'Ceremonial, yet functional. Protective, but not restrictive.'
Tempest Shadow stood and stared at herself in the full-length mirror, unable to take her eyes off of the new armor that now adorned her body. A custom variation on the armor traditionally worn by the guards that accompanied Princess Celestia wherever she went, it didn't feel much different from the set that the Storm King had bestowed upon her.
But it was definitely different.
Depending on how the light hit it, it appeared anywhere from a lighter plum hue, down to a dark magenta, and no matter where it was in that particular spectrum, it seemed to compliment her dark orchid coat perfectly. The plates going down her back were flexible enough to be nearly non-noticeable. The back of the armor rose up enough to show her cutie mark and allow a full gallop. At the very back, a knitted mesh tail guard fit snugly around her dock, and allowed full motion of her tail. Up front, the plates curved around to her barrel, the two halves being joined at the front by a six-pointed ruby star, the most prominent part of Twilight's cutie mark, and the symbol of her Kingdom of Friendship. The hoof guards came in two pairs; the front set slightly taller and pronounced than the rear set, and all four were comfortably and securely cuffed around her cannons and fetlocks. The only piece missing was the helmet.
She had been expecting this for days, yet the shock had never really worn off, and she was nearly quivering the whole time Rarity had put it on. The fashion designer had come a week ago with a measuring tape and clipboard, efficiently taking over two dozen measurements. The whole ordeal had taken less than five minutes for an expert like Rarity, and how she completed such an order in just a week was beyond her. In the short time she had to become acquainted with Twilight's closest friends, she knew the unicorn was masterful at turning fabrics into masterpieces, but platemail? That had to have been another matter entirely. But sure enough, when Rarity delivered it half an hour ago, and helped her into it piece by piece, it fit perfectly.
What had she done to deserve something like this?
It took no longer than a split second to come up with the obvious answer: nothing. Everything that had occurred in the past two weeks was purely of Princess Twilight Sparkle's good graces. It began when the Friendship Festival began to wind down, and she had been escorted along with Twilight to the throne room of Canterlot Castle.
As Celestia and Luna prepared to formally charge her with high treason against Equestria, Twilight stepped in, and Celestia understandably wanted a very good explanation for why she shouldn't place her in chains.
"I am not denying that she should be punished for what she did. But she acted in our defense when it mattered most. If it weren't for her sacrifice, the Storm King would have triumphed. I will not allow that fact to be omitted or ignored. I can't stop you from imprisoning her for the rest of her life, but you cannot convince me that it wouldn't be an absolute waste. She has opened up her eyes, she has seen the light, and shutting her away now would be antithetical to everything my crown stands for."
Twilight's words had indeed brought pause to the Princess of the Sun. The two of them clearly had a lot of history between them, because after that, Celestia's demeanor towards Tempest had lightened just a bit.
"What then, Princess Twilight, would you suggest?"
Twilight had not had an answer ready. After a few moments of fumbling with her words, she formally requested that she be released into her custody, and that she would take full responsibility for her. Tempest still remembered the skeptical look on Celestia's face; she was not entirely convinced. After a few moments, she replied with three simple, yet firm words.
"So be it."
Nothing more was said, and the guards had released her. On the train ride back down to Ponyville, fighting through her shock, she had told Twilight how she didn't just want to blindly accept this mercy; she wanted to earn it.
Curiously, this idea hadn't come from Twilight, but from her student, one Starlight Glimmer, who had been in Canterlot during the invasion.
"I'll be frank," Starlight had begun, as they walked down the hallway to her room. "On the day of your lecture at Celestia's school, I really just lounged in your throne room for a good twenty minutes before you showed up. You could really use some guards for this place. From what I saw in Canterlot, she's certainly a fierce combatant. She'd be perfect."
Tempest had been asked for her input, and she honestly didn't know what to say at first. After a few moments, she realized that Starlight was right; it would be the perfect way to put her combat experience and comfort in a militaristic culture to good use.
From there, she was expecting some late-night patrol duty or something. What she was not expecting, however, was the custom-fitted set of armor, and the knowledge that she would then conduct a search for volunteers to complete a squad of eight to twelve ponies for the castle. If that went well, the long-term plan was to expand that to a platoon fifteen to thirty strong for Ponyville and the surrounding countryside. In short, Twilight wasn't trusting her to guard, but to eventually lead.
No, she didn't deserve this. But she would earn it. She would prove herself worthy of this position and this armor.
She had been promised the world before. In her resentment and desperation, she believed every word the Storm King told her. And when the chips were down, they all rang hollow; he didn't care for anyone but himself. Twilight could have put an end to everything when his tornado nearly flung her off the castle balcony, but instead, she opened up her eyes to friendship. Twilight's promises were different, and Tempest would hold herself to the Princess' expectations, perhaps even exceed them.
Her reflecting was brought to a halt as she heard her door open. She turned, and saw Twilight, Starlight, and Rarity come in. Twilight had the matching helmet and a long, polished oak box in her magical grasp.
"Sorry it took so long, we had to make sure everything worked correctly." Twilight told her as the three of them came up to her.
"What do you mean? It just has to fit, right?" She asked.
"Not quite." Twilight said as the purple aura surrounding the helmet turned to a lighter blue as it was taken by Rarity's grasp and levitated over towards Tempest as the white unicorn came forward with it. When it got close enough for inspection, she noticed the intricate notches in the ring where what was left of her horn would pass through.
"An inhibitor?" Tempest asked nervously, figuring that at last, the catch had been revealed as Rarity lifted it up, and placed it snugly atop her head. Her mohawk mane popped up through the slit that went down the back of the helmet.
"Just the opposite actually. A conduit. For this." Twilight said, opening the hinged oak box, and taking out a golden metal mage's staff. The whole staff seemed to be four feet long, similar to a standard issue spear. The top half was ornamented with tiny bright blue studs, and a much larger faceted gem set in the top, at the center of the triple-pronged tip of the staff.
"Is that... Aetherium...?" Tempest asked, surprised and beside herself. Aetherium was one of the rarest minerals known to Equestrians, with some of the strongest magical properties ever recorded. To any mage worth their salt, it was more precious than diamonds.
"Indeed it is," Starlight began. "If it works the way we think, it should help with some of your... Stability issues..."
Starlight came forward, her horn glowed, taking the staff, angled it towards Tempest, and softly touched the aetherium shard to the jagged edges of her broken horn. Tempest felt a tingling sensation, and Starlight withdrew the staff, and then offered it to her.
"Go ahead, try it. Something simple." Starlight encouraged, as Rarity made a final adjustment to the helmet and then backed off.
Tempest looked over to the dresser, and spotted the hairbrush. Holding the staff upright at attention, she reached out with her magic, and what happened was beyond anything she could have imagined. There were no unpredictable arcs of lightning, no crackling. Instead, she saw the aetherium at the top of the staff glow, along with the hairbrush that began to levitate a few centimeters off the dresser with her magical aura. She held it aloft for several seconds before gently setting it back down, her eyes widening.
"Perfect!" Starlight exclaimed gleefully, ecstatic that the enchantment on the helmet worked exactly as she hoped it would.
Tempest could barely breathe as she looked over to Twilight, attempting to wrap her mind around what the Princess of Friendship had just done for her. She had taken the Storm King's broken promise, and to an extent, made it whole again. Made her whole again.
"Princess... I..."
Though these feelings of warmth and kindness were still new to her, she expected a royal guard to be more disciplined, even with an unexpected boon such as this. She swallowed the lump in her throat, along with the tears that threatened to spill over.
"There are no words." She said, holding the staff perfectly upright, standing at attention, her voice shaking. Twilight merely gave her a gentle smile in return.
"Everyone else is waiting in the map room, if you're ready. I trust you've memorized the oath?" She asked, as Starlight and Rarity exited, heading towards the map room.
"I have." Tempest replied.
"I'll give you a moment to compose yourself, then meet us in there, and we'll make this official!" Twilight said, clapping her front hooves together with a smile, then likewise turned to leave.
Tempest turned back towards the mirror, and looked at herself in her full set of armor. A moment to compose herself? How could she trust herself to remain composed after what she had just been given?
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then another, and another.
She could do this. She knew she could. She made absolutely sure every piece of her armor was in the right place, then turned to head out into the hallway. As she made her way to the map room, her thoughts turned to the Oath of Officership. She had indeed memorized it, she had read it dozens upon dozens of times over the past week-and-a-half, and honestly, the only part she was unsure of was the very first part; the name.
As much as she wanted to put every second of her life that she had spent with the Storm King behind her, there was a part of her that giggled every single time she recited the words 'Captain Fizzlepop Berrytwist.' But as she approached the doors to the map room, she knew that she only had a few precious seconds to decide, and she didn't want to choke when the moment came. Again, she reached out with her horn, and the staff, angled forward in this walking position, glowed, and the doors slowly opened. As soon as she was clear of them, she halted her step, planted the bottom of the staff on the floor on her left side, and stood at attention. Everyone was seated at their thrones, and all eyes were on her as the doors closed behind her.
"Fillies... Friends..." Twilight began. "This council has been convened to install the first of our royal guardponies. Each mare here has testified to her selflessness, her conviction, and her willingness to make amends for the wrongs of her past. That begins today. Tempest?" Twilight said, eyeing her expectantly.
Her eyes focused on the Princess of Friendship, she took a breath.
"I, Fizzlepop Berrytwist, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend Princess Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville and the Council of Friendship against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter, so help me gods."
She could not stop the slight smile that formed on her lips after the oath was completed. Twilight returned the smile as she and the other six ponies got up and stood in front of their thrones.
"Congratulations, Captain Fizzlepop Berrytwist."
Excellent.
Such a nice happy ending for Tempy! :)
Well if anyone could find a way to "fix" Fizzy's horn it would be Twilight.
Also is it just me or do the round gems on the armor art look like berries on purpose?
On a different note, this is pretty much an illustration of Twilight's attitude toward forgiveness, she doesn't forgive those who "deserve" it but those that need it. I think that's what some fans miss about the whole villain reformation thing in the show. None of the reformed villains changed quite instantly, they earned their forgiveness AFTER they received it.
Nice little fluff piece, brought a smile to my face this rainy and dreary morning. My only nitpick would be regarding the oath at the end seeing as there is no indication in the show that ponies worship any god or gods. I assume you are referring to Celestia and Luna but since they neither are ascribed nor claim godhead in the show i've allays found it rather cringy when authors refer to them as such (not to mention swearing by celestia when swearing fealty to another princess is just odd). Minor nitpicks like that aside though, i liked it.
And so Tempest enters a brave new world, free of her shackles and ready to put her past behind her.
All in all, excellent story!
8545996
Yeah, I think that's the point armor wise.
And you're absolutely right. Twilight only forgives villains if she believes they deserve it, and they have to work for their redemption, not just have it handed to them on a platter. (And really, calling for beheadings of certain characters is soooo the MLP way of love and tolerance right?)
This was just wonderful! ^^
I wonder what foolish villains will try and bust into the castle now xD tempest should start looking for others to lead as a guard...perhaps the 'shadowbolts' after all who is to say sugarcoat sour sweet lemon zest indigo zap and Sunny flare don't exist and are mares in need of redemption and are considerably combat talented and need to learn about friendship... Food for thought. Great story! Following
All the promises Fizzlepop* made to herself made this read like a first chapter rather than a complete story.
* Either of her names is a perfectly good pony name on its own; it's both together that are overwrought.
8546716
I'm surprised at how often I get comments like that.
I may have shorter, additional scenes thought up. If I think they're up to snuff, I'll write them out and post them.
8546905
Well really, "I will earn this" just begs the question "how?"
8547025
Honestly, I'm probably going to ultimately leave that up to reader interpretation. The scenes I have in mind are small extensions of how she starts out, and would probably be too jarring if they were jumbled together in one chapter.
Yaaaaaaay! That was a sweet little vignette. =) I love that they were able to give Fizzlepop a fix for her horn without some questionably OP spell that just restored her whole horn. You had some punctuation and grammar issues occasionally, but it didn't detract too much from the delight of the story. There was one sentence, however, that bugged me enough I thought I would point it out:
There's just too many 'as's and not enough punctuation, making it a run-on sentence. A possible way to fix it would be thus:
"Not quite," Twilight said as the purple aura surrounding the helmet turned a lighter blue, taken by Rarity's grasp. The white unicorn came forward, levitating it towards Tempest.
I hope you don't mind the editing advice! It's a small passion of mine and it can really make a difference for a quality story when the technical stuff is right.
8546437
'Love and tolerance' as a phrase was created on 4chan as a means of trolling, lest we forget our history and our roots. It is uniquely fan-created.
Also, in a more realistic setting - something we are capable of doing in fanfiction that a show aimed at young girls is not able to due to time and audience-appropriate writing constraints - you CAN deal with criminals in an appropriate manner. The show acts as though everyone can be reformed, which is simply not true. And what is the point of having punishments if they are not going to be used in the most dire of cases? For that matter, what is the point of the Royal Guard if not to exact justice, defend against threats using violence, and carry out said punishments?
For Sombra's crimes of taking over a single nation and enslaving the populace, he was... killed. For Starlight Glimmer's creation of worlds full of war and suffering and oppression and death, she becomes apprenticed to a princess and gets to live in a castle. For Tempest's crimes of taking over what seems to be multiple nations and enslaving their populaces... canonically nothing, but since she is so well-liked by the fandom in almost every single fanfic she is constantly spared from the apparently curmudgeonly old stodgy Royal Sisters (who serve as antagonists by being reasonable rulers) by Twilight. The writing of these stories is consistent with the show, more or less, but that makes it less adventurous.
I'd like to see a story where A: Some form of actual punishment is carried out for toppling the nation, A1: Putting the entire world at risk, A2: Exposing Equestria to elements the like of that... bodypart market which is clearly where many of the Equestrians would have wound up - under the butcher's knife. or B: Where there's a stay of execution long enough for her to go on some sort of carefully-selected quest to prove that she's truly on the up and up concerning Equestria and not about to turn on them again for whatever reason. A ruler can't be too trusting with someone who can toss them down apparently at any time, because then all of their subjects suffer, and a ruler's duty is to their subjects' needs and the defense of their nation - let no threat stand in the way of that truth. Especially when the whole world depends on you to maintain the life-giving/life-ending heavenly bodies.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As for this story, it was fluffy and sweet of everyone involved, and I enjoyed reading it.
It just bothers me that there are people who, despite seeing that every story is a redemption story for Tempest act as though there's something wrong with punishing people who overthrow legitimate and justly-operating governments. As though Equestria has never engaged in any form of violence or retribution despite that Rainbow Dash apparently knows what tanks and bullets are (and the Wonderbolts are apparently a military organization), Twilight was fearful of a 'pony war', and that they have trained soldiers and killing implements (hello spears) at ALL.
I don't know why, but the cover picture of Tempest doing the lip bite thing is incredibly cute.
Odd how Tempest's oath ends with "So help me Gods" instead of referring to the princesses. Nothing I have an issue with, just a little out of place. Of course, if the MLP universe keeps expanding, it'd be cool if we eventually discover higher beings outside of time or place within the known world who may have been responsible for the world's creation or current state of existence, both good and malevolent. Despite being neutral in presentation to whatever one's religion or beliefs are, other franchises like Marvel and Dragon Ball have managed to create their own versions of deities and otherworldly beings to further enrich the lore of their universes without bothering anyone. We'll see if MLP ever decides to explore these concepts one day. Anyway, I've enjoyed reading yet another wonderful take on the aftermath of Tempest's arc in the movie and am excited for what the official MLP writers have in store for her in canon.
8549258
“So help me Celestia”
*In the distance* “No! You turned me to stone, asshole!”
6 hours? Impressive as this is I think the best of the post movie Tempest fics I've read so far. There's little things here and there, but nothing major. Personally my head canon is that the Royal Guard is the an EUP elite unit, so one has to go through EUP training before becoming a guard, and officer training before becoming the captain, but that's me. Then again, that has potential for fun scenes, especially ifn the DI is an earth pony.
Anyone notice that she didn't swear allegiance to Equestria or to the Princesses plural, but to Twilight personally?
8551977
Twilight: "Just. As. Planned."
That was really good.
8556202
Thanks for reading! I'm thinking up some additional scenes.
8548485
It's worth noting that both Sombra's and the Storm King's deaths were not cold-blooded, willfully inflicted, executions. No one knew what the Crystal Heart actually did in general, or would do to Sombra specifically once it was put in place. All they knew was that it would "protect the Crystal Empire," and hey, since there's a big looming threat they probably ought to get on that. It would be reasonable to think that the Heart would destroy Sombra, but it could also have sealed him away again like the Royal Sisters' spell, or banished him to Tartarus, or cleansed him of his wickedness. The Storm King, of course, was petrified by his own weapon, overbalanced, and was done in by gravity. They were battlefield casualties. The only way they can be said to have been "punished" with the death penalty is by the narrative, not by the ponies' justice system.
Said justice system seems to feature long-term imprisonment and banishment as the height of punishment for capital offenses. And if Discord is any indication, even the greatest of threats retains the possibility of parole. It's certainly a more mercy-inflected system than, say, the American and Canadian systems the writers would be familiar with.
Update the story to include Tempest tag e.e
8563496
There's a Tempest tag now? There wasn't a week ago.
Ehhhh started to lose me with one of her main character traits straight off the bat like that with no real reason.
She's shown to not really need magic, as she's very much a more physical character. At the end of the film she was shown to have made peace with what she killed her chances at friendship over, her broken horn. That it was okay she didn't have a horn, didn't need it, and no longer was driven by it.
It's like you wrote a Daredevil fic but just like, within the first paragraph gave him his eyesight back. Or a House fic where he's not a crippled opiate addict curmudgeon.
I love the picture of her in full armor she looks so cute and are those berries on her armor? If they are it's a nice touch matches her real name.
Niptick: saying it's more precious than diamonds really isn't saying much. Ponies can get gems by the cartful if they need to.
i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg78/evalana/blog%202/mlpfim_ep1956.png
8749100
according to Maud in rock solid friendship those gemstones are just common gems I think she meant Aetherium is like a super rare gems like astral diamonds, fire rubies, ocean sapphires, and forest emeralds.
8548485
Except all of those alternative timelines were erased when Twilight restored the course of history. Technically speaking, they never happened. It's kind of hard to punish somebody for something that never happened.
FUS RO DAH!
8749100
More precious than doughnuts!
First chapter down and my only real nitpick is how the use of "gods" feels out of place, but kudos for the accuracy in your use of an actual commissioned officer's oath of office. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.
9456242
Certainly hope you enjoy it. This series of mine now runs four stories long.
9456242
Yeah, I would have gone with "Princesses" there myself. The show uses "Celestia" for oaths, never "gods". Really enjoying this, with just two minor nitpicks:
"it seemed to compliment her dark orchid coat perfectly" - normally one would use "complement" there.
"nearly non-noticeable" - "unnoticeable" is a perfectly good word.