//-------------------------------------------------------// A Traveller's Tale -by A Lonesome Writer- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Dawn //-------------------------------------------------------// Dawn Dawn    It was a normal day in these common fields of the vast Saddle Arabia, a chill, slow breeze with no clouds in the sky. A young foal was playing around with a small cloud in these fields while being watched by his father. The young colt was a small pegasus that would be seen as nine years old but looks a year older with a dark blue coat that reminded you of the night sky also with a scraggly cyan mane and bright crimson eyes. His father, looked almost similar to his son except he was a bat pony, and his mane was dark cyan and purple and a coat of the darkest blue, watching his son with his tired purple eyes. He is accompanied with a pregnant mare, a pegasus with the same eyes as the foal but had a coat the color tan and a mane colored white and different shades of gray to black.    "Night Strife, sweetie, it's time to go back home," the mare said with a calm and soothing voice. The young colt groaned in sadness and nods knowing he cannot say no. He gets up and destroys the cloud he was playing with and trots back to his mother.    "Aww mommy can't i stay any longer?" The young foal said to his mother. The mare sighed and had a small, quiet conversation with the father, which didn't last long and the stallion flew up into a small house nearby. The mother shook her head and the foal knew what was next. He followed to his mother to the house.    The house wasn't that much to compliment about, it was a normal two-story house painted with simple wooden furniture, the floor was also wooden while the walls were decorated with small photos of the three and some drawings that seemed to be created by a child. The mare walked inside with the foal and took him to his room. His room was decorated with books about stars and even more drawings and most were shown as stars and constellations. Night went inside his small room and sat on his bed thinking. He knew he always wanted a sibling and he also knew that he or she was coming soon. *///////////////////*    Three years have passed by since that day, and that young little foal we know as night has grown and has archived what many colts and fillies would want known as a cutie mark. The symbol was not his favorite of constellations but it was the constellation Orion, that showed his great passion for astrology. The boy now has not just read the astrology books but now looked at the books about the different creatures of the world and how they act.    He was reading a book about cutie marks while he found something very fascinating and strange. "A cutie mark is the mark on everypony gets that show their talent and their characteristic. The cutie mark is a part of the pony and will stay the same unless..." he read out. He already knew the beginning of the statement but the last of it was the most confusing of it all. "The cutie mark is part of the pony and will stay the same unless the cutie mark only means his or her talent. Rarely once the true characteristic of the pony is shown, the old cutie mark is changed to another mark that represents both the characteristic and talent. Wow..." He says in amazement of the sentences. He knew what a cutie mark was but that it can change? He bet that most ponies didn't even know about this and wanted to show his pony friends this new discovery he made.   "Strife it's time to take care of your sister right now." His mother called.   "Mom can't you do it?"   "Sorry but i have a meeting with the other teachers in the university, and your father is patroling the borders of the town. Don't worry I'll come back quickly so you can hang out with your little friends," The mare told her son.   The son sighed and nodded. "Alright mom i know you two have important things to do..." He said as he walked to his sister's room. His parents have been quite busy for a while with his mother working at the university and his dad protecting the town. He hardly sees his faster anymore but he likes his times with him. At times his father would teach him how to use wooden daggers to protect himself while his mother taught him all she known about their world.    Night opened his little sister's room to see it how it always is, toys scattered around and a crib on the left side with his sister usually and is, sleeping. His sister was born the month after that day and is almost three years old. He plays with her time to time, but she gets sleepy fast so it is usually a short play time. She has purple eyes and coat just like her father with a mane the color of purple and dark cyan on the tip of her hair and has freckles that their mother says is from her own mother.    After two or so hours, his mother came home and let him go run around with his friends. Night ran in joy to a small house owened by a young donkey named cranky doodle. Cranky was like an uncle to him and he used to take care of him as a foal. When he walked at the front of the house he found the donkey near a giant pack full of things. The donkey was with a small picutre in his back pocket. "Mister Doodle what do you doing?"    The donkey was surprised at this and jumped a little then turned to see night looking at him. He chuckled and told young Night , "hey you just made it in time, I'm about to leave the town."    "What?! Why are you leaving? It's not because of any mean ponies right?" He said in a saddened tone.    "Oh no it's not that. I'm leaving to go find a mare i love, she left and I'm going to find her. I'm sorry but I'm going." He said in a calm and achieving voice.    "Oh," he said looking down. "Well i guess this is goodbye mister doodle." He said as the middle aged donkey picked up the pack and out it on his back. The donkey waved goodbye and walked away from him. The colt smiles and tried to hide his tears.    Night walked back to his house right after that scene and told his mother the news. She had a small conversation with him to calm him down for the day, but that didn't help. He knew lots of things were going to A change that day but who would believe one colt? Night kept quiet for the rest of the day trying to find out what is going on. He tried and tried to find anything else strange about this normal town but it was too late, the young colt was too tired to go on. He got on his bed, went in his covers, and went in a comfortable sleep to wait for the next day. //-------------------------------------------------------// Morning //-------------------------------------------------------// Morning Morning    The chill midnight winds was calm and quiet in the small town. But the sight of night didn't say what the breeze said. A strange yellow red good emitted from the town, giving a horrible feeling to everyone to saw it even from a small distance. It's was easy to tell it was fire, but the trail the fire was going was going to cause trouble.    Night Strife was awoken by strange noises, not by any sort of noise he heard of. It seemed like it was the sort of pain and dispair that would remind him of the one time he went to the doctor, which was of course him complaining from shots he was given. But this one was different, it wasn't that the sound was different, or that it was loud enough to reach the whole house, but it was because he heard a group of other voices, male, that sounded like laughter. He started walking down the stairs and stopped when suddenly the loud noises he heard stopped. His curiosity made him walk to the sources of the noise but it wasn't a sight he has ever seen before.    What he saw wasn't a doctor or a shot, but a group of males, insect-like ponies with dark black coats and a glowing neon violet hair and eyes. They all had wings smilar to a insects wings and black horns with holes just like their arms and legs. They were all around his mother who looked like her soul was taken out of her then turned to see night. When she saw him her eyes were not eyes of horror, but her eyes slowly shrank with worry and her facial expressions were obvious but none bothered to notice.   One of these insect-like creatures said in a crackly and strange voice, "That was delicious! Wasn't it captain?" he said to the larger of the all. The larger one which night assumed was the captain said in a darker and spine chilling voice, "Yes it was...this mare had so much love to feed all of us, yet still have a bit left. Too bad we can't take anymore, the griffins said we cannot take any prizes with us and wanted to kill everypony and raid every house in this bloody village." He  signaled the whole group they ran out of the house.    Night ran to his mother as quickly as possible only to find her next to  dozens of their memorable belongings in a small bag. She got up slowly and talked in a weak quiet voice as she handed him the bag, "P-please night d-d-don't cry about me...just t-take y-your sister a-and run away a-as f-fast as you can, please..."    Night struggled to show his sadness and grabbed the bag. He quickly ran to the front door to check if anyone was outside but before he opened it the door slammed open to reveal two griffins looking like they were filled with bloodlust. Night tried to run away from the new attackers but one of them grabbed his neck with one of his claws making sure he couldn't escape. "We got two more what should we do with them?" The griffin said with a voice full of pride. Another griffin, but this one was with a lightweight armor that none of the others had on, said with a commanding and treacherous voice,"First you have to search the house then we'll do something about these foals."    Every griffin went off looking for valuables that would aid them in survival, but all they found were a couple weapons and food. "Hey sir we have another one!" One griffin said when he entered the room his mother was in. Every griffin went inside taking night and his sister with them.    "We searched the whole house captain, it had more weapons than most of these houses. Is this the right time to kill them?" Another griffin said.    "I guess you all have waited enough, you all just kill them and we will be off to the other house." The captain said walking out the front door.    Night was frozen in complete fear from these new creatures as they took him to his mother but still was holding his sister like it was for dear life. The griffin which took the young colt in the room put him on a chair tied him up. "Sir what now?" A griffin said.    "First kill the mother and check what she has." The bigger of the bunch spoke.    "But sir what about the two chi-"    "Let them watch. It's easier to get the older one out first before she attacks." The same griffin spoke back at one if the smaller griffin around him.    "Sir I'm sorry but these are small kids-    "I don't give a buck if they are kids, i said kill the mother unless you want to die with them" The large griffin said clawing the small griffin's left eye. The young griffin screamed in pain and tried to attack the largest one with his claw, but was too late to notice he already countered by using his claw to slit his throat. The poor griffin started to choke on his own blood and fell to the ground, trying to stop the wound from gushing out his dark, red, crimson blood.    "Anyone else want to join him?" The griffin spoke out alarming them to pull out their blades and point them at the mare. All started to stab each one of the mother's hooves and hands, while the son watched this happen.    Night started screaming in saddness and shock, "What are you doing? Stop hurting her! Please stop! She didn't do anything to you! Just please! I'll do anything just stop!" He kept on saying while he was crying rivers of tears while watching this event take place. He closed his sisters ears and covered her eyes when this happened. Stab after stab, the river of tears was getting bigger and his mother was screaming as loud as she could for help but none came. When the griffins finished, all dropped their weapons and just ripped her apart to shreds. From clothes, to skin, to fat, they kept going and threw around the organs in a sloppy fashion.    When they finished, all you could see was a corpse all mangled barely reconizable to a equine. By this time, night lost his voice from screaming too much and was shaking in fear to what would happen to him and his sister...