"Hey Tempest, we're going to check out that new club that just opened in town. You with us?" Pinkie Pie asked, keeping her face purposefully neutral. She already suspected what the answer would be, but that didn't mean that she’d stop trying.
Twilight perked up at the question, her gaze turned towards Tempest with a flicker of hope in her eyes, but she dared not speak up. Things weren't exactly smooth between them ever since the Friendship Festival Celebration. She knew the moment she voiced her opinion, Tempest would grow defensive. She was always so angry lately... so close to the edge. Sometimes they were really scared of her. It was one of the reasons she’d been so quiet lately.
Well, there was also the whole forgiveness and celebration thing, of course, but still she believed hoped that it was only a matter of time until Tempest would be alright.
But for now, there was this stranger in her place. A stranger that looked almost bothered that Tempest had to spend time with them, as if it were some kind of obligation or excuse. Then again, anything is better than doing absolutely nothing.
"So what do you say, are you coming?" Pinkie continued, lighting up a joint with her usual cheery tone.
Twilight flashed her a grateful smile for still trying to include Tempest to their inner circle of friends. Rainbow Dash had given up a long ago, just ignoring Tempest most of the time. Even now, she had been spending most of her time keeping her distance away from her.
Applejack on the other hand she and Rarity had spend most of their days returning to their usual routines, working and taking care of their families.
And Fluttershy? Well, Fluttershy was a whole new matter. Ever since that day, she’d managed to be quite antisocial from time to time.
Like today.
Today, she didn't say anything and continued looking at the ground and sporadically, her eyes would dart around, as if something bad was going to appear out of nowhere.
Tempest looked at the girls and Twilight's hopeful gazes and grimaced. Not a good thing to do. No, she was no fun ever since that “betrayal” as her friends liked to call it. But she couldn't help it. She felt like this wasn't her life anymore, like she was just borrowing someone else's body or living a life of somepony from alternate universe or something.
She had tried at first.
After the festival, Tempest tried to pick up pieces and even attempted to move on with her life but found no luck. She tried talking, drinking, and other crazy stuff, but she found no joy in it. Soon, she couldn't even pretend anymore that she was having fun anymore and started to avoid them more or less.
Nowadays, she joined them here and there only for some short outing on the weekend nights, mostly to keep herself from being locked up in her own home, because no matter what, she would always feel lonely and left out. But that was it. After a few hours she would leave and let them do their fun stuff without her. She was not really interested anymore. In fact, she was never interested. Since when was she ever interesting?
"No sorry, girls. I think I'll pass this one," Tempest answered tiredly. Didn't they get that she wasn't a party maniac? As expected, Twilight and her friends looked quite deflated. Rainbow Dash just snorted, but didn't offer any comment. Tempest only smiled sympathetically; she didn't blame her. She knew she was just being ignorant. She must be the worst pony in all of Equestria, or very close to it.
"That's alright! Maybe next time." Pinkie Pie patted her shoulder, her expression understanding.
Tempest nodded gratefully. She had been taking an interest in Pinkie Pie lately. She reminds reminded her of Grubber. Like him, she was energetic and all over the place, and somewhat considered her as a friend. Even now, Pinkie was still the usual, happy energetic pink earth pony that ponies have always admired. She would spend her days working in Sugarcube Corner and visit Tempest's place to make sure that she knew that even after losing her trust from Storm King and being betrayed by him, she still had six other ponies who care cared for her.
At least not all of them.
But despite all of that, Tempest was really grateful for that. Especially since she herself was such an awful friend lately.
"Alright, time for me to head out. See you girls later,"she said as she prepares to head on home.
The girls nodded and Twilight came closer to hug her goodbye, her fuzzy hooves felt warm around her shoulders. As usual, Twilight avoided at looking at Tempest's broken horn as if she thought it was the source of all problems that made her become the pony she is now.
Twilight smiled at her, her purple eyes flickering with uncertainty... yet caring and sympathy. "And about that talk we had yesterday, please do it, if not for yourself then at least it for us." Twilight looked at her pleadingly, her face close to her as was her habit.
Tempest shrugged but didn't offer any reply. She felt a spike of anger rise inside her again but she quickly quenched it because she refused to repeat the conversation she and Twilight shared last week. The problem was that Twilight wanted her to accept friendship, which she has already, and to make at least one friend. As if what would she even say to her if she doesn’t make a single friend? Yeah, like anypony would accept her friendship. They would lock her up in no time. Screw therapy or doctor-patient confidentiality.
But more importantly, that was something she didn't even admit to her friends. She couldn't stand it if they started looking at her like if she was some kind of psycho-pony with a broken horn and scarred face that enjoys threatening other ponies.
Sometimes she had a feeling like they already did.
"Sorry girls, but I'll be going, too." Fluttershy also stood up, earning a few protest from the others. But it was more than clear to them that her mind wasn't set on any entertainment tonight and they let her go without any hardships.
It’s so unfair to let Fluttershy go so easily, yet they couldn't get off her back. Tempest nearly spoke aloud but quickly scolded herself for that thought. Her friends didn't know what Fluttershy really went through.
They probably thought his occasional moodiness was completely unrelated to the attack on Canterlot but Tempest knew better. Fluttershy still hasn't come to terms with what happened to him. Sometimes she hid it well and acted like his usual overconfident self, but there were days, like today, when she would just sit a little too quietly and just look around nervously.
As they walked towards into town, Tempest glanced at Fluttershy uncertainly. "You okay?"
Surprised of her unexpected appearance, Fluttershy replied, "Yeah, just tired I guess." She smiled, but Tempest could see behind the pretense look on her muzzle.
Even Twilight had a suspicion that Fluttershy never really told anyone else about the only person his friend could talk to. But she never did. Twilight didn't know how to help her as she was no therapist, but she was sure that at least talking about it would help. Maybe if she tried enough, her friend would eventually open up to her.
Maybe it was time to try again... Twilight decided. Once they were outside, she put her hoof over Fluttershy's shoulders, partly as a friendly gesture and partly as an attempt to slow her friend's quick pace. Twilight felt her body tense considerably and released her hold on her quickly… "Good job, Twilight, starting a conversation with somepony who has been keeping herself isolated over the last few week. " She sighed.
Not the greatest start but...
"Fluttershy, you know you can talk to me about anything, right? If you need somepony to talk to, I'll be there, you hear me? Day or night, I don't care, if you need somepony, you let me know." Twilight made sure to maintain the eye contact.
Fluttershy looked surprised at first almost startled and it seemed that she would reject Twilight's offer once again, but slowly her expression turned into a gentler one. Tempest even offered a small smile, surprising her. A real smile. The kind Fluttershy or any of the girls hadn't seen on his her face for weeks. At that moment she knew she did the right thing.
"Thanks, girls. Maybe I will sometime." Fluttershy said quietly. She turned to get into her cottage but stopped for a moment and glanced back at them. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but seemed to change her mind and with a quick "thanks and see ya," she finally got into her cottage, closing the door behind her.
It was a very small progress, but a progress none the less and Tempest was glad. At least the whole day today didn't suck that much. She was so glad she might even go to have a little celebratory drink before heading to her empty home. And when she meant empty home, she literally meant empty.
Ever since she was granted a place to live in Ponyville, she refused to live even close to anyone that lived nearby, fearing that she'll be called over her involvement with Storm King and instead decided to rent a small house which was not very far from town. It was a little bit of a dive, but it was a perfect place if anyone wanted to avoid getting in trouble without the danger of meeting any of their acquaintances who might bother her with a small talk or worse. It's only a matter of time before any of that happens and becomes a reality.
But none of that matters to her now.
All that matters was that she's now all by herself.
Tomorrow is another day and she hopes for the best of it.
Author's Note
Oh will you look at that, Shady finally wrote another story! How awesome isn’t that?! Not really though :D
I've actually been working on this story ever since I saw the movie last November but due to lack of motivation (because honestly, I haven’t seen the show since after season five and it’s already gotten boring to me), I’ve been having an extremely tough time in trying to get this done on time. I’ve been meaning to have this out by late January, but I had to push it back and postpone it to another time due to school.
I want to give huge thanks to Harmony Pie and Son Elec for helping me out with editing and proofreading! Be sure to let them know what a great job they've done! And as always, criticism are deeply appreciated so feel free what you think of the story!
