//------------------------------//
// Chapter 05 
// Story: The Armada Trilogy II: Beautiful Eyes 
// by TheMysteryMuffin 
//------------------------------//

Canterlot, Early Morning

The sky black colour had been replaced by a beautiful royal blue, making it look like a river of stars and a gathering of faded grey clouds moving slowly around in the air. Its brightness mixed with the lights of Canterlot City and the shadows of the towering buildings covered empty spaces of the greens, the gardens and the hundreds of pavements that traveled through the city like the scribbles of a filly's drawing all mixed and joining up to another every hundred meters or so. There were only a few ponies walking around during the early hours of the morning; mostly guards, however there were a few ponies setting up their stalls for the local market that was neatly placed in one of the larger streets of Canterlot. It was almost silent, apart from the odd note from a bird's song in some of the apple trees that were growing near the city and the wheels of the market stalls turning round and round as they traveled along the cobblestone roads.

In the magnificence of the light, Princess Celestia walked out of the castle's doors and looked down over her city and subjects who were already awake and were starting their business in the streets. She breathed in the fresh air through her nostrils and stood as still as a stone statue, not moving a muscle through her elegant body. Unlike her usual appearance, Celestia wasn't wearing her usual royal clothing or jewelry around her hooves, legs and neck. Instead, she wore a blue cloak, with a hood at the top, allowing Celestia to cover her head and even her face if she wanted to. She wore a breathable white dress underneath and tied up her enchanted mane into a bun, which hid under her hood and wasn't visible from ponies who would walk past her. 

Tempest didn't dare allow anypony to notice that it was her. She had recently gone with Rarity to go shopping and find some new clothes to wear, including the black cloak that she was wearing then, decorated with red thread that was shaped into a design of a spider's web that traced all the way over the dress. The dress had also been adapted to Tempest's body shape and size, so no ends were hanging from her legs or neck nor was it too tight for her to wear or move around. She didn't wear much besides that, for Tempest knew that the desert would be hot and deadly, especially without the right equipment that was required for this journey. She was surprised that Celestia even wanted to head out this far outside of Equestria. The only ruler that Tempest could think of who was outside of Equestria was Queen Novo herself, but other than that, her knowledge was very limited on the subject.

Celestia waited in the glow of the sunrise for Twilight and her other companions. Thankfully, she didn't have to wait any longer, when she spotted Twilight, Tempest, Spike and Grubber walk out of the castle and head over to her at a steady and tired pace. All of them looked as if they really didn't want to go out on an epic adventure at that time of the morning. Twilight rubbed her eyes and stood alongside Celestia, as they both watched the sunrise together.

"I'm surprised that you have the energy to raise the sun and then be able to do something like this so early in the morning, princess," Twilight said to Celestia, "how do you do it, exactly?"

Celestia looked down at Twilight and gave her a smile, which Twilight knew very well. It was the smile that told her "I think you know" or "there's no need to tell you that".

"With great skill?" Twilight teased.

"Perhaps."

The two giggled, and then stopped. There was a silence that lasted for a short period of time, but was halted by Tempest who randomly appeared between the two alicorns, along with Grubber and Spike, all looking like they were ready to embark on this epic adventure to Tempest's old home. Twilight looked at Tempest and then Celestia, before looking out to the long path that laid ahead of them. She suddenly felt Tempest walk quietly up to stand alongside her, still looking straight ahead. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but struggled to find the words, and tried to tie a sentence together so that she didn't spill out any gibberish from her mouth.

"Are you sure about this, Tempest?" Twilight asked Tempest, "You don't have to do this if you don't want to. You can always tell Celestia that you don't want to do this. We can always go back to the castle and have a cup of tea and a chat, if you want."

Tempest let out a sigh, and saw the carbon dioxide that poured out of her mouth in the fresh coolness of the morning. She looked back into Twilight's eyes, perhaps in a way that made Twilight a little too uncomfortable, looking deep into the circles of violet colours and patterns. From Twilight's view, she could only see one dark, crimson eye on Tempest's left side of her face and the faded grey colour of her right, with the scar crossing over from the top to the bottom, touching her top lip. Tempest calmly placed a hoof on Twilight's shoulder, almost touching her chin, awkwardly and smiled back silently.

"I am... princess," Tempest whispered back, "I was sure before I woke up this morning and came out into the daybreak."

Twilight smiled back and then stepped away from Tempest's hoof and looked back towards the horizon, in the direction of where they were meant to be heading out to. Celestia, Spike and Grubber all did the same and they all stood on the hill that looked over the landscape that they were about to cross over. All of them, even Celestia, didn't really want to take the first hoofstep on this mission of theirs. However, knowing that they had prepared all of this and knowing that giving up now wasn't an option, Celestia was the first to begin the journey.

"Let's go."

Celestia started walking towards the large area of trees slowly and steadily, signalling the beginning of the journey. Twilight and the others started to follow her down the hill and onto the path that they were meant to travel on. They all tried to be as quiet as possible, so that they didn't wake up anypony else who were sleeping in still. The only sound that they could hear were the singing of birds that flew over their heads and sat in the trees that lay in front of them. Many of these trees were apple trees, many of which were planted by Applejack and her family over the many years. She wondered if any of them were planted by Applejack's parents like the one they planted at their secret wedding*, or any of the members of the Apple family. Nevertheless, the walk through the forest continued.

Twilight pulled out a map from her saddle bag and opened it out to its full size. The map had recently been extended in order to add the extra places that Twilight and her friends visited on their epic adventure to find the residence of the ruler  of the Hippogriffs, Queen Novo, and her daughter, Princess Skystar. Spotting Mount Aris and the Kingdom of Seaquestria on the map, Twilight placed a hoof at the spot and then coughed to get everypony's attention. Tempest was the first to turn around.

"What is it, Twilight?" she asked.

Twilight pointed to the map, showing everypony where she was pointing to.

"I've found Mount Aris and Seaquestria on the map. Now, neither of us, apart from you, Tempest, know which way to go, so I entrust you to take the map and hopefully lead us to your hometown."

Twilight levitated the map over to Tempest, who grasped the map using her front hooves and looked at what Twilight had addressed. She thought back to when she left her home fourteen years ago and tried to remember the pain of the heat and the sand when she crossed over to Klugetown. She was only ten years old when she betrayed her friends and family and now she couldn't even remember the name of the place that she was born at. She remembered what it looked like, though; a small village surrounded by plant life and stone roads. No pavements or well maintained paths; just roads, tiny houses and rundown cottages. Only a few ponies would help prevent the village from looking poor or abounded by its residents. There would also be very little colour in the village; only the plantation and animals that roamed around the area, usually rats or desert snakes, would be the most colourful of the civilisation. Also, Tempest couldn't remember if her birthplace had a flag or a banner to represent itself to the rest of the civilisations in the desert and beyond as far as Equestria itself. The rest of her memories were worn away like paint peeling off a wall.

"I will lead you to where I was born," Tempest replied, "if that's alright with you, Princess Celestia?"

Celestia nodded behind her silently.

"We'll be with you on this journey, Tempest." Spike said.

"Same here." Grubber added (Tempest noticed that, for once, Grubber was actually quiet and not as bothering as he usually was). 

Tempest started walking in a straight line towards the apple trees and along the pebble path that lead out of Canterlot, after putting the map away in her saddle bag. She looked back and saw everyone still standing and watching her awkwardly. Tempest then sighed and motioned her head to tell the others that she had started walking into what seemed like the unknown. After walking a few hoofsteps, the others caught up and they were all trotting (or walking in Spike and Grubber's case) along the path together step by step. They had began a trip, that almost seemed to be, at first, impossible.

Celestia was in the centre of the group, still wearing her casual clothing. She prayed that nopony would notice her as "Princess Celestia", but instead just as a pony like any other pony from Canterlot. Celestia did manage to transform herself into a Pegasus once**, however it did seem to be inappropriate to be another species when the town that requested her to come over to discuss their interest in joining the Kingdom of Equestria. She instead kept her head low and trusted Twilight and Tempest to direct her to where they were exactly heading to.

"It'll take at least a day to reach the border where we leave Equestria," Twilight explained, "we can camp nearby the toll booth. Hopefully we can all get through without any problems tomorrow. After all, nopony would ever turn away the ruler of Equestria, now would they?"

Celestia rolled her eyes sarcastically, and then laughed awkwardly, which then turned into a snort. "Well, it should be okay. Now that Equestria has returned to peace, security shouldn't be so tough anymore. I will make sure that we can all make it through, because it's very likely that they'll try to stop Tempest and Grubber from going through. We should get going if we're going to make it in time to find a spot to camp. Many others will be doing the same."

Grubber suddenly coughed to get Celestia's attention.

"Your highness, why do we need to camp at the border?"

Celestia continued walking forwards, not looking back at Grubber.

"The border closes at night, for security reasons," she explained, "it'll be open at sunrise. There are sleeping accommodations there, so we can rest. After all, we would be walking all day tomorrow. It would be best if we would manage to arrive there in good time tonight, before there're no rooms left."

"Well, then," Twilight said, "best if we get a move on."

"Let's do this," Tempest agreed, "before I change my mind."

And so they began their journey to the border with Equestria and the abounded lands of what was under the power of the Storm Armada.





The day progressed, but so did the heat. The sun was close to its highest by the time they had walked past the last civilisation of the Equestrian Kingdom. The time had suddenly gone without them even knowing. Walking for hours on end were okay for Twilight, Celestia and Tempest as they could drag themselves on all four legs without getting too tired, but for their two non-pony companions, it was a slight problem. Spike and Grubber struggled to catch up on their two feet, attached to their short and stubby legs. Looking back and seeing the two of them breathing heavily, completely out of breath. Tempest frowned and then groaned.

"If you just stop eating cake all the time, then maybe you wouldn't be struggling!"

Grubber eyed Tempest angrily. "Just because I love cake, it doesn't mean that I'm suffering from walking!"

Twilight looked back at Grubber and shook her head.

"Actually, it does," she explained, "eating too much fatty and sugary foods can be cause you to struggle doing daily activities, Grubber. Perhaps you should go on a diet."

Grubber quickly scoffed and looked away from Twilight. He hated her facts and statistics. Grubber tend to get jealous of other creatures saying and explaining complicated subjects without a fuss. He knew that his brain simply couldn't think of how any mathematical formulas worked. But he knew that Twilight was able to do any work that teachers gave her and then after completing the work, she would ask for more, until her brain eventually gave in. Even the complexity of Twilight's mind was beyond Celestia's thought process.

"I am not fat, Tempest!" Grubber argued, "I'm just... big. That's all."

"The Princess of Friendship is right, Grubber," Tempest added, "you seriously need to lose weight."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Guys, stop!" Spike said, perhaps to loudly, "We'll be nearly there soon. Besides, we want to make it there before the queue for the hostel rooms becomes too long. However, knowing Twilight, I'm sure that she has it all under control."

Twilight nodded in agreement.

"I do, actually. It won't be too stressful, I promise. Besides, nopony would say no to I, the Princess of Friendship, and Celestia, the ruler of Equestria. We should be able to get there in time, before all the rooms at the youth hostels are taken."

The trek continued, but only at a steady pace. The heat had increased as the day progressed. The Pegasi had been told to clear the sky clear of grey clouds and have no interference with the sun whatsoever. After weeks of heavy rain, the earth had turned into a massive swamp and the fields of the farmlands, especially Sweet Apple Acres, which had been flooded and damaged. Twilight remembered the day she saw Applejack looking at her family's flooded fields; she went over to her and Applejack jumped into her arms and cried out her eyes at the sheer damage that had been caused. It was one of the important moments in her life that she had to be a good friend to somepony. Twilight suddenly pushed the memory away and recalled herself to reality.

"We must keep moving," Celestia warned, "it'll be getting dark soon."

"What about supper?" Grubber asked. 

Celestia kept on walking. "We will have something at the border. There will be somewhere to rest. Then, at sunrise, we will continue our journey out of Equestria and off to Tempest's old village."

Tempest had a moment of thought and tried to think back at its original appearance. She tried to think of everything; the sights, the sounds, the smells, the colours and everypony she used to know. Her parents and friends. Would they even remember her? Everypony there would think that she was dead or something. No pony would believe her.

Unless.

Unless... her horn and the scar across her eye.

If only they would recognise her. If only everypony recognised her. If only her friends recognised her. If only her parents recognised her. If only they knew that she was their daughter. If only they knew that she was really Fizzlepop Berrytwist.





Equestrian Border, Night

All of a sudden, what seemed to be the quiet countryside had suddenly become a packed and busy. The space was filled with civilians trying to either exit or enter Equestria. Soldiers, guards and armored ponies were trying to keep the queues of ponies under control, going through each civilian that passed the massive wall that separated the two contraries.

The wall was huge and thick. It stretched as far as the eye could see and had guards patrolling at the top with spears and torches. On the Equestrian side, the flag of the two sisters hung from the wall and the bricks of the wall were maintained. On the other side, however, was nothing, but vines crawling across the brickwork and the remainder of the Storm Armada's flag after their invasion a few months previously. Some ponies on the ground were pushing the brickwork of the wall and were protesting against the guards. It was loud and very uncomfortable to be around in. Very little light helped with everypony's eye sight and many were crashing into each other and causing chaos.

Twilight, Celestia and the others stayed as close as possible to each other in order to not get separated. They all entered the queue to the border and kept their heads underneath the hoods of their cloaks. Tempest especially kept her face hidden from everypony else, as she feared that the guards would notice her. After twenty minutes of trotting towards the border, where on the other side was the accommodation, they all eventually reached the end of the queue. Tempest didn't quite understand why she was in front of the others, but had no choice as the guard ordered her to come forth. 

"Keep your head low, Tempest," Celestia whispered, "I'll do the talking."

Tempest trotted over to the guard and as soon as she stopped, the guard (who was a unicorn mare with a shaved mane besides the remains of hair that poured over her face) used her magic to lift up Tempest's hood. Before Tempest could do anything, Celestia jumped in and placed a hoof on her shoulder. The guard looked at Celestia and gave her a frown.

"I'm sorry, madam, but I'm going to have to ask you to step back and allow us to check this pony."

Celestia didn't remove her hoof. The guard began to grow agitated and trotted closer to Celestia, without even knowing that it was even her. But before she could push her away, the guard noticed Celestia's golden horseshoe, the one that she always wore. She noticed its royal engravings and suddenly turned silent. The guard looked deep into Celestia's violet, beautiful eyes and exactly knew who she was talking to.

"I'm quite sure there's no need for that."

The guard identified the figure's haunting and majestic voice, and suddenly began to back away. She gulped in fear and left Tempest alone.

"How... how... many are... are there of... you?"

Celestia looked back at Twilight, Spike and Grubber and then looked back at the mare.

"There are five of us, ma'am. We would like to stay somewhere for the night and will continue onward out of Equestria tomorrow morning. That is all."

The mare quickly picked up a clipboard and read the information that was on there. She looked for spaces in the V.I.P section and drew a line through a name of a living quarter.

"We have... one that is... p... perfect for you... your majesty..." the guard said, "would you like a... p... private section?"

Celestia nodded. The mare instructed Celestia and the others to follow her to the living quarters. They exited the queue and walked along the wall that split up the two countries. The darkness was now thick and little light was used along the pavement towards the night accommodation. The mare took them to the main square, where lots of different cabins were ready to be slept in. It was quiet and peaceful. Celestia and everypony else were taken up some wooden steps and led to a big cuboid shaped building, with something written on the door in gold writing.

VIP Accommodation: For Celebrities and Royalty.

"Here are your keys, Princess," the mare said, "there is a bed for you in there. Princess Twilight! My, what an honer! Please, allow me to take you next door. Your friends will be the cabin after that."

Twilight and the others followed the mare to the next cabin. She then took her keys from the mare and entered her room, along with Spike, who chased after her before the door closed in his face. After Twilight closed the door behind her, Tempest and Grubber followed the mare to the next cabin and were given the keys. The mare then began to leave.

"Hope you all have a good night! Breakfast is at sunrise, by the way. Hope you have a good night!"

The mare left, leaving Tempest and Grubber alone in the dark. Tempest unlocked the door and went inside. She landed on the bed, face first, and then wrapped herself in the bed sheets that were provided for her. The room stank of hay and leftover fragrances from previous guests.

"As soon as it's morning," Tempest said, slightly annoyed, "then we're leaving. I'm sick of being treated like dirt all the time."

Grubber suddenly changed his expression from excitement to disappointment.

"But... what about breakfast? I'm starving! We haven't even had supper yet!"

Tempest looked back at him. "Go to sleep, Grubber. We'll have something to eat in the morning."

Grubber refused and wrapped his arms up in protest like a toddler having a temper-tantrum.

"No!" he said.

"Grubber... go to sleep."

"No!"

"Go... to... sleep."

"I want food."

"We'll have breakfast tomorrow morning."

"I refuse!"

"GRUBBER!"

"Fine!"

Grubber eventually tucked himself into the tiny bed that he was in and quickly fell asleep. Tempest sighed and relaxed in the soft, white bed, thankful to not be hearing her companion groan any longer. Despite the sounds of shouting, thunder and the patter of rain that landed on the roof, Tempest suddenly fell into a deep sleep.