Today was the day…
It was a day she had long feared would come, and it had come sooner than she expected. She stood at the top of a forested hill, draped in a shawl decorated intricately with only the finest stitching at Rarity’s disposal which complimented her orchid coat, most of which was clad in the grey bodysuit left over from her old armor which gave her comfort, though not the courage which she lacked.
Why, she was practically terrified.
Her eyes were cast over a quaint little village resting in the midst of a valley of hills which stretched for miles in all directions. The sky was overcast in a grey veil which painted the land in a dreary light. It had changed much since last she saw it, many of the hills had become forested, and the wood reached far and wide, even up to the hill where she stood. She shut her eyes as if to block out a memory, and shook her head with a dejected sigh which was picked up by the pony who walked at her side.
“I know how you feel all too well, Fizzlepop,” Starlight said, hoping to offer some form of comfort to the larger and conflicted mare.
“It’s been a very long time…” Tempest said with a tremble in her voice. “The last time I saw this place, I was a naive little filly. Am I truly ready for this?”
Starlight couldn’t help but smile. She noticed that it was her situation all over again. “Well, let me tell you, when I had to return to my village—”
“The one you enslaved?”
Starlight glowered at Tempest, her ears flattened onto her head which she lowered slightly. “Yes, Fizzle, that one, way to put it so bluntly.”
Tempest rubbed her foreleg and looked the opposite direction. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” Starlight sighed deeply and adjusted herself back to normal. “To get back to what I was saying, when I had to return to my village I was terrified, I couldn’t even move myself out of the castle, until I asked Trixie to come along.”
“I believe the draconequus filled me in. You ran away, or so the story goes.” Tempest chuckled to herself and looked down at Starlight, who looked back to Tempest with cheeks flushed red.
“Uh… well… I was… overwhelmed.” She let out a nervous chuckle at which Tempest shook her head and rolled her eyes.
“We might as well get this over with. I admit that I’m scared beyond belief, but this is what I must do, or I’m never going to forgive myself.”
Starlight came around to the front of Tempest. She looked concerned but inquisitivily, in a way she thought odd of that mindset. “That’s a harsh way of looking at it, Fizzle.”
Tempest sighed and side stepped Starlight as she began the walk down toward the village. “Let’s go.”
Starlight watched her go for a while before trotting up behind and coming to a light trot by her side. The journey to the isolated hamlet, first by train and then by hoof, allowed Starlight to observe Tempest. The whole time they were on their way she would fidget and shake; she could barely speak without a stutter or quake. But now, for the time being, Tempest seemed calm and stoic as a mountain against the wind, but Starlight could only imagine the turmoil stirring deep in that mare’s breast like a storm.
Tempest, trying hard to keep her anxieties closed off to Starlight, felt something akin to panic, like nothing she had ever felt as a soldier to the Storm King, or a wandering wild mare in the wastes. She wondered if her silence alienated the mare who openly admitted to having experienced the same anxiety she herself now displayed.
It irked her, for she wished not to burden Starlight with all of her hesitations and turmoil.
They exited the shade of the woodland road and stepped into the sunlight which broke through the cloudy sky and illuminated the hilly terrain. It was just as Tempest remembered it. The earth beneath her hooves felt dense and rough compared to the memory she had of how soft and loose it was in her foalhood. She silently acknowledged the change, mentally comparing it to her memory and reminiscing on better days with bitter lament.
They saw the village arch from afar. It was flanked by two old and crumbling walls while the arch itself was wooden, made from oak and bore the village name now faded with wear on its face. Starlight passed under it with ease but Tempest was frozen, transfixed upon her old home, eyes darting this way and that, scanning the village and taking in the familiar sights, until at last they looked ahead, right into the middle of the town which was spacious.
There were shops surrounding the center with paths between them going deeper into the town, and an old stone, moss covered well which sat in the center of the spacious square. A pair of unicorn foals played together with a ball, tossing it between their magic and running around the space carefree, giggling all the while. All of it was familiar to Tempest; she shuddered and took a step back.
“I… can’t...” she said, with her quaking voice. Her horn fizzled with sparks of untamed magic and she shook her head as if to deny herself to step forward. “Maybe we should come back another time. It’s not like they wondered about me, where I’ve been and what I’ve done.”
Starlight came around. “ I know that isn’t true. This is your hometown, I’m positive somepony noticed you were gone and they’ve wondered for where you may be.”
Tempest sighed and shut her eyes. “The last time I saw my friends, they ran away terrified and replaced me. But right now they aren’t the ones holding me back.”
No words were needed for Starlight to understand who the broken horned mare meant. She herself, and another mare beyond a mirror, were all too familiar with parental problems. For Tempest, this was harder, and as Starlight could see it ate at her. Tempest was practically holding her tears back, Starlight’s anxieties couldn’t even compare, but Tempest kept her composure which Starlight could see was slowly starting to collapse.
“I don’t…” Tempest inhaled deeply. “I don’t even know if they searched for me, or if they’re still even here. Perhaps the thought of losing me drove them away. I don’t see any reason they could have to remain after I left. I didn’t even have my cutiemark the day I walked away.”
Tempest fell back onto her haunches and brought her forehooves up to her face, covering her eyes with only her muzzle and gritted teeth visible to the onlooking Starlight. Teardrops fell to the dirt below, and Tempest at last had succumbed to her fears and broke. She doubted herself, she hurt in her heart, even feelings of abandonment started to resurface. But it stoked nothing, not the fire in her chest which held her to her conviction as a commander, nor her pride which had made her a stoic and seemingly cold individual, she wept silently, struggling to keep back the tears she denied.
“I… understand,” Starlight said. “All too well, but it’s different between us. You’re taking this so much more personally than I did. I don’t have family in my village. I suppose my friends there count, but I was worried I would become the me that hurt them again. In that sense, just like me, you’re scared you’ll do the same.”
“I don’t know if your friends wept for you when you left, but I am certain that your parents did, and now you can’t even face them. Fizzlepop… I had to fight off a changeling queen and her brood before I could face my fears, you have it so much easier. You could step under the arch and find your parents, or your friends and try and reconnect. It’s not as if they’ve given up on you and pushed you away. You can do this.”
Tempest sniffled and looked up the path back the way they came, then turned to look into the village. She bit her lip and looked at Starlight, then to the tear stains in the dirt. “I hope you know how wrong you are, it’s not just the fear. I recreated myself when I left and the Storm King took me in, I’m afraid of not only how they will react, but I’m scared I will lose myself. I don’t want to be weak again, Starlight. Growing up without a family or friends is hard, it hurt me because I willingly gave it all up because they were afraid of me and my power! They abandoned me!”
Lightning crackled and scorched the ground at Tempest’s hooves. She stared wide-eyed at the mark she left in the soil, hyperventilating, unable to reconcile her desire with her grief and come to a compromise.
“I don’t believe that, Fizzlepop, not one bit.” Starlight stared at Tempest fiercely and certainly. “I think you misunderstood your parents actions for fear and abandonment, I know that isn’t how they felt, and I know that deep down you know it to be true.”
Starlight came up beside Tempest and stood in front of her. “You’re scared now, but I’m with you, and I’m going to help you through this. I’m going to stand by you and help you push forward. Now, more than ever, because you need to. Please, don’t give up because you’re in doubt, don’t run away because you’re afraid. Because, I am not going to give up on you.”
Tempest was void of any thought or voice. She saw before her a mare who had suffered as she had, and could see from her point-of-view exactly what she had to do. Her emotions were all over the place, uncertainty dogged her mind for a while, what should I say? she asked herself over and over, as if to satisfy some kind of requirement to protest. Soon she realized the futility of her actions, and as it dawned on her, she quelled her storm. She stared at Starlight for a good long while, before she wiped the tears from her eyes and pulled herself to her hooves.
“Thank you, Starlight.” Tempest sighed and looked over her shoulder toward the village. “I’ll do it, but I won’t have the strength without you by my side. Shall we?”
Starlight smiled proudly and nodded. “Of course, let’s not keep them waiting.”
Both mares looked at each other with a smile newfound respect for each other which went as deep as the glistening sea. They were friends with common pasts, though they were radically different. Side by side they approached the threshold, the archway looming over the pair like a shadow.
“Are you ready?” Starlight asked.
Tempest glanced to her new friend and let out a trembling sigh. “I’m ready.”
Starlight and Tempest looked ahead. The way was clear, and though her heart quivered and her body shook, Tempest took her first step down a new path, and she and Starlight crossed over the threshold, and under the arch.
Tempest Shadow was home at last.
