From the eye of the Storm

~ ~ ~ 15 YEARS LATER ~ ~ ~

A spear flies towards me. Spotting the glint, I turn my head to face the crude weapon, and with a smirk I boost myself into the air with my wings, neatly backflipping over the incoming projectile. Spotting the offending spear tosser, my eyes narrow and my bow rises. It's a rather crude weapon, fashioned purely from wood and string, but it does what I need it to. Drawing a sharpened stick from my quiver, tucked nicely on my back, I load the "arrow" into the drawstring and draw, taking aim and releasing. The projectile is launched with surprisingly large force and flies true, hitting the camoflauged tribal stallion square in his right eye. The arrow pierces his eye rather cleanly, before his biology releases it's under assault. The stallion is felled, leaking lifeblood and gore from that eye, falling to the ground face first and driving the arrow in further until it pierces his skull and the subsequent flesh behind, making a head kebab in essence. I smirk a little at my marksmanship, but despite the small victory I still have 2 more ferals circling me, brandishing expertly crafted daggers and knives. The unicorn stallion leading the hunting party spits on the ground next to me, and I raise my right forehoof to counter his action, neatly dodging the incoming spit-jectile. He then grunts, raising his knife towards me and charging. He's a stocky, well built earthpony, easily able to destroy me in a few hits of his weapon. In spite of this, I've never been one to backdown. While he charges at full pace, hurling insults and promises of death, I barrel roll to the side and stick out my hindleg. It sends the stallion flying, knocking him into a roll before impacting a tree and stopping. I giggle at the comedic effect of such a thing before being assaulted by the unicorn who just teleported behind me. I raise my foreleg to my neck, knowing by now that the ferals have some sort of neck-slicing-fetish, and true to my judgement the knife slices a rather large, serrated gash into my leg. Wincing and growling, I bring the sharpened end of my bow up and trail it across his face, effectively caring a large scar from his jaw to his forehead, before kicking him off in his confusion. I raise to my hooves, before grinning and tipping my bow at them.

"I'd love to stay and chat boys, but I have somewhere to be!"

As I'm about to leave, I suddenly find I cannot. Perplexed by this, I begin searching my surroundings for the source of my apparent inability to exit, and I immediately spot the aforementioned unicorn casting a prison spell. I frown at this, quickly loading and firing the bow as I prepare to run again. However, he smirks this time, the arrow impacting off a shield he casts, and then full on laughing as I run into the magical prison, electrocuting myself in the process. This, obviously, annoys me, and I stand up, slinging the bow upon my back to pair up with its friend, quiver. I like to imagine the two talk sometimes. Heh. A rather quaint thought, now that I'm trapped inside of this rune prison. I gently press my hoof against one of the "bars", and my curiosity is met with the raw anger only a magical feedback can provide. Once more I'm sent reeling, my mane smoking now from the electricity coursing through me. I get up once more, shaking my head and grunting.

"You're right, Mr. Storm...You DO have somewhere to be."

I crane my head towards the voice, and who it is shocks me. The pony emerging from the shadows isn't quite who I thought it would be. The voice was male in nature, for sure...But for it to be HIM? No. I show my disbelief involuntarily through my facial expression, and the scarred earthpony just laughs at me. His voice now changes back to something I'm more familiar with: a low, menacing rumble, striking fear into his enemies. He grins with a pair of bloody fangs, trotting slowly up to the cage and resting his hooves upon it, not so much as flinching from the current now flowing through him.

"Tell me, Desert...Famed assassin...Did you really think you could kill one of my lieutenants and leave this camp ALIVE?"

"Well, I mean, you were busy rutting at the time and the ferals have placed a massive bounty upon your, and your lieutenant's heads, so...Yes. That is indeed what I was aiming for. As you can see, I've hit the mark for one of them."

With a smirk, I gesture to the dead pony. Mr Scary Earthie trots up to the body, and examines it. He then growls upon my word being confirmed, before swivelling with surprising speed and trotting back to me.

"Oh, don't worry, Mr. Storm. You'll receive payment for this job. Ample that we have an entire division devoted to catching you, hm? Even have a pony called "Storm Chaser". He grins again, and I feel rather repulsed that the royal guard would allow such a mockery into their ranks. He notices my disgust with him, and the prison around me promptly fails. I blink in confusion, attempting to fly away before my wings are yanked back to earth, a rather large hoof having a hold of them. I turn back and grin sheepishly, knowing that I'm well and truly fucked now.

"Er...T-Truce?"

"You will pay...In blood."

"Can't I just pay in bits instead? I mean, your friend over there leaked enough blood, so I really don-"

I'm cut short by a thunderous punch, right in my jaw, breaking it upon impact. Moaning loudly from the deep, aching pain now having rooted itself in my head, the broken jaw is then grabbed by a hoof, crushing it further as my head is turned upwards to look at the assailant. He doesn't smile or grin this time, instead looking at me with a burning hatred.

"I want the last eyes you see to be mine...General Thunderhooves."

Even with my broken jaw, I manage to force a giggle, and raise my hooves in surrender.

"Alright, alright, you got me, big guy...There's just...One minor thing you're forgetting here."

"Oh? And what might that be, you insufferable wretch?"

"I'm the one with the silverbullet."

I don't even allow him time to process as my revolver is whipped out from the specially crafted holster in my wings, and I fire a round. I hit him right between the eyes, the entrance hole relatively small. However, for the millisecond it takes the kinetic energy to transfer, I watch the rest of his head splatter out behind him, akin to a rather badly carved pumpkin. I then re-holster it, taking to the sky and escaping before anypony can react. I smirk in my victory over the guard, and then make my way to LightFinder's place. Light's gotten on in the years, but he trained me into what I am today: an efficient killer, with no remorse for purging the impurities from the world. But it's...Deeper than that. I was his adopted little brother. I am his adopted little brother. He took me under his wing, and helped me to come to terms with the trauma I endured, while teaching me to use it for good. Unlike a large majority of ponies inside the forest, who are part of some sort of clan, he and I have lived separate from both societies of "normal" and "ferals", having preferred each other's company over the bright lights of the city or the bickering of the clans. I arrive at the cottage, but something doesn't feel right. Light trained my natural gift of the Storm sense, a trait, I'm told that helped the Storms ascend the ranks in the guard due to their ability to sense danger before it occurred. Legends passed around inside of the forest that there was a pink pony also capable of this, but the absurdity of it was usually over-ruled by the fear that the Storm was coming for them. Internal monologuing aside, I gently push open the door of his-...Our, cottage, trotting inside. Everything seems normal, and so I decide to call out for him.

"Light? You home, bro?"

My call is met with silence, and I frown. I trot in and sit down upon the chair I made for myself from animal skins and logs, getting comfy in it. Not quite a cloud throne, but it'll do for now. I then sigh, the adrenaline of the previous fight leaving my system and the pain of it bringing me back down to earth. I remove the bow and quiver, the feeling of being seated with them making me uncomfortable. I holster my revolver back into its secret concealment, and gently lick the wound on my foreleg. It stings like shit, but I have to atleast try to keep it clean. As I sit there, performing the world's worst sanitisation job, the door creaks open and Light blocks the doorway. I look up briefly, mid-lick. The pony is holding a box of stolen medical supplies, presumably from the local guard camp. I raise an eyebrow at how he can predict things so well, but then I chalk it up to experience rather than luck. I smile at him, and he returns the smile, trotting inside and setting the box down infront of me. I open it up, and immediately sigh in relief, applying a roll of bandages onto the gash and then biting it off once it's sufficient enough to cover it totally.

"Nice job, Light...Got a real talent for prediction there." I smirk at him. He then takes a seat next to me, sighing as his legs finally get a break from the day.

"Be glad I found those, Des...And by found, I mean acquisitioned." He gives me a happy cheek lick, and I return a knowing glance. Ferals certainly had an odd way of showing affection out here, but I've grown accustomed to it due to living most of my life out here...For obvious reasons. Heh. Thinking about it doesn't hurt as much anymore, but it's still my driving force. I look up at the ceiling, my mind now pondering that dreadful day. I then sigh, shutting my eyes. Light looks at me with concern, gently rubbing my shoulder with a warm, soft hoof.

"Something...Got ya down, Des...? I'm here to talk if...If ya need somepony to vent off to...Don't want you getting angry again...The amount of false trails I had to give that clan that offended you and you then proceeded to raise their village and kill the hierarchy...You fucked up the forest for a good while, there. Was kinda fun, but...Heh. Anyway, what's up?"

"...My mind is back there, Light. I...I dunno. I'm obviously no stranger to killing...My talent is killing...But honestly? Is killing the right thing to do to administer the justice deserved? Those guards...Corrupt, rapist bastards, trying to colonize an already colonized area...They get everything they fucking deserve, but...But Sky Blaze...My dad...He was the captain of the Cloudsdayle branch, man...If my driving force is supposedly justice for them, am I not undoing the work I've previously done in putting down murderers and rapists and all the rest...?"

Light's gaze is soft on me, his eye brows lowered slightly at the corner in a frown. He knows he has to be careful when approaching this situation. He turns the shoulder-hoof into a body hug, and I sigh softly, returning it. He flicks his mane, and smiles softly, nuzzling my cheek.

"Hey, flamehead, it's all justified...Those bastards out there had their chance, and they revoked it when they fucked with the forest. We stand united against them...They're even trying to blend in with us now, shedding their armour in favour of infiltration...It's disgusting. You're striking fear into the heart of them right now, and you're one of our greatest assets in the fight...The Storm. The mention of that name terrifies them. Whether it's just in their eyes or not doesn't matter, you know yourself you're doing the right thing. Sky Blaze wouldn't of wanted to be associated with such disgusting ponies."

I sigh, nodding and opening my eyes. I then look at him, and hug him a little tighter. The contact comforts me. Each kill, while easier than the last, is simultaneously harder. It's a big thing, taking a life...A soul is a fragile thing. The mind, even more so. Easy to corrupt and break...Mine's already been shattered, having made me into a lose cannon with the capacity to kill without remorse...Ponies fear and revere what they don't understand. And my mind is an enigma code yet to be cracked. If it can be cracked...I sigh once more, before shutting my eyes and resting my head against his shoulder. I never developed properly, at a smaller stature than your standard pony, putting me a bit larger than a teenager, I suppose. My head tucks neatly into the crevice on his neck, and he gently rubs my back, doing his best to keep me calm. I snuggle in a little closer, before slowly drifting off, needing the rest to heal my wings, foreleg...And most of all, my mind. Into the dreamscape I fade...For another night of tortured nightmares and the haunting eyes...The blackness, like a void...The cackling, and the pain she caused...I grip Light tighter, promising myself that I would end her. For...For mummy. For daddy. She will be stopped.