The Sentence
The afternoon was growing late and the sun’s light bathed the richly decorated hallway in a comforting red-orange glow, dappled with bits of color from strategically placed art and the same sunlight through the numerous stained-glass windows.
The comfort was lost on the tall unicorn with a broken horn that was making her way down its length along with three other ponies. Tempest’s ear twitched slightly as it noted once again the noise of slightly ill adjusted armor one of the two guards were wearing. Sloppy. As were their positions just over five pony-lengths behind. If she harbored ill-will to the pony at her side they wouldn’t be able to stop her in time from that distance. Even an attacker bursting through one of the windows they were passing had decent odds of getting a strike in before they could counter.
She shifted her eyes toward the purple alicorn at her side, noting the lack of concern on her face and in her bearing. These ponies seemed so naïve and lax in their attitudes about potential danger. And yet… they had defeated the Storm King’s forces, this young princess and her friends had managed to escape her grasp on multiple occasions, and in the past they’d successfully defeated a number of enemies. Of course, a number of those fights could have been avoided all together with properly handled security.
Another glance at Twilight Sparkle revealed what could be the slightest hint of a smile - though it was hard to tell for certain without turning her head to look more carefully. Returning her gaze to the front, she tried to work out if it meant anything. Twilight had been against punishing her when she had requested judgement from the princesses for her part in the invasion. After all, despite Twilight’s forgiving nature wanting to sweep it all under the rug and just be friends, and despite her own surprisingly intense desire to do just that, the fact remained that she had led the – quite literal – enslavement of the ponies of Equestria. Not to mention all the things she had done in the surrounding lands in the Storm King’s name. She had a lot to answer for.
Eventually they arrived at a large set of doors with a pair of guards at either side. She could hear the slight rustle of cloth and shifting of a helmet as one of the guards behind her motioned for the doors to be opened. As they swung wide, she could see the three other princesses standing at the far end of the revealed chamber. Their faces expressionless as she approached.
Tempest shook the memory off, returning to the reality so similar to – and yet so different from – that past day. Another walk down a castle hallway in the late afternoon with Twilight at her side and two guards following behind. But this hallway was newer and not as warmly colored; the guards behind were closer, more alert in properly worn armor, and so silent that one without her training might forget they were even there; and, as they approached the doors guarded by another pair of guards, it was her nod that signaled them to open it.
She entered the chamber alongside Twilight and scanned it quickly for anything out of place as their escort joined the guards outside the door. The door closed and at the solid thud of it, the memory seized her once again.
There were no guards at all in the chamber. It was just her and the four princesses. As she came to a stop at the foot of the dais, she expected Twilight to join her fellows. Instead she kept to the place at her side. It was comforting, it was confusing. It was distracting. She almost missed it when Princess Celestia began to speak – might have missed it anyway if it hadn’t been the first real noise in better than a quarter of an hour.
“You asked to be punished for crimes despite no charges having been laid against you. Even with Princess Twilight Sparkle arguing against it you held to that request. Unusual though the request may be, we have conferred and together decided on what we believe to be an appropriate punishment. Firstly, we wish to point out that our decision is based solely on the events which transpired within our borders. What happens beyond them is not ours to address, though you will be provided opportunity to seek amends directly with the various factions you have had past encounters with.”
Tempest found that she could not classify her emotions. She’d pushed for punishment, yes, but had hoped for a straight-forward punishment like imprisonment. Something simple, if long-term, so that she could feel she’d paid penance for her wrongs. It wasn’t sounding like they planned to lock her up, but more like she’d be expected to face each wronged group individually. She wouldn’t even know where to start with something like that. And…there was an ache as well. As much as she had pushed for punishment, and as much as she’d been sincere in wishing to make amends, she’d also hoped they might refuse… that she’d be free to explore the possibilities of friendship she’d so long derided. Her eyes flickered to Twilight briefly and she had to fight the bit of heat that wanted to rise as she recalled the various times said pony had bestowed a smile upon her of such warmth she had trouble accepting it.
Focus locking back on Celestia, she caught the tiniest twinkle of amusement in her eyes, despite the rest of her face remaining completely passive. A shiver of something akin to embarrassment passed through her as she got the impression Celestia was aware of the train of her thoughts and she felt exposed.
As though the pause had occurred only for these thoughts to run their course, Celestia finally continued. “Your sentence is as follows: Life… as Captain of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s personal guard.”
A head that had started to fall at ‘Life’ jerked up in astonishment. How was that supposed to be a punishment?
It was at that moment, as Tempest’s mouth opened and closed a few times with no sound emerging, that Princess Luna spoke for the first time. “To clarify, you are to recruit and train a force which will serve as a local protective force for Princess Twilight’s castle in Ponyville, as well as a smaller group to serve as her personal guard when she travels in performance of her duties. The skills you displayed during the attack on Canterlot, as well as the knowledge you possess of the lands surrounding Equestria, make you an ideal choice to safeguard the princess most likely to travel to those lands.”
“In addition,” took over Princess Cadance, “you will personally accompany her on any assignments or visitations outside Equestria. This will give you the opportunity to right the wrongs you have been part of. Princess Twilight has already stated her intention to help you as she can.”
She was stunned. This was nothing like what she’d expected. Nothing she could possibly have even imagined. Turning her head she found that Twilight was now standing facing her with a smile on her face. But there was also worry in her eyes.
“My brother once told me that the only thing a conscripted guard is good for is watching over a root cellar – and at that, only if someone else is watching him.” Twilight said softly. “They’ve called it a sentence, but you do have a choice. I could use your help, and... I want to help you too.”
As she looked into those eyes, she knew there was only one answer.
“Fizz!”
She blinked away the memory again and found she was still looking into those eyes. Twilight had already stripped off the few bits of royal bling she’d willingly wear during her duties, but Tempest hadn’t moved since the door had closed and now the last rays of the setting sun were shining in through the balcony door.
“Sorry Twi,” she said. “Memory got the better of me.”
Twilight moved forward to tuck her head under Tempest’s chin and looped one foreleg over her withers. “Bad memories?”
“Not really. Remembering my sentencing.” Her own leg wrapped around Twilight and she tilted her head to place a light kiss on the alicorn’s forehead. It was amazing the changes that could happen in a year. Though, maybe she shouldn’t be surprised when it came to Twilight. It took less three days for Twilight to turn her entire world view around. And the list of things she’d done in the year leading up to her ascension still confounded her. So why should she be surprised that it took less than a year for the beginning stirrings of friendship to become a solid bond of love?
Twilight let out a quiet hum of contentment as she pressed into the light kiss. “I’m so glad you said yes.”
“Me too.”
They sat like that for a few more minutes before Twilight began to squirm.
“Ugh! You need to get out of this armor. It’s nowhere near as uncomfortable as Shiny’s, but it’s still not comfortable. And you owe me cuddles.”
She let Twilight pull away and together they started removing the modified version of her Storm King armor she’d had made for Twilight’s personal guard.
“I owe you, do I?” she grinned.
“Yes.” Twilight nodded emphatically, a gleam in her eyes. “Your princess demands cuddles, and as captain of her personal guard you are duty-bound to provide them.”
Now divested of her gear, Tempest strutted over to Twilight before lowering her muzzle so their noses nearly touched. “Unfortunately, the captain of your guard is off-duty at the moment. Would you accept cuddles from your marefriend instead?”
“Hmm…” Twilight pretended to consider. “I suppose that will be acceptable.” She closed the small gap between them to plant a gentle kiss on Tempest’s lips. A kiss that sent a tiny shiver of joy through her, just as it always did. Then she turned away and led the way to the bed.
Once they were both comfortable, spooned together with Twilight’s back pressed snuggly into Tempest’s chest, she squeezed Twilight a little tighter and whispered, “Why?”
“Why? Why what?”
Tempest took a deep breath, letting Twilight’s familiar scent spread a warmth within her as she also absorbed the warmth from the body pressed against her. “Why did you ask me to head your guard? And why did you pick me to love?”
“Because it felt right. To both.”
Tempest could feel the tired giggle that followed the answer, as well as the yawn shortly after. It wasn’t very long after that that Twilight’s breathing and heartbeat dropped into the slow and even pace of sleep. She lay awake for a while longer though, simply soaking in the peace she’d never thought to find. The peace she hadn’t believed could exist. Carefully she disengaged one foreleg from around Twilight to reach down and pull the blanket up over them before slipping her foreleg back into Twilight’s grasp. She had to admit, it did indeed feel right.
As eyes finally closed and sleep began to claim her, she smiled.
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I liked this, short and sweet
Very sweet and warm. Twi/Pop is a nice ship! Very nicely done.
heads up, you don't need to use the "Other" tag for tempest stories anymore!
8564612
I don't see her in character list. Something I'm missing?
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8564435
Glad you each enjoyed it. I just wish I'd not been so tired and had more time to really flesh it out the way I originally wanted. Oh well, some fluff is better than no fluff, right?
I like the idea of
TempestFizzlepop heading a royal guard for Twilight. Even being the Princess of Friendship, she really should have one.8564730
One bit that would have been in longer writing was of Celestia sending a few combat instructors to learn along with the troops Tempest recruited so they could in turn expand the Royal Guard's training regimen. After all, she's got some serious skills when it comes to weaponless fighting.
I kind of expected this to get a random turn of events like "marry princess twilight or date her".
The guard thing....not bad but I have seen it already.
While this is cute the timeskip came at a bad time for me, I usually hate them anyway.
Nice enough, I guess I just expected something totally different and yes I admit that I hate timeskips that skipp the moments where Tempest would really get to know everyone. I like to watch the characters making bonds and everything. I also hoped this would end in a way that would make a sequel feel better in my eyes. Now I'm not sure if I want a sequel....I guess if you should write one I would like it to cover an adoption, maybe including some flashbacks on stuff like Tempest meeting Twilights parents. However that could still happen, with Twilight I would think she might even forgets to tell her family and the princesses that she has a lover.
Fresh Meat!
Simple, fluffy, and sweet. Just how I like it.
8565169
I'm not surprised that it's been done before, it's been in cold storage for a while. First got the idea a few days after movie hit theaters. Held on to it because I wanted to sit down and really give it everything, but life being life I never got the time and was worried it might never get up in any form. At least this way I hoped people might get a little enjoyment from the concept, and it serves as a logged reminder if I ever *do* have time to flesh it out the way I originally planned.
I've no plans for a sequel of any kind for this. If I revisit it, it will be to rewrite from scratch and really expand it. There's a lot of flaws I see, but that's a result of the compression that happened with punching it out so fast. Frankly, I'm surprised it's gotten the attention it has given how little effort was spent on it.
8564622
she is listed under tempest shadow not fizzlepop if that's what made you miss her?
Aalso nice little story, while other have written similar ones this may just be my favorite of these type of shorts as of yet.
8565515
Finally figured out where she is. Just shows as a 5px wide vertical line in the character list for me, so I didn't see it as option.
Also, thanks for the kind words.
I love it.
Have a fave.
Well, that is certainly a good way to use her skills. Who better to train your soldiers than the one who was able to best them?
Eh... even if we disregard the army, she'd be probably able to beat every single one. So yeah, talents well used.
And how sweet an ending! Indeed, nothing glorious, but this was still a lovely short story
This story reeks of the horribly beautiful scent of romance, I love it.
Very well written. Very cute, and you certainly know how to handle details and descriptions.
This might be a stretch but... forgiving someone who wanted to conquer your land and imprisoned you for the purpose of restoring her horn... and then falling in love with said person...
Is it just me or does this reek of "Stockholm Syndrome"?
I for one have always suspected that the reason twilight is so forgiving is a lot less innocent that the show lets on considering how she was like before season one.
I like to call this my "Original sin theory" in which she did something so horrible right after she got into Celestia's school for Gifted Unicorns that every villain whom she has forgiven personally has been a mirror to when she was first Celestia's student.
8566537
Not really its just Twilight. Friendship above all else.
This is really good this site needs more Tempest.
Im Impressed with how much story you managed to fit into less than 2000 words without making it feel rushed.
Really well done. Left me wanting more.
I don't really ship them, but this is still a pretty cute fic that was worth reading. +1 from moi.
Might wanna work on the whole grammar and punctuation thing. I'll give it a read, but that description needs some work.
8567348
"Frienship". Riiiiiiiiiiiight.
8566537
Stockholm Syndrome is a touch more sophisticated than that. And S.S. is not based criteria like the victim falling in love with the assailant.
At its root, S.S. is inherently a form of survival instinct that not only generates sympathy from the captive to the captor, but inverts their opinion of authority figures. It requires both time, face-time, and an extreme sense on the victim's part to feel they are not simply powerless, but question their very survival at the hands of their captor.
While Tempest DID capture Twilight, the Trauma she inflicted was pretty much nil and Twilight wasn't really rendered hopeless and questioning if she would even live to the end of the day on the whims of her captor.
Consider the titular event that coined the term:
If anything, Tempest more likely suffered less commonly considered variant known as 'Lima' syndrome, in which the captor becomes sympathetic to the prisoner.
However, one thing should be considered, and that is that Stockholm Syndrome and its reverse counterpart are controversial and their status as actual psychological disorders are questionable. There are definitely some underlying survival instincts kicking in, but I doubt the situation present in the MLP-movie comes even close to textbook S.S. If anything, it's more likely just a factor of Tempest having a genuinely pitiable situation warranting actual sympathy, and that Ponies like Twilight are very forgiving and have a track record for giving villains who do really nasty things a second chance if said villain is willing to take it.
After all, consider that Tempest did everything she did on the promise of her horn being repaired. Translate that to human terms, that's like having your ARM ripped off in the 1700s, and someone telling you they could FIX that arm if you'd just lead their armies. Granted, us genre savvy humans would probably look at that and call BS on the spot, but we're genre savvy humans and grew up ingesting media that all but goes 'trust nobody'.
8568491
At the very least it's disturbing. As forgiving as Twilight and the rest is the entirety of the cast is forgiving to a fault. At least in the case of Sunset Shimmer it wasn't so offputting because she had the community backlash. The very fact that let's say Starlight Glimmer was not only forgiven but also encouraged to re-lead the people she had enforced in her rule is mind-boggling and breaks my immersion/suspension of disbelief.
Not to mention that falling in love so quickly with your former enemy is disturbing. I'm not going to stop anyone from writing stuff like this, but at the same time I won't stop saying these things are BAD.
And trust me I'm not alien to stories of forgiveness. The saint that has the same name with mine forgave his brother's killer. But no matter how many forgiveness stories I've read none of them had the one who was forgiven fall in love with the other. Certainly not in such a quick amount of time.
Sympathy I can understand. Love no.
This is like the third fic in the last month that has used this same premise.
Uhhh... To say it was short... May an understatement.
Moar?
This ship is realy growing on me.
Luckily I never truly shiped Princess Twilight whit anyone before.
Want more, darnit D:
that was absolutely perfect. I love a great fluffy story every once in a while. #Wholesome
Now that is an adorable story. What do you recommend for romance stories? Cuz I definitely need some work on it XD
Super cute :)
*sees title*
*sees BerryxTwilight shipping*
"I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the
EnglishEquestrian language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/11/9/467966.gif
All things considered? Not bad.
Adorable.
I love this paragraph. It struck something within me.
10081111
Well, I was aiming for something that felt natural to a comfortable relationship where both are relaxed. It's actually very close to (and inspired by) something my niece once said to me:
Used to call her my princess kitty (she liked to dress in princess gown with kitty ears and face makeup), and once she came over to me with her neko-headband on and goes: “Your princess demands head-pets, and as princess kitty's servant you have to give them.”