After Equestria: The Crystal War

   VIII

Alex

“So, you’re saying that, Discord spoke to you?” Iron Claw asked, skeptically.

Alex was at the top of the first Great Griffin Wall surrounding the Great Tree, where his friends Iron Claws was on guard duty. Iron Claw was a lean Hippogriff with rusty brown plumage, except for a spot on her chest which was white. The horse half of her was a slightly darker shade, a scar ran down the right side of her face and over her beak, just missing her eye.

“Yes,” Alex said uncomfortably, for he realized he had no proof to back up his claim.

  “You realize if old scar-face hears you saying that he’ll chuck you in jail for attempting to take the throne, right?” Iron Claws said, she was wearing golden armor with an iron spear strapped to her back, leaning against the one meter iron bars sticking out at the top of the wall as she said this.

“But I’m not trying to take the throne!” Alex cried, stomping his hoof and shaking his head in frustration

Iron Claw rolled her eyes, and then gaped in shock, dropping her spear. “W-what? That wasn’t there a minute ago how-?”

  “Hey, Iron Claw!” Someone called out; Alex turned around and spotted Storm swooping down right next to him. Storm was a sub-species of griffon known as a Sphinx- though not the kind in mythology, he didn’t have the head of a woman, instead he had the head and front body of a tiger and the back legs of a bird, and his wings were feathered but were covered in almost fur-like fuzz. “Yo, Alex what are you doing’ here? It’s your day off man, relax, kick back have some fun!”

  Alex sighed, “I was relaxing, but then I-“

  “Storm, you got to take a look at this!” Iron Claw said urgently, pulling Storm over to Alex’s right side.

  “Iron-“

“Shut it, Alex,” Iron Claw said, and then she turned to Storm. “There, you see it?”

  Storms expression went from unconcerned to flabbergasted in seconds, “WH-what freaking … how in Tartarus did that get there?!”

  “What is it?” Alex asked, confused and annoyed. “Well?”

   “Holy mother of Ales, you don’t think-?”

   “HEY!” Alex snapped, turned to face the two griffons. “Mind telling what so amazing about the side of my neck?”

  “Alex,” Iron Claws said slowly, as if revealing radical news to an ordinary fisherman. (This honestly happened a lot here) “You have the mark of Discord.”

~

“Bullcrap!”  Roared Astraios, leaping from his seat.

  Alex gulped nervously, glancing at Iron Claw, who looked ready to strangle the council Griffon.

But Astraios wasn’t done yet. “You expect me to believe that the Spirit of Chaos, the great Discord, would speak to you of all creatures?!” The Council members began to mutter and whisper amongst themselves.

   “And what is that supposed to mean?” Iron Claw asked, dangerously.

    Astraios scowled at Iron Claw distastefully. His brown coat was streaked with yellow and red as were his feathers, this gave him a strange peacock-like look, except ugly. “Humph! Who gave you the right to speak, half-breed?”  The Council erupted into yelling, profanity, and (unfortunately) some cheering. Iron Claw made a sound like a leopard growling and tried to charge at Astraios, only to be held back by Alex and Storm.

  “Clam the hell down, Iron Claw!” Storm said struggling to stop Iron Claw from murdering Astraios.

“‘Clam down?!’” Iron Claw snarled, “I’m gonna give this piece of filth what he deserves!”

  “It’s not worth it,” Alex said half-heartedly. He really wanted to see Astraios get what’s coming to him.

“ENOUGH!”

Everyone became silent. All of them faced the King, Aeolus; Lord of Winds.

Normally, the King was a sight to behold, silvery feathers on his front half, and then dark grey feathers on his back half, his beak was curved like a hook, his claws like knives, overall, king Aeolus stood tall, twice the size of a grizzle bear. But recently (in the last 500 years or so), the king had become terrible sick with no signs of recovery. No one knew why he’d gotten sick, or what kind of disease was affecting him, so the people came to a conclusion; the king was dying.

“Alex,” the king said weakly, “do you have any proof of your claim?”

“Yes, we do my lord,” Iron Claw said, grabbing Alex and turning him so that the right side of his neck faced the king. Gasps of shock and even yelps of fright echoed thought the room, and then the muttering started.

“Can that really be-?”

“No! It can’t possibly be his mark!”

“I think it might be …”

“Ridiculous!”

But then laughter cut through the tension in the air like a knife.

“Ha!”A Sphinx-Griffon at the corner of the room was chortling madly. “Oh, how truly hilarious!” The Sphinx had the head and front of a panther and the rear body and legs of a crow, giving a strange look, like a mutant or a freak of nature. Still chuckling and apparently undaunted by the looks of annoyance and anger thrown his way, the Sphinx wiped a tear from his eye.

After a moment or two of silence Astraios, who seemed remotely unamused spoke up; “and what, pray tell, is so funny? Or are simply mentally dim or drunk?”

“Astraios!” Aeolus snapped, before erupting into a coughing fit.

  “My lord, are you alright?” Astraios said, his outrage replaced by concern.

   “Yes-”cough“-I’m fine.”  Aeolus wheezed, he looked worse than ever and now a few feathers were falling off his coat and wings. “G-go on, Dionysus.”

His name’s Dionysus? As in the god of wine? Seriously? Alex thought, snickering softly, unfortunately Dionysus heard him, whipping his head in the direction of the sound he glared at Alex who looked away quickly, he wasn’t afraid of the old ass, he just didn’t need to get into more trouble.

Clearing his throat unnecessarily loudly, with a not so subtle sideways glare at Alex, Dionysus turned to face the other members of parliament. “This pegasus appears on our border while we’re at war, claiming to have no memory,” Dionysus put stress on that specific word with a skeptical sideways look at Alex. “And now he claims to bear the mark of Discord our most revered spirit, telling use to go to war right after we just won this war, doesn’t that seem … suspicious to you, lord Aeolus?”

“Not particularly,” Aeolus deadpanned. “You, Dionysus, you’re the son of Crius the first, former king of Magnus, son of Aegle the first griffon to discover the Laws of Magic, third queen of New Griffonstone. And yet, you share none of your ancestors qualities, you are a cowardly, faithless apóvli̱tos! You claim to find reason and sense in lordDiscords work? That is quite foolish, quite foolish indeed ..."

  Pin-drop silence followed the insult, no one dared to speak up in fear that the kings wrath would then turn to them.

“I call this council to order,” Aeolus said in the same stoic tone as before, he looked around the parliament, daring anyone to question him. “Now, what are your suggestions?”

  Aeolus went from one noble to the next listening to their point of views- most of them called for imprisonment or death not only to Alex but to Iron Claw and Storm Talon as well! And then he called a vote. “All those in favor of sending search-and-rescue parties to save the unicorn, Firestorm, raise your claws.” A few griffons-less than half of parliament- raised their claws. “All those in favor of banishment to Alex and?” Half of the griffons raised their claws. “Very well then,” Aeolus sighed. “Alex, Iron Claw and Storm of the Third Regiment, you are hereby banished from Magnus. You will have one week to pack your belongings and leave these lands … forever.”