Once a villain, always a villain.
Tempest closed her eyes, feeling the cool breeze sweep through her windswept mane. There was no shortage of ponies, quite the opposite, in fact. Several passed her by, seeming to take little interest in her. If Tempest was honest, she was never one for crowds or waiting in big lines - she preferred to keep herself to herself.
Although she did very much appreciate the work that Twilight had done to make her feel comfortable - heck, she'd even given her a room in her own castle - she couldn't help but notice that the mare would go slightly overboard on things, and a lot of the time Tempest even questioned whether or not she deserved the treatment she got, to which Twilight always said something about how it doesn't matter because she's trying to make a change.
"Boy, I wish I had her optimism" she thought to herself idly
It was only now the burgundy mare had realised that she had been doing nothing but standing outside of Twilight's castle, pondering to herself about various subjects instead of doing something.
"What was I even doing anyway?"
She stood there some more, placing a hoof up to her chin and desperately trying to remember. She let out a groan of annoyance.
"Hey!" a voice called from afar "Tempest, right?"
Her ears perked up and she looked upwards.
"Yup! That's me!"
A stallion was approaching her, seeming to pace almost too quickly for it to be considered a normal walk. His face was contorted, stretched into some kind of unreadable expression, but seeming to be a mix of both anger and fear. He stopped about a pony's length away and stared at her through gritted teeth, not looking away. After a few moments, his angry expression faltered for just a second, replaced by a slight look of fear, before quickly changing back to its original state - angry, resentful, almost fuming. She took a step back, analysing the stallion.
"Um... Can I help you?"
He narrowed his gaze at her.
"Everypony else might have forgiven you, but we sure as hell haven't. What you did was unforgivable. You enslaved everypony, drove the remaining ponies out of Ponyville and attacked us and now you're acting like nothing ever happened."
"Uh... we?"
Out of seemingly nowhere, another three ponies trotted into view, standing by the stallion and adopting the same posture and gaze as him. In unison, they began slowly walking toward her, growling animalistically. There was something almost chilling about the way they looked at her - like they were out to kill, for revenge, motivated only by the possibility of drawing blood.
Tempest attempted to step backwards, but her back slammed against the wooden doors of the castle. Tempest felt herself begin to tear up. They were right. She caused so much suffering and pain. Maybe it was for the best if she just let them do whatever they were planning to do to her.
"Hey! What are you doing?!" a familiar voice shouted
It was Twilight, her horn enveloped in an aura of magic and her face scrunched into a look of fierce fury. The ponies looked upwards in unison, stepping backwards and instantly cantering away out of fear. As they faded into the distance, now only specs in the horizon, Twilight landed by her friend, placing a hoof on her shoulder. Tempest shrugged it off violently, pulling open the doors to the castle and trotting inside quickly, slamming the doors behind her.
The sound of violent sobbing filled the air around Tempest. Her eyes were red, her coat streaked with the trails of tears that fell from her eyes like a waterfall. Not only was she practically weeping, but she also made no attempt to cover it.
The sound of a hoof rapping against the wooden surface of the door made her pause momentarily, before almost immediately resuming her fit of sobs.
"L-leave m-me alone!"
Ignoring the demand, the door opened slowly. A loud creak emitted from it, covered by Tempest's crying. Twilight approached the burgundy mare slowly, cautiously, almost as if it was an animal of unknown species.
"Tempest...?" Twilight asked tenderly, expecting her friend to lash out.
To her surprise, however, she didn't and only wept more violently into the pillow, praying that she could just disappear into nothingness and never come back.
All of a sudden, she felt hooves embrace her into a loving, tender hug. A hoof trailed it's way up and down her back, trying to provide comfort to Tempest. She felt the emotion in the hug - the love, the passion. Despite it being something she had never really experience before, Tempest found herself quite enjoying the physical contact and hugged back as hard as she could without hurting her friend.
Gradually, her sobs came to a slow halt, replaced now by small sniffles. Even after she had stopped crying, Twilight didn't let go, instead opting to hold her tighter and nuzzle her neck gently.
"Twilight?" Tempest queried, still held in her loving embrace
"Mmmhm...?"
"Why are you doing this?"
Her ears perked up at the question, and she slowly let go of her friend, gazing into her deep, green eyes.
"Doing... what?" she asked, puzzled.
"All of this," Tempest gesticulated, motioning all around the room, "the bedroom, the breakfasts in bed, introducing me to all of your friends and treating me normally, giving me a chance despite everything I did?"
Tempest was now staring downwards at the ground, rubbing her foreleg with the other, looking - and feeling - more nervous
"Because, uh... last time I checked, that's not something friends do - you know, enslave everyone, try to take over the whole of Equestria, all for my own personal gain."
She chuckled nervously, now in a staring contest with the ground as Twilight let out a small hum.
"Well," she began "do you not regret the things you did? Are you not taking steps to amend them? To me, all that matters is that you're trying to become a better pony. I mean, look at Starlight! She started out as a power-hungry, controlling pony that ran a village based on a false truth - that cutie marks break friendships apart. She... kinda totally became my stalker and managed to get her hooves a magical scroll that could change time."
Tempest had to do a double take on that. Change time? Is that even possible?
"But I managed to convince her that it wasn't cutie marks that break friendships and, well, she's now my student!"
Twilight sighed after a few moments, staring down at the mare held in her hooves.
"Point is," she began "anypony can change. Even if you don't feel like you can. Even if you feel out of place. Those ponies earlier, they might still think you haven't changed. So prove them wrong."
Her voice was quiet, almost... sultry. However, the voice brought her comfort, made her feel safe and secure. She nuzzled deep into her friend's neck, closing her eyes and taking the moment in. Tempest let out an elongated sigh.
"Thank you, princ-"
"You're my friend - please, just call me Twilight."
A smile worked its way across her features.
"Thank you, Twilight."
Twilight only giggled in response, resting her head on top of hers and placing a tender kiss on her forehead. While it took Tempest - and even Twilight herself - by surprise, the feeling was by no means unpleasant - in fact, it was quite the opposite. She found herself enjoying the physical contact that they were sharing. Fizzle had never received much love, even during her childhood, and physical contact with anycreature was kept to a minimum. While she was working for the Storm King, she had paid little thought to such acts, putting it off as something she didn't require. However, now she was beginning to see that it was something she really quite enjoyed.
"I love you, Twilight."
Her stomach dropped as the sudden realisation of what she had said hit her. However, her words fell upon deaf ears as she heard the small snores of the princess beside her. She didn't need to have something said back, however.
She knew that she felt the same way.
Author's Note
Yay~! Story done - check! Cuddles and cute and fluff - check!
I do hope you enjoyed~! Feel free to leave any constructive criticism in the comments! I read all of them~! :3
Until next time!
