![Razz :P](./images/smilies/aiwebs_silly2.gif)
Chaos Flame was out in the fields again, as usual. It had become his go-to place to escape, he was much harder to pin down here than in Tigress' realm where the others could feel his aura. It wasn't necessarily that he wanted to be alone, he just didn't want anyone to be able to find him whenever they pleased. There had been a change in him over the years, and one that he wasn't sure he was exactly proud of. From the playful, feisty, best friend of SilverRain, to a bitter and melancholy lone wolf. He had been running from himself for a long time, and facing his flaws and acknowledging where they came from was even harder. Jealousy was an ugly thing, and he'd been swimming in it for years. He'd pushed the stallion that he called "brother" away; simply because he was envious of what the other had. The very gift he had given him: a part of him had wanted to take it back. The first mare he'd fallen for had been an elusive love, here and there, close and then distant, with him and then... with another.
He now walked with the product of his other greatest source of envy: Frostbite. The mare who waited for Vision and campaigned for his heart, even when he was about to settle down with another. Her unwavering devotion had drawn him to her, but he wasn't the one she wanted and he couldn't hold a flame to the blind stallion. Being a Warrior didn't seem to give him any leg up in life, he constantly felt that he wasn't good enough but he was too proud to show it. He felt he was expected to hide all signs of weakness, it was a character trope that had been painted on him because of his abilities and he didn't know how to break out of it.
Mistveil was more or less oblivious. They'd never really had a deep heart to heart, their friendship was very light and mostly out of duty. Chaos Flame protected her because she was Frostbite's daughter. Maybe in another life she could have been his. He was over that, he was slowly starting to let go of his grudges and in their place was a great guilt and loneliness. He wasn't sure what to say to SilverRain to explain his distance. Could he just make more of an effort with the other stallion and gloss over everything? Did he really have to explain it? He still had a lot of pride, and he wasn't sure how much he was ready to sacrifice. He didn't want to talk about his feelings, he just wanted to change them and move forward. The past was the past, he just wanted to embrace the now and the future and become stronger, better, kinder.
If Chaos Flame's gruff silences bothered her, Mistveil never showed it. She was balance and innocence, the kind who didn't dwell on things like envy, the kind who didn't hold grudges. Then again, she'd never been hurt. She didn't have a reason to expect that life could be anything but full of potential. He wanted to preserve that but he knew that someday the walls would come crashing down, it happened to everyone in time, in different ways.
"Chaos! Look, it's one of- it's... Lotus'... you know." The mare started off excited, whispering at the highest pitch she could manage, before stumbling over her words and gradually beginning to mumble. Lotus was a new addition to their realm, and she was different from the rest of them. She came from an Altar that he hadn't even heard about before, and she was so mysterious and hard to pin down that nobody had been able to get any answers from her about her kind and where she came from. She was almost... ethereal, sprite-like, and she definitely stood out. It was the big gossip going around, but no one wanted to be impolite or make her feel unwelcome so they were all trying to balance their curiosity with tact.
He looked down the hill they had just reached the top of, and noticed that surely enough, there was, indeed, more of her kind about. He stood dumbfounded for a moment, noting how Mistveil looked down the hill and then back at him again with an expectant look.
"Nothing tried, nothing gained. Just... act natural." He instructed the mare who was basically dancing in place with curious excitement. She smirked and winked before taking the lead again and heading down the hill. He watched her carefully as they descended, wondering when their presence would be noticed and what reaction they might receive.