Tempest paused as she gazed up at the door that marked the entrance to her friend Glitter Drops' living quarters. Was she really about to do this? The anxious part of her mind was telling her to turn around and get out of there, at best Glitter would not be home and at worst she wouldn't care for what her friend had to say. To think that mere words could atone for actions, actions done out of frustration over an event that had occurred so long ago.
The broken horned unicorn was all but ready to turn and run, run as far away as she could. It's what she'd done before when faced with difficulty. When she'd lost her horn and thought her friends had left her, running had served her well. At least that's how it seemed at the time. If only she hadn't met that merciless and crazy Storm King, if only she'd had the sense to see reality sooner, there wouldn't be a need for her to be here now.
But the rational part of her mind was telling Tempest that this had to be done! "I've spent most of my life running from my troubles, refusing to acknowledge them. But this is something I can't outrun! It's just like that Ursa Minor, except this time I won't be paralyzed by fear!" She thought and at that she made up her mind.
Knocking a hoof against the door, the seconds that passed felt like an eternity to Tempest. It still felt weird to refer to herself by that name, the name that had so much baggage attached to it. But the mare didn't feel comfortable referring to herself by her true name yet, only a few ponies knew and she was determined to keep it that way.
Sure enough though the door was opened, and Tempest found herself face to face with Glitter Drops. The same Glitter Drops who she'd only now begun to reconcile with.
Glitter was taken aback by her friend's sudden appearance, especially considering the way they'd last parted. "Fizzlepop?" She blurted out, briefly forgetting how upset Tempest was when others used her real name.
Except this time, there was no reaction. No harsh words, no shower of sparks, not even a stink eye or an angry glare. The broken horned unicorn just stood there, as if what had been said hadn't registered in her ears. Instead she found herself looking at Glitter Drops and saying to her. "I've... come to apologize. I know there's not much I can say or do to make up for how horribly I've treated you and so many other ponies. I just got so... angry at the idea that I needed to be saved."
"Fizzlepo... er, Tempest..." Glitter began, only to be silenced by a hoof from her fellow unicorn.
"You don't have to keep referring to me by that name," Tempest corrected. "Tempest was a pony who cared about noone but herself. A pony so full of anger she was willing to sell out her home country just to get what she wanted. Fizzlepop is the scared little filly who ran away from home and lost her way. And in that moment, facing down that Ursa Minor, that's who I was. And how did I repay you for saving my life? By shouting you down, making myself feel better at your expense!" A lone tear seemed to form in her left eye, but she refused to let it out and appeared to fight it back. "I've been a terrible pony and a terrible friend. I don't know if it's possible for us to start over, to pretend like all's well. But I wanted to at least make an effort, to say that I tried."
At that Glitter, without hesitation, threw her hooves around her friend and pulled her close. The two unicorns shared a hug. "Fizzlepop, you have nothing to apologize for. I can't pretend I know what it was like for you after I left for Celestia's school," She declared in a somber tone. "But not a day goes by where I don't wish that things had turned out different, that it had been me who went into that cave instead of you. But the past can't be changed, not even with time travel. It won't erase the pain or the scars, they'll linger as memories. What we can change, is the future. It's never too late to come back to the light, Fizzlepop. To say you're sorry for what you've done. And that's something that won't change no matter who you are or what you call yourself. Because to me, you're not that scared little filly, or that horrible servant of the Storm King. To me you're just a friend that I nearly lost, but now I've found again!"
Fizzlepop still refused to cry or shed tears, even though she wanted nothing more than to do so. She had expected so much to be different, she'd expected Glitter Drops to be upset with her and call her ungrateful. Yet much like Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence, her friend was offering her compassion and forgiveness, not anger or frustration. "What did I do to deserve such a second chance?" The unicorn thought to herself. "After all the things I've said and done, the only one who still hasn't forgiven me... is myself."
As Glitter ended the hug she noticed the perplexed and troubled state her friend was in. Naturally she wasn't going to leave it alone. She'd almost lost her friend once before by taking her concerns lightly, she wasn't about to make the same mistake a second time. "What's wrong, Fizzlepop?" She questioned. "You still seem tense."
"I can't hide anything from you can I, Glitter Drops?" Fizzlepop remarked with a groan. But then she seemed to recoil and stumble back, as if she'd just insulted a princess. In a more gentle tone of voice she eventually managed to choke it. "I still can't forgive myself for what I've done. Deep down all I can feel is this great rage. I keep thinking to myself 'I shouldn't be forgiven. I don't deserve forgiveness.', and you saw how I snapped when I felt like I'd become helpless. How I lashed out at you just for saving me. How do you make it go away?"
Glitter smiled. "I can't help you on that, Fizzlepop. But lucky for you, I know somepony who can."
Fizzlepop had to fight the urge to gulp when she found out that the pony Glitter Drops had in mind, was Prince Shining Armor. Captain of the Royal Guard, husband of Princess Cadence, and Princess Twilight's very overprotective big brother. Despite having lived in the Crystal Empire for a while now, she'd never seen the stallion (something she thanked her lucky stars for). And now here he was, standing before her outside the Crystal Palace in all his glory. His expression was hard to read, but his eyes seemed to be judging her very intensely.
"So you're the Tempest Shadow I've been hearing about," Shining Armor commented as he gazed at the broken horned unicorn. "I suspected our paths might cross someday, but I never imagined it'd be under these circumstances."
Fizzlepop struggled to keep from shaking. "Please, Prince," She bowed before the captain. "Or do you prefer Captain?"
Shining just chuckled. "I'm not one for either title really, and there's no need to bow before me," He motioned for Tempest to stand before he added. "Despite what you might think, I'm not mad with you. At least not anymore."
"What do you mean?" Fizzlepop nervously questioned.
"Cadence told me a lot about you, and so did Twily," Shining explained to his frightened guest. "They mentioned how you were instrumental in the Storm King's defeat, and how far you've come since then. I didn't really know what to make of their accounts, until I heard from Glitter Drops about what happened out in the snow. Since then I've been observing you from afar, and I'll admit you do impress me."
"Impressed you say?" Fizzlepop pondered. "And what gives you such an idea?"
"Your raw power of course," The prince told Fizzlepop. "Clearly you have a lot of pent up inner anger. You want to let it out but you don't know how. Trust me, I've been in the same boat. If you like, you could join the royal guard and serve under me. You'd find a place to channel all that anger, all that rage. But I should warn you, I won't go easy on you just because of your past. You'll be subjected to the same rigorous training that all royal guards go through. You'll be pushed to your limits and then some. But if you're willing, I can help you and in time you'll come to hopefully forgive yourself."
Glitter Drops added as she trotted over to her friend. "Don't worry, Fizzlepop. I had to go through similarly grueling training to serve at the outpost. It helped me to overcome my frustrations at being a drop out from Celestia's school. And I reckon royal guard training can do the same for you."
"So what do you say, Fizzlepop? Or do you prefer Tempest?" Shining inquired of the mare. "Are you interested? The royal guard could certainly benefit from having a pony like you among their ranks."
Hesitantly, Fizzlepop stepped forward and held out a hoof to Shining. "Just Fizzlepop will do, thank you," She replied. "And... I accept."
"Excellent!" Shining beamed with pride. "Your training begins tomorrow at exactly eight hundred hours sharp. So I expect to see you there." And with that he trotted off.
Now alone, Fizzlepop turned to Glitter Drops. "You really are a friend on a whole nother level, Glitter. I can't believe it's taken me all this time to realize just how lucky I truly am."
Glitter Drops just smiled and nodded as she said in response. "Better late than never, Fizzlepop. I'm just glad to have you as my friend again. And this time, hopefully, it'll be for life."
Author's Note
"The Return of Tempest Shadow" for those not in the know, is a recent two parter from the IDW comics involving Tempest. In the two parter she moves to the Crystal Empire and meets up with Glitter Drops, one of her childhood friends.
During my reformations ranking blog post a while back I mentioned how Tempest snapped at Glitter Drops for saving her life and only seemed to stop shy of wishing Glitter had been the one who lost her horn to the Ursa Minor. Rather than try to do an accusation fic about this, I felt it was better to try and do an apology fic.
I did draw some inspiration from my recent tackling of the movie for my Stallion Six Universe, but it's not a direct homeage or nod to it.
