Avatar: Legend of Diamond Tiara. Book 4: Immortals

by Jeweled Pen

Chapter 7: Forgiveness

Ironwing paced back and forth across the soft clouds, his eyes focused on the cloud. His red coated hooves dug deep into the soft surface, pulling free with an unsatisfying boing sound when the clouds just bounced back. That was one of the many, many things he hated about being in a cloud city. Everything was so soft that it just bounced back into position. On the ground, if you bucked a wall, it STAYED bucked.

“He’s going to be fine,” a mare said. He glanced over to a chair where a brown coated pony with a streaked, gray mane was sitting. Her wide rimmed hat was resting over her eyes while she leaned back, hiding her face.

“Not when I get my hooves on him, Daring,” Ironwing said through gritted teeth. “It was stupid and reckless. He KNEW better,” he snapped.

“He got away, didn’t he?” Daring offered. “If you know you can get away, then--”

“He almost got his wings snapped! If it hadn’t been for Blaze, he’d be captured right now. He--”

“You’re just mad you weren’t the one to rescue him, aren’t you?” the mare asked with a teasing grin. “Or are you mad you didn’t get to take a few swings at True yourself?”

The shadowbolt froze in place, barely shoving down his anger. He’d have loved to get a chance to tear the traitor to the Wonderbolts apart. To imagine the stallion had actually been Prism’s student not too long ago. He couldn’t imagine HOW Prism had allowed himself to get beaten so soundly. He had to have let down his guard.

The main door opened and a brown pegasus with a light red mane walked in. Her wings had thin, metal attachments over them, which connected in a brace that went around her neck. In the center of the brace was a small jewel. “How’s he holding up?”

“We’re not sure, yet,” Daring offered. “Blaze is in there with him, but they’re not sure when he’ll wake up, Miss Scootaloo. They don’t want us going in until he does.”

The mare sighed and shook her head. “Please, stop calling me miss. You’re making me feel old,” she said before glancing towards the door. “He’s... alive though, right?”

“Yeah. Still a stubborn idiot. But he’ll survive.”

“Good. If he died on my watch, his mom would kill me. Which would really put a damper on me killing her when I get my hooves on her,” Scootaloo said flatly. “How’s Blaze?”

“She’s been with him since he got out,” Ironwing said. “She said she’d have someone get us when he woke up. That we should get some rest.” The pegasus rolled his eyes at that. “As if we could sleep right now.”

“Tell me about it...” the elder mare said with a yawn. “If I could sleep, I’d be in bed now.”

“So… how’s it looking?” Daring asked softly.

“Not too good,” Scootaloo muttered. “Our little gamble paid off. The last remaining grounded ponies are outside of these lands, at least. Unfortunately, it looks like Metal Orchard is under siege.”

“WHAT?!” Ironwing said, digging a hoof deep into the ground. “We need to go--”

“And trust them to handle their forces? Exactly,” Scootaloo cut him off, silencing him with a glare. He gulped and lowered his eyes. “Metal Orchard is where we sent most of the grounded forces in the first month of this war. Trust me, I know as well as anypony just how important they are and, more importantly, what it means if they fall.”

Daring sighed and lifted her head. “Then you know we can’t just sit here and do nothing. Mom would--”

“Twilight would understand that, sometimes, things go poorly. You have to pick and choose your battles. Octavia and Vinyl are working with them, they’ll do the best they can. But they’re in the Earth Kingdom. Our duty is down here, dealing with True and the Air Immortal. Two or three of us won’t make a difference against this siege, but we can make a difference here.”

Ironwing sighed and turned his back. “If Metal Orchard wasn’t the destination, where have the ponies been sent?”

“Some to different Earth Kingdom areas, a few hundred to the Water Nation. It’s ironic, in a way,” Scootaloo said with a sigh. “Silver’s trying to unite the whole world under her hoof. She’s coming close to uniting it against her. Maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll see an encore of that power that wiped out Discord the first time.”

“I doubt it,” Daring muttered.

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“It took almost everypony in the world uniting against him to bring whatever… that was,” the mare said gently. “But almost everypony hated him. There’s more than a few ponies working for her, under her. That and it’s not like we can gather everypony in the world again. Mom told me about that. If Discord hadn’t BROUGHT everypony together, if he hadn’t been so over confident, so certain he’d won already? He wouldn’t have lost. I don’t think Silver will make the same mistake.”

“Well, we can certainly hope she’ll make the same mistake. Or whatever Diamond’s got cooking in that head of hers will be what we need to get out of this mess,” Scootaloo muttered.

“Silver isn’t stupid,” Ironwing muttered, glancing back towards the doorway. “She won’t make the same mistake Discord made...” He stared at the door, willing it to open and have one of the medical ponies come out to retrieve them, alas, it remained closed. “They’ll solve this, somehow. Once Diamond figures it all out.”

Daring sighed. “I really wanna believe that. But… mom had a tough time against Discord and, not to be mean or anything, Diamond is definitely not my mom.”

“No, she’s not,” Ironwing mumbled, finally taking his eyes off the door. “But Silver isn’t Discord, either. She’s Silver. This is an entirely different situation.”

The two mares shared looks, before finally Scootaloo sighed. “Ironwing, I know you want to… believe that Silver is still good, but… we saw what she did. She turned on Diamond. Took Rainbow and the others. She--”

“Is still Silver, regardless,” Ironwing said with a shrug. “She’s messed up, yes. She’s messed up horribly,” he said before turning his head to meet his mother’s gaze. “But I watched the two. Diamond? She was a little obnoxious brat. Silver was… no, is a good influence on her. I don’t know why she’s done this. But I trust Diamond to figure it out.”

“Because she’s the Avatar?” Daring asked.

“No. Because she’s Diamond. I’ve watched her grow a lot since she came to Harmony and, while I could still dump her in the lake without hesitation or a hint of guilt, she’s… good at what she does. She’s persistent, obnoxious, hard working, incredibly obnoxious, stubborn and did I mention just how mind boggling obnoxious she is?” he asked flatly. “But… when it comes to her friends? I’d always gamble on those four, even against Discord.”

Scootaloo sighed. “Listen, I want to believe in her, too. But she--”

“Gave you flight,” Ironwing said firmly.

“… A trick. To make us trust her.”

“In that case, she’s done a lot of tricks,” the shadowbolt said, his tone cold as ice.

“Yeah, she has. Fine, looking at all the good she’s done doesn’t overshadow the fact she’s destroying our world!” Scootaloo snapped, grinding her own hoof into the cloud.

“And her actions now don’t nullify the good she’s done in the past,” he said calmly. “She’s done both. She’s helped countless ponies and now she’s hurt countless ponies. I’m not saying I’ll ignore what she’s done. But I’m not willing to give up on her, either. Especially not with Diamond, Acrylic and Button all working together.”

Scootaloo growled for a moment, before sighing and shaking her head. “Fine. I still think you’re insane. You know, the Ironwing from not too long ago would have been ready to lock her away and break the key.”

“Maybe I’ve grown up,” he said calmly. “Sometimes? A pony just needs a bit of forgiveness...” He closed his eyes. “Sometimes, a pony needs a lot of forgiveness...”

The elder mare paused, her gaze softening. “Ironwing… you don’t--”

The door to the inner rooms and a pegasus stepped out. “Ironwing, Daring, Miss Scootaloo? Prism has woken up. You may come and--”

She was cut off by the three ponies dashing by her so fast she spun in place with a shriek, barely managing to keep herself from falling over. “H-how rude!”

Author's Note:

That weird moment when it's IRONWING who's rooting for you... Also, Prism continues the proud family tradition of flying off recklessly. Yayyyy!

Comments

[CrystalMaster76]

Not much to say on this one given how short it us, catches us up on another group teases the Metal Ochard thing again, etc, its not bad but it was pretty basic.
So True joins the list of traitors, that's fine as there are plenty of reasons oppsoing Silver seems hopeless, but there needs to be consequences fpr doing so, they cannot just be forgiven for this at the end.