Redemption of the Sun

Redemption

of

The Sun

Chapter 2: Loyalty

“Now most ponies seem to think that The Wasteland is only to the south. This is only partially correct. The fringes of The Wasteland extend further north to the east, forming the Rainbow Desert.”

Daylight interrupted Snowflake’s lesson to exclaim, “Well that doesn't sound too bad!”

Snowflake swatted his head from where she was riding on his back, then continued. “The colors are from when the old Cloudsdale Weather Factory went down. It’s faded after a couple decades, so everything’s pretty brown, but there’s still some color if you look really close.”

“Why are we even going that way?”

“That’s another common misconception. The capital isn't just ‘north’, it’s in the very north-east section of the Crystal Mountains. We can either go through a hot desert with very little civilization, or a cold desert with no civilization whatsoever. I don’t know about you, but I seem to be lacking in winter supplies.”

“Alright, we’re taking the long way then. How do you even know all this?”

“Obviously I got the info from that other dragon.” She thought for a second before turning to Celestia, who was in the process of magically changing her cloak from black to beige as they walked. “By the way, was that a one-time thing or am I suddenly going to get smarter whenever the other dragon learns something new?"

Celestia looked up for a moment to answer simply, "One-time, sorry."

"One more thing, won't the dragon be able to sense me?"

"That's correct."

"And if said dragon knows that you were the one in possession of his shell, and also just so happens to blame you for his adoptive mother's death?"

Celestia stopped, and her eyes widened. She quickly finished with her cloak, then began walking at a much faster pace.

Daylight hurried after her, grumbling about angry dragons, prompting another swat from Snowflake.

~One Week Later~

"PERHAPS YOU SHOULD HAVE MENTIONED THAT THE CIVILIZATION IN THE DESERT WAS GRYPHONS!"

Daylight was running for his life from a pride of angry gryphons, iridescent sand swirling in the wind as it was kicked up behind him. It was around noon, and the desert sun was threatening to slow him down. He somehow found the strength to keep running. Snowflake held on to his mane for dear life, and responded, "Sorry Daylight! It slipped my mind!"

"How does 'I'm leading you through gryphon territory' just slip your mind!?"

Any further argument was cut off as both the stallion and the dragon were sent tumbling to the ground as Daylight's legs were tangled in a net. They were immediately surrounded by heavily armed gryphon bandits.

A massive armored Harpy Gryphon with skeletal-white feathers landed with his talons inches from Daylight's face, spraying sand into his eyes.  "Get these two tied up properly! And where did that mare get to!?"

Daylight's ears perked, and he whispered to Snowflake, "Where did Celestia go?"

The Harpy Gryphon kicked some more sand at Daylight before crouching down. Daylight gulped as he looked into the gryphons eye, noting the large vertical scar running across it. The gryphon smiled smugly and said, "We gryphons have good hearing. You may want to think of just keeping your ugly muzzle shut in the future."

"Oops?"

The gryphon stood up and chuckled before calling out, "The mare is the exiled Princess! Find her!"

From seemingly everywhere at once, Celestia's voice responded, "What if I find you first?"

With a flash of light, the lead gryphon suddenly found himself six hundred hooves in the air, with his wings pinned to his sides by the wind. Meanwhile, the confused gryphons back at ground level were quickly finding themselves outmatched against the beige blur that was darting amongst their ranks, sending them flying with waves of flash-compressed sandstone.

Back up in the air, the gryphon leader was still unable to open his wings, and the ground was quickly approaching. The last gryphon standing on the ground, a dark grey Harpy Gryphon hen, was watching in horror as her father fell to his death.

Celestia stopped moments from striking the female gryphon as she noticed her distraught expression. She looked Celestia in the eyes and said, "Let me save him, and I will help you with whatever you're doing here."

"You know that your clan will exile you for helping us?" The gryphon nodded. "Yet you would give up your life to save his?" The gryphon nodded again. "You show great loyalty. Go."

Just as the gryphon took flight, Daylight manage to free himself and Snowflake from the net, and walked to Celestia's side. "I think I finally understand what you're doing."

"What do you mean?"

"Loyalty. You're trying to find the Elements of Harmony."

"I'm not trying. But I am succeeding. Our path is somehow leading us to all of the new bearers."

"Fate works in strange ways."

"Yes it does."

Their conversation lapsed into silence as they watched the gryphon flying towards her father faster than Daylight had ever seen a living creature move. Celestia on the other hoof, had seen it once before.

With a last, desperate effort, the gryphon broke the sound barrier and sent a wave color radiating through the sky.

Daylight's jaw dropped. "No way..."

Celestia just grinned, and Snowflake recited, "The only recorded sonic rainboom was produced by the pegasus Rainbow Dash, the previous Element of Loyalty during the seventh age."

At the same moment that the gryphon broke the sound barrier, a guard found himself once again running through the halls of the Royal Citadel. Luna jumped up from her throne when the guard entered. "Another Element?"

"Yes, Princess. Loyalty."

"What is it's bearers mark?"

"That's the problem, it's a gryphon clan sigil."

"The new bearer is a gryphon!? This is unheard of!"

"Princess, we know which clan it is. Should we send guards to find the bearer?"

"Yes. Do so immediately."

The gryphon landed with her father beside her, then explained what she had agreed to before he could attack the ponies and dragon. He wasn't angry with her, but according to gryphon law, she had to be exiled.

As they said their goodbyes, the battle-hardened gryphon leader began to cry. "Osanna, you were my last reminder of your mother. I don't want to see you go, but Gilda would be proud that you would give up everything for your family. I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too, father. Keep the clan safe."

Before the gryphons left, the leader turned to Celestia and warned, "If my daughter gets hurt on your stupid adventure, I will not stop until you are dead."

Without flinching, Celestia calmly answered, "She will be safe with us."

"Good. If it weren't for the honor of my clan, you would already be dead. You really don't want to give me another reason to kill you." He then took to the air, the rest of the clan behind him.

When they were finally out of sight, Celestia turned to Osanna. "We're headed for the capital. We need you to escort us across the remainder of the desert."

"Yeah, I can do that."

Then they were on their way once more. Celestia fell to the back of the group, and after a few seconds, Daylight joined her. This left quite a bit of space between Osanna and themselves, perfect for talking about things they didn't want the gryphon to hear.

"Aren't you going to tell her?"

"Tell her what?"

Daylight rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean. The Elements."

"I don't know if that would be wise..."

"Alright. I trust you."

"Thank you. I promise to let her know soon."

"I don't feel comfortable keeping secrets from my friends..."

"I don't either, but I must. It's for the best."

Daylight noticed how guilty she sounded, and changed the subject. "I notice that you haven't had another attack since we left the Vanhoover market. I take it you're feeling better?"

"Yes, much. You know, I never really did thank you properly."

"For what?"

"Just, everything. I honestly don't know what condition I'd be in if I hadn't met you."

Daylight smiled and pressed himself against her side for a second. "It's nothing. I enjoy helping you."

"Well you've done a good job."

There was suddenly an awkward silence filling the air between them. Snowflake, still on Daylight's back, only just managed to stop from grinning when she realized what was going on. Adding to the awkwardness, Daylight mumbled, "I'm gonna go check on Osanna..."

"Okay..."

He then proceeded to speed up in order to catch up with the gryphon. Once Snowflake thought they were out of Celestia's range of hearing, she immediately taunted Daylight. "You liiiike her~"

To which his only response was, "Shut up, Snow." Neither of them noticed the blushing princess behind them.

Osanna was surprised when she saw Daylight walking beside her. "I thought you guys were trying to avoid me."

"Dammit. Sorry Sanna. We just had some things to discuss privately."

"Did you just call me 'Sanna'?"

"Yeah, I always shorten names. Tia, Snow, Sanna."

"Whatever..."

"Anyways, I feel that you deserve to know that there's something we're keeping from you, but I promise we’ll tell you soon."

"I figured as much. 'Private discussion' and all. It's not my job to know what's going on. My job is to escort you three across the desert."

"I'm trying to be friendly here."

"I know, it's just, I was always taught to hate your kind. Let me tell you a story. My mother used to be friends with some pony named Rainbow Dash."

"What happened?"

"She went to visit Rainbow Dash, but the pony's new friends hated her, and drove her away. Since then, the two most important lessons in my life have been 'hate ponies', and 'always stay loyal to your friends'."

"Well I'd like to be your friend, if you'll let me."

"You ponies are so weird! I just tried to kill you a couple minutes ago!"

"And now's your chance to make it up to us."

After a moment of thinking, Osanna decided, "You know what? Fine. You guys are pretty cool anyway."

"Great!"

"Just make sure you don't spend too much time with me. Might make your marefriend jealous."

Snowflake burst out laughing, and Daylight spluttered, "I- She's- We- We're not- Why does everypony think that's what's going on!?"

Shining Armor strode confidently at the head of his squad as they crossed the Rainbow Desert. He had aged well for a stallion in his late fifties, and was still in pristine shape, so when Luna had taken over as ruler of the Crystal Empire, he had once again taken up his old position as Captain of the Guard. Now he had been assigned to find and retrieve a gryphon from the desert's resident clan.

Normally, somepony else would have been sent, but the fact that they would be walking straight into a gryphon den had caused Luna to deem his presence necessary. After a short trip through the city’s mass-teleportation gate, Shining Armor found himself standing at the top of a sand dune, overlooking the pastel colors of the Rainbow Desert. With a quick motion with one of his hooves, he signaled for his soldiers to follow, and began sliding his way down the steep dune in front of him. A little ways off, he spotted the gryphon town he was looking for. Hopefully they would put up a fight.

Within minutes, they had reached the town, smashed down the gate, and made their way inside. What they found wasn't what they had expected. Not a single gryphon made a move to attack, and most of them were sporting some nasty bruises.

A large, white Harpy Gryphon stepped out of a large building. Shining assumed that he was the leader. With a look of disgust, the gryphon stated, "Get out. We've had enough of your kind for one day."

Shining was tempted to just force him to help find the gryphon they were looking for, but his curiosity got the best of him. "Have you met other ponies out here?"

The gryphon smiled widely. "You don't know! Ha!" His voice dropped and gained a conspiratorial tone. "I'll tell you if you leave us in peace."

"Unfortunately, we're here for one of you. A gryphon of your clan has been chosen as the new bearer of Loyalty."

"Loyalty eh? Osanna."

"Which one is that?"

"She was my daughter. The ponies we encountered... employed her services as an escort."

"Tell me what happened."

"If I give you this information, you'll leave us in peace?"

"You have my word."

"Alright. There was a unicorn stallion, a wyrmling, and a mare."

"They had a baby dragon?"

"Yeah. Seemed to be the stallion's pet or something. But the mare was the reason we're all in this condition."

"What was she?"

The gryphon looked around, then motioned for Shining Armor to move closer before whispering, "She looked like a unicorn, but most of her body was covered by a cloak. The stallion called her 'Celestia'."

Shining's eyes flashed with rage at the name. "Which way did they go?"

"West."

Thank you for this information." He walked over to a nearby pegasus, who saluted at his approach. "Private. You're the fastest here. Go find the other ponies in the west, and relay my order to stop."

The pegasus responded, "Yes, sir!" then took off.

Shining looked at the gryphons, then at a unicorn from his own forces. "Lieutenant."

The unicorn saluted.

"Kill them all."

Two ponies, a gryphon, and a baby dragon made their way through the sand in silence. Snowflake was still lying on Daylight's back with her arms crossed behind her head, looking at the cloudless sky. She suddenly said, "What's that?" and pointed at glittering spot in the distance. All of the others stopped to get a look at it. When it became apparent that the approaching shape was a pegasus, Celestia pulled her cloak's hood over her head, and moved to the edge of their formation that was farthest from the approaching pony, prompting a strange look from Osanna.

The pegasus, clad in a solid crystal armor which was actually much lighter than it looked, landed in front of them and said, "By the authority of Captain Armor, you are hereby ordered to cease movement and await his arrival."

Daylight tilted his head to one side. "Who?"

Snowflake cleared her throat. "*ahem* Allow the walking library. Biography: Shining Armor. Later Captain Armor, then Prince Armor. Captain of the Royal Guard in Canterlot, later married to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Brother of Twilight Sparkle, former Element of Magic. Shining and his wife took a ruling position in the Crystal Empire upon it's return after being lost for a thousand years."

"Twilight Sparkle's brother?" He glanced at Celestia. "Uh-oh."

"Apparently Spike didn't die in the cataclysm, ‘cause there's some post-cataclysmic additions. Removed from power by Princess Luna, who took the Crystal City as the new capital of Equestria." Celestia's eyes widened at that. "Psych report: Unfit for duty, portraying sociopathic and homicidal tendencies. Granted a position as Captain of the Crystal Guard based solely on experience."

Celestia returned to the middle of the group and spoke up. The pegasus, who hadn't even noticed her before, flinched a little at her sudden appearance. “All of you need to run. Now.”

The jumpy pegasus built up enough courage to say, “You were ordered to stay put.” A glare from Celestia caused him to cringe, and mutter, “Sorry...”

“You should report back to the capital. Tell Princess Luna that Captain Armor is trying to kill me, and that I’m sorry.”

“Who is this message from?”

“You don’t need to know that.” The pegasus looked confused for another moment before giving an uncertain salute, and flying further west.

Celestia turned back to the others, but before she could speak, Daylight interjected, “We’re not leaving you.” Snowflake and Osanna looked at each other. Daylight shook his head at them, then said, “I’m not leaving you.”

“Daylight, Shining Armor is likely to have an entire squad with him, but as Captain, he could technically be accompanied by an entire company. He’s going to kill me, and then he's going to kill anyone with me. You have to go. It’s now your job to keep Osanna safe, and find the others.”

“You’re a Goddess. You can’t die anyways. You’ll beat him, then we’ll continue.”

“I gave all of my powers to my sister. I’m just a regular unicorn who just so happens to have wings.”

“Stop coming up with excuses! I am not leaving you, and that is final!”

Celestia sighed. “I wish we had more time...” Then, to the utter shock of everyone, Celestia kissed Daylight on the lips with the passion of a hundred loveless lifetimes. Then they were gone. As her final sacrifice, she teleported all three of them away from her and much further west. She then turned to face the direction the pegasus had come from, and waited.

Shining Armor ran as fast as he could to find the one who stole his sister from him. Eighteen more ponies followed behind him. At long last, he ascended the next rise in front of him, and saw a lone mare sitting at the base. He paused upon seeing her, and the moment he did so, he was immediately tackled from behind.

Celestia jumped up as she saw Shining Armor’s own soldiers tackle him down the slope in front of her. “What in Tartarus!?”

One of the soldiers who was attempting to hold Shining down looked up at her. “The Captain here ordered Lieutenant Steel to wipe out all of the gryphons, but he refused and The captain killed him. Then he started screaming something about his sister and ran off.” After stopping for a second to better secure Shining, he asked, “Where’d Cake go?”

“The pegasus? I sent him to deliver a report to the capital.”

“What right do you have to send one of us anywhere!?”

At that moment, the kicking unicorn beneath him screamed, "CELESTIA! YOU KILLED MY SISTER! I'M GONNA BUCKING MURDER YOU!" With that, his horn flashed, and all of the other soldiers were flung away from him before being crushed into the ground with a purple force-field. Celestia and himself were the only ones left.

“Shining, I had no control over what happened with the Elements.”

“YOU’RE LYING!” He ripped his sword from it’s sheath with a violent pull of telekinesis, and ran at Celestia, swinging the blade wildly.

Celestia easily sidestepped, and pushed him over with a burst of magic. “Get ahold of yourself!”

“Ahold of myself!?” He stumbled upright before finishing, “Just you ‘till I get ahold of you, you bitch!”

He attacked again, and Celestia parried the blow with her horn before pushing him away again. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Well I want to hurt you!”

This time, Shining’s attack had a bit more control, but Celestia blocked it again. “I may not be a Goddess, but I’m still a powerful unicorn, and I have far more experience than you. You can’t win.”

“THEN I WILL DIE TRYING!”

Shining ran at her again, and she quietly whispered, “So be it.” Just before he reached her, one of her wings flashed outwards, hitting Shining’s legs and tripping him. His exposed neck landed perfectly on Celestia’s horn.

Just after Shining’s body hit the sand, none other than the translucent forms of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash were standing over him. Twilight was crying, and Rainbow had her wing wrapped around her. Amongst her sobs, Twilight said, “If only I had been able to cast the spell faster...”

Rainbow noticed that Celestia was staring at them, eyes wide and mouth agape. She nudged Twilight’s side and said, “I’m sorry about your brother, but the Princess is staring at us right now.”

Twilight jumped up and flipped around to look at the stunned alicorn. “Princess Celestia!” She quickly wiped away her tears, then turned back to Rainbow Dash and said, “Go make sure the other three follow the right path.”

The pegasus nodded, then flew off at the speed of sound. Before the purple unicorn could say anything else, Celestia breathed, “Twilight...”

“Yes, Yes. I forgive you. Listen, that’s not important right now. The spell that's allowing us to communicate will wear off any second now.”

“I saw you die...”

“Oh, for the- I never thought I’d say this... Princess, shut up! There’s some things you need to know, and I can only cast the spell once, so listen close. You need to find the other Elements. Once you have all of them gathered in one place, I can finish my work, but I need to be able to talk with the others. Rainbow Dash and I are currently the only ones who can actually do anything. The other four are still lost, but all six of us are-” She disappeared before she could finish, and Celestia just fell into a sitting position, mind reeling.

“Daylight, she’s good, but there’s no way she could have taken an entire squad of trained guardsponies. We need to get moving, or did you forget that she gave you a job to do?”

“Dammit Snowflake, I know! sigh I know... Sorry Snow.”

Osanna, ever the gentle one, shoved Daylight upright and said, “Stallion up, you foal! We've still got a long time until we- On second thought, nevermind, we’re going to be leaving the desert very soon.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We’re gonna have to head into the mountains, unless of course you want to walk through that gigantic sandstorm that’s headed straight for us.”

Daylight turned to look at the supposed sandstorm. To him, it just looked like a brown wall, not that dangerous. On the other hoof, Osanna had lived in the desert her entire life. She probably knew how to judge a sandstorm. “At least we’ll be out of this heat...”

“But it's gonna get a heck of a lot colder in the mountains. Especially in the middle of winter. Anyways, it's getting dark but the edge of the desert isn't that far in this direction. We should be able to find shelter for the night once we’re out of this place.”

As they moved off towards the mountain peaks to the north, none of them noticed the rainbow blur fanning the storm towards them. When they reached the place where the desert turned into slightly rocky pine woods, Daylight paused and looked back. “Celestia... I’ll find you again. I promise...”