Silver was tense, awaiting the sharp presence of Sheba's claws. He had placed his nose close enough that she could swat him without suffering the effects of his friction trap. It was a show of faith, perhaps a foolish one. "People are the result of their circumstances. Wiping out a group simply invites another to fall into the same pit and take up the spot."
Sheba's eyes narrowed at Silver before flicking to the left at Nefertari. "You can hear them, calling for your people's blood. Here your husband stands, calling your traditions nothing but 'inevitable'."
Nefertari diffidently waved at Silver. "As far as he's concerned, all creatures would take peace and softness, given the opportunity."
Silver pointed a hoof at the roaring crowd. "Is that not what they are asking for? They want peace, and the chance to be soft, safe, and secure."
Sheba darted. She only had a few short inches to cover to get her palms on Silver's jutting equine cheeks, cradling his head. "You are simply too adorable. So untouched and unspoiled. You are an ideal diplomat of the country you come from, speaking their honeyed words without the nuance of the reality outside your borders." She raised her voice considerably, shouting in Silver's face. "This one should not be harmed. We have no ire with Equestria and its celestial queens. Take him from the dance floor."
Silver felt something approaching, small and rapid and magic. He grabbed it just in time to feel something else coming, and another, and another. The crowd was hurling vials much like the one he had crushed previously, but they were coming far too quickly and in too great a number to repeat that trick on them all.
The friction field had an effect on them, but the unfeeling metal that made them cared little for growing warm, save for becoming all the more worrying as projectiles went. He coudn't hope that the short-lived cooking would disable whatever magical fluid was inside them.
He could teleport? Doing that would be the end of his usefulness. His magic was spread all across the stage, and abandoning it would leave him drained. Of course... he just had to avoid the vials, right? He ceased to be, only to appear just a few feet away, out of the targeting zone of the anti-magic vials. Still within his held magic field, he could keep it up.
Fluid splashed across his flanks suddenly. He hadn't felt a vial! He turned rapidly towards the source. The small cat he had interrogated in the alleyway was shrinking back at the edge of the battle stage. "Sorry..." the kitten muttered as he broke into a run, fleeing.
The friction field was the first to go. The splash had been scarcely been sufficient for its task, but he could feel it interfering with his grip on his unicorn magic, making the most complex spell fail, slipping through his arcane fingers.
Nefertari seemed to notice the friction's absence and ceased to be where she was. Sheba matched her pace, clashing and dueling across the flat stonework even as those anti-magic vials rained down around them, hurled at Silver, not always with the best aim.
Silver had no time to watch them fight. He could feel a new volley coming towards him. He had started to pull his magic back, but that wasn't an instant effort. He couldn't teleport far. With a short jump, he appeared closer to the center of the stage. "Stop this!" he demanded at the crowd, not that they seemed to care for his opinion.
With a flash of dull pain, one of the cannisters hit him, breaking open on impact. The dark fluid within splattered across his brown pelt as he lost all feeling of his arcane senses. Someone's poor throw had managed to be exactly where he had teleported.
"Will you forgive me?" Sheba was behind Nefertari, her arms wrapped around the jackal as if hugging her, but her deadly claws were unsheathed and pressed to Nefertari, promising new pains at an instant's notice. Her right hand was over Nefertari's belly, promising a messy disemboweling. "Will you?"
Silver turned to face her fully, ears pinned on his head. He knew Sheba had defeated Nefertari once before, that it happened again only proved it wasn't entirely a fluke. "This isn't the right way." Another cannister thumped against him, but he'd already lost all unicorn sense of magic, so he ignored it. "Is talking too much to ask?"
Sheba's pointer dragged a slow red line across Nefertari, a few precious inches, taking her time. "I will kill her. She has many sins on her soul, and not a creature here will be sad for my doing it. Preach all you want of the kinder members of her kin, she is not one of them, and you are aware of this."
Nefertari growled like an angry dog, struggling against the grip that held her. She twisted and heaved, but Sheba's grip was that of iron, unyielding, and perhaps more painful.
"Do it!" came the rough cry of one, only to be echoed by the crowd.
Silver's eyes darted about. Where were their allies? A fine time for the jackals to go into hiding... "I have her... exactly where she needs to be." He raised a hoof to his own chest, spattered was it was with the anti-magic goop. "She is my wife, subjected to my 'naive prattling'. I will calm the fire in her heart and turn her towards more peaceful ends."
Sheba raised an arm, lifting Nefetari's chest with it. "That is a very pony thing to do. Now... it's time for her to die."
"No!"
"I'm afraid the answer is yes." Sheba grinned with the malice only a feline could master. "No more sweet words."
Silver's mind ran in circles, but even in flailing, he hit something that might work. "You musn't. She bears an Equestrian foal."
Sheba and Nefertari both blinked blankly at him.
Silver pointed down at Nefer's belly. "She will be a mother. That child is a prince or princess of Equestria. Harm her and you are attacking Equestria."
"I will not hide behind my child!" howled Nefertari, her struggles redoubling in sudden fury.
Sheba broke into wild laughter, holding Nefertari still despite her efforts, even if she got elbowed once in the midst of her laughter. "I was joking before. You really did let him have his way... If he's so eager to lay with warrior females that could kill him with a thought, perhaps I will request my turn after this." She hiked a brow at Silver. "Now, what is the proof? Any could make this claim."
The crowd's shouting ebbed, some confusion building among them. An Equestrian prince? Could a jackal have one of those? It was turning from shouts of blood to confused murmuring that rippled along the crowd.
Silver's unicorn magic was cut off entirely, but he was an alicorn, blessed with three tribes of power. He could feel his pegasus magic was intact, and his earth magic felt unsullied by whatever had been splashed across him. It was the latter he began to call upon. He could feel the life respond beneath his hooves. Even in the desert climate, there was life, and plants.
Anywhere save the arctic, perhaps, there would be life to reach out to. Not the polar bears, penguins, and whatever host of microbes they helped foster didn't count. He nodded towards his captive wife. "I can feel when she is in season." It wasn't actually that hard to tell, when you could feel someone's insides. "She was... then she was not."
Sheba suddenly shoved Nefertari away. "I am no kitten-slayer," she spat with a look of utter disgust on her face.
Silver leaned against his fore-right hoof, the living magic growing more powerful as it reacted to his wishes. "We have found something we can agree with... can we not kill anything today?"
Nefertari suddenly cuffed Silver across the top of the head. "You have visited upon me several shames worthy of a life's oath to revenge," she growled in his ear. "We will have words!"
He accepted the strike as stoically as he could, even as he internally cringed away. Being physically struck was not something he enjoyed even on a basic emotional level. She had no way of knowing, but she had done exactly as his inner child feared all people close to him would do eventually.
He was the destroyer, and destroyers got hit. Just the nature of life. Silver returned his focus on the brilliant green power he could feel but not see. He couldn't let that up.
Sheba gestured with a lone finger. "Even as she owes you her life, she lashes out violently. Why do you throw your lot in with them?" She took a slow step forward, a sultry smile spreading. "Do we felines not deserve a spot at your side? We would hurt you so very less often. Mmm, Prince of Equestria, claimer of females, taker of fighting spirit."
Silver did not feel convinced. Sheba had already hurt him, and he had enough cats as a human to know they could and did hurt their most beloved of humans. It was their nature at times. Not that he didn't like cats anyway, but assuming they were incapable of hurting you... "We need privacy."
"That is something I cannot offer." Sheba turned to the side, one arm raising towards the crowd. "They would--"
Her words were cut off with a sudden splitting of stone. She ducked in surprise as thick plants pushed up all around the arena. Cacti and desert flowers erupted up and over them, creating a dome of prickly plantlife that grew thicker and thicker all too quickly.
The sounds of the astonished crowd faded away, the plants growing so thickly as to muffle them completely. They were alone.
Sheba's arms fell limply at her sides. "How..."
"I echo that statement." Nefertari flicked one of Silver's ears. "Nice trick, but we're just as trapped as they're kept out."
It was dark, even the sun growing dimmer and dimmer as the plants continued to double and redouble the thickness of their dome.
Sheba was suddenly at Silver's other side, flanking him with Nefertari. "What is the purpose of this? The wheels continue to turn. The jackals will be purged from the face of the world."
Silver dared to take a soft breath. The violence had at least paused. He wasn't being pelted, nor were the two females trying to rip each other to pieces. "Can we talk?" He slowly sat down. "That is all I wanted."
Nefertari hiked a thumb at him. "Yes, he really is that stubborn."
"How do you put up with it?" Sheba asked as if conferring with a friend instead of an enemy she was ready to kill.
"Practice." Nefertari sighed with a faint smile. "Shall we indulge him?"
Sheba ran a finger, claw sheathed, along one of Silver's ears. "Go on. We're a captive audience."
Silver quirked a smile at the pun. "First, do you mean what you seem to be implying? Will you literally kill every Anubian in the world at once?"
"I won't." Sheba crouched a little to be face-to-face with Silver. "I am not in charge of this, which is what makes this all the more laughable. Even if you convince me, the wheels are turning."
Silver flipped his ears back. "I can only work with what I have... Even if you can't stop it, you're worth speaking to."
"You flatter."
"He means it," assured Nefertari with an impatient huff. "If you aren't in charge, who is? I was given to believe this cult was yours to lead."
Sheba raised a brow. "Is that what they're saying? They see someone interesting and assume that one must be the one to watch for. I can't blame them for wanting to rest their eyes on me. I'm told I'm very easy on eyes, hmm..."