"Tempest, you need to relax."
Tick~
Tock~
Tick~
Tock~
Tempest Shadow sat quietly in her seat, staring at her naked hooves as she waited for Twilight to meet with her in the spa. However much Twilight insisted she had changed, she felt uncomfortable being in such a quiet room. It was unnerving to hear nothing but the hum of lights and the wheezing of the air as she was so used to a more military setting. It was the quietest place she had been in for a long, long time.
Tick~
Tock~
Tick~
Tock~
With every pony that curiously glanced Tempest’s way, she couldn’t decide whether to glare at them or silently coil into herself. In the end, she would end up doing a mixture of both, casting her head down yet flicking her eyes menacingly at those who dared look at her. Those that even caught a glance usually saw the scar first before they would retreat like the weaklings they were.
Tick~
Tock~
Tick~
Tock~
Tempest Shadow helplessly glanced at the clock attached to the wall on her right, it’s infernal ticking grating her otherwise peaceful silence. It read three minutes to five. Three more minutes of agonisingly slow and infinitely convoluted waiting that consisted of nothing but wondering why she was there in the first place. Would it have been better to be late, or maybe right on time?
Why in Celestia’s name did she think it was a good idea to come ten minutes early?
She could feel her eye beginning to twitch. One minute. One more daft minute! She couldn’t believe it. It was as if the clock face was mocking her, it’s hand going to each new tick with a fresh wave of molasses! She wanted to scream.
As her shattered horn began to spark menacingly, she breathed faster and faster, eyes fixated on the clock of her nightmares. When Tempest felt about ready to burst, a hoof touched her.
The sound Tempest made could’ve shattered glass. In fact, it did shatter some glass across the street, and somehow a cat screeching accompanied the noise.
Heaving slightly, Tempest blinked a few times before glaring at those who would dare molest her. Blinking again, she looked at the sheepish face of Twilight Sparkle and the surprised looks of her five other friends.
“Oh, Fizzlepop, I’m so sorry!” Twilight said, nervously tittering her apology.
Tempest’s eye twitched, her hoof shooting out to meet Twilight’s mouth instinctively and unforgivingly. “Don’t say my stupid name out loud like that!”
Twilight patted Tempest’s hoof away before rubbing her muzzle with a wince. “I-I just saw that you were really zoned out there, uh, staring at the clock.”
“It was bothering me,” Tempest said pointedly.
“Well, we’re here for a spa treatment, aren’t we?” Fluttershy said. “Just a peaceful massage and some relaxing time. And Rainbow, don’t be like that.”
“I didn’t even say anything yet!” Rainbow protested.
“Don’t worry, Rainbow,” Pinkie Pie smiled, patting Rainbow on the back as she sighed in defeat. “Everypony needs proper relaxation time every now and then.
“Let’s get a move on, then,” Rarity urged, trotting up to the front desk. “We haven’t got all day, and it seems… Tempest Shadow needs it as much as I do.”
Tempest was not blind to the pause in Rarity’s speech. With a suspicious narrow of her eyes, Twilight’s hoof rested on her shoulder and Tempest shut her eyes. However much she wanted to blast that mare and everyone else apart from Twilight with arcane sparks to kingdom come, she couldn’t.
At that moment, she realised Rarity was right. With a sigh, Tempest drooped and relaxed to the best of her ability, letting Twilight pull her to her hooves. “Alright,” Tempest muttered, looking away. “Let’s get this over with.”
“Woohoo! Party time, everypony!” Pinkie announced as their helper came to escort them to their massage beds. Wincing at the somewhat sharp looks other patrons of the spa gave her, she laughed awkwardly. “Er, I mean spa time? Hang out time? Oh, oh! Relaxation time. That’s it. Yup!”
“Pinkie, I think y’all should keep it down,” Applejack suggested. “It ain’t helpin’ us nothing if we can’t rest in peace. ‘Sides, you already made your point when you were talking to Rainbow here.”
“Oh! Right. Sorry.”
Tempest merely rolled her eyes at them, their bickering antics bemusing her greatly. Better now than later though. As much as she wanted to try getting along with Twilight’s friends, she just didn’t feel like she could fit in. Her, a former evil warlord that was all but unstoppable in her reign of terror until she realised her entire life’s service to a mad king was a lie.
Just the thought of the Storm King set Tempest’s mind aflame. The damned clock from the lobby somehow came back too, as if to mock her for all the time she had wasted looking for a miracle. As if it wasn’t bad enough to feel guilty for all that she had done in the name of a tyrant who promised her everything and gave her nothing. If his promises were lies, then she herself was nothing more than a lie. Grinding her teeth, she almost didn’t realise they had reached the beds.
Twilight took one look at Tempest Shadow and sighed. “Tempest, we’re at a spa. We’ve both been reminded as such countless times in the past five minutes. You need to loosen up a little.”
Tempest’s world shifted and focused on the little purple alicorn standing beside her. “Loosen up? Really? When ponies left and right stare at me like some sort of freak? When your friends hesitate to even say my name? Hm?”
“Hey, everyone has their stupid moments,” Twilight said. “Me more than anypony I know,” she added under her breath. “But that doesn’t mean you should think you’re alone. Look at me. An alicorn! Not only that, a well-known guardian of Equestria! I sometimes can’t walk across the road without being called over to give an autograph or some advice.”
Gulping a little, Tempest felt a little dumb herself after hearing those words, yet her scowl remained. “I just don’t see why we should waste time and resources laying on beds and being serviced by other beings for relaxation.”
“Have you ever actually been to a spa before?” Twilight asked, Tempest glancing at her before looking away. “Ever?”
Tempest cursed her suddenly warm-ish cheeks as she knew her silence gave her away.
“No, I didn’t think so. Which will make this first experience all the more amazing! I want you to really loosen up, Tempest. You’ve been so tense these past few weeks, which is understandable given your position in the events of Equestria’s takeover, but now is the time to forget all that.”
Trotting over to her bed and ignoring the rest of her friends for a moment, Twilight motioned her head to the bed next to her. “Come on! It’ll be fun.”
Another sigh of defeat escaped Tempest as she marched over to her own bed and watched how Twilight lay on hers. Noting how simple it was, Tempest stared at her bed for a solid minute before Twilight spoke up once more.
“Tempest, you need to lay on it before anypony can help you.”
“But isn’t it uncomfortable?” Tempest remarked, prodding the soft cushions. “I mean, you’re laying on it. What about all the other ponies who’ve lain on it before? There could be diseases!”
“Stars above, Tempest. You’re even antsier than the first time I ever saw Rainbow Dash get in her, and that’s saying something.”
Tempest whipped her head at Twilight to snark a response before seeing she had already closed her eyes again, enjoying the bed. Biting her lip, Tempest Shadow inched closer to her bed before throwing her legs over it and shimmying up so her head rested perfectly. Bringing her hind legs up, she almost panicked as she felt like she was sinking into the never-ending abyss of soft cushions.
She was able to breathe a sigh of relief when she stopped sinking, and resolved to stare at the ceiling, enjoying the pleasant warmth of the bed. It was as if it sensed just how much warmth Tempest liked to make her try and relax, which she suspected was probably the case. Some enchantment that she herself would never be able to perform.
The chitter chatter of the rest of Twilight’s friends she was able to tune out as she focused on just relaxing. A lot harder than you might think, considering where she had been for a majority of her life. On the run. Always moving. Never stopping. Becoming a feared general that answered to the most insane of villains.
Yeah, Tempest needed a break, so as she felt her breathing beginning to slow down and her eyes drooping, she did her best to clear her mind. Something she would always do before planning an attack, to best focus on the perfect strategy. This time, it was to focus on relaxing. Despite however much it could’ve worked, it was halted by the sudden appearance of a heavily accented voice beside her.
“Oh, hello there! You must be new! Are you a friend of Twilight’s? Twilight Sparkle! Is this a new friend?”
Tempest swore she shot three feet into the air before crashing back into her bed, growling as she tried to recover. Her horn began to spark as she turned to the attacker. A sharp blue pony with pink hair blinked at her as a snarl formed on Tempest’s face.
“Yes, Lotus, Tempest is here with us to relax,” Twilight said, Tempest wincing at her inflection. Her growling subsiding and horn-sparkling dying down, she resolved to remain with a scowl on her face, clearly disliking how she was startled in such a fashion. Grumbling to herself, Tempest exhaled and closed her eyes, shaking her head.
“I already hate the spa,” Tempest muttered, head dropping back to it’s perch on a pillow.
“I’m sure you’re only saying that because you haven’t been treated by us yet!” Lotus Blossom announced proudly. “We make it a habit to ensure one-hundred percent satisfaction!”
“I’m negatively satisfied at the moment,” Tempest quickly snapped. “Your service is despicably infuriating to me, and you need quieter clocks.” With that statement, Tempest glared at the clock now on the wall opposite of her with fiery rage.
Lotus giggled nervously, feeling sweat form on her head. She glanced around to the rest of the Element Bearers and gawked at their expressions of anticipation. With a shaky cough, Lotus smiled weakly. “W-well, uh, I’ll make sure to get your properly tended to so we can fix that, and, and we’ll review your suggestions. Mmhm! Just another moment please.”
Tempest cracked her eyes open to watch Lotus hastily trot away. Snorting at her incompetence, Tempest cheekily turned to Twilight and the others, before her grin dropped as quick as it had come. Coughing into her own hoof, she made it a point to raise her eyebrows and look off to the side. “She was being difficult. It wasn’t my fault.”
“Your lyin’ and you know it,” Applejack deadpanned.
“I don’t care what you think about spas, that is not how you treat one of my friends!” Rainbow cried.
“Yeah! Rainbow Dash comes here often enough to know her personally! She would know better than anyone. Isn’t that right, Rainbow?” Pinkie smiled widely, and everyone slowly turned their heads to look at her. Rainbow being the most prominent, as it seemed a vein was popping out of her head.
“Pinkie.” Rainbow spoke through ground teeth. “Why.”
“What? I was just saying that you mmmphpmpmpmph!” Pinkie tried to finish before a cyan hoof was jammed straight into her mouth.
“I, uh, what I think Rainbow was trying to say was that wasn’t very nice, Tempest,” Fluttershy whispered. Tempest could barely hear the timid pegasus over the pink and blue one shouting at each other, but she had picked on weak grunts long enough to attune her hearing to their feeble and scare tones.
“And they’re so kindly serving us, too,” said Rarity, “I doubt they’ll be giving us the full treatment now that you’ve pulled such an outraging stunt.”
“Whatever,” Rainbow grunted, finally leaving Pinkie alone. “Leave her be. It’s her experience. She can have it good or bad. It’s not up to us.”
Trying to smile, Pinkie Pie found it painfully hard. Nevertheless, she looked at her friends before glancing at Tempest. “Now that’s putting it bluntly.”
It was a struggle for Tempest to hold back her tongue as she could already see the cogs of annoyance turning in Twilight’s head. Whatever she could’ve said in the moment, she was sure Twilight Sparkle would say with more intensity later on after their spa. As Tempest watched the alicorn princess turn towards her, she gulped.
“Just… please try and enjoy it while you can.” Twilight sighed, rubbing her temples before flumping face-first into her pillow. “We can all use some rest,” her muffled voice moaned.
Pursing her lips, Tempest Shadow took her moment to quickly look everypony else present in the eye before relaxing into her bed and fearing what might come next. She had no idea what was in store for her. Would the ponies try to murder her here? Did they even know what she had done in the past? No, they couldn’t have. How could they? It’s not like she was put into a million different papers and sent across Equestria as a pony heralded to have helped save Equestria.
It was as if everypony had forgotten she had taken part in the attack she eventually “helped save” Equestria from in the first place.
If only she could truly calm herself down. None of these thoughts were helping Tempest in anyway with her anxiety of what might come next. In war, actions were predictable. Things could be seen before they happened. In a mundane environment such as this, anything was possible. For all she knew, an anvil could drop on her at that moment!
Tempest burst her eyes open and gasped as she stared up into the skylight glass dome over her head, wincing as she expected the worst. When it didn’t happen, she breathed a sigh of relief. She glanced around quickly to see if anypony had seen her, and, when she was sufficiently happy, she tried to focus inwards.
Feeling her ears react to sound, Tempest cracked her eyes open again to see several workers heading her way. Tempest quickly looked them all over. Did they have hidden daggers? Any possible hiding places for weapons? Maybe even a concealed polearm? One could never be too safe or certain. She herself had once been able to get a collapsible spear past security before taking an entire city down inside-out. If she could do it, others could to.
Flinching at the touch of who Tempest assumed was her masseuse, the worker smiled politely. “I won’t bite. Just relax, you can rest your chin on the pillow and let us do the work.”
“How do I know you won’t stab me in the back?” Tempest asked suspiciously. The worker owlishly blinked before laughing nervously.
“S-stab you in the, in the back? What?”
“You know, maim, kill, murder?” Tempest listed. “Things to hurt me.”
“Ma’am, I’m a masseuse, trained in chiropractics. If I were to hurt somepony under my careful hooves, I would be fired and never taken in by another clinic ever again.”
Tempest eyed the worker warily before harrumphing and flipping over. “Just remember if you try anything to me or anypony here, I will suplex you.”
“N-noted,” the worker said shakily as she placed her hooves on Tempest’s back.
Tempest, on her part, could feel the hooves on her back beginning to work. At first, all she could do was wince in pain as the worker moved to several parts of her body she couldn’t help but whimper at under the work. Growling a little, she quickly began to melt into herself as all of a sudden, she couldn’t help but sigh.
It was as if heaven was visiting her on a bed; She was suddenly very aware of the many sore spots and tight knots in her muscles she must’ve accumulated over the years. She could almost moan at how good it felt to have a pair of trained hooves unwinding her very being.
“Holy Celestia,” she could hear the worker mumble, “I’ve never seen tighter muscles in my entire life.”
“Wuzzat?” Tempest slurred uncharacteristically, which the worker jumped at.
“O-oh, uh, well, you really need to come to a chiropractitioner or a spa like this more, because you have really terrible knots. Like, these are on a whole different level than the ponies my colleagues and I have worked on before.”
“Are you telling me I’m incompetent at knowing my own body?” Tempest began to growl.
“N-no, nothing like that, miss!” the worker said. “I just, I just, I-”
“I’ll have you know-!”
“So! Let’s share some funny stories to pass the- oh yes, that spot right there -time!” Twilight announced to her friends, who all began to pipe up excitedly. “I think we could also use a little distraction from our outside life. You know, bring some happiness onto the table.”
“Oo! Oo! Me! Pick me! Pick me first!” Pinkie began to bounce on her table, raising a hoof, and much to the chagrin of her masseuse. It was just as well of no surprise to her friends that she was first to volunteer.
Twilight sighed and shrugged as lightly as possible. “Alright, Pinkie. Shoot.”
“Wee! Okay, okay. Let’s start from the beginning. Huuuauaaaah-!”
“Keep it short and simple, sugarcube,” Applejack said quickly. Pinke turned to her and nodded brightly.
“Okay! Long story short, this is a long not-so-funny but also funny story. There. Done!” Taking the silence as a good thing, Pinkie continued with a wide smile. “I know, right? Made you smile and laugh, eh? It made me too! Ha ha ha! But I also cried a little. Bwaaaah! But you know how these kinds of stories go, right?”
Twilight blinked. Tempest blinked. The workers blinked. Even the sun blinked.
“Okay, Pinkie… great story?”
“Yup. Your welcome, by the way!”
Twilight sighed and glanced around. “Who wants to go next?”
“Well, my little sis’ Apple Bloom got into some more shenanigans today,” Applejack said, a smile quickly growing on her face. “The thing is, she thought the zap apples came in today, what with the recent influx of timberwolves, when they actually come in next week. That’s according to Granny Smith, anyway. It was a mighty fine experience watching Apple Bloom try to scare them wolves away, only to run to me screaming for help. Had to fight them away myself.”
“My, Applejack, aren’t you concerned for the safety of your little sister?” Rarity asked, aghast. “My, if my Sweetie Belle were in such danger, I would set the whole forest on fire!”
“Nah, my little sis is a strong little Apple,” Applejack stated with pride before wincing and melting into the hooves of her worker. “Ohohoho, she can handle herself until she can’t. That’s why it was funny to see her run past me covered in tin from head to hoof! Ha!”
Tempest rolled her eyes. Siblings were useless, especially when you’re a middle child. No one remembers you. Quietly, she envied Applejack. The middle sibling. At least she got attention she deserved. Tempest herself had gotten nothing but the support of friends.
Look how well that turned out.
Bringing herself back to the conversations at hoof, it seemed it was Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy’s turn to share.
“Well, there was this one time in Flight Camp,” Fluttershy uttered softly with a smile. Everypony watched as Rainbow Dash’s eyes quickly shot open with panic. “Hey, Fluttershy! We agreed never to tell anypony!”
“Don’t worry, your secret's safe with us,” Rainbow’s masseuse said. The worker recoiled as Rainbow glared daggers at her.
“I wasn’t asking you, was I?” Turning her attention back to Fluttershy to convince her to stop, Tempest watched as she realised in horror that Fluttershy had already begun to relate her tale.
“-and I was just sitting on my bed, reading a book and skipping the day’s lesson because it was just too terribly scary for a little filly like me at the time. When suddenly, I heard a lovely angelic voice with great acoustics coming from somewhere in the dormitories.”
“You can stop right there, Fluttershy,” Rainbow cried. Tempest watched as Fluttershy smiled sweetly at Rainbow for a moment before continuing.
“So it was actually the showers the voice was coming from, and it was lesson time, right? That meant somepony was also skipping a lesson. When I carefully walked into the showers, I saw Rainbow Dash, singing at the top of her lungs, the song ‘Disco Horse’s Queendom!’”
Everypony, save a light smile from Tempest, began laughing as Rainbow’s face grew to the same shade as the red in her hair. They laughed even more when she buried her face into her pillow. “No fair!” Rainbow could be heard saying. A long whiny groan accompanied her embarrassment, and Fluttershy giggled lightly before reaching over to pat Rainbow.
“It was a special occasion. I had to. I’m sorry.”
Rainbow moaned, and that was it.
“Well, Tempest?” Rarity asked, and Tempest turned to the posh mare with a raised eyebrow. “What’s a funny story from you, hm? Me and Twilight certainly don’t need to share any, with how uneventful our lives are, but you must have some neat stories of your own!”
Blinking, she found herself shrinking under the newfound attention from six, possibly thirteen, pairs of eyes. Clearing her throat, she laughed a little and said the first thing that came to mind.
“Well, it’s always fun for me to electrocute Grubber, either because he’s being stupid, or because I’m bored. Ehehe, heh! Hehe, heeee…”
At that moment, a raindrop could’ve fallen on the other side of the planet, and it would’ve been heard.
Tempest looked at the mortified faces of those looking at her, as well as the faint-looking Fluttershy, and coughed. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Well,” Rarity began, “Ehehe, that’s not, really… how should I say this; not ‘appropriate’ fun? Er, it’s not exactly proper.”
Tempest blinked.
“Do you perhaps have any… other stories, Tempest?” Twilight asked. “Perhaps something... with no violence whatsoever?”
Tempest turned to Twilight slowly as her mind began to catch up to her, her voice catching in the back of her throat.
“Well, I can’t really think of anything that hasn’t been violent in my life, unless you go back to… go, go back to… my childhood…”
Tempest frowned as she suddenly found her face soaked in water. She wondered where it was coming from. “I… I don’t know if, if I h-have, have any stories worth sharing from that time. I hate my childhood. I, I-”
“Just let it out, darling,” Rarity said quietly. “I’m sure there’s at least one happy memory.”
Tempest tried to glare at the alabaster mare. She really wanted to. All she could do, though, was look at her with a flapping mouth, unable to put anything of substance into words.
“W-well, well,” Tempest gulped. “My best friends, my, my two, t-two best friends at the time…
“I hate them!” Tempest shouted, startling everypony for a second. Silence reigned for a few seconds as she shook her head and shut her eyes. “B-but… we, we did… we had a lot of fun times t-to, together. It was, they, those were some of the b-best days of, of my life.”
Feeling a hoof on her shoulder and not reeling back this time, Tempest Shadow blearily turned to look at Twilight Sparkle, who was looking at her with a soft and gently smile that put her at a little more ease. “Just keep going, Tempest, we’re here, we’ll listen.”
Tempest let the tears fall as her mouth curved into a wistful and wobbly smile. “Y-yeah, uh…” Tempest sniffled before staring into her pillow and drawing something into it. “I, I-I… my two best friends, heh, my two very best friends,” Tempest smiled, giggling.
“Trinket Hop and Jingle Pine… I-I had so much fun with them when they were still, when they were still my…”
A shake of her head later, and looking away with eyes tightly shut, Tempest nodded and continued. “We, there was this one time, heh… One time where we went looking for our cutie marks, you know? Th-that uncertainty… and a-and wanting to know your place in the world…”
“Like a crusade?” Applejack suggested softly.
Tempest blinked and giggled. “Y-yeah, like a crusade! And, a-and, we, we were so stupid…” For the first time since they had all interacted with her, they heard the realest laugh come from her. A laugh that made them want to smile inside as well.
“We… we made these boats out of random pieces of wood we found,” Tempest started, “And, a-and we just, we tied these stupid little things together and set them into the lake and said ‘Let’s race, and whoever wins might get a cutie mark! Hah!’ And Trinket just pushed off before us and… and me and Jingle both got really mad!”
“‘Hey, no fair!’ I said,” Tempest smiled, “And when we tried to catch up, we ended up all crashing into each other, and, and… and…”
Slowly, the bright smile on Tempest’s face grew into one of melancholy before shaping into rage and anger and finally settling into one of despair. “It was… it was one of the greatest moments of my life. It was… just… just before I lost my horn. B-before I lost my friends. Before I, I… I…”
Suddenly wracked with sobs that she couldn’t control, Tempest shook her head and bit her tongue. “B-before, before I lost everything I ever cared about!”
Everypony flinched at the sudden outburst as Tempest began to shudder and wail into her pillow, sobbing and crying and weeping. Nopony knew how to react. Nopony dared touch her. It was as if she were a completely different entity that nopony knew.
And it was for that exact reason that Twilight got off of her bed and went to Tempest’s side. Holding Tempest on the shoulder with a hoof, Tempest shakily raised her head to look at the purple alicorn before she threw her hooves around her and cried into her coat. Twilight nodded, patting the trouble unicorn on the back and holding her tightly before five other pairs of hooves joined the fray.
Opening her eyes, Twilight smiled at her friends, who were, for the most part, ridden with quiet tears of their own, and hugging Tempest with the same fervency she was. Nodding, Twilight smiled and rested her head on Tempest Shadow’s. The Tempest Shadow, who, for the first time in a long time, found herself smiling at all the warm and friendly contact.
“W-well,” Pinkie wailed, sniffling and crying dramatically. “At least we know one thing f-for sure!”
“And w-what, pray tell, is that, darling?”
“Tempest must hate the spa!”
For a moment, there was silence, as they waited for the pony herself to respond.
First, there was a giggle. Then, a laugh. Finally, everypony was quite a bit surprised to hear Tempest Shadow laughing out loud, and soon, they all laughed alongside her, the statement quite honestly being the truest Tempest had heard all day.
In that moment, Tempest Shadow was the happiest she could be.
Until a complaint was filed for harassment of staff, in which case, she was banned from the spa for a whole month.
But that’s a story for another time!
~Fin~
Author's Note
To be honest, you need an IQ of over 300 to get the content of this story.
I want to know if you found this funny, or if you found it lacking. Please, if you would, leave a comment below and like the story if you did!
Onwards, Aoshima!
