Accepted as one of their own, Silver was allowed to roam freely and take part in the day-to-day running of the place, but what he saw was rarely encouraging. The Anubians seemed fine, physically and mentally, but he didn't like anything he saw of their habits. They felt counterproductive and ultimately destructive, especially if they planned to get along with other races.
Some of the jackals wanted to 'get to know him' better in all the wrong ways, but beating them and walking away seemed to be all the hint needed, so he wasn't forced to sleep with any of them, male or female. In a fit of irony, he grew to be called 'The Stoic One', in a far cry of difference from his title of Stud of the Land in other places. It wasn't that he thought the jackals were any more or less attractive, but he'd had more than enough of muddling his sex life, and kept them all at leg's length.
He did get to participate in test battles, and it seemed his magic was allowed. As a warrior, they wanted to challenge him with all of his tricks. He didn't always win, not by a long shot, but as long as he fought well and hard, he was helped to his hooves and a laugh was shared with the winner. Still, it established a pecking order for him. Some of the jackals started to be over him, and others remained under him, and this made all of them, above or below, more comfortable.
Silver started to consider leaving. He had seen a lot, and learned something from it, but he wasn't sure what to do with it, or how to use it to help these people, or his own people. He desperately wanted to make a peaceful answer, but their society was so soaked in the valors of war and conflict. They were a proud people, and eager to use the strength they were blessed with. They saw everyone else as pathetic and weak.
Silver sat on a small dune that oversaw the village and frowned in thought. He heard someone settle beside him and glanced to see Nefertari. "Are you done?"
"Done what?" Silver looked over at her curiously. She seemed relaxed and casual.
She smiled. "You have seen us, peacebringer. We do not want peace, but I can hear the spirits speak of your torment. How will you bring peace to us? Have you forgotten my words already?"
Silver thought back to what she had said during their struggle, trying to remember the key parts. "Reforging? Isn't that what you said."
"It is. We have reforged you." She reached out a hand and ran it along one of Silver's legs. "You make a decent warrior, and your spirit burns with that potential. But will you allow us to recast you in the fire, or will you turn that flame on us? If neither of us are destroyed, then nothing will change. What is brittle will be snapped and lost. Better to be destroyed in purifying flames and become something new."
Silver's ears twitched as he mused over it. "Are you... Do you want to be peaceful?"
Nefertari softly tapped Silver on the nose. "Can you make us that way? We are sharp and made of strong metal. We will cut you if you try to bend us."
Silver rose to his hooves. "But if I break you, and put the pieces back together, then you will be peaceful?"
Nefertari laughed softly and leaned back, her hands on the sand and her eyes half-lidded. "That won't be easy. You haven't even broken me." She raised a hand, leaning on the other. She lifted his chin and directed him to her eyes directly. "The spirits say you will cause that breaking, but if it is you, we will emerge stronger. If you leave, then we are doomed, and we will be broken still, but it will be a brittle snap, and our people will be remembered as a bitter memory. I feel the world is ready to destroy what it disfavors."
Silver clenched his teeth a moment. "You mean... well, yes. They will come, with armies, and they will attack until there is nothing left. The nations of the region have found peace and cooperation, and there is nothing distracting them from you as a whole. Saddle Arabians, Anugyptians, even Equestrians and turkeys. They will have no mercy in them, just a want to end it, forever."
Nefertari's hand brushed down over his chest. "But you don't want that, even if, perhaps, just this one tribe." She waved that same hand at the village. "There are many more villages, but you can't save them all. Some will flee when the battle comes, and regrow in the same ways. Others will fight to the end, and be brittle snaps. What will you sentence my people to?"
Silver felt confused. The shaman seemed to want him to change her people, and her. "Tell me, if you told them to stop their ways, how would they react?"
She flashed sharp canine teeth. "They would call me mad, and fight me. I would crush many of them, but they would attack as one, and I would be dragged down. The best I could pray for is for you to rescue me and take me away, but that would be the last either of us saw of any of them."
Silver shook himself out. "I'm starting to understand you better, but why did you play with my things? Put it back."
She smiled and sat up. "No."
Silver frowned at her blunt refusal. "Why?"
She tickled across his belly and worked down, teasing his sheath with agile fingers. "You haven't realized? Prince of the ponies, it is time for you to accept what shares half your spirit, and protect us, even from ourselves." Silver grunted softly as he began to spill free, and her fingers wrapped around his emerging member, stroking over it. "If you marry me, challenge me for the right, then insist our united family come with you, then tradition will demand it. We will leave these deserts, and follow you." Her other hand gently stroked over his balls and played with his bracelet. "You will gain a mighty tribe, and you can reforge us even as our kin is put to the fire. We would follow you to your Equestria, and you will show us how to live. You will be the reforging fire."
Silver began to pant as she stroked firmly and quickly. She had no shame about pleasing him and distracting him. "It... my words won't change them."
She squeezed firmly before pulling the flesh upwards and releasing. "The adults? Most, no, but they will rut, and breed, and make children. You will teach the children, send them to pony schools to learn with pony friends. Our bending and reforging will be slow, but..." She stared at him in the eyes. "Are you strong enough?"
Silver started in place as new thoughts came to him. As he contemplated, she pulled at him, and he found himself laying across her. Why was she being so affectionate and gentle now? "Nefertari, are we running out of time?"
She quirked an ear before a smile split her face. "You are quite astute. Your allies tire of waiting for you. The spirits have bid me to lead my people to safety, or die with them. Which will it be?"
Silver frowned a bit at her, even if her hands did feel nice in their petting, he hadn't forgotten the thrashing he received from her, or her treatment of the pegasus. "What about you? By your own words, you haven't been broken. You'll be a threat to everyone, along with them."
She softly stroked over his sides as her front ground upwards against his front. "Did you not hear what I said? I did not lie. You put pups in me, and I am quite faithful to my would-be mates. Provided your friends don't try to command me, I won't hurt them, even that pegasus of yours, wherever you placed her."
Silver rose up from her. "I won't take this entire village. Some of the people here are just the wrong kind of people. I want the meek first, who are looking for a new way of life. I want the young, who haven't yet learned this terrible way, and we can check with the others, and I think I know how." He held out a hoof to her. "Nefertari, I'm taking you away in a public display, and only those who want to come, will come. The rest can be 'brittle snaps' as you called it."
She frowned in displeasure. "Our tribe will be too small to easily grow."
Silver set a hoof down. "Your people will be safe, and loved, and will grow. If they accept harmony, then everyone will help them to become large and prosperous. I do want at least twenty, preferably about half of each, though I suppose females are more important for the first generation." He stopped with a sudden thought. "Are you... pregnant with horses or jackals or something else?"
She sprang up to her own feet. "Hmmph, only time will tell. The spirits are quiet on that, and you are a fool. This town has about fifteen hundred souls in it. You can certainly get more than twenty."
Silver pointed at her. "Then help me. Start poking around, discreetly, and see who's fit to take with us."
She put a hand on either of Silver's cheeks and drew him in for a soft kiss before she was gone, easily sprinting back into town and leaving him stiff and uncomfortable. Rather than return, he withdrew into his dreams and looked for Celestia. She was awake, but a note had been left for him.
Dear Silver Stars,
My attempts to calm the Saddle Arabians have been ultimately a failure. They have secured the aid of the Anugyptians and have pressed me into obeying the terms of our alliance. It will be scarcely a week before the violence begins, and they mean to achieve victory that lasts more than a short time. Please depart as soon as you can, and we can go home. You've done enough, and I'm very proud of your efforts.
Worrying for You,
Princess Celestia
It was just as Nefetari had said. He woke himself and trotted down into the town and began looking for Anubians worth saving himself. There wasn't enough time for him to try breaking them all without being snapped in half himself, physically or otherwise. He would leave these proud warriors to fight, and take those willing to give peace a change.
The scrawny jackal female approached him with a smile. "How are you, new warrior?"
Silver smiled back at her. "I was hoping I'd run into you."
That surprised her and she pointed at herself. "M-me? Whyever for?"
Silver gestured subtly at the rest of the village. "You have friends, besides me, don't you? Others who are tired of the way things are?"
She looked nervous. "D-did they send you? Is this a trick? I don't want to be beaten, sir."
Silver raised a hoof to her chin. "I am your friend. Find those others and tell them to look for me, and when the time is right, you're all coming with me. Their children as well, and any cooperative elders as well. Don't tell the ones that like fighting, that thrive on conflict. They can stay here and fight. That fight is coming."
She nodded before scrambling away in a panic. Word would spread. Much of the town would prepare for battle, but many would be preparing to leave, even if they didn't know where they were going or how.