Humble Beginnings & Unexpected Happenings
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Sunzue once said, the art of war is a vital importance to the state. It is a matter of life and death. the road either to safety, or to ruin.
A pegasus colt of advanced height trotted down the streets of the village he had called 'home' for all his life. This 'village', much more of a large city, was an eyesore to anyone who didn't live within its ramshackle walls of poorly maintained stockades and crude looking watchtowers, and houses of similar destitute. Pealing paper, which had long since lost its original color, covered their walls, and severely blackened glass windows adorned what houses that had them, many cracked or broken. The two story houses stood packed so close to each other, that only the most desperate of urchins could fit within their gaps. Most of the old wooden doors had at least a plank missing or their hinges fallen, or broken, off, forcing the residence to prop them up against homemade frames, or merely forgo the door for a mere tarp for coverage. Many of these perished homes bore severely withered thatch roofing, while others just barely held onto rotting shingles. The ghoulish figure of the colt tread upon the street, that being merely loose cobbles and packed dirt.
The people who resided with the confines of this rotblister of a place mirrored image of their home; ragged, torn clothing clinging to their matted, filthy coats and manes. Like many of the homes, the villagers had a downtrodden look about them. Outrageous taxes and rising prices of even the simplest of necessities were only a few of the contributors to their destitute.
The white coated foal cast his magenta eyes to a flag pole, expecting to see the normal, oppressive eight pointed star. The golden idol had seemingly stared down upon the citizens with a choking gaze for as long as it had been there, which had been shortly after the foal was born. To the colt's surprise, however, he was not met with the oddly hypnotizing symbol at all. Upon the flagpoles, fine red banners lined with a black trim hung from their new mount, swaying lightly in the breeze. The new banners were adorned with a silhouetted profile of what seemed to be a fanged unicorn with a curved horn, with the tip of the horn fading into the red background.
This was definitely got his attention, the youngling had never seen a flag like this, nor a flag in such a good condition before. He cursed as he realized it had took him this long to notice the difference, but merely excused it with the fact that he was rarely able to get out of that damned torture chamber called an orphanage...
The gangly pegasus walked further into town to investigate, earning harsh glares and sometimes even harsher shoves from almost everypony he walked past. To these trespasses, the young colt returned in kind with a cold fury and a twisted gleam of menace in his dulling eyes. No matter it being a normal occurrence, The young colt never lost his hate for villagers and townsfolk, it festering like a tainted flame, burning with the heat of a hundred fevers. Despite the strength of his hate, another emotion had long ago wormed its way into his heart, and clung to the mass of hatred like a parasite. The gaunt foal had felt the tugging of its icy grasp slowly pulling towards his navel every time his hatred surfaced. For all of his thought and wonder, the foal could not figure out what it was, the unending gnawing of uncertainty scratching at the back of his mind was insufferable. The desolate colt was at a loss to what such an insufferable illness had befallen him. Was it Typhus?Could it be a wretched mire leech? No amount of speculation could give him a definite answer, until finally, he overheard some classes in the orphanage, from which he had been banned from, about emotions and what they could cause. The feeling that had haunted his thoughts for so long, that had always whispered in the back of his mind, was fear.
Fear from the life he had been cursed with.
Fear for his tormentors.
Fear for his death.
This revelation had struck the pegasus like a bolt of lightning. Fear had taken root and had blossomed into a twisted and gnarled flower. His wolf like appearance had helped him greatly in masking his newly discovered fear with a much stronger emotion, Hatred. Hatred for those who were so eager to brand him a daemon because of the orphan mother and her incessant gossip. As far back as he could remember, the colt had been hated by the public and openly discriminated against with near wild fervor. It was his birth that had damned him. The day he was brought to this world was the day many had left, courtesy of a massive daemon. One that had taken the form of a massive alabaster wolf, covered in green runes. It had emerged from the vast and twisted forest that was referred to as the great Everfree in a unbridled rampage.
The beast had cleaved a mighty path out of the Everfree in its rage filled flight. The great white canine had entered into open land for the first time in millennium with a vengeful gleam in his three emerald eyes, Each shining with an uncontrollable storm of animosity and utter hatred. Its trident gaze fell upon the first vestige of civilization that had been able to prosper off of the Everfree in years, however, the greed and foolishness of the denizens had brought upon them great calamity. Shining Glory, the once great city, had fallen in a single night of the greater daemon's attention. Many ponies had lost loved ones, homes, businesses, and their hero in that attack. Most of the older generation could never let go of their sorrow, the emptiness of what they lost could only be filled with hate. Hate for themselves, hate for one another, hate for the Daemon of the Bloody Fang. But once a certain pegasus colt was left on the doorstep of the orphanage, one that bore the telltale markings of daemonic influence, all of the animosity for each other was transfixed unto the unfortunate soul.
The near corpselike colt proceeded further to the center of the village, as the crowds thickened, food carts and stalls started to appear, not that they held anything of quality, much less quantity. One could feel the oppressive feeling of hatred that carried throughout the air. The source of such a overwhelming hatred stemmed from many, if not all, of the villagers who could see the malnourished form of the object of their spite. Though his current condition was of a small satisfaction to the residence of Tarnished Glory, an appropriate title for the of the former city, It would never satisfy their lust for vengeance. Sadly for them however, no physical action could be taken against him, the lord of Tarnished Glory had decreed that the colt would not be harmed severely by any of the towns residence. This decree was baffling to many who could not bring themselves to think in a different direction besides animosity. The true reason behind this law was to further the power of Lord Crull, Tarnished Glory's highest of lords. Crull, having a cruel and ambitious nature, knew how true weapons of might were made. No matter the skill of the smith, nor the quality of the metal, could match his method. No, Crull knew that the mightiest of weapons were not of metal and timber, of blades and runes, but of flesh and blood. True weapons born, forged by the unrelenting inferno of hatred and unwavering suffering, by endless neglect and the deepest ravines of despair. Only the strong could pass the gauntlet to reach their true purpose as a weapon, as a tool. To serve the powerful and noble as a tool, to be used, to subdue and slaughter their enemies. And when their purpose had come to an end, or their risk had outweighed their return to their masters, to be cast aside and left to rot, no one to remember them.
The canine like colt continued on towards the Old District, where most of the remaining building of Tarnished Glory still stood, even if just barely. By the time he set his hooves upon the cobbles of the Old District, a rock was thrown past his head, landing with a loud clack as it hit the old cobbles of the street. Everything seemed to come to a stop as all of the townspeople glared at the black maned pariah with disgust at such a vile presence. Like a tide, the mass of bodies distanced themselves from the pegasus, and a large circle separated the ghoulish colt and the townsponies. Fiery hate shone in the glares of every single denizen, stabbing forth from their Glorian eyes.
The foal tried to move past them, to ease that niggling feeling that began to scratch its way to the forefront of his mind, but the crowd did not part upon the colt's advancement. Instead, the hate filled townsponies took to grabbing hold of anything they could within hooves or psychic reach. Stones, sticks, scrap planks, and whatever manner of blunt instruments were brought to bear. The bony colt came to a halt, realization striking him as the incessant parasite began to flail wildly in his heart. He was surrounded by almost twenty villagers, some just simple peasant farmers selling grain or craftsponies of the inner district, some even hailing from a more vengful sect of the Glorian guardsponies. The very same who had been ordered to keep the peace had taken to the prospect of causing the damned 'thing' a bout of pain. The cold eyes of the colt widened slightly, his pedigree unable to hide his fear, even for just that moment, before turning back to the baleful gleam of icy hate. The same look that had become synonymous with the young pegasus.
Even at the prospect of losing their occupation, the Glorian Guards, armored in worn leather clothing, their right shoulder adorned with a bronze pauldron emblazoned with a jagged wheel baring eight gnarled points, would easily take the chance to exact vengeance upon the three eyed daemon wolf that took so much away from them. The crowd that surrounded the seemingly feeble pony threw hexes and ailments upon the hated pariah, brandishing their temporary weaponry to instill as much fear in the colt before their sever brand of 'justice' would commence.
"Daemon spawn!" One particularly large villager hefting a pick axe sneered as he approached menacingly, "We are finally gonna return all the pain you caused, us all those years ago." The stallion seethed anger through his dull brown eyes, a look that was mirrored by every other pony there. The colt held his ground, the icy tendrils of fear grasp at his heart, but not allowing it to take hold, he fed the flames of rage inside his soul. If one where to look closely, one would be able to see the ardent fire in the canine pony's eyes. Eyes that held only rage and left no room for mercy.
As a paragon of fierce defiance, The nameless colt readied himself for the attack, expecting nothing less than the beating of his life. Taking a threatening stance towards the mob, the colt crouched his forelegs, spreading them apart, spreading his gaunt wings to an impressive length and baring a mouth full of fangs as he let loose a low growl. Intentional or not the growl brought a clear reaction from the crowd, Some of the weaker willed mares and stallions began to back up or outright run away in fear. While other, more stouthearted ponies took it as their final proof to see the ire of the village as the monster they knew it to be.
"See, How could this really be a pony? No, This thing is the damned wolf in disguise weakened by its battle with Shining Halo!" One of the guards shouted over the crowd, trying to bring out more fervor at the mention of the towns hero, the one who defeated the Three Eyed Wolf at the cost of her own life, alone with many others. A chorus of approval emanated from the crowd as the remaining twelve ponies started to shout and wave their weapons. Numerous threats and curses where hurled at the town pariah, and it was clear now that the remaining ponies would not back down.
Seeing this, the colt could no longer think intimidation as his salvation, pushing back the ever growing feeling of fear and drowning it with a baleful flame of rage that would impress dragons were they present. The colt looked for an exit strategy from the ring of angry bodies but found none. Holding fast, he steeled himself for the coming storm.
""Lets finish Shining Halo's work! Let us free ourselves of this evil!" The same guard boomed over the crowds jeers while pointing his rusty mace at the colt while hovering in the air on rust colored wings. The rest of the crowd took to the 'inspirational' words of the guard like parasprites to food. With one final cry of animosity the assembled mob charged forward.
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Upon a hill overlooking the scene four figures stood under a great oak in one of the royal gardens, watching the scene unfurl. One appeared to be a sleek looking politician or merchant, a stallion that possessed a short dull blond mane that was sleeked back with a stubby purple horn sticking out of it. His greedy eyes shared the color of his mane, which slightly clashed with his dull purple coat that seemed to almost glisten in a silkily way. Over said coat of fur lied extravagant silk clothing inlaid with gold and ivory to show his obvious economic advantage over the populace.
Two of the other figures stood out from the rest of the town completely. Both pegasus were adorned in full suits of dark steel scaled armor, Which entailed a helm of sleek design that seemed to be angular in design with the metal tailing back, sporting a metal fin at the top of the helm and a visor covering the lower face of the two figures and shrouding their eyes in darkness. The shoulder pauldrons seemed to be smooth and aerodynamic like the rest of the armor and barred protrusions that formed razor fins. The chest plate held a gold crystal in the center of it, with the metal in a pattern flowing away from the center of the chest. With the leg greaves following the same flowing scaled pattern as the rest of the armor. They both stood with an air of conference and reserve becoming of true warriors, But the one they flanked was far more impressive. Resting upon the shoulders of both pegesi, A slender lance well exceeding the height of the wielders sat, crafted from the same metal from their armor, they held a deadly edge that could pierce even the toughest of armor at high speeds. On the butt of each lance, a thin tassel of long ruby red hair flowed.
At the front of the group, listening closely to the procession below, stood a stallion of superior muscle mass that held an air of superiority. The charcoal gray stallion was like no other, with an angular jawline traced by deep black facial hair. his muzzle was sharp and broad, and not a trace of fat was present on his face. His blood ruby eyes seemed to ooze power, literally forming wisps of purple arcane energy from the corners of his eyes, the most definitive quality of the stallion's eyes where that the sclera was not the average white, but a dark emerald green. He stood a good head taller then most tall stallions with his obsidian mane flowing back in a magical breeze that only affected him. His oddly curved horn signified him as a unicorn, it matched the color of his coat at the base, but faded into a blood red, getting deeper in color the closer it was to the end. Providing armor to his muzzle, a thin dark steel crown was placed atop his head, with only the front part not being hidden by his flowing mane.
His attire composed of scaled plates of dark steel covering his neck and chest with a blood ruby centered on his chest, with shoulder pauldrons of angular dark steel plates jutting outwards on either side. connected to his intricate shoulder guards was a thick dragon skin cape in the shade of deep red, which was lined with a Snow Ursa's fur on the edge of the flowing red cape. While not in full armor like the two pegesi obviously under his command, his greaves provided plenty of protection with their thick and angular plates going all the way up to his upper joints.
"Ah, there he is my lord," The extravagantly dressed unicorn said will giddily gesturing towards the assailed colt below. "My... 'social experiment'" The purple unicorn chuckled darkly. "Ah and looks like we've stumbled across one of his little 'test' I've implemented upon him." The blond unicorn continued with a high pitched voice worthy of the most arrogant of nobility.
The armored unicorn raised a thick eyebrow at what his new pawn had said. 'Is this the weapon he spoke of?' The charcoal curved horned stallion thought before releasing a growl. Turning his head to glare at the sleazy unicorn. “Didn’t you state you had made a law to protect this child, Can you not even keep your own rabble in check, Crull?” The larger stallion said in a gravelly voice, making his disapproval evident.
The unicorn of the name Crull began to fumble a bit with his words before regaining his composure, which only seemed to garner more disapproval from the muscular unicorn next to him. " M-my lord, I am full aware of my own actions." The richly dressed stallion stated nervously before gaining back his usual arrogant tone. "I made the law to not inflict permanent physical harm on the foal, and I most definitely wouldn't have let this happen without having my own hoof to play in it." Crull stated with a sinister grin etched across his rounded snout.
The armored unicorn grunted before looking back at the spectacle below, staring intently down upon the pegasus colt as he was charged by the angry mob of twelve ponies intent on causing only pain and suffering for the 'Daemon'. "Let us see what this 'daemon' truly has to offer me, Crull." He uttered, awaiting for the battle to unravel.
"Yes, lord Sombra." was all the other unicorn said before turning his gaze upon the battle. 'You better not disappoint me, brat!'
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Within the alleys of the Old Quarter's tall stone buildings, many criminals and lowlifes had taken refuge in the dark passageways as a home and way to travel throughout the city. Some parts of the inner alleys had been made into actual thriving communities of thugs and shifty merchants and fencers. From assassins to bodyguards, from alchemist to smiths, all forms of shady business thrived within the alleyways and higher sewers of Tarnished Glory.
With the dally hustle of scum flowing through the alleyways subsiding, some of the small stands of illegal wares began to close immediately, the owners not wanting to leave their profits to be stolen by the lingerers. Some of the more intimidating individuals still remained open for business, but not many stands remained as the rest had packed up and left for the day, returning to whatever hovel they dwelled.
Within the shrouded corridors of the inner city started to still and go quiet, A cloaked figure stepped out from the wall and started making towards one of the remaining stalls that held an unusually plentiful amount of fresh food. At the sight of the shadowy figure approaching his stall, the lanky, but well muscled pegasus mare grinned sensually at the cloaked figure now in front of her.
"So," The dark blue mare purred slightly within her speech. " Did you get the job done, handsome?" She said while narrowing her gleaming gold eyes and licking her lips, obviously in an attempt to seduce her visitor.
From the cloaked figure a young, but still slightly masculine voice replied. "You know, many might think your rather... athletic, form to be unappealing, maybe you should do something about that before trying to dabble in such practices?" The shaggy maned mare narrowed her eyes menacingly at her least favorite of contacts, knowing full well what he was insinuating.
Giving a low growl of irritation, the mare slammed a hoof down onto the rickety boards of her stall. "Listen here you little runt, I am your goddamn lifeline here. I'm the one with the food here, and I'm the one in control. Now wouldn't a smart little lad like you hold his forked tongue when speaking with the only thing keeping him alive in the city?" She questioned poisonously, completely dropping the seductive act.
Hearing his temporary employer insinuating her own threat made the cloaked figure think twice. Sighing, the younger pony reached into his cloak and produced a small package and dropped it on the stall. Not wasting any time, the rugged looking mare retrieved a dagger from the sash across her chest and slashed swiftly across the top part of the package in a sudden burst of speed. Inspecting the fine black powder within it with a calculated sniff she looked back up with a sultry grin of satisfaction.
"Looks like you get to eat tonight kid." She chuckled out before obtaining multiple small bags and carefully pouring the ominous black power evenly into each one, not even giving the cloaked pony another glace as she had moved on to a far more important mater. Stepping forward to the section of the food cart holding various dried meats, a clawed appendage emerged from the brown cloak and retrieved a large amount of preserved venison from the cart and putting it in a small sack, then returning it the inside of his cloak. Seeing his purpose here was done, the cloaked pony turned away and began walking towards the way out of the alleys and into the streets.
Traversing the darkened alleys way nothing difficult to the young stallion as he seemed to move with a sense of direction through the winding passageways. through his ragged hood two catlike emerald eyes gazed at the shrouded path ahead of him as he scanned for any activity. Right when he thought he was clear to leave the embrace of the shadows to move across the alley, A dark blur shot past him, nearly blowing his hood off his head. Pinning himself back on the wall the cloaked pony hid for a moment, waiting for the eventual follow up.
As predicted, two cloaked figures blurred past the pony's vision in hot pursuit of the other figure before they all rounded a winding corner, delving deeper into the intricate web of alleys of the Old Quarter. The pony sighed in relief before moving onward to the streets.
Within the two months of the emerald eyed pony had lived in the cities inner alleys, He had learnt that such occurrences as high speed chases like the one he almost ran into were quite common, and one had to learn not to intervene unless one wanted to make an enemy. Pushing such thoughts back from his mind the young pony continued on his path. After a few more minutes of swift travel, The cloaked pony had reached an exit to the gloomy passages of the alleyways. Stopping at the illuminated entrance to the open streets, the cloaked figure took a cautious look out at his surroundings.
Looking out at the city streets, the brown cloaked figure observed as the streets were unusually clear and much of the common traffic was gone. Before the emerald eyed pony could question the sudden absence of ponies, a cry of multiple angry voices emanated down the road. Curious as to why such violent sounds of aggression where coming from. the pony clad in brown swiftly moved towards the sound of confrontation.
Rounding the corner, The hooded figure came to a halt at the sight of an entire crowd of townsfolk and even a few of the guards armed with all manor of improvised weaponry charging a feral and underfed looking pegasus. The look in the gaunt pegasus' eyes shone with a cold gleam of fury, the emotion seemed to fill his very soul like a crashing wave. But as the hooded pony stared on, he saw a slight fault in the rage filled eyes, within a split second the cold fury returned with a look of feral determination. However, the hooded pony had seen that look, that glimmer in the eyes of many ponds of water and screens of glass before, despair, pain, and loneliness.
'His eyes, they're like mine... But, he hides it in darkness, in rage.' The thought was lost on him as he saw the confrontation commence into battle. Two slitted pupils watched the horribly one sided brawl with sympathy and slight pain. They watched as the gawky pariah chomp down on a pegasus mares snout,and to the mysterious newcomers surprise, a copious amount of crimson sprung forth from the wound as the colts teeth tore through the unfortunate mares muzzle. A scream of pain followed as the beige mare fell to the ground as the rage filled colt threw her to the ground, turning her sky blue mane into a light shade of crimson as her own blood began to pool below her. She looked up in terror to see the harsh magenta eyes of her would-be victim before those same gold eyes rolled back as she fell unconscious.
The sickly colt turned and bore his bloodied fangs at his next assailant, only to be met with a hoof. The crack of the hit could be heard blocks away, and the pony seemingly plastered to the wall cringed at the strike, knowing all to well the pain of an earth pony hoof. But again the brown clad pony was met with surprise as he saw the earth pony's smirk turned into a pained yelp as he was pulled into the air, hoof clutched in the starved colts jaws, and was pulled to the ground with his combatant.
'Huh,' The shadowy observer thought with a slight smile. 'He used the momentum of the attack to drag that pony down with him, serves the idiot right to shove his hoof into a mouth full of fangs like that...Wait, fangs? Curious indeed,'
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'Kill.' It was just one singular whisper, a hallow rasp at the back of his mind, And for one moment, he felt his fear blossom. He forced his rage full force into the forefront of his mind, dashing away that fear and letting loose a feral howl of baleful hate. hearing this some of the charging ponies faltered, while others only seemed to be spurred onward by the display. The first of his enemies reached him, a dull purple pegasus flying at an impressive speed with her hooves outstretched for a charge.
The pale white colt swiftly dodged her reckless charge and went to the next assailant. Another pegasus mare, this one landing before throwing a punch at her believed bane of existence. Instead of the satisfying dull ache of a punch, the unbearable pain of rended flesh bloomed upon her muzzle as the wolfish colt bit into her upper snout. Her gold eyes widened in surprise as the met dull pink ones filled with hate. The blue maned mare let out a bloodcurdling scream before loosing control of her legs, dropping uselessly to the ground. She looked at the colt standing before her, her blood covering his monstrous fangs and dripping down his now stained muzzle. The whole image coupled with her pain brought her to a level of fear she never thought existed, so she did the only reasonable thing, and fainted.
The black hair of the scorned colt shot back with the rest of his body when a large hoof of brown fur and bulging muscle slammed into his open maw. Even through the pain the canine pegasus clenched his jaw and bit down, using his momentum to pull the heavy weight of his attacker tumbling down with him in a heap of limbs and fur.
In an instant, the rest of the mob pounced, pinning the colt to the ground and retrieving their comrade. two earth ponies held onto each of his upper and lower legs, while a burnt orange unicorn mare held his slender neck down with a yellow aura of telekinesis. The burly stallion who had just had his hoof torn to shreds got up on his good hooves and stumbled forwards while assertively growling. "No one touch him! I'm going to beat my fill first." Approaching the struggling foal, the white maned stallion narrowed his crimson eyes at his new prey. The stallion merely winched in pain when he put his damaged right hoof down, the reared back his good hoof and smashed it down upon the colts left rear leg, electing a sharp SNAP, and a stifled scream of pain.
The jagged bone stuck out of the young hide with blood dripping off its point, the stallion then turned around and reared up his hind legs over the colt, then brutally brought them crashing down on the white pegasus's rib cage, earning another cry of pain that followed a series of cracks. The brown hulk of a stallion turned to see the pariah coughing up blood, wheezing for breath from his wounds and restraints. He gave one last look before walking away, satisfied with the damage he had caused. "Go ahead, have at him." The stallion paused before chuckling and limping away. "He's easy to break."
The assembled rabble cheered at the display of brutality unto the monster that had plagued their city, their lives. The unicorn who had been using telekinesis let loose a bone chilling grin before summoning up her magical affinity, and in an instant, all of her anger and fear set ablaze her magical aura holding down the white colt below her. The bright yellow magic turned to a mass of blazing orange flames that licked and stabbed at the fur and flesh of the gaunt pony on the ground, electing another gurgled scream from said colt. That's all it took to urge the other ponies to lunge forwards at the writhing pariah with weapons ready.
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Further away stood the unmoving figures of three armored stallions accompanied by a finely dressed fourth pony. Said fourth pony had a nervous look plastered over his sweat laden face. He had made a promise to his lord that he had made the ultimate weapon, yet it had been able to barely best one of the wretches. 'How DARE that insolent fool show this much weakness at a time like this, damn him!' The purple unicorn shifted his gaze over at the stoic stallion who had not betrayed a single emotion thus far.
A few paces away, the dark king was thinking something completely opposite from his new pawn's frantic internal ranting. With a slight narrowing of his eyes the ornately armored stallion analyzed the situation presented to him. "Only eight years old and he can incapacitate a full grown pegasus mare with a single blow, And those fangs... it looks as if he could hold up his... reputation, quite well." Droned out a strong bass of a voice, and with it came a slight glare of barely concealed contempt. "Why do you squirm and fluster Crull? You obviously have something to say... but is it to me, or perhaps another?" A quirked eyebrow presented itself on the dark visage of the stallion known as Sombra, and it was quite clear to his new associate that he wanted an answer, but all Crull could do in his current state was flounder with his words and make a fool of himself.
The dark unicorn made his final decision concerning the well being of his new and, quite useless pawn, and made his move with a cold gleam in his ruby eyes. Turning his contemptuous gaze from the self indulgent unicorn, the dark king gave a terse command to his guards before traversing down the cobbled road, into the town square. The two pegisi swiftly took to the skies with powerful beats of their feathered wings. Seeing he had to choice, Crull hurried along at the heels of Sombra.
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Crimson Gleam and Fatal Feather had been inducted into the Crystal Legion at an extremely young age. Both lived in the same village when it was raided by bandits, and both had lost their families and friends, leaving them with only each other. They had to fight their brutish captors in a desperate gambit to escape lives of slavery and anguish. They had to brave the northern wilderness as a frigid winter set in, barely coming out of the ordeal alive.
Their ordeal ended months later when they stumbled upon a Legion patrol, begging to be saved from starvation and cold.
(WARNING, END OF EDIT, CONTINUATION MAY LEAD TO CRINGE)
capital building he saw a large mass of soldiers in steel scaled plate armor with black coats and curved sabers on their sides and tall halberd on their shoulders, on closer inspection he could see they were holding those strange flags in the town earlier.
At the front of the lines was a muscular smoke grey unicorn with gravity defying black mane that looked like fire. He had green eyes and a red horn that faded into black the closer you got to the base of it, it was ad normal in size compared to regular unicorns.
He was clothed in a red velvet cape with a snow leopard fur collar and he wore a much more regal and intricate form of the soldier’s armor.
This strange unicorn was talking to lord Crull, the baron of our estate. A certain colt personally hated him more than most ponies here.
He's an evil tyrant that embraces slavery and pony trafficking. He also loves to come to the orphanage and kicks us to the ground and toy with us for nothing more than amusement.
Crull was a dark purple unicorn with dark gold short mane and yellow eyes. And he's always wearing that sadistic grin on his face, if anypony were to be as corrupt as him they'd be dead by now by the drug lords and slave traders he constantly ripped off. But since he's so far up in political terms that every pony kisses up to him and fears his power. His cutie mark was a ball and chain with a bag of bits next to it. If that doesn't scream corrupt then what would.
Phantom continued to observed this strange unicorn and Crull When I saw the baron lean down and kneel to the ground before the evil looking unicorn and sign a parchment roll.
Right there he knew what was going on, he was handing the estates land and ponies over to this fanged unicorn!
The pale colt felt a slight rage at this. He just betrayed his own country! And if there’s one thing I hate more than Crull himself, it’s the lack of loyalty here in this grim forsaken place.
Loyalty is one of the few things that he admired about some ponies. And this dirt bag was forsaking all of them for personal gain!!
Phantom felt a surge of anger flow through him, he wanted nothing more than to break of that stunted horn. But he knew he stood no chance against those guards. So he was about to leave to the orphanage when one of those guards grabbed his black tail and dragged him to the smoke colored unicorn and Crull.
"And as you can see I am now fully committed to your black crusade Er- my lord. Crull said while bowing to his new master.
"Lord Sombra, I found this foal ease dropping on you.” said the Guard Sergeant.
"Hmmm," Sombra looked at me curiously as if he was going to put the starved colt in his slave chambers.
"Who is this little one Crull." Sombra said in an icy venom of a voice.
“You, Daemon child, state your name at once." Said Crull to the ad normally tall colt with all the malice in his black heart.
Phantom glared daggers at Crull,"I don't know, no pony ever told me." he grumbled at Crull.
"Eh Crull, why did you call this boy a daemon child, and why does he not have a name?" Sombra said with a gleam in his eyes.
“Because he IS a daemon ch-" I wouldn't let him finish.
“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU CRULL!!!!!! YOU’RE THE ON THAT TURNED ME INTO A DAEMON!!!"
"Ha don't make me laugh brat! I’d bet you’d die from hunger before you'd even get to me.” Crull Said in a amused tone smirking at the colt who was trying desperately to get away from the guard.
"Let's find out shall we hmm?" Sombra slithered out from his forked tongue in a gleeful voice. At the prospect of violence, the malicious unicorn couldn't help but smile. To see death right before his very hooves was like the moment before a grand feast, the anticipation for blood was growing restless within the dark stallion. It had been far too long sense he had sated his thirst for the worlds richest of wines, blood of the living. " Let him go Pawn!"
As soon as the guard loosened his jaw the shot forward at Crull with suprising speeds that seemed impossible to even phantom himself. He hit the short horn with all of his might. Crull was completely caught off guard and for that was rewarded with a broken horn courteously of the pegasus colt in front of him.
A strained scream of utter pain was all Crull could get out as Phantom grabbed his horn off the cold stone ground and stabbed it right I between the corrupted unicorns eyes ending his miserable grim's forsaken life. But Phantom wasn't done. he felt this … this voice, this primal feeling in the back of his dark mind to do more.
Phantom then yanked the horn out of his skull and stabbed it down on his right hoof, it felt likehis body was doing all of this without his minds orders, like he was being possessed and then he saw it, What they all assume to have been Crull's soul being sucked out of his body and into the dark purple horn in the unstable colts foreleg as it started to glow the rose color identical to his bloodshot eyes.
In a bright flash of light the horn was now a smaller, shorter version of itself sticking out right above Phantom’s front right hoof as if it was a part of his body.
All the while, Sombra looked on with mad glee apparent across all his features, grinning ear to ear while baring his fangs, while the crowds that gathered around looked on at the town pariah with a mixture of awe and horror.
Phantom felt himself slowly slipping out of consensus. He fell to the groun\d as his senses started to shut down, the last thing he heard was the darker unicorns voice.
"I see much use in you colt, yes Indeed, from this day forth you with become my acolyte, and you shall be known as Phantom Reaper." Sombra said while Phantoms world faded into black.
I am Draco the last Unikronogon from a tribe in the Everfree forest, I ran away from the carnage that was brought about by an army I still know nothing of.
I went north, the only way I thought was safe, well that and my mother told me to go north to some place I can’t remember what she said. So a walked and walked in tell I felt like dying right then and there, but as fate and luck may have it, I found a large village, but that’s were his luck ran out. The village itself looked, well… bad.
It was rundown and dirty, and it also looked like it needed a major fix up. The flag made it looked like it was a daemon worshiping cult. It was an eight pointed star all rusted and filthy.
“Who would ever want that as their emblem to be that thing?” Draco thought to himself.
But he didn’t care, he had found civilization! He was saved, or so he thought. He was treated with contempt and disgust. He lived on the streets; he had to steal and lie to survive. Falling into a pit of despair and hate...
Hate, for everypony in this god forsaken village.
But even though he stole his way through life, he did have (to a certain degree) a sense of honor, every time he stole from a stall he would put an i.o.u. in the place of the item.
One day he was doing one such act of thievery he saw all the flags where replaced with a strange red and black flag with a black profile of a unicorn with a large horn.
As he entered the town square, he saw a large mass of solders in strange armor and wielding strange weapons and the same flags as the ones around town. As he looked closer he saw a muscular smoke grey unicorn with gravity defying black mane that looked like fire. He had green eyes and a red horn that faded into black the closer you got to the base of it, It was ad normal in size compared to regular unicorns.
He was standing over a colt that looked to be my height but about two maybe three years younger than him with black shoulder length mane with red lines going down through it he was lanky and ad normally tall with a bone white coat and really large wings for his age, he had deep rose colored eyes and long straight tail
The younger colt had a purple unicorn’s horn grasped in between his teeth, and before him was the lord baron Crull, dead as stone with a hole in between his eyes, he lay in a pool of his own blood.
Draco watched in fascination as the sickly looking colt brought the horn down on his right foreleg.
The horn now imbedded in the pony’s foreleg started to glow the same color of his eyes as the dead body of lord Crull started to emit a glow, that glow was quickly sucked in the horn in the colts foreleg and in a blinding flash, the horn was sticking the right way out of the colts foreleg, it looked like he was born with it their other than the purple color.
All the while this “Sombra” looked at the colt with a mad scientist look in his eyes as he ordered his guards to collect the colt.
He looked at Draco for a second and told his guards to remove him from the area.
When the guards yanked on Draco’s cloak, it flew off to reveal a unicorn colt with black dragon wings and dark scales growing up his legs and cyan eyes with slit pupils. He had a brown coat with a red horn and a really dark turquoise with crimson going through it.
Sombra seeing a chance for another prize commanded his Guard to take Draco as well as the pegasus to the chariots.
Draco tried to resist but was swiftly knocked out by one of the guards and put him in the armored chariots with the starved pegasus. While in the chariots back to the crystal empire, Draco shifted in and out of conciseness while Phantom Reaper was out cold due to the soul consumption and normal starvation.
When they arrived at the destination they were put in a lavish room filled with fine furniture and a fire place with one table and two beds with red velvet covers.
They were put in separate beds and locked in the stone room where they would reside for the next four years, training, studying, and bonding like blood brothers.
They will be my greatest warriors, said Sombra looking in his crystal ball observing the two sleep their first night in their new home.
Hey people jbm533 here as lead author and LunarRing( Silver_Tongue) as co-author, this is our first fic and it’s going to be a wild ride everyone. Constructive criticism is much appreciated.