Slickwind galloped, searching for the elusive dappled colt that he had been ordered to kill. It was dark and the rain lashed his eyes. He slid to a halt, slipping on the wet ground he blinked and scanned around. He heard a creature in front of him, the snorting angry breaths, and the stamp of hooves. A streak of lightning arched the sky and his heart clenched in terror as before him he saw a stallion as black as obsidian. A stallion he thought long dead, whose heart-mate he had taken, and whose red eyes glinted angrily with burning malice in the stormlight, and whose dark horn slit the air, sharp as a knife.
Tenual felt anger surge through him, his spirit that had danced with the storm had become aware of a stallion he had long hated. He remembered Ash’s words, that Slickwind had taken Rose against her will, and his blood boiled. No longer was he a small colt that Slickwind could bully, a stallion now, and bigger than the iron grey, fitter, stronger from a life of hardship.  He reared and roared his anger, the lightning flashed above him, his dark mane whipping the air as the rain lashed his skin. Slickwind turned and fled in terror into the night as the black unicorn with the burning eyes charged after him, hot on his tail. Tenual felt his old scars burn as he chased the unicorn that had inflicted them. He remembered that fight when he was a yearling as if it were yesterday, the day that Rose realised she was his heart-mate.
The iron greys breaths we hard and fast, and he coughed raggedly as the black chased him on and on, Tenual’s nostrils dilated with anger, but his breathing was hardly altered at all, so fit was he from his life of hardship. Finally Slickwind wheeled to face the dark stallion, almost invisible in the darkness.
Tenual didn’t move as the iron grey gasped and wheezed, he just watched as his adversary got his breath back. Slickwind shook with fear as the black stallion stared at him with those deep red eyes that glinted dully in the semi dark. The rain straggled their manes as they began to circle cautiously, hooves churning up the sodden ground.
  A sudden flare of lightning arched as their horns struck with a crack of bone on bone. They fenced and parried, lacerations inflicted on both sides as the cruel horns slashed and ripped at dark fur… but Slickwind soon realised that for all his fitness and strength, Tenual had almost no experience, and the iron grey gained confidence, slowly beating the black, but he underestimated his younger opponent, and squealed in pain as the black horn slashed across his face, sending blood running into his eyes, blinding him.
Tenual slammed his hooves into the iron grey, feeling the sharp edges cut into the sodden skin. Slickwind fought blindly now, charging at the black who nimbly avoided the desperate iron grey. Tenual sank his teeth into the greys neck and shook him like a dog, beating him, punishing him.
His heart burned with cold fury, but he had no intention of killing the grey, he wouldn’t sink that low. Sinking his teeth into the grey flanks he felt Slickwind jump forward and he chased his opponent, keeping pace easily.
Suddenly he felt the ground change and he skidded to a halt uneasy. Slickwind kept on running into the stormy rain, then Tenual heard a shriek of terror and a scrabbling sound of hooves. His heart constricting he edged forward and as lightning flared overhead he saw the grey desperately clinging onto the side of a steep slope, but the ground, soaked by the torrential rain slid beneath Slickwind’s hooves and he screamed in fear as he fell, the ground falling with him, his scream was cut short and covered by the roaring of the rockslide. Tenual shivered, he hadn’t meant for this to happen. He skirted around the slope, easing himself down the lowest part of it, testing the ground for any sign of weakness before committing his weight to it. His hooves sank into mud at the bottom of the slope, but he had to find out, and pressed on.
He smelt blood long before he got there. Slickwind lay feebly kicking with his front feet, his spine broken and blood oozing from terrible gashes in his legs. The grey’s eyes rolled wildly, pain gripping him, and he looked up at the black with a pleading look.
“please….” He gasped “ I know… why you are angry…. with me… I’m sorry for what I did…please…just end it now..” he shuddered as his back legs thrashed with spasms.
Tenual regarded him and his heart felt tight. “I can never forgive you for what you did Slickwind. Had the stallions not come that time you would have killed me, you forced Rose against her will and you have done terrible things under Shovan’s orders.” His deep voice was controlled, soft, blending in with the wind and rain. “I never meant to kill you, just punish you, and yes you suffer now, but even you do not deserve this.” He dipped his horn to the greys throat. Slickwind’s eyes closed and his teeth clenched, then with one single thrust Tenual ended the grey’s life. His face twisted with pain for a second as his breath gurgled in his throat then he seemed to relax as his body slumped lifelessly.
Tenual stood over him, rain dripping down his mane and forelock. He felt empty somehow, he took no pleasure in what he had done, but neither did he feel guilty. Slickwind had nearly killed him before, twice, and he would have tried again had he known the black still lived. The rain intensified, and hammered his back, washing the blood from his coat and turning the puddles at his feet red. He lifted his head, savouring the pelting rain against his skin, washing the dirt and blood away. He wondered what had happened to the dappled colt he had caught a glimpse of, fleeing from the iron grey, and with a last glance at Slickwind’s battered body he made his way back the way he had come, hooves squelching in muddy puddles, his heart empty and his head low.