What good is magic, when it could never earn me the one thing I wanted most? No matter the amount of force or power, it wasn’t enough. It will never be enough. A restored horn is the one thing I was powerless to take from others.
The unicorn with an orchid coat and a broken horn strode through Canterlot. Her rose-colored tail swished idly. A cobalt blue hedgehog accompanied her. Tempest Shadow watched the ponies around her, paying them moderate attention. Her eyes were lowered and she appeared detached, lost in her own thoughts. No matter how friendly the other mares and stallions were to her, she still felt like an outsider here, a unicorn who didn’t belong. It wasn’t their fault. She knew that. A calm came over her, something she only experienced when she had made up her mind about something.
The Storm King had since been turned to stone. Losing her former position as lieutenant did not bother her greatly. The king had betrayed her. Her hope for a restored horn had been used as a commodity, a simple method of persuasion. The trust was simply a means to an end, a concept Tempest Shadow knew well herself. There had been times she had flat-out declared friendship as worthless. For the majority of her life, she remained by that belief. Something was different now, though. She was reconsidering her position, although she did not know much about what true friendship actually meant. Maybe Twilight Sparkle could teach her more. The unicorn mare and her dragon friend, Spike, were both kind and seemed to genuinely treat her as a friend should.
“Oh, look over there, Tempest! Those lucky ponies have cake! I love cake!” Her companion Grubber interrupted the unicorn’s thoughts. The small hedgehog pointed one of his claws excitedly at a gathering of colts and fillies who were sharing two spongecakes. Tempest Shadow glanced in their direction. From the looks of it, they had more than enough to go around.
“I’m not hungry right now; you can go on ahead and ask for some,” the unicorn answered him. She didn’t care one way or the other what the hedgehog did.
A huge grin spread across Grubber’s face. He ran excitedly in their direction. Tempest watched him. He caught up with the ponies. The rose-maned unicorn heard him talking. By the hedgehog’s reasoning, he decided to get on their good side by amusing them. “So… there was this one owl who was convinced that she could see the future,” Grubber said, motioning and pretending to carry a crystal ball in his claws. “The owl told a filly she knew that she had decided to be a fortune teller. So, like, the next day all these ponies showed up outside her tree. They wanted their fortunes told.” Here Grubber paused for a dramatic effect. “The owl saw how many there were and she said, ‘I didn’t see that coming!’ That’s funny, right?” The hedgehog watched the audience to determine if he was getting a reaction.
The strategy worked. Although, Tempest thought, the ponies seemed to be more amused with Grubber’s antics as he acted out the story than the actual joke. An older Pegasus colt who seemed to be in charge smiled and offered the hedgehog two slices of the spongecake.
“You’re welcome to join us if you want, which it looks like you do,” the colt said in a friendly voice. The coat of the pegasus was a Persian blue gray, with a pale apple green mane and tail. He appeared to be considerably older than the rest, and looked out of place in the group. “But please don’t feel like you have to do something for us in return. My younger sister wanted to share the cakes she baked with as many friends as she could invite. I’m just looking out to make sure nobody wanders off and gets lost.”
“It’s my party, Stormfeather,” a white-maned lavender pegasus filly insisted. She was wearing a small tiara, not a real one, but it did look convincing from a distance. “It’s a royal princess tea party. And I wanted to host it.”
The pegasus, Stormfeather, looked disinterested, but he pointed a hoof at the lavender filly, presumably his sister, who giggled in response. Stormfeather was used to his sister’s behavior and knew to simply play along. Looks like Stormfeather is here simply because he had been given the job of supervising the younger foals, Tempest thought. A colt like that very likely has better things to do. He looks like he’d rather be looking for mares - mares his own age. Although, the pegasus does clearly care about his sister, and he’s past the age where he’d be embarrassed by her.
The hedgehog looked up from his plate, which was covered with crumbs. “Mmmm! This is some great cake,” Grubber said. He liked this type of activity more than serving the Storm King, as long as there was sweet food involved. The filly held out her hoof, and Grubber shook it.
“She’s becoming a great cook!” the pegasus said. “Just so you know, this was all her idea, the only thing I contributed was setting it up for her. She needed someone to go out to this meadow with her and carry the supplies. She asked me, that’s why I’m here.” He noticed Tempest Shadow. “Your unicorn friend can come over, if she wants to,” he said, motioning with a hoof. Grubber glanced in the direction of Tempest and waved at her. He beckoned her to come over and join the filly’s party.
Tempest studied the scene. “I’m not really hungry right now. Thanks for the offer now. You just enjoy yourself.” She considered play-acting beneath her and friendship parties were not something she could understand on a personal level.
The unicorn’s mind went back to the events that had happened since the Storm King had been turned to stone. She glanced back at the hedgehog. Interesting, a soldier who once served the Storm King is now happily eating at a filly’s birthday party. It’s not a common occurrence. Or is it different with Grubber? He was never really a bad guy in the first place. Tempest realized that this was just the type of thing the hedgehog was likely to do. Tempest Shadow was a lieutenant to the Storm King, and Grubber was more like her sidekick than a friend. She still had a lot to learn about friendship. Over the past few months, Tempest Shadow had started treating Grubber better. He had been loyal to her, although she sometimes suspected that he didn’t take his charge as seriously as he should.
Tempest had talked with Twilight Sparkle recently about friendship. The other unicorn mare had helped her see that despite his faults, Grubber was a truly good companion to have. She realized that Grubber had never attempted to turn on her the way the king or her former friends had. It just wasn’t in his nature. The hedgehog was innocent at heart for all his attempts at trying to sound tough. Recently she had grown to appreciate his company.
Grubber finished eating two slices of the spongecake and rejoined Tempest Shadow. “That was good pie,” he said. “Are you sure you don’t want a piece?”
“I’ve already said…well, maybe a small one,” the unicorn replied. Grubber went back and the pegasus filly served him a slice of the cake. Grubber brought back the slice to Tempest. She took half of it and ate it slowly. A brief sparkle flashed in her eyes. The spongecake was surprisingly good for the baking skills of a young filly. Tempest gave Grubber a nod of approval. "Thank you," she said. Their hunger satisfied, the unicorn and hedgehog continued along their way.