Being knocked unconscious wasn't new for me. In fact, being robbed of my fire wasn't new to me either. First there was the river, followed by my time as a statue, when I wasn't getting enough sleep, the whole thing with the Elder Dragon, and now I could add being robbed of my fire by Mira to the list.
These were just some of the things I was thinking of while rousing from my sleep. It really didn't feel like any of my limbs wanted to work with me. The side of my face felt glued to the stone my head was resting on. I yawned loudly. Stretching my legs out as far as they could go, feeling myself tense up before letting myself go dead weight on stone again. Where I lay felt so comfortable that I was ready to just go right back to sleep without a second thought. That's when I heard a voice drifting over me.
"You're not going back to sleep, are you?"
Rolling over I found myself mumbling. "I'm up. I'm up. I'm up."
I felt my arm and leg slide off of the stone realizing too late that I was on a raised platform. With my weight already shifting I found myself slumping to the sandy ground below. I was on my back. Eyes shut. Sprawled out on the sand in a dreary half awake daze.
"Get up, Smolder." This nagging voice ordered me.
The sand behind my head shifted from the weight of some pony standing over me. It was dawning on me that the voice wasn't Mira's as it had been for so very long, but another that I felt very at home with. Rubbing my eyes I stretched out once more trying to rouse myself again.
"Where-" A yawn interrupted me. "Where am I?"
"We're in a cave. You're on the ground. Does that help?"
Adjusting my eyes was difficult. Everything was just a big blur. I was staring up at a mixture of black and red standing over me against the backdrop of the cave. Rubbing my hoofs against my eyes I felt myself yawn again. Lowering one of my hooves I found myself being towered over by my father.
"Holy buck!"
My hooves kicked the sand uselessly while my wings flapped hard trying to pull me away from him. Rolling onto my side I kicked off the ground leaping away from my father in a frantic scramble. Digging my hooves into the sand I spun around flaring my flames ready to fight.
"Lower your flames, Smolder, I have no interest in killing you."
"That's not how I remember it."
The flames of my father were flaring, but that was normal for him and his attitude was rather subdued for the moment. Even with his eyes burning like hot coals it really did seem that my father wasn't planning on continuing where we had left off.
"Do you really believe our fight would have ended the same if not for my battle with Celestia and those other ponies beforehand?"
"Are you making excuses?"
"Just stating a fact."
Stepping away my father turned his back to me to step upon the raised rock bed. Still not feeling that I was completely out of harm's way I found myself looking about the cave from the corner of my eyes trying to figure out where I was.
"Where am I?"
"You've already asked me that and I have already told you."
My father whipped his wings, fanning the sand from rock bed before lowering himself down to rest. At this point I was willing to take a chance and lower my flames, but I didn't take my eyes off him.
"Tell me again."
"Look around you and tell me you cannot derive an answer from what you see."
I took a step back slowly drawing my eyes away from my father as I observed the cavern we were in. It seemed rather lived in and weirdly more homely than Mira's cave. The etchings on the wall, the stone cookware, and the bedding had my eyes widening in disbelief.
"When your brothers found you your flame were all but a flicker. They brought you here to keep you safe and to rekindle that flame of yours."
"Rekindle?"
"It is a manner in which flame ponies share fire with one another. It varies from pony to pony."
"So Wick and Pyre rekindled-"
"I rekindled you."
It felt like all my fire had been drained from me again. I stared at my father, unblinking, almost frozen in the moment of what he had said.
"You... helped me?"
My father's eyes flashed a fiery red. "Do not fool yourself into believing that my motives were anything but my own. Your brothers would have extinguished themselves trying to rekindle you."
I felt puzzled by this. "Why are their flames not enough?"
"Your emergence into an Alicorn is not trivial thing, Smolder. The power you've inherited, albeit undeserving, has pushed you leaps and bounds ahead of your brothers. If not for my mercy you would not be awake at this moment."
This was the father I knew. He had his own reasons for helping me and I'm sure that it would only benefit him in some way. Nevertheless I couldn't help but realize that my brothers weren't here. It was hard to hide my eagerness in wanting to see my brothers again.
"Where is Wick and Pyre now?"
"Your brothers have gone to find out why the Storm has emerged and if they are not discovered or killed in so doing they shall inform us of what has transpired."
The feeling of dread gripped my heart for several reasons. It began with Wick and Pyre going anywhere near the Storm and the possibility of them walking right into harm's way. This train of thought reverted back to Mira's goodbye, knowing full well she was the reason for the Storm's awakening and using the power she stole from me to face it alone.
"Or perhaps you'd like to tell me why you are here to begin with."
"Mira's in trouble." I felt the words trickle from my mouth.
My father looked at me awkwardly while shrugging his shoulders at the name he did not recognize.
"She's the Arcana that took my fire to face the Storm."
"You've thrown yourself in with that leech?"
My flames flared. "You don't know her!"
"I know her well enough, but perhaps she failed to mention her part in your mother's unfortunate demise?"
His words did not faze me. Mira had already confessed it to me, but I have already forgiven her for what guilt she might have carried for it. My father seemed curious that the mention of my mother did not get a rise out of me and he was quick to assume the obvious.
"So," My father smiled amusingly. " The leech did tell you of how she murdered you mother."
"She did not murder her!" I found myself stepping forward angrily.
"If not for her, your mother would still be alive, but her insistence on helping that wretched creature caused her to be consumed by the Storm." Spat my father.
"I guess you had better things to do then to save her."
In an instant my father had leaped from his rock bed, roaring in his rage as he landed before me flourishing his flames in his fury. I could feel the heat from his glare, but I stood my ground against him. I wasn't ready to continue mixing words with my father. Mira was going to get herself killed, Wick and Pyre could be walking right into the middle of it, and here I was bickering with a pony who never cared for me.
"Don't you dare speak to me in such a manner!" My father snarled through his teeth.
"Then I guess we're done here." I mumbled to him turning towards the tunnel behind me I let myself out.
"Don't turn your back to me! I am your King!"
A wall of fire exploded from the sand before me. I whipped around to see my father with his horn ablaze with fire and magic. Anger pouring with every breath of flame that escaped him. I found myself stomping my hoof into the sand, my own horn gleaming with magic, drawing in the wall of fire to my own flames.
"You're not the King anymore!"
My words rattled my father, but not enough to give him pause. From his horn a beam of magic shot towards me. Raising my wings I conjured the magical shield that Mira had taught me. His magic impacted my own, clashing with a sudden explosion of light, but I was able to stand my ground. The intensity of his magic was subsiding, my shield faded revealing my father standing before me. My father's hoof struck me across the face sending me into the sand.
"As long as I breathe I will always be the King."
Surprising as it may seem I noticed that my father was holding back when he struck me. It was so surprising that I did not feel the need to retaliate. Rubbing the side of head I got back to my hooves feeling as if I had just been disciplined in some strange way by my father.
Spitting a small flame onto the ground I found myself feeling rather bitter. "A King with no kingdom or ponies to rule is not a King."
"Amusing that you seem to be without either as well."
"You have no idea what I've been through!" I felt myself snap at him.
"Tell me then," My father humored me. "Share with me the tales of your tenure as King."
The flames of my mane seared. It felt like my father was mocking me, knowing full well that my time as a King was relatively short compared to his, and oddly enough it was rather similar. I found myself wondering if I should tell him of what had occurred, feeling reluctant to share with him the slim chance that I would hopefully leave this place, but wanting him to know the troubles I had faced.
"There was... an Orc." I started off slowly. "It claimed to be the son of Grog and swore to put an end to flame ponies."
"I'm surprised it lived as long as it did within those caves."
"Well, it survived and raised another army of spiders using about six spider queens. It ended up poisoning the Great Dragon Char with cave spider venom that would eventually send it on a rampage."
"Rather resourceful of it."
"Yeah well, that Orc broke into the castle and nearly killed General Hearth, Argo Fleece, Burning Sand, and Wingston." I stated not liking my father's praising tone.
"Nearly? Well that's disappointing." My father scoffed.
Flames leaped from my mane over my father's words. "Shut up!"
"It angered you didn't it, Smolder?"
With my flames still flaring I watched my father's face turn deathly serious.
"Yeah, of course it did."
"It tried to take something you loved, something you cared for, and anger gripped your heart like a vice. Words were not going to change things were they? You wanted more, much more. You wanted to make it suffer, to bleed, to feel the pain it had caused you."
I was getting worked up again. My heart pounded in my chest from my father's words. Every word of it was true, I wanted that Orc to suffer, I wanted it to feel the pain I felt, and I came close to fulfilling that desire. I thought back to that day, remembering the feelings I felt and the guilt that came with it. I had asked for Mira's help in showing me where the coin had been, seeing the Orc hurt Wingston nearly pushed me over the edge, but Mira brought up a memory of my own to remind me of who I was.
"I was angry. Angrier than I had ever been." I admitted to him. "But I still tried to talk to the Orc. To get it to work things out."
I watched as my father laughed wildly at me. Feeling embarrassed, I did my best not to show it as he calmed himself gazing down at me in amusement.
"Did the magic of friendship stir it's heart into giving you a hug and becoming remorseful for what it had done?" The sarcasm flowed thick from his words.
"We ended up having to fight it, it's spiders, and the rampaging feral Elder Dragon."
Once more my father threw his head back in a fit of hoarse laughter at my expense. I felt my face burn, his taunting digging into me like a knife, feeling every laugh like a punch to my gut.
"It is clear you came out the victor of this battle, we know of the Elder Dragon being pulled into the Void, but what of this Orc you speak of? Did you kill it?"
"I... came close."
My father rolled his eyes. A look of disappointment on his face.
"That was after I faced the Elder Dragon." I added.
I could see that I had peaked my father's curiosity.
"You faced the Elder Dragon?" He questioned me.
"I intercepted a blast of its fire and I... ended up consuming it."
I felt my hooves suddenly being lifted into the air. My father's horn brimming with magic, forcing my arms up to his face so he could have a better look at them. He lifted my arms so high up that I was pretty much barely touching the sand with my back legs. Taking careful notice of the cracks in my hide along my arms from the intensity of trying to contain the Elder Dragon's fire, my father released his magic letting my drop back to the ground.
"So, you've tasted dragon's fire."
"It was... unbelievable. I had never felt such power before." I admitted to him. "It was like..."
I hesitated to respond. I could remember the feeling of that power, that rage that festered within me, and the results that came with it. I had nearly lost myself in that fiery power and it was Mira again who reminded me of who I am.
"A flame pony of your size could not sustain that amount of fire and live to tell the tale. Even with your horn you would have been nothing but a pile of ash. How did you cheat death this time?" My father asked.
"I wasn't driven mad by power like you were for starters."
"Power? Is that what you think happened? That I was driven mad by power?"
My father's voice had dropped an octave, it was stern, authoritative, but it wasn't cruel. I could tell that I had said something I shouldn't have and my father wasn't going to let it go. I was still slowly backing away with my father matching me step for step.
"It desired gold, my humiliation, it reveled in my subjugation, and threatened to kill every pony if I ever failed to give him any of it. Not even I could match the power of an Elder Dragon, but I knew of it's greed and sated it's sadistic appetite. I did this because that was my duty, as King, but the day soon came when it wanted more."
"What did it want?"
It was my father's turn to fall silent. It may have been hard for any other pony to tell the subtle changes in his flames and eyes, but for me it clear as day.
"Forget it." My father dismissed it.
Watching my father turn his head away from my I moved over trying to get him to come clean.
"What did the Great Dragon Char want? Why turned you into a Mad Pony?"
My father refused to speak. His flames were mounting again, his own anger rising from the memories and my insistence. If my father was telling the truth, this was my only chance to find out what really had happened to him. A part of me was almost hoping that I could figure out a way to bring him back.
"What did the Elder Dragon want? What did you have to give to it?"
His head whipped around, my father snarling at me. "Silence yourself, Smolder! Do not ask me again!"
"You ruined my life! The lives of every flame pony! All because you couldn't give that stupid dragon what it wanted?" I shouted in disbelief.
"I had given everything I had to give to that dragon, but it wanted your life!"
The last word echoed throughout the cavern. It etched its way into my brain before burying itself into my heart.
I found my mouth slowly dropping. "M-M-My life?"
"I, Scorch, son of the Wise King Phoenix, heir to throne, ruler of the Ashen Fields, King of the flame ponies, and Lord of Fire was asked to give up his newborn son to the Elder Dragon Char or watch it burn Equestria to the ground. Believe it or not I wasn't about to let it have you. Do you know why that is, Smolder?"
I took a moment to think. "Because you're the King?"
"Because I was your father!"
It felt like my whole life up to this point had finally started to make sense. My father went mad trying to protect me from an Elder Dragon. I was the reason. Whenever he looked at me I was just a reminder of what he once was and what he had to give up.
"You went mad trying to protect me?"
"It was my duty to protect you, my responsibility, and I fought that dragon to give you your life!"
I felt my anger suddenly rising from his words as I flared my mane in frustration. "Is that why you tried to kill me?"
"Being a fool isn't worth be killed for but being a traitor was something else entirely."
"That's not how I remember it!"
"Remember what you like, it matters not, what matters is that you wear my crown, sit upon my throne, parade around with my title of King, but you are just a pawn of Celestia's making now."
"I'm not a pawn!"
"Do you really believe that a young sixteen year old flame pony prince with prior training would be given such a position of power without there being an underlying reason for it? Why attempt to govern over the flame ponies herself when she has you in her saddle pocket?"
"I'm seventeen." I muttered.
"No this is where you shut up, Smolder!"
I stepped back hearing the firm and seriousness of the tone he took with me.
"You stand there foolish enough to believe that you know what it means to be a King. Your brothers were molded to become Kings while you ate rocks and struggled to read. It's safe to say that Wingston has been at your reigns since the beginning of your tenure as King, tugging the lead towards any sensible solution when problems arose. You were never meant to be King, you weren't even meant to be my son, you were just a mistake that we had live with. If your mother loved you half as much as you believe she did, she would have never have entered the Void, but she never gave you a second thought. Your legacy is nothing but the mistake of believing that there was ever a family that loved you."
I lowered my head slowly, feeling the weight of his words come down on me. I didn't want him to see me shake, to see me become emotional, and it took everything to stop myself from crying. Closing my eyes tight, trying to beat down these feelings, but they came from him, my father, words I knew he meant.
My father had fallen silent. Expecting me to rebuttal in some way, to argue with him, but I remained silent as well. Try as I might to hold it in I found myself sniffling, trying to keep myself together, and keep a strong presence before my father. I brushed my nose while taking a few short breaths and looking back up at my father again.
"I'm-I'm going to go find Mira." I managed to get the words. "I promised her that I'd help her defeat the Storm."
Narrowing his eyes my father looked at me in disbelief. "You're joking?"
"I'm sorry," I swallowed hard trying to keep my voice from breaking. "That I've been such a disappointment to you."
"The fault is mine for ever thinking you would amount to anything remotely useful."
I found myself stepping towards my father. He watched me closely, awaiting some sort of spell or attack that would surely come, but slowly placed my hoof on his.
"I just... I just want you to know that I forgive you."
My father quickly pulled his hoof away from mine. Retreating a few steps back looking rather angry with me again.
"Forgive me?" My father questioned.
"Goodbye, Dad."
Turning away once more towards the tunnel. I could hear the flames from my father beginning to roar, the light of his fire chasing the shadows away, and the searing of his hide fill the air. I refused to turn around, leaving behind everything that hurt, everything that I couldn't bear to carry anymore.
"I don't need your forgiveness, Smolder! You are fool to think that seek any sort of absolution! Especially from such a stupid, worthless, undeserving pony like you!" His voice boomed throughout the cavern.
I walked on, reaching the cave entrance and leaving my father behind. For some reason, I felt that this was the last time I was ever going to see him again.
"The Storm will tear you apart! You cannot win against it! You'll die just like your mother! Do you hear me? Smolder! None can contend with the power of the Storm! You're walking to your death! Smolder! Come back! Smolder!"
His voice echoed for a time. The light of his fire fading from view. It was only my flames giving off light now and mixture of flames and hoofsteps through the sand to hear. I stopped for a moment, letting myself become overwhelmed with the emotions I was holding back, quietly sobbing from what my father had said. I needed to let it out, to feel it one more time.
Scorch stood alone with the cavern. Eyes fixed upon the tunnel, expecting Smolder to come wandering back in, but his light never returned. The thought of forgiveness felt so poisonous to him that Scorch struck his own head to relieve himself of his son's words that echoed within. Again and again he struck himself trying to rid himself of the words, but the idea of his son forgiving him would not go away.
Staring down at his hoof, still feeling the phantom touch of Smolder's hoof on his own, he watched his fire flicker and flecks of his hide fall away. His flames did not stop flickering, black smoke pluming from his body, small legions of his hide were beginning to harden and pieces trickled from him. Gritting his teeth in anger, his body shaking in rage, the Mad King roared loudly, reigniting his flame through sheer will and scorching the walls with his fire. His body once more ablaze, his hide no longer hardening, the Mad King was breathing heavy, clutching his chest and struggling to stand. Scorch's vision began to blur. A light was returning from the tunnel.
"Smolder-" Scorch choked out.
From the mouth of the cave Scorch could see himself stepping into view. His black hide whole, his red flames burning strongly, and his eyes piercing red. Darkness took him, the Mad King fell forward into the sand, having over exerted himself from Smolder's rekindling and his own forceful rekindling. The mouth of the cave was void of any any stallion, the Mad King lay alone in the darkness with his flames dancing over him.