//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 // Story: The First Standoff // by bookhorse125 //------------------------------// “No.” “Please, sir, just-” “I said no, colonel! She was supposed to banish the monsters herself, do you not remember? Having the help of over half my troops does not count as doing things by yourself!” “But she did, sir,” Fire Storm rushed in the silence that followed. “You said that she just had to banish the monsters by herself, and she did just that. Ask any of the ponies who were there - they can tell you! You didn’t say anything about helping her fight them.” He shuffled his hooves. “Now do you believe what I said earlier about-” “I will believe nothing of the sort!” Trout roared. Spit flew from his mouth, and his eyes were wild. “She’s nopony! An outsider! She got lucky! She got lucky with the monsters! But she knows nothing! She cannot. Be. The one!” “Trout,” Professor Dolphin said weakly. “Give the colonel a chance to explain. It was very extraordinary-” “Beginner’s luck!” Trout interrupted loudly. “Then maybe she’ll get lucky with Grogar,” Fire Storm said coldly. “But if that was beginner’s luck, I would hate to see actual skill. Why don’t you start teaching us how to have beginner’s luck? Then we might actually stand a chance.” Trout stood there, fuming. “My son,” he hissed after a while, “tells me that this Gusty of yours may have been involved in a situation yesterday in training - a cadet slipping and nearly falling to her death.” Fire Storm vowed that, one day, he would find Storm and shove his pathetic, stuck-up face in. “We’re still investigating that,” he snapped. “We still don’t know if it was her-” “We have no reason to suspect that it wasn’t her!” “We have no reason to suspect that it was her!” Fire Storm retorted. “A set-up!” Trout roared. “She planned the whole thing, just like she did with the chimera - save a pony from a disaster she created to make us trust her more!” Fire Storm’s blood boiled. “Gusty wouldn’t do that,” he snarled. “I know her, sir, and she would never intentionally put another pony’s life in danger because of her! You should have seen her last night - when one pony got hurt, she considered sending everypony home so they could be safe. It would mean facing the monsters on her own-” “Which was what she was supposed to do!” Trout interrupted. “-which would have been a suicide mission,” Fire Storm continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “She was willing to put herself in danger if it meant that nopony else had to get hurt because of her.” Trout seethed. “Well, she seemed to do perfectly well on her own when she banished them all,” he snapped. “Do you really expect me to believe that a single pony had the power to defeat hundreds of monsters without having any involvement in planning the attack? Like everything she’s done so far, it was all a trick! She’s messing with your head, colonel! Trickery, lies, deception! It’s the only way to live in this world!” Too late, he realized the flaw in what he’d said, but the words hung in the air, unable to be pulled back in, and Fire Storm wasted no time in turning them around and using them against Trout. “So you’re saying that it could have been, essentially, anypony,” he said quietly. “The only reason you say it’s Gusty is because you hate her for some reason, and because she was… ‘involved’. But why not the pony who fell on the ropes course - Everpine? Also a unicorn, so, if Gusty’s not the one and just an ordinary unicorn, is just as capable of everything you’ve said so far. She was the one who convinced the troops to join Gusty and fight, essentially saving the city. But I notice that you haven’t even considered the possibility of another pony yet - your mind’s been fixated on Gusty. So the only plausible explanation for that is… you’re worried that actually be the one, and you don’t want that to happen, for some reason. I think you just want her gone because she’s a threat to your position.” Fire Storm spat on the floor. “You’re no better than Grogar, ‘General Trout’.” He said the name and title like it was an insult. Trout’s face turned red. In less than three minutes, this pony had taken a single misplaced phrase and completely tore down his entire argument, not to mention framing him as somepony who was the same as the monster and tyrant he was committed to dispose of. Not only was this Gusty a threat to his dream regime - Fire Storm was as well. On their own, he could deal with them, but teamed up… Together, they would tear down everything he’d ever wanted as easily as breathing, and they’d have everypony supporting every decision they made. Something had to be done. “Professor Dolphin?” Fire Storm asked calmly. “What do you think?” The pegasus gave a little jump when the colonel addressed her, but his eyes never wavered from Trout’s furious face. Dolphin looked back and forth between the two unicorn stallions, her mouth opening and closing, at a loss for words. “Well-” Trout turned his gaze to the mare, and she winced under his raging glare. “You know,” he hissed, “exactly what will happen if you say anything of the sort.” Dolphin gulped and met Fire Storm’s eyes. Unlike the general, whose eyes were wild, his breath coming out in short pants, undisguisable and untameable rage boiling beneath his skin, Fire Storm was almost a mask of calm, a firm believer in justice, a look that said that he would to whatever it took to gain what was right. It was a look she had searched for many times in Trout’s face, but had never found it. And it was for that reason that she wasn’t sure that the Equestrian army could win. But now… now there was a possibility, a chance of hope. Was she going to do what was right for her… or what was right for Equestria? Or was it, really, the same thing? Dolphin looked straight into Trout’s eyes and said, “I agree.” Trout smirked, and the madness in his eyes calmed somewhat. He lifted his head with a superior look, turning to Fire Storm and opening his mouth- “With,” the professor continued, “the colonel.” She walked over to join Fire Storm, facing Trout alongside him. The general’s jaw dropped. “Although I doubt he’ll have that rank for much longer, as I am sure that many of the ponies present for the fight against the monsters, if not more, will be requesting a promotion for the courage, bravery, and leadership he showed in the battle.” She lifted her chin and met Trout’s astonished gaze with a defiant expression, as if daring him to give orders otherwise. “Wait,” Fire Storm started, “professor, you don’t have to do this-” But she held up a single wing and silenced him. “Unfortunately,” Trout said through gritted teeth, “professor, you have no authority to… promote such a feat. These decisions come down to the word of the general himself, and you are merely a strategizer and a spy. In fact, I see it fit to strip Colonel Fire Storm of his position - I would have him permanently removed if not for our sworn secrecy. In light of that decision-” “Oh, I’m not speaking for myself,” Dolphin says cheerfully. “I’m speaking for the ponies we’re fighting for. Or do you not care for their opinions or try to meet their demands?” Trout worked his jaw as he thought. On the one hoof, he clearly needed to get rid of Fire Storm, and possibly Dolphin as well. He had a whole, glorious plan in his mind, and these foolish ponies were ruining it. Not to mention that giving Fire Storm a higher position would give him more resources to exploit, which might end Trout’s plan even sooner. But on the other hoof… Dolphin was a very trusted pony; other ponies would believe her if she told them that he, Trout, didn’t care about the public demand, and was as bad as Grogar. And then there would be no chance of his dream coming true. Argh. Ever since this ‘Gusty’ had come along, it was as if his control over every single pony in this army was slipping away. He needed to dispose of her as soon as possible, along with everypony else she may have ‘inspired’. “You… are… promoted,” Trout grunted to Fire Storm, his teeth clenched together so hard he could hardly get the words out. “To captain. As for your… Gusty… her training shall be suspended. Nopony is at fault or will be held… accountable for recent events. She has… done us a great service… by ridding our city of Grogar’s beasts.” Seeing Fire Storm’s mouth open, and knowing the question that would be asked, he snapped, “That is all. You are dismissed.” The newly-appointed Captain Fire Storm turned to the door and took a step towards it before it slowly opened, and Gusty walked into the room, her eyes focused on the floor. “Gusty!” Fire Storm cried, running up to her, a huge grin spreading across his face when he saw her. “Gusty, we did it, everything’s going to be okay-” He broke off when he saw her face, which looked like she had just received a chance to have the most amazing thing in all the land, but couldn’t take it, and it was breaking her heart. “Is… is everything alright?” She stared at him, her eyes set and hard, but as she looked at him, her resolve broke, and everything that she was really feeling spilled into her eyes as they filled with tears. “You shouldn’t have gone through the trouble,” she whispered in a choked-up voice. She gently pushed him away and stepped further into the room. Gusty looked at Professor Dolphin, who looked just as confused as Fire Storm was, and she thought about how the pegasus had believed in her and given her a chance when Trout had scoffed at her. Big mistake, she thought miserably. She turned to Trout, too miserable to notice, or care, about the insane look in his eyes, or the blind rage that was directed at her. She thought, He was right. About everything. And so was her brother. I never should have done this. Gusty took a deep breath and said, “I quit.”