//------------------------------// // Chapter 129 - Tempest Emerges // Story: Dadonequus Discord (Book 2) // by CrazedLaughter //------------------------------// And so the four of you waited. Applebloom was happily anxious to meet Tempest, Scootaloo was a little focused steering the ship, and Sweetie Belle just sighed to herself in disappointment. “I wish I was older.” Your ears perked up to that. Oh, christ, Sweetie Belle, when did you become a hopeless romantic? She reads too many fantasy books, geez. She also didn’t seem to realize she was heard as Applebloom just looks over to her and asks. “Why? Ah mean, it don’t sound too bad since ya can do whatever ya want, but why now?” “Huh?!” Sweetie Belle said as she shook her head, taking herself out of her puppy love filled stupor. “Oh, erm, that’s why! I just kind of just felt like wanting to do things our sisters would tell us that we’re too young to do, that's all.” She said with a gulp. You could just let this one go. But when would you get any other chance to call her out on some super obvious bullshit like that? “You mean so you’d be old enough to get Capper as a coltfriend, right?” Sweetie Belle turned deep red as her eyes darted over to you in surprise. Hell, she nearly fell backwards from shock as she angrily shouted. “No! That isn’t it!” “Wha?!” Applebloom, surprised by Sweetie Belle’s reaction, and realizing she did have some of that kind of feeling in herself for him, used this opportunity to question her while trying to make it less obvious that she had said feelings, especially since she’d have competition if she acted on whatever feelings she actually had.  “It's true?! How could ya fall for him so fast?! We just met him!” “GYAH! I-I, erm, I didn’t really fall for him. I just like the way, I MEAN! Hey!” And that’s when Sweetie noticed Applebloom was blushing every so slightly, especially noticeable through her apple yellow coat. “You fell for him too! Didn’t you!?” “What?! I didn’t!” Applebloom said with a gulp as her face turned a deeper red. “Don’t know what yer talkin’ about! Like I said, we just met him. That ain’t no time to fall for anypony.” Scootaloo stopped steering the ship when she heard the commotion, looking over to the pair, confused. “Wait, didn’t you both fall for Anon on like, the first or second day you met him? Seems like plenty of time to me.” Scootaloo said, surprised by their feelings, and she herself feeling like she can tease them a little over it as she found it pretty damn funny. “Man, both of you better not fight over him. Heck, maybe I can ask Rarity to just make two really good looking colt dolls for you both to snuggle with tonight. Sound good? Because I doubt both of you are his type.” Scootaloo said with a snicker “Shut up!” Both Applebloom and Sweetie shouted. “Yikes, ok, woah. Just joking.” Scootaloo said as she rolled her eyes and went back to steering the ship. And you? You just started laughing your goddamn ass off. Holy shit, Scootaloo, that was awesome! Sweetie Belle, noticing you erupting in laughter, puffed up her cheeks in anger as she stomped over to you. “And what’s so funny?!” “You are, you both are! Like, come on, you both walked right into that one. It was great!” You said, still laughing. “Anon! Don’t be mean! You sayin’ you never fell for somepony you just met? Ah mean, what about Diamond? You just… Oh wait, ya didn’t. Er, that was me and her kinda fightin’ over yo-Ok, ahm just gonna keep quiet now.” Applebloom said as she backed off, blushing a sheepish and embarrassed smile as she turned away and whistled. “Hmph, mnnnn. Fine.” Sweetie Belle said as she rolled her eyes, admitting defeat. “I guess we sort of did. B-but, y’know, how could you not think he was great?! He’s so cool, and so smooth! He’s almost like a prince, but not. I’m surprised he doesn’t have a marefriend at all. Or, catfriend? I think maybe that’s what they’d be called.” Your laughter slowed to a snicker as you took the victory in. Oh baby… It is a damned good thing they will never call out your weakness to cute mares. Or hippogriffs, or dragons, or changelings, or other stuff. “I guess. Anyway, don’t worry about that love stuff right now, Sweetie Belle. I mean, really, you shouldn’t. Because at this rate, I bet if Chrysalis was a stallion bug, you’d have fallen super hard for her. You gotta relax.” “What?! No way! Why would you even say that! That would never EVER happen!” Sweetie Belle said, once again taken aback. You just shrug. “I dunno. I admit I did feel temptation once or twice for her myself, but nothing major. So, given my masterful willpower, I could only deduce that a male version of her would have had you head over hooves for her. Y’know, if she was a him.” “No way! Never ever ever ever! That’s like saying that I would have a crush on Scrappy then, since he is already a boy changeling!” Sweetie Belle shouts out, trying to retort your deduction. “Wait.” Applebloom said, something worryingly clicking off in her head. “Ya don’t, right? Because he’s like family and all.” “No! No! NO! I don’t! Ogh!” Sweetie Belle said as she slumped downwards onto her belly. “Ok, I get it. Just don’t compare me to my sister, ok? She always seems to fall for any good looking stallion, and I know I’m better than that.” You somehow doubted that, but you had enough of a good laugh to let it go now. Besides, you could always use this moment for ammo later in case anything related comes up. “I won’t, I won’t. Heh, alrighty. Hmm, Capper has been down there for awhile, wonder what’s taking him.” “I wonder how big this ship really is.” Scootaloo said as she decides to try flying in a circle “I noticed the hull looked pretty huge. I don’t really think this ship was meant to have such a small crew.” “Maybe, but looks like they’ve been managing just fine by themselves. If it was a problem, then ah would think it would have come up by now.” Applebloom comments, feeling it didn’t seem to matter the crew size as long as they were still able to fly the ship. “Yeah! Capper seems to know what he’s doing, and he did say he and Tempest have run into fights too. And yet, look, see? Not a hint of damage on the deck at all, none on the ship, and nopony is hurt. I think they got it just fine.” Sweetie said, ending her words in a long heartfelt sigh.  Hoo boy, she really is going to have to get over that crush. Suddenly, the doors on the opposite end of the ship burst open. Was it Tempest? Capper? No, what it was was a speedy little hedgehog rushing over to you, wearing an apron with Tempest’s face crudely drawn on it. It was Grubber, and he looked pissed. The moment he reached you, he came to a dead stop and pointed directly at you as he narrowed his eyes and said. “Yoooooooooooooooooooooou.” Wut? “U-uhh, yeah? Heya Gr-” But he cuts you off as he pokes at your nose and hops backwards. He was still pointing, looking at you with accusing eyes. “So, you came for a rematch. And of course, you came right before dinner. What, did you think you could have your rematch with Tempest and win just because she was hungry? Well, you better listen close, because there ain’t no way you are EVER gonna beat her. That’s right, you heard me, she’s gonna rip you apart and use what’s left of you to line her carpet.” Grubber said, exaggerating his movements along with his speech. He then notices the CMC, and groans. “Wow, you even brought cheerleaders? I mean, that’s cool. Anyone who is everyone should get to see Tempest in action. Y’know, in beating you down.” “Hey! We ain’t his cheerleaders! We’re his friends! And also, we didn’t come here for a fight! What’s wrong with you? Why would you think we came lookin to fight?” Applebloom asked as she took a single stomping step towards Grubber to try to intimidate him a bit, to get him to back off from you. But Grubber would not be moved as he looked over at Applebloom, tapping his foot impatiently as he pointed over to you. “Because why else would he be here? What, do you not know how bad a thrashing he got from Tempest the first time? Because it was a thrashing. It was so much a thrashing that you could sell tickets because of how good a thrashing it was. But I guess you really don’t know. That’s a shame, because the fight wasn’t even epic. He was toast the moment he put on that ugly horn.” Grubber said, nodding to himself as he crossed his arms. “I didn’t come here for a fight! Geez, relax! What, I can’t just come over and say hi?” Like holy fuck, why would he even be hung up about you having a rematch?  Grubber stopped for a moment, but still looked at you with accusing eyes as he backed off. “I guess you can do that, if you really mean it. Though that just means that you really still can’t handle Tempest. Doesn’t surprise me, she is the best of the best of the very very best.” Grubber said with a nod. “Geez.” Sweetie Belle said as she looked back at you. “How badly did she beat you up? Why did you two even fight?” “Well, er.” Interested in what’s going on, Scootaloo walks away from the wheel to join you and her friends. “Anon has told me that they fought because they were enemies when they met. Y’know, when they all invaded Equestria? But, uh, was it really that bad? I was under the impression the fight was pretty even, up until Anon lost.” Ngh! Goddammit! Now you were looking like a fool! Hell, the whole reason you did the training with Rainbow Dash was to better your body and your skills because of what happened with the whole adventure. But nobody needed to know that you got your ass fucking kicked on the word 'go'. “W-well, I guess maybe it was a little bad for me. Er, I mean, she did beat me. It was why I took on Rainbow’s training and all. Well, that and because of my fight with the Storm King. B-besides, if I remember correctly, didn’t my super spell knock you out?” “Puh, for like a second.” Grubber said as he swatted his arm forward and then down. “I still managed to keep an eye open. You were all like ‘pewpewpewpewpew’ and then Tempest was all like ‘woosh!’! Next thing you know, this guy here was nearly turned to stone.  I guess he got lucky with some other magic or whatever, but she still won, no contest.” “Wow, Anon, is that true?” Applebloom said as she and the others look towards you. “Er… Well, I mean-” But as you struggled to try to put the situation lightly. Tempest, followed by Capper, stepped through the doors on the other side of the ship and began to approach. “Oh, will you look at that. She’s here!” “Oh! Alright!” Applebloom says as her and the girls’ attention shift to Tempest. Yes, crisis averted. “Ah could just ask her how it happened. Since it sounds like she knows the most.” Goddammmmmiiiiiittttt! “Grubber.” Tempest calls out to him, though in a calm and yet commanding manner. Tempest herself, while sporting her usual mane style, had replaced her storm armor with a cool purple cloak that flowed in the winds high above the sea. It made her look like a cool anime wanderer of sorts. “You didn’t rush all the way up here to harass Anon and his friends, did you?” “What? Me? Nah, just him.” Grubber said with a snicker as he points over to you. “His friends are fine. They were just curious on how you beat Anon’s butt the first time.” “Ugh…” Tempest said with a groan. “I’d rather you didn’t just go blurting things like that out. That was a different time, when we were doing things that no one should have been doing.” “Awww…” Grubber said, as he hunched over in disappointment. “I know we’re not proud of it. But that had to be the coolest thing you ever did. You beat three legendary princesses, made the other run away, and then beat up this dope!” Grubber said as he pointed at you. “You were unstoppable!” “Hey! I’m not a dope! I made one mistake, geez, I didn’t know she was that fast! If I had unlimited magic, I would have won for sure!” You bark back at Grubber. You would have! Hell, a pink laser assault is normally enough to crush anyone anyway. Tempest just so happened to be skilled enough to dodge it all. And right there, you and Grubber began to bicker about the fight. As that went on, Tempest just brought a hoof to her face and shook her head. Not only did she hate being reminded about her time being a commander for the Storm King, but this argument she was witnessing was already dumb as shit. “I should have stayed below deck until they both got this out of their system.” Capper just shrugged, smirking. “I dunno. Ignoring the whole ‘Storm King’ thing, it does make you sound pretty cool.” “Yeah! For a unicorn with, erm, no offense, a broken horn to take down our princesses and Anon like that without a problem, you must be the strongest pony ever!” Applebloom said with a cheer, catching Tempest offguard. Tempest stepped back in surprise when she noticed the three fillies had approached her without her notice. And all three of them seemed to be amazed at just how strong and fast Tempest seemed to be. Or at least, what it looked like given the argument between you and Grubber. “Where did you, er, oh. You must be Anon’s friends. Mmmm, look, you shouldn’t find me amazing for what I did. Don’t you all realize I tried to take you all over for…” Tempest stopped herself as she shifted her eyes upwards towards her horn. “To restore my horn? Which that… Well, that wouldn’t have happened anyway. Still, what I did was wrong.” “But you are amazing! Who cares what you did in the past? Capper already told us what you’re doing now, and you don’t want to do bad things anymore. Anon brought us here so we can meet you, which means you must be a really good friend. And since you’re friends with Capper, who is a friend of our friends, then that totally makes you our friend! We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, by the way! I’m Sweetie Belle, that’s Applebloom, and the one in the hat is Scootaloo! It’s nice to meet you, Tempest!” Sweetie said, just as excited to meet Tempest as the other two were. “Yeah! And er, while Rainbow Dash is still the best, the fact that unicorns aren’t really known to be strong or fast makes you sound like some ancient master. You came out of nowhere and beat everypony without breaking a sweat. That must mean you must be the strongest unicorn ever. It sounds like nopony could beat you in a straight up fight. And I also know that your horn can also shoot super powerful shots. Must be really really powerful if you can even take down alicorns with it. Erm, and uh, I don’t mean that in an evil way, I really don’t. It just makes me think what would have happened if you were around on our side when somepony like Tirek attacked, or Sombra, or er…” Scootaloo stopped herself for a moment. She wanted to say Chrysalis, but she knew that’s upset you if you heard it, so she kept it to herself. “Discord! Y’know, when he was evil. I bet you could have taken them all down without breaking a sweat.” “Ya know, I bet she could have! Especially with the way Grubber described it. Dodgin’ a million lasers from Anon? Tirek wouldn’t have stood a chance.” Applebloom said with a nod. “See? What did I tell you Tempest? You’re popular now, to the point that it looks like they’d want you around whenever the next big disaster happens.” Capper said with a wink, nudging her a little with his elbow. “I…” Tempest stopped herself when she realized these three fillies seemed to automatically ignore the atrocities she had committed. Not only that, they already seemed so excited to be her friend and talk with her. Hell, they even wanted to see her trounce some bad guys. They made her sound like a big hero, an ultimate warrior, and a nice mare all at once. “You all really want to be my friend, really?” “Yeah!” They all cheered. Hell, that is the reason they were there, and they were already excited to have her as one. Capper leaned in and whispered in Tempest’s ear. “C’mon, give em a chance. They already gave you one.” Tempest nearly let out a single tear as the argument between you and Grubber began to vanish from her mind. She just looked down at the happy little fillies and nodded, a gentle smile coming forth from her own muzzle. “T-then, I’d love to have you as my friends too.”