For an Untainted Dawn
Prologue
Reminiscence
The Griffon king sat alone, on a balcony near the top of the castle he had been residing in for many years, overlooking the city he ruled over, a stiff breeze blowing by. Watching as his people moved throughout the streets or flew through the air. He sighed, knowing that this could all end, the peacefulness of the recent years had made many forget of the terrible conflict raging throughout the world, not that he wanted to shatter their happiness. He didn't blame them for wanting to forget, he would want to also, if it were not for the fact that he couldn't leave the reason behind. He needed to stay firm in his belief, and those who followed him would also.
He threw a glance west-ward, towards the "Holy Celestial Empire", thinking about what he could do, while numbers would be on their side in the coming battle due to so many more ponies and other races opening their eyes to what he had seen all those years ago, they had much more power. A single pony being able to cast a such a powerful shield spell that could nearly stop an entire invasion? Unless the ponies started to arrive by the dozens every day, he needed a plan, something, he couldn't lose. He couldn't.
He turn back, looking in towards his room, thinking he could perhaps go for a leisurely flight, if there was any true deity, they would know he needed it. Getting up from his perch onto two legs, wings flared slightly to keep his balance better, he walked closer to the edge of where he was sitting. With a strong jump, he pushed himself into the air, wings snapping outward to catch the air. Tilting himself forward, so he wouldn't have to do much, merely converse the energy of his descent, he started to gain speed.
As he got lower, he increased his decline, speeding up even more-so, as he lowered, he directed himself towards the market district. There, the many types of creatures whom he strived to guide, busied themselves with their tasks that had to be done. Be it buying, or selling, there were things happening throughout the entire plaza. Some friendly by-goers, waved upward to him, whether they actually knew his true identity, he didn't care. Waving back as he passed by, he angled his flight path upward and started to coast to the outer limits of the city.
As he neared the edge, he closed his wings, allowing himself to start rapidly speeding towards the ground, closing his eyes, he merely took a deep breath. When it had almost seemed as if their king had attempted to take an easier way out, he reached the end of the city. The ground that he was speeding towards just moments ago was no long in his way. He continued to descend.
Turning his thoughts, inevitably, back to the war, he thought about how the tyrant Celestia, bended her subjects view of him and his goal. He had been made out as a blood thirsty menace merely out to expand his territory, this forced stereotype wasn't just put onto him, it was soon put onto his people, also. Being made into such a bad guy was slightly demoralizing, but if it meant for the better of the world. He would push through it, but he would not become the monster he had been painted as, he would find a way.
After he had been gliding along for quite some time, the sun had started to go down, with the stars coming out. Deciding he should start to return to his castle, his admittedly overzealous guards were probably having the worst panic attacks of their careers. Sparing one final look into the distance, he could see a shooting star. While he wasn't one for such things usually, he took a wish upon that star.
May we find the power to win this war.
Boredom, the bane of nearly every creature. But none such a potent poison to anything, or any one, than the spirit of Chaos. No, he wasn't a god, and he acknowledged that. He had been encased in a skin-tight tomb for quite a while now. He had been able to free himself after some time, but he would inevitably be returned.
Even when he was entombed in stone, he was still able to have influence, and watch the world around him.He was well aware of the war that had been occupying the face of this world. He wasn't quite sure which side he truly would support, but he knew without anything the Griffons wouldn't stand any chance in the long run. Not having any chance wasn't his style, deciding he needed to do something about it, he focused his thoughts onto what he could do to spice of the conflict.
It struck him, he would need a third party to join the fray, something that would... rotate the tables, per say. But he couldn't pull in an entire countries worth of anything in this state, so the one he pulled through would have be all that was needed. But what would be- it hit him again, he knew of the perfect race to bring into the fray, their natural abilities would turn the tables without making it a shoe in.
The only question now, was who exactly? He only had enough energy to bring in one, he didn't have enough energy to much else, nor would he be able to have any more influence for quite some time. There was only one way the spirit could decide. He wouldn't, he would purely pick at random. What better way to choose? While they were sure to have an uncomfortable beginning, he knew the race. When given proper motivation, they wouldn't stop until their cause was recognized. He just needed to get them to land near enough to the Griffon capital so it wouldn't freeze to death before it arrived.
This is going to be delicious, thought the pure unbridled mass of stone Chaos.
Author's Note
This is my first truly serious attempt at writing, I hope it wasn't TOO horrible for anyone, any criticism would be gladly received. I had been meaning to actually attempt writing before, but I was never able to truly get motivated to do so, if this isn't completely thrown into oblivion by everyone, I'll do my best to continue. If anyone sees anything that I messed up, just point it out, please.
The reason the city isn't really being all that described, is because the perspective we're getting this from, has seen it so many times he doesn't even really think about it, when we get to seeing it through someone who hasn't, we'll get the more detailed view of it.
It is Human in "Equestria", but we're going to see very little of it.
For an Untainted Dawn
Chapter 1
I don't know where I am
I'd like to say that this day had nothing abnormal about it, nothing at all, but that would be the farthest thing from the truth I could possibly say. I've been through anything as remotely far from the pattern of daily life I had so accustomed myself to. Waking up in a place I didn't know about was one thing, I had a few friends who would pull something like that. Waking up in an entirely different climate? That shouldn't happen. If this was somehow some machination of one of my friends, I'd have to congratulate them, I had to admit this was pretty impressive.
Then I'd have to punch them in the face for leaving me out here to freeze to death. If they didn't leave me my sweatshirt, I wouldn't have made it very long. I could see a few mountains in the distance, but they didn't give me any more information about where I was than I already had. They were placed sparsely - If you could describe mountain placement with that - around from what I could see. There seemed to be no method to the madness of the placement, which threw out any rules of how mountains formed that I had learned of. right out the window, then proceeded to exit the building and step all over them in pointy high-heels.
My first priority had been to get a fire going or something, there were a bunch of nearby trees, I had managed to rip off a few branches to get something burning under an alcove I had found to protect me from the heat-ripping wind.. Rubbing sticks together when you're losing feeling in your fingers isn't the nicest thing to have to do. I had seen some lights up near one of the mountains I think. I'm pretty sure that's where they are, but my friends aren't ones to really go out and climb a mountain, they must have had ride, however that works.
Hopefully they'll see my fire, and come back down to get me. I thought as I started to drift off, I know it wasn't the safest thing to do. But I put myself out of the wind, and I had a fire. I could probably spare a few hours to sleep, those branches were very high up and hard to get...
The feeling of something prodding my side with something disturbed me from my slumber, I guess they decided I had enough I thought stretching out. Upon doing so, I heard an something gasp, and scramble away. That was confusing, sitting straight up now, I tried to look over towards where I'd heard the scrambling, but my eyes were still blurry from sleeping. All I could see was some grey-ish blob a few feet away. The notion that it could be one of my friends was gone.
"What are you?" The grey blob inquires with a slightly feminine tone, I don't recognize the voice so something is even more wrong than I thought in the first place, the question doesn't help either.
"What am I?" I echo back. "Who're you? I woke up here and I don't know where I am, and I would like some answer." I question, starting to stand up, I had enough, I wanted to get back home and go back to my routine that was normality .
"I am Gwyndon Steeth of the Griffon Kingdom. and you are not supposed to be here. You haven't answered my question, what are you?" The voice was filled with caution, but firm. My vision was starting to clear up and was almost back to normal, and what I was hearing I was confused by, and my sight only added to the list. I was staring at something out of mythology. There was what could only be described as some sort of amalgamation between some sort of bird and a cat. With ashen-grey fur, and white feathers on her -what I presumed to be- head, they somehow curled upward near her... forehead? Into blue-tipped ones that looked reminiscent of hair on a person.
"I-I..." I stuttered unsure of what to make of the situation. If my friends were in on this, I would have to give them some sort of medal, but my hopes that they were behind this were slowly dwindling. "I'm... Charlie Kovach... I'm a human." I never thought I would have to make a statement like that. Certainly not to a cat-bird. Still in shock, I nearly jumped out of my skin when she spoke up.
"I've never heard of them, so you must be from pretty far out, are you some sort of refugee or a Seer? I can't believe how far this war is spreading, we just want to finish it." Now I was thoroughly worried. I had no clue where I was, and there was some war going on.
"War? With who?"
"You can't be serious." Gwyndon said incredulously, "What rock have you been living under... and if you don't know, then why are you here? We're in the middle of nowhere. I thought you might have been someone who finally realized the façade that the Tyrant has been pulling, and managed to get someone to tell you which direction to go."
That question didn't help much at all. "Tyrant? I'm truly lost and confused, not to mention cold, can we please get some heat?" I said rubbing my hands together trying to get the cold out of them.
"I... suppose I could take you to a check in station and then take you to the city, but you're still suspicious, instead of just the routine entry, you're going to have to submit to a mem-check."
"A mem-what?" Will the questions ever end?
"Memory check," She elaborated. "I'll carry you to the nearest one, come on." She said, getting up and stretching her wings, which I had previously not noticed.
There were multiple things wrong with that. She didn't look nearly strong enough to carry me, and I absolutely hated heights. Voicing my feelings of this, she merely smiled evily, and rushed up grabbing onto my wrist with a hand... claw? She started dragging me outwards from the alcove that I had found myself.
"Let's go!" She semi-shouted. She had gotten me outside, and seemed to be enjoying the fact that I was starting to go into a panic because of how much I didn't like getting off of the ground.
"Let's not!" I shouted back. When we were both outside, she pushed me forward a little, then when I was recovering from my stumble, she grabbed me under the arms and pulled me off of the ground.
"Come on, Charlie, you've never flown at all?"
"And I had planned to keep it that way!" I replied, trying to get a firmer grip onto her, as we ascended higher and higher. All she did was laugh and keep ascending. After some time of panicking, I was starting to calm down, but still wasn't enjoying any second of it. Starting to look around, I realized how beautiful the surrounding area was, the snow covered mountains reflecting the light of the sunset all around, the near entirely undisturbed snow doing so also, made for quite a sight. Feeling her angle herself towards.. Yeah, that was a tower. I guess that would be where we were heading, looking more closely, I could see a few more spaced throughout the climb up the mountain with a cluster placed at the top, until they reached the most amazing thing.
A city was floating about the top of the mountain, it was defying any law of physics that I knew, and just seemed so impossible that I was just awestruck and couldn't even form any words. It looked as if the entire city had been ripped right out of the ground, then suspended in mid-air.
"It's something, isn't it?" Gwyndon said, pulling my attention upwards towards her, trying to get a better view, but I couldn't get a good look at her face so I resumed looking at the impossible city. As we were getting closer to one of the towers near the base of the mountain she started to decline in height, "But you're not going anywhere until we get you cleared."
Author's Note
Not as good as I would want it to be, but since this is my first ever true attempt at writing, it's not going to be perfect until I truly find my rhythm. It wasn't out as soon as I would have wished it would be, but at least I'm managing to stick with it more than I was anything else.
I won't be really working on this story this weekend since I've got a few things that need attention, but I'll do my best to squeeze in a little writing, As soon as summer starts I'll be hopefully putting them out at a faster pace.
The names were pretty much the hardest part, I was struggling to come up with something "Griffon" sounding but I think I didn't have anything that horrible, for the humans name I just picked a first name that I had never seen in a story on here, and slapped on two random syllables, Kov-atch.
If you notice anything I messed up with, just point it out and I'll fix it, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.
