//------------------------------//
// Long Dark Night: With Catlike Tread 
// Story: Vengeance of Dawn 
// by Scipio Smith 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 11

Long Dark Night: With Catlike Tread


Breaking Dawn crouched pathetically on the corner of the street, a mostly empty bowl in front of her. Old newspapers and rags littered the ground round about Dawn, their smell and look driving a few potential benefactors away As the ponies passed her by up and down Littlewood Street, she raised her tiny voice to call out to them.

"Spare any change sir? Spare bit sir, help me get a meal tonight? Thank you miss, and Celestia bless you. Any spare change? No? Bless you sir."

As the crowd began to thin, Dawn counted up what she'd made today. A smile broke out upon her small, young face. Success! She had enough to eat in style tonight: a cup of coffee and a three pack of doughnuts down at Pony Joe's.  

"Hey, you little jerk!" a grey pegasus fluttered down to land angrily in front of Dawn. "This here is my spot, I've got this street. Get lost and find your own place to set your bowl out."

Dawn looked up and down, "I don't see your name on it."

"Haha, don't push it you little snot," the pegasus pushed her mug up into Dawn's face. "My street, my rules and I want you out."

Dawn smirked, "Then why don't you make me?"

The pegasus snarled as she slammed into Breaking Dawn. The two rolled up and down the street, tussling furiously. Dawn's begging bowl was knocked aside, bits flying everywhere. The larger, older pegasus tried to pummel Dawn with her hooves, while Dawn gripped the pegasus close and grappled with her while the ponies using the street scattered like chickens at the approach of a cockatrice. 

They wrestled furiously, neither one willing to admit defeat, as Dawn slowly but surely gained the upper hand. She was smaller and younger, but she was determined not to be forced out by anypony, especially some pegasus who showed up to claim a street she hadn't even been anywhere near all day. 

Their battle was as furious as the duel between Celestia and Nightmare Moon, albeit played out upon a smaller scale, and was ended only by the approaching hoof-steps of the city guard, at which point they both had to make a run for it before they got run in. Dawn scraped up a few of her bits and her bowl, but most of the money she had made that day was lost forever. 

So it was a rather angry gaze that she turned upon the grey pegasus as they stopped running in a dark side-alley.

"Thanks a lot, now neither of us is going to eat tonight," Dawn snapped.

The pegasus scuffed the ground with his hooves, "Yeah, sorry about that."

"Whatever. I don't care if your sorry or not," Dawn turned to go. Hopefully she could find a little more charity before dark.

"Nopony has ever fought me to a draw before," the pegasus said. "You got something special in you, unicorn."

"My name's Breaking Dawn," Dawn replied.

The pegasus grinned, "And I'm Razor Wind. You got anyplace to go tonight?"

Dawn shrugged, "Maybe."

"Come on," Razor Wind said, "I know a place we can get a bite to eat and a roof over our heads. I've got a few bits stashed."

Dawn frowned, "You serious?"

"On the level, why not?"

"Why?" Dawn asked. "Why help me out?"

Razor shrugged, "I figure, ponies like us never get anyplace because we don't have anypony. But, maybe, if we watch out for one another, whatever we have we share like, we might actually get ahead for once. Like I said, you're something else."

Dawn hesitated, wondering whether this was all some big trick. But for what? She hardly had any money left. And besides, she kinda liked this pegasus. She had a loyal face. She seemed...trustworthy.

"Why not? Worth a try, I guess," Dawn said.

Razor grinned, putting one leg over Dawn's shoulder, "Consider yourself well in, little sunshine, because after some consideration I can say that you and I are going to be best friends."

***

Breaking Dawn released direct control and rubbed her face with one hoof. For the most part the compulsion spell she had placed upon Shining Armour worked upon suggestion: she would send commands into his mind like Go to the theatre and he would do it, based upon his own knowledge of how to walk and where the theatre was the like. For some things though, when she had to be sure that Shining Armour's subconscious wasn't going to screw things up, she had to direct things personally, controlling exactly what the prince would say and do. That meant that she became a part of Shining Armour, and she had felt him getting slapped around by Twilight's guard captain. He had a strong punch on the end of his legs. 

She had also seen how far gone Twilight Sparkle was. Dark Magic, somehow she had never considered that perfect Twilight Sparkle might sink so low. It was, quite frankly, a little scary. With that amount of power she could tear Dawn to pieces in a fight, and a Twilight who had succumbed to the influence of evil would have no reason to show mercy.

Which just goes to show, Dawn thought. Somepony who would open themselves to the temptations of the dark so easily has no right to bear the Element of Magic, the embodiment of Harmony itself. I was right all along.

And yet, as her reluctant Grevyian friends might have said, there was opportunity even in things that you did not see coming. 

"Well?" Lord Mathos demanded. "What progress?"

Dawn rolled her eyes, grateful that she had her back to the odious zebra. They had met in a private room at the back of a tavern, the proprietor of which was well used to being blind and deaf when the situation called for it. It was a slightly dingy place, ill lit, but fitting she supposed for the business about which they were engaged. Dark for dark business, as the saying went. She could barely make out the little zebra girl behind Lord Mathos, fanning him with a leaf-shaped fan held in her mouth.

Plastering on the widest of her fake smiles, Dawn turned to face Lord Mathos. She understood that he insulted her by speaking in prose, but she was not especially bothered by it. Why should he respect her now, when she was nothing but a would be usurper who had bungled her attempts at secrecy? When she was a princess then, then she would teach him some respect. 

"We need to accelerate our plans," Dawn said. "Forget about splitting Twilight Sparkle from her friends, she's doing a fine job of that herself. No, I can get her isolated and in her power and that, combined with the Elements of Harmony, will enable us to strike much sooner."

Lord Mathos face was hidden behind a mask, so Dawn could not read his face. The two buffalo warriors on either side of him tensed. They looked a little nervous.

"I had hoped for more time to smuggle additional warriors into the city," Lord Mathos said carefully. He had been smuggling in House Aethiope forces and weapons disguised as merchants, tourists and the like. He had also hired a small number of griffon mercenaries in order to take care of the guard pegasi. Dawn was not supposed to know that he had more zebras and southern buffalo stashed in the valleys around Canterlot, but she did thanks to Razor's scouting. 

"You have several hundreds by now, is that not enough?" Dawn asked. "I told you I have a spell will render Celestia harmless for the duration of the battle."

"What of the other, your Princess Luna?"

"Are you telling me that even with the advantage of complete surprise Most Ancient Grevyia cannot handle one single alicorn?"

"Do not think to play on me as a pipe, pony. It is not so easy," Mathos replied. "What is this change of plan of yours that will deliver so much? Why should we trust to it?"

"There is an old unicorn ritual, from the days when there were a lot more powerful unicorns around than there are now," Dawn explained. "It requires privacy, isolation and preferably a lack of emotional connection between the tinder and their Flame. Twilight Sparkle stands now in need of this ritual, and I in my guise as Countess will offer myself as Flame. She trusts me after I delivered her brother up to her, but she does not have an emotional bond with me. I am the perfect choice. And once the ritual is complete ─ if you have a skilled alchemist then lend them to me, along with some guards ─ then she will be in our power and we can restrain her until we are victorious."

"And then after?"

Then she will be released to dwell in peace under my rule, what am I a monster? Dawn kept up her fake smile, though it grated on her. "Afterwards you may do as you like." For all of a few seconds until I put you in your place.

Lord Mathos was silent for several moments. She imagined the Grevyian lord pondering behind his mask. She had been able to gather more than she was meant to know about these Grevyians and their plans. She knew that the Emperor had refused to support this venture with imperial soldiers. If Lord Mathos succeeded he would be lauded in the homeland, if he failed he would be denounced as a renegade and hung out to dry while Grevyia disavowed him and his actions. But whether that encouraged him to caution or to boldness, Dawn did not know. 

"Very well," he said. "We will proceed as you recommend. But if this turns out to be some trick or act against Most Ancient Grevyia─"

"It's not," Dawn said flatly. "This is simply a way for us all to get what we want much faster."

Lord Mathos nodded, and as he shifted in his seat the fan the little zebra was wielding caught the top of his head, dislodging his mask a little. 

He rounded upon the zebra child even as she shrank back from him, "Clumsy little kitwa! I'll have your back bled raw. Take her outside and─"

"Leave her alone," Dawn shouted as one of the two buffalo made a move to seize the young filly. She spoke clearly and precisely, every word enunciated coldly. "The girl is coming with me."

The two buffalo paused uncertain. Lord Mathos said, "She is my slave, her father died owing many debts to me. I claimed her in recompense."

"And now I am claiming her," Dawn said. "Think of it as a down payment to solidify our alliance."

Lord Mathos laughed, "Are you now so rich that I should give you gifts?"

"Do not push me on this, my lord," Dawn said. "We have gone along too far together for you to sell me out, and I have little need of you except to take the city. What is one girl, against the glory of taking Canterlot and all of Equestria for Most Ancient Grevyia?"

"I could turn that question back on you? What is one girl that you would risk our alliance for her sake?"

"Nothing." Save that I was once a frightened girl as she was. "And yet everything." And I hate to witness others standing in my place. "Give me the girl."

Lord Mathos' eyes were just about visible through his mask, they were dark, near black as they locked gazes with her own green orbs. It was the Grevyian High Blood who looked away, "Take her then. She is no loss. The pony is your mistress now. Try and serve her better than you served me. Go!"

The little zebra was pushed across the room to stand in front of Breaking Dawn. She looked up at her with nervousness clear in her posture, apprehension in her eyes. Dawn gave her an encouraging smile, but that just seemed to make the filly even more nervous.

"I think that we are done," Mathos said.

Dawn nodded, "As do I. Good day, my lord." She left the room, the little zebra tagging at her heels, and stepped out of the tavern into the darkened street.

"What's your name?" Dawn asked.

"Numidia, if it please mistress," Numidia was a cute little thing, with blue eyes and little wooden earrings painted to look like gold. 

"I'm not your mistress I'm your...I'm not your mistress. You aren't my slave. Call me Dawn, Breaking Dawn if you want but I prefer Dawn."

"Mistress Dawn, why did you buy me?"

"I told you, no 'Mistress'. And I didn't buy you I freed you. I hate bullies."

Numidia looked confused, "What do you wish me to do now?"

"Wait here," Dawn said, looking up at the sky. "In a little while I'll take you home, but first there is something I have to take care of. Any moment now."

***

Razor Wind waited in the shadow of the south wall of the Twilight Palace. With her, somewhat unwelcome company, where Jugurtha and two more zebras in service to the Grevyian Lord Mathos. Razor was dressed in a black catsuit that left her wings free for flight, while the three zebras all wore iron collars around their necks, knotted clubs slung over their backs, and white masks atop their necks, ready to be lowered to cover up their faces. The masks were not painted, as Lord Mathos' was, but plain white. The eye holes, and the way the mouth was set in a kind of leer, gave them an eerie and unsettling aspect. Razor Wind suspected that was the whole point. 

She didn't trust any of them. Not as far as she could have picked them up and thrown them. These ponies ─ zebras, whatever ─ had blackmailed Dawny, threatened to hurt the others. Out of the four of them, she was the only one with Breaking Dawn's best interests at heart. 

No matter what, I'll protect Dawn. From the zebras, from Princess Twilight, from anypony. Just like I always have. 

"Right then," Razor Wind clapped her hooves together. "Shall we get started?"

Jugurtha pondered for a moment, and then nodded. 

"Shall we mask, captain?" one of the other zebras ask.

"No," Jugurtha replied. "Instructions were clear. We do not aim to shed blood this night."

"You don't mask to hide your faces? I thought that was the point for you lot?"

"That is why Lord Mathos conceals his face and his identity," Jugurtha said. "But he is of the High Blood. We are of the Kuj'to M'fu'pakir, and once we don our masks the battle does not end until the foe lies dead. Or we do."

"The who now?"

"Kuj'to M'fu'pakir," Jugurtha repeated patiently. "In your language there is no exact word. I suppose...Dedicated, but that does not do justice to our bond. It is a thing bone-deep in all our people, binding us to the House we serve. For that reason we are the most prized of servants, and the greatest of warriors."

Razor nodded, "I'm glad you remembered that you aren't here to kill tonight. Let's go."

Razor Wind was the first to move, fluttering up to the top of the south wall. Thankfully it was not a wall wide enough for a sentry to stand on, but a barrier more fitting for deterring intruders than for keeping out a marauding enemy. Once she reached the top, Razor perched awkwardly on top of the wall looking down. She counted one guard patrolling at the base of the wall, with several more in the garden beyond the wall. She waited until the guard had passed by her, then frantically waved the three zebras to get up quick. 

Jugurtha threw a grappling rope up, with caught in one of the crevasses on top of the wall, then the three of them began to climb with a practiced ease that was surprising. Climbing with hooves and mouth was notoriously hard, yet these three might have been trained monkeys for all the difficulty they had in getting up to the top or, once there, leaping silently down to the ground. Jugurtha barely made a thump as his hooves struck the grass, and he was a shadow as he crept up behind the sentry and knocked him out with a well aimed blow to the back of the head. 

Razor flew down off the wall, landing behind a hedge just as the other two zebras made landfall. 

"Are you sure you don't want me to get your rope down the other way so you can escape?" Razor had asked this question more than once, in the planning sessions and tonight, and was always surprised at the answer she recieved.

"We will leave by the main gate," Jugurtha said. "Worry about your own exit, little pony. Come, we must each too our part."

They had determined that the Elements of Harmony were most likely kept in the palace library in the central section, so the three zebras ran like wraiths towards the far east tower. Any guard they encountered they disabled at once. Not a sound was raised in alarm. Razor hung back, her part was to watch for the moment, so she watched. Even after she lost sight of the zebras in the shadows, she kept looking. 

Thankfully the rain of earlier had eased off. A fire sparked, and soon flames were leaping up the walls of the tower, sprouting from the windows, consuming its insides. For a moment Razor Wind saw the three zebras silhouetted against the billowing flames, then they were gone again. 

In moments the palace was a hive of activity, guardsponies and servants swarmed out like angry ants responding to an assault upon the next, rushing to douse the flames with every drop of water that was to hand. Razor saw the rainbow-coloured pegasus, Rainbow Dash, bouncing up and down on dark storm clouds to make the rain pour down out of them and onto the burning tower, while the pink earth pony threw hordes of water balloons upon the flames. 

So many ponies were at work fighting the fire that Razor thought the rest of the palace must be pretty much deserted. With catlike tread her cautious way she felt, creeping through the rosebeds and the bushes, in the shadow of the statues and under the gazebo. So quiet was she that a fly's footfall would have been distinctly heard as she crept forward, dodging the fire fighters, and slipped into the palace through an open window. 

The palace certainly was the kind of place Dawny would like to live: such luxury, such finery. The texture of the carpet beneath her feet, the quality of the artworks upon the walls. Razor Wind wasn't sure it did as much for her, but then she had always had a more earthy taste, ironic as it was for a pegasus. 

When Dawn comes into her throne I shall live in a simple house and be renowned for my humility. Provided that I can place my simple house within spitting distance of the palace, so that I can go to Dawny's aid whenever she needs me.

Razor felt her way through the semi-darkness that covered the interior of the now deserted palace. She had several false starts before she found the library: she found herself fumbling around a solar, a laboratory and a billiard room before she found the library. There in a glass case amidst the piles of ancient manuscript and tastefully bound volumes, rested the greatest magical artefacts in the entire of Equestria: the Elements of Harmony. 

They gleamed effulgent, so much so that Razor Wind had to pause in her burglary just to wonder at their beauty. So fair, so golden, so beautiful. They sang to her, proof that Dawn was right and she was fated to bear one of them. Their power called to her, beckoned her. They filled her ears with a sweet song like a chorus of paradise birds, like a thousand tinkling bells, they sang of promise and of destiny. Razor Wind, they called. Save us. Redeem us. It is not too late.

An allelujah chorus filled Razor's ears as she lifted the lid on the case and slowly, delicately, with the utmost reverence began to place the elements clinking into her black satchel bag.

"Who are you? What do you think you're doing?"

Razor Wind whirled around to see the baby dragon standing in the doorway, his hands upon his hips.

Razor Wind placed the final element, the Element of Magic crown, into her bag, "Out of my way, scaly. Whether you try and slow me down or not, I'm leaving."

"No," the dragon snapped. "You're not getting past me. Help! Somepony's stealing the Elements!"

Razor Wind kicked into the air, flying at full speed towards the doorway. She barrelled into the little dragon and bore him backwards with a squawk, using his scaly body as a cushion against their impact with the opposite wall. The dragoon gave an 'oof' sound as Razor dropped him to the floor and sped outwards, her wings blurring as they beat furiously. 

She turned through the first doorway in the direction of the outside of the palace. Razor didn't stop as she burst through the window amidst a shower of tinkling broken glass which fell upon the grass as Razor Wind burst up into the air.

"What was that? Who is that pony?"

Razor growled. What her exit possessed in speed and efficiency it lacked in stealth. Now every eye was turned towards her. Her wings hummed as they beat to bear her upwards above the clouds. 

The little dragon's face appeared at the broken window, "Stop her, she's got the Elements of Harmony!"

Celestia burn it, Razor Wind forced her wings harder, for more speed, more elevation. She burst up above the cloud bearer, waving goodbye to the unicorns and earth ponies below her─

─to find Rainbow Dash hovering in the air just above the cloud bank, her wings beating slowly, her legs outstretched. A look of fierce determination was etched on Rainbow Dash's face.

"Hand. Over. The Elements," Rainbow Dash snarled.

Razor Wind allowed herself to sink a little lower down, "Or else?"

Rainbow Dash's response was to slam her forehooves together with an audible smacking sound. 

Razor hesitated, calculated the possibilities, and then sped back downwards through the clouds the way she had come. 

"Oh so you wanna do this the hard way huh?" Rainbow Dash sped after her in pursuit, a rainbow trail lighting up the night behind her. 

***

Rainbow Dash grinned as she gained upon the thief, the catsuit wearing pegasus growing larger and larger in her sights. Soon she would be able to pounce, and take back the Elements. 

The speed of the chase, this was what she lived for. The feeling of air rushing past her face, the adrenaline pumping through her wings, the crackling trail she was leaving behind her, this was living. 

And she didn't even have to push herself too hard. Already the thief looked to be giving it all she had, Rainbow Dash wasn't even breaking a sweat. You're mine buddy, and so is what you stole.

More pegasi were rising to join the chase now. Royal Guards in gleaming armour, and Spitfire and Soarin' of the Wonderbolts. Rainbow's smile got even wider. Great. Now I can save the Elements of Harmony and impress the Wonderbolts all at the same time.

The thief dived downwards, making a tricky turn through some laundry-laden washing lines strung between two high buildings on either side of a narrow street. Rainbow Dash, pursuing, was a hair too slow in her own dive and a blanket snagged on her right wing. She began to spin as she struggled to throw off the obstacle even as it acted like an anchor upon her flight. The blanket fell free as Rainbow kicked frantically at it. But she had turned her head away and flew head-first into somepony's tunic.

Oh for pete's sake, get off! Rainbow tore the tunic off her head and threw it away, only to see the wall of the cul-de-sac coming right for─

She hit the wall with a metallic anvil sound, and slid down it to the street-floor with a sound like a window wiper scraping on a window. 

"Mare down!"

As Rainbow Dash lay stunned in the alley, she dimly perceived Spitfire's head appearing above her.

"You still alive, Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow groaned.

"That's the spirit kid," Spitfire said. "Hang in there. Hang in there."

***

Razor Wind didn't look back. She had evaded Rainbow Dash, but she had bigger problems to worry about. Like the enormous shadow speeding towards her with a roar of rage that heralded the oncoming of an extremely angry alicorn princess. 

Any time now Dawny, Razor said.

A massive burst of golden energy shot up from the street, dispersing Twilight's shadow aura as the alicorn dodged the blast. Two more, smaller and less powerful, beams of golden magic erupted up from the warren of urban Canterlot, driving Twilight Sparkle backwards. By the time she recovered, Razor Wind had ducked down to street level and was lost to all pursuit.

Razor found Dawn at the agreed rendezvous point, outside the old hat shop in Roxwell Road, one of the smaller and more secluded alleyways. Strangely, Dawn was accompanied by a little zebra filly Razor had never seen before. She also looked very drained.

"That was some powerful magic there, Dawny," Razor said.

"That magic almost took me to my limit," Dawn gasped. "Long range attacks are not my thing. Worth it though, if you got what you went in for."

"Oh I got them all right," Razor passed over the satchel bag, half opening it to show the gleaming Elements within. 

Dawn's eyes widened and she began to laugh, "Ohoho, oh yes, oh yes! Well done Razor, well done! You are awesome girl, absolutely awesome!"

As Razor smiled, Dawn broke out the stupidest dance Razor had ever seen, jumping up and down chanting, "We did it! We did it!" Razor couldn't help but join in the laughter.

"This is it, baby," Dawn said. "This is what we always dreamed of!"

An enormous scream, anger mingled with intense pain, filled the air, rolling across all of Canterlot. The air became thick with magic so intense that even a pegasus like Razor Wind could feel it, and it made her skin crawl.

Dawn's face became set and intense, "Stay here, Razor, look after the filly. Numidia, this is Razor Wind, she's going to look after you until I get back. Because I have just had my cue."