Shedding Light
Shedding Light
Sin stood in wide eyed shock.
It happened so quickly, over the span of just a few seconds. It took him too long to register what was happening, and before he could coordinate his body, Sombra had teleported them both out of sight. They were gone now, Krystal and Scootaloo were gone...
A small droplet of water struck Sin's muzzle, and then another atop his head. The overcast above had fulfilled its promise of rain, putting the small cherry on top of the cupcake that felt like the melancholy of his life.
He... he felt... cold inside. Like the slow fall of rain that crashed upon him completely bipassed his pelt and skin, applying itself directly to every inch of his muscles and organs. Sin couldn't believe what he'd just done, the threat he'd made, the fact he was fully intent to follow through with it.
How could he have done that? What... what the fuck was wrong with him?
Soarin gave him no time to ponder the feelings though and with a flap of his wings, the hostile stallion darted straight for the him. Sin barely had time to dodge left, the wind stream of the attacking pegasus sending him rolling with force enough that a direct impact would have likely killed him.
He came to his hooves and took aim with his crossbow, calling the Nightmare enhanced aura to task. All the anger he'd suppressed from before suddenly called to task. It claimed his muscles, his thoughts, his senses, everything. Soarin had made a mistake sticking around, and he planned to make the pony suffer for it.
Though, Soarin was nowhere to be seen, taking the advantage of flight and swiftness by hiding in the trees, away from where the stallion would be caught in the Federalist's gaze.
"Monster." Soarin's voice echoed about, reverberating off the trees, making it sound like it was coming from everywhere at once. "Threatening a little foal like that, threatening to shoot her in the face. You're a sick freak, you know that?"
"Coming from the stallion who used a love potion on an unsuspecting mare to get back at her brother." Sin snarled back with a little more venom.
He heard a grunt from behind and turned just in time to dodge an incoming white blur, this time to the right. Sin immediately came up and took aim, but once again, the stallion had disappeared into the thick tree line beyond his aim.
Fuck!
Sin instead of being more cautious and joining the stallion in taking cover, allowed his rage to override his reason. He turned his head around, teeth peeled back to reveal teeth. He ran to one of the trees and turned his head about, teal serpentine eyes scanning for wherever his foe had gone. He heard a sharp slam above and turned his head up. A slight crack of strained wood followed soon after and the Federalist stepped clear of the heavy, falling branch.
The thing was massive, almost as thick as he was tall!
The split second he took to admire the attack cost him dearly. Soarin, using the falling branch as a distraction, swooped down from the left and slammed into Sin, forcing the air from the Federalist's lungs.
Pain shot through Sin's spine and barrel as the former Wonderbolt slammed Sin into a tree, making the stallion's mouth open in a silent cry, failing to suck in a breath that his lungs didn't have the needed space to take.
A new, righteous anger flashed within him, and Sin brought down his bow wielding hoof onto Soarin's back, directly on the stallion's withers between the wings joints.
He pushed off Sin and cringed from the pain of the assault. Sin collapsed to the ground and couched for breath, the rain having sent water down his open throat.
In a flash, Soarin had regained himself and once again assaulted Sin in a devastating tackle before the pony could get a lock with his eyes. However, Sin wasn't caught off guard this time, and positioned his forelegs to intercept, making sure his crossbow would impact into his assailant's face and muzzle.
The blow hit home, striking Soarin in the muzzle and drawing blood, but the follow through with the attack had pushed Sin onto the ground with Soarin flying over him and darting back into the safety of the trees.
Things were quiet for a moment as Sin regained his bearings and looked about. This wasn't good, he was beyond angry, and that emotional reaction was making him sloppy. He took a few seconds to regain some semblance of battle calm and forced himself to breath and think.
He strained his hearing to listen for anything indicating Soarin's position in the treeline, but the stallions aviation training had trained his movements to be silent, leaving the pony to hear nothing but the falling rain all around him.
"And who are you to judge me anyway?" Soarin barked, voice dripping with self righteous anger.
"I am myself, the only one who can judge for myself." Sin called out, his ears finding the point of origin a few decibiles higher than the reverberation around.
A soft, but sudden flap told Sin his foe was coming from the left. He turned his glare and saw Soarin coming down for another violent charge.
Despite being caught in the Nightmare's eye, Soarin continued to rush forth, forcing Sin to flinch and dodge once again, losing the stallion for a forth time.
"You're scum!" The ex-Wonderbolt called. "A fake! A liar, a cheat, and an abuser!"
Sin narrowed his eyes in a show of calculating thought. He wasn't the only one angry here... "Going to pretend raping an unsuspecting mare is much better?"
"I DIDN'T RAPE HER!" Soarin yelled, calling the stallion to yet another predictable diving swoop.
Sin heard the pony and dodged once again.
This process rebuffed itself a few times, the two continuing to taunt each other to lure their foe into a berzerk, a frenzy where rational calm was cast aside in favor of unscrupulous and wrathful blood-lust. Though, between the military training the two had received, neither pony was willing to allow themselves the indulgence.
Another taunt from Sin caused Soarin to give another swoop, and Sin dodged as needed before taking a chance and loosing the steel tipped primary projectile after the pony.
He heard it woosh through the air, rustle past a brush, and hit a mark of tree off in the distance. The bolt didn't hit it's mark.
Sin didn't have time to reload, he didn't dare try. It would take him precious seconds of concentration and effort to restring the primary and fetch a bolt to replace. The shot was a mistake, but the Federalist needed to make something happen and soon.
He'd seen this tactic before during his time in Triple M. The tactic Soarin was using wasn't meant to end a battle quickly, it was meant to wear him down. His dodge rolling was much more taxing on the stallion's body than Soarin's constant swooping in and exit. He'd make a mistake the stallion would capitalize on soon, a hit leg, or worse.
Between that and the slowly growing headache the Nightmare was giving him, it was only a matter of time until Sin was at a greater disadvantage.
Sin took a split second look at the incendiary bolt on is crossbow, it's dim glow more than enough to give away his position in the darkening, rain soaked forest floor. He'd have liked to have been rid of it, for no other reason to make his person harder to find, but a discharge would lead to the bolt's activation, and spring hadn't been here nearly long enough to make the surrounding forest anything but a tinderbox.
Still, that did leave him with an idea.
Sin allowed the anger in his body to resurface a little, not to cloud his mind, but to take his body. His form began to tremble in rage, but to Soarin, it was meant to mimic the trembling of fear.
"Y-You don't have to keep doing this!" Sin called out, forcing his voice to sound more nervous than it was. "Give me back my friends, and we can both walk away!"
"They aren't your friends!" Soarin shouted back. "I've seen how you treat them, continually ignoring them, berating them, threatening them. That's not how friends treat each other! That's how abusers work!"
Sin pressed his lips and allowed himself to look down, his display of thought half exaggerated and half genuine.
He'd be lying if he said he found anything but truth to the pony's words. He didn't know how to logically follow through against it though. He wasn't a good pony, he knew that, they knew that and so did they.
"A manipulator! Tell me, does it feel good? Preying on ponies younger and more ignorant than you? Trying to indoctrinate them into following you? Talking and using words and rhetoric that makes it sound like you're saying more than you really are? Knowing that you're smarter than they are? I bet it does, to a sick slive like you."
Sin had to fight a cringe at the accuracy of the words. That was how he worked, he gained admiration through his intelligence, and through that admiration, utilized his companions. He never put them in harms way, though, quite the contrary really; so the insult didn't hit him nearly as deeply as it could have.
Soarin didn't need to know that, though...
"I don't use them like that..." Sin said, desperation lining his voice.
His eyes looked up and he scrutinized the treeline infront of him, his unarmed hoof traveling to the buckles that latched the crossbow to his other foreleg. He needed to time this perfectly if it was going to work.
A flap from behind and Sin tensed all of his body, he saw the stallion out of the corner of his eye and dodged in another roll. His timing was off, thanks to both fatigue and the headache, and the stallions scored a hit on his right hind leg, sending a soaring pain there in.
Sin's recovery wasn't as graceful as it needed to be, and he found his standup a little hindered by the hurt appendage. Still he used the recovery time to reach into his quiver and carefully retrieve a bolt from it.
He recalled the training with the Trap Bolt, his foreleg gripping the thin air cylinder that made up the first half of the shaft, the air pressure used to getisen the hook claw. The last half of the bolt, the one that held the wire, was made up of a copper alloy that worked to conduct the small electric battery in the core of the shaft.
Mr. Cyan had made him touch a a fully armed trap bolt, to show Sin what it was like to feel the pain he wanted to utilize on others. To make him respect and understand the cruelty of the device. It wasn't long enough to do any long term damage, but it was more than enough to singe the hairs of his pelt where he touched.
A split second of contact was painful, especially to his more empty and hollow pegasus form. Hopefully, Soarin would offer the same susceptibility to it.
He didn't like it, being as close to the wire as he would be, especially since the rain fall had grown and had the potential to short circuit the electricity. Though, it couldn't be helped, Soarin was too quick for him to get a proper shot on, and his rush past was also too quick for the aura to effectively lock onto him.
Slowly, Sin limped towards a tree, exaggerating his injury to inspire his foe's confidence and positioned himself just so. He gripped the bolt tightly and cringed as the Nightmare's headache escalated to a painful migraine.
This needed to end.
With a pop, and slight feeling of nausea, Krystal popped into existence in the woodwork, Scootaloo held in her forelegs, looking at the the blackened unicorn with fearful eyes as he stood besides them.
Krystal's grip on the foal tightened, fear coursing through her veins at the blackened pony's intimidating form.
"You're fine, you're safe." Sombra cooed, lifting a hoof and trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. Krystal saw his hoof raise and she fluffed out her wings in response, trying to appear bigger than she really was.
"You just stay back!" She barked, body tensing. She looked about, keeping herself ready to take flight at a moments notice. "Where are we? Where's Islander?"
She was a little surprised at her tone and command. Krystal never considered herself a confident mare, nore the type to bark at others when they obviously had the upper hoof on her. But she also knew that Scootaloo needed her to be strong and protect her.
"He's gone, away from here." Sombra answered.
Krystal frowned and looked around, not liking at all what was happening. She threw down her wings and took to the sky, but a red aura of magic engulfed her, freezing her wings in place and stunting her escape.
"Let us go!" Krystal said, struggling in Sombra's grip, Scootaloo's tightened grip on her neck driving the mare's desperation.
Sombra brought her back down and looked at her. "I shall, once I know you shall not go to him."
Krystal looked at him in defiance, though, she wasn't sure that was her plan. Not after what Sin had just done. Truth was, she didn't know what she was going to do, or where she was planning to go.
"I am not going to harm you, but I cannot let you go to him. He is dangerous, as you have, yourself, born witness."
Her face locked into a glower of disapproval, Krystal slowly allowed herself to relax in Sombra's grasp, all but her foal bearing forlegs anyway.
With a few more coaxing words, the two fillies slowly came to accept their fate, partially grateful for the separation from Islander now. Though, between whispering calm and soothing words to the filly in her grasp, and continually checking to make sure Sombra didn't advance upon them, Krystal's mind was frantic trying to figure out what had just happened.
Sin... he threatened to shoot Scootaloo in the head! He threatened to kill her, just like she feared he would!
How? How could he do that?! That wasn't like him, that wasn't anything like him. He'd gone to such extreme lengths to protect both Scootaloo and herself before!
Krystal felt herself well up with emotion as she tried and failed to understand the stallion's behavior.
Her vision became blurry as tears welled up in the pegasus mare's own amber orbs, and she slowly found herself sobbing with Scootaloo.
It was terrible, the feelings she was having. Terror, incomprehension, betrayal... She thought... she thought he was a good pony, a pony like papa, a harmed but good soul, like the ponies in her books. The kind who, when they needed to make a hard choice, would choose to do the right thing and cast aside their vengeful ways when those they cared about placed themselves between they and the one they wanted to take vengeance upon.
That's not what happened, though. That's not what happened at all, Sin made the wrong choice. He chose vengeance and anger over love and forgiveness. He... he wasn't a good pony after all, no good pony would have done what he did.
Despite the filly in her legs, Krystal took a moment to be selfish. She felt so worthless right now, she felt abandoned and vulnerable in the worst of ways.
Didn't he care? Didn't he care about how much trust and faith they'd put in him? How could he betray them like that? After everything they'd been through, after everything they'd done for one another? She... she felt things for him, things she'd never felt for anypony else, and he just... like he didn't even care about the two of them. She could see from the look of resolve in his eyes that, had Krystal been the one to stop him, she would have been just as likely to be at the wrong end of his weapon as Scootaloo was.
Scootaloo mumbled something into Krystal's neck and the filly pulled away. "I- I'm sorry, Krystal." She uttered.
The amber eyed mare felt her throat tighten from the words, the look of utter defeat on Scootaloo's face. Both forgetting about Sombra's presence.
"Shhh, it's... it's not your fault, Scootaloo." Krystal cooed, or tried to. It's hard to comfort others when your voice is in the middle of crying. "I- it's not your fault at all."
"Yes it is." Scootaloo sniffled. "I... I thought that he... if I had known he would... I... I-" She hick-uped and began bawling again.
Cringing, Krystal redoubled her efforts and hugged Scootaloo as tightly as she could. It wasn't her fault, how could she think Krystal would blame her? How could either of them known about what would happen?
Flicking her eyes up, Krystal took note of Sombra for just a moment before turning back to Scootaloo. While her gaze wasn't long, she could see the stallion looking sympathetically at the two.
Things were quiet now, no more words could be said, no excuses given, no justifications grasped for.
It had happened, Islander had threatened to kill them, either of them, and as sickening as Krystal may have found it, she couldn't find it in herself to deny. He was a bad pony, a very bad pony that they needed to keep away from.
Her ear twitched as something light struck it, and then something else, and another. Rain.
Rain fell atop of them, and Krystal hugged the filly tight.
Slowly, but surely, the rain continued to fall. Escallating from the few dropped sprinkle to a low drizzle. It wasn't lost on Krystal just how appropriate the weather was.
Though, as suddenly as it had come, the assault on her pelt had ceased. She could still hear the rain around her though, and she looked up to find Sombra now standing beside them, a dim umbrella of magic sheltering all of them.
The stallion cast a side long look at her, opened his mouth and... let out a breath. He looked like he had something to say, but Krystal didn't dare ask.
After a while, the black unicorn licked his lips and finally spoke. "I am sorry, for what has happened to you."
The pony looked genuine, hurt even over what he had to say.
Krystal sniffed, finding a small comfort in the pony's presence.
"It... it's not your fault." She heard Scootaloo say weakly. "Th- that's why you're after him, isn't it? Because he's a bad pony?"
Sombra opened his mouth again, but pressed his lips in reluctance. "It is... more complicated a matter than that, I am afraid." There was a long pause before he spoke again. "I should not be telling you this, but I cannot bare to see such pain before mine eyes. Your friend, he is unwell in the mind."
Krystal sighed, she knew that already.
"No, not in that way." Sombra clarified patiently. "Has he told you? About that which afflicts him?"
Scootaloo scoffed in a hateful simmer. "I don't care why he did it, I'll never forgive him for that."
Krystal was of a different mind, but only just so. She wanted to hear the black unicorn out, they didn't know Islander all that well, maybe... Sombra was it? Maybe he could shed some light on why Sin had done what he'd done.
"I am not surprised he wouldn't say what ailed him." Sombra declared turning his gaze skywards. "Mine mistress hadn't either. Pride is such a destructive thing, sometimes."
Things went quiet again as those words hung in the air, no sounds could be heard but the melancholic sound of rain all around them. Even Scootaloo's gentle sobbing had ceased to listen to Sombra's words.
"Your friend's mind has been tainted by a demon most foul." The stallion said sagely, turning his attention back to them. "A spirit of the Nightmare that had infected mine mistress, Princess Luna a thousand years ago."
Krystal felt he jaw drop a little. She'd heard about Nightmare Moon before, and the dark alicorn's return when Princess Luna had come back.
"Nightmare? You mean Nightmare Moon?" Scootaloo asked timidly. "But... but I thought she was destroyed by the Elements of Harmony."
Sombra nodded. "Through mine mistress's dreams, the demon found new life. With the aid of another bit of magic I do not understand, something called the Tantibus, the Nightmare escaped mine mistress and fled her. We believe that it has taken refuge inside of your friend's mind. Tainting his thoughts, draining the goodness within him as she had mine mistress before."
Krystal asked about the Nightmare, feeling a small hope that it wasn't Sin that had turned his weapon, but the Nightmare.
"It is a dangerous creature." Sombra spat, anger taking his face. "Mine mistress cannot enter your friends dreams without his willingness, she is unable to combat the Nightmare, and with each day, she grows more and more powerful. It is only a matter of time before your friend has succumbed to her."
Krystal felt a sting of fear for Sin. "Wha- he can't handle that. Why didn't he come back to you for help if it's that bad?"
Sombra shook his head, explaining that Sin had used the Nightmare's powers on more than one occasion. "His eyes, you've seen when they changed. He uses the Nightmare's powers as his own."
Krystal gulped, not caring for that notion at all. Though it made sense, Sin was using her power to his advantage, and with what he was doing, the quest he was on, it only stood to reason he'd do anything to get every last advantage he could reach. It also explained why he'd become so irritable and broody all the time. Possessions, from her understanding, tested ponies wills and patience at all times.
It didn't help that, with more explanation, Sin had to have known what was happening to himself, what was going to happen.
Krystal felt angry when she'd realized that ignorance wasn't the reason for his silence. Didn't he know how stupid and dangerous this was? That he wouldn't be able to fight her forever? That she'd eventually consume his mind and life?
Thankfully, Scootaloo spoke on her mind's behalf, asking the questions for her.
"We believe he knows." Sombra said. "He is chasing the Trotski for his own reasons, and is willing to risk his own life and mind to see them fall. Your friend is desperate to stop them, to stop them from killing one he cares about, and is willing to go to extreme lengths to stop them."
The stallion gestured a hoof to Scootaloo. "Lengths with consequences that have twisted him to acts beyond terrible."
Another round of silence befell the trio, allowing the revelation to sink in. Krystal couldn't believe all of what she was hearing, it was hard to accept. Even the books she loved so much hadn't prepared her for what she was being told. Possession and negative influences beyond what Sin was able to control... how long had he been fighting that thing? How much of an influence had it had on him? How long would he last against it before he was consumed?
"Why?" Scootaloo croaked, fixing a steely gaze. "If you know all of this, so does Luna. And if Luna knows why he's doing all of this, than why isn't she doing anything to protect Macintosh so Sin doesn't have to? The Trotski are bad ponies, they want to kill my... somepony I l-love... If you arrested them, Sin wouldn't be doing all of this."
Krystal nodded her head, Luna could enter dreams, she'd done so many times. If she could do that to them, why hadn't she done it to the Trotski to stop them?
Sombra's compassionate gaze matched Scootaloo's in hardness, he turned away and looked ahead. "I do not know why. I wish I did." The stallion closed his red eyes and sighed in resignation. "I am in agreement that the Trotski are a threat. I did not fight for mine mistress and brave the wilds of Equestria for mine mistress just so she might throw it away as she threatens. Never the less, I am obligated to her, and must adhere to her command, senseless though they may be."
It was clear that Sombra was frustrated with the situation, his calm demeanor a mask to how angry he was. Krystal didn't know how she knew, but she felt that he was much more angry with Luna than he let on.
The pony stood and beckoned them to follow him to a near by tree, trying to get the two out of the rain. "I am sorry, but I must leave you now. I've been away too long."
"Wait!" Scootaloo cried reaching out a hoof and gulping. "What you're saying, about the Nightmare, it... it was her fault, right? When Sin was..." She took a breath and cringed, forcing out the memory, "holding his bow at me, I heard another voice, one talking along with his. A female one. It was her right? She was controlling him and making him do it... right?"
Krystal bit her lip, finding the desperate hope in Scootaloo's voice heart wrenching. She wanted to agree with the filly of course, but still...
Sombra stopped and regarded the two for a moment, his eyes shifting slightly in thought. Suddenly, he gave them both a confident smile. "He's done nothing to indicate he'd have done it himself, has he?"
Krystal felt herself well up with hope at the revelation. It wasn't him! It wasn't Sin's fault! He was just being used and manipulated by the Nightmare! He didn't do it because he didn't care, he didn't have a choice!
The stallion disappeared in a wink of light, leaving the two fillies alone.
"It wasn't his fault." Krystal said, looking down to Scootaloo. "Did you hear that, Scootaloo? It wasn't him that did that."
The filly looked up to her and nodded, but instead of expressing any kind of relief or joy, Scootaloo frowned in a look of thought, making Krystal worry over if she was still holding Sin's actions against him.
"Now what, though?" Scootaloo asked.
"What?"
Scootaloo turned to her, whiping the tears from her cheeks. "It doesn't change anything really. I don't know how to stop her from taking over Sin's mind, do you?"
Krystal's smile slowly fell from her face, and all the hope it represented went with it.
Sin may not have been to blame, but if he was falling to the Nightmare, and she was slowly influencing his mind against them, how long would it be before Sin was fully consumed? How long before he actually pulled the trigger?
Though, Scootaloo was wrong on one thing. Something had changed, they knew now. They knew what was wrong with him, and knowing a problem existed was the first step to solving it.
Scootaloo listened to Krystal's argument and considered it for a moment.
"C'mon Scootaloo." The mare said. "Sin's our friend, he's done alot for us. We can't just let the Nightmare have him. You know he'd help us if we needed it."
A cross look crossed the filly's face, but she was quick to push it down again. Scootaloo knew Krystal was right. She sighed, "yea, I know." She looked up at Krystal with a hesitant, if not hopeful, smile. "I guess someone's gotta go get Islander's head out of his plot."
"Language." Krystal chidded lightheartedly. "Just because he's got the mouth of a sailor."
The two shared a laugh and a hug before the alabaster mare took to the sky to figure out where they were and then deciding where they needed to go.
Soarin landed upon a tree branch for a moment and rubbed the blood away from his forehead where he'd been struck by his enemy's crossbow. He'd landed a clean hit on the targets leg and left him limping. Soarin smirked, seeing the oaken pony he hunted limping backwards and shivering.
The white pegasus was only too happy to inflict the fear and pain upon him that the target had inflicted on others. Peice of crap deserved every last bit of it for what he'd done.
Soarin looked around and scoffed, Sombra still hadn't returned, inconsiderate, useless jackass. He knew the unicorn would be usless, always more preoccupied with enjoying himself and indulging his baser urges.
It didn't matter, Soarin could handle this scum on his own.
"Tell me, did it feel good?" The target asked with smug snark. "Taking advantage of a vulnerable mare? Ruining her trust in stallions like you had?"
Soarin gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes. This little piece of crap was going to pay for that.
He pushed off the branch and dived directly for the stallion, hooves outstreched to slam directly into him. As expected, the cloaked pony saw him and dodged again, though he was slowing now, and dodging earlier to compensate. Early enough that Soarin could bank to at least catch one of his appendages as he passed.
A sting in his hoof told him he scored. He'd managed to get his back, not terrible damage, but it was progress in a war of attrition. He couldn't kill the target, least the Nightmare leap away from him. He needed Sin whole and alive, but he also couldn't risk being caught in the stallion's gaze. Not again.
"Feels about as good as threatening foals!" He yelled while he flew around, positioning himself behind the pony again. This time would be the last, this would be the final attack, with the damage he'd done to the pony's legs, there'd be no chance he'd be able to dodge in any meaningful way.
That meant he'd also be desperate to stop the pony from making contact. Soarin wasn't worried though, he was too fast for the pony's sight, let alone his crossbow.
He landed and turned his attention downwards, smirking to himself at what he saw. The target was holding his crossbow at the ready, instead of preparing to dodge. The brown pegasus looked around sporadically, panicking, losing his calm and ability to think and reason.
Rather than waiting for the opening he needed, Soarin flew down to the ground, picked up a stick, and flew back to the treetops. Smirking, he threw the stick on the opposite side of Sin and braced against the branch. He waited until the stick struck the tree, making the paranoid pony turn away from him and leapt forth in a dive directly at him.
His heart pounded and his vision tunneled as the wind whipped past his wings and mane. This was it, all those weeks of tracking and planning, he was finally going to get him! He was finally going to complete the mission and take back the freedom that was his!
The target turned and to him and time slowed to a crawl, but much too late to make any meaningful difference. It was too late now, even if the pony could jump, he wouldn't have enough time to jump and avoid the stallion's blow. Soarin resolved that this would be the last swoop, after contact, he loop around and slam ontop of the battered pony's body and the knock him out.
This would be the end of it.
Sin darted as expected, and Soarin banked to intercept.
Suddenly, and without any warning, the former Wonderbolt felt something long and thin catch his wing, and then electric pain shot through him, sending his well coordinated swoop into a graceless crash into the ground. He cried as searing white filled his vision, and a buzzing jolt made every muscle in his body clench in on themselves.
Every nerve in his body cried out from pain, his sensitive areas being the worst of all. The thin thing on his wing slipped off, ending the source of the pain for the whole three seconds it was on, but the damage was already done. His heart thudded painfully in his chest, his bowls had evacuated themselves, and his limbs were too numb to respond to his commands.
Breaths coming in labored force, Soarin opened his eye to see the stallion who'd bested him standing over him, smirking down at him in triumph. The battle Soarin was so sure was his for the taking, the confidence he had, all of it gave way to equal parts terror, rage, and an unyielding sense of incomprehension.
"Trap bolts." The cloaked pony said with a cruel smirk. "One full amp directly to your body, supposed to kill, but I guess I get to finish you personally."
Soarin's nose crinkled from the smell of his own refuse and singed feathers. It had only gotten him on the very top of his wing bone, not enough to hold on, but enough to incapacitate him.
he screamed at his limbs to move, commanding with every last bit of will he had, but they wouldn't respond with anything other than curling into him. It was no use, he was completely helpless.
"G-g-go on th-th-then." Soarin barked defiantly. "G-g-g-get it over with."
It was a small, but quickly growing resignation. This monster was a ruthless and murderous sort, Soarin knew he was going to die, the least he could do was face death head on.
The pony looked down at him for a few seconds, his eyes looking thoughtful, as if he was considering the stallion's threat level.
To Soarin's mystification, Sin retracted his hoof and turned around before walking away, leaving the stallion alive, if in pain. The pain wasn't to last, however, as the tunnel vision the pony had soon engulfed the entirety of his vision, leaving him to deep unconsciousness.
Stats
Page generated in 0.069 seconds
Total duration
1,035 users online
84,853 hits today, 2,073,628 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Sin is just being influenced by the Nightmare... as much as I wanna belive Sin isn't that bad
... no this was probably his decision.
That being said, I also think be wouldn't actually pull that trigger. He'd do what he did with Soarin here. He'd probably attack and force them to leave.
7466268 You have no faith in Sin at all, do you?
7466932
This is the same person who realized that he had joined the military so that he would have an excuse to be violent. Someone who prized his emotional distance and pragmatism.
I mean, I did say I didn't think he would actually pull that trigger. I saw it as an empty threat.
That being said, part of his inner monologue was that he was ready to pull that trigger, and he was shocked by himself, so while it might not be That Far Away from his potential behavior, it's much closer to something he wouldn't do...
So I suppose I am not being too fair to him, and his restraint and affection for his companions.
And it could insidiously be the Nightmare taking someone who was already predisposed to this and making it seem like things he normally wouldn't want are a good idea, making it harder to distinguish what he would normally do vs what the Nightmare influences him to do.
You got a bigger problem Sin! SOARIN IS ABOUT TO ATTACK!
..................
.............
I feel low for my earlier statements.
...........................
Oh it's on now. No holding back this time. *punching fist together*
Exactly.
oooooo. Almost like what Big Mac went through when Soarin did the same thing early in the story.
This is getting intense.
Lying is the only thing Sin is guilty of.
Struck a nerve.
Uh oh.
Pretty much.
C'mon Sin.
Yeah, Sombra can look intimidating.
That usually happens. When extreme situations calls for strong character.
Figured that it was not gonna be easy.
Oh, here comes the fallout.
That's partially true, thanks to that Nightmare bitch. I hate her so much.
...........dammit.
That last word stung.
If this was ONLY about vengeance, I would never had supported Sin's crusade. Vengeance was only half the equation. The other was to safeguard and keep Big Mac safe, which could only happen with the death of the Troski leadership and those who wish to kill the red stallion. This was why I supported Sin's journey thus far.
It's not as black and white as you are making it.
.......................*feeling thirty stabs in my heart*............................................
.............................
I'm coming to respect Sombra more and more as I read about him.
I somehow felt a flash of anger in my heart for that unfair statement.
That's true.
And the truth comes out now.
I'm wondering how much truth there is in that.
Because Luna wants to hand him over to those Triple M bastards.
I was kind of hoping that Sin would eventually get rid of her. It looks like it needs to be now.
Thank you Sombra for summarizing my thoughts.
That's it, Scoots. Get some clarification.
Is he? Didn't know.
Maybe.
That is another problem.
I hope Sin hurries.
oooooooo. Burn.
SCORE!
Gotta give him credit for his defiance.
Well Soarin you son of a bitch, you have the right to remain unconscious. Anything you say ain't gonna be too much. Man, that was a fun fight.
Overall Daxie...............you did a great job making me feel like garbage for my attitude in the previous chapter. I was literally feeling the stings from Scootaloo and Khrystal in their moment of sadness and feelings of betrayal. Thanks for making me feel like a turd.