Chapters We sat in silence, save for the steady ba-dump ba-dump of the train's wheels on the runners. Granted, that's probably because my companion had fallen asleep. He wasn't normally talkative anyway, but he was never quite that quiet unless he was unconscious. My brother Stormbreaker and I were headed to Canterlot to see our father, who was, as far as we could tell, practically on his deathbed.
I wasn't sure how to feel about this. This was the stallion who'd practically kicked me out of the family's home when I was six years old. Granted, I know now why it happened. My mother had been trying to groom my brother and I to be some sort of magical strike team with her mind-affecting magic, but for some reason that I have still yet to fathom it had never worked on me.
When she realized it, she took steps to remove me from the equation; through my father. She didn't think that I was capable of surviving at such a young age on my own in Canterlot. See, this is why I have issues, ponies. Well, one reason anyway. I still have a lot of resentment over being kicked out of the house at such a young age, and all of it was, until recently, aimed at my father whom I believed responsible for it. Now, though, I know the truth. One thing they don't tell you in school, kids, knowing the truth doesn't always make life easier. I don't want to hate him, but that kernel of anger is still there, even though I know he's dying.
I glanced over at my brother as he slept and silently marveled at him. He, like our father, had been swayed heavily by our mother's mental tinkering, but through years and years of mental rebellion had been able to break free, and he recruited me to help him stop our mother's assassination attempt on several key political ponies. Once upon a time, the idea of teaming up with my brother at all would have been the same thing as putting on a red shirt and volunteering for the away team, but it turned out that this time, he'd been on the level with me.
Our mother had become a... ah crap what had 'Breaker called them... Oh right, Shadowborne. Shadowborne are ponies who've let the anger, bitterness, and despair in their hearts grow to the point of allowing darkness into their souls. Kind of like Nightmare Moon, only generally they don't have god-like powers and are a lot less epic and terrifying.
We fought her with everything we had... but we didn't have the elements of harmony. We had to make do with what magic we had and whatever mental shielding I could give my brother. 'Breaker's a much better evocator than I am... evocation is the quick and dirty type of attack magic... gouts of flame, lighting, ice shards, you know, the big loud flashy stuff. Yeah. We ended up having to kill her. I'm not happy about it, and I'm not proud of it, but there it is.
I closed my eyes for a moment and took a deep breath as all of my emotions welled up into my throat and congealed into a tight lump. My breathing became a bit shaky, but I got that under control really quick. After all, we're not alone on this train, and I'm supposed to be a hardflank private investigator now. I let out a long breath and turned my attention back to the window, watching the scenery fly by as we rode along the mountain cliffs. I let out a long breath. We'd be in Canterlot soon, and I would be forced to confront one of my most painful memories. I was really, really not looking forward to this.
As my brother and I approached the hospice care building, I was struck by the overwhelming urge to turn and gallop away. I hated hospitals to begin with, as evidenced by the nasty scars across my eye and chest, but this one also housed my father. He was extremely sick, heart problems if Stormbreaker was telling me the truth. The doctors had said that he only had a few more weeks to live, and the best they could do was make him comfortable. It wasn't going to be easy. I mean, the last time I'd seen him had been twenty years ago, the day he... well, you know that story by now.
I let out a long breath, then said "I have this feeling, like, this is a really bad idea." My brother turned and gave me an oblique look. I eyed him for a moment, but he just shook his head.
"Father called for you specifically. Get over yourself and get in there," he said sternly.
"Yeah, yeah," I replied. "I'm goin'."
"I'll be over in the park whenever you're done. You can find me there."
"Alright, thanks 'Breaker," I said to him, and nodded. Then I turned again and strode into the hospital. As hospitals go, it was, well, pretty much average. It had that stark, white look that always manages to somehow convey a feeling of both safety and quiet desperation. The smell, too, added to the effect, bringing the slightly unnerving sense of sterility with it.
I checked with the nurse's station and found out which room he was in. It wasn't that far a walk from the station, but it sure felt like one. Every step towards the room that stallion lay in felt like a triumph of my own personal willpower over my trepidation. I reached the door and found it open. I stared at the stallion in the bed, barely keeping my jaw from hitting the floor.
In my memories, my father was a huge, strong pony with stern eyes and a mouth that was set in a constant half-formed frown. He was an earth pony, if you can believe it. He'd made his living as a fisherpony, fishing up small water creatures to be sold as exotic pets to the Canterlot elite.
The stallion that lay in the bed in front of me was a far cry from the one I remembered. His frame was slight, his mane wispy and white. He was thin enough to be given consideration as a model for making classroom skeletons, and his skin was wrinkled and sections of his dark brown coat were coming off in misshapen patches.
I tried to speak, but it came out as a ragged, dry whisper. I realized that at some point a desert had developed in my throat. I coughed a bit then swallowed, and tried again.
"Hello... Whopper." At the mention of his name, he turned his face to mine and opened his eyes. They were once a vibrant greyish blue, full of life, light, and energy. Now, though, they were pale to almost white, and I could see that he was mostly blind.
"Stormbringer? That you? Come on in here, boy," he said, his voice a hoarse, low rumble. That much, at least, had stayed the same. It was at once both comforting and terrifying. That had been the voice I remembered in my dreams and nightmares.
"Yes, it's me," I answered and stepped over next to the bed. He looked me over for a moment.
"You look good, hoss. Scars. Good, musta grown up tough."
"For the most part," I admitted. "The scars are pretty recent though."
"Oh? What are you doin' with yourself now, then? Last I heard you were workin' at the weather factory in Cloudsdale," he said. That surprised me a bit. I'd assumed once I was out of the house they never bothered to check on me. I felt that ball of emotion starting to tighten my throat again, and tried to swallow it down before speaking again.
"Yeah. Up until about a month ago. Got fired." My voice came out a bit husky with the repressed emotion.
"Fired? What happened?"
"Combination of bad communication and bureaucracy in action. I'm just as much at fault as they are." He nodded, and we fell into a bit of a silence. He just lay there looking at me, and I could see several emotions in his eyes. Happiness, that he had finally gotten to see me again after all these years. Sadness, that it had taken my mother's death, and subsequently the ending of her psychic brainlock on him, for it to happen. Shame, that he had been the one to ultimately kick me out. Finally, love and pride together, for a son he believed grew up well despite everything he'd done, or in this case, been forced to do.
"I... I'm sorry, hoss. What I done to you, back then... it... it weren't right." I could tell he was getting very emotional, not because of tears, or any particular expression aside from the ones I'd already seen in his eyes, but because his accent had changed back to the older, more rural one he'd had in his youth.
I sighed. Dragging this out wouldn't be good for either of us, so I decided to cut right to it. "It wasn't your fault, father. Mother had that mental domination thing on you. It's not like anypony would have been able to shrug it off. I mean heck, her cutie mark was for psychomancy."
My father blinked. It was a small thing, but it had big implications. What I said had surprised him.
"Hoss, it's true I was under some kind of compulsion, but there's no way it coulda been from your mother. She couldn'a done psychomancy if her life had depended on it. Her cutie mark was for teachin'. Impartin' knowledge."
My eyes went wide, and I froze. Stormbreaker had been wrong? My mind reeled for a moment and I floundered. Everything I knew about this situation had been based on the idea that my mother had been the one responsible, but if she wasn't, what did that mean? I kicked my brain in the stomach until it threw up an idea. Then, all of a sudden, pieces started falling into place.
"Dad, I hate to leave so quickly, but I just realized something. This whole thing isn't over. I know who was behind it now."
He blinked at me again. "You're gonna go deal with it?" I nodded. "Then best of luck to ya, hoss. I'll uh, wait here."
I tore out of the hospital and galloped across the town at full speed, making my way to the park. I finally figured out what had happened. I knew who was behind it all. If my guess was right, I might even be able to save my father's life.
I needed to find my brother.
I tore flank across the road, barely looking around as I did so. Everypony I passed turned to stare at me but I didn't care, my mind was racing through the past few days. The battle with the timber wolves, finding my sister, fighting my mother after she became a Shadowborne; it had all supposedly been my mother's fault, with her mind manipulation magic, but according to my father, psychomancy is something my mother had zero skill in whatsoever.
There was only other possible suspect for who could have caused it all.
"Stormbreaker!" I bellowed, putting a tiny effort of magic into the words to make them louder. This had the unintended
side effect of channeling some of my anger into them, which caused the windows of the shops on the nearby street to rattle wildly in their frames and clouds to form and darken overhead, but I didn't care. Rain had begun to fall, not heavily yet but increasing quickly, and the darkening of the sky revealed something I hadn't realized. There was a soft, ambient light glowing around me. It took me a moment to realize that my horn had begun glowing with the minor effort of magic I'd made, and my overflowing emotions had never let the spell end, forcing more and more power out around me, which, now that I thought about it, explained why the weather kept worsening.
I saw my brother's outline ahead of me near a copse of trees. I skidded to a stop maybe ten feet away from him, my breathing heavy from the exertion. I glared at him with as much fire as I could manage. He returned my glare with an even look, and then a slow smile spread across his features. His voice came out low and quiet, and I almost had to strain to hear him over the steadily increasing rainfall. "How did you figure it out?"
My voice came out almost as a growl. "I'm a private investigator, Stormbreaker. Father told me what mother's cutie mark was really for, and when he mentioned she didn't have the ability to perform psychomancy, I put two and two together. It never really made sense to me why our sister White Squall went mindless without mother around to mess with her head, especially since you and I were trying to protect her psyche. Then I thought about the battle against our mother. She had become a Shadowborne, yes, but I don't think you were telling me the truth about why. It wasn't some bitter hatred against me for being the more powerful. The darkness crept into her heart out of despair because on some level, she knew what you were doing to her. That was why, when we fought her, she focused on attacking you, and only attacked me to get me out of the way." I leveled my gaze at him, and borrowed frost from the air to put into my voice.
"And, you're the one putting the squeeze on father's heart. You wanted to make him into a Shadowborne as well, but you couldn't. He has too much faith in Celestia for that kind of thing to ever work. So, you brought me here, hoping your old mindlock on him would still keep him at my throat, but I think I figured out something you haven't. You see, just before you killed our mother, she cast a spell that wasn't targeted at either of us. She leveled herself a death curse, but instead of channeling that rage at you or me, she aimed it at the brainlock you had on father."
Stormbreaker's gray face grew a touch paler. "Sh... she broke it?"
"Yes, you bastard!" I practically screamed at him, I was so angry. The seemingly ambient light around me flared at my words, and thunder crashed overhead, so loud that it shattered several nearby shop windows. Somewhere in the back of my awareness, I heard ponies all over the place yelling in fear, and the chaotic tumult of hundreds of hooves beating the roads towards home. That was fine with me. Fewer ponies out and about meant there would be fewer ponies that might get hurt. My brother was one heck of an evocator, which meant this fight was going to get sticky. Or more likely, burn-y. Suddenly the rain, which had grown to something just barely shy of a monsoon, was a huge comfort. Fire would have trouble staying alive in the rain, and my brother knew it.
That was when I realized he was laughing. "I'd forgotten you had such a temper!" He said, genuine cheer in his voice. "Now then, I guess this means we have to fight?"
"We don't have to, 'Breaker. You could always take the curse off of father's heart and be done with it."
He smiled widely, showing me his teeth. "And what if I don't?"
I widened my stance and lowered my head, angling my horn towards him. "I'll break it the old fashioned way. By killing you." Lightning crashed overhead. It wasn't my doing, but I'll be darned if I won't accept a little dramatic flair thrown my way by nature.
"Then I guess we fight. I won't go easy on you, brother." I watched as heat rose around him, condensing into steam, and then into a small cloud. He jumped on top of it and it floated up into the air. "But before we do, I think you need a bit of a practice round. After all, you haven't had a real battle in quite some time." At his words, his horn began to glow, and a pulse of thunder shattered one of the nearby trees to kindling. Over the course of a few moments, the kindling reassembled itself into three large, wolfish shapes. My jaw dropped open. Timber wolves? I'd fought these things before, but it had been in Everfree when I was saving that filly from those two Shadowborne; Derelith and Whately. I'd been able to free Whately from his darkness, but...
Realization hit me like a fifty pound sledgehammer. I hadn't killed Derelith that night, I'd only disrupted his darkness... and all of that darkness had gone into Whately. Derelith had been freed. Derelith, had been my brother.
I was quickly pulled from my mental meanderings by the low, rumbling growl coming from one of the timber wolves. They had me surrounded in a triangle formation, heads low, red eyes glowing like fire through the rain. They circled slowly, and I kept focus on the one in front of me, looking for any cues it might give off if the others started to move. It wasn't until I felt the sharp pain across my back that I realized they were smarter than that. I spun quickly, electricity sparking from my horn... and called down lightning.
The lightning crashed down and gathered on my horn. The surging power was almost overwhelming, and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold it for very long, but that was fine since I wasn't going to be holding it for more than half a second anyway. I lowered my head and looked straight at the timber wolf that had just savaged my back, and let the bolt fly. Since the poor wooden creature was less than five feet away, it had no chance to dodge the arc of power and it shattered, bits of wooden debris flying everywhere. Holy crap, I hadn't just destroyed it, I'd darn near vaporised it.
My vision swam for a moment as my horn's glow subsided, a side effect of redirecting that much raw power. What I'd done wasn't really an evocation per se; evocations draw upon your own power to create an effect, whereas all I'd done was call down the lightning and redirect the power. I think my mother had called it kinetomancy or something.
My attention was brought back to the forefront as the two remaining timber wolves began shifting towards me. I knew I wasn't going to be able to take both of them, and from the angles they were approaching, tossing a lightning bolt at one would simply leave my already-bloodied back open for another attack, so I did the only thing I could think of. I ran.
Now, I'd rather not refer to it as running away like a little filly. I prefer to think of it as a tactical retreat to a more strategically beneficial position. Yeah... that's what it was. And as for the tree I was hiding behind, it was a clever camouflage point. Hey, if you can come up with a better idea in the heat of battle, you let me know.
I gathered up my more prickly emotions; I had a lot of those at the moment; and packed them into a tight little ball, then imagined that ball being channeled into my horn. It immediately started glowing a bright silver and electricity arced from it to everything around me... the grass, the tree, my mane, and the puddle I was standing in. I jumped back quickly as the small jolt hit me, then held my breath and jumped out from behind the tree. One of the timber wolves was there, less than an inch from my face, growling and slobbering some sap-like liquid in the rain. "Hiya, handsome," I said with the most charming smile I could manage, before letting the arc of electricity fly at point-blank range.
I've said it before. I'm no evocator. This, wasn't kinetomancy. These two things together conspired to make my attack do little more than singe the branches forming the creature's face. I stared at it dumbfounded for a moment before a heavy, jarring impact struck me in the side and I went skidding away in the mud. I could feel the wound on my back tearing open a little wider and it burned wildly. My arc hadn't worked on the beast. The wood just wasn't conductive enough for my electric attacks to ground out the magic animating it, even wet. I was in too much pain to bring up the concentration I'd need to throw out another pulse of electricity, and my bell had been rung to hard to risk channelling another bolt of lightning, I might just as easily fry my own face off as redirect it.
My brother's mocking laughter floated down from the low-hanging cloud. He knew what I was going through, he knew I was basically beaten. I looked around frantically and didn't see anything that might help... until I saw the scraps of the downed timber wolf. I looked back to the other two and they were slowly advancing on me. The gears were turning in my head and I formed one of my trademark cunning plans. And by that, I mean I had a crazy idea that I had no clue would work.
I started laughing. I stood up, and just laughed. I think it took the timber wolves by surprise, because they halted in place for a moment and glanced up at my brother. I took that opportunity to call down a freaking tornado, right into the heart of Canterlot's central gardens. I swept it across the debris of the fallen tree, and across the debris of the destroyed timber wolf, and then swept it towards the remaining beasts. They did what any intelligent predator would do in a situation like that. They ran.
It didn't really matter how fast they ran, though, because you can't outrun the speed of thought. I blasted the whirlwind, filled with shrapnel and debris, right over their backs. One of them exploded instantly, and added to the pile, but the other... well the other one seemed to have been scared stiff. It sat in the center of the whirlwind not moving, just jerking its head around frantically looking for an escape. I manipulated the whirlwind's base to open out, keeping a sheer wall of wind and wood between us, and walked up to the wall. I laughed again, this time heartily, as I slowed the tornado to a stop, leaving a perfect circle of wood on the ground. While the remaining timber wolf looked at me with fear in its fiery eyes, I knelt down and touched my horn to the circle and made a minor effort of magic.
I immediately felt the circle snap to life with a nearly-audible popping sound, even over the rain. I'd just cut off everything within the circle from external magic. The timber wolf was a semi-conscious construct of magic, and without the energy flow keeping it going, it simply fell apart. I really, truly wanted to join it. I was beat.
Well, it would be more accurate to say I was exhausted. I'd taken two nasty hits and had my bell run pretty hard. My back burned and the falling rain, while keeping the wound clean, stung like heck. I chanced a glance back up at my brother, but he wasn't up there anymore. I panicked for a moment, but it didn't last long, as a terribly loud crashing sound happened at the same time that something which felt like a pillow, being swung by a giant, smashed into me and flung me against a tree. I simply collapsed, the wind knocked out of me not only by the blast of thunder, but the impact. I was pretty sure all of the ribs on the right side of my body were broken, and my rear leg, too. I did my best to stand up, trying to catch my breath, but I felt a hoof on my throat, and it crushed me back down to the ground.
"Well, Stormbringer, I guess you lose after all. Don't worry, your death won't be a waste. I'm going to take all of your power first. Then I'll finish father off." He smiled coldly, and it didn't reach his eyes. "Then, once I'm done with him, the only next logical step... to go after your little friend... What was her name? Ink Flash?" My eyes went wide. It told him all he needed to know. "Yesss" he purred. "Her screams will echo for eternity through the lands of Equestria!"
I struggled against his hoof, trying to stand up, but I didn't have the strength. My back, my sides, my leg, all flared up at the same time, and the pain literally blinded me for a few seconds. When my vision focused, I looked back up at my brother, who had his head bowed, his horn pointed directly at my heart. Emotions welled up in me like a tidal surge. Hatred at my brother's malice. Fear for my friend. Outrage on my father's behalf. And finally, despair, because I knew that there wasn't a darn thing I could do about it. All of these feelings strained against my will and broken form like a dam.
I'm not entirely sure what happened. For just a brief instant, I felt nothing. No pain. No hatred. Just a cold, permeating, solid power running through me. Every part of my body that it touched became numbed. Then it touched the floodgate and all of my emotions were loosed at once. The power radiated out of me like a visible heat source. I made what felt like a minor effort of magic, and I swear to you, it felt like time slowed down for a few moments. I watched my brother get blasted back and away from me as though I'd poured every bit of the raging storm's energy into the spell. I stood up and stared at the sky, making another effort of will, and the sky turned black. No light whatsoever came through, and the park was then so dark that it was only lit by the intense light from my own horn. I walked over to my brother where he lay in the middle of the circle of wood.
I knelt down and poured some of my power into the circle, and felt it.. and... actually freaking SAW it pop into place. The circle, normally an invisible barrier impermeable only by magic, had become a physical barrier. It apparently had filtered out not only magic, but the rest of the physical world, as well. the energy of life was slowly pulled out of the construct. I watched as my brother's form withered. I felt nothing but hatred. I reveled in watching him die. It felt good. It felt REALLY good.
But it wasn't enough. I needed to erase him permanently. That meant undoing all of his plans. Robbing him of them. Leaving him with nowhere to turn. I thought about my father, and smiled darkly. I could kill him too, then 'Breaker's plan to torture him would be over. If I killed Ink first, he could never hurt her. It didn't matter that he would be dead, he should be left no legacy.
"Stormbringer." It was a simple thing, a name. Some would call it such a minor detail that it doesn't matter, but our names, or Names, capital N, have power. That power is mostly a psychological one, but if you put some of your will into the words they can act as a kind of beacon, or a summon. A way to get somepony's attention.
This, however, hadn't been a summons. There was no magic in it, it was just the deep, resonant baritone of my father.
"Stormbringer, what the hay are you doin? Stars and stones boy, you know better than this," he chided me.
I wanted to turn all of my power on him, but something stopped me. I felt a kind of energy stirring around him. It was a warm, gentle, bedrock-deep power. It wasn't magic, though. It was the power of Faith. He turned his serious blue eyes on me and called my name again. "Stormbringer." His voice dropped in volume by several degrees. "I don't know what's gotten into you, or why you're killin' your brother. I don't guess you got time to get into it right now." he shook his head. "But, this ain't right. Celestia save you, son."
Suddenly my mind snapped back into focus. The raw emotions drained away, taking the cold with them. The aches suddenly returned, but the fire in my side, and on my back, was gone. I looked over at the circle and quickly ran over and scuffed it. My brother was still alive, but barely. He looked worse off than my father had been.
I was suddenly very, very weary, and I tried to sit down, but I felt that cold power coming through again. I panicked and it got worse, spreading like wildfire. The panic turned to outright fear, and I could feel it growing even faster. I forced myself to take a deep breath, a calming exercise meant to rid me of any excess emotions, normally used when I'm about to perform a full-on ritual. I felt the cold drain out of me, and I heard my brother's rasping laugh. I looked down at him.
"You're... shadowborne now, brother. Your fate is sealed." He let out another rasping laugh before he lost consciousness. I looked up at the blackened sky and blinked. Had I done that? And that circle? It was mind-boggling. I was a Shadowborne now. Well, only in the technical sense. The darkness had gathered in me, and whenever my emotions welled up, it would fight for control. When I was in control of my emotions, I was alright.
I closed my eyes and let the cold, heavy rain wash over me. Emotions. My friends. I wouldn't be able to see them anymore. It would bring up too many feelings, especially Ink, the closest friend I'd ever had. I wouldn't even be able to stay in Ponyville, because if I ran into her, everything would come welling up, and the darkness's urges to destroy her and unmake my brother would be too difficult to ignore. I would have to leave, and I wouldn't be able to tell her why.
I looked down at my brother's broken, wilted form. He'd been a monster, and in trying to stop him, I'd become one, too.
