she had given Starlight Glimmer and Tempest herself, and talked about the myriad problems discovered around Equestria that she and her friends had managed to solve. The fact that problems could be solved by friendship was odd to Tempest, but she hadn’t spent much time in Equestria, so the new things were interesting.
When Luna finally had a chance to speak, she wanted to discuss the moon and the various night activities some of the ponies had been getting up to now that she had returned. She was delighted to find that ponies stayed up late for activities that weren’t always bad. Thievery and murder had been the name of the game one thousand years ago, but with the new lights and the safety of so many cities, it would seem that revelry, drinking, and other… amorous activities usually took place under the night sky. She found it queer, but refreshing.
Celestia, for her part, was suspiciously silent, Tempest noticed. Being the commander of an entire army had honed her abilities to a razor point, and just because she had friends now didn’t mean she had stopped being so observant. Celestia was hiding something. She was old, and her talent for hiding it was honed by itself, but the way her eyes kept flicking to look at Tempest told the unicorn that something was wrong. She was discomfited by her presence.
Luna had done the same, at first, as well as the butler whose name Tempest had never gotten. All three had given her strange looks. She had passed it off as them being uncomfortable around the pony who had previously turned them to stone, but Tempest had already apologized and been forgiven for it. She saw no further reason to act like she had to do more to apologize. Still, she couldn’t help but feel like they harbored some sort of grudge for what she had done.
Luna finished talking about all that she wanted to share and conversation lapsed for a moment. Twilight looked at Tempest next to her and tilted her head toward the assembled princesses, but Tempest had resolved herself to only respond to an order. Speaking wasn’t her place at an assemblage of princesses. Twilight nodded again, but Cadance came to the rescue with talk of love in the Crystal Empire.
“We’re experiencing new highs in love-levels in the Crystal Empire. Statistics show that the crystal heart is outputting unforeseen levels of crystal magic, and the resulting love-force–”
Tempest tuned out the droning voice of the princess of love and poked at her food. She looked over at Celestia to see the older Alicorn once again looking at her. Her eyes were large and curious, and Tempest looked away under the intense gaze, staring down at her half-eaten dinner.
By the time the dinner had ended, Celestia and Tempest were the two who hadn’t spoken. Tempest had said nothing, while Celestia had only offered single-word responses to some of the questions and statements the other alicorns had brought up. As the night wore on, she was looking at Tempest more and more, and at one point Tempest was sure the alicorn had sighed once or twice.
As the dinner closed, Luna and Twilight went off, chatting about star charts and the position and phases of the moon, while Cadance had to go answer a magical call from her husband about their daughter. That left Celestia and Tempest alone at the table next to each other. Twilight had seen fit to position the former commander directly next to the princess of the sun, which compounded how uncomfortable the entire situation was. Celestia sipped at her tea and glanced at Tempest.
“You’ve been quiet all evening, Commander Tempest,” Celestia said, breaking the silence.
Despite her promise to remain silent, Tempest responded. “I’m… a little uncomfortable.”
“Oh? Why is that?”
“I don’t think I belong here after what I did.”
“You did it, yes, but we’ve all forgiven you. You helped undo it, and protect all of us, after all.”
“I had to.”
“Hmm?”
“I had to protect you.”
“Protect… Canterlot?” Celestia’s question was hesitant, as if she was unsure.
Tempest hesitated, unsure of her answer. “No, I had to protect…” Tempest struggled with the answer, as though she knew what it was but couldn’t bring herself to say it because it didn’t quite make sense. Finally, it slipped from her lips unbidden, escaping like a prisoner from a long confinement. “…you.” She looked up at Celestia.
“You mean the princesses.” It was a statement, not a question.
Tempest shook her head. “No, just you, Celestia.”
“Just me?”
“Just you.”
Celestia took a long sip of her tea. She seemed to be thinking about something, weighing options in her mind as her eyes flitted about the room, looking at anything but Tempest. They sat in silence again until Celestia spoke once more. “Why do you think that is?”
Tempest breathed in and held it for a moment, then exhaled, her body slumping in her chair. “It felt like there was a voice in my head demanding it. I mean, I’ve heard of you, Celestia. Everbody… er, everypony has. When I was a filly I dreamed of visiting Canterlot and seeing the castle. The princess who controlled the sun and moon. The princess who was more important than anypony else.”
“So, you wanted to protect the ponies who can’t protect themselves.” Again, it wasn’t a question.
“By making sure you were okay.”
Celestia lifted her head in acknowledgement of the statement, and once more went back to her tea. Her eyebrows lifted in surprise and she put the teacup down on the table. Tempest could see that it was empty. The princess was unsure of herself.
Tempest looked down at her half-eaten food, thoughts racing. “Why was the princess so confused around me?” She thought. She was the princess of the sun. She had been managing the day and night by herself for one thousand years! She was an alicorn princess! She had beaten Nightmare Moon by her… herself?
Tempest stopped. Celestia had been helped, right? By the elements of harmony. The magic of harmony that governed all of Equestria had been the power that helped her beat Nightmare Moon and ensure Equestria was safe and protected for the past one thousand years.
But no, that hadn’t been enough. There had been somepony else there. She was sure of it. But all of the history books she had read and all that she had heard had said Nightmare Moon was beaten immediately by Celestia. But Tempest was positive that wasn’t the case. But why was she so positive about that?
“What are you thinking about, Tempest?”
Tempest gave a weak laugh. “Oh, nothing, really. About history, I guess.”
“Oh? What about it?”
“I sometimes misremember what I’ve read in history books. Thinking about things in history that never happened. It’s kind of silly. A little frustrating, too. It comes and it goes.”
“What kind of things?” Celestia leaned forward in her seat.
“I don’t know where I first read or heard any of these things, but there’s a lot of different points in history that seem wrong to me, and I’m not sure why.”
“Such as?”
“Well, the big one, that always seems to come back, is that there was another pony that helped stop Nightmare Moon.”
“Another pony? You mean like Starswirl the Bearded?”
“No, I know he wasn’t there. He was gone before that happened. Some unnamed pony that helped during the fight right before you banished Nightmare Moon to the moon.”
“There’s no record of it. Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know.” Tempest shrugged. “Like I said, it doesn’t make… sense.”
Celestia was looking at Tempest. Her lavender eyes seeming to stare deep into Tempest’s own.
Tempest swayed for a moment as she remembered something. She remembered Nightmare Moon, staring down at her, and she remembered being in pain. She could see Celestia far away, crumpled in a broken heap, and then there was a flash of light, and nothing.
“I’m… sorry,” Tempest muttered.
Celestia finally blinked. “Sorry for what?”
“I couldn’t…” What hadn’t she been able to do? “I couldn’t… fly.”
Celestia’s eyes widened, and she stood up from her chair. Her legs pushed the chair back and the elegant seat tilted, falling forgotten to the floor with a crash. Celestia paid it no mind and walked with haste toward the grand double doors at one end of the dining hall.
“I’m sorry. This was a mistake. I must go.”
Tempest’s breathing got heavy. She felt her heart pounding in her chest. Why had she said that? She didn’t have wings! She barely even had a horn! Her vision darkened as she watched Celestia leaving her behind.
“Wait…” she croaked. Her chest felt tight, and she stumbled out of her chair, trying to chase after that rainbow mane as it left her again.
Celestia didn’t slow, and didn’t look back, almost trotting toward the door. Tempest wobbled on her hooves as memories came rushing back to her. Memories of different lives, different ponies, different creatures, and even different friends over one thousand years of life.
She remembered the first few years after the battle with Nightmare Moon.
She remembered scraping at her back when she had first awoken after the fight. She was injured, but her body was too sturdy to die. She had spent time leaping into the air, exhausting herself trying to fly, and scratching her hooves across her back, gouging at the place where her wings should have been. She had used her violent magic with her broken horn, skin bursting into boils and blisters as she tried to force wings to come out.
She wasn’t a unicorn. She should be a pegasus. She knew and remembered every single nuance and detail of flight. She knew what it felt like to soar through the air, though she had never done it before. She knew, with certainty, what it felt like to kick a cloud and dance through rain in the sky.
“Mother… please,” Tempest pleaded.
The hooves ahead of her stopped at the door. Celestia turned back to look, her face a mixture of fear and anger, with only the barest hint of concern.
“Why can’t I fly?”
Tempest remembered other lives and other places. Some she had remembered the battle with Nightmare Moon. Some she spent raving in the wilderness, leaping from cliffs and dashing her immortal body against the rocks in a vain attempt to fly or die. Some she was a caring friend to creatures of all types, and others still she was a lunatic, dangerous and violent on the outskirts of villages, spoken of in hushed whispers, praying she would go away.
Celestia approached her where she stood, unsteady and fearful of the goddess to whom she owed her life. Celestia lifted her head with her magic and looked her in the eyes, staring down at the confused creature she had created.
“I finally remember everything. Whenever this happens I forget. I’ve forgotten everything so many times. Please, mother. Help me. Kill me. Stop this.”
“You… were never meant to fly. You were to be a weapon, and nothing else. I had thought you dead,” Celestia said.
“I can’t take this. I’ve lived so long without the ability to live. I’ve disappeared from friends and even a family once because I can’t handle each life! I’ve done damage to ponies I cared for because my mind fails me! What do I do?” Tempest was anguished, but despite her clear sadness, no tears fell down her face.
“There is nothing I can do. I can end your life, but is death truly what you seek?”
“Mother—" Celestia winced at the word “—I forget everything and restart living every decade or so. Sometimes I am a good pony, others I am a monster. I have died too many times to count. I don’t know when it will happen again, and I don’t know what I will become. Please, end this! I beg you!”
Celestia closed her eyes and breathed deep. She looked around at the doors the other princesses had left by. She and Tempest were alone, and there was nopony nearby to see anything. She couldn’t kill Tempest here, and it would be hard to change her memories, but she had avoided responsibility for her actions for over a thousand years. She nodded. Slow and deliberate.
“Come, daughter. Give me a hug while you still remember what we share.”
Tempest stood up and stepped forward, legs shaking. She embraced her mother as tightly as she could, eliciting a small squeak from the larger pony. Celestia lowered her head down and across Tempest’s back, sighing at the embrace.
Celestia’s horn lit up, and in the middle of the hug, Tempest froze, enveloped in magic.
Memories passed through Tempest, and she felt all of them, almost at once. She felt herself dying, and the memory of her wings was burned from her. She wanted to scream, but her mouth was frozen shut. Each feather from her nonexistent wings was a sharp, stabbing pain as they each disappeared, until there was nothing left but the body she had.
She remembered the battle between Nightmare Moon and Celestia and her own contribution. She remembered failing, and her horn shattering under the onslaught from the dangerous monarch as she and Celestia fought to take it back.
She relived each one of her many lifetimes, good and bad, where she was a saint and a sinner, savior and oppressor, friend, family, and foe. Each one was burned from her mind, and the pain from each intensified the next. A single tear managed to come out of her eyes, sliding down her cheek as she realized that she would never remember any of these ever again. She struggled as she forgot more and more, but Celestia held her firm, hugging her tight as she stripped away at Tempest’s thoughts and feelings from her past.
Finally, Celestia let go and pulled back, looking down at her daughter. Her own cheeks were wet with tears, and she sniffled the slightest sniffle before wiping her cheeks with a wing.
“How do you feel?”
The mare looked up at her in confusion, then noticed the single tear on her own cheek. She wiped it away and looked back at the princess of the sun. “I feel much better. Thank you for your forgiveness. I know conquering your kingdom is… really bad, but thank you. It means a lot to me that you can do that. You truly are a great leader, princess.”
Celestia nodded. “You are welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse me. I should get some rest. I only have so many hours before the sun must rise again.”
“Of course, princess. I will go find Luna and Twilight.”
“You have yourself a good night, Tempest.”
Fizzlepop Berrytwist looked back at the princess of the sun and frowned. “Please, your majesty. Call me Fizzlepop. And you have a Happy Hearthswarming!”
Celestia just nodded and turned away. She could hear the hoofsteps traveling away from her toward the other door Luna and Twilight had used. The sound of them was upbeat and almost cheerful, free of worry and care, and most importantly: free of fear.
Celestia walked through the halls of the castle toward her bed, thinking as little as possible, just letting her hooves carry her. When she lay down in her bed, her tears came again, unbidden and unwanted.
“When you have lived enough, I will find you, and I will let you finally pass, mourned by family and friends. I promise. Happy Hearthswarming, my child,” Celestia sobbed.
The End.
