> An Apology > by cornholio4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Canterlot at night and after the defeat of the Storm King (with him being now reduced to merely pieces of broken statue), the Friendship Festival was back in full force with Songbird Serenade giving the finale performance. Twilight Sparkle the Princess of Friendship saw Queen Novo in her majestic hippogriff form talking to Princess Celestia. It looked like they were having a pleasant conversation. Twilight trotted over and coughed to get their attention. "Queen Novo, nothing that I can say will ever excuse what I had done. But I want you to know that I am deeply for trying to steal your pearl, even worse is the fact that I used my own friends to distract you. I had let my agitation and desperation get the better of me but I shouldn't have done what I did." Twilight told Queen Novo with her head down high. Princess Celestia grew concerned and Queen Novo asked her "Princess, may I speak with your Princess of Friendship for a moment... privately?" Princess Celestia looked like she was going to say something but Twilight interrupted telling her "this is my mistake and I need to take responsibility for it. I will handle any consequences that this will bring me." Princess Celestia gave a concerned nod and left with Queen Novo excused her guards for the moment. "Your right, I don't think anything can excuse your actions..." Queen Novo stated but Tempest Shadow then barged in pushing Twilight to the back of her. "Hang on Queen Novo, please show mercy on her. She is a good pony who reinstalled my faith in friendship. She did what she did to save her home but I done far worst in serving an evil warlord in the hope he could restore my horn... While now realising he never had any intention of doing so or even knowing if he could... I sold my soul and loyalty to a king so give any punishment you want to give her to me." Tempest said putting her head down. "Well, look at who it is... looks like the two ponies who tried to steal my pearl are now besties." Queen Novo said out loud looking both crossed and amused at the same time. Twilight's eyes widened as she faced Tempest. Tempest looked sheepish and told her "yeah I was the one commanding the Storm King's invasion onto Mount Aris. The Storm King wanted the magic of the Pearl for his staff so I kind of pretended to be a traveller seeking hospitality so I could try and steal it in the night..." Twilight then realised if the Storm King did invade Mount Aris then Tempest being the one leading the invasion like she did in Equestria did make sense. "But please do not interupt me again. If you hadn't then you would have found out that while I am still angry about the attempt to steal my horn, I do understand you were driven by desperation to save your home. The same desperation is what led me to turn my entire subjects into Seaponies and move our kingdom to the water." Queen Novo her voice brightening up a bit and smiling. "You both want to make up for your attempts to steal my pearl... then there is one small thing you both could do!" Queen Novo told them with a big smile. "Please anything, I will accept if you want me thrown into a dungeon, banished and thrown into the dungeon to the place where you banished me from... then I will accept it!" Twilight told Queen Novo with a pleading look getting incredulous looks from Queen Novo and Tempest. "Not quite that far... Well you see I am thinking of renovating the Mountain since the Storm King is no more. Tempest, you could help clearing away the debris since you helped destroy the place." Queen Novo told Tempest and she bowed in acceptance. "Now I had gotten letters all about you from Celestia ever since you became her student, says you like books and organising things. Before we had to leave, our library was long overdue to be resorted so I thought then maybe you could sort it all out." Queen Novo told Twilight. Both the unicorn and the hippogriff stared at Twilight's still form before her bursted out into an excited dance around in a circle. She then started talking about all her sorting and organising techniques. "Wow, Celestia really wasn't exaggerating in those letters..." Queen Novo muttered astonished. *PB* Twilight's friends were speaking to Princess Celestia. "I hope the Queen is not too harsh onto Twilight, we kind of didn't take the quest as seriously as we could have..." Fluttershy muttered with them voicing their agreement. "We trusted Capper and he wanted to sell us, still he did help out when we needed him in the end!" Rarity muttered with Capper nearby looking sheepish. "If it wasn't for my Sonic Rainboom, we would have made it to Mount Aris no problem..." Rainbow Dash pointed out with a sad sigh. Princess Celestia laughed as she pointed to Twilight dancing around in a circle. "I think they reached their understanding." *PB* Once Twilight settled down she told Queen Novo "I promise afterwards, even when I am done I will still do what I can to try and earn your trust again. As a Princess of Equestria, I really should have known better." "You still took care of the Storm King in the end but I will still watch out for her..." Queen Novo muttered looking down at Tempest who held her head down. "Still I want to keep this as a trophy for my old throne room when I have it restored." Queen Novo said using her hooves to pick up the part of the head with the eyes from the Storm King's broken statue. "Plus if you ever want to visit, then I will allow it... provided you allow me to use my pearl on you for amusement. I wonder how you would look as a hippogriff, a griffon, a hippo or even a duck." Queen Novo told the two with them sighing and the queen laughing.