Chapter 18: "Arrested By Choice"
A hushed silence fell over the dining room, as Twilight stood in a state of shock over Tempest Shadow’s decision. It seemed for a moment, that everything that Tempest had been doing up to that point was all for nothing.
The broken horned unicorn turned her attention over to the disapproving faces of Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash and then turned back towards a disappointed Twilight.
“Tempest, I forbid you from turning yourself in!” Twilight ordered as she rose to her feet and stared at Tempest. “It’s too soon, the crowds only want blood!”
“Keeping me hidden from angry ponies is not the answer, Twilight,” Tempest countered. “I need to accept responsibility for what I did. All I want is to redeem myself, but this isn’t the way. I have to show them I’m willing to atone for my past actions.”
“But…but, they’ll imprison you or worse…” Twilight stuttered.
“If there is a punishment, I will accept it because I deserved it,” Tempst protested, cutting Twilight off. “ I hope that mercy is placed on me, but I fear it will not. Whatever the consequences may be, I have to face them. Better to do it now than to let the wounds fester and grow.”
“Tempest, think about what you’re saying here,” Twilight spoke up. “Why? Why do you want to do this? Especially now?”
“Because I broke the law, Twilight, many laws for that matter,” Tempest cried, turning away from Twilight with a sharp jerk. “I…I met my parents in the dream realm last night and…they were just like all of Equestria, angry, sad and ashamed of my actions. But, they said that I can redeem myself. And that the way I’ve been going about it now is not working.”
Twilight felt powerless to act. Tempest did have a point: Regardless of motive, she was a war criminal, and war criminals suffered stiff punishments for their respective actions.
“Look, Tempest,” Applejack spoke up, a hint of understanding in her voice. “If you’re thinkin’ that we want you dead, that’s not the answer. We just want you to understand the severity of your actions. If there is somepony who deserved to die, it was that monkey who called himself a king. You’re not like him, you were only carryin’ out his orders.”
“But you can’t put all the blame on him!” Tempest protested.
“We know that,” Rainbow Dash remarked. “But, you do have to share some of the responsibility for what you did. The acts you committed are still war crimes, after all.”
“Exactly!” Tempest replied. “If you think that I can just deny what I did so easily, then you’re wrong! If there’s to be any hope for me to fully reform, then I have to do this for my sake, as well as your own! As long as I remain here, you could all be put in danger by your own kind for trying to hide me! I can’t ask you to do that.”
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Twilight asked, reluctantly. It was a rhetorical question, the princess knew the answer.
“Yes.” Tempest answered and Twilight let out a heavy sigh as she turned her attention towards Spike.
“Spike, send a letter to the princesses,” Twilight solemnly ordered. “Tell them that Tempest Shadow wishes to turn herself in, effective immediately.”
The baby dragon silently nodded and left the dining hall as Twilight and Tempest shared a long glance at each other.
A little while later, a platoon of royal guardsponies came marching up to the doors of the Castle of Friendship and once the sounds of loud knocking were heard, the doors opened and Tempest stood before them. “Lieutenant Tempest Shadow,” Shouted the lead guardspony, as several more guardsponies came forward to place chains on Tempest’s legs and around her neck, they then placed a muzzle on her face, just like the Storm King’s guards did to the ponies they terrorized. “You are hereby placed under arrest for major crimes while under the service of the Storm King. You have the right to remain silent.”
All Twilight could do, was watch as the now chained Tempest Shadow was led away from the Castle of Friendship. Her eyes welled up with tears at the reluctant actions she had to take, not by her own choosing, but Tempest’s. Every ounce of her being told her this was not the answer! But then, what was? What was the way that was best for everyone? Did such a solution even exist?
“This is for the best, Twilight,” Tempest thought, as she was led through the streets of Ponyville like a chained animal. “I needed to do this.”
Once Tempest was out of sight, Twilight walked back into her castle, her emotions getting the best of her as tears flowed down her face.
“Twilight,” Spike began, as she walked by him and her friends. “It’s for the best.”
But, Twilight said nothing and instead walked by her friends, sobbing quietly. At that moment, Sweetheart came downstairs. “What’s going on?” She asked. “I heard a commotion. And where is Tempest Shadow?”
“Tempest Shadow…just turned herself in,” Spike sighed, and even Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Rarity were beginning to feel something akin to sympathy. They still wanted to see justice be done, but part of them felt guilty for seeing Tempest be treated the way she had treated their friends and family. “Twilight’s pretty upset about it.”
“Why would she do that?” Sweetheart wondered aloud.
“Because…she was just trying to protect us.” whispered Fluttershy, leaving Sweetheart to try and talk to Twilight.
Meanwhile, Tempest was paraded through the streets of Ponyville as some of the residents who had once been imprisoned in Canterlot, booed and jeered at Tempest as she went by, voicing their anger and displeasure. Some were even going as far as throwing food and objects at her, which led some of the royal guardsponies to activate a shield spell around Tempest to protect her.
“Hope you rot in Tartarus!” One pony shouted!
“Give our regards to the Storm King, why don’t you?!” Another hissed!
“We’ll be glad to see you hang!” A third jeered!
The boos and jeers only grew louder as they neared Canterlot. In fact, the citizens of Canterlot were just as angry as the citizens of Ponyville. Cries of: “How dare you attack us!”. “Here’s a little something for you!”, “Monster!”, and even “Shame on you!”, echoed through the streets, with few ponies bothering to not be part of the crowd.
But, Tempest didn’t flinch at being verbally (or even physically from the pelting food) abused for her actions. In her mind, she deserved to be treated in this manner. “They won’t be satisfied until I face justice, this is the only way they’ll be able to heal.” She convinced.
The screams were heard all the way in the castle’s kitchen, where Grubber and Hannibal were working.
“What’s that noise, Grubber?” Hannibal asked.
“Sounds to me like someone’s…” Grubber started to answer and then realized who that someone was. “No! Tempest!” Panicked, Grubber raced out of the kitchen and tried to go outside to meet Tempest! However, he was stopped by several guards. “Let me through! Let me through!” He pleaded, but all he could do was watch Tempest be escorted past him.
Grubber couldn’t help but feel powerless to help his former cohort. “Tempest!” He gasped, but reluctantly waited until she was led out of sight
Soon, Tempest was led down to the dungeons and placed a cell separate from the caged Storm Creatures. The broken horned unicorn could only hope and pray that she would be given some sort of mercy for her actions.
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...That was...depressing.
Again,that was amazing.
Well, now it's time for justice. And the ponies of Equestria should all remember: "Justice is blind, not heartless."
I'm kind of hating how she thinks she would magically understand it when she sits in prison if she would already feels bad about it.
Huh? Now she is using Twilights words?
english isn't my main language but I'm not sure if that made sense what Rainbow Dash answered and I was confused on why Tempest said that in the first place.
to make your job even more difficult.
I forgot that you exist!!! Okay now I'm overdoing it, but yes he could have visited her and I was probably wishing for something like that to happen.
I.....liked that it was short?....no offense, I just hadn't much time to read and not much else I liked this time from what happened or how they are thinking right now. I'm not always good with words, but I want to mention I won't let myself be easily swayed to believe otherwise.
are the princesses going to pass judgment, or some other law group? if its not the princesses (which I would find highly unusual in a case like this), tempest is kind of screwed due to bias, not making it justice at all.
Did Nightmare Moon regret her actions s banished to the moon, no, she came back after a thousand years and tried to bring eternal night again, did Discord change his ways when he broke out the first time, no, he went strait back bringing chose and only changed his ways after he realised friendship was important to him, did Sombra regret enslaving the crystal empire during his imprisonment, no he tried again and it cost him his life fuck the comic, did Tirek learn from his mistakes, *everybody say it with me* no, he tried again, and he's probably plotting his revenge right now, and just now with that pony of shadows fiasco, I think we get it, prison doesn't magically reform you, and there's a big deferens between blaming yourself and taking responsibility