"Mother Lightning Strike, tell me again, tell me father's story."
"Dear Lightning Storm, I've told you his story so many times, and you're a grown stallion now, surely you can tell the story to yourself."
"But none tells it like you mother. You were there, you know, you saw him, you understand him. I want to hear it from you mother."
"Very well son, I'll tell you again. ... Your father was a brave and powerful pegasus warrior. His cutie mark dark raincloud that struck lightning to all directions.
"When I first met him... he came stumbling out of the edge of the desert that our home sits above. He was delirious, starving, one wing limp, his body covered in deep cuts and scratches, some old, some new. One scar covered one eye, and one of his ears was partially bitten off. Later we'd have to break his wing again so it would then heal properly.
"At first, all we could get out of him was his name, Thunderstorm. I was assigned the task of watching over him, feeding him, cleaning him... The poor stallion had clearly been in a terrible battle. Not to mention whatever monsters he faced in the desert. He was dehydrated, but not as terrible as he should have been. When he was strong enough, he showed him his talent at condensing water around him into ice on his wings.
"I was amazed. I'd never seen a pegasus do such a thing! I didn't even know it was possible! I had to know more about him! And we had little to do but talk, though I had to teach him to read and write. So he began tell him his story.
"Unlike the enlightened elves, humans still clung to the idea of slavery, like goblins do. And pegasi were the slaves they lorded over where Thunderstorm lived, given a humiliating and demeaning name that he detested. He'd not even had THAT before he was bought. He was a Pegasus Stallion Number 23.
"Your father saw this evil for what it was, and awakened other pegasi who were trapped in the lie that this was the natural order of things, that it was better for the humans to make all the decisions for them, that we were dumb creatures who couldn't live on our own and pegasi should be GRATEFUL for being property to be bought and sold.
"The humans fought to the bitter end to keep their power, using every act of trickery and brutality to get pegasi to submit to their will again, but none did. Eventually, they were defeated, and your father's flock stood proud and free.
"But the humans in their spite to not allow any to have their empire they built on the backs of slaves, least their slaves taste the fruits of their own forced labors, they had destroyed everything in their final days, ensuring your father's flock had nothing for their victory but their freedom.
"Freedom was worth all the terrible sacrifices your father's flock made, but freedom does not fill bellies. So your father sought a new home for his people. And he found it. A town likewise ruled by humans, but not just any humans, this town was overseen and guarded by a WITCH! ... Your father tried everything to peacefully and non-violently drive the humans away, but like the humans before them, they'd sooner die than give to another.
"Finally, your father challenged the witch herself, and was able to capture her! But the witch had an expected ally, a unicorn who called herself Majesty and her pet dragon. Majesty was brilliant, ruthless, cunning, and immensely powerful, more powerful than any unicorn ever seen, and power corrupts. She'd laugh as her victims suffered. And using her lies, she bewitched, confused, manipulated, and turned half of your father's own flock against him!
"Your father fought bravely, determined, but against the overwhelming might of the unicorn who called herself Majesty there could be no victory. None could hope to defeat her. With wicked glee she crippled your father, then banished him to the desert, never to return, his entire flock lost to Majesty's, the witch, and her pet dragon's might. Instead of giving him a quick and honorable death, she doomed him to die in the desert alone, telling him to 'never forget.'
"Your father insisted none ever try to avenge him, saying time and again that Majesty could not hope to be defeated. That she was a wild storm that was best left avoided. If she learned he was alive, or that he had a family, there is no telling what evil she'd bright upon us all. As I have had you vow many times my son to honor your father's wishes.
"Your father eventually healed. By then, I couldn't help but love him. His honor, his courage, his loyalty, his determination, having endured so much, where lesser ponies would have just laid down and died? How could I have not fallen in love with him?
"Father was excited I had finally found someone. Mother thought I had fallen in love with his 'fairy tales.' My parents argued. Greatly. Mother wondered if his story was just a tale he invented to entertain me. Or a fantasy he spun to infiltrate our settlement. Heh, there are many more places in the world more worthy of being 'infiltrated' than our settlement. It was NOT the bustling place it is today! And if his tales weren't true, wouldn't Thunder' have had himself be triumphant instead of failing to protect his flock? Finally, they granted their permission, and I was allowed to become your father's mate.
"Thunder' sadly had no friends of his own to invite to our wedding, having spent nearly all his time with me as he healed. But we did have my family. That day was so beautiful, to my surprise, the whole town attended our wedding. This mystifying warrior from the desert, he was a mystery to them, a puzzle, an novelty, but he wasn't to me. I knew him. And he was wonderful.
"Thunder' provided for me any way he could. Our remote town had little reason for protectors all that often, the rest of the world mostly left us alone. Sadly, your father's first natural calling was being a warrior. But he was also gifted in manipulating the skies in ways no one had ever seen! He'd say that he was the sky incarnate! And his abilities proved invaluable, we were able to farm like never before! And his STORIES, the STORIES he told, pegasi all over loved to hear them! Pegasi flocked to our growing town thanks to him.
"But with increased numbers, we became a larger collection of prey, and a pack of griffins found us. The wild beasts descended on us, preying on the sick and elders who were too slow to flee from them. Including my grandmother, your great-grandmother.
"We'd never had to fight for our lives before, most of us just wanted to hide away until the griffins left with their prey, our friends and family. But Thunderstorm said,
"'They'll just come back, and keep coming back now that they know where a source of good is.'
"Mad with fear, one pegasus said, 'Maybe if we offer them sacrifices, it'll keep them happy! We can draw lots!'
"I have never seen anything so handsome as your father punching that mare back to her senses.
"Thunderstorm put his experiences as a warrior to their best use since he'd lost his best friend Firefly to Majesty's evil. He taught us to fight. How to fight as a group, how to make ambushes, how to draw them away from each other with 'bait' and to pounce on them. How to leave some of them squawking and bleeding as an example to the rest, to burn it into their animal brains that this we were not easy prey. We took back the numbers they took from us with interest.
"We were no longer afraid. The griffins did not return. But your father was NOT about to let a pack of griffins simply to feed on another population of ponies somewhere while we were safe, he was not so selfish nor cowardly. Some mad ponies pleaded we 'leave alone' the monsters that sought to devour us, but sanity prevailed.
"We tracked the monsters back to their nest, we smashed their eggs, and we fought, their screeches, the flurry of their claws, the tearing of their beaks, even with your father's brilliance we lost some friends. There was your father, in the middle of it all, wherever the fighting was hardest, there he was. And together, we hunted down and slew every last one of the monsters.
"In one last act, we burned their nests to ashes so another flock of griffins wouldn't see their nests and take them for their own. Your father wanted them to just rot, but I saw no reason why we should leave our spoils of war to wastes. We sold off the feathers, fur, meat, bones, claws, beak, eyes, everything had value to the right collector, craftsman, or those mysterious and dark alchemists. Our settlement flourished. We had attracted traders, and with our prizes we got the wheel turning. But being so remote, it was decided for one day a year that the traders would meet so they would not miss each other.
"Some ponies, looking for easy answers, or looking to make sense of an unfair world... like to say our newfound 'wealth' attracted what came next. But our town's wealth wasn't in gold, gems, and baubles. Fate is an incredibly capricious mare.
"The teenage dragon came to our town one day. He simply landed among us and began roaring so loud none could ignore.
"The name is Scorch! 'My father promised me this land would be mine! You're all trespassing!' In the name of the Mother of Dragons, Queen Tiamat, leave, and leave all your treasures here. Or offer me regular tribute! Stay and you'll all burn!" He set a few houses on fire to show he was serious.
"Some of us dared take him up on his offer... after all... 'If we become his serfs, that means we'd be under his protection wouldn't it?!', I saw them reason.
"'Is this supposed to be a joke?!' He snarled when he saw their 'tribute.' As I said dear, our town's wealth wasn't in the kind of 'treasure' the dragons think of. 'Either give your REAL treasure, or I'll burn your town down to the ground and find it myself!'"
"'Here! Please! Take my most precious treasure if it'll save our flock!'
"'Mommy?'
"'Enough with your jokes!' I managed to get them out of the way just before his breath would have turned them to ashes, I still have the burn scars on my back. And that... was all it took for Thunderstorm. He tackled Scorch before the flames had even had a chance to die down. No, I don't think less of him for attacking Scorch before checking to see if I was all right, he knew that I was made of sterner stuff than that.
"I'd never seen Thunderstorm fight so relentlessly and brutally, even when the griffins had been gotten rid of. Fire and ice filled the sky, turning to steam, covering the air above our town. But Thunderstorm only cut through it, not letting himself be trapped in it. And he was able to FEEL where Scorch was in the fog. A dragon's senses are keen, but Thunderstorm's were better in the air. He once told me he could feel where a unicorn was going to teleport. Your father moved like lightning, he struck like a thunder bolt against Scorch and was gone just as quickly.
"The pegasi cheered for him. They called out his name. This actually managed to distract Scorch more than Thunderstorm. Scorch tried to burn him, but your father was too fast for him, though it burned away the fog for a moment. Thunderstorm brought more ice shards down on Scorch, who this time clawed them away, and Thunderstorm struck him from behind, but was swatted away by Scorch's tail. But your father recovered before he hit the ground and flew up to fight again.
"Your father was no fool. He had to know that one face full of Scorch's fire, or one round with Scorch's four sets of claws, and it would be over. But he kept on fighting. It was all or nothing now. After this act of defiance, there was no way Scorch would show mercy to any of us. I'd have joined him in that battle if I could have, even if I had known what I know now about my own precious treasure.
"They didn't stay high in the sky, they dove down, close to the ground, below us, down the mesa, and up it again, patches of fire and ice covered the cliff. Thunderstorm gave much more than he had to take, but Scorch's scales were like any dragon's, a living suit of armor. I'm not ashamed to admit now... I didn't know how Thunderstorm could possibly win. Even a teenage dragon is still a dragon. My heart sank. It was hopeless. He was doomed, and so were we.
"All I could do, was watch my husband fight his hardest, slowly get worn down as lightning struck the mountain, and the mountain remained, and he eventually, surely died. He had no magic shield, no enchanted sword, nothing that could save him, save us. He had nothing.
"Thunderstorm brought his wings to Scorch's face, ice formed around his face, but the dragon shattered it with brute strength.
"In the meantime, Thunderstorm brought his wings to his own face and ice formed in Thunderstorm's mouth... except... it was in the shape of a sword. And... the ice, it was odd, it was blue.
"But in the time it took him to make it... Scorch's ... Scorch's claws... they stabbed deep into your father.
"And Thunderstorm stabbed his sword down Scorch's throat! Scorch's flames came up... and the sword of ice exploded, inside Scorch.
...
"Both fell. Dust exploded upwards when they hit the ground... leaving a crater.
"Scorch rose... unsteady on his legs, he cough up black blood.
"'D-did he r-really... really think... that... that would... work? We dragons can digest anything from gems to carrion ... Did you really think... that would... finish me? ... I-idiot."
"He tried to kick Thunder', but his kick missed and he nearly fell.
"'S-stupid pony, whaoo.' He wavered again, holding his head, surprised when he pulled his claw away, seeing more black blood from his nostrils. He dizzily looked down at my bleeding husband and took in a deep breath and began coughing again.
"Thunderstorm was our greatest warrior, he was the one who taught us how to fight instead of flee from our predators, he could do things that the rest of us could only imagine. If he couldn't defeat Scorch, what chance did any of us have?
"I didn't care. I could barely fly. But that didn't matter when the enemy was now below us!
"The humans and their crossbow was a disturbing new weapon. But none of us knew how to even use it, it had been just another item of trade, and with the griffins gone, we'd had no reason to learn how to use it, we'd beaten them back without it before after all. I had grabbed one of the crossbow bolts, and dived down on top of Scorch, folding my wings and diving rear hooves first.
"He fell over with a crash with my impact, but threw me off like I was a rag doll. But a second later, before he could rise again, the entire flock, the mare who had offered her foal at the head of the flock, came down screaming on top of him, they piled on top of him, hammering away at him. And in that moment, in more pain than I'd ever known, I ran the bolt into his brain through the eye.
"With the dragons slain, I finally was able to check on Thunderstorm. I... I could... I could tell... with... with ... what the way... with the way the claws had ... he was not long for this world.
"'Strike...' My love whispered. "'I'm not...'"
"'Shhh...' I-I told him. 'It's okay dear, I'm here. It's alright. The dragon's dead. Everyone is safe. You... you just rest now. I love you.'
"'That... was never a...' He didn't have breath to finish, he nuzzled me.
"I held him with my forelegs and wings. With what strength he had, he folded one of his wings around me.
"We... we were like that for a very long time. The flock merely stood around us. It took me a moment to realize I was crying. Then I realized I wasn't the only one of the flock doing so.
"We wrapped up your father's body in clouds... pushed them out into the sky, and with lightning and fire turned his body to ashes. A beautiful rainbow formed after the storm. I knew he was on his way to Elysium.
"... Like all pegasi, your father's ashes in the clouds we released up high, so he could become one with the sky as he always said he was... I scattered your father's ashes myself... I couldn't let anyone else do it. A part of me wanted to keep your father's ashes for myself, but in the end, I couldn't bring myself to be that selfish.
"I did with Scorch exactly what we did with the griffins. We sold off his scales, wings, bones, meat, organs, eyes, fangs, claws, we scattered his remains to the four corners of Equus, there were many willing to pay good items in return for dragon parts.
"It also created the tall tale that we'd make glue out of any bandits that tried to steal from us. We've never actually done so, and we wouldn't, but it makes a good story that scares away the raiders.
"It was at that time... I realized Thunderstorm had left me another legacy, a treasure truly precious. My sorrow danced with joy. You brought light to the dark. Like your magnificent father.
"If only I could be so grossly incandescent."
"You already are Lightning Storm, to me. And you will be in your own way to the rest of the flock. As you're inspired by him, you'll inspire others, I know it."
"I promise mother, I'll become a great protect like him. I'll protect our flock from all dangers and all evils. Be they witch, griffin, or dragon, I'll never let what happened to father's first flock happen to us."
"You make me smile dear. Star Dust is a very lucky mare my son, I know you'll do her proud."
