Chapter 14 “Broken”

In the next couple of days, Ember’s physical and mental health appeared to get worse and worse. He rarely talked, his eyes were more often than not purple, changing to blue easily as he was quick to get angered. His fur and hair were getting matted, not that he really cared at this point. He was restless, not sleeping at night and being cranky in the morning. The rest of the pack noticed this change rather quickly, trying their best to help him out. Not even Limelight’s wise words were enough to bring him out of his funk. Poor Speckle, she tried her hardest to get him to even so much as look at her when they talked, but that was to no avail.

The others kept their talking about him with each other to a minimum, trying to figure out what caused him to be like this. Worst of all was that Crimson would nag at him every day, reminding him of all the bad things he'd done and not letting up for a second. This morning, he sat outside of the cave, looking off into the distance, losing himself to his mind once again. A voice interrupted his thoughts, however, causing him to groan quietly. “What do you want, Rookie?”, he asked gruffly. The other stallion simply sat down beside him, not saying a word. A few seconds passed before Ember had to break the silence. “What are you doing?”

“Sitting. I hear it helps your posture.”

“Well that's just ridiculous.”

Collin gave him a look. “Is it? I see you've been doing it a lot.” No response. “Really, Ember. What's been going on with you these past few weeks? I've never seen you like this before.”

“Well, I don't know myself, if that says anything.”

The pegasus hesitated, but spoke a thought that came to him. “Speckle told me about your little issue.”

Ember seemed unfazed by this. “Did she now? Well good for her.”

“Ember, if you tell us what's going on, we can help you.”

“No one can help me with this. I have to face it myself.”, the Lead said lowly.

“Ember-”

“Just leave me the hell alone, ok? I don't want to talk about it anymore.”, he growled, his patience run out.

Collin stood and looked down at him. “As you wish, Alpha.”, he said in a cold tone before turning around and leaving.

Crimson appeared in a puff of smoke in front of Ember. He was transparent, but that didn't make it any harder to see the wide grin that was on his face. He had appeared to Ember previously one late night, so for the stallion to see him now wasn't very surprising. “Crimson: 3, Ember: 0. Looks like I'm in the lead in this little game we’re having.”

“I never agreed to this, Crimson.”

The ghost like figure laughed. “No, but I did, so that's enough say for you. I was right when I said you'd be the one who would destroy his pack. All I've done was watch, and what a joy that's been.”

Ember sighed, not saying anything else. Crimson smirked. “Aw, mountain lion got your tongue? Well that's good for me, cause the more sadness and negativity that's brewing around here, the stronger I get, and you'll be seeing me soon.”

The sound of hooves coming towards them caused him to freeze. He gave the Lead one last look before saying, “Well here comes someone else you have to talk to. Behave yourself now. Or don't, that's fine by me.”

He disappeared as suddenly as he came, leaving Ember by himself as Speckle came to him. “Ember?”, she asked softly, not wanting to disrupt him if he was thinking.

“Yes, Speckle? What is it?”

“Sir, Firefly’s on her Heat now. She started this morning.”

“Great. Now that's more wailing that I have to hear at night. Anything else?”

“Nicky wants to go on a hunt with Sirena and Crescent later today.”

“Tell her that's fine.”

“Sir… We're all worried about you.”

“Oh no. Not you too.”

“I'm not joking. I know what you're going through, and-”

“Hold it right there. Do you really know I'm going through? Have you experienced the amount of frustration and anguish I have? I don't think so.”

“Ember, I-”

“Speckle, hear me out. Do you think I enjoy going through this? Cus I don't. Do you think everything’s gonna be fine and dandy after this blows over? Maybe, but who's to say? I could be stuck like this for months, moons even. And you'd have to deal with it.”

Her eyes narrowed, flashing red briefly. The stallion rose, turning to face her. “I'm tired, Speckle. I really am.”

“Don't you think I know that? I can see it, we all can. And what are you going to do about it?”

He lowered his gaze, now staring at the ground. Speckle waited for him to look back up at her, giving him a stern look when he did.

“I don't know.”, he said softly, looking disappointed in himself.

Just like that something snapped, and he suddenly was enraged. He rushed forward, pressing her roughly against a wall, arms tightly around her neck as he put her in a chokehold. Her eyes were wide with fear, strangled noises escaping her as she struggled to breathe. She managed to get out a few notes of a distress call before her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell limp. Quetzal was outside seconds later, watching with panic as Ember immediately dropped the mare, backing up slowly, fear in his own eyes. Before the Beta could move, he was off and running, at the same time Collin ran out of the cave, his eyes quickly darting from one scene to the next.

“What the- Ember, wait!” He called out, starting to run after him, but Quetzal stopped him.

“Let him go. I think we have more important things to attend to right now.” Collin agreed, although his eyes never strayed from the running stallion until he was out of sight.