Healing Hearth's Warming Hearts

Tempest, a unicorn with a broken horn once known as Fizzlepop Berrytwist, trotted out of the train to the alicorn that was awaiting her. A purple alicorn that she once hunted down, and brought fear in her eyes, that very same Princess of Friendship smiled warmly at Tempest Shadow as she galloped forward and wrapped her forelegs and wings around the orchid-furred mare. When she had received a request, a small favor of foalsitting a foal that was Twilight’s adopted daughter due to a mix of events years ago, Tempest had no interested in denying such a polite request. Especially when it was the least she could do, though Tempest was surprised that Twilight would send a letter to her asking the unicorn to do it instead of any of her friends in Ponyville.

“So,” Tempest spoke, wanting to get the question out of the way before greeting Twilight. “Why me? Don’t get me wrong, I know everypony is getting ready for Hearth’s Warming and buying gifts at the last minute, but I’m surprised that you would want me to take care of her…and that…well…that you trust me so much.”

“Of course I do, after you meet her, I feel like you’ll understand why I chose you specifically,” Twilight grinned, her wing resting on her dear friend’s back as they walked throughout the town. “Starlight Glimmer also lives in the castle, but she’s getting gifts for her friends too. But Nyx, my daughter, is not just anypony. She was born of, well, an awful cult that foalnapped me and used part of me to try and bring back Nightmare Moon. You deserve to know this because you would’ve been gobsmacked at her appearance had I not explained. She looks very much like her, but considering she rejected becoming Nightmare Moon, she isn’t exactly her.”

“Yeah, that would’ve been a lot to digest in a letter,” Tempest gulped. “I’m glad you told me face-to-face, does that mean…”

“Yes, that means she’s an alicorn,” Twilight told Tempest as they reached the doors. “And well, she also had other foals mean to her for how she looked. I figured she’d be a lot more comfortable with somepony that understood her that way, the way I can’t.”

“Really?” Tempest’s eyes widened, nearly overtaken with flattery as Twilight used her magic to open the doors and trot ahead of the unicorn as she glanced over her shoulder and nodded. Tempest smiled, hearing the doors close behind her as she heard Twilight call out. “Nyx? Tempest is here, remember your manners okay?”

Tempest’s heart skipped a beat as she realized that Twilight was likely referring to the young alicorn foal seeing her broken horn, and felt a sigh of relief she didn’t realize she was holding in escape her body. She didn’t have to worry about another pony looking at her with shock and horror, like her existence was scary. Galloping down the hallway, was a foal that was indeed the spitting image of Nightmare Moon. Pitch black fur, those cat-eyes, the horn and wings, and the purple mane she had. But instead of the vicious evil that Nightmare Moon had, that Tempest had heard of but never had the displeasure of experiencing, she saw Nyx smile widely as she ran up to the unicorn’s forehooves with a wide smile.

“I promise to behave!” Nyx spoke up, her voice soothing like a melody, not at all what Tempest would’ve expected from a reincarnated Nightmare Moon. And yet, those words caught up to Tempest, and she suddenly became very doubtful of Nyx’s words. And worst of all, Tempest looked back up in the direction of where Twilight was, and the purple alicorn had teleported in a flash when she wasn’t looking. Leaving the unicorn to fend for herself playing with an alicorn foal that she didn’t even know the full extent of her power.

“Oh good,” Tempest said blankly, with a deadpan expression as Nyx giggled and galloped out of sight. Tempest’s eyes widened as she ran after the foal, already having her work cut out for her as Nyx started levitating random stuff in the air, turning paintings into candy canes and gingerbread cookies in her wake…

Tempest Shadow, somehow, finally got the black-furred foal to calm down as they were in the library. Nyx was deeply immersed in a book that most adult ponies wouldn’t bother reading, about the history of Equestria. Though, considering that she was the adopted daughter of Twilight, Tempest wasn’t at all surprised that Nyx was so immersed with books.

“So, how did you and my Mom meet?” Nyx asked, her cat eyes peering up at Tempest expectedly, and the unicorn grinned nervously as while Twilight was very certain to make sure her broken horn wasn’t pointed out, that didn’t take into account…everything else. Tempest laughed as she knew that it was best to tell the whole truth, she recalls that one of the ponies that Twilight was currently shopping for would’ve strongly encouraged that.

“Well, when she was in Canterlot, so was I,” Tempest explained. “And I was working for a big ape named the Storm King. I was getting magic for him, because he was the only one who wanted me around when I had my horn broken. Monster attack from an Ursa Major. And Twilight showed me that, despite what I had done and what I look like, I was deserving of friendship and a good life. Nopony had shown me that before.”

“She has a…habit of bringing that out of ponies,” Nyx grinned wide, and Tempest felt her heart warming as she affectionately rested her foreleg over the alicorn foal’s back. “So what did you end up doing after you two got rid of the Storm King?”

“Well, I had been travelling quite a bit,” Tempest explained. “Having a certain direction paved out for you, and having the option to choose something different for a change, isn’t easy to get used to. It’s hard, because then you have to figure out who you are, but there’s something very freeing about it too. The sky is the limit when you have your horizons open.”

Nyx smiled, using her magic that had been reverted back to square one years ago, to turn the page of her book as she cozied up to her foalsitter. She was very happy that the once tough and stoic unicorn was just as perfect of a foalsitter as her Mom promised. And as they relaxed with a very familiar moon rising high up in the sky, the door magically opened with Twilight grinning wide with her mane frazzled.

“I finally bought all the gifts for my friends, and some for you and Nyx, and had them all gift-wrapped,” Twilight boasted with a big smile. “I trust that the two of you got along well?”

“Better than you could’ve imagined,” Tempest assured Twilight, her heart warming at Twilight’s implication that she’d get to stay over at the castle till Hearth’s Warming when they’d open up gifts. She was already excited, and eager to get to know Twilight and her daughter more with the following days they’d spend together…