It was a bright, sunny day in the capital city of Concordia. Birds were singing, the wind gently rolled through the streets, and everyone was cheerful as they walked along. It was a beautiful day to be in Celestia’s sun, and it would be even more so for Luna’s moon.

        I was but a foal at the time, and I saw this as a perfect opportunity to play in the fields outside of town before my father would come home, since my mother was busy with chores around the house. I kicked a stone in front of me as I passed along a field of corn. Occasionally, my horn would flicker to life and my eyes would close hard with concentration. Eliciting a the stone to be wrapped in a light silver glow and rise for a moment before falling back to the dirt with a thump. I gave a frustrated huff, then blew my violet mane with it’s silver streak out of my eyes and tried again.

        This was my usual day’s journey out the grassy fields where I liked to play. It was very far across the dirt road along the cornfield, but my little legs couldn't carry me very far. I saw the usual passersby as well, a few carriages, farmers, royal guards. There was something terribly different about this day, however.

        I had just passed two royal guards before I made it to the open field. I was looking back to admire the stallions regal armor and the official way that they held themselves. I turned my head towards the fields and saw something out of place.

        Two farmers were arguing loudly with each other at the edge of the cornfield, in plain view. I couldn’t make out what they were saying, but they were obviously very angry with each other. I was too scared to go out into the fields with them there, so I hid behind some stalks and watched them from the road.

        I had seen them around the farms over here quite often, but had never gotten to know them, only that they were usually close to each other. One of them was a dark brown, and the other was a lighter gray, that was mostly all I knew.

The brown one was obviously much angrier, but the gray one wasn’t much further behind. They argued for what seemed like ten minutes before the brown one turned around and tried to walk off, steaming. The gray one didn't like that apparently, he strode forward and put a hoof on his shoulder to turn him around.

I glanced back to the road to see if there were any ponies coming. Sure enough, the two guards I had passed were trotting back this direction with curious expressions.

Just as soon as I had turned my head and noticed the two guards, an ear piercing scream resonated across the field where the farmers were. My hair stood on end all across my body and a jumped in fear. The guards broke out into a gallop behind me. I looked forward to see that the brown farmer was on top of the other one, repeatedly ramming his fist into the face of the other one. To my horror, his hoof was stained a dark red, and the gray farmer lay limp beneath him as he continued mercilessly beating him.

I took a couple steps back into the road, not believing what I saw. My mouth hung open and tears formed in my eyes at the violence before me. The two guards darted past me, leaving a cloud of dust as they side stepped into the field and sprinted towards the farmer.

I sat back on my haunches and could only stare at what played out. One of the guards slammed into the farmer and knocked him off of the poor stallion. The other one hurried up to the gray farmer and started to check him over. The guard over the assailant pointed his horn down at the struggling pony, and with a bright light, casted a spell that bound the farmers hooves together.

I walked into the field to look at what seemed to be happening. The other guard moved away from the limp gray farmer and shook his head.

“He’s gone,” the guard said solemnly to the other.

        The brown farmer beneath the guard spat out strange words at the pny holding him down quite loudly. The guard simply raised a hoof above his head and thrust it down across his cheek. That quickly silenced his loud obscenities, but he still looked up at the guard menacingly.

        “The princesses do not take kindly to murder, you criminal,” The guard brought his hoof down yet again, and the pony below him went limp. He maneuvered the farmer onto his back, and the other guard noticed me.

        I did not think to do anything as he began trotting up to me, other than to look over him at the gray one on the ground. All I could see was his disfigured face discolored a deep red before the guard got to me.

“This is no place for you, little one. Please, go home, you should not have to see this,” he said in an easy tone, in a stark contrast from how I normally heard guards.

I could only stare up at him in awe for a moment, still a bit shocked by what I had seen.

“Y-Yes sir,” I told him before I started to make my way back towards home.

I could only stare at the dirt in front of me, pondering what happened and why that pony would do such a thing. I looked back occasionally and could see the two guards not far behind me, one of them carried a limp brown farmer on his back.

I hurried home. I doubted my father would be back by this time, but I knew I could at least talk to my mother about it, maybe she could tell me why someone would do something so horrible.

As soon as I was close enough to see out of our window, my mother flew out of the front door up to me.

“Where have you been Silver Line?” my mother asked with concern.

“I was going to the fields like I usually do, but something bad happened...” I said as I looked down, kicking the dirt around.

“What? You aren’t hurt are you?” She lifted my face up with a navy blue wing and began searching me for and signs of injury, with a very concerned look on her face.

“No ma’am, nothing like that.” I pushed the wing down gently and looked up at her.

“It was those farmers, there was a brown one and a gray one, they were fighting, and...”

“That must be Sugar Cane and his brother. What happened Silver?” She raised an eyebrow.

“The brown one hurt the other one real bad, he wasn’t moving. There was a lot of blood...” Thinking about it made me tear up a bit, and my mother looked down at me in shock.

“I do not-” She looked behind me and her eyes widened in disbelief.

“C-Cane?!” I turned around to see the guards carrying the farmer through the street. Cane’s hoof was still stained red.

My mother pulled my back and started walking with me towards the house.

“Come now, we should go inside.” I followed her, occasionally glancing back into the street before she closed the door.

“Mother... What would make a pony hurt someone like that?”

She looked back, and almost seemed to wonder if she should really tell me or not, or how to word it.

“Some ponies become evil, and they end up doing bad things like that.”

“But what makes a pony become evil like that?”

She sat me down on a cushion by the fire, and pulled me close and wrapped me in a wing. I looked up at her with a questioning glance and waited for an answer.

“Silver, there is a battle between two wolves in all of us. One of them is evil, it embodies all the hate and anger we feel, and the ill will towards other ponies. The other is good, and this one represents all of our kindness and generosity, the one that creates the harmony that we have,” she said down to me gently.

“But which one wins?”

“The one you feed.”

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