//------------------------------// // Origins Firefly // Story: Pony POV Series Origins: Queen Majesty // by Alex Warlorn //------------------------------// The inside of the wooden box was dark except for the small holes on the roof, too small for the pink filly pegasus to look outside but big enough for air to come in so she wouldn't asphyxiate. The last thing the filly remembered before waking up in this wooden box was the auction at the stables. Different colts and fillies, descendants from different mares and stallions, had been auctioned that day. Like all the other fillies and colts, the pink filly in the box had never met her mother or father, all she knew about herself is that she was the offspring of race-pegasi, and thus would be auctioned as such. The pink filly didn't remember much about the auction, she had been terribly scared the whole time. She never saw who bid on her or how much, and was glad when it was finally over. Then, the auctioneer placed a cloth soaked in some liquid over her muzzle, and the filly lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was inside the box. She didn't know where she was or what was to be done to her. She didn't even have a name since they didn't give names to fillies and colts that are going to be auctioned, only their linage is important to any potential owners. The box was thick and the pink filly could hear talking outside, but the voices were too muffled by the wooden box to make any sense. Finally, she heard a loud noise on one side of the box, and suddenly the side of the box right in front of her was taken away. The filly shielded her eyes from the sudden burst of brightness. "Oh, she's beautiful!" cried the voice of what sounded like a little girl. A human girl. The filly's eyes finally got used to the light. Outside of the box, there was a human girl on her knees and looking at her. She appeared to be in her early teens from what the filly knew about human anatomy and age. The girl's hair was golden in color and she had green-blue eyes, she was wearing a pink tunic and leather sandals. The filly stayed inside the box, unsure of what to do. "You can come out now. Don't worry, I won't bite." The girl smiled, extending a hand in a welcoming manner. The filly tentatively walked outside the wooden box. As she did, she found herself at the front yard, which belonged to a very large, luxurious looking house with marble columns at the entrance. The flowers in front of the house were beautiful and looked very well cared for, and the grass of the lawn was perfectly trimmed. The filly noticed that it wasn't just the girl that was with her. Two adults, a male and female, stood close to the girl. The female looked like an older version of the girl, and the filly guessed that these two were the girl's parents. Both of them were wearing leather sandals and expensive looking silk tunics. The woman wore bracelets, rings, earrings, and other shiny silver jewelry with shiny stones embedded in them. The male wore a red cloak over his tunic, fastened with a golden brooch. The girl turned at the adults and did a polite curtsey. "Father, Mother, thank you very much for your gift for my birthday." "Very good Aeliana," said the male to the little girl, "Now, why don't you take your new pegasus over to the stable?" "Yes, Father," replied the girl respectfully, she then turned to the filly. "Follow me, please, the stables are behind the house." The girl happily ran around the corner of the house, encouraging the pink filly to follow her with hand gestures. She followed the young girl, looking back to see the two adults walk inside the house. The girl and the filly made their way to the stable behind the house. It took them a few minutes since the back garden of the house was huge. By then the sun was beginning to set. The stables looked small, big enough for just one horse. The girl, Aeliana, opened the door of the stable. The filly timidly looked at the stable and slowly walked inside. "Well, this is it," said Aeliana. "My dad's name is Maximus Agrippa, he used to be a famous racer who won the Redwall Derby many times. He had an accident a few years ago and broke his hip. He’s healed now, but he can't ride anymore. But he teaches new jockeys, with that and all the earnings of his time as a racing champion, my family can live quite comfortably. So you don't have to worry, you'll always have food to eat and a roof over your head.” The filly listened in silence, not speaking unless told to, as she was taught by the humans who bred her. "So, what do you think?" asked Aeliana as she gestured at the stable, "My dad wanted for you to stay at the general stables, but I asked for you to stay at the house grounds, so he arranged to have this stable built here. Do you like it?" The filly looked around, there was trough with fresh hay and another with crystal clear water, there was also a salt block on the ground, the stable had a window so plenty of sunlight was able to enter it. "It's very nice," said the filly tentatively. "Really? I'm so glad you like it! I wanted you to stay in my room, but my parents said no and that it was either this or one of the city's stables. Do you like hay? If you don't like it I can get you something better." The pink filly turned to look at the girl, unsure of how to react. "I… I like hay, Mistress." "So, my name is Aeliana, what's your name?" asked the girl. The pink filly had been trained in basic etiquette on how to address her human masters, it was one of the basic things colts and fillies were trained in at the auctioneer's stables before being sold off. She lowered her head, looking at the ground at the girl's feet. "Whatever name my mistress wishes to give me," she said as she had been trained to do. The filly felt the girl's hands on her head, the girl lifted the filly's head and had her make eye contact with her. Aeliana was looking at the filly with a smile, "You don't have to do all that reverence when you are with me, and you don't have to call me mistress either, just call me Aeliana, okay?" "O... okay." replied a confused filly. "Now please, what is your name?" "I... I was never given one, misst... I mean Aeliana," replied the filly. Aeliana frowned. "Hm... I see. That's too bad. So, what name do you want to have?" "What do you mean?" asked the filly. "Well, if you weren't given a name, that means you get to pick your own. So what name do you want to have?" asked Aeliana again, encouragingly. The filly was overwhelmed by this question. She had expected many things after being auctioned off, but this? She didn't know what to say. The sun was almost completely set by now, the first night stars were appearing, some crickets started to sing. Suddenly a lone bug flew into the stable, surprising the filly. The bug's tail suddenly lit up with a cool yellow-greenish light. The filly had seen bugs at the stables before, like flies, roaches and spiders, but never something like this. "What kind of bug is this?" asked the Filly. "That? That's a firefly," replied Aeliana. "A firefly..." repeated the pink filly in wonder, "I like it... I think that’s what I’d like my name to be. Firefly," she said happily. "Okay Firefly, I hope we can be friends!" Aeliana hugged Firefly. The pony was confused at first, never having received such gesture of affection, but quickly returned the hug. Suddenly, the voice of Aeliana's mother broke the silence, as she yelled from the house's backdoor. "Aeliana, come inside, it's getting late!" "Coming mother!" Aeliana broke the hug and turned her head towards the house. "I have to go now, but I promise I'll come back tomorrow and we'll play. Good night, Firefly.” The young girl exited the stable and ran towards the house. As she reached the door, she looked back and waved at Firefly. Firefly waved back until the girl was inside the house. *** Aeliana was lying down in the grass and watching happily as Firefly flew around. "Wow, Firefly, you're very good," exclaimed the human girl. "Now watch this!" exclaimed Firefly, "I'm going to do a double inside-out loop!" "Firefly, you tried that one before and you crash landed, if you do it again you could get hurt!" "Here I go!" Disregarding the warnings of Aeliana, Firefly took high into the air and then flew down, and then gracefully moved in mid air to flawlessly perform the air stunt. Aeliana's eyes were filled with joy, and she ran towards Firefly as the pink filly landed. "You did it Firefly! You did it!" she hugged her and Firefly hugged her back. Then Aeliana gasped in surprise. "Firefly, look at your flank! That wasn't there before." Firefly looked and indeed, she now had a mark of two blue lightning bolts on her flanks. *** "Firefly, there was something I was meaning to ask you for a long time now..." "What is it? Aeliana, you can ask me anything." "I... I was wondering if you would let me ride you... if that's okay I mean." "That's it? Sure, come on, I'll show you just how fun it is to fly." *** "Firefly, my father was watching you fly around the house the other day, and said that you are the most promising mare he ‘s seen in a long time." "He did?" "Yes. He even asked me what my secret was in training you. I said that there wasn't any secret, that you were my friend, but he just chuckled. Anyways, he asked me if I would like to have you taken over to the Redwall Hippodrome and have you watch and train for official races." "What did you tell him?" "I said that I'll think about it. But it is your decision, Firefly, what do you want to do? Whatever you decide, I'll support you, and I'll also ask my father that, even if you were to train at the Hippodrome, your stable remains here, at our house, where it has always been." Firefly thought about it for a minute, then replied "I'll do it." *** "Firefly! How did your first day go at the Hippodrome... huh?" Aeliana asked as she entered the stable, where her father had placed Firefly once they returned from the Hippodrome. Firefly was lying down curled up into a ball, and from the dry marks on her cheeks, the mare had been crying for a while now. "Firefly, what's wrong?" asked a worried Aeliana as she knelt besides the pegasus. "It... it was horrible" said Firefly. --- After having been shown around the Hippodrome, Aeliana's father had left Firefly at the circuit's sidelines so she could watch what a pegasus race was, its rules and things like that. There was a large crowd at the Hippodrome of Redwall, as pegasus racing was the most popular sport in the city. A man blew a trumpet and the race was underway. Ten pegasi ridden by their respective jockeys, flew as fast as they could around the circuit and through the hoops, as Firefly watched carefully in awe. The race was going smoothly, but exciting, there were two pegasi, one mare and one stallion, fighting for first place, while the rest were struggling far behind them. Suddenly, a pegasus in one of the last positions passed through one of the hoops too carelessly, and hit his wing on it. The pegasus was a young stallion, he couldn't have been older than Firefly herself. the stallion screamed in pain as he fell down and rolled on the ground, his jockey falling with him. It happened right in front of where Firefly had been placed on the sidelines, she could see every second of the accident with vivid detail. The race didn't stop with the accident, however. The other pegasi and their jockeys continued, while the crowd continued to cheer. The ground consisted of sand and sawdust to make it as soft as possible in case of an accident like the one that had just taken place. The jockey quickly stood up, holding his arm in pain. A doctor, accompanied by security staff of the Hippodrome in full guardsman regalia of Redwall, quickly came over to him. The doctor quickly found where the jockey’s arm hurt. The jockey had a broken arm and would need a cast to keep it immobilized. He was carefully escorted out by the guardsmen. Meanwhile, a veterinarian, also accompanied by a pair of security staff in armor approached the fallen racing pegasus, but there was also a wealthy looking man in an expensive tunic that also walked over to the pegasus stallion. He was screaming in pain, his wing was twisted in a way that it was never meant to. Firefly moved her own wings tightly against her body, just watching the stallion was painful. The veterinarian took a look at the wing, he made a comment on how the bones had shattered and that it would never heal properly for the stallion to be a proper racing pegasus again. This answer made the stallion's eyes shot wide open, he started to shake his head in panic and begging. The veterinarian turned to the man wearing the expensive looking clothes, the stallion's owner, and asked him what he wanted to do with the pegasus. The man just said 'do it', and one of the armored guardsmen unsheathed a knife and approached the fallen stallion. The stallion begged, crying that he could still race, they could still use him as a breeder, but they scoffed at the idea of him producing more losers. Firefly watched in horror as the guardsman took his knife to the stallion's throat. Another man, in more cheap looking clothes, approached the pegasus’ owner. He mentioned he was a gluemaker and offered to buy the stallion's corpse for a handful of copper coins. The man accepted, and a minute later the corpse of the dead pegasus was loaded onto a wooden cart that smelled like death. --- "He was begging... begging for his life and they just killed him as if he was nothing," said Firefly as she finished her story to the speechless Aeliana. "I... Firefly I didn't know... I am so sorry, I..." she tried to put a calming hand on the crying pegasus mare. "Don't you dare say that you are sorry!" Firefly spat out at Aeliana, backing away from the human's hand. "At least before I came here I knew where I stood and what I was. I was raised being told that I'm just an animal, I can be discarded like an old pair of sandals or a broken tool." "Firefly... I never..." Aeliana began. Firefly didn't let her. "It’s the truth. You... you treat me nicely, and say you're my friend... you made me forget what I am, but today remind me... I’m nothing but a bird in a gilded cage. I’m your pet. I'm your property... I’m a slave." Aeliana looked down, closed her eyes and clenched her fists, "You're right... you're right..." *** Firefly stayed quiet next to the window of the house, so as not to be seen or heard by anyone inside. Earlier that day Aeliana had been brought to the house by a pair of Redwall's city guards. Aeliana's parents apologized to the guardsmen, then brought their daughter into the house. Her parents were furious at her, and they were arguing. Firefly got closer to listen. "First you tell me that you don't want me to take your mare over at the Hippodrome anymore, without any explanation! And now the city guards find you doing subversive activities!" yelled Aeliana's father, Maximus. "I can't believe it. My own daughter, an agitator in the streets!" said Aeliana's mother. "I did nothing wrong, mother! I was just handing out pamphlets at the city plaza," replied Aeliana. "Pamphlets that were asking for the release of all pegasi and to grant them citizen rights of Redwall! And they had the symbol of that radical group, the Liberatas Penna!" "The Liberatas Penna?" exclaimed Aeliana's mother in disbelief, "Those terrorists!?" "They aren't terrorists, Mother! They just want for pegasi to be free!" said Aeliana in her defense. "The Liberatas Penna have broken into several city stables and stolen dozens of pegasi!" said Maximus. "They didn't steal them, father! Those pegasi were being kept in harsh and cruel conditions and they were setting them free!" replied Aeliana. "Pegasi are just animals, Aeliana!" said Maximus, "What's next? Giving citizen rights to cats? Have a rooster be part of the city senate?" "Pegasi are not animals, Father! We just treat them like if they are, the way some treated our ancestors! They can talk and reason, they can feel joy and sorrow, they have hopes and dreams, they aren't animals!" said Aeliana. "I've had enough of this, young lady! I forbid you from seeing anyone for a month, and you'll stay grounded in your room until further notice!" said Aeliana's father. "Father, I'm seventeen! I'm not just a little girl anymore!" protested Aeliana. "You are living under my roof and live by my rules, young lady!" said Maximus, "And to get this nonsense out of your head, first thing tomorrow I’ll be selling your pegasus at the city central market!" "What!? No! You can't sell Firefly!" protested Aeliana. "I can and I will!" yelled Maximus as Aeliana stood up and ran towards the door, "Where do you think you're going!? Come back right now young lady!" Firefly saw Aeliana run out of the house, she galloped towards her. "Aeliana... I heard everything..." "Firefly! You have to fly away! Go! Go now!" "But, Aeliana..." "You heard my father! He’s going to take you away and sell you!" Just then Aeliana's father furiously ran out of the house. "Aeliana! Get away from that pegasus, NOW!" "Go, Firefly, go now!" said Aeliana. Firefly flew away from the house. She looked back as she flew and managed to see Maximus grab Aeliana's arm and forcefully drag her back into the house. *** Firefly didn't get far. The city of Redwall had a network of wires and nets that covered the entire city, spanning from wall to wall, and also from the many imposing watchtowers spread through the city. Redwall had no other mount, nor working animal, except pegasi. They didn't have Earth Ponies, or donkeys, or oxen, only pegasi, so having this network of nets and wires was an obvious precaution. Pegasi could fly upwards, but never over the level of the high city walls, or the watchtowers. She was quickly taken to one of the city's public stables, where "trouble" pegasi were kept. In there for the first time she felt the pain from being lashed with a whip, and beaten with canes. Her wings were tied against her torso with ropes, her hooves were secured with chains and reins were placed on her muzzle. She wasn't the only pegasus there, but they weren't even allowed to talk to each other, any attempt to talk was quickly stopped by the whip. She, and other pegasi, were fastened to a mill and forced to pull it to grind wheat, corn and other grains. She slept when they allowed her to and ate when they fed her. All of this was always indoors, there weren't any windows, so she didn't even know how many days had passed. The only source of information from the outside world was from listening to the foremen and guardsmen talk. That's how she first heard about the pegasi uprising. Apparently, several pegasi all through the city have escaped their masters and were conducting some sort of resistance against the city's authorities, attacking guards during their patrols, sabotaging different buildings, and other such activities. At first they weren't organized, but as time went on, the attacks and sabotage became more and more destructive, and also more and more organized. Apparently a single pegasus stallion, with a scar on one eye and a cut on his ear, had taken all the different subversive pegasi in Redwall and organized them under his leadership. The guards didn't want to admit it, but it was clear that the uprising by the pegasi wasn't slowing down. In fact, it was becoming more and more dangerous every day. This wasn't a simple uprising anymore, this was a revolution. And then one day... The keepers had secured every pegasi in the stable for the day, they were locking the double doors to where all the pegasi were kept, when suddenly there was a sound of someone falling to the ground, and the double doors were opened again. Several humans walked in, holding hammers, axes and other such tools. Their faces were all covered with cloth wrapped around their heads, leaving just their eyes uncovered. "Here they are, come on, quickly, before the guards come back," said one of the humans. The humans quickly went to work. Some began breaking the chains holding the pegasi, another group pulled out knives to cut the ropes that held down their wings, and the rest removed the harness of the reins from their heads. One by one, each pegasi was freed. Meanwhile, more humans began to open a door that the pegasi had never once seen open. The pegasi keepers never opened it to allow them to see the sky. One of the humans suddenly stopped in front of Firefly. "Firefly!" exclaimed the human. Her voice sounded familiar to the pink mare. Could it be? The human unwrapped the scarf from her head, revealing long blonde hair and deep blue eyes. "Firefly, it's me, Aeliana." "Aeliana?" asked Firefly in stunned surprise. Aeliana meanwhile knelt down and hit the shackle on Firefly's hoof, releasing the pink pegasus from her chains, "What are you doing here?" Aeliana took out a small dagger and began to cut the ropes holding down Firefly's wings, "I ran away from home and joined the Liberatas Penna. I've been spying for them, and helped them break into stables where pegasi were being kept." She cut the ropes loose from around Firefly. "It’s become more difficult ever since the pegasi uprising began, the town guards really had it out for us after that started. What did they expect? They treat pegasi like trash, of course they were going to revolt, who wouldn't?" "You ran away... you joined the Libertas Penna?" said Firefly, still in shock, "Is your group aiding the pegasi rebellion?" "We would love to help them, but as far as I heard, the pegasus rebel leader doesn't trust humans. Every attempt to contact them and offer our help has failed so far," said Aeliana as she finished removing the ropes, and started on the reins fastened to Firefly's head, "but we'll keep on freeing every pegasus from every city stable! We'll prove to them that we are on their side, that we want to help. We are a small group, but we have big plans." Aeliana pulled the reins from Firefly. "When I found out that you were being kept in here, I asked to be part of the group that was going to free all the pegasi in here." "A... Aeliana..." Firefly's eyes were wet with tears. "Firefly... I want you to know that I never considered you my pet, I never thought that I owned you. You were, and you will always be, my friend," said Aeliana, holding Firefly's head so they could see eye to eye. "I know Aeliana... I know, you are my friend," replied Firefly. The rest of the members of the Libertas Penna that had broken in had finished releasing the last of the pegasi in the stable, and were guiding them out through the opposite door to escape to freedom. "Sound the alarm! Someone is freeing the pegasi!" came a shout from outside. "It's those Libertas Penna scum! Get them!" came another voice. "It's the guards! They came back early!" one of the young members of the Libertas Penna rushed inside, "Quick! We have to take these pegasi out of here before they... ugh!" He was silenced by an arrow to the back. "Quick, close the door to the hallway, bar it closed! Hurry!" said another young man. The freedom fighters closed the door and set a wooden bar across it, just as someone slammed against the door on the other side. The alarm bell could be heard from somewhere in the stables. "They barred the door. Find something to ram it open!" came a voice from the other side of the door. A second later, something hit the door, hard. The door cracked a little. "This isn't going to hold out much longer. Are the pegasi out yet?" asked one of the masked young men. "Almost. The door is wide enough to let two pegasi out at a time, and there were too many of them in here, also some were in poor physical condition from being locked in here for so long and can't move very fast!" replied another one. Again the door was hit. Now the wooden bar cracked a little. "Firefly, now is your chance, go, go!" said Aeliana to Firefly. "What? No, I'm not going to leave you behind!" protested Firefly. Another hard hit at the door resounded through the stable. "Go! Those guards will kill you if you don't escape now! Hurry!" insisted Aeliana. "They will kill you too if they find you!" replied Firefly. "Firefly. Please. Please go," said Aeliana, her eyes wet and begging. Again, a hit at the door. Firefly looked at Aeliana and hugged her tightly. "Go, be free, my friend," whispered Aeliana into Firefly's ear. They broke the hug and Firefly followed the pegasi escaping through the door. She was the last in the line, but almost every pegasi had escaped. Another hit at the door, and this was the last one. The wooden bar broke, and the double door split open. A group of guards holding a hard oak table as a battering ram were standing on the other side. "Damn pegasus lovers! Kill them all!" ordered one of the guards, they all unsheathed their swords and charged into the room. "Protect the pegasi!" yelled one of the members of the Libertas Penna. Every young boy and girl, including Aeliana, stepped in the way of the guards so they couldn't reach the last escaping pegasi. The last thing Firefly saw before she ran the door with the last pegasi was a guard grabbing Aeliana and raising his sword. She was already out and in the air when she heard Aeliana's scream. She cried as she escaped as fast as she could. *** After that, Firefly joined the pegasi rebellion, and met Thunderstorm, their leader. He welcomed Firefly into the herd, and introduced himself as the herd's Alpha. He seemed a very efficient leader, and seemed to have organized the resistance in a military structure. No pegasi in the resistance seemed to know much about Thunderstorm's past, and he didn't talk about it much besides the usual stories of cruel human masters and the suffering of being a slave, but many assumed that he must have been trained for the city's guards or something of that nature. What everyone did know was that “Thunderstorm” was a name he picked for himself after the uprising began. Actually that's what most of the pegasi in the rebellion chose new names, since they considered their former names as their slave names. Firefly was one of the few that didn't change their names, since she had chosen her name for herself. Thunderstorm quickly realized that Firefly had potential. She was an excellent flyer and daring in the face of danger, so he made her a squadron leader. As days passed by, she heard news that the city's guards had completely suppressed and killed every member of the Libertas Penna, along with some other "pegasi sympathizers" in Redwall. This steeled Firefly's resolve to win. She stopped questioning Thunderstorm's tactics of attacking both military and civilian targets. She had seen and experienced how cruel the inhabitants of Redwall were towards pegasi, or even other humans that dared to speak up in favor of freedom for pegasi. Firefly didn't care at all, they all deserved everything that came to them as far as she was concerned. At one point in the rebellion, all the nets and wires networks above the city had been completely destroyed, and every pegasi had been freed from captivity and joined the ranks of the rebels. But Thunderstorm refused to lead his troops out of Redwall, he insisted that they would stay and continue the fight until every single human in Redwall was dead, and nothing but rubble and ashes remained. Thunderstorm's authority was unchallenged and unquestioned, so every pegasi agreed to continue the fight to the bitter end, even if doing so meant that some pegasi would die in the following battles. When the pegasi rebels had control over half of the city, and had killed almost one third of its remaining population, one of the Consuls decided to arrange a meeting with the leader of the pegasi rebellion to negotiate terms for a ceasefire. Thunderstorm rejected this and killed every government envoy sent to negotiate, even killing surrendering enemy troops. The pegasus argued that humans could not be trusted, that it was surely a trap, but that it showed that they were scared of them, and that victory for the rebellion was now just a matter of time. Finally, the last remaining humans in Redwall barricaded themselves in the senate building, in one final defense. The pegasi rebellion killed them all, then created a giant hurricane and thunderstorm to destroy and burn every building in the city. Once their goal was achieved, the rebellion ended, but Thunderstorm remained in control of the herd. His control as Alpha was absolute, he was more like a human "general" than a herd's Alpha. He promised them all a future of freedom and prosperity if they followed him. And it worked, every pegasi followed him. He even kept the military like hierarchy of the herd. *** Firefly found herself in an endless empty nothingness. She was standing on 'something' because she felt solid ground under her hooves. But she couldn't see anything but blackness all around. Suddenly, a single beam of light seemed to light up in the distance, and she saw a young girl. She smiled, she would have recognized that girl anywhere, it was Aeliana. Firefly immediately noticed that Aeliana looked sad, and then she looked away from Firefly. Firefly started to run towards her, but Aeliana seemed to be getting further and further away, Firefly tried to call out to her but it was as if something had silenced everything as she couldn't hear any sound, including her own voice. Finally Aeliana was too far away and Firefly was again alone, she looked down and did a silent scream as she saw her hooves were covered in blood. +++ "NO!" Firefly screamed out as she woke up, covered in sweat. She looked at her hooves, no blood on them. She looked around, she was still under the shade of the tree, at the oasis. "A dream... it was just a dream..," she said to nobody in particular. Firefly had been dreaming about Aeliana a lot ever since the herd started the drought to take over Meadowville. The dreams always ended the same way, with Aeliana getting further and further away... and never smiling... she never smiled to her, she never looked at her. The dream reminded her of life in Redwall. Aeliana had been her friend, and the last thing she ever did for her was to give her the chance to be free. And she died for it. Back when the rebellion was fighting in Redwall, she sometimes asked why they didn't help the humans that were supporting the rebellion and helped some pegasi escape from their stables, since the troops of Redwall were also hunting them down and killing them. Thunderstorm's answer was always the same, that humans couldn't be trusted, that it must be some ruse or trap for them to lower their guard, and that if they were really killing them, then better that the humans killed each other while fighting against them at the same time. She didn't question it, there were more important things at the time like making sure the rebellion succeeded. Besides, to her the only human worth saving had been Aeliana, and she was already dead. As leader of a flock she led many attacks against different guarded positions, she helped kill many humans, but once they finally took down the nets and wires that prevented the pegasi from escaping Redwall... why keep fighting. Were they really fighting for their freedom then, or just some sort of personal vendetta against the humans of Redwall? At the time, she didn't care. The guards of Redwall had killed Aeliana, she WANTED to kill them. Now she looked back, and she wasn't sure she liked the pony she was then. Aeliana had given up her life for her to have a chance of being free. And she was using that hard earned freedom to take away the homes of humans that had nothing to do with Redwall... “Is that... is that why Aeliana never smiles at me? Is that why she never looks at me? Is that... is that why I had blood on my hooves?” She looked at the sky, judging by the position of the sun just a little over an hour had passed since Thunderstorm left with the other pegasi heading to Meadowville. They would be arriving there any minute now. She couldn't let this happen. What they were doing to the people of Meadowville was wrong. What they were going to do to them now was even worse. She had to stop it... doing so would make her a traitor to the herd, but she knew that she could never live with herself if she allowed this to happen. And she knew exactly how to stop it.