Red Sky At Dawn

Red Sky At Dawn.

Spinoff of Steadfast Sky.

Chapter 8: A Dark Purpose

The head illuminator sat alone in the darkened library, his head deep in a book on the elements of harmony.

Or rather, another topic surrounding the elements, and one that turned his blood colder and colder with every sentence, the old pony's eyes steadily growing wider in time to the words.

At last, he finished reading and looked up at his dark surroundings, his breath fast and panicked. After a moment of thought, the old pony rose and bolted from the room to gather the other illuminators.

The page he had finished reading was an age old prophecy, regarding a fallen star, a weakened orphan, a lost soul and a torn parasite.

No to mention of course, the group's leader, an unfulfilled dreamer. Surely, the prophecy couldn't be speaking of... but there was a chance, a painfully large chance.

The prophecy's title?

The second bringers of apocalypse.

Crisis

Tracking was harder than it looked... Much harder in fact! I had been flown roughly near where the assassins were last seen, then abandoned with orders to return after killing them.

The terrain was rough and wild, with pine needles littering the hard ground. For the thousandth time, I felt like giving up and returning home, only to remember Serenity. She was imprisoned, and endangered.

If I gave up now, then she'd end up paying for it, and that was an idea that didn't bear thinking abo...

I stopped, looking carefully at something on the ground ahead of me, a tiny indent in the grass. A footprint, or in this case, hoofprint. It was small, so maybe it had been left behind by a foal.

A foal? My mind returned to the toy we'd found in the element chamber and suddenly I began to connect the dots.

These assassins were the elements of harmony! Why hadn't I seen it before now, it had to be them! So to make matters even worse, in order to save Serenity I'd have to kill the only ones capable of defeating the shadow stallion...

I realised that while these thoughts had been circling my processor, I had been absentmindedly following the hoofprints across the bitter terrain. From where I stood, I could see vast mountains stretching across the landscape. I could also see something else, something completely out of place, perched upon the mountain edge.

A pink citadel, shining radiance across the mountain range. It seemed to lack the misery and loneliness of the previous locations, surprising me. How could such a bright frivolous city exist in a place like this? At least I knew one thing...

Where my targets were.

Serenity

Here we were, Mulbry and I sitting in a derelict house, alongside her comrades. The fellow rebels had gathered around a fire, and after introductions, they told me the story of their escape. I couldn't believe it, it couldn't be true!

"But that can't be!" I protested. "Crisis was with us!"

Stoke, the obvious though undeclared leader, raised an eyebrow. "You know of Crisis?"

"We are good friends! He was captured and taken away by the guards! Are you telling me that he was taken here?"

"Yes. Like I said, he helped us escape."

I sat alongside the fire, thinking furiously. How could that be possible? Crisis had been with us the whole time!

Except... he hadn't really been with us at all...

The Biomech was kinder, more open and much less confident. Was it really Crisis? My thoughts were interrupted by Blaze, who was on guard watch, peering through the window.

"Griffins!" the orange colt hissed, and we stopped talking, the four of us keeping perfectly still until Blaze nodded.

"All gone!"

Stoke continued to speak. "I'm sorry though Serenity. I'm afraid that Crisis is... dead."

"Dead!" I exclaimed aghast.

"He was mauled to death by one of the Shadow Stallion's creatures. Nothing could have survived that."

I sat still in shock, eyes wide and mouth half open. The Crisis that had been killed... was it the real Crisis? Where was the fake one now, with Astral and...

"Zee!" I cried aloud, making Mulbry and Blaze jump. In all the commotion of my capture, I had forgotten about my friends! Had they been captured, and if so were they bought here?

"Are you okay Serenity?" Stoke asked, his voice concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied, my mind still on Astral, Zee and Crisis. Call it intuition, but I had a feeling that Crisis wasn't dead. He seemed too confident to die unnoticed!

What bothered me more was the timing of events. The rebels had escaped with Crisis a day after he returned to us. There was no window!

Thoughts of capture and fake friends circled mind as the others talked late into the night.

There was no moon in the night sky.

Only cloud. Oppressive cloud.

Zee

We had been walking for hours, and my feet were starting to hurt! "Astral..." I moaned. She sighed, and looked back at me, for I was trailing behind.

"Tired." I announced.

"We're nearly at a city." she replied, continuing to walk.

"But I can't walk any further!" I exclaimed dramatically. "My legs might vanish from tiredness!"

The statement bought a giggle from Astral, who raised an eyebrow. "Vanish from tiredness?"

"Well if they won't, my tummy might!" I cried, my tummy growling in agreement.

"But we just ate an hour ago!"

"But that was a whole hour ago!" I protested.

She stopped, allowing me to catch up, and pointed to a town ahead. "Think you can wait till then?"

"I guess..."

Astral frowned at me. "You're always hungry Zee."

I shrugged, and my tummy rumbled again, prompting another giggle from Astral.

I was always hungry, because my stomach was always hungry!

As we reached the town, Astral suddenly stopped dead, and pointed into the opening street. There were no Shadow Stallion banners here! But there was something worse...

Everypony in the village seemed to be thin and weak, walking shakily through the desolate streets or, in some cases, lying upon the scuffed road. I looked to Astral for reassurance, but she continued to stare at the malnourished ponies.

"Astral?"

Eventually, she spoke, her voice uncertain. "Let's... just get some food and go. I don't like this place..."

As it turned out, getting food here was going to be hard!

Real hard!

Astral

"Are you kidding girl!?" roared the shopkeeper. "Don't you know what's going on here? Unless you got ration stamps, you ain't getting no food!"

"But sir!" I protested desperately, "I've only got money! I'm not from this town!"

The shopkeeper snorted in disgust. "We ain't got enough to feed our own people, let alone outsiders! Get outa here!"

"Fine!" I yelled childishly at him, before grabbing Zee's hoof, and dragging him from the shop. What was going on here? Why was there rationing? Surely the surrounding fields could provide food enough for everypony!

We paused in the town square, and that's when I saw it, sitting dead centre of the courtyard, ignored by the passing ponied. A beautifully carved statue, intrinsic detail worked into the stone and a lifelike look upon it's body. What! How did that work?!! We were nowhere near a tomb of harmony, besides...

The statue wasn't of an Alicorn. A painfully thin earth pony stood, eyes pointed skyward and a look of intense suffering upon his face. I rushed closed for a better look, pulling Zee with me. My master had misplaced a statue! His studies had concocted an error in the placement of the tombs! That explained the location, but the species?

I knelt down to read the carving in the base of the statue, and gasped at what I saw. A familiar, yet unfamiliar epitaph;

LORD DESPERATION SKILLED THINKER LOST FRIEND

What!!? That wasn't right! That wasn't right at all! I levitated the harmony book from my saddlebag, and examined the pages carefully. This was all wrong, he wasn't an element of harmony! But the similarities were uncanny... I must have been staring at it for a while, before Zee finally spoke up.

"Is it a harmony?"

I shook my head slowly. "I don't know Zee. In need longer to examine it. My master's studies only indicate six elements though..."

"Maybe he was wrong!"

That was a possibility. There had been a brief time during his studies of harmony, in which my master only believed five elements existed. The sixth, magic, remained undiscovered to him, and it was only through research of various legends that he found the existence of the sixth element.

I replaced the book carefully into my bag. It would be no use here, I'd have to act on my own instincts, and knowledge. The old blue pony's words echoed in my head;

'If you were to interfere, and somehow claim an element, then you could disrupt everything!'

I pushed the thought to the back of my mind, and began to examine the statue. I wasn't leaving here without an element, regardless of prophecies or strange events.

This time, I wasn't backing down!

Decay

I silently patrolled the streets, examining everypony from afar in the hope of seeing Serenity. It had been days now, and I was growing less certain with every minute. The city was huge! Mammoth in size, and finding a single pony in this would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Actually, make that four haystacks.

I was growing more tired from every day of searching, and I could feel the transformation becoming weaker and weaker. If I couldn't find her soon, things would turn from bad to ugly! I couldn't find love away from the Stallion's capital, so what chance did I stand in misery city?

I noticed a small blue colt stealing an apple, unnoticed, from a market stall. We locked eyes for a split second, then the he ran full pelt down the street ducking and dodging around the crowds. He was about my age! I glanced down at my intimidating adult body, all beak and talons.

This form was starting to feel like a weight on my back.

"Oi!" called another griffin, glaring at me. "Its your turn on patrol!"

I moaned, and replicated his voice in reply, "okay, fine."

In actual fact, patrol was good. It gave me another opportunity to search the streets for Serenity, with no questions asked. So long as I wasn't partnered with another gri...

"Lowe, you're on patrol with him." the chief called, and Lowe dashed over.

He was a teenage griffin, just older than serenity, and had a rough untidy mane that bristled as he ran. Lowe reached me, and called out in an excited voice that was squeaky with youth, "Ready!"

I nodded reluctantly, and cursed my bad fortune. The last thing I needed was a partner in this! If I found Serenity, then what was I supposed to do?

Lowe was hopping on the spot, and I raised an eyebrow at his excitement. He immediately stopped, and stood looking intently at me.

"Okay," I grumbled, trying my best to sound authoritative. "Let's go."

To be honest, I didn't mind patrolling with Lowe, the kid was scatterbrained instead of sadistic and could be fun to talk to. He was also a source of food, his respect fuelling my energy in surprisingly large amounts.

"Which street?!" Lowe asked loudly then, noticing the dirty looks from passing ponies, he lowered his voice. "Which street?"

"Lets try some of the back streets." I answered, planning a route in my head.

"Aww... we always patrol those streets!"

I laughed simply. "You won't find many escaped prisoners on main street!"

"I guess.." he answered, disappointment fading. When you thought of it, it was a strange situation. I was younger than him, yet more concise, and intelligent...

I felt anger course through me, Lowe was a good person and he had been turned evil by the Shadow Stallion's orders. I shook my head once, then proceeded down a darkened alley, Lowe following close behind me.

"So what if we see any rebels?" he asked enthusiastically.

"We arrest them," I lied.

"Nice..." he muttered. Then I can get a promotion!

"Life isn't all about promotions Lowe."

"Huh?"

"What do you want to be? What are your dreams?"

Lowe answered by standing proudly and speaking as such, "I want to become a royal guard!"

I sighed sadly. "What if there were no guards? What if you were free to do what you wanted?"

"I'd still become a royal guard!" Lowe exclaimed, "And I'd be become known as the best around!"

Okay, this conversation was going nowhere... just like pretty much every conversation with Lowe about his future.

The Stallion's influence seemed to affect all the best ponies, or in this case, griffins.

We walked on into the shadows, Lowe continuing his description of a perfect life, and I listening sadly.

What was wrong with this world?

Astral

Zee sat by the side of the statue, looking, with boredom, at the passing ponies. They all appeared hungry and thin, with brittle legs and sunken eyes. What was happening here, an embargo on food by the Shadow Stallion? Also, what element did the statue hold? It couldn't be any of those from my book, I knew what all the statues looked like. Maybe this was an undiscovered element, one that no one had ever heard of! My master's ideas in the elements may have been incorrect, and there could be a seventh!

In all my excitement, I neglected to hear Zee's cries for food, and before long, the little Zebra was starved.

"Astral..." he moaned. "So... hungry.."

I looked down to reassure him, and reeled in horror at his limp form. "Come on then Zee, lets find some food." Surely there were other shops in this town, other shops where we could get hold of food without possession of ration stamps.

Apparently not. We searched the town for shops selling food and had only found three, all of which demanded ration stamps in exchange for goods. Zee grew hungrier with every minute, and I found myself growing desperate as we were turned down time and time again.

Finally, we returned to the statue in defeat. I looked down at the shivering Zebra, and hugged him gently. "I'm sorry Zee. Do you think you can last a night without food?"

He looked back at me in an expression that turned my blood cold, an expression of pain and suffering. "Yeah."

His voice was as weak as he, and the sound hurt me in a way that no weapon could have. "Please!!" I called to the passing ponies. "Some food please!!"

There was no response. Clearly, they were all suffering the same as him, and this cry was one that was heard all too often. It was getting later too, the darkness gradually growing as the evening began to arrive. I held him close, feeling the shivers that wracked his body, when a voice spoke out.

"You need food?"

I whirled around at the voice, "Yes!"

An old pony stood in the square alongside us, and he placed a small chunk of bread upon the steps. "It isn't much, but it's all I have."

Zee leapt upon the bread, and ate it hungrily while I spoke to the donator, gratitude flooding me.

"Thank you! But why..?"

He smiled back simply. "I can't stand to see others starve. Unfortunately, it's a bitter reality here."

I gestured to the town. "Why? There's food in all the surrounding fields!"

The pony shivered in the approaching night, and spoke in the voice of a skilled story teller. "Allow me to explain the situation we are in.

Many years ago, this was a thriving town known by all in the area. The mayor, was a wise earth pony who guided us through all hardship, and saved us from terrible disasters. He was respected by the whole town, and seemed to be able to solve any problem. However one day in late winter, he made a terrible mistake.

A strange pony came to town, a Zirocorn."

I looked at the storyteller, confusion on my face, "But Zirocorn are an old mayors tale!"

"I'm surprised that you've even heard of them! But yes, you could say that this whole story is an old mayors tale, after all it is simply a legend. I just choose to believe it."

"What's a Serocorn?" Zee asked, crumbs of bread upon his lips.

"An ancient sibling of the Alicorn, or a supposed sibling," the old pony replied. "They possessed strong shadow magic, and we're feared as a terrible omen."

Zee's eyes widened as the teller continued his story.

"So, a Zirocorn arrived in town, and naturally all the townsfolk were terrified, turning to their gallant leader for help. The Zirocorn, a mare, requested one simple thing, a meal. The leader refused her request, for he had no desire to deal with such a hated creature, then in a final act of stupidity, he cast her from the town. In return for his arrogance the Zirocorn cursed this town, that all the people, and their descendants should be forever hungry. She then gave the leader an item that she had found on her travels, a necklace, and left the town."

By now, darkness had flooded the square, and the tellers voice had taken on a malicious edge that unnerved me. "From that day forth," the old pony continued, "we have struggled to survive in this town. Those who leave take the curse with them, and those who stay remain hungry. Food bought into the town lasts only a single day, then becomes inedible, and our people suffer without relief. We go hungry, yet cannot die of hunger, leaving us in agony. The only one capable of reversing this spell is the ruler of these lands..." the storyteller's voice grew hushed. "The Shadow Stallion. We have tried to win his sympathy, but to no avail." at long last, the teller noticed the darkness, and turned. "I would invite you into my home, but I am afraid you may catch the effects of this terrible curse. Please, you must leave this place at once."

In a flash, the storyteller vanished into the growing darkness, and we were left alone in the square. I shivered, not from the cold, but from the effect of the tale. "Come on Zee, let's g..."

In that second, I saw it. Zee was wearing a necklace, one that had appeared from nowhere.

"Zee! Look!" I cried, and he responded by glancing down at the gem.

His eyes grew wide, and he poked the necklace with a hoof. "Where did it come from!?"

I glanced uncertainly at the statue. "I don't know..."

"It's like from the story! A necklace! It's an element!!"

"I don't know Zee..." I replied, staring fearfully at the gem. "It's not like any of the elements in the book. What does it symbolise?"

The gem resembled the core of an apple, thin and ugly, and I found myself feeling ill just from looking at it. What on earth could the element symbolise? My mind returned to the story, and goosebumps rose on my skin.

"Let's get out of here Zee."

He nodded happily, and then trotted after me, gem hanging firmly on his neck.

Suddenly the elements of harmony didn't seem so great.

They seemed... twisted...

We departed the town, and continued on the winding path ahead, the night's grasp enveloping us.

The gem glowed through the shadows with a sickly yellow light, illuminating Zee's face eerily.

Twisted.

Crisis

I was there, the outskirts of the pink citadel, crouched below its vast body. The steady flow of a nearby waterfall was the only sound I could hear, and even that seemed...

Beautiful. Figuratively speaking that is, after all, the water was crystal clear and free from pollution. My targets were hiding here, in this candy floss safe-zone, and that disturbed me. Could I really disrupt the one sacred place that I'd found in this twisted world? Disrupt it in order to kill three heroes, and young heroes at that.

I sat beneath the city, thinking over my options. Return empty handed, Serenity dies. Run away, Serenity dies. Kill the elements...

Serenity lives, but for how long and in what kind of world? Would I even be able to kill the elements, after all they had nearly assassinated this country's mighty shadow ruler.

Nah, of course I could! I was Crisis! When I saw opposition, I just laughed and... and...

Surrendered to work for them? Surely with these attacks and all this skill I could fight, not my oppressor's enemies, but my oppressors themselves. That settled it.

I rose, and raised my fists. I'd break Serenity out the old fashioned way, guns blazing and missiles soaring. I'd prove to my sudo-masters that I was more than just a puppet, a weapon for them to use.

I was an enemy.

I sprinted back the way I came heading, with all my speed, for that black cobbled city. It would be an intense fight, moving behind enemy lines.

And I'd win.