//------------------------------//
// VIII - Scar Tissue 
// Story: Tears of Snow 
// by FlashKenshin77 
//------------------------------//


Tears of Snow
By - FlashKenshin77

Chapter VIII - Scar Tissue
Edited by - Rglloyd



“Our injuries will heal as long as we’re alive. But the scars will remain.”
~;~


“D-dad, why are you so mad?” I asked, baffled as he flew home. Dad refused to answer, fury radiating off him as he squeezed my hoof tighter.
“What did I say?! Don’t get too close to anypony!” He finally answered.
“Why not?”
“Just in case you screw up again and we have to leave.” He muttered.
Snowdrop’s words echoed in my head. “But its not my fault…” I whispered.
“What?” Dad asked as we landed in front of the apartments. We opened the front door, Mrs. Dancer’s smile quickly faltered as she saw the looks on our face. We walked right past her as we made it to our house.
“I… uh… said it wasn’t my fault?” I stuttered and wished for Snowdrop’s help.
Dad’s eye twitched as he flung open the door and pushed me inside. I smacked into the couch. He slammed the door shut, the door itself shook. “EXCUSE ME?”
I gulped, shriveling up as I backed away. I didn’t see the blow coming, his hoof cracking into my head. “What did I say about talking back?”
I held my head, tears already trickling out of my eyes. “I-I’m so-sorry…” I whimpered.
He stood over me, picking me up before whacking my wing. “After everything I’ve taught you, all that effort I put into raising you to respect your father… this is how you pay me? Looks like I didn’t teach you hard enough.” He said, my back cracking against the table. “I can’t believe you would even think that this isn’t your fault! How could it not be? Before you, I had a job, a loving wife… a career!” The table cracked and caved as he battered me around and I cried,curling into a ball like I learned to do. He glared at me and forced me to my hooves. “Get up and stand your ground! I thought I taught you to be tough, to take anything that life threw at you?” He paused before a grin stretched across his face. “Oh… it was that filthy blind bat eh? Made you soft… but I can see why you’d fall for her, you’re both a pair of rejects… destined to be the bane of your parents.” He chuckled. “I can’t believe my son fell for such a defective pony… but I guess that’s just like you? No matter how much I try to teach you, you still are just as useless as she is. How… how they even manage to be proud of her is amazing! If she was my filly, I would’ve dropped her off a cloud and be done with it! But-” My hoof met his jaw with a sickening crunch as I glared at him.
My hoof throbbed as I stomped it on the ground. “You aren’t a pony, you're a monster! My ENTIRE LIFE you’ve treated me like trash… but now, I’m finally happy. Why?! Why do you hate to see me happy?! Is it because you saw how much of a better dad Storm is than you?! You know, living with them for the week, I realized how much of a horrible dad you really are!” I took a shaky breath and stared Frosty right in the eye. “You aren’t my father anymore, I’m leaving.”
He stared at me, a tear slowly falling out of his eye. “You wanna know why I treat you like trash? Why I even put up with you?” He took a step closer. “Because you killed your mother.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Because I promised her that I’d look after you, no matter what. Even when she left me alone, with you, I still took care of you. I could’ve tossed you aside and forgot about you, but no. I suffered every day, watching you grow up and had to deal with it alone.” He wiped the blood from his mouth. “But you know what the worst thing is? You have her eyes… Every time I looked at you, all I saw was her… Every time I hit you, I hoped they’d change, hoped it was all an illusion. That the same eyes I fell in love with didn’t stare back at me in fear.” He grabbed me and ripped off my eye patch. “Even when this one died, it still looked like hers! I couldn’t escape it!” He pushed me to the floor as he sighed. “So I thought, maybe if I hit him enough, he’d go away on his own… or maybe some pony would notice and I wouldn’t have to deal with you.”
I staggered to my hooves, tears pouring even faster. “B-but you told me...”
“She left… Yes… you drove her away. My beautiful wife died and left me alone with a spoiled brat and a defect. Why…” He paused as he stared at the ceiling. "You know, after seeing her eyes, I thought about killing you so I didn't have to see them again. But I didn't want you to get to see her and spend any time with her. No... you should suffer for what you put her through, live every moment alone... like I've had to do... knowing you were responsible for her death."
I stood there, staring at the floor as all the lies… all the hidden meaning Dad’s said over the years came back. Mom… mom died because of me? My body deflated as all my fantasies of Mom coming back shattered, the ashes spinning around. 
YOU KILLED HER!! It shouted as I closed my eyes, shaking my head.
I could feel my chest burning, my hooves going numb. Bu… I couldn’t… It can’t-
The picture I drew for class appeared in my head, Mom crying. Why… why did you do it Icy… The vision I had, Mom tearfully looking at me before she disappeared, it all made sense.
I… I really did…
Frosty sighed. “But now that I finally got that off my chest, I’m going to do what I should’ve done a long time ago.” He said, his hoof sending me flying.
I didn’t feel a thing, my body went numb a long ago. He picked me up, tossing me like a ragdoll into anything close at hoof. Finally he grabbed a piece of the table, standing over me. “This is for your own good Icy…” He said as our front door flew open, Storm standing in the doorway. 
Storm quickly looked around and saw all the broken furniture and me, barely breathing. He turned his eyes onto Frosty as the stallion in question turned towards him. “Who the hell do you think you are, breaking into my house?”
“Protecting my colt.” Storm answered, his wings a blur as he launched himself. Frosty swung the wood like a club. Storm ducked underneath as his forehooves connected with Frosty’s chest.
The air left Frosty’s lungs as he stumbled back. Storm followed him and grabbed the wood from Frosty’s hoof, ripping it out of his grip and smacking him in the snout with it. Frosty yelped, his hooves going to hold his injured snout as Storm went for another swing and connected with his stomach. He folded in two as the wood splintered on his ribs. He cried out in pain, a few drops of blood dripped out of his mouth.
Storm grabbed Frosty’s mane, pulling him up. “YOU NEVER HIT YOUR COLT!” He screamed. “The one thing that your WIFE asked you to do and this is how you’re keeping your promise?” He punched Frosty in jaw where I hit him. “You’ve taught Icy nothing but being afraid of others and how to never trust anypony!” He punched him again, Frosty gasping for breath. “My daughter was barely able to speak after she told us what you’ve done to him, she couldn’t stop crying. How could you do such a thing to your own flesh and blood?”
I felt hooves wrap around me as I opened my eye. Primrose was holding back tears. “It’s going to be alright Icy, I promise. I won’t let him hurt you anymore.” She said and gently pulled me into a hug, her wings protectively around me. I buried my face into her chest and screamed, unable to contain anything anymore. She tried to rock me back and forth but I screamed louder. 
“Get away from me!” I screamed as I tried to push myself away from her. Instead, I found myself trying to get closer to her, trying to hide from the pain. “I’ll just kill you too!” I muttered as I gasped for air. “I already killed my Mom, I don’t want to kill Snowdrop’s too!” I cried.
Primrose paused and looked down at me. She kissed my forehead and wiped a tear from my eye. “Icy, what mothers want most in life is to see their foals grow up to be ponies that are happy with their choices. We may never have met your mother, but we both know that she’d want you to be happy and not blame yourself for a horrible accident. She may have died during foalbirth, but she made sure you came into this world. I’ve only known you for a few weeks but you’ve been like a colt to both me and Storm…” My heart skipped a beat, the pain pausing for a moment, “and we’ve been thinking of finally sitting you down and have you tell us everything. I wish you would’ve told us sooner… If we’d known, we could’ve stopped this.” A tear rolled down her snout as she hugged me, trying to push away the pain. “I wish I could take your pain away and make you happy Icy… I would give anything to see you happy, truly happy.” 
My heart picked up, my body finally going into shock as everything started to go dark. “Mom…” I whispered and feebly wrapped my hooves around Primrose.
She bit the inside of her lip as she gingerly picked me up. Making sure I was alright, she quickly took me from the apartment. The last thing that I saw before the world went black was Dad on the floor as Storm stood over him, his jaw clenched in anger.