@Amethyst_Crystal
 
I’m gonna go with skiing accident until I see some evidence that it was giant death bear.
 
she still deserves all the love and cuddles

@redweasel  
Ursa Minors are babies too (of Ursa Majors), and even so, a lot of creatures will leave you alone if you run away.  
That’s probably what Tempest did after getting injured so badly, and the ursa just went back to sleep.

@Background Pony #4081
 
according to the comics, the storm king didn’t even really have an army when they met. tempest probably whipped that army into shape all by herself, with some token help from the charlatan king.
 
@Background Pony #C8DE
 
it’s possible that tempest ran away before anypony could help her. but if you take her memory animation literally, then it seems the town was only populated by a total of four foals. you could say the adults were all working out in the fields, every single one of them, but that would be kind of a shitshow town, and it would make sense if she couldn’t find medical help.
 
that’s not the huge gaping unbelievable ridiculous absolutely impossible hole in her story though. how did she escape the ursa? her horn just got blown off! that thing’s paw was bigger than she was! and we’ve seen an ursa, so we know that is not an exaggeration! it just left her alone?
 
so yeah tempest fulla shid she probably broke it doing something stupid on a dare.

@Background Pony #C8DE  
Okay, that’s fair, there were signs. But there should have been fences, and guards, and maybe ponies need to not live next to goddamn space bears.

Also, there were warning signs outside the bear cave, several of them.  
But kids can be stubborn and stupid.

@Background Pony #4081  
If we are to take Tempest’s ‘memory animation’ during her song literally,  
it looks like she chose to leave her home forever,  
mere moments after her friends fearfully shunned her for the messed up magic effects of her damaged horn.
 
Given how traumatized and upset she already was at the time,  
it is entirely possible this is how it went down.  
She might’ve been long gone before it even got dark enough for her family to wonder where she is.

The real question becomes… what kind of shitshow town did she live in that even allowed a filly to run away to join the Storm King’s army? I mean, she was crippled, and noone took her to a hospital? No one was able to attempt to repair her horn? No one warned her to stay away from the cave of the goddamn space bear?