Elements of Equestria Ch. 7

[DivineMist1000 71,102]

Chapter 7: New Friends

Lee woke up with a cold sweat on his forehead and sat up immediately as he breathed heavily from the nightmare he had experienced. It took him a minute to remind himself where he was and remembered that he was in somepony else's house and his new friend, Tempest Shadow, was his gracious host. Lee had promised that he was gonna make it up to Tempest for her hospitality and he had an idea on how to do just that.

He got up from the couch and looked toward Tempest's door to make sure she wouldn't hear him. Lee went to the front door and quietly walked outside and closed the door behind him. The bright sun above shined on him brilliantly and felt a smile on his face as he walked towards the woods before him.

"I remember seeing a beautiful patch of flowers the other day. I doubt Tempest is the "flowers" type of pony, but I'm certain she'll appreciate it nonetheless."

Lee reached the spot he was talking about after a few minutes of walking and noticed the large pond nearby too. He went to the water's edge and saw his reflection bouncing off the surface of the water. He looked at his face for a minute and remembered his reason for being out here and a horrible flashback of him burning down somepony's house crossed his mind, but this only made him hold his head in pain and made a few tears well up in his eyes.

In a fit of anger, Lee stomped on his reflection and screamed as loud as his heart could allow. Afterwards, he collapsed on the spot and looked up at the cloudy skies above him. He closed his eyes and placed his hooves over his head.

"What do I do? What can I do to make this stop?"

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Back at Tempest's home, Tempest woke up and sat up with a loud yawn coming out of her mouth. She got up out if the bed and went into the living room to check on her guest that she had rescued the other day, but she entered the room and noticed that he wasn't there.

"Where did he go? Did he... leave?"

Tempest went outside and looked around the perimeter of the house for Lee, but didn't see him anywhere. She then looked to the ground and saw hoofprints leading into the forest and decided to follow them to see if she could find Lee. Tempest eventually made it a clearing with a large pond and, to her relief, saw Lee laying down on the ground next to it.

"There he is. Why is he out here?" Tempest asked herself.

Tempest walked over to where Lee was laying and he had noticed that the sunshine was being blocked by something and opened his eyes and jumped up when he saw Tempest standing over him. Lee standing up so suddenly also made him lose his balance and fell back into the pond, which only made him more frustrated now.

"Oh... uh, hey Tempest. Didn't see you there..." Lee got up out of the water and dried himself off.

"What are you doing out here Lee? Is everything alright?"

"What? Y-Yeah, I'm fine. I just came out here to... uhh, get some firewood for the fireplace." Lee rubbed the back of his head as he told Tempest this utter lie and he knew Tempest could see right through it.

"Right... Well, if you're done with the 'firewood', perhaps you can tell why you're really out here?" 

Lee closed his eyes and turned away from Tempest so that she couldn't see his face. Tempest tried to get a look at him, but she could still tell that something was bothering him.

"I know something's wrong. Why don't you tell me?"

"No, I don't want to talk about it. It's too... painful to talk about."

"Keeping it bottled up won't help you either. It's better to get these things off your chest than holding it inside."

Lee got more frustrated as Tempest tried convincing him to tell her his secret, and he suddenly yelled out at Tempest.

"YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND!!! I did something terrible to an innocent pony: I burned down somepony's house, left them and their family homeless and defenseless!! Because of me, everypony hates me and because of me, I can never go back to Ponyville! So now, now this is it for me, the end of the road, nopony wants me around and nopony cares about me!"

Lee fell back onto the ground, sitting in anguish with himself. Tempest listened to every word Lee said and she thought of herself and the things that she's done in the past. Tempest approached Lee and sat down beside him, but Lee kept looking ahead at the glistening surface of the pond.

"Lee, I do understand what you're going through. Believe me when I tell you that I do understand."

"No you don't. It was an absolutely terrible thing to do and I'm just... ashamed and disgusted of myself because of it."

Tempest looked away for a moment, wondering if she should tell Lee about her past, but she decided that it was the best way to get her own troubles off of her chest too.

"I've done terrible things too... I hurt innocent ponies, tried to take what wasn't mine, almost destroyed all of Equestria, all because... I was trying to recover something important that I lost."

Tempest placed a hoof next to her broken horn and Lee saw that Tempest was starting to cry, which made Lee feel sad too.

"Losing this was the most... painful moment of my life and something I've been forced to live with ever since. It nearly destroyed me and everypony else around me, but by some stroke of luck, somepony had helped me see the error of my ways and she had convinced me that my horn and my past wasn't worth all the pain and suffering that I had caused everypony. And after all that, for the first time in my life, I felt... free. Free of my burden and free from others controlling my life"

Lee felt tears in his eyes as he listened to Tempest, but remained speechless so she could continue.

"Now, all I want to do is make amends for my mistakes and I swore to myself I would do whatever it takes to set things right. I don't want the ponies of Equestria to remember me as the monster who almost destroyed everything... Anything but that."

"A monster? You? No, you're no monster to me Tempest. Even after all that you just told me, I still think you're a kind and caring pony who helped me in my time of need and gave me hospitality and friendship, so that's got to count for something, right?"

Tempest turned to Lee and smiled at him happily and Lee felt a warm feeling inside of him now.

"Thank you for your kind words Lee. It really does... mean a lot to me"

After a few minutes of silence, Tempest stood up and started walking back to her house, with Lee following her shortly afterwards. As the two of them walking back, Tempest asked Lee if he wished to accompany her into town to get some more supplies.

"I-If you wish to that is. It'd be nice to have some company..."

"Of course I'll go with you. I still got to find a way to make it up to you for helping me out."

"Oh, you don't owe me anything Lee. There's no need to trouble yourself with that."

Tempest walked into her house and grabbed her money pouch on the table. She then went into her room and grabbed her cloak to put it around her. Lee and Tempest then walked back outside and made their way to town together.

Chapter 7 is ready to go everypony! Hope you guys enjoy the newest chapter!

[Octavia Heartstrings 28,408]

Another great chapter! Keep up the good work, my friend!