Illumination, The Story of an Antagonist

The princess looks back down at the letter, wondering just who this ‘Anonymous’ is. Whoever he was, one thing's for certain: he is an unknown. This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that unknowns in politics tend to be incredibly dangerous. Worse yet, he is the most likely candidate to be the emperor of the Dominion. Just the implications bring about a slew of problems that are sure to cause Celestia more than one headache.

“Sister, should we perhaps get in contact with this griffin? Surely he is reasonable enough to accommodate such a request,” Luna asks as she walks into her sister’s study and settles herself in front of the desk.

Celestia mulls it over for a moment. It’s considered to be bad form for the ruler of one nation to seek out another who isn’t in power yet. But at the same time she couldn’t help but be tempted by the idea. There are other things that she could do, but none of them would bode well for her or Equestria should something go awry

The Sun Princess bites the inside of her cheek, indecisiveness tightening its grip on her. She had built herself up onto a pedestal, making her out to be the ultimate good and so much rides on it. Her gentle and polite nature tended to make things easy for since no one wanted to contest the gentle sun goddess for fear of somehow disappointing her or upsetting her, which also upsets her followers by proxy.

Any sort of action she takes here could lead to a catastrophic end should something go wrong, yet she had no idea what the agenda of this Anonymous.

Something needs to be done.

If Celestia remembers correctly, then all of the lesser griffin lords need to hold a summit before a new emperor can be appointed. If this goes the way that Pelé’s inauguration went, then she should have almost two months before Anonymous comes to power. Mind made up, the white alicorn raises her eyes to look at her sister.

“Luna,” Celestia begins, “I don’t like this in the least bit so I ask you, how well-trained are your stealth corps?” She says, carefully gauging the smaller alicorn’s expression as she spoke.

Luna’s eyes widen. “Tia, surely you aren’t going to ask what I think you are...” she says, trailing off at the end.

Celestia sighs and gives her sister a pleading look, “Luna, you know as well as I that this whole situation could take a turn for the worse if not monitored. Please don’t fight me.”

The moon goddess shakes her head in denial before responding, “Tia, I cannot in good conscience allow you to place spies within the Griffin Dominion. It would be an enormous breach in the trust between our nations!”

This is getting out of control, Celestia needs to turn it around.

“Luna,” she says, stopping Luna from ranting, “we need to think about the good of everypony here. We literally have no idea what Anonymous’ plans for the future are. For all we know he could be a psychopath. Do you want to potentially let him run free like that?”

Luna stops and bites her lip, her face etched into conflict.

Celestia keeps going. “Remember Discord’s first rampage? All caused by our not being vigilant enough. The same with Sombra, only we stopped him in time thanks to some well-placed informants.”

Luna is looking less sure of herself now, her eyes on the floor as she desperately tried to think of some sort of comeback.

Her sister is relentless however, and keeps her argument rolling. “Just think about it, we’ve always known who is who when it comes to leadership positions. Then suddenly one we had no idea existed is suddenly next in line for position of great power. Don’t you find that to be suspicious? And furthermore I thi-”

“OK! I GET IT!” Luna shouts with her impressive voice, making the windows in the room rattle.

Celestia winces at the harsh noise, flattening her ears back and recoiling as the sound of the guards stationed outside falling over in surprise meets her ringing ears.

Luna takes a breath, then sighs in defeat. “Wery well, Tia, I’ll tell the night captain to have the best members of the stealth core begin training...”

She looks up into her older sister’s eyes. “What sort of timeframe are we dealing with?”

Celestia inwardly smiles, pleased with the turn of events. “Tell them that they have approximately a month and a half to hone their skills, and that only the best will be selected for this incredibly important mission.”

You sigh and shake your wrist as you finish writing the letter to Gilda about Pelé. Inkwells and quills are certainly not your first choice as a writing implement. The thought is only more reinforced since you had to write letters yesterday to numerous other officials in other nations, informing them of Pelé’s death.

Putting the letter in an envelope and sealing it with a few drops of wax from a lit candle sitting on the desk, you stamp it with your personal crest before standing and stretching. You walk out of your study into your suite-like room and make for the door, wanting to get this letter into the talons of a courier so they could take it to Gilda.

Walking out, it doesn’t take much time to come across a servant wandering the halls like usual.

“Maid,” you call, getting the attention of the griffin hen. You hand her the letter. “Take this to a courier, tell them to find Gilda and to be quick about it,” you order.

The maid inclines her head and turns to leave with a quick, “Yes, Lord Anon.”

With that done, you decide to make a trip to the archives. There is no better way to learn than to learn from the mistakes of others, and history books should give you an idea of what NOT to do once you are in power.

The trip is slow and leisurely, which lets you admire the tasteful build of the palace as well as the multitude of portraits and tapestries lining the walls, many of them depicting important events or griffons of times long past. You scratch your chin in thought, just what should you look for in particular?

Two things in particular jump out at you. First, how to totally remove or at least neutralize DiVargin before his slanderous campaign can gain any more momentum. Second, you need to find a way to firmly root yourself into your soon-to-be new position. You have no delusions about the public’s opinion of you. No matter how many say they like you, there is always a handful of liars and those who prefer to just quietly stew in their negative opinions. As much as being an old member of Earth’s illuminati has taught you, there’s still elements of this world that you have yet to grasp, and that needs to be rectified.

Several more minutes of walking brings you to one of the entrances to the royal library, the most extensive archive in the whole Dominion. Considering that you started out on one of the highest floors of the palace, you get a magnificent view once you enter the library.

Looking around, you see the huge, circular room, its walls filled to the brim with different books, scrolls, and manuscripts of all sorts. Even more awe-inspiring, however, is the open center of the library, letting you look down at the other floors, all arranged in tiers so the griffons could just fly to a different floor should they need.

A glance downward tells you that the bottom floor must be almost two hundred feet down, making you feel the slightest bit nauseous and acrophobic. A look up shows you only a handful floors above, along with the white marble ceiling supporting a golden chandelier, filling the enormous chamber with a soft, white light thanks to the enchanted, Equestrian crystals it holds.

“Enough admiring the scenery, I’ve been here before,” you mutter to yourself. You make your way to the history section, dodging around scholars and the archivists who seem too absorbed in their own work to give you a second glance.

Pulling out several books, all of them about either important individuals in Dominion history or past conflicts, you find a free table and seat yourself down and prepare for what’s probably going to be a long day. Before you start your reading, you have an archivist bring you several sheets of parchment as well as some ink and a quill for notes.

You open the first book, ‘Downfall of the Nomadic Tribes’, and can’t help but smile at the distinct smell of a book so old that the pages have yellowed. In all the chaos that is life, it’s always nice to have a good, immersion-worthy book to take a break from it all. Your reading stretches long past daylight and into the deep night, accompanied by the distinct sound of a quill scratching upon paper.

By the time your eyelids begin to grow heavy, you have almost twenty pages of parchment filled corner to corner with useful and relevant information.

You stand and stretch, making your back loose a medley of satisfying pops. Despite how much you want to go to bed, there is still a handful of things you must do. After returning the books to their proper places, you make for a sliding metal door between two bookshelves and open it. Inside is a rather rudimentary elevator.

You can’t say that you trust the rickety looking device much, but it’s the fastest way down to the ground floor of the library sans jumping. The trip down is bumpy and uncomfortable, but not totally intolerable.

On the ground floor is a lone griffin hen with half-moon spectacles sitting behind an attendant’s desk, the scratching you hear coming from her obviously telling you that she is busy with some paperwork.

You walk up to the desk quietly and she pays you no mind, until you speak.

“So, the weather has been nice. Don’t you agree?”

She looks up at you, then scans her eyes around the area before answering.

“Indeed sir, but it could be brighter...” she says carefully, as if thinking about each word before letting it out of her mouth. As she should...

You grin at the answer and nod for her to continue.

With another glance around, she begins, “Alpha is nearing completion and should be operational soon. Beta is still in the prototype stage but is moving along quickly. Both Gamma and Omega are still facing some serious complications,” she quietly whispers as fast as she can.

Hmm, that’s farther along than you would have expected.

“And what of...the conversation?”

The library attendant begins to look nervous as she refuses to meet your gaze. “Still not going as smoothly as you would wish, sir.”

You frown slightly, but it’s still something that can be worked around.

“Stop looking like you’re going to pluck your feathers out, I’m not one to shoot the messenger.”

The griffin sighs in relief.

“Tell Boris that in five days time I will come to talk to him. It’s important that everything is finished in a timely manner.”

You turn to head back to your quarters, but stop and say over your shoulder “We never spoke, understood?”

She quickly nods her head, almost making her spectacles bounce off of her beak.

“Good.”

At the same time that you spoke to the library attendant, a pair of griffons clad in black fly across the night sky, silent as specters.

“Are we there yet?”

...Almost silent as specters.

The lead griffin sighs and looks back at his younger partner, an unamused expression painting his visage.

“Almost kid, just calm down,” the older leader says with exasperation.

“My name is not ‘Kid’, it’s Erio, get it right!” the younger shouts.

The leader turns his head and puts a talon in front of his beak, indicating that he wants Erio to remain quiet.

The young griffin grumbles but complies reluctantly.

Both of them fly in silence for several minutes before Erio speaks up once more. “So... What exactly are we doing again?” he asks with a scratch of the back of his head.

“We’re going to a plateau just outside of the D-dog capital to gather some intelligence. Did you listen to your briefing at all?” the leader asks irritably.

Erio slumps his shoulders. “Command didn’t really tell me that much, they just said that I needed field experience so I should tag along with you. Hell, they didn’t even tell me your name.”

The elder griffon just chuckles under his breath. “Poor new blood, always out of the loop. Just call me Chief for now.”

Erio opens his beak to fire off more questions but is cut off as Chief makes a dive to a flat-topped mountain just below them. Both fly in low and land near the edge overlooking a large and rather ramshackle city. Faint lights flickering throughout the spartan buildings telling them that there was in fact life in the settlement.

“Is that the dog capital?” Erio asks with a hint of disgust as he looks at the edge of the city, which may as well be a shantytown.

Chief just nods before shrugging off his pack and digging through it, pulling out a suit that looks camouflaged just right to blend in with foliage.

With a curious blink, Erio asks, “What is that?”

His partner takes off the black face mask he was wearing, revealing his old, gray plumed face before answering. “If I was told right, then this thing is called a ghillie suit, perfect for blending in with nature and whatnot,” he says as he dons the garment, looking like a bush as he gets it all on. “You’ve got one too. Put it on, this is a covert mission and we’re going to be here for a while.”

“Wha? But, but...” Erio stutters, obviously surprised by the turn of events.

Chief chuckles and grins “What? You thought that fresh meat like you will be tossed into something like sneaking into some big, important place just like that? Hell no, you and me are going to be sitting here for about two weeks looking over this city for anything interesting. If we DO find something then another team will likely be sent in to do the dirty work.”

Eiro looks like someone just kicked his puppy, his face a perfect picture of disappointment.

“Don’t give me that look, kid, you’re the one who signed up to be part of the Unohdettu. If you were looking for glory and excitement than you came to the wrong place,” Chief says as he settles himself down and digs a high-powered telescope from his back.

With a downtrodden sigh, the younger griffon pulls his own equipment out and settles on his stomach facing the city, leaning against a large bush to bend in.

Almost an hour goes by with no activity before Erio breaks his silence. “Say Chief, what exactly ARE the Unohdettu? Like what does being one fully entail?”

The old griffin ‘hmm’s to himself in thought, trying to come up with an answer that would satisfy his young charge.

“Well in the most literal sense we, the Unohdettu, are Lord Anonymous’ go-to griffins. We do the things that need to be done out of sight of others. We’ve been like this since our founding about a year ago. Lord Anon is so concerned about the state of the Dominion that he founded us in secret so that we can keep a lot of operational freedom. We do the stuff that needs to be done,  but no one wants to do.”

Erio tilts his head “But wasn’t Lord Anon just an advisor until a few days ago? How does he have that much power?”

Chief just shrugs. “Dunno, if the rumor mill is anywhere near accurate then apparently he was some big shot in his old home. So he organized everything efficiently and out of sight.”

“Isn’t that wrong, though? Going behind everyone’s back?”

The older griffin sighs and gives his partner a flat look. “He has everyone’s best interests at heart, of course it’s not wrong.”

Erio frowns. “What if he’s lying?”

The sudden growl that comes from Chief makes Erio jump.

“Boy,” begins Chief in a challenging tone, “drop it, he’s not,” he says with a sharp glare to the rookie.

With a gulp, Erio goes back to looking over the city while wondering just what he got himself into. The rest of the night is spent in tense, uncomfortable silence.