//------------------------------//
// Prologue: True Griffons 
// Story: Sky, Steel and Blood 
// by shadowcolt1 
//------------------------------//

The sun was falling and the moon rose on the horizon casting a bloody light across the land. Soon it must be soon; he reasoned from his perch far above the prey lands. 

A shadow gazed over a cloud and regarded the landscape below.  Acres of emerald fields and glittering sapphire rivers which twisted and meandered into the horizon. Pony settlements dotted the landscape, quiet and still. Equestria’s main highway, the solar road, clad in pale yellow stone ran as straight as a spear, cutting across the land from North to South. To the north the golden towers of Canterlot pierced the sky. 

The griffon glanced uneasily at the capital of Equestria. They were too close, the informant could have betrayed us. It mattered not there was no turning back, this was their last opportunity.

Then his eye focused on movement in the distant South. A trio of shapes moved North along the solar road. He didn’t move. He barely breathed. Besides the wind whispering in his ear the world was still. The trio moved north at a leisurely pace a fact more painful than the biting cold which cut through his thick feathers. 

Hours passed before they passed beneath the watcher crossing a narrow stone bridge over a deep treacherous river. The moon had reached its apex in the sky bathing the world in its. With his hawk vision the group of three griffons could be assessed with startlingly clarity. 

Two marched on either side of the third. Griffins in a mass of sky blue and grey plate armed with razor steel talons.  Guardians, the elite of the royal wing. just two this was fortunate any more and a silent attack would have been impossible. They had the advantage of surprise and numbers, no griffons expects an assault from the sky. The third griffin was stark white and naked in comparison, a rare coloration among griffins and walked with an air of arrogance. 

Slowly, gesturing with his talon, he prepared to dive, five shadows began preparations on the scattering of clouds above. He extended his claws in anticipation. And, with a feral grin, he and five shadows dropped though the clouds.

His vision blurred rushed to meet them. The silence was shattered as the wind howled in his ears; as he aimed for the white griffon. A night dive was dangerous, if he missed he would hit the water or even worse but his beak curled into a grin, he never missed!  

In the final moment the attackers spread their wings for rapid deceleration. The group received merely seconds of warning. The shadow smashed into the ambassador talons dug deep into flesh and muscle as he drove him into the ground with a crack of broken bones. The white feathers were quickly dyed scarlet by a flow of blood. The white griffin squealed, like a pony, like prey. He slashed ripping out his prey's throat. blood bubbled from the wound as the now blood stained griffin choked in its own blood. An overwhelming sense of satisfaction filled him it was a mercy a purge. 

He quickly regained his footing to assess the situation. The armored guardians had been knocked to the ground by the initial strike and quickly dispatched while dazed. The night remained silent and still. Methodically the armored griffins were stripped, the blood streams washed from the bridge, and the three bodies were weighted with stones before being disposed of in the river. A new trio quickly formed on the bridge as two shadows flew east. The griffin glanced either side at his guards and nodded.

The three remaining gryphons quickly turned north towards the foreboding silhouette of Canterlot. They would arrive soon. They would arrive for the end of the solar era and the dawn of a new era. A griffin era if the winds willed it, he prayed. Eagerly he took the first step forwards.