Blood and Sunfire

---------------------------------------------------Chapter 4---------------------------------------------------

Your Unwavering Allegiance

King Sky-Render’s personal quarters were rather spacious, expertly crafted and furnished. Every accessory in the room was made from cloud stable materials, no enchanting necessary. Bookshelves lined the cloud-stone walls and furniture placed neatly, if rather scattered, around the area. Three columns stood to the front of the room acting as the entrance to an open balcony. Several chairs and a long couch were placed around a center table of glass and pewter. Several more chairs and another couch were placed along the back wall with yet more tables for a party’s convenience completed what was King Sky-Render’s Study.

The room was brilliantly lit by a chandelier, and rather cold due to being exposed to the southern night air. All was peaceful, the air flowing gently around the columns, the occasional far off shout somewhere in the city from midnight drills, and even the owls that dared roost so high in the clouds would hoot softly from places unknown.

A calm night, a beautiful night... so rudely interrupted.

“My Lord! My Lord wait... if we do manage to take Cloudsdale, what then?” Came a cry from outside the door.

“What do you mean you impudent fool? We kill them all, that’s what!” The harsh response called.

The door was suddenly flung open to reveal the King himself strolling through followed by four of the more “important” council members. Sky-Render was infuriated to put it mildly. The Gryphons had refused his call to arms and withdrew their leaders back to the Aerie-States. His face was crimson from his bottled rage; anypony who saw him would never have known his coat was a steel-grey. They didn't need the Aerie-State’s help; even without the Gryphons they could still annihilate the nation of “dirt-lickers” that so foolishly opposed them.

Councilman Noble-Flare took an unopposed seat upon the main couch, while Greagoir and Cloudhoof rested themselves on the adjacent chairs. Mist-Charger remained standing and staring at the King with a look of concern.

“Three hundred is far too few to use against their numbers, and the levies of Atmos no less!” Mist-Charger cried. He paced back and forth waiting for the King to respond or even acknowledge that he was there.

“Their forces are spread thin. We simply need to push on through with the warriors we have and then reinforce them when they’ve sacked Cloudsdale,” Cloudhoof uttered through a mouth full of lettuce. He was one of the younger members of the Council.

The seated councilmen were busy eating the contents of the table’s tray. A fine assortment of vegetables and fruits was laid out to entertain guests. The others wasted no time devouring as much as they possibly could before anypony else got their hooves on the snackage. They were each Sky-Render’s greatest allies in the Council, representatives and leaders of some of the more wealthy city-states.

Sky-Render stamped out to his balcony and took in the sight of Dragonmaw. He watched as his soldiers marched about the streets and fought viciously in their training yards. His legions were the pride of the pegasi, well equipped as they stormed the skies and let loose hell down upon the earthbound. Part of him wanted to gut Bright personally, to send Dragonmaw first instead of Atmos, but the Council decided it was in their best interests not to waste any prime soldiers on rebels. A levy would not last against a well trained warrior for long; luckily, Atmos was bringing to bear something that Cloudsdale could not. Accompanying the warbands was a unit of donated siege machinery. Several years ago the Gryphons had shared their renowned ballistas with the pegasi, and now Atmos finally found the chance to bring them to bear. This should make their withdrawal rather ironic, Sky-Render thought.

The machines were a rather late addition. They propelled spears up to a hundred yards and could skewer anypony who was unlucky enough to be targeted. With those contraptions, even the Atmos levies could hope to defeat Hurricane’s rebels. After he was done reassuring himself of their success, he returned to the inner area of the study. Mist-Charger had even finally taken a seat near the others and waited attentively for the next part of the King’s tirade. Sky-Render stood before the others and made for one final show of confidence.

“Yes... they engage in just a few days, and by that time Cloudsdale will fall!” His eyes were wide with excitement and he shook a hoof as if to drive away flies.

“For the Pantheon!” He shouted.

“For the Pantheon!” The others chimed their response and leaned forward.

They began to relax again when a sound was heard. Something of a quiet laugh, hardly audible, but yet so noticeable. It echoed around the room and penetrated their very bodies. Sky-Render looked around but could find nothing, not a shadow out of place to show that somepony was spying on them. The party cautiously got to their hooves and inspected the room as well. Their search revealed absolutely nothing out of place but the gathering dust of the bookshelves.

“You all heard that, correct?” Noble-Flare asked with a certain edge to his voice.

“Whatever it was, I suppose it doesn’t matter,” Cloudhoof replied and then casually returned to his seat.

None of them seemed to notice that the chandelier began to dim, casting rather malicious shadows across the study. The shadows themselves did not stay the same, they twisted and turned, providing a new image every time. It was only when the room grew even darker that Greagoir saw. The shadows began to shift more quickly, forming odd images. At first it seemed like a conflict, the shadows danced and formed figures of ponies struggling with each other. Afterwards, an image of what could only be described as monsters and faces, cast evil glares through the dim enchanted candlelight. The images froze and slowly began to disappear, the light in the room returning to normal.

Noble-Flare was already reaching for his weapon, a bladed horseshoe. The others seemed to follow suit, not sure of what would come next. After several minutes of an unnatural silence and tensed muscles, another laugh was heard. This time it was much louder, echoing like rock upon rock, bouncing around the room. The feeling in Sky-Render could only be explained as an intense unease; his senses failed him until his body was simply unresponsive. Greagoir seemed to sweat and look around cautiously.

The shadows shifted once more and instead of a moving image, a still symbol seemed to thrust itself into existence below the chandelier. A star it was, eight very gruesome-looking points protruding from the center. Even with all of the room’s shadows focused to one point, it was still noticeably darker outside of the chandeliers range. The laughing ceased to give way to a new sound: a scraping noise like that of an earth-bound serpent as it slithers along the ground. Sky-Render turned slowly to see what greeted him.

...Nothing.

He relaxed, letting out a sigh and lowering his weapon. He resolved to blame the occurrence on unicorn magic then and there.

“Hello!” Cried a voice directly next to his ear.

Sky-Render jumped forward, turning over a chair in the process. The others whipped their heads to meet the sight that awaited them and let their jaws drop. A... thing hung from the ceiling, even more disturbingly it hung from nothing on the ceiling. The creature’s serpentine body was coiled together above them, and there it stayed, seemingly defying gravity. Its arms and legs were crossed and it swivelled its head around to see them. The creatures limbs did not match; nor did its horns, and from the snout was sported a single long and very sharp fang.

“I must say I’m absolutely ecstatic to meet you all!” The creature spoke with a curiously high-pitched voice.

The thing let its body drop to the floor. Its head never seemed to move from the action. The others seemed far less frightened and instead more confused now. Sky-Render rose from behind his cover carefully and looked at the sight, what he saw elicited a short gasp of breath. The creature turned its focus to the King once more and gave a wide toothy grin, its fang jutting out from the smile wickedly. It seemed to slither towards him... through the air.

“Get back creature!” Sky-Render shouted while lifting his bladed hoof, poised to strike. The creature’s grin dropped and it leveled its eyes at Sky-Render, in clear disinterest.

“How rude... I most certainly am not a creature... I am a being,” It said as it waved around one of its taloned fingers.

Sky-Render was taken aback for a moment. This thing was insulting his manners inside his own study, after it blatantly ambushed him and every other councilman in the room. Cloudhoof appeared ready to speak and forced himself forward.

“Well... what are you then?” The boy asked.

The thing lifted itself into the air and floated towards him... upside down? When it got close enough it began to coil the lower part of its body around the frightened councilman. It lifted its pawed hand to its chin as if in contemplation and uttered a loud sigh. Suddenly its face contorted into an unsettling grin and it continued to wrap itself around Cloudhoof. When its head was level with his ear the thing spoke again.

“A creature.”

It was toying with them, that much was obvious to Sky-Render. He didn’t like it one bit. He mustered his courage and marched out into the center of the room. His face was filled with rage and determination, and he growled as he spoke.

“Why have you come here? You invade my own quarters and terrorize my fellow politicians!” He roared.

“Tell me why we should not simply end your life now and throw your body off of the city?”

“That’s the spirit!” It replied in a sing song voice. Sky-Render held his tongue, finding his mind devoid of retorts as he watched whatever it was wrap itself around Cloudhoof.

The thing coiled tighter. “I’ve been watching you squabble for some time. What fun it’s been!” The laughter echoed from the recesses of  Sky-Render’s subconscious. It frowned now, twisting itself closer and closer to a squirming Cloudhoof.

“But your friends on the ground and the traitor pegasi, they want to spoil my fun.” It tutted. “And I wouldn’t want that to happen, now would I?”

Cloudhoof appeared ready to burst into hysterics. Greagoir and Noble-Flare were petrified; Sky-Render found himself hanging on the creature’s every syllable.

The grotesque head turned slowly to a terrified Cloudhoof.

“I think the time for games has passed, my friend!” It announced. The poor councilman squealed, and the beast  unwrapped itself from its victim, laughing. Mist-Charger collapsed on the floor.

Sky-Render fixed the creature with a cautious glare and calmed his nerves. It still had not fully revealed why it was there in the first place. The thing glanced at the fainted Mist-Charger, then made what might have passed for a shrug. Returning his gaze to Sky-Render, it spoke in what Sky-Render guessed was a sly whisper.

“I’m called Discord,” It said with a content smile.

“And I have a proposition for you.”

Sky-Render jumped at that statement and readied his weapon yet again. He did not deal with monsters, especially when they break into his home and terrify his subjects. He figured that any deal this creature would try to make would surely be filled with trickery and deceit. This creature, this Discord, was no doubt damned by the Pantheon, and he had no interest in being involved with one such as it. Steeling himself, he prepared for a confrontation should he agitate the creature too much. He fueled his next words with as much courage and fire as he could currently muster.

“I will not deal with one such as you daemon! Be gone from my city!”

“What... you don’t even want to hear my unusually generous offer?” It fixed Sky-Render with another bored gaze.

“I was going to offer you Commander Hurricane’s head on a platter... a wooden platter that is, silver is just used too often it gets rather boring,” It stretched the last word out as if it were a curse.

This got Sky-Render’s attention for a time, but a promising offer or not, he still didn’t trust this Discord. During his moment of contemplation, Discord took to circling around the room, hovering while seemingly laying on its serpentine back. It served to provide an excellent distraction to Sky-Render’s train of thought and only provoked him further.

“You say you can give me Hurricane... but what is it that you want in return?” Sky-Render barked.

“Well I’ll be blunt with you if you really want me to be,” It said while rolling its eyes... in opposite directions.

“Your total allegiance and the desecration of that ridiculous Pantheon you love so much. For you see, we don’t have room for false gods and fairy-tales.”

Noble-Flare and Greagoir opened their mouths in shock and looked to their King. Sky-Render was baring his teeth and barely suppressing the urge to attack the creature on the spot.

“Leave now!” Sky-Render shouted.

“I will accept no deal with the likes of you!”

The Discord sneered and floated closer to him. He halted mere inches from his face and chuckled. “Not even if I asked nicely?” It asked while drawing its head back and readying its arms for a hug.

When several seconds of silence passed the Discord backed away and dropped his pathetic gesture. Sky-Render was beginning to lose his patience with it.

“Fine, but a few words of warning,” It said while waving its taloned hand.

“Hurricane and her soldiers fly under a different element entirely, whether they know it yet or not the clouds are no longer their home.”

Sky-Render huffed and responded with indignation practically dripping from his words. “That’s it? That’s all you have to tell me?”

“No there is one more thing. This is not the last time we will see each other; I will come again in a few days to make the same oh so generous offer,” It said with what passed for a mocking expression.

Before Sky-Render could respond the creature was gone, and the room reverted back to its original state. Noble-Flare and Greagoir whipped their heads around trying to find any remaining trace of the monster, but it seemed that even the chair that Sky-Render had overturned in his search for cover was upright once more. Cloudhoof was shakily getting back to his hooves, and Mist-Charger was still out cold on the floor. Sky-Render looked down at the Councilman in disgust and prodded him forcefully with his weapon until he woke up.

“Get up you fool!” Shouted Sky-Render.

Mist-Charger obliged after about the fourth prod, and rose to a state of attention as if he were a younger stallion back in training. The King turned his attention to the tray of food, where once was leftover shreds of lettuce, was instead a pile of neatly stacked chocolate chip cookies and a note.

‘Love Uncle Discord’

Sky-Render growled furiously and grabbed the tray. Trotting to the balcony he threw the pastries out into the city, a clattering noise and a responding yelp from a guardspony filled the night air.

“My lord?” Called Noble-Flare.

“What should we do?”

He took a few moments to breath deeply and regain his composure before cantering back into the study. Fixing the councilman with an even gaze and a forced smile he issued his response.

“Prepare for battle.”