Silver strode through the city. On his back rode his wife, looking for all the world like some proud warrioress being carried to battle, which she was, he reflected. Her legs nudged at him when he should turn left or right just moments before he could get clues from the others, but those clues were subtle.
Those that accompanied them were distant and hidden. Only the briefest snatches of their darting forms were given. It was better that he got more reliable directions, he decided. The people of the city seemed to know something was happening. They said little, but shied away from Silver and Nefer as they went past. Conversations faded and eyes turned to watch them go.
Trouble was coming, and they were the center of it. How did they know?
Silver kept his eyes forward, or at least his head. His wide-set eyes could wander a bit without changing his facing much, if he focused on it. He could see the covert glances and the hushed talks, and how it stopped once he was past any given knot of people.
Anugyptians, Abyssians, and the countless other races, it mattered little. Silver snorted softly with sudden thoughts. Another simplification of the dream, that, thinking the felines all belonged to one race. They hadn't back on earth, why should Equestria be different in that?
The place they were approaching become clear as Nefer guided him away from the roads. They were entering what looked to be an old amphitheatre that hadn't seen much recent use. Jutting slabs of stone showed cracks and weather, but appeared quite solid. In the center, a feline stood. Abyssian, Anugyptian? She had but one tail, but that didn't really peg the species. Did it matter? Silver shook that thought away.
It was always good to know what one was talking to. "Is that her?" he spoke softly.
Nefertari's legs squeezed him equally from both sides, her answer.
Silver moved for her at an easy rate. "Hello." Smile and wave. It was a little lesson he had taught himself as a young human. If you smile and wave at something, how dangerous could it be? If you smile and wave, how threatened could something feel? Take the first step, just say hello, and you can avoid so much.
It had worked out well enough for him as a human, and he was still alive, as a pony, so he smiled and waved a hoof as he approached the she-cat. "I'm afraid I didn't get your name."
"I hadn't offered it yet," agreed the cat, a cocky smile on her face. She had Silver in her gaze, but with her slit eyes, she could have just as easily been looking up at Nefer as she was watching Silver. "Prince Silver Watch, if I recall, mmm, and I do."
Nefertari rolled a paw with a low snort. "Touting a person's name while refusing your own? What manners."
The cat waved back at the seats. "We have plenty of witnesses, I have seen to it, as have you. There will be so many to watch our dance." Her smile became more jagged as she pulled back her lips and allowed her teeth to show all the more clearly. "And we will give them a show worth coming for, will we not?"
Silver nodded softly. "One way or the other, but there is no reason for us to be rude. I don't even know you. I am Silver, as you pointed out. I represent Equestria, and I come with an offered hoof." He raised a leg and put out a hoof towards her. "What is it that you are fighting?"
The cat's smile became deeper, but more sedate, a grin as she gestured at Silver, her gaze seemingly focused on Nefer. "Your husband is so polite, it almost makes me feel sorry. An innocent soul, why do you put up with it? Have you gone soft?"
Silver could feel Nefertari's legs squeeze with her tension. "He is a warrior, proven. He approaches with softness, but you will feel the cold press if he cannot win through peace. You would be well-advised to at least try it the nice way, hmm?"
Silver's magic was spreading, seeping out. This would be their arena, and he wished to be fully aware of it, and those in it. He could feel the cat. She was shaped nicely, not that he was there for that. She had a dagger tucked at her hip Her clothing seemed of fine make, but strangely thin. Easily torn? Trying to drag her by it in a brawl would result in failure, and give her a chance to react.
She had something tucked in her bags. It was magic, echoing off his own. It felt like a canister of some kind. He didn't like it. "Tell me, what is it you want?"
She fixed Silver with her gaze, barely an adjustment. "You ask that as if you truly wish to know. The jackals have done much, made many enemies. They rightly fear the anger of those they once trod on, and make plans to escape that wrath." She flexed her right hand, claws springing free into the light. "I will see their scourge ended. Now, peaceful pony, how would you reconcile that?"
Silver flexed his magic, crushing the canister in a swift and brutal squeeze. It shattered under the intense pressure. Something fluid touched his magic and he could feel his power retreat from it . Whatever had been in that container did not agree with unicorn magic, but then, he had just disabled it. Had it been thrown at him...
The she-cat was suddenly all too close. "Tricky." He was cut with a raking of the claws of her right hand. He could see it coming, but couldn't react fast enough. The pain was a hot flaring of agony across his right cheek. He had been slapped, in the way that cats delivered such gestures.
Nefertari was in front of her, grabbing her wrist. Nefer's claws dug into the cat's wrist for all of a moment before the cat's other hand swiped dangerously, catching her across the chest, creating new slashes in her clothes and flesh. Blood from either of them lent the first moisture the old stones they stood on had seen in some time.
Silver played music across his horn as a performer might a flute, magic vibrating through his field with the power of his new spell, attuning it. "Stop, please. Both of you. We will talk."
The cat laughed at Silver's demand even as she tore her hand away from Nefertari. "The fight has already begun and still he begs for peace? Ponies are softer than I had even imagined. Come, let us dance, Nefertari. I know you will not disappoint."
Nefertari did not move, staring at her with a glare, but remaining still.
"Are you listening to him?" A low growl echoed from deep in her, tail lashing fitfully behind her. "Fine, I will dance enough for the both of us." She lunged forward, and began to smoulder. Her tremendous speed was turned against her, as if the air was a thing of incredible friction.
She could not move properly, and trying built heat at a dizzying pace. "You hide behind magic?"
Silver raised his head tall, even as he felt blood dripping from the painful lines she had given to him. "Just as you 'hide' behind claws and daggers. Now, tell us your name."
"Distasteful, but valid." She backed away, a few little steps taken without supernatural speed. "Since you insist, I am Lady Sheba. I have come far to see this completed." She pointed a still-extended claw at Silver, a drop of his own blood coming free. "You are standing in the way. Have you no concept of the things the Anubians have done to many nations, countless people?"
Silver nodded softly. "I will assume that you speak entirely true. They may have. Presuming that's true, would their departure not be a welcome event, not a doomsday scenario?"
Sheba laughed loud, a hiss mixed into the gesture. Her claws withdrew as she set her hands at her hips. "Truly naive. Do you think they will all go? You will take the weakest and kindest of them, leaving the worst behind. They will only grow harder and crueler." He felt her try to approach him, but the motion was aborted almost as quickly.
Nefertari barked out a laugh to match Sheba's feline noise. "And so you think you can excise us all at once? How foolish. Even were all Anubians in this city, this country, were to die at once, that would not be all of us, or even most of us." She clacked her claws together, though they lacked the fine points of Sheba's, they were sharp enough. "Some have already fled, and continue to do so."
The effort of keeping the friction field in place was considerable, tested each time Sheba attempted to dart. Still, it was Silver's job to do so, and he focused on keeping it strong and ready. "People are not... pests, to be exterminated. They can change, and are changing."
"Listen to you." Sheba half-lidded her eyes, gazing at Silver. With Nefertari not perched on him, it was much easier to tell which of them she addressed. "This is how you fight. You speak gentle words, get them to lay down, and have your way, making them thank you for the privilege."
Silver's ears spun back at the implication of those words. "I don't want to fight, and we don't need to. You want peace, in the end, right?"
Sheba gestured at Silver, her eyes shifted to look towards Nefertari. "Tell me he's good at least."
"Decent," Nefer half-scoffed, keeping her eyes trained on Sheba, her body tense with readiness.
Sheba clucked her tongue even as Silver began to turn red. "'Tis a pity I'm already moving to do as I said. Will you still love me, pony prince, after the blood of their people runs freely through my fingers?"
Those words sounded all too true to Silver. He took a step towards her, jaw set even as his hoof clopped down on the sandy stone beneath them. The sun's harsh gaze was making him sweat all the more for his effort. "Genocide is never right!" he hissed out. "There are better ways."
"Kill them all!" came a shout from up in the seats. A dog-like person rose from his hiding place, thrusting a fist in the air. "Bring peace back to the region, forever!"
Though he was the first, his motion inspired others allied with Sheba to reveal themselves. Cats, parrots, and other animal people all stood and began to shout their bloodthirst, ready to see the Anubians wiped clear of the world.
Sheba gestured to them. "You are loyal to your people, are you not? These are mine, mmm. What would I be if I did not give them what they wanted?"
Nefertari bared her teeth at the crowd. "An ignorant mass of chest beaters, is this the best you could manage?"
Silver shook his head, tuning out the increasing volume of the crowd. The Anubians remained hidden, apparently. He saw no sign of them. "You are not a bad person," he said to Sheba, forcing a smile. "You're not."
Sheba blinked at his words, momentarily disarmed. "You are my enemy. You should have a very low opinion of me, soft horse. Do you know how to anger?"
Nefer rolled a hand. "It takes quite some effort, but it is not foreign to him."
Sheba took a few angry steps forward, claws springing free. "How am I not a bad person, in your perspective." She waved one of her hands, claws glinting in the light, at the crowd. "To them, I am a hero, willing to do what must be done. To you, I should be beyond reproach."
Silver leaned forward, his delicate pony nose too close to those claws. "You are trying to make a better future, for more than yourself. You are trying to be a good person, and I respect that. Can we, please... find that better future, together?"