Midday

Smoke. Smoke rose from the horizon, which was odd considering how this place didn't ad anything resembling to firm land. Just clouds and blue, mixed with the chunks of everything that could have been a fickle illusion of dry land so long ago. The rest was sky, endless and boundless… And smoke.

     The day had never been clearer, it was always day in Skyland, the wind had never been softer, and yet the smell of burnt things reached her nose within minutes, with the same intensity as if it were right there where bodies were being put to the flame.

     What really woke her up, though, was when she felt the smell of iron an steel. The day was shining outside and the sky was still clear, but either way she knew that today was going to be different. Outside of her shack sunlight entered through the window, along with the stench of the fire, but, strangely, everything she could smell were iron and steel. Metal craft. Something cutting through flesh with unnatural purpose. She found it odd at first, because there wasn't any sign that they were outside, but yet there was a mute sensation in the air, like some kind of unknown terror that had snapped her out of her dreams by force. Something was going to happen. She could feel it.

     What really could be happening was that the battle was drawing nearer. Dangerously nearer again. Just as near as it always had been. As she'd always known.

     She sighed and got out of bed. The day's heat, already oppressive, was starting to become unbearable because of the flames. Like if the tongues of fire were carrying their scorching scent with them towards the town. Through the four walls of her humble abode, that heat was licking inside like the rain whenever it hit them. Strange, that something like that could happen… But it wasn't time to ponder about the structure for a thousand time. They were under attack. For a moment the drowsiness of her thoughts made her forget that outside the smoke had become so thick as to obscure the sun.

     New exclamations reached her ears, along with strange noises from the outside. Even though she couldn't make out most of it, the phrases and exclamations of the townsfolk she was able to hear as they flew around were enough to let her know what was happening.

"They're at the Plough's plantation! They're killing everypony back there!" cried a mare.

"Gather everything you can, you must evacuate this place before they come here!" shouted another, probably a guard.

"Oh sweet Angel please protect me! I don't wanna die!"

     More shouts came from the outside, but she dismissed them after that. It hadn't been different since she could recall, and all of those ponies hadn't been nothing else to her than terrible people. Always calling her demon, or marked child because of her colored mane. At first it was just the adults, but after a point even the other fillies, when there were other fillies, started to push her away. Just because she had something different; the one single characteristics that, according to the last town preacher, made her like them… Before he was left behind in their last settlement as well.

     But that was history now. The fire and the screams, on the other hoof… Something broke through the walls. The wood suddenly snapped and crashed, and the structure collapsed, making a  sound as it bent more than it was allowed to. She immediately fell to the ground, covering her head until she realized it hadn't been her house the one that had been crushed, but the neighbor's.

     She got up again, just as the screeching sound of a mare's cry reaped the air. In the distance, another house bent and snapped accompanied by the frantic voices that suddenly rose from the window. She tried to reach for the door, but before she knew something hit the ground with tremendous strength, making it shake and her to reconsider her initial intentions.

     The screams got higher, this time not only letting away fear, but panic. The sole feeling that had unexpectedly engulfed all the others in the world. More impacts around the house made the earth shake until she tripped again. The smell of metal was now one mixed with a warm sensation. Something liquid was zipping from her mind, over a stained surface upon which danced the lights of a thousand fires. What was happening to her? She felt that taste in her mouth, and into her head. Something was filling her. Quiet at first, but constantly growing as it made itself be heard by her conscience. Some mad desire to storm outside and be part of whatever was happening behind those walls. As soon as she got up again she stepped away from the door. Something suddenly was heard outside.

"Run! They're here! They're…"

     The scream suddenly choked, and more indescribable noises filled the air. Just as she reached her bed again, some cold sensation started to grow in her stomach, and every nerve o herself began to feel a mesmerizing wave, like a long lost tension that was returning to her body. Some part of her now wanted for everypony else to get killed, but another wished that they wouldn't know better. It was difficult to stand an opinion, but after all she and her father just had about enough from the others to start questioning wether if it would be good to remain on their side or not-

     That fire again. A bewildering sensation to be one with the outside, to burst out from those doors and revel in everything that was happening. It was almost a physical need. Her heart was burning, and it was demanding her to be outside, to know what was happening, to be with them…

     Something hit upon the door. The wooden plank that served as the entrance shook and bounced back with the sudden pressure that was put to it. By that moment she had already hid under the bed. Another strike, this time twice as hard, that combed the wooden piece to the inside. She tried with all her strength not to cry, but when another blow toppled down the door she found herself not only fighting against her body to remain stealth, but her anxiety, that had risen again, and was shouting in her mind to fight. The trespasser stepped inside, the plates of armor clicking while they moved against each other.

     The unknown stranger was walking towards her bunk bed. She waited while the hooves of the invader clopped on the ground. The fire within her was starting to light again, telling her to step up and kill whatever was inside her home or die in the intent. Her tendons readied for the leap, and her vision narrowed. At any moment he would be stepping before her sight and then-

"Wind?" the voice broke through like a plea. A desperate call from a stallion's voice that she instinctually recognized. Wind? "Wind Song, where are you!?"

"Dad?" she came out of her hiding place, her flame suddenly extinguished. "What's going o-"

     But before she gave a step her father’s legs had already wrapped around her.

"Child thank Angel you're fine!" he exclaimed, then broke away. "Come on, we need to go, NOW!"

     She ended up a few steps away from him, and in that single moment, the reality of her existence dawned on her. She wasn't her… Or the one she thought she was. A pair of wild eyes instead, two powerful wings at her sides, and a large-wild mane in the pattern of colors of the rainbow shone over the armor of the stallion that had brought her to life. She wasn't anything at all like the self she remembered, even the one that she imagined. If that was the image she had given to the world it wasn't strange that they considered her something along the lines of a demon!

     But wether great or not was the impression in her, it was only a second, and after that the reality that surrounded her came once again into action, this time evolving her with a more vivid volley of sensations. More screams and sounds of battle reached her ears again, and outside, the light of the sun had turned into a shade of brown and red. Like if a stain of blood had watered the sky.

"Get your saddlebags, we're flying back to Thundercloud keep" he continued as he reached the door and peeked outside. "…Let's hope the fifth cohort is still standing."

     She, or Windsong, as she was her actual self, had already clad her bags, and was about to head for her father when something else breached into the shack. A sound that her ears recognized all too late before disgrace struck completely. The terrible whistle that announced, barely seconds away, that a physical body was flying straight to their home, ready to smash it.

     Her father, who had the time to hear it too, was only able to turn and reflect in his face all the fear that had been lighting inside him, that now had turned to panic.

"Windsong, dodge-"

     But he wasn't able to finish when something suddenly crushed the ceiling, and tumbled down the wall, creating a huge crackling sound as fire and smoke followed the projectile inside their home. Windsong flew across the room and hit the opposite wall with such strength that she found it odd not to break it down as well. The filly fell to the ground, with her head spinning and her ribs and wings aching as if she'd broken them, but she was able to put herself in her fours before her mind could asses the situation.

     Before her, everything that her sight could see had been covered in blackness and fire. Smoke and flames were rising at the time they were slowly eating the flammable materials of her shack. There was no sign of her father or the thing that had caused such destruction.

"Dad?" she called, but immediately regret it for the cough that the smoke caused her. "Father, where are you!?"

     She immediately set for his search, but couldn't give more than two steps forward before stumbling into a trunk, that had been part of the ceiling. Windsong tripped with her face first, and fell right into the material that once had covered her from the sky, which now reeked of burning things. She pulled away again, coughing as she had swallowed all the smoke that thing was emanating. There was no sign of her father anywhere.

"DAAAAD!!!" she shrieked when the fear began to take hold.

     A sudden movement was her answer, as something beneath the debris of the house began to move, setting aside beams as it rose.

"Dad?" she turned, hoping to fin him… And muted.

     The creature that had stood up wasn't her father, it wasn't even equine. Standing on its fours, the beast rose from the fire it had caused, far taller than any pony she had

seen, and spread her wings. Colossal bat-shaped wings eclipsed her sight, and in the middle of them, two eyes glowed in the center of a horned-shaped head. At the back of it, a large mane trailed from the pinnacle of the creature almost to its legs.

     Windsong stepped back in dizziness that its sight had caused to her, and releasing a grasp of terror and fascination she stumbled back with the corner of the room that she had impacted upon. The monster, upon hearing the thud of her head against the beams turned its terrible sight to her, and its eyes glowed in the fire with a wilderness that was beyond her comprehension… And yet… All the more known.

     The creature focused its attention on her, and snorted with fury. Windsong's heart beat at the speed of a furious drum. The creature started to narrow its distance between them, those eyes glowing more feral as they left behind the curtain of smoke. Windsong wanted to run, to fly away, despite all her guts yelled her to face that wretched monster. In the end the creature got passed the window that represented her only point of retreat, and then stood before her still shrouded in shadows. There was nowhere to run now.

     Windsong wanted to scream, but in that moment her lungs closed up, and the only breath that was allowed to be let out was that of a low, almost animal-like growl. The creature stood before her, staring at the filly with an intimidating and indecipherable look, but nothing more. Something suddenly had stopped it. Windsong had readied to sell her life costly, but at that moment her conscience began to regain control. Even started to see that creature… Different. It hadn't attacked her. It was just standing, staring at her with something in those eyes that she couldn't understand, and yet felt like it was something that they had in common. Almost as if they were-

"YAAAAGH!!!"

     The battle cry of her father suddenly broke through the air, and with a leap attack the pegasus appeared from behind the creature. The monster, anticipating him, quickly dodged and let the pegasus pass her. Her father landed aside from the creature, but he hadn't lost his momentum, and in an instant was attacking again. The creature flapped its wings and stood in two legs, revealing while it did the shine of a sword's blade, swung at him. The pegasus dodged the blade as well, and differently from his opponent, he seised the space between them to charge, tackling the creature and tearing a hole in the wall as they engaged in struggle.

     Windsong watched everything, frozen in her place, and only when the two of them bounced out of the shack she snapped. Quickly she ran to the breach in the wall to see the two opponents trying to win the other, the creature pushing to get on top, and her father pressing from outside its grip not to get caught by its force. Both of them circled through the dirt and grass, tearing apart pieces of ground as they went back and forth in their melee.

     A whirl of emotions went through her. On one side she wanted her father to live, but on the other, that being, the one that was trying decapitate him, why didn't it attack her? Even though their kinds were at war she hadn't have the chance to see one up close, and even though she'd seen in more than one occasion the destruction that they had caused to her people, something still seemed to be attractive about them. Maybe, if she'd listen to the fire within her…

     But her father took that decision for her, and seizing an opening in the creature's guard, he entered sword first into the guts of the beast. The creature, feeling the blade pierce its skin, didn't yell, or growl, or moved in any way by the pain that the weapon was causing inside its body. It just seised the moment as well to send a punch straight at the pegasus' face, and with a mighty blow separated each other again.

     Her father flew backwards and landed on the ground, a few yards away, but recovered and got back up again. The creature, staring at him with inequine hatred, remained on its fours with the point of the blade sticking out of its silhouette, the handle surely being stuck in its entrails. The pegasus, who didn't had any other weapons, didn't had anything to do but stare frightened at his foe, who was limping in his direction. Windsong stared at this with her mouth quite open. It seemed as if the creature hadn't received any damage, and form its facial features that she could discern, pain wasn't peeking from none. For a moment she wondered how could anything alive was able to still be walking with that kind of wound, but her uncertainty wouldn't last, and the enemy, apparently exhausted from the wound, finally fave up its stance and fell to the ground, not moving anymore.