Someone knocking on the door woke Tempest up. She raised her head, yawning as she squinted at the clock. “Mm, Discord, someone's at the door.”
He groaned and rolled over, continuing to sleep.
She climbed out of bed, wincing as her chest ached, but she was pretty used to it by now. She went downstairs and to the front door, looking through the peephole. She saw a pony dressed in a postal service uniform, and unlocked the door, opening it. “Hey.”
“Good morning ma'am, are you Tempest Shadow?” he asked.
“Yeah, I am,” she replied.
“Great! I have a letter for you from Princess Celestia, she wanted me to hoof deliver it to you.” He offered her an envelope.
“Oh, thank you.” She accepted it and passed him a bit. She started to leave, then paused. “Um, you are able to get out of here, right?” She noticed that he wasn't a unicorn.
“Oh, I'll be fine.” He waved a hoof. “Discord was nice enough to give the post office this pendant that lets us bring him mail. Have a nice day now!” He fished a pendant out of his shirt and disappeared.
“Huh, that was nice of Discord. Alright.” Tempest sat on the couch as she opened the envelope. The letter inside wasn't long, though. It was simply a short and professional invitation for her to visit Celestia at her palace that afternoon. She turned the letter around, hoping there was more, but that was it. “Hm.”
She heard the bedroom door open, and then Discord was heading downstairs. “Who was it?” he asked.
“Mail pony,” she replied.
He jumped from the stairs and floated slowly down like a leaf, landing sprawled across her lap. “Oh, joy.” He stretched and grinned up at her. “Anything fun?”
“He was bringing me a letter from Celestia.” Tempest showed it to him. “It's not much though. Just an invitation to go see her later today.”
“Ooh, an invitation from Celestia? How wonderful. Is it for both of us?”
“Yeah, it is.” Tempest tossed the letter onto the coffee table. “I guess we should go see the regal and highly-respected leader of our land.”
“Yeah, I guess we should,” Discord replied. He crossed his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. “She said this afternoon, right? In the meantime I'm going back to sleep.”
“You're so lazy.”
“Old habits die hard.”
Tempest moved to lay down with him. She didn't particularly feel like going back to sleep though, so she levitated over a book to read. It was only about an hour though before Discord got bored of sleeping and hopped up, wide awake and wanting breakfast. She got up with him and helped him make pancakes. They talked about what Celestia might want, and figured she wanted to thank them for how they helped the storm creatures.
“Maybe she's going to give us a fancy trophy,” Discord said. “Or a certificate. Or maybe a big sack of bits.”
“Or maybe she's going to lecture us about how murder is wrong.”
“Pft. As if she hasn't killed people before.”
“Uh... story time?”
“Have you heard the story of when Equestria was under attack by a race of intelligent sea creatures?”
“Sea ponies?”
“Haha, I bet she wishes they were just sea ponies. Nope! They were giant squid-like beings! They refused to surrender or compromise and she had to do what was necessary to protect the kingdom.”
“Alright, you're yanking my leg,” Tempest said.
“No, I'm serious! I mean sure I was frozen in stone at the time, and everything I heard was whatever was mentioned by people walking by my statue, but I'm like 99.99% sure there was a war with giant squid creatures. So! It was a hot midsummer day...”
Discord entertained her with stories for the rest of the morning, and when noon rolled around, Tempest did her usual bandage changing. A good bit of her fur had grown back around the scar, but there was still a visible line across her side. There was still pain, but she wasn't surprised. Ribs took many weeks to heal. She wrapped herself back up and lifted a hairbrush, straightening out her mane.
“Are you going to make yourself presentable?” she called to Discord.
He poked his head into the bathroom. “Whatever do you mean?” he asked, running his hand over his mane. When he lifted it, all his hair sprung out into wild curls. Tempest laughed and offered him the brush.
“Well, can you at least help me brush my tail?”
“Certainly.” He took the brush and knelt down behind her, straightening her tail.
“I can't wait until I'm healed enough to turn around and brush my own tail,” she said.
“Until then, I'm perfectly happy to help you.” He finished brushing it and straightened back up. “I suppose I should at least brush my teeth.”
“Uh, yeah, probably.” Tempest set her brush down. “You can't visit a princess with bad breath.”
“What do you mean, I visit Twilight like that all the time!” Discord picked up a toothbrush and applied paste to the back of it. “That's the benefit of being so tall, no one's going to notice your breath.”
“Okay, okay, I get it.” Tempest tossed him a pack of floss. “Brush your teeth. And make sure you floss.”
“Yes, Mother.” Discord got to cleaning his teeth, and Tempest examined her reflection one more time before deciding she looked fine and walking out. She put her saddlebags on, slipping the invitation into one of them in case she needed to prove that she was really invited. Plus maybe they could go shopping in Canterlot after the meeting.
Once Discord was ready, he offered his arm. Tempest took it, and he teleported them to Canterlot. It took less than a second as usual, and then they were on a busy street, where a few ponies were startled by their appearance. Tempest apologized, and they relaxed and went on their way. Despite everything Discord has done to help Equestria, it was clear that ponies were still nervous about him. They gave them a wide berth as they went down the sidewalk, some even jogging to get past them. And Tempest herself wasn't exactly getting kind looks either. She wasn't bothered by it. She understood why they would be distrustful of her.
The castle was only a few minutes away. They approached the front doors, where a pair of guards were posted, but they didn't question them, just opening the doors for them.
“Thank you,” Tempest said. She led the way in. It's been a while since she's been in this castle. But she still remembered the way to the throne room. She headed for it, looking around at the stained glass windows along the way, the various statues and draperies. It was a lavishly decorated palace, and she felt bad for whoever had to dust all this. Then again, Canterlot was full of talented unicorns. They could probably just use magic to instantly clean everything.
They passed a few ponies who were conducting business at the palace, but it was mostly quiet. Judging from how relaxed the guards were, it was a slow day.
“I don't know why anyone would want so much space,” Discord said as they went up a wide staircase. “I wouldn't know what to do with all this. Sure it looks impressive, but it's a bit much. Now when I briefly ruled over Equestria, I just set myself up a nice throne to hang out on, no castle required! I had great food brought to me and if I wanted to sleep, I could just go back to Chaosville. That was always enough for me.”
“Yeah, I guess all this is more of a status symbol than anything,” Tempest replied. They reached the throne room doors. “Okay, here we go.” She pushed them open, walking in. To her surprise, guards were lining the path to the thrones, and they stood up at attention as they walked by. Tempest looked forward, to where Celestia was standing on the raised platform overlooking the room. And she wasn't alone. Luna was with her, as well as Twilight.
“Wow, this is quite the welcoming party,” Discord said.
The three princesses came down from the platform to greet them. Celestia was the first to speak. “Welcome back to Equestria, Tempest. Same to you, Discord.”
“Thank you,” Tempest said, Discord echoing her. “I'm glad to be back.”
“Twilight told me about everything you accomplished in Abyssinia, and I wanted to personally thank you for your efforts,” Celestia said. “When the Storm King was defeated, I wasn't sure if his troops would be able to adjust to their freedom. But you've done a wonderful job helping them build new homes for themselves. And when they were threatened, you stepped in to protect them. We all commend you for your work.” She looked at Luna, who stepped forward to offer them medals.
“Ooh, another medal? Don't mind if I do,” Discord said. He took the one with a longer strap. “Aw, you remembered!” He slid it over his head, struggling for a moment to get it past his horns, but then he was able to pull it down his neck.
Tempest dipped her head so Luna could place the medal on her. “Thank you, Princess.”
Twilight rested her hoof on Tempest's shoulder. “We're very proud of you. Both of you. You did great work out there.”
“Thank you.” Tempest thought about how the Roc had screamed when she was lit on fire, and couldn't help but shudder.
Celestia gave her an understanding look. “Twilight told us some of the story, but we want to hear it from you. What exactly happened with that Roc?”
Tempest and Discord told her the full story. How the bird had first attacked the town and tore up several buildings before stealing from them. Her second arrival, when she did more damage and told them to leave and that was her last warning. When they went to reason with her, at which point they realized how many people she's already killed and that she was going to kill the storm creatures too, and they instead tried to fight her.
Tempest showed them the visible parts of her scar as she told them about getting kicked, and Discord explained that he was able to catch her, and managed to injure the Roc before teleporting away.
Past that point, the princesses were familiar with how Discord had returned to Equestria to research Rocs, but they were interested in Tempest's story of defending Sunny Oasis against wild animals and bandits.
They finished up with telling her how they finally took down the Roc, keeping her distracted with multiple attacks until Discord delivered an unexpected fiery blow to her back.
They were touched by how Tempest used a numbing spell to keep the Roc from feeling pain, sitting next to her and putting on a fireworks show so her last moments were beautiful. After that, Discord took care of the body and Tempest returned to town to check on everyone, and they ended the story there.
“Not much more to it, we headed into town to recuperate after that,” Discord finished. “Oh and Tempest got her cutie mark.”
Tempest blushed, but turned so they could see her flank.
“It's very nice,” Luna said.
“Yes, it matches your eyes,” Celestia agreed. “Well, that was quite the tale. I imagine it was very difficult for you to do what you did, but the safety of the entire town was at stake. Sometimes, the best decisions are the hardest. That you were able to go through with it shows great strength. And that's the mark of a true leader.”
Luna nodded in agreement, and said, “Which is why we would like to offer you both a place in the royal guard.”
Tempest gasped, and even Discord seemed surprised. “R-really?” Tempest asked.
They nodded, and Twilight said, “You've both shown that you have what it takes to be leaders. We want people like you protecting Equestria.”
“Especially you,” Celestia said to Tempest. “You've already served as a commander, you have experience. You'll have to go through royal guard basic training as a formality I'm afraid, but once you're through, I'll be happy to offer you a leadership position.”
Tempest hesitated. “I don't know... I mean, I enjoy leading others, but being in charge of ponies... it'd be such a big responsibility.”
“Take your time, you don't need to make a decision immediately,” Celestia said. She looked at Discord. “How about you? We could really use your skills.”
Discord chuckled, shaking his head. “Thanks for the offer, but no. I'm a free spirit. If Equestria is in danger, I'll come to its aid. But trust me, I'm not guard material, I don't like being told what to do.”
“That's fair,” Luna admitted.
“You should join, though,” Discord said to Tempest. “I think it's what you're meant to do.”
“Well...” Tempest looked at the princesses, all of whom smiled and nodded, encouraging her to say yes. She took a breath, and said, “Yes. Yes, I would be honored to serve in the royal guard.” She bowed her head.
They bowed in return, and Celestia said, “I'm glad to hear it.”
“Just one thing,” Tempest said. She wrapped a foreleg around her middle. “I need some more time to let my ribs heal. But when they do, I'll be happy to sign up.”
The princesses nodded.
“A reasonable request,” Luna replied. “Whenever you're ready, just let us know.”
“Can do.”
They spent a few more minutes talking, but Celestia and Luna both had meetings to get to, and Twilight had to return to Ponyville. So they said goodbye and parted ways.
“So you're going to join the military, huh?” Discord asked as he and Tempest walked through Canterlot.
“Yeah. I think I could do a lot of good as a commander of the royal guard,” she replied.
“I know you'll do good.” Discord rushed over to look in a window. “Ooh, look at those suits! Those are giving me some ideas.”
“Ideas for our wedding?” Tempest asked, going over to check out the suits too.
“Exactly! See any you like?”
She pointed to a black tailcoat. “That one looks pretty good.”
“Haha, you'd look amazing in that. Well, anyway.” Discord stepped away and kept walking. “I'm sure you'll do a lot of great things for Equestria as a commander. And I'll be there to support you every step of the way.”
“Thank you.” Tempest leaned against him. “I'm so glad Fluttershy invited you to that dinner months ago.”
Discord chuckled and turned to face her, lifting her hooves. “I'm glad too.” He pressed a brief kiss to her lips. “Now come on, let's go shopping.”
“Alright.”
Together, they began exploring the city, checking out different shops and chatting about the opportunities Tempest would have in the royal guard. They couldn't wait to see what the future had in store for them.