//------------------------------//
// Don't Play with Fire 
// Story: Sweet Nothings 
// by Golden Tassel 
//------------------------------//

When Starry returned, she found me sitting under a tree in the orchard. It was dark; the emergency lights didn't reach that far into the void that was the atrium. "Day? Where's Sweets?" she asked.

"We got into an argument. He ran off," I told her.

She looked around, and twitched her ears back and forth. "Do you know where he went? Will he be alright?"

"He could be anywhere." I shrugged. "He knows the stable at least as well as I do. He'll be safe. He's just upset because . . ." I sighed. "I told him I wasn't going to stay in the stable."

Starry didn't say anything right away. Instead, she walked over and knelt down beside me. There was a slight breeze from the ventilation system that ran through the atrium, filling the silence with the calm rustling of leaves above us.

"Oh, wow," she said at last, and I turned my head to see that she was looking up. I followed her gaze up into the dark void above us. Through the rustling leaves, we could see the emergency lights as small points twinkling in the darkness. "I didn't think I'd see stars down here . . ."

"I've never seen the stable this way before," I said. "But it's always been like this, hasn't it? Those lights have always been there; I've simply never been able to see them. I've seen so much in the time since my exile." I lowered my gaze down to the shield on Starry's uniform; it glinted in the darkness. "What are you going to do after you leave here? Are you going to go back to Precinct?"

"I . . . don't really know," she said after a long pause. "I suppose I'll go back to the diner first and figure out the rest from there. But . . . well, I can understand why you don't want to stay here. And I think I'd feel the same if I went back to Precinct."

"The diner's not so bad. But I can't bring Sweets out there with me. Even if I can't stay here, the stable is still the safest place for him. Isn't it?"

Starry nodded. "Lots of foals grow up in the wasteland, but a lot more of them never get the chance to grow up. I can't blame you for wanting to keep your little brother here."

"You think I should let him come with me?"

"I think you know better than anypony what's best for him; you've been taking care of him for his whole life." Starry paused, and I let out a long sigh. "You wouldn't have to leave right away," she said, putting a hoof on my shoulder. "You could stay here for a few days at least, so you two would have time to say goodbye."

"I know. That was my plan. He didn't even let me try to explain it. But I don't think that will make it any easier for him anyway. I know he doesn't want me to leave at all. I just . . . I wish I knew what else I could do. I only ever wanted to keep my little brother safe."

"I know," Starry said as she stood up. "But let's take this one step at a time: I've got the capacitor, so let's go get the reactor back online first so there'll at least be a stable for Sweets to stay in. We can deal with everything else after that."

I looked up at her, her outline barely visible in the darkness; tiny points of light twinkled in the void above her, and glinted off her shield.

I nodded slowly. "You're right. Let's start there."


***


Starry had found a pristine spark capacitor. We had no trouble installing it, and when we closed everything up and got the reactor through its startup procedure, it hummed as good as new. We turned on the main breaker, and, like magic, the whole stable lit up.

We'd done it. We'd saved the stable.

We walked back to the atrium; I wanted Starry to see it with the lights on. She was congratulating me. I was smiling.

And then red lights began flashing along the walls, and a loud, wailing siren sounded over the P.A. system. It was a fire alarm. Screams and cries for help followed, and Starry and I flew up above the trees to get a better view: On the third level that ringed the atrium, smoke was billowing out of the corridor and rising up through the atrium in a thick, dark plume.

"Something's not right," I said. "With that much smoke, the fire suppression system should have kicked in already. I need to go back to maintenance; the control system there will let me activate it."

"Go," Starry told me. "I'll try to help evacuate everypony from that area."

I didn't stay to say goodbye to Starry. I knew that time was important: If the ventilation system didn't get clogged with smoke and spread it through the stable first, the metal corridors would turn the whole stable into an oven. Amid frantic yelling and alarms blaring, I raced back down into maintenance. The yelling faded, but the sound of half the stable stampeding around echoed through the walls, as if to impress upon me just how many lives were at risk. But I only had one life on my mind—the only life that I had ever cared about. And I wouldn't let him down.

When I reached the control panel, I stopped dead in my tracks. It had been ripped apart; torn wires and smashed circuit boards lay scattered on the floor. And in the middle of where the console should have been, there was a lone black chess pawn.

My legs started scrambling before I knew what I was doing. They carried me back out toward the atrium, and as soon as I was out of the corridor, my wings spread out and carried me straight up. I didn't spare a single glance toward the fire. I had only one goal that consumed all my focus: the overseer's office was the only other place in the stable that could control the fire suppression system.

Inside the office, I suddenly felt as though I'd never escaped the changelings in the forest. How else could I have been confronted with such a scene, ripped from my darkest nightmares, and yet so frighteningly real, as I was then: The overseer sat at the back of the room, his nose was bleeding, and one of his eyes was swollen shut. His hooves were bound in electrical cord. A large kitchen knife was against his neck, floating steadily in Sweets's magical aura. My little brother stood in the middle of the room, smiling at me.

"I did it for you, Day," he said. His voice was strained, and I saw his cheeks were wet with tears. "I did it all for you. So we could be together."

"Sweets . . . I . . ." I glanced over at the window that overlooked the entire stable; the smoke was growing thicker. "I need to turn on the—"

"Don't!" Sweets yelled as he twisted the tip of the knife against the overseer's throat. "You have to listen first."

"Sweets, I'll always listen to you. You don't have to—"

"Why did you have to leave me, Day?" he whimpered. "Why? I had it all planned out, but you had to go and do something unexpected!"

"Sweets, what are you talking about?"

"And you did it all over again! Day, I knew you were the only one who could fix the reactor—he'd have to let you back in after it broke. And it worked! Here you are! But you want to leave me behind again. You want to leave me here with this . . . this monster! He's the reason our mother hated us—why she was killing you: He's been raping her for years, and we're his bastards."

"I never raped anypony!" the overseer yelled.

"You're lying!" he screamed as he turned to face the overseer. "I saw you with her! I saw what you'd do to her! Tell Day what you'd say to her—what sweet nothings you'd whisper in her ear while you raped her."

"It wasn't—"

"Tell him!"

The overseer winced, and glanced from me to Sweets, then back again. He closed his good eye and swallowed hard. "I—I told her it was . . ."

"Say it!" Sweets reared up and slapped a hoof across the overseer's face.

"Sweets—" I started to protest.

"Her lucky day!" the overseer blurted out.

I blinked, incredulous; what I had heard hadn't made sense at first, and all of my thoughts came to a screeching halt as my mind scrambled to imagine how I might have misheard him. Then the overseer repeated himself, and I was certain I'd heard him correctly that time, which freed my thoughts from the trap of trying to think of what he might have said, and allowed me to focus on what it meant. Slowly, the realization sunk in: this was the story of my conception.

"What else? What did you call her?" Sweets demanded.

His jaw trembling, the overseer's eye focused on the knife Sweets was holding in his magic. "I called her . . . called her my sweetie pie."

"Her 'lucky day.' His 'sweetie pie.'" Sweets sneered while his magic tied a gag around the overseer's mouth. "That's all she ever was to him. All we ever were to her: Sweet—little—nothings!" He spat the words. "You know why it was getting worse, Day? She was pregnant again. You weren't going to survive. Neither of us would."

I felt my chest tighten. "Sweets, let's . . . let's talk about this. We can make it better. Just let me—"

"Don't lie to me!" His lip quivered. "You said you'd always be here to protect me. You said we'd be together. You said . . . you said you loved me."

"I do love you!"

"Then why did you leave me?" he sobbed.

"Sweets," I said softly, taking a cautious step toward him. He flinched, pointing the knife at me, and I stopped. "Sweets, they would have exiled you instead. I couldn't let that happen to you. At least with her gone, I knew you'd be safe here."

"I would rather have died!" he shouted, the knife faltering briefly in his magic. "You left me all alone, big brother. You didn't even say goodbye to me. I waited for you. I waited for you! I was alone for so long until somepony came to find me, and then nopony would tell me where you went."

"Sweets, I'm sor—"

"Don't tell me you're sorry!" he yelled through gritted teeth. I'd never heard him snarl like that before—as if the word "sorry" caused him physical pain. I suddenly remembered when I had snapped at Chrys in exactly the same way. "You left me here with this monster! He was even worse than Mom." Sweets sniffled, wiping his eyes with a fetlock. "At least with Mom, we knew she hated us. But this monster . . . he'll tell you he loves you, and—" he choked. "And he makes you want to believe it. He . . ."

I started to take another step, but Sweets re-strengthened his grip on the knife.

Sniffling again, Sweets wiped his nose on his sleeve. "He wanted me to forget you."

"Sweets, I—"

"It was all a lie, though!" His horn shone brightly, as he turned the knife point toward the overseer. "He never loved me. He just made me think he did. But . . . it felt the same as with you, Day." He looked at me, eyes wide, tears dripping from his cheeks. "How . . .? How can a lie feel so real, Day? Was it ever real? Did you ever really love me, big brother?"

"Of course I love you! You're my little brother. I'll always love you—I always have! Please, Sweets, just put the knife down. Let me activate the fire suppression system, and we can talk—"

"No!" he screamed. "Words don't mean anything! If you really love me, then kill him." He took a slow, shaky breath, and floated the knife toward me, offering the handle. "I killed Mommy. I did it for you. You took the blame for it, but that's okay: you kill Daddy and everything will be alright. We'll leave together. As brothers. Like we were supposed to. Do it for me."

I stared at the knife, then looked over at the overseer. His eyes pleaded with me. "Sweets, I . . . I can't."

"Why not? It's easy! Doesn't he deserve it? Don't you hate him? Don't you . . . love me?"

"Not like this, Sweets! This . . . this is just wrong."

His eyes going dark, Sweets levitated the knife back toward himself before I could snatch it away from him. "If you won't do it, I will. And I'll announce it to the whole stable, and they'll kick me out too, and then you'll have to take me with you!" Hesitating only long enough to look at me with tired eyes, he took a step toward the overseer.

"Sweets, stop!" I reached back into my bag, pulled out my pistol, and aimed it at him, blinking the tears out of my eyes to keep a clear sight. My jaw trembled as I struggled to hold my aim steady.

He stopped and simply stared at me at first, and then his eyes narrowed. "What? You're gonna shoot me? You won't kill this bastard, but you'll shoot me?" His lip quivered as he cried. "I killed for you, Day."

"I never asked you to! Please, Sweets! Stop this! More are going to die if we don't put out the fire!"

"I don't care! I'd burn the whole stable down for you, Day!" He sobbed and then sucked in a deep breath. His eyes locked with mine, and I could no longer see the happy, innocent smile that I had seen in them when he was newborn. I saw only a broken heart and the will to see the whole world burned to ashes around him. "I guess my big brother really did leave me forever," he said.

Sweets took another step, and I focused my aim on his foreleg—only a wound to make him stop; that's all I wanted to do. We could sort it all out if he'd just calm down and listen. I bit down, and the revolver fired. My ears rang from the noise, and the kick felt as though it had nearly broken my jaw as it twisted my neck. The gun fell out of my mouth, and I turned back to see my little brother.

And I just stood there, staring. Hind legs gave out, and I sat on my haunches. I wanted to throw up, but all I could do was look on blankly at what I'd done: Sweets lay there lifelessly, a gaping wound torn through his neck. His now vacant eyes simply stared out into space.

My eyes glanced over at the overseer. He was watching me with wide eyes, his pupils like pinpricks. Slowly, mechanically, I stood up. In the back of my mind there was a nagging thought that I had come here to do something. My legs were shaky, but did their job and carried me over to the terminal. My forehooves tapped a few keys and reinitialized the fire suppression system; the screen confirmed the system was active and responding to the emergency.

Less shaky now, my legs carried me over to the overseer, and slowly, mechanically, I untied his gag. He looked up at me and forced a smile. "Uh . . . heh . . . thanks, son. I'm sorry for what you had to do. That little maniac was going to—"

"That little maniac was my brother!" I screamed, and struck him in face. He toppled over and hit his head on the bare metal floor. I had barely felt anything up until that moment, but suddenly my chest was on fire. My heart pounded like an explosion inside my chest with every beat. The corners of my vision went dark, and all I could see was the monster on the floor in front of me.

I bit the collar of his barding and pulled him back up into a sitting position. "He was the 
only person who ever loved me!" I rounded on my hooves and kicked out with both hind legs, catching him under the chin and in the side of his neck. The blow knocked him back against the wall, his head streaking blood along it as he slumped down to the floor.

He groaned and tried to move, but his legs were still tied. Coughing and drooling blood from his mouth, he turned his eye to look up at me as I stood over him. He might have tried to say something, but I could only hear the blood pounding in my ears as I reared up and stomped down on his head with both forehooves.