//------------------------------// // Family Feud // Story: The Faces of War // by Zero the Necromancer //------------------------------// Soliton Wave sits in a room with the most important military leaders of equestria. Captain Shining Armor, Sir Arthur and princess Luna are there too. She is here to advice the commanders, to tell them to what the humans are able to. But sometimes she thinks that every time she explains something it just throws up more questions. "Again, humans don't need magic to power their weapons. They don't need magic to fly and they don't need magic to be strong. They just are." "That's ridiculous! Every creature in equestria-" "Exactly. Every creature in equestria. Humans are not from equestria." "Why don't we just use on the Elements of Harmony. They defeated much greater threats before." "I'm afraid that wouldn't work. The Elements can destroy or cleans evil but the humans are not evil per se. They are...something in between", princess Luna replies. "That makes the crystal heart useless too. How do we fight something like that?", Shining Armor asks. "Simple. We fight the same way they are: heartless and unyielding", Soliton Wave says. "No. If we do that, then we would be just like them. We would lose our way of life", Luna says. "Well, at least we would be alive at all", Arthur adds. "I have to agree with Sir Arthur in this point. Our first priority should be the survival of our people", Soliton Wave says. That earned most of the leader's approval, but not from Luna and Shinig Armor. "You can't be serious! Are we using dark magic all of a sudden?! Or do you want to attack the human civil population?!", Shining Armor shouts. "I would be fine with the last one", Soliton Wave replies. The leaders begin to argue over what is the best course of action. The conversations soon turn into fights and anarchy breaks out. Until Luna gets the leaders under control again. "Everypony except Sir Arthur and Shining Armor leaves the room. You too, Soliton Wave", she says, now rather calm than before. Well, that's fine with me. The white unicorn trots out of the room and walks down a long hallway. The town hall of Manehattan is not as big and important built as the one in the Golden City but it's still beautiful. So is the skyline of the city. It's already night so the lights of the buildings and streets illuminate the city. There aren't many ponies out at this hour so Soliton Wave has much room on the streets. She goes to one of the apartment buildings and opens the front door with a key she got from a royal guard. After the evacuation and fall of the Golden City many ponies are without a home, so the princesses decided to split them up and give them a home somewhere in equestria. Even though, some ponies don't like the refugees very much. The door opens and Soliton Wave enters the stairwell. The apartment house is not what she's used to but it's more than nothing. Kinda reminds me on my student days... She trots up the starway to floor five. There she walks to the apartment number fifteen and opens the door. Inside is a small but decent living area. A kitchen, two bedrooms, a living room and a bath room. The white unicorn opens the the door to one of the bed rooms and sees her daughter sleeping. She closes the door quietly and trots in the living room. There is a couch on which lies a orange earth pony. Soliton Wave immediately graps the stallion with her magic and throws him off the couch. He shouts in response. "Wa-what?!" "What are you doing here?!" "Trying to sleep and give my leg a chance to heal, Ms. magic abuser!" "Oh, no! Not in my apartment! Get out! Go to your little bat!" "First of all, she's not a bat. She's a bat-pony. Second of all, I live here too. The guards gave me a key for this apartment." "Great! Because the day isn't bad enough already! Our leaders argue with each other instead of concentrating on the humans and now you have to live in my aparment, with my daughter." "Oh, yeah! Your daughter! I completely forgot! It's not my daughter! But thanks for remembering me why I don't have to pay aliment! And you call me cheater! Ha!" "Asshole! We could've been so happy together but no! You just had to ruin it with your damn paternity test!" "I ruined it?! I?! You couldn't stand a day without getting fucked! And as I was abroad you just fucked with that-that excuse of a stallion!" "You were off for five months! And you know exactly that it didn't worked with you!" "You tried to foist me a bastard!" "She's no bastard! She loves you!" Soliton Wave gets quiet. Tears are running down her face. She setps closer to the guard and strokes his face. "And you love her, I know it." The guard looks her in the eyes with a face made out of stone, then pushes her hoof away. "Don't", he says and limps to the door. "Where are you going?" "You wanted me to go, and now I go" The stallion disappears behind the door and leaves a crying Soliton Wave behind him. In the same time a small filly comes in. "Mom, why are you crying? Did you and Dad argued again?" Soliton Wave wipes her tears away. "No, honey. It's fine. Dad and I just need a moment for ourselves." "Last time you said that Dad left us." "Don't worry, Brighty. He won't this time." He has no choice.