As Pinkie and Spike arrived at the main dining room of the castle, the sounds of the rest of their friends chatting and enjoying breakfast echoed through the halls, and within seconds, they arrived to find the group seated around the dining table.

AppleJack and Rainbow dash were in the middle of a heated hoof-wrestling match while Twilight talked to Fluttershy about her animals. In the middle of it all, Rarity managed to apply her makeup with a small mirror. She immediately noticed Pinkie and Spike entering the room and waved.

"Pinkie! Darling, there you are. We were just about to go find you. Whatever took so long?" She called, her silky smile conveying genuine curiosity and getting all eyes in the room to turn to the pink earth pony.

Pinkie sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, "Well, I kinda had to help Tempest out, hehe. Sorry if I'm late."

Rarity frowned slightly, "Oh, will she not be joining us? I was so looking forward to asking her about her plans now that she's staying in Ponyville."

Pinkie merely shrugged. The gathered ponies in the room all shared curious looks until their eyes all seemed to be pulled toward Twilight.

"Ya did say she was upset about yesterday, didn'tcha, Twi?" AppleJack asked with a curious glance.

Twilight looked over to Spike for answers but found him only shrugging. She sighed once more and addressed the group.

"Yesterday... Tempest and Spike went out for smoothies... While they were gone, I went through mail, and came across a letter for Tempest. I took it to her room, but there was a crate in the corner. You know how she is; she barely has anything, so all of her belongings were in that box. I know I shouldn't have... but I've been having a hard time getting her to open up, and I just wanted to know about her past so much that I..." She trailed off again, a guilty frown adorning her face.

"Um... What did you do, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, her timid voice was overwhelmingly loud in the silent room.

"I... I went through her stuff," The room gasped, "I just wanted to know why she did the things she did! I know it was wrong... But my curiosity got the better of me..."

Rarity brought a hoof over her muzzle, "Even so, Twilight. Going through another pony's belongings is wrong."

"I know. I screwed up... The worst part is that she walked in while I was going through her stuff..."

"I know... She was really upset. Even worse than that, she was hurt... I know it's hard to imagine, what with her being as stoic and scary as she can be... but I swear that look in her eyes was by far the worst part of the whole thing."

The room lapsed into silence. Nopony knew exactly what to say to that, but one thing was clear: They all felt bad for Tempest.

"Huh. So I guess that's why she seemed to be a grumpy goose this morning." Pinkie piped up.

"Shucks, Rainbow. It just happened yesterday. I doubt she's gonna get over it just like that." AppleJack commented.

"She's going to be angry about it for a while, I know that much... Even so, Rainbow is right. There has to be a way for me to at least make this right. That's sorta why I asked you all hear so early. Originally, I wanted Tempest here so that I could try to gauge her mood before I proposed anything... but I think I already got what I needed to know from an extremely short conversation with her earlier this morning... Anyways, it would really mean a lot to me if you guys could help me fix this." Twilight explained.

"Well... Tempest does need some friends... I'd love to help." Fluttershy quietly asserted.

Twilight surveyed her friends for a few moments while a gentle smile tugged at her lips, "Thank you all so much. You're the best friends a girl could ask for."

The girls all shared Twilight's smile for a moment before Spike decided to chime in.

Everypony in the room furrowed their brows in thought over the dragon's question. Twilight in particular scrunched her muzzle up as she tried to come up with some way to make it up to the broken unicorn.

"Well... What if we got her something? I'm not saying we can buy her forgiveness, but something that has a lot of sentimental value might show her that we all care." Twilight suggested, a little bit of excitement worming its way into her voice.

"True, although like we said earlier, Tempest isn't quite keen on having many personal possessions." Rarity rebuked.

Twilight deflated immediately, "That... that's a good point. Darn it... Anypony else got any ideas?"

"I could get her into a WonderBolts show?" Rainbow said, shrugging her shoulders.

"Well watching the WonderBolts always makes me feel better..." Rainbow muttered as she sagged back into her chair.

"And Tempest is has darn near nothin in common with you, Rainbow. She doesn't like watching pegasi do fancy-smancy tricks." AppleJack commented.

Once more everypony in the room lapsed into silence as they thought over the answer to that question. This time, it was Pinkie that broke the quiet.

"Well... She does like smoothies. Spike and her came by yesterday like Twilight said." She said.

"I don't think smoothies are gonna solve this one, Pinkie." Twilight replied, sinking further into her chair.

"Well there has to be something that that mare likes doing!" Rainbow nearly shouted.

"Darling, she has a broken past. She didn't really have the time to enjoy much of anything. If I were being honest, I'd have to say that I think she genuinely enjoys fighting. At least... She seems very good at it." Rarity rebutted.

"Well we're not going to encourage her to go around and fight with ponies. I'm not even sure there's any way for us to encourage that behavior without being hugely irresponsible." Twilight replied.

"Was there anything that you found in that crate you mentioned? I mean, there has to be something from her past that she enjoys, right?" Rainbow pressed.

"I'm afraid not... all I found was some extra armor, clothes, and a few brushes." Twilight replied, pointedly refraining from mentioning the journal.

"Well who else has talked to her lately? I mean, somepony should have, right?" Pinkie suggested.

Twilight's gaze fell to the floor for only a moment before a sound caught her ear. She followed the extremity as it twitched and soon found her gaze pointing at Spike while he munched away at a gem-encrusted muffin. At her gaze, and soon everypony else's in the room, Spike hesitated mid bite.

"Spike, we're trying to think of ways to help Twilight here... You're just kinda munching away at a muffin." Rainbow asserted.

"Well excuse me! I'm hungry. It's early and last night was a long night. We can still think while I eat, jeez..." Spike begrudgingly replied after finishing his muffin.

"Hold on a second..." Twilight said, "Tempest went with Spike yesterday to get smoothies..." She recounted.

"Well, she got along with him pretty well, and told him a lot about her past, didn't she, Spike?" She asked.

"Well, uh... I mean, she was hesitant to talk about certain stuff, but she told me a decent amount when I asked her and didn't press too hard." Spike recalled, scratching the back of his neck.

"So maybe you could get some more information out of her, right?" Twilight pressed.

"Yeah! That's it. She actually likes Spike. All he has to do is figure out what she likes and tell us, and then we just give her that thing!" Rainbow excitedly proclaimed.

"Perfect idea, darling. Spikey, could you do that for us? We'd be forever grateful." Rarity chimed in.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll go find her." Spike said as he hopped off his chair and walked toward the door, "You just better get me something nice for all this trouble on a Sunday morning." He called back as he headed outside.

"Wait, Spike! You don't have to go now!" Twilight shouted, but her voice failed to reach him, as the doors were already closed.

As the ponies in the room watched the purple dragon make his exit, one thing was apparent on almost all of their faces: confusion.

"Ah haven't seen him that upset in a while. Did somethin' happen with Spike too, Twi?" AppleJack asked, tilting her head to the side.

"No... It's my fault. I've just been asking a lot of him lately, including breakfast... Which we kind of just asked him to leave from. He's seventeen already, so he's also a bit more easily aggravated these days. I hope he's not too upset..." She explained.

"Well, while we're waiting for Spike to return with the information on Tempest, why don't we do something nice for him in the meantime?" Rarity suggested.

"Oh OH OOOOH! I have the perfect idea!" Pinkie cheered, readying her party cannon.

Spike walked along the dirt road through Ponyville with one thought on his mind. He was annoyed. About everything.

"First I get woken up at five in the frickin morning to make breakfast for everypony... Then I have to deal with Pinkie practically screaming in my ear as soon as she shows up... And now they don't even let me finish breakfast that I made before kicking me out to go look for Tempest..." Spike muttered to himself, "Tempest... where would she even be? It's not like she knows Ponyville very well yet. She's only been here for a couple weeks."

The purple dragon walked into the town square and stopped. He brought one claw to his hip, and this other to scratch his chin as he pondered on the many possible locations the mulberry unicorn could have run off to. He turned to face Sweet Apple Acres and tried to imagine any reason for Tempest to head in that direction. He bit his lip as he thought over it, but eventually couldn't find a good reason to search that way and turned around to face the Everfree forest.

"Now I know she could hold her own in there... But I don't think she'd want to go in there... Unless she's just fighting monsters to take out some anger... Nah." Spike dismissed.

He turned yet again toward the town park. There were dozens of ponies out and about, making their way to and from the park, and after reconsidering the previous two options, Spike decided to make way for the park. He headed off without another word, and soon found himself walking alongside Lyra and Bon Bon. The mint coated unicorn seemed afraid of something, if her jittery appearance and constant glances side to side were anything to go off of. At one point she almost seemed to be hiding behind Bon Bon's cream colored coat while they approached the park entrance.

"Yeah, she passed through about fifteen minutes ago. I think she's on the far side of the park. Let's stay away from that side." Bon Bon replied.

Both Lyra and Bon Bon turned to face him before looking behind their backs and back to him again. Spike raised his eyebrow at the attempt at secrecy before the Bon Bon spoke.

"That... Tempest pony... You know, the one with the broken horn." She explained.

Spike's spirits immediately rose at the prospect of not having to search for Tempest all day.

"Oh, perfect! I was just looking for her." He said before departing from the group and heading into the park.

"Wait, what!? Why are you looking for her!? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Lyra questioned as Spike walked away.

"Uh, no? I just need to talk to her. Besides, you know she lives in the castle with me, right?" Spike asked, giving her a confused look.

"Wait, that evil pony lives with you and Princess Twilight?!" Both Lyra and Bon Bon shouted in unison.

Spike cringed at their volume before sighing, "Yeah, she lives with us. Believe me, I still don't fully trust her either, but I need to talk to her." He declared, turning back around and heading into the park.

Lyra and Bon Bon looked at each other for a moment before shaking their heads and turning away from the park.

Spike wondered through the far side of the park for a while with no luck. He searched low and high, near and far, but could find no trace of the broken unicorn anywhere in the park. Despite his best efforts, she seemed to completely allude him without even knowing she was being searched for.

A lone tree to his left caught Spikes attention, and as the mid-morning sun reigned down on him, he decided to take a quick nap under the shade of the tree. He quickly walked over to the darkest side of the tree and sat down, laying his back against the tree. He sighed in contentment as his body began to sag and he began to drift off to sleep. That is, until a gentle sound caught his ears.

"Hmm?" He grumbled, not happy about some strange sound rousing him from his rest.

There was no reply, although now that he was more awake, he could actually place the sound. It sounded like soft breathing. He looked all around him for the source of the sound but found nothing, not even on the direct other side of the tree. He scratched his head in confusion before a thought dawned on him and he looked up. Not even three feet above his head, was Tempest, sleeping soundly on the branches of the tree.

She was wearing all of her armor and appeared to be slightly wedged into the branches in such a way that she actually looked fairly comfortable. Her closed eyes and soft breathing were the only indication that she still hadn't noticed him or woken up.

Spike scratched his head for a moment, "Huh? How did I not see her?" He asked himself.

"Hmm, probably because you were just as tired as I am and didn't think to look up?" Tempest answered for him.

"Oh... alright. Uh... You alright?" Spike asked, scratching the back of his neck again.

"Well uh... Why are you up in the tree though? Wouldn't the ground be a bit more comfortable?" Spike pressed.

"I figured this way ponies wouldn't be as inclined to avoid the park entirely. Some might not even notice that I'm here."

"Huh... Okay. Well... This side of the park is kinda deserted. You wanna come down here?" Spike asked.

With that, Spike took up his resting position under Tempest and set about taking his nap. She eyed him curiously for a moment before shrugging slightly and relaxing back into her makeshift nest. Within a matter of minutes, the purple dragon was softly snoring under the mulberry unicorn, and she couldn't help the thin smile that traced her lips at their current situation. Only a minute later, she joined him, and they rested peacefully under that tree until the afternoon.

A Place to Call Home

by CrimsonWolf360

Chapter 2: Breakfast