“TEMPESTIA!”

“PLEASE, STOP!!”

"MOM! I AM AFRAID!"

DAD!?

“KILL THE BEAST!”
“TEAR OFF HER WINGS!”
“BREAK HER HORN!”

“DON'T HURT HER! I BEG YOU! TAKE ME INSTEAD!”

How could all this happen?

Why were they despised so much?

What had they done wrong to be treated like this?!

"HOOK! HOOK! HOOK!"

“NOOOOOOO! PLEASE DON'T HURT HER!”

"MOM! WHAT IS THAT!"

“MY CHILD, YOU MUST FREE YOURSELF! NOW!"

“NOOOOOOO!”

"MOM?!"

“STORM! LOOK ME IN THE EYES, DON'T TURN!”

"MOM! WHAT DO THEY WANT TO DO TO ME!?”

“AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“TEMPESTIA!”
“TEMPESTIA!”

“TEMPEST!”

"TEMPEST!"

Tempest woke with a start.

She was out of breath and her fur was all sweaty.

Had it been a dream?!

How long has it been since she did one like this?

“Tempest, are you okay?”

The scarred alicorn awoke from her catatonic state.

She was lying on the makeshift sled they had built.

However, there was one thing she noticed right away.

They were not inside the wreck but rather outside and around a fireplace.

There was no longer any sun in the sky as it had been replaced by a wonderful starry night and above, shining brightest of all, there was the moon.

“My sister's night is really wonderful, isn't it?”

A soft, gentle voice hit Tempest's ears.

The speaker was Princess Celestia.

“Princess Celestia! I'm glad to see you're awake." Tempest said in a reverential voice to the white alicorn on the other side of the hearth.

“I'm happy about it too, however I'm afraid that right now what we have to worry about is you.” she said, gesturing towards her.

“Princess Celestia is right! We were really anxious for you.” Twilight said in a breathless voice.
“You stayed asleep for at least five hours, you kept whispering and moving in your sleep and at a certain point you started emitting sparks from your horn and we were afraid you were going to electrocute us all!” she concluded with a sigh of relief.

However, Tempest did not listen to her as her gaze was drawn to Princess Celestia.

Tempest took a good look at her from top to bottom and was truly amazed.

The white alicorn was tall and gorgeous, she had regal and feminine features. And its shapes were equally feminine.
Her long legs and thin belly made her proportions practically perfect and balanced.

The white fur stood out in the night giving her an angelic appearance.
To further demonstrate her divine appearance there were her mane and tail that moved in an ethereal way and the soft colors gave her an elegance and sobriety worthy of a nymph.

"Are you OK now?" the goddess asked, emitting a soft and reassuring voice.

Tempest was truly mesmerized.

“Tempest?”
The empress was brought back to reality by Twilight who had prodded her with a hoof.

“Oh.. Yes… I'm fine!” Tempest said, shaking off the habit.

There must have been a law written somewhere that prohibited being so beautiful and attractive!

How the hell had she not noticed this before?!

“I'm happy about it. Maybe you should eat something.”

Princess Celestia smiled at her and with telekinesis she grabbed the bag of gems that Tempest usually carried with her.
She levitated it and handed it to the magenta alicorn.

“Twilight told me about you and so I assumed that these gems were your food.”

Tempest's heart skipped a beat, not only was Princess Celestia illegally charming but also attentive and perceptive.

"THATS ENOUGH! YOU ARE BEHAVING LIKE A TEENAGER IN HEAT!”
Her subconscious gave her a mental slap and set her back on the right path.

Tempest promptly straightened her neck and shook off the daze.

“Of course, thank you.”

Tempest grabbed the bag but then noticed something not insignificant.

How did she get her bag of gems?!

Tempest got a response in the form of a light breeze on her exposed fur, she opened her eyes wide and looked down.

SHE WAS WITHOUT ARMOR?!

Tempest stood up suddenly and took a step back.

“WHERE IS MY ARMOR?!”

Princess Celestia and Twilight's faces were fixed on her.

Tempest's body was completely exposed. They could see every scar, bruise, or sort of damage, but especially the two large scars on her back where the wings had once been attached.

“It's there.” Twilight said, pointing to a spot near the sled she had been lying on earlier.
“We decided to take it off because we thought it might be uncomfortable for you to sleep with all that weight on you.”

In fact, her suit was neatly folded and the plates tidied up and cleaned of sand.
But honestly that wasn't what she was interested in.

“You shouldn't have.” Tempest simply said as she looked down.

She had spent years wearing that armor, she had gotten used to it and she had made it her own.

Those obsidian plates had become part of Empress Tempest.

And under that suit was hiding a wounded mare, full of hatred, resentment and immense shame.

She remembered the horrible dream she had had.
Indeed, not a dream but a memory, a terrible memory that had irreparably changed her body and her soul.

Were they perhaps tears that she felt in her eyes?

NO!

She had sworn to herself that she would no longer cry over things from the past, that she would no longer be weak, that she would get the revenge she longed for against those who had hurt her and her family.

He squeezed his eyes shut and quickly wiped away her tears with a paw.

“Thank you for your concern, but I'm used to sleeping in armor.”

With that, Tempest walked over to put her suit on.

“We all have deep regrets but that doesn't mean we don't deserve to be loved.”

Celestia's calm, sweet voice interrupted her just as she was about to grab her suit.

She looked into the white alicorn's eyes and saw compassion, sadness, regret in them but certainly not judgment and not disgust.

In that moment Tempest realized another great quality that characterized Princess Celestia: she was loving as only a mother could be.

Just like Aletheia.

At that moment the fragile dam that held back her pain broke and Tempest fell to the ground crying tears that she had accumulated for so long.

What a great way to introduce herself, what a great way to demonstrate her strength.
Surely someone would have laughed at her just like when she was on that damn stage crying and pissing herself out of fear.

But instead of a cruel laughter, a loving, soft white wing came to her.

Celestia had come to sit next to her and gently placed her right wing on Tempest's back.

How could she be so benevolent to someone she didn't even know?

Twilight was witnessing the surreal scene.
The Commander Tempest she had met in the wreck of their ship was completely different from the Tempest who was now shedding her tears onto the fur of her mentor.

Twilight had thought of her as a brave and rational soldier but apparently she had forgotten one of the most important lessons of friendship
That is, everyone has scars inside them, no matter how small and insignificant.

And from what she could see, Tempest carried traumas within her that she couldn't even imagine.

Twilight remembered the moment she and Celestia had chosen to take off her armor.

She had imagined that a soldier might have injuries but she certainly hadn't expected this.

Twilight was really surprised and horrified but then she calmed down noticing that they were old wounds that had long healed.

Her eyes roamed all over her body.
She knew she was being disrespectful but she couldn't ignore the two scars on her back.
They were symmetrical and right where there might have been wings.

Twilight had seen something like this before.
In fact, they were very similar to those of pegasus whose wings had been removed.

But how was that possible?!

She couldn't be an alicorn, the only ones in the world were her, Celestia, Luna and Cadence.

Her mentor had explained to her that the only way to become alicorn was through an ascension ritual or by direct descent from another alicorn.

Furthermore, Tempest had said herself that the reason for her height was due to draconic genes.

Had she lied?

It was her mentor who gave the final intuition.

“She's an alicorn, there's no doubt about it.” Celestia had said.

"But how? Only you can perform the ascension ritual." Twilight protested.

“This is because she is not an ascended alicorn but was born that way.”

“So whose daughter is she?! Did one of us happen to have it and she didn't notice?!”

Twilight was freaking out like she usually does when she couldn't come up with an answer.

Who was she born to?

From Luna!?
It couldn't be since Tempst should be no more than two years old or more than 1000 years old.

Was she from Cadence?
This wasn't possible either as she should have had her when she was a child.

The only possible candidate was…. CELESTIA?!

CELESTIA HAD A DAUGHTER AND NEVER TOLD HER!?

Twilight was hyperventilating.
“Princess Celestia?! Are you Tempest's mother?!”

Hearing this, the white alicorn smiled as she saw that her faithful student had once again forgotten to consider the simplest answer.

“As much as I would love to have a little girl, I'm afraid she's not mine.” she replied to Twilight as she watched Tempest squirm in her sleep.

“SO SHE'S MY DAUGHTER?!” she screamed putting the hooves on her head.

In Celestia's eyes, Twilight's reaction was almost comical but it was time to stop.

"My faithful student, what I mean is that she is probably the daughter of an alicorn unknown to us." She finally explained.

Hearing this, Twilight put a stop to her antics and started working her head again.

“Tell me Twilight, do you know how our continent originated?” Celestia asked.

Her student nodded.

“Great, so my theory is that Tempest is a descendant of Aurora and that she somehow managed to get to Midgard.”

Twilight listened to Celestia's explanation
“But how did she get here and why did she lose her wings and break her horn!?”
She asked perplexed.

“Perhaps we could ask Tempest herself.” Celestia replied, pointing with her neck to the magenta mare who was having convulsions at that moment and powerful electric shocks were coming from her horn.

Twilight returned to the present.

Tempest had stopped crying as Celestia retracted her wing.

“Thank you very much, that was completely inappropriate.” Tempest said while her eyes were puffy.

She was grateful that she at least hadn't been seen in that state by her subordinates.

By the way, where were they?

“Our soldiers and Ensign Cooper have gone to sleep inside the airship while Captain Ryker stands guard.”
Again Princess Celestia had responded without her even asking.

Could she read minds?!

“I see, Twilight said we've been stuck for at least 8 hours, we'll have to leave as soon as the sun comes up. In the meantime, we better sleep while we can."

Celestia nodded in agreement while Twilight yawned, expressing her tiredness.

Had they been awake to watch over her?

Tempest stepped aside and lowered her head to her paws.

From her perspective she could see Princess Celestia.

“Thank you for comforting me.” she said softly.

Celestia opened one eye and smiled slightly at her.

Immediately Tempest felt a warmth deep in her chest and turned away so as not to show her embarrassment.

She had already made enough fashion mistakes that day.

She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

“Okay, are you ready?” she asked everyone else who responded by nodding their heads at her.

“Good, off we go!”

Now that they didn't have a dead weight to carry around, they chose to abandon the sled and fill their saddlebags with pieces of wood.

The fact that they had found the wreckage of that airship was truly a miracle and Tempest decided not to push her luck twice.

At the head of the group were Captain Ryker and Ensign Cooper, in the center Twilight, Tempest and Celestia, and at the rear the two royal guards.

"Who are you?"

Just to Tempest's right was Twilight and beyond her Celestia.

"What?" Tempest said raising an eyebrow at the purple alicorn.

“Do you remember yesterday? You were about to tell me who you are.” Twilight repeated, smiling innocently.

In reality Tempest hadn't forgotten the question, she was considering whether to reveal information but she admitted that the group from Equestria had proven to be trustworthy.

"Yesterday you told me you were headed to New Metropolis, well.. we're from there."

"Really?! So all this time we were talking to Imperials and you didn't tell us?” she replied in disbelief.

“I didn't know if we could trust you.” she tried to justify herself.

“So it's true, a new empire has formed in the south of the continent. Since when?"
Twilight asked more and more curiously.

“Our empire is called the “Union of Free Peoples,” and our empire was founded about ten years ago.”

"Ten years?! and we only found out now?!” Twilight's voice rose in volume as if each response was a divine revelation.

“You are relatively lucky if we exclude the fact that we are walking in the middle of the desert with little water and food. You wanted to go to New Metropolis and we'll probably get there one way or another." Tempest said with a lopsided smile even though Twilight didn't seem to appreciate her humor.

On the other hand, Celestia laughed lightly, almost imperceptible, making Tempest feel that warmth coming from deep inside her chest again.

“You said that the empire is in fact a union, why did you decide to do it?”
She attempted to investigate Twilight.

From the books she had studied, empires were generally formed by conquering and subjugating others.
If that was the case then they certainly wouldn't have been very good "friends".

“Originally there were only six peoples isolated from each other and subjugated by a dictator called the Storm King. “
Tempest began to tell the story briefly, omitting many parts.

“His rule had remained unchallenged for centuries until someone decided to join forces to eliminate him.”
“Following a long war we managed to kill him, then we chose to maintain the alliance and the rest is history.”

Twilight seemed to still be dissatisfied.
What was she trying to achieve?

Tempest looked at Princess Celestia but her expression was completely neutral.
She almost seemed like she was there casually.

“Yours is an empire so there must necessarily be an emperor, who is he?”

Tempest started looking forward again and responded to Twilight as she did so.

“I have no idea, I think the one who started it all.”

"What do you mean you have no idea?" she said suspiciously.

“I am only a commander, I do not take orders from the emperor himself.” Tempest replied in a very convincing voice.

“I understand, let's just hope he's a reasonable person.” Twilight commented looking at her mentor.
.
“We really hope so.” Celestia said.

Then she raised her head and smiled at Tempest.
“But I'm pretty sure she'll be a wonderful person.”

Tempest obviously noticed the white alicorn's playful gaze.

She knew!?

“Why were you here? You said that even if you hadn't found us you would still have been headed to that area.”

“We were on a diplomatic mission to reach an agreement with the goblins and orcs, but since they shot at us as soon as they saw us I fear they are not interested.” Tempest sighed.

It's not that the empire wasn't ready for war but her goals were far different than fighting a people of savages.

“It's really a shame, is there nothing else that can be done? You could try again with another approach.” Twilight said. After all, she was the princess of friendship and she had never failed to make new friends.

“I'm afraid the issue isn't very simple, we've tried to negotiate with them before and every time it ended badly.”

“Did you try to figure out what they wanted?” Twilight continued.

“The only thing they want is to reproduce and expand.”
Tempest was getting tired, it was now obvious to her that there was nothing else they could do.

“Then why don't you let them do it?”

Tempest stopped suddenly.

Let them do it?!

This time Tempest decided to look at Twilight, she didn't seem sarcastic at all and even expected an answer.

“Do you realize what you're saying?” she said in disbelief. Tempest decided to see if Celestia had the same expectation.

The White alicorn was watching as if she were a teacher waiting for her student to come up with the answer on her own and not for it to be served on a silver platter.

And apparently it was Tempest's turn to instruct.

“Do you have any idea who goblins or orcs are?” she asked raising an eyebrow.

Tempest brought her head close to Twilight's so she could hear perfectly.

“When goblins conquer a territory the first thing they do is kill anyone who might offer resistance and then they enslave all the remaining survivors.”

Tempest saw that Twilight wasn't expecting anything like this. But she wasn't done yet.

"Then they rape all the females as if they were living incubators while the others are used as slaves until exhaustion."

Twilight was horrified.

“And then the orcs come and eat alive everyone who can't work or give birth to more disgusting monsters just like them.”

“I think that's enough. You have proven your point in detail, thank you very much.”
Celestia decided to intervene seeing that her protégé was almost on the verge of tears.

Tempest was unsure whether to continue but seeing Princess Celestia's displeased face she decided that Twilight had had enough "reality" for now.

Tempest snorted and continued walking, leaving a shocked Twilight behind.

How long had they been walking?

Tempest had lost track of the hours and kilometers that had passed as the sand dunes all seemed to be the same and the heat made it difficult to think.

The only thing that indicated the past time was the shadow cast by their bodies.

Tempest and Celestia walked side by side while Twilight remained slightly behind them and the two equestrian stallions.

The purple alicorn walked with her head and ears low, it was obvious that the previous speech had shaken her deeply.

“Maybe I was too harsh.” Tempest said softly as if she was apologizing.

"Thank you." she heard celestia's voice.

Tempest raised her ears suddenly and looked to her left.

When did she get this close?!

The two mares' hips were so close that they could almost touch.

Didn't he know what personal space is?

Tempest tried to move away a few centimeters but Celestia followed her insistently as if it were a game.

She finally decided to give up and keep walking straight.

"Thanks for what?" She finally replied while out of the corner of her eye she observed their close bodies.

“For Twilight.”

Tempest didn't feel like she deserved thanks, she just wanted the purple alicorn to learn about such horrors through her rather than experience them first hand.

"Do not mention it." she said, snorting and looking forward again.

“You'll wonder why she's so naive about the real world.” Celestia said knowingly.

Tempest actually wondered that.

She nodded her head in agreement.

"Twilight was born in a time of peace in a completely isolated country, she grew up without ever having to deal with the violence and evil of this world."

“But now that she has become Princess of Friendship, she wanted to spread her experience beyond the borders of Equestria.”
Tempest continued to listen while keeping one ear towards Celestia.

“I am no stranger to the real world, I too have committed atrocities and knowing this I did not have the courage to destroy the world of peace and harmony that I had built around her and my subjects.”
Celestia's voice was truly dejected.

“Is that why you're here? Were you afraid that she couldn't face the outside world alone and you decided to accompany her?” Tempest surmised.

“You are really insightful.” Celestia complimented causing a light blush to spread across Tempest's cheeks.
Luckily her dark fur made it difficult to notice.

The two continued walking in silence until Tempest decided that maybe it was time for her to ask the Equestrians a few questions.

“How can she be an alicorn? Is she your daughter?”

“Hahahahahaha!”
Celestia suddenly laughed loudly,

Had she said something funny?

Noticing that Tempest didn't seem to understand why she was laughing, she decided to explain herself.

“Sorry, I'm not laughing at you.” she said, wiping away a tear of happiness with her paw.
“It's just the second time in a short time that someone has assumed that I have a daughter.”

Honestly, Tempest could understand why: Celestia totally came across as a loving mother.
She couldn't help but think fleetingly of Aletheia.

Celestia calmed down and took on a more serious attitude befitting the answer she was about to give.

"Twilight was born a unicorn like many others but thanks to a spell that I created specifically I transformed her into a halcyon."

This revelation left Tempest completely shocked and speechless.

She had managed to create an alicorn permanently?!

Celestia looked over her shoulder to make sure her student couldn't hear her and then spoke again.

“Have you seen what would happen if I were to pass away?” Tempest nodded, she had thought about it too, the consequences would be apocalyptic to say the least

“I realized this a few centuries ago when following an exhaustion of magical energy the sun remained stationary for an entire week and because of me a famine and thousands of deaths broke out.”

Tempest was really shocked by this but she didn't show it.

“We all have regrets...”

The words she had said to her the night before came back to her.

“As luck would have it, I already had a powerful unicorn at my disposal, all she needed was the magical power of an alicorn and I would have had a worthy successor.”

“And so now you are training her for the day she takes your place.” Tempest continued.

“Exactly. However, she doesn't know about all this, it would break her heart to know that maybe one day I won't be here anymore.” she confessed, saddened.

If it were up to her, Tempest would have already told Twilight everything about it, but instead it seemed like she was just manipulating her.

However, it wasn't her job to reveal other people's secrets.

“I understand, I would approach the matter differently but I assure you that your secret will be safe with me.” Tempest reassured.

“I'm grateful.” Celestia said relieved.

From the discussion they had just had Tempest was able to understand that Princess Celestia wasn't quite what she thought, she too had many secrets and worries.

However, that beautiful smile and her majestic bearing hid everything about her well, guaranteeing her a benevolent and infallible mask.

Although such a thing was commonly judged negatively, Tempest couldn't help but admire her, she was more than a thousand years old and yet she still had remarkable determination and strength.

The list of things that drove Tempest crazy about her continued to accumulate resulting in inappropriate thoughts forming.

If before Tempest felt a warmth coming from deep inside her chest now she felt a "slight itch" under her tail.

How could you blame her?!

Tempest had never dedicated herself to frivolities such as love but for the first time she suspected she was experiencing what is commonly called "love at first sight".

"ENOUGH! YOU'RE DOING IT AGAIN!”
Her subconscious gave her another mental slap, interrupting her most intimate fantasies.

Tempest shook off her daze.

How long had she been fantasizing?

The scarred alicorn looked up into the sky and saw that the sun was still high.

“I know it's a stupid question but couldn't you turn the sun down earlier today?” she asked in a sarcastic voice.

She wasn't stupid enough to believe that the sun only shone on them. There was an entire world that relied on the sun and moon.

Tempest imagined what those who, not knowing Celestia existed, would think when they saw the sun move abnormally for the first time since they were born.

They could have thought of anything: a message from God, the end of the world, or the beginning of something wonderful.
Tempest would not be surprised if in a couple of centuries she were to see written in some sacred book about yesterday and how the sun had remained in the sky much longer than expected.

In fact, she had thought something like that too when the moon hadn't set a couple of years ago.

“Couldn't you lower the sun a little? Maybe just for a couple of hours.” Tempest said in a clearly sarcastic voice.

"What's up? are you afraid of getting a sunburn?” Celestia retorted, smiling.

“I don't know, what about you? You look a little pale, a little tan would look good on you." she commented playfully.

Celestia and Tempest had a big laugh.

They knew it wasn't a good situation to play but a little humor never hurt.

For some strange reason Tempest felt that when she was with Celestia she could let go of her commander or empress face, she could be more like herself without fear of being judged.

In fact, perhaps she was the one who should have paid more respect to Celestia. After all, she moved the damned sun. If she had wanted she could have exterminated every form of life on the globe.

“How does it feel to rule the sun?” Tempest asked without thinking too much.

“Mmmmm...” Celestia thought for a moment about what to say. In all the years of her life, few of her had ever dared to ask that question. Were they afraid?

“I don't know, many believe that moving the sun is a power that I can manage as I like but in reality this is not the case.”

"No?" Tempest was perplexed, wasn't she the one who moved the sun?

“No, the sun moves autonomously just like the moon, my sister Luna and I have the task of providing energy constantly in order to guarantee the day-night cycle.” Celestia explained.

“Wow, I didn't think it could be like this. So this is why when you ran out of magical energy the sun stopped moving. Truly enlightening."

The two continued to discuss this and that as they walked side by side.

However, they forgot that Twilight was behind them and she was staring intently at the two mares.

What was happening?!

Twilight had never seen Princess Celestia interact so amicably with anyone, furthermore with someone she met the day before.

It's not that she treated her subjects badly but rather she had a more "maternal" approach.

Not even with Princess Luna she interact in such a casual way but perhaps it was also due to the fact that her sister had mannerisms that were a millennium old.

By now Twilight had replaced her macabre thoughts about goblins with the strange situation she faced.

What was so special about Tempest that she deserved such treatment?

Celestia had never addressed Twilight so casually and it made her feel strange.

Wait!

Was it jealousy that she felt?

It didn't take long for Twilight to confirm that she was indeed jealous. She almost felt betrayed.

"There is something wrong?"

Twilight suddenly heard the voice of the gray stallion next to her.

Twilight came out of her thoughts.
“No no, I'm fine thanks.” she responded quickly.

Apparently she hadn't realized she had stopped and in the meantime the two equestrian guards had reached her.

Twilight quickly trotted forward to catch up with the two tall mares.

For now she had to put away those childish thoughts and behave as she was expected to do as a princess of friendship.

“I think it's time for us to stop.” Tempest said looking at the others.

The group had been walking for another few hours and the sun was about to set.

If it had been up to Tempest they would have walked until nightfall but there were good reasons to stop.

First of all, the Equestrians were exhausted and couldn't continue, but above all, chance wanted them to find an oasis in the desert.

The group hadn't initially believed it when Ensign Cooper came to report the discovery, but when they saw it with their own eyes they couldn't help but feel like the luckiest people in the world.

The fact that there was a water source in the desert was something not to be underestimated.
Not only would they be able to replenish their water supplies but they would be able to shed two days' worth of sweat.

However, Tempest was not so bold as to jump headlong into the water without having done the necessary checks.

So Tempest gave the usual routine orders and in a short time they managed to make sure the area was safe and had a bonfire ready to light.

However, while the others were settling down, Twilight hadn't forgotten the fact that Tempest was actually an alicorn.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
As always, I remind you that there may have been syntax or grammatical errors so I ask you to report them in the comments and if possible to interpret the events.

Thank you.