Chapter 20 Back In The Game pt 2

Spark Storm sighed, his ears laid back against his head in anticipation. This was not going to be a good day, he just knew it.

As he made his way into the large, sparsely furnished room, Spark took notice of the new faces. New to him, at least. The Fighters he knew about had been Sapphire Snow and Lemon Pop, including their teachers Mellifluous Cannonade (A name he hadn't quite figured out yet) and Braham.

He sighed. Braham was why the new faces were giving him the stink-eye, at least he figured, anyway. The first colt he saw was a light blue Unicorn, who sported brown hair and pink highlights, and his cutie mark was...well, a pair of contraptions he'd never seen before.

The other was also a Unicorn, and if it hadn't been for the horn and a lack of wings, he could've sworn that he was looking at a male Sapphire Snow. He found it a little unsettling. Just a little.

It was this Unicorn that approached Spark Storm. Spark could tell this one was going to give him an earful. He hadn't quite figured out how much when the Unicorn suddenly charged him. The white colt's shoulder had encased itself in a solid covering of ice.

Spark hadn't been expecting a physical attack. A verbal wrangling, some insults maybe, but not an attack. Spark took the cold shoulder in the chest and was sent sprawling to the floor, sliding all the way back into the wall.
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Frostbite had spent the morning pacing back and forth with anger. It was bad enough that one of his teachers had died fighting monsters. It was worse that he had died protecting some colt that Sapphire seemed to favor.

Who was this little prick? Frostbite had chosen to believe that this 'Spark Storm' had hidden himself away when the fight occurred. None of the Fighters had been told that a monster was among them, at least not yet.

So when what could only be this Spark Storm enter the room like he owned the damn place, Frostbite did what was only logical. He let instinct take over. He activated the special ice magic in his horn and covered his shoulder in it. He flattened the surface; it wouldn't do to have a death this early in the game.

The Pegasus never even saw it coming. Frostbite rammed into the colt, sending the darker pony across the floor. Like a sack of potatoes. What a waste of sp...Wait.
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Spark groaned as he got to his feet. After feeling at his chest to make sure nothing was broken, he gave an even glare to the white Unicorn, who's blue eyes were blazing with both anger and uncertainty.

Feeling just a little bit brave after weathering the icy blow, he said, "Dude. My sister hits harder than you do."

Frostbite glared at the words of the Pegasus he just floored. Wait. If he gets up after a blow like that, is he really floored? He shook off his rhetorics for now, and approached Spark.

"Just where were you when Braham died, huh? Were you hiding when the monsters came?" Spark's wings flared to life. He was suddenly more angry than he'd ever been. If the Fighters thought they were going to drag him back into guilt, they had another thing coming.

Frostbite stared at Spark's wings. He'd heard Roving Gale's talk of a Pegasus who could summon electricity without storm clouds, but he hadn't believed it. To see it up close was both intimidating and wonderous. However, he wasn't finished.

"You're pretty tough, but it doesn't change the fact that our teacher is dead...and it's your fault."

At this, the other colt that had been watching decided it was time to step in before either Unicorn or Pegasus got himself hurt.

"Y'all cut it out, now." He drawled. "We're all upset that Braham can't be here no more, but we gotta put our personal feelin's aside so's we don't fall apart as a team."

"A team?" Frostbite stared at Gunslinger incredulously. "We'd have to already be a team to fall apart as a team, and he's not in it!" He pointed an accusing hoof at Spark Storm.

"Yeah, Ah get it." Gunslinger said as he cautiously approached the two from the middle. "Ah got my reservations, but we don't know what happened out there, Frostbite. I mean look at 'im!" He gestured with a hoof at the Pegasi's wings. "Do ya really think he was hidin' from a battle when he's got them?"

"Having weapons isn't the same as using them. For all we know, he ki - "

Frostbite didn't have time to finish this new accusation. He did barely have time to put up an ice shield. Spark's lightning had never been more fierce. He was advancing now, his wings lighting up the room with light and sound. Frostbite did all he could just to keep a shield up, but the thick threads of light were burning his shield to water and evaporating mist.

Frostbite had had enough. He dodged to the side and shot off an ice beam. It hit Spark Storm in the shoulder. The Pegasus yelped out in pain, his shoulder having been encased. However, he was far from finished. He took careful aim and zapped the ice on his shoulder, searing it and himself until he was free. He glared at the Unicorn, who had never seen anypony injure themselves just to get out of an ice trap.

Spark Storm leapt forward with a speed nopony had ever seen before in Canterlot. He stopped right before colliding with Frostbite, swinging a wing to hit Frostbite on the nose with the hard point. Stunned, Frostbite took a step back. Without wasting a second, Spark Storm whirled around and hit his foe with the tip of an electrified wing in the chest. Frostbite took a tumble and fell onto a table, bringing it all to the ground.

Breathing heavily and shaking from the pain of his wound, Spark cantered over to Frostbite, who was glaring at him angrily, though the fight had gone out of him. He was about to speak when Spark interrupted him. "Might never makes right. But dude, you were wrong." Spark walked off and made it outside, only to collapse.
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Spark Storm opened his eyes to pain. His shoulder was burning. He glanced at it in alarm, only to see Frostbite standing over him, his horn aglow. He was icing Spark's wound. The Unicorn, noticing he was awake, muttered something unintelligible. Spark's right ear twitched, then he aimed it in Frostbite's direction. "Sorry, didn't hear that."

Frostbite rolled his eyes and sighed. "I said, I'm sorry. That was a bit extreme, accusing you of actually killing Braham."

"You think?" Spark frowned and looked away as the Unicorn finished with his spell, then bandaged the burn carefully.

"Sometimes." Spark glanced up at Frostbite. Had he just made a joke?

"Also...I'm impressed with your fighting skills. Not just your sparkly crap, either." Spark's mouth twitched in amusement at the word 'sparkly'.

"You've got some pretty sweet moves for someone I've just met. That one-two move that put me down, that was pretty intense."

Spark smiled a little. "Yeah well, your defense was great. I thought my first attack would've beaten you sooner. And then that dodge-shot. I never saw it coming."

"I thought it was pretty damn impressive the way you got rid of the ice on your shoulder, even if it was a bit stupid."

"It wasn't stupid!"

"It was indeed stupid. Impressive, but stupid."

The two of them glared at each other, then broke into laughs. It seemed the ice had finally been broken between the two. Needing to say no more, they hoof-bumped before Frostbite wandered off to rest his own wounds.
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Spark Storm sighed as he looked out into the forest. He'd come so far, from such a long time ago. It'd only been eight months, but the past seemed so far behind. This day had been a long one. He'd gotten into it with a cryomancer, and then had had a good long talk with the rest of the Fighters about Orea. Most of them seemed opposed to it, but Frostbite had backed him up.

It didn't really matter in the end, though. Princess Celestia had been called, and when she arrived she had made it clear that Orea was her guest, and that Spark Storm was responsible for her. With all being made clear, the Fighters seemed to relent, and made Orea feel welcome.

Now, at sunset, Spark was resting after what had been a very long day. He was still resting when a tall black Pegasus landed near him. The two of them stared at each other for a very long time, neither of them saying a word. They didn't have to. Spark just knew. He turned away from the older Pegasus after a moment.

"...Why? Why now? After all this time, why do you come to me now?"

"Because," Roving Gale began. "It's time you trained with your old stallion."

Spark Storm turned around to glare at his father. He raised his wings, charged them and shot a bolt at the older Pegasi's hooves, making him jump.

"You don't know what you did to me. You better know how to move, old stallion, because I'm not holding back."

Roving Gale just smiled, and got into position to begin. "I wouldn't have a day with my son any other way."

"Don't call me that. You haven't earned it yet." Spark spat venomously.

The two danced long into the night, well after the moon rose into the sky.
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Hours later, Spark dragged himself back up to his room, where Orea was waiting for him. Approaching him, she frowned at the angry look on his face.

"My Storm, you are..."

"Angry, yes." He sighed and moved past her into the bathroom. He needed a good, long soak. He hadn't noticed Orea following him in.

When the water was finally ready, he lowered himself in with a sigh of relief. He heard a giggle, then glanced behind him to see Orea sitting on her belly at the edge of the water. He would've said something, but he'd been angry enough already today. He didn't have the energy to yell at her.

He rested his head on the edge of the stone tub, which was an in ground. He couldn't really complain when Orea started reaching into the tub for water to wash his head. It felt really, really nice, and he was really, really tired.

"I saw you practicing with your sire." She said, breaking the comfortable silence.

"My what?"

"Your sire, your...father."

Spark sighed. He still wasn't going to call him that. Not after eleven and a half years of not knowing him. Not seeing him. And what was he doing with the Fighters anyway? Had he joined just to antagonize his progeny?

"I think I prefer sire. I don't want to call him 'father', and he has no business calling me 'son'." Spark's eyes closed. With the warm water and Orea running her hooves through his mane, he was quickly falling asleep, so it was no surprise that he didn't see the tendrils running from Orea's hooves and into his hair, removing dead seeds and planting new ones.

The seeds bloomed, and quickly dispelled a powder that ran through his mane like a mist, then disappeared as if it were never there.

That night, the two slept in each other's arms. Spark was growing closer and closer to Orea as time went on, and while he always felt guilty about it, his actions always seemed to contradict his feelings.

The seeds in his hair went completely unnoticed.