All My Failures

by gmoyes

Chapter 1

Tempest groaned as she rolled over in the too small bed, her ears assaulted by the sound of cheers and noisemakers coming from outside the rundown inn she was currently resting in. While the yells melded into one another and dulled by the thin walls of her room, Tempest had no doubt about what the celebration was about. It was what all of Equestria was celebrating for the last week.

The defeat of the Storm King. The Friendship festival. Negotiating new diplomatic relationships with the Hippogriffs.

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, befriending the Storm King’s commander.

“Why are you saving me?”

“Because this is what friends do.”

Tempest twitched her ear and with a sigh of defeat, climbed out of the moth-eaten quilt. Her mind was fuzzy and her body ached, tired from travelling all of the day before and sore from the cramped sleeping conditions. Still, she’d experienced worse. Images flashed through her mind of holes and hovels she had to deal with when traveling outside of Equestria. At least this inn was warm and dry.

She glanced over at her armour piled on a rickety wooden chair sitting in the corner of the room. Even with the defeat of the Storm King, she had kept the barding and horseshoes. They were familiar, kept her safe. They reminded her of her when she was at her strongest, with a whole army at her command. A symbol of status, meaning... and it kept old scars hidden. But now, looking at the cyan horns on the armour’s flank, Tempest swore she could see the the Storm King’s eyes glaring at her.

“But we- we had an agreement!”

“Get with the program! I used you. It’s kinda what I do!”

Tearing her eyes away from the twin horns, she spent a moment to think about what her next move would be. She had told Princess Twilight that she would travel Equestria to tell ponies about the defeat of the Storm King and what she had learned about the magic of friendship. The former was moot as the newspapers were flooded about what had happened in Canterlot and the entire world knew something was wrong with the Princesses when the Storm King was playing with the sun and moon. Then again, that sort of thing happened more often than one would expect.

As for learning about friendship… what did she really learn? Twilight took pity on her and at that point the Storm King was everyone’s enemy. Is ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ really the lesson here? She wasn’t even sure why she took the crystal orb than was meant for Princess Twilight and her friends at the end there. Was it to protect the ponies she had mercilessly hunted for several days, or her being so bent on revenge against the Storm King’s betrayal that she just had to take him down even at the cost of her own life? What did the Princess of Friendship see in her that was worthy of being called a friend?

“Oh, the Princess of Friendship. With no friends!”

Thinking about it wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She fell back into a familiar routine, a brief grooming followed by her examining her armour for signs of wear. Besides a loose flank plate that could wait to be reinforced, everything seemed to be in order. Slipping on her barding and shoes was second nature by now. But today, the armour clutched to her barrel, feeling unusually tight. And her shoes were freezing. Perhaps the armour did change.

Feeling somewhat presentable, she turned towards a dirty mirror propped up on an old dresser to appraise herself. A scowl stared back at her. It was a familiar look and she stared back. Even after all she had been through, her face hadn’t changed. The jagged stump of her horn, the pale line across her eye. Gazing back at herself, she could see what could have been, what should have been. Her horn was whole, her coat unmarred by scars. An image that she had always dreamed about, but never seen since she was a little filly.

“Are you sure you want to go in there?”

“Hah, I’m not scared of some old cave. I’ll go get our ball!”

Tempest gave a snort and walked out of the room, her metal shone hooves impacting heavily on the wooden floor. Trotting down the hallway, she found herself in the lobby. Behind the front desk was a dark brown Earth Pony stallion. The innkeeper gave her a greasy smile that did not belong within the borders of Equestria. “Enjoy your sleep?” he asked, with a taunting tone. She could tell he knew the answer anyway.

In reply, Tempest glared at the stallion and channelled her magic, causing sparks to flare off her horn. The stallion’s grin swiftly fell and he took a cautious step back. After holding her gaze for a moment, Tempest left the inn without a word. She only ended up in that dump because she was barred from entering the better inn across town and she still had to pay double the rate to get the room she got here. At least when she was at the head of the Storm King’s army she got respect.

“Why, aren’t you a cutie wootie pony wony!”

TZZZZZAP!

Even in Equestria there are those looking to take advantage of others. Stepping on the street, Tempest could see masses of ponies milling around enjoying themselves. Tempest gave the crowd no attention, she already knew what to expect. It was typical small town Equestria. Farmers selling their produce, merchants hawking their wares and a couple of weather ponies shifting clouds in the sky. The fact that there was a party going on wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Ponies seemed to take any excuse to have a good time.

Before she left Canterlot, she had made the mistake of asking Princess Twilight’s friend and event organizer Pinkie Pie about how many holidays Equestria had. A couple of hours later Princess Twilight had to rescue her from the verbal barrage that Tempest was sure could’ve gone on for several more hours. Apparently, between national holidays, local festivals, birthdays and days celebrating every little thing from pies to oaks, there were more parties than there were days in a year. Who knew what these ponies could do if they spent all the time they use partying for other pursuits.

"All this power, wasted on parties."

Tempest kept her head low. She knew she was much too distinctive to hide in the crowd, but really, it was so she didn’t have to look anypony in the eye. She knew what she’d see in the faces of those who saw her. Fear. Anger. Pity. The former two she could work with, those were tools she could use. But pity… She was sick with pity. Pity for her broken magic, pity for being an outcast. And now, pity for being a tool for the Storm King.

But even her head down, something caught her eye. Parked in the market was a large carriage, dressed up like a home. It had chipped and faded blue paint and a set of worn wooden steps leading inside. There was also a sign posted right outside, its paint just as old as the wagon.

Oracle

Pasts and Futures Revealed

The sight reminded her of a wagon that the Storm Guards had found in Canterlot. It was apparently the home of a traveling showmare who seemed to have a large collection of fireworks. She had to be quite stern with Grubber and a few of the Stormguards who wanted to play with them.

“But I have good news! One word: Sponge Cake.”

TZZZZZAP!

Tempest felt oddly drawn to the carriage. It looked somehow both out of place and right at home. But the sign intrigued her. She had certainly heard of mediums and astrologers using whatever means they had to sucker in creatures to give false hope and make a few bits. She never held much stock in such matters, she preferred to set her own destiny. But now, with her past forgiven and her future out of her hooves, it may be time to have a hint on what she is supposed to do.

“Hello?” she called as she stuck her head through the door. She saw that the carriage was as well lived in on the inside as it was on the outside. There were shelves cluttered with junk, a pair of oversized armchairs taking up the bulk of the floorspace and a faded map of Equestria hung up on a wall. But it seemed that the main attraction, this so-called Oracle, was busy with a small kitchenette at the back of the wagon. The Oracle was an old unicorn mare with a pale grey coat with a mane of a lighter shade of grey with some dark streaks through it. The mare didn’t seem to notice Tempest’s arrival.

Tempest cautiously walked up behind the older mare. “Are you the Oracle?”

The mare glanced behind her and gave a jump that ended with her as a heap on the ground as she realized just who was behind her. “Sun and Moon! You gave me a fright!”

Tempest froze for a moment, but looking at the other mare she saw that beside her shaking breaths that were starting to slow, she didn’t seem scared of her. “I’m sorry,” she said, helping the other unicorn to her hooves.

“No, I’m sorry,” replied the old mare as she regained her balance. “My hearing isn’t as good as it used to be.” She brushed some dust off her flank, but the action drew Tempest’s attention to the mare’s cutie mark: a gold coin with a turquoise eye in the middle of it.

“Open up your eyes!”

Tempest shook her head. “I saw your sign outside. Are you really an oracle? Can you really see the future?” A hint of skepticism entered her voice, thoughts of various scams she had encountered throughout her travels.

The mare gave a soft chuckle. “Oracle is my name, but a fitting one nonetheless. I help ponies in need of guidance. Ponies such as yourself, Tempest Shadow.”

Tempest froze for a moment wondering how Oracle knew her name, but then noticed a stack of newspapers sitting on a shelf. “How cute,” she dryly responded. “My name has been printed all across Equestria. You’re going to have to do better than that to convince me that you have any sort of special powers.”

Oracle gave a short shake of her head. “Oh no no, I freely admit I saw you in the papers. However, my abilities tell me that you need my help. As well as few insights into you. For example,” she continued with a coy smile, “your name is no more Fizzlepop Berrytwist than a butterfly is a caterpillar.”

“You know, Tempest isn’t really my name.”

“Oooooh! What is it?!”

“What?” Tempest asked stunned. She only told her old name to Princess Twilight and her friends, and while she wasn’t sure that they were trustworthy enough to keep that under wraps, she was certain it hadn’t leaked to the public so far.

“Then again,” Oracle continued off-hoofidly gesturing to Tempest’s chest, “it looks like you’re still in your cocoon.”

Tempest glanced down to her barding in confusion then glared at Oracle. “Listen, old lady, enough riddles and tell me what you want!”

“What I want?” she replied with a smirk. “You’re the one who came to me with a problem. One I’m happy to help with.”

“Oh yeah?” Tempest shot back. “If you think you know so much about me, how about you tell me what my problem is!”

“You have until the count of three to tell me where they are. 1… 2…”

“Oooh, this is intense.”

“You failed,” Oracle stated plainly.

Tempest blinked. “What?”

“You had it all. Power. Recognition. Purpose. And you lost it all through no fault of your own. Fate and Harmony intervened to stop your victory. You made some new friends, but at what cost? And you wonder if there could have been another way.”

Silence reigned for a minute as Tempest processed this. Oracle’s words echoed some thoughts she had, but never voiced. But having them said to her face… it made them all too real. “Yes… those have been some thoughts I have been having,” she admitted. “But what can you do about it?”

Oracle sighed. “I have the power to show ponies the might have beens. Things that happen when the coin flips to the other side as it were.” She smiled as she glanced back at her cutie mark, then turned back to Tempest. “Please take a seat and make yourself comfortable while I finish making some tea. It will help us relax some.”

Tempest paused for a moment to watch as Oracle picked up a kettle of hot water in her turquoise magic, wondering if the old mare had put the water on to boil before Tempest got here because she knew Tempest was coming. Shaking her head, Tempest turned to the armchairs and hopped up into one. The chair was actually pretty comfy and was large enough for her frame. Though she had to be careful not to poke any holes in the cushions with her metal shoes. It wasn’t until Oracle came over with her tea tray floating in her magic did Tempest consider that perhaps she chose Oracle’s seat, but the old mare made no comment and took the chair opposite Tempest, setting the tea tray on a small folding table between them.

“Milk? Sugar?” Oracle inquired as she doctored up her tea.

“Black is fine,” Tempest replied gingerly picking up her own teacup in her hooves. The old ceramic cup was tiny and delicate in her hooves and breaking it would have been too easy. Seeing Oracle take a sip from her cup, Tempest took her cue to take a sip of her own. It was a little bitter, but there was nothing quite like Equestrian grown tea.

After a shared quiet moment Tempest spoke, “So how are you going to do this? Crystal ball? Read the tea grounds at the bottom of my cup?”

Oracle chuckled. “Oh, nothing as primitive as that.” She shook her head. “With my magic, I can cause ponies to relive memories, then give them a bit of a tweak to see the immediate effects of certain changes. I must warn you, this process may bring up some painful memories. Are you ready?”

Tempest gave a curt nod. “I’m ready.”

“Good. Now then, I want you to think back to the day when you invaded Canterlot.” Tempest flinched slightly with how casually Oracle stated the matter, but the old mare waved it off with her hoof. “What was the first thing that went wrong in your attack?”

“Hyyyah!”

“Twiiiliiight!!!”

Tempest looked away from Oracle in thought. “...At first, things went better than I expected. There was confusion in Canterlot with the set up of the festival and a good chunk of the Royal Guard was out of the city running some drills in preparation for the increased security of the event. We made our threat clear and offered the princesses to give up their power willingly. We expected them to put up a resistance, but the princesses went down surprisingly easy.” Tempest hesitated. “Well most of them. A civilian took an orb meant for Princess Twilight. One of the Princess’s pegasus friends pulled her out of there before the smoke cleared enough to see the mistake.” She shook her head. “If it wasn’t for that grey pegasus, we would have had all four princesses taken out in less than a minute and all of Equestria would be ours by the end of the day.”

At the end of her tale, Tempest saw Oracle staring beyond the walls of the wagon with a smirk on her face. “Yes, forces beyond our understanding have taken quite the shine to that mare.” The old mare shook her head seemingly to shake off her distraction. “Well then, we have our first moment in time. Shall we?” She stood from her chair and ignited her horn. “Could you lower your head please?”

Tempest stared at Oracle. She had heard of unicorns channeling their magic into stronger spell if they touched horns together, it was something she learned in her research on how horns worked. And if the two unicorns weren’t in sync, it could lead to disastrous results. “Are you sure about this considering…” She tapped the broken base of her horn.

Oracle paused for a moment and gave a chuckle. “I don’t need another horn to work my magic. I wouldn’t be a good fortune teller if my spells only worked on a third of the population.”

Tempest hesitantly lower her head to Oracle. “Well, if you insist.”

“Besides,” Oracle continued, touching her glowing horn to Tempest's forehead, “the condition of your horn is irrelevant.”

Before Tempest could parse what exactly the older mare meant by that statement, her world faded to black.

Comments

[Lets Do This]

This is a great beginning to a serious Tempest Shadow story (as opposed to a Tempest-the-psychotic-loose-cannon-played-for-laughs kind of story -- there are way too many of those). Having written one of these myself, I'm really interested to see where you go with this, particularly since you seem willing to explore the what-if-she-won possibilities of the character.

It's well-written overall, and has nice use of color to unobtrusively flag flashback dialogue. A few of the later quotes from the movie aren't exactly right, but that probably only stands out for me because I've watched the movie enough times to notice. There are a few grammar glitches in the latter part of the chapter, but a quick edit pass would fix those.

If you'd like to bounce ideas for future chapters off me, by all means let me know. I've gotten to like Tempest Shadow as a character, and I'd be happy to help!

[EverfreePony]

I have to say, you have piqued my interest. You work well with the pace and flow of the story and your descriptions create sufficient atmosphere while also leaving just enough space for the reader’s imagination. Shivers were running down my spine while reading the Oracle part and I’d say that in general, you have done very well on the characters; Tempest still being considerably bitter and lost in this new world.

The grammar and spelling were solid with a few slip-ups here and there, but nothing too obnoxious. I applaud you on getting the rules of direct speech and dialogue right—such a thing is rarely seen in first stories. The only thing that annoyed me were the coloured flashbacks/memories here and there, as their presence weakened my concentration a little bit. Just using italics for that purpose is enough, for if my memory serves me right, combining more than one unusual font/form of text is against the rules of typography. Also, it was always more or less clear who is speaking.

Anyway, I’m curious to see what the next chapters may bring!

[gmoyes]

Thanks for reading guys!
9437512
Yeah I know some of the quotes might not be completely right, some of it is paraphrasing as I actually don't own the movie and might be miss remembering. Some more grammar issues in the later part make sense as I ran the first half by one of my friends, sat on that half for quite a bit, wrote up the rest when I hit a spark of motivation, sat on it again, then posted it simply so I could get more motivation. I'll certainly give it another look through.

I appreciate the offer of a sounding board, but that shouldn't be necessary. I've got a friend who bounces a ton of his ideas off of me and returns the favour from time to time. Gonna keep a few thing close to the chest for now.
9437527
Well, I wasn't quite confident in my descriptions and prose, but this certainly reassures me. Glad to see Oracle strike a chord.

Yeah, I don't have much experience writing, but a ton with reading so I have a general idea of what I'm doing. I'll admit, the colours thing was sort of a last minute idea to add a bit more flavour. I'll take it under consideration, but I think I'll leave it as is for now.

Also, have some cover art!

[EverfreePony]

9439697
You’re welcome! As for reading more than writing, that’s actually not a bad thing, if you can learn from the work of others, that is. To be honest, I tend to run around less frequented stories on the site quite a lot and let me tell you, stories of people that just write and read almost nothing usually don’t come out too well.

As for the colours, I see Lets Do This in his comment expresses a polar opposite of my opinion, so before you start considering it, it might be good to ask more people—in The Writer’s Group, for example. It might be better to know more about the general opinion, should you decide to put the story up for a review or publish it into a group that accepts only stories of certain quality.