The group was finally reaching the bottom of the mountain, Rainbow glad that in the end, the mountain wasn’t very tall. She glided easily over the survivors, smiling looking over at the stallion that had been the subject of controversy earlier. As was somewhat predictable, the single mare whose daughter he saved, was actually sticking pretty close to him. They could be moving towards being an item, but for the moment, they were at least becoming obvious friends.
A scream echoed out, Rainbow recognizing it instantly. “Fluttershy!” she shouted, part happy to hear her, and part cocking her wings to shoot to the rescue. Fluttershy was dive bombing the ground- what?! She was moving far too fast for a flier of her level- she wasn’t stopping either.
Rainbow shot through the air and flew straight for her. She slammed into her friend, forcing her to the right and slowing her decent. They both spun in the air, Rainbow opening her wings, pain seizing in her right wing as the wind tore against it.
Fluttershy’s heart was beating like a jackhammer. Rainbow shut her eyes and turned both of them, allowing herself to take the brunt of the impact with the ground.
Rainbow was forced to let Fluttershy go and fall to the ground a few feet away. Fluttershy stood up a few feet from her and looked back, watching the cyan pegasus slowly stand back up from the impact. “Rainbow?- Move!” Rainbow looked up and saw three stallions flying towards her, one flapping his wings in her direction, a visible shockwave tearing towards her. She closed her eyes, saying goodbye to her daughter in her mind.
A loud explosion echoed across the valley, Rainbow looking up, realizing a large purple shield had risen in front of her. The shield faded as Twilight flew towards the three stallions, her horn warming up another spell.
Another shock wave shot at Twilight from an orange stallion, the alicorn teleporting just as it passed. She appeared above the stallion, warming up her horn again, raising her head like she was preparing to slam a beam attack into him.
A huge laser shot towards her from a red pegasi, hitting nothing as she teleported again. She appeared a few feet away and smiled, a smirk that quickly went away when she noticed a gray pegasi flying to her right. She threw a hoof at him, him disappearing and seeming to appear on her left and above her. The copy to her left disappeared and the upper stallion smacked her on the head.
Twilight recovered with a bruise over her eye and warmed another spell as the two other stallions headed for her. On the ground the soldiers began to prepare their spears, Rainbow flying over to them.
“You guys could hit Twilight… you don’t want to, right?” Rainbow asked.
“She’s defending us,” one of the soldiers growled at her.
“Sorry, it’s hard to know who my friends are right now…” Rainbow said. She tried her wings, able to fly a little, but she doubted she would be much help.
A shock wave and a heavy laser shot at Twilight, her shield barely managing to stop them both. She was still knocked back by the impact. The gray stallion shot to the ground, Twilight trying to chase him, but instead got body checked by the orange pegasi.
The orange pegasi laughed at Twilight. “C’mon bitch, wanna dance?”
Rainbow shot at the gray pegasi, having no idea what she meant to do. He split into two gray pegasi, slamming into both of her sides, Rainbow dropping to the ground in a crumpled heap. The second version of the Gray one disappeared.
Twilight warmed another spell, a laser glancing her horn, Twilight’s head throbbing from the impact. The orange pegasus slid to the side in the air, turning and focusing his wings on her.
A sonic impulse slammed into the orange pegasus, forcing him to topple away. Twilight’s hairs stood on end, along with her feeling of relief as she heard a stallion over her shoulder say, “Now is that any way to treat a little girl?” Cloud Strike flew over her head. “I got this one sweat heart, you get the other.” He then teleport and tackled the orange pegasi.
Twilight growled at the comments, but still managed to roll quickly to the right before a laser shot by her. She shot towards the red pegasi.
Rainbow looked up as the gray pegasi landed near her. The soldiers around him leveled their spears at him. “You’ll never land a hit,” he said with a chuckled.
“They won’t, before I tear you apart!” came a shout. A powerful wind tossed the stallion into the side of the mountain. Silent Storm landed between Rainbow and the gray stallion who had almost fallen limp. He looked back at Rainbow, then back at the stallion. “You hurt her,” he said in a deep angry voice.
The gray stallion slowly pushed up to his hooves, wobbling. “So wh-“
Silent moved forward faster than Rainbow could follow, the gray stallion slamming into the mountain side again. “You hurt her!” he screamed at the stallion. He slammed his hooves into the gray stallion’s face over and over “You hurt her!”
Rainbow finally regained her breath and rushed over to him pulling him back, the gray stallion falling on the ground his blood running out. He had been beaten so soundly, it was a wonder he was alive and conscious. “Silent… what’s gotten into you?”
“They should respect you… look at what he did to your wing!” Silent said.
“It wasn’t him…” Rainbow said.
“Then who?!” Silent demanded.
Above them the battle stopped, like everyone was looking at Rainbow and Silent. “Silent stop.” Rainbow said.
“I will destroy anyone who hurts you!” Silent shouted.
“And I will NOT use you!” Rainbow shouted back. “You don’t exist to solve my problems.”
“But I-“
“And thankyou so much for saving me,” Rainbow said. She pushed him back, him not fighting her.
“Rainbow I would give anything for-“
“Listen to me…” she paused looking around. “I can’t let you just do whatever to defend me.”
“I will fight for you,” Silent said. “You… I love you too. You’re beautiful.” Silent said.
Rainbow shook. “I don’t… I don’t know how to do this.”
“I think history shows… neither do I…” Silent replied. He looked down.
The mare and her child, the same from earlier, walked over to the group. “Ya know… odd that everyone stopped fighting…” Above them, Twilight was keeping her eyes wide and keen, but if no one was moving against her, she decided to let that be.
“He’s the leader of the stallion refugees.” Rainbow said. “Their rightful one anyway. He’s… the stallion I love… I don’t want to change him though…”
The mare chuckled. “That’s inevitable.”
“What?” Rainbow looked back at her.
“You act like it has to be a bad thing. Haven’t you ever loved anyone before? Haven’t they changed you?” she asked.
“Well… my daughter…” Rainbow sighed.
“My wife…” Silent admitted.
“Every pony you meet will change you, there’s nothing wrong with that, no one stays the way they are forever,” she looked back at the stallion who saved her daughter. “he’s changing me.”
“So what’s the difference between good and bad change?” Rainbow asked.
“Do you love who he is? Do you want to make him better or do you want to change him for your entertainment?” she asked. “Look in your heart. You can’t keep him the same just for you either. You have to let him grow, as he will. He’s like your child.”
“He’s grown, I don’t have the right to-“ Rainbow started.
“To force him to change- of course not. The question is, can you help him change in the ways he wants too?”
“I can’t I trust myself… he’s been hurt…” Rainbow said.
“I don’t know if I can trust myself either,” Silent said. He put his wing on her shoulders. “I trust you though… I will fight-“
“I’ll fight for you.” Rainbow interrupted. “I trust you.” She looked up the mountain. “I’m going to set Celestia straight if the last thing I do.” Rainbow said boldly.
“Fire Sky hurt you didn’t he?” Silent asked. Rainbow nodded. “I will defeat him.”
Twilight landed near them. “Fire Sky just drove all five of you out of Canterlot?” she asked. Rainbow nodded again. “And this guy thinks he’s gonna march up there and just take him out?”
“You want to help, I welcome the company,” Silent replied.
“I… I have a different path to pursue…” Twilight looked away.
“The heck does that mean?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight sighed. “If Celestia really is turning on folks just because they’re stallions… I can’t… I…” Twilight pulled back her shoulders and stood up straight. “I have a responsibility as royalty to take care of my country. I’m going to the Crystal Empire to gather allies. If Celestia’s actions are causing things like this to occur, I’m taking the kingdom myself if I have too.”
Shocked expressions went all around. The three flying pegasi all landed two stepping back. “Are you serious?” Rainbow asked.
Twilight looked up at the city of Canterlot. “Every time I blink when I look at it, I see something… like a twisted reshaping, like something is happening to it. And I can say that’s all because of this Fire Sky person, but be honest with me, would he even be a threat if Celestia’s laws had been fair?” Rainbow shook her head. “Then it’s settled.” She spread her wings, but then put them back down. “Rainbow, I know you want to fight, you always do, but what do you really think you can do in your condition?”
Fluttershy walked over. “Celestia had a spell back fire on her while trying to fight the refugees. She’s a child now. Rainbow really won’t have to fight her.”
“I don’t know about that,” Twilight said. “I knew to come here because something… or somethings?... visited me. I think they were the spirits of abused and forgotten mares. I don’t know what Fire Sky is doing…”
“He’s been possessed by the souls of the abused himself… I don’t know what that does… but… I hope he’s still in there somewhere.” Fluttershy said.
“Well, they were headed for Celestia next. If she’s desperate, she’ll accept their offer. They said they would give me the power to reform all of the stallions in Equestria.”
Rainbow cocked her head at Twilight, “Reform ALL of them?”
Twilight nodded. “Yea… You ever studied the nature of abuse? Victims stay, and often it’s because they want to try to save or change their abuser, at least, that’s how it works with mares. I don’t know why stallions stay, almost no research has been done on the subject…” The alicorn cringed. “Anyway, abused mares are often driven by an insane desire to reform someone… while I’m not saying they’re the bad ones for being that way, I’m not even sure if that would be right. When I learned about abuse in the kingdom, Celestia told me that victims need reform just as much as abusers, not only to teach them what a healthy relationship looks like, but to keep them from turning into abusers themselves. It’s called “the cycle of abuse”. Course she taught me that the only ones in danger there were children.” She sighed. “If you go to confront Celestia, I can’t guarantee what you’ll be fighting… if it will even still be her…”
Rainbow looked up at the mountain. “I think she retreated further up the mountain. It’s a formal military plan if driven from the capital. Fire Sky probably knows about it too.” She shook her head. “If Silent succeeds in getting Fire and his troops to stand down… somehow… they’ll be sitting ducks. She’ll imprison all of them. I can’t let that happen.” Rainbow opened her wings and took off. She couldn’t go at a tremendous speed, but she still went.
Behind her Silent Storm shot upwards as well, passing her easily. Behind him, Twilight flew off too.
The three stallions of Fire Sky’s troops dropped to the ground. The orange one spoke up, “If Silent Storm isn’t in on this… honestly I don’t know what I want to do…”
(***)
Silent Storm flew over Canterlot, flying past many stallions he knew from his camp. None of them even tried to stop him, in fact, many waved and one yellow stallion rounded up several others and had them salute him.
Seeing he wasn’t yet seen as an enemy by Fire Sky’s forces, he decided to move to find his rival directly. He landed in front of the palace.
As he looked around, he noticed so many things it was frankly overwhelming. Stallion soldiers stood in the armor of Celestia, guarding the palace on every parapet, spears at the ready. A large company of pegasi patrolled the skies.
Many mares were outside, but most of them looked out in fear, no two were together. He looked at the surrounding buildings and felt even more uneasy just looking at them, than he did when seeing the mares. It was like anger radiated from the brick and stone. When he blinked, the buildings, for an instant, seemed to change into mangled and twisted works of black glass and thorns. At times when he blinked, he swore he saw black goo starting to cover the streets.
He entered the royal garden, seeing the plants starting to die. When he eventually approached the main doors to the throne room, the guards actually bowed to him.
He entered the throne room, looking up as his rival looked down at him. Fire Sky smiled. His fur was darker than normal and a black crown rested on his head. He flew down from Celestia’s former throne. “Silent, brother, I know this isn’t what you wanted, but now we’ll all be safe. We’re in control now. Hey, you wanted to have them treat us as equals, now they won’t have a choice.”
“Nothing is equal about any of this, save the suffering you’re going to cause everyone.”
Fire Sky shook his head. “No. No I won’t be causing any suffering. I realized something. I’m not fit to rule. I’m great for making a mess, for burning the enemy to a cinder. But you, you were born to lead. I never should have challenged you, I should have just taken the throne for you from the beginning. You’re a good leader, far better than I.”
“Stand down, and I’m going to free everyone,” Silent said plainly.
“I would never want to hurt you Silent, and truth be told, most of my stallions wouldn’t obey me if I ordered them too, you mean too much to all of us. Our protector, our leader, the one trying so hard to keep any of us from getting hurt.”
“You give me the throne, I will abdicate it.”
“To whom?”
Silent looked at the ground. Truth was, he wasn’t sure how to answer. He couldn’t give it to Celestia any more than he could leave it with Fire Sky. Maybe support Twilight? “I don’t know… but I will treat the mares with respect. The respect they deserve.”
“Oh… we can be sure you will.” Fire grinned. Silent blinked and he could swear he saw a shadow move over him and black goo creeping up his right leg. He jumped back. His eyes started blinking over and over now, trying to see what was coming, the shadow growing larger and larger, the black sticky substance creeping up all four of his legs. He spread his wings to fly above it but the shadow reached out a hand- the world went dark.
(***)
Silent rose to his hooves and looked around himself. All around him was white, he couldn’t even make out a discernable floor to wherever he was. It was like he was standing in a white void.
Silent flapped his wings and shot into the air, but even up there he had no means to tell where he was. It was dizzying to take in wherever he was. Dark figures started to surround him, each having blue eyes. He swore that when he blinked, he could see stallions surrounding him, but their forms disappeared back to black figures too quick to make much out beyond that basic form.
He heard a voice, a voice that sounded like hundreds of whispers speaking in unison. “What right did she have-what right did she have-what right did she have?” He looked ahead and saw the dark silhouette of a unicorn mare. “What she did-what right did she have?”
Suddenly the eyes of the mare’s shadow opened. Memories of his past started to play on screen in front of Silent Storm.
“No… don’t make me watch…”
First came his wedding day, Aged Light seemed so happy- but he had known what came before. The movie of the memory rewound, him watching Aged shouting at him over and over, the flowers were wrong, the cake was wrong, the dress need to be hoof stitched, and he better not even think of asking her father for help paying- he better not skip on anything, she knew she was worth the expenses. Fast forward, Silent had spent ten years paying off the debt of that wedding. Perhaps he could have paid if off sooner, if she had stopped yelling at him for how worthless he was any time he tried to cut an expense.
Their first home came into view. He wanted to buy it and fix it up over time, something Aged Light was happy to do. He had felt plumbing was the first thing to pay attention to, but she demanded the windows come first, even crying when he tried to fix the plumbing first. So, when the home flooded when he came home one day, she cussed him out and screamed herself almost hoarse.
The day he played cards with his friends came up. He had done so every weekend, but this day was different. Aged Light had wanted a romantic dinner that night, not that she had said anything to him, just wanting a surprise. He came home and the food was cold. She cried, him trying to joke with her to make her feel better, to which she smacked him and started to scream at him inches from his face for being so inconsiderate of her. She had yelled at him into the late hours of the night. After that day, Silent started to dread coming home at all, and tried to volunteer for as many hours at work as he could.
Still, the constant strain never stopped. If he forgot a trash bag, if he was an hour late, if he became sick and that state kept one of her friends away, he would hear about it. As to any sexuality, images of himself desperately trying to sleep on a hard couch while she stayed in a king sized bed he bought with his own money, played for him.
Then the memories of being kidnapped played. These were fast, but they reminded him what real horror was like. He had watched a small child who failed to impress Gray be tortured to death, that same child he had been trying to comfort for weeks and had learned the name of. He was rescued from the lab by the royal guard.
Even his hell of a life seemed like paradise compared to Gray’s lab. When he returned home, he had longed to hold his wife, and for her to hold him. However, it was not tears and a warm embrace that awaited him. It was a mare screaming at him for making her worry. How was she supposed to pay the bills while he was away? This home costed more than she made, didn’t he ever think of her? His life insurance wouldn’t help until he was confirmed dead, and honestly, if he was going to put her through that, he needed to be dead, what other good excuse could there be?
He had tried to tell her his story, what happened to him. Instead of listening, when she heard about the child she rolled her eyes and started in on her spiel about her body being “her body”. She didn’t want a child. It didn’t matter that he didn’t ask about one. Truth was, he had always wanted a child, but her body was her body, and he needed to understand that- he had understood that pretty well... she had reminded him of it enough.
It was the last he could take when she said it was good the colt had died, so she didn’t need to be guilted for not giving him a child of his own. Finally he had shouted back. He was twice as loud as well. His rage was building, was this what he was coming home to!? He smashed an end table, Aged running out of the house screaming.
As he came out, she was crying to the neighbors that he had been driven insane by his miss-treatment by Gray. Really they should feel sorry for Silent, he had changed from the person he was. They needed to contact the guard to protect her from him, and really to protect him from himself.
Tears streaming out of his eyes, Silent had flown away. He didn’t want to go back. He didn’t want to fight, he didn’t want to yell, he wanted to go home… but she had made damn sure he didn’t have one. Seeing a river coming up, he flew down to it sobbing and falling to his knees.
He looked into the water. He knew of only one way out of what had become his life. He dove in.
The memory stopped playing.
Silent’s eyes had filled with tears. He felt his coat, realizing it smelled and felt like it did when he had been pulled out of the water.
The voices started up again, getting louder and louder, “It’s what they do. It’s what they feel they have the right to do. We’re their utilities, we exist only to give them money. If they want children, they have them, if they don’t, they don’t have them, we have no say. If they want a nice home, it’s our responsibility to get it for them. The wedding is for us to pay for. If they slap us, it’s our own fault, and the bed is as much theirs as their own bodies. If they cheat, it is our fault for not being attentive enough, while it is our responsibility to remain faithful. If we’re hit even in public, we must have earned it somehow. If we seek refuge, it’s because we’re weak, and then we’re undesirable. If we cry, we EARN THEIR DISGUST!”
Silent stopped flying, landing on the ground, which he could only barely sense. The words were getting through to him. He didn’t believe them, at least… not all of them… but he felt their meaning. The black goo surrounded him and started flowing higher and higher.
“When we become poor, we’re thrown out of shelters for the protection of them. We crowd prisons while they go free when they murder one of us. It’s about time we subjected them to the HATRED they show us! What do they care what happens to us? So why should we care what happens to them? If we’re just here to give them money, then let it be that they’re now only here to give us sex.”
The inky substance had flowed up to his neck.
However other memories suddenly started to play. “You’re so strong- don’t tell the other girls- kinda wanna be like you when I grow up…” came a young voice. It was the voice of the daughter of Cloud Strike. One of the times she had decided to spend the night joking with him. Unlike many teenage girls, she showed no fear around him, treating him like a second father.
“Don’t throw yourself away, not over someone like her- I don’t even have to ask… listen to me, you might be a stallion, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a beauty all your own.” The voice of Silver Strider, when she had pulled him from the water.
“The pain should go down soon… but we can never heal the damage done to your heart in that place,” the nurse who had treated him when the guards took him to the hospital. “I’m sorry. Listen, myself and some of the other girls have put together a small soup kitchen. The food will be pretty good, if you’re not ready to go home… or if you don’t have a home to go to, why don’t you stay in the hospital for the night?”
“I respect you,” Rainbow Dash said. “I love you. I’ll fight for you.”
The black ink shot away from him as he lifted into the air. Behind him appeared the images of several mares, his mother, the nurses from the hospital, Rainbow Dash, Silver Strider, the children of the stallions in the camp. He looked at the goo as it started to form a disgusting hand and reached up to him. “I refuse!” he shouted down to it. It stopped. “The ones who helped me, they deserve better than to pay the price for monsters. I can sense what you are, what you’re composed of. I’m sorry to all of you, I’m sorry the world turned its back, I’m sorry so many were so cruel to you, I’m sorry you felt you had, or that in fact you had nowhere to turn.” The hand moved down a little. “I’m sorry, I wish, the mares and stallions that helped me… I sincerely wish they could have been there for you too. But I can’t change the past. I’m sorry. But you can’t make me hate. I’m not part of what you are. I would tell you all to be at peace, but that’s your choice.” He sighed, then looked down with determination. “My choice… if you want to hurt the ones who helped me, is to stand in your way. If I must, I will find a way to hurt you that eclipses anything you felt in life.” The hand started to move back more. “You think you knew hell before, if you don’t back down, only a few of you even know the name Gray… I’ll show you what real hell is!”
He closed his eyes and dredged up in his mind the memories of Gray. The memories of being chained to a table over and over, the air sucked out of his lungs and slowly put back in, adjusting him to suffocation to force him to control the air. Memories of the stallions and colts who didn’t make it, of his friends begging to die rather than visit that table again.
The dark hand moved away further. “What’s the matter? You show me all these dark images, I thought you had seen all the world had to offer. You want to pull me into your hate, to pull me into your anger, you wanted me to feel your pain, come then, embrace mine!” he closed his eyes, realizing this was his own mindscape.
His eyes opened, glowing blue, his teeth changing into sharp and jagged implements. His coat changed to gray and suddenly, he started floating in the air with his wings extended, not even flapping. He took on the demonic form of Dr. Gray, the monster he spent several months being tortured by.
The shadows vanished.
(***)
Silent Storm’s eyes finally reopened. As he opened them, he saw the black ink around him swirling away from him and the black hand retreating back to Fire Sky. “You have to fight them Fire,” he said.
“No, they’ve been fought long enough. We all have. It’s time to embrace them, embrace them all. Show them all the love they missed in life, show them the vengeance they demand, the vengeance we all demand. Blood will run in the streets! You will join us!”
“Fire even you were never this insane. What’s happening?”
“I took the power to finally make a difference. In time, I will have the power to… convince, any stallion, and when we come together, the mares won’t stand a chance. They think we belong to them, in time they will belong to us!”
“I’m sorry… I’m saying that a lot, but it’s all I can really do it seems. You’re beyond listening aren’t you?”
“I’m not the one who needs to listen.”
“Hate demands to be heard, but never listens.”
“My hatred is justified. If ever hate could be justified-“
“Towards your wife Fire, your wife murdered your sons. Toward Celestia, she rigged the laws in a way that hurt you in horrible ways. Yes, you have the right to hate, but not innocent mares who didn’t even know what was happening when you were hurt. Why not attack stallions for the same shit anyway? Not like any of them stood up.”
“Because they… they had only internalized the hatred around them. It’s not their fault!”
“So mares are responsible for their own actions but we’re not? Stallions can’t make their own decisions? You’re calling us weak. That’s what your kind of hatred does. In the end, to justify hatred of the innocent, your judgement becomes arbitrary and you end up hating everyone.”
“You stand in my way, then yes, I will hate you. I will destroy you if that’s what it takes.” Tears starting coming out of Fire’s eyes.
“At least we agree on something,” Silent pointed out.
“Waiting for me to throw the first punch or-“ A powerful gust of wind launched Fire Sky back into Celestia’s throne, tearing through it, him dropping to the ground.
Silent flew over him. “This ends today Fire, you’ve gone too far this time. You surrender, or you die.”
Fire looked up at him. “You fought to keep us safe, you stayed with us… I have to destroy you… I’m going to hate myself for this.” He shot into the air and straight at Silent.
As he was about to reach him, Silent moved so fast he seemed to vanish from sight.
Fire Sky flew out of the palace. Silent Storm was flying above. Silent shouted at the top of his lungs. “This is an order to all of you from your real commander. Do not interfere.”
Flames surrounded Fire Sky. “Obey him on that,” Fire shouted. “I don’t want to destroy you to save you from his naivety.” Fire flapped his wings once and shot off to the left moving at a blinding speed.
In an instant he changed direction and flew straight at Silent, flames surrounding him, a huge ball of fire forming over his body. Silent flapped his wings once, the fire around his enemy disappearing, but Fire’s body slammed into him anyway. They spun in the air, Fire eventually throwing Silent, the white stallion crashing through a window and into the stone floor of a nearby building.
Silent pushed himself up and shot back out, his back screaming in pain, but he had to push the pain down for now. As he passed Fire, a powerful blast of wind hit Fire across the face, sending the blue stallion summersaulting through the air.
Several fire balls shot towards Silent suddenly from the spinning form of his opponent. They were snuffed out easily but as Silent did so, he looked out and didn’t see Fire Sky. Silent scanned the sky and ground not seeing him anywhere. Finally he looked up, a hoof slamming him in the face, seeming like it came right out of the light of the sun.
Silent sent wind swirling around himself, keeping from slamming into the paved ground beneath himself. He looked up, one eye was almost forcing itself to close. “Get up here!” came a demand from Fire Sky. He raised his hoof, fire gathering around it. “Take the time you need. Every impulse can fire a military grade spell, so let’s do this, one final attack from both of us. Whoever wins- JUST GET UP HERE!”
Silent shot into the air across from him. He closed his eyes, wind ripping around him, his feathers and fur being torn off. He hated doing his heavy attack, it actually hurt.
Around Fire Sky hundreds of fire balls seemed to form, a swirling vortex of blue flames spinning around him. He waved his hoof at Silent Storm. “Fire Storm!” he shouted the name of his attack.
At the same time, the vortex of wind around Silent started to suck in the clouds and tear dirt up from the ground and buildings. It was turning black. “Hell’s Tornado!”
The fire and wind impacted in the air, the fire changing direction and heading back towards Fire Sky. A black shadow shot out from him however and impacted the flames, feeding them, making them grow and seeming to slow down the tornado.
Silent shouted into the storm. “You really want this? You kill me, I will add to your suffering. I will have no pity. You saw in my heart while you were all inside me, you know what I will do to save the mares I love. Make me join your ranks, at your peril!”
The blackness faded from the fire and seemed to turn back around, fleeing from Silent Storm.
The tornado cut through the flames, extinguishing them. Fire Sky was tossed out of the air like a rock, tearing through a tree below and slamming into the ground of Canterlot gardens.
Silent shot down to him. He slammed down near Fire Sky’s body.
Fire’s forelegs were twisted to his sides, the bones of his black legs destroyed and exposed. He looked up at Silent. “They keep shouting at me. They want me to fight you, but they’re afraid of what happens if you die.” He started to cry. He looked up at Silent. “That look, I’ve seen it before,”
Silent stood, raising his head and staring down at him.
“It’s the look of someone who thinks I’m nothing more than a stench to be gotten rid of. It’s how she looked at me. You’re no better are you?”
“I’m sorry Fire.”
“Stop keeping me around then. They’re keeping me alive to serve them… again I’m just a someone else’s tool. Set me free…”
“How… you’re defeated Fire.”
“FUCKING KILL ME!” Fire shouted. “They’re in here… let me talk to them… my sons, they’re among the voices… let me die, let me talk to them. Let me go!”
“We can… if I kept you alive… would I really be doing it for your sake, or for my own feelings?” Wind shot and spun away from Silent, a large tree branch being torn off a nearby tree. It spun in the air above the two stallions. “I… I can’t… Fire Sky… I failed you. I don’t deserve to ask but, please forgive me.” The wood shot down, smashing through the skull of the blue stallion, blood splattering out.