//------------------------------//
// Unriddling the Riddles 
// Story: Guardians of Light: A Shadow Forms 
// by Alphadude007 
//------------------------------//


Guardians of Light: A Shadow Forms

Chapter 37-Unriddling the Riddles


-Aeolus Region, Western Griffon Kingdom-

Cloudius Sky-Shield stood at the main door of his home, its wooden double doors inviting him inside. What am I going to tell them? He thought, rubbing a claw through his feathered head. His mind recalled the discussions, if one can call them that, he bore witness to at the Great Hall. The political tradition of mudslinging that he'd usually seen between the Eastern and Western griffons escalated into almost a full-out brawl. And in front of both their kings, no less! The griffon general shook his head, feeling ashamed for being associated with such imbeciles.

And to think those feather-brained idiots are driving us beak-first into a civil war. Cloudius grimaced at the thought. He'd fought hard to make sure the pro-Eastern separatists were no longer a threat to Western Kingdom security. The antagonizing memories ran through the veteran's head.

The musical instruments of steel blades and arrows rang and whistled in the streets, the choruses of the wounded and dying sounded throughout the towns, and the audience's tears were shed for those that fell during the grand performance. That's all that mess was. A rehearsal for what those politicians are gearing up for. The last thing he wanted to see was griffons fighting other griffons again.

Cloudius's brown eyes turned up at the doors, reaching his clawed hand to grasp the handle. A click from the other side of the door caused him to withdraw his claws from the door as one of the doors opened.

A smile flickered across his beak as Cloudius beheld his concerned-looking wife standing in the doorway. "Hi, honey."

"So how did it go?" Avia asked, her eyes telling her nervousness.

Straight to the point, isn't she? Cloudius thought to himself. "If it's not too much to ask, can I have some dinner before I explain it? My tongue has grown tired of the taste of boots and needs a real meal."

Avia nodded and stepped aside as Cloudius entered the atrium of his house.

"Where's Hawkeye?" Cloudius asked, his eyes scanning the entry room for his son.

"I'm assuming he's on his way back home right now." Avia responded, closing the door behind Cloudius.

Cloudius heaved a sigh, his eyes finding a new interest in the patterns of the carpet. "Well when he comes back home, tell him that we're having a talk in the dining room."

Avia nodded. "Sure thing, but keep in mind that Hawkeye has gone through enough as it is, Cloudius. A stern talking-to probably won't make his habits improve."

"It's not just Hawkeye I want to talk to. All three of us will be having a discussion." Cloudius said, Avia's eyebrow arching at him. "There are things that you both need to know, should things go from bad to worse."

A worrisome look came over Avia's visage. "Cloudius. Are things going to get worse?"

Cloudius sucked in air through his nostrils as he tried to find a definitive answer. His brown eyes turned up towards Avia's hazel ones. "To be honest, Avia. I'm not sure."

Avia grimaced at his response. "Can I come with you to the next meeting?" Cloudius cast his wife a surprised look. "I want to knock some sense into those airheaded egotists."

A smirk tugged at Cloudius's beak. "Being Sky-Shields, I have no doubt that either of us would have trouble doing that."

Avia reached a clawed hand for Cloudius's, his meeting hers in an embrace, his brown eyes looking into Avia's smiling pools of hazel. "Just know that no matter what happens, I will always love you."

A smile of his own stretched across Cloudius's beak. "And I will always love you, Avia."

Closing their eyes, Cloudius and Avia leaned into the kiss.

Why can't it stay like this? Cloudius asked himself. No politics, no egos to bruise, no conflict… all I'd want is her.

After a few moments, the two griffons broke the kiss. Their eyes opened, their gazes expressing quiet contentment.

That's when they heard the front door creak open. Both their heads turned to see Hawkeye standing in the doorway.

"Hi mom… dad." Hawkeye fought to say.

Cloudius gave Hawkeye a slight smile. "Good to know you're home, son. Now to the dining room with you and your mother." He said, casting Avia a glance.

Hawkeye closed the door, a confused look on his face. "What for?"

The smile faded from Cloudius's beak. "We have a few things to discuss."

-Ponyville-

All the Element bearers, plus one adolescent dragon, stood in a circle, each one casting glances at those standing next to them.

Rarity broke the silence with a clearing of her throat. "Ahem. Well, since Twilight was the one that called this meeting, I believe she should bring up the first order of business."

Six other heads nodded before turning towards the purple alicorn in expectation.

"Well I called this meeting to address the strange occurrences that have happened over the past couple days. First we all got those strange dreams and now Spike and I had separate visions today." Twilight began, a determined look crossing her visage. "We are to try to figure out what each of these mean."

"Are we gonna have to retell our dreams?" Applejack asked, her tone of voice making it apparent that she didn't want to.

Twilight shook her head. "Maybe not word for word, but a synopsis would probably be best."

A few heads lowered in morose disappointment. Twilight knew that just as well as the others that their dreams contained horrors they dared not reiterate unless they had to. Unfortunately for them, this was one of those times.

"My dream started in a forest." A shy voice shattered the silence, all heads snapping in Fluttershy's direction. The butter yellow pegasus continued despite the shift of attention. "I said hello to a few animal friends before I smelled something strange. After a moment, I realized it was smoke and ran towards the source of it. There I found a part of the forest on fire. The animals I found in the fire…" Fluttershy shut her eyes, the images refreshing themselves in her mind. The screeches of the burning animals, the terror she saw in their eyes.

Fluttershy tensed at the touch of a hoof on her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see Rainbow Dash's hoof resting on her. "It's okay, Fluttershy. We're here for you."

A brief smile flickered across Fluttershy's face before she continued. "I ran down to help them, but suddenly a large branch fell on top of me. I couldn't move as the fire got closer. I tried calling to fleeing animals to help me, but they just ran away."

"And that's where your dream ended?" Twilight asked, her bashful friend nodding in response. "Thank you, Fluttershy. Anypony else want to have a go?"

Spike stepped forward. "I guess I can."

"Then I am going to retell my dream as well." Rarity proclaimed, stepping up next to Spike. "Spike and I shared the dream we had that night, so it makes sense that we tell our sides of what happened."

"Very well, then. Spike, since you volunteered first, you may say what happened in your side of the vision." Twilight said.

With a twiddle of his thumbs, Spike began. "Well my dream started out with me being surrounded by tons of gems. They covered the ground, rose into the sky like mountians… man they looked delicious." Spike said, unaware of the salivation that was accumulating in his mouth and the dreamy look that snuck onto his face.

"Um, Spike. Your dream?" Rainbow said, snapping him out of his delectable daze.

"Oh right, sorry. Anyway I started munching on some until a grey alicorn stallion came up to me and said that I could have them all. I went along with it and just kept eating until I heard Rarity's voice behind me." Spike said, turning his gaze toward Rarity, his eyes telling her it was her turn to share her side.

"Yes, I found Spike after a strange voice saying that there was a second mind in the dream with me and where I could find him. When I found him, well…" Rarity trailed off, casting Spike a glance. "Do you all remember when he got greedy, grew to a monstrous size, and almost destroyed half of Ponyville?"

Rarity waited to respond as the heads of her fellow Element bearers nodded. "Well he had taken on that form when I'd found him, save for one feature."

"And what would that be?" Applejack inquired, arching an eyebrow.

"His eyes." Rarity responded. "They were yellow instead of his usual green."

"Yellow eyes, you say?" Twilight asked, Rarity bobbing in reply. Her purple eyes narrowed as Twilight rubbed her chin in thought. "Interesting. Continue."

Rarity continued to recall the dream. "When he noticed me and started talking to me, he said things that I never thought I'd hear from him."

"What kind of things?" Rainbow asked.

Rarity's eyes turned down to the floorboards, then to the dragon standing next to her. "That I've been taking advantage of his willingness to help me. That I would lie to get what I wanted."

"But you know that wasn't me, right Rarity?" Spike asked, his tone expressing his deepest sincerity. "I wasn't in control of my body when I said those things."

"Ya weren't in control of your body?" Applejack repeated the dragon's words. "What they hay does that mean?"

Spike's eyes turned towards Applejack's. "It means what it sounds like. My mind wasn't in control of my body when I was talking to Rarity and-" He stopped, remembering how the dream had ended. "What I did after that."

A chill went up Rarity's spine as the memory came back to her. "Yes, Spike. I do know that you would never do such beastly things like what you did in that dream."

"So what did you do after talking with Rarity, Spike?" Twilight asked.

A pained look crossed the dragon's visage. "The greedy side of me…" Come on, man. Just get it overwith. They won't think any less of you. "Ate her."

Spike cringed at the gasps he heard in response. He looked up to see shocked expressions on all his friends' faces, save for Rarity's who wore a listless complexion.

Twilight was the first to get over the retelling of Spike's side of the dream. "And Rarity, is that where the dream ended for you?" Rarity silently nodded. "Spike, was there any other part of the dream after that?"

Spike nodded, his expression becoming bitter. "I was back in control of my body immediately after I did that. The grey alicorn I'd talked to earlier then showed up to taunt me before ending the dream by sticking some sort of sharp weapon between my eyes."

Twilight rubbed her chin. "Hmm. That's interesting. Did the alicorn have yellow eyes by any chance?"

"He did, actually. How'd you know?" Spike replied.

Twilight's eyes fell to the floor. "Because that's how my dream started. I went downstairs to get a midnight snack and after I'd finished, I started to go back upstairs when I heard some sort of whispering from one of the books." She said, scanning the shelves that surrounded her. "Deciding to investigate, I found the source to be a white book with gold trimming. I'd never seen it before so I took it from the shelf and began to read it. That's when I saw them."

"The super scary yellow eyes?" Pinkie asked, a twinge of fear making itself known in her words.

"Yes, Pinkie." Twilight responded with a nod. "But before that the book showed an illustration of some sort of cave, a swirling shadow imprisoned behind a light blue shield."

"Well there are tons of caves in Equestria. That shadow could be in any one of them." Applejack pointed out, a couple of nods in agreement followed.

"Even so, the vision I saw after the eyes… it was too much."

"What'd ya see, Twilight?" asked Rainbow Dash.

Twilight closed her eyes, the images of her dream displaying themselves against the blackness of her eyelids. "Ponyville in flames. Buildings were piles of rubble, dead ponies littered the ground, and the ponies that were still alive were running to and fro screaming from monsters."

Twiligth looked up at her friends, their facial expressions describing their inability to fathom Ponyville under such a brutal attack.

"And you know what the worst of it was?" Twilight asked, a sorrowful look filling her eyes. "I couldn't do anything to stop it."

Silence hung heavy as the group digested the mental image they received from Twilight's dream. Their friends and family dead, their homes destroyed, and not being able to stop any of it.

"Well…" Rainbow broke the stillness of the room. "Nopony's gonna beat that."

Applejack cast the multihued-haired pegasus a stern look. "This ain't a competition, Dash."

"I wasn't talking like it was, AJ." Rainbow swiftly countered.

"Alright then, so what was your dream like?"

Rainbow looked around at her friends, knowing the spotlight was on her now.

"The nightmare started out kinda normal." Rainbow began. "I found myself in an abandoned version of Ponyville. I was pretty confused before a voice that called itself Morning Star told me that I could find you girls in the center of town. I thanked the voice and said that if he needed anything, then I'd do it for him."

"That doesn't sound too bad." Pinkie spoke up, hoping for some positivity.

Rainbow gave her pink friend a faint grin and shook her head. "Yeah it didn't start bad, but it was when I found you all that things went sour. I did find you guys, but not in the way I thought I'd find you."

"How so?" Rarity asked, squinting an eye in befuddlement.

Rainbow took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to calm her nerves. "I found you girls, but… you were dead." She waited to continue, letting the thought sink in. "That's when Morning Star appeared. He told me that my disloyalty to you had resulting in your deaths."

"And this Morning Star, is he similarly describable as the stallion Spike talked to in his dream?" Twilight asked.

"Grey alicorn stallion with yellow eyes? Exactly like that." Rainbow responded.

"Hmm. Well that's one recurrence in these dreams. The grey alicorn seems to be in the majority of the dreams described so far."
"So ya think he's the one responsible for the nightmares?" Applejack asked.

"Maybe, but we'll need the other two dreams to confirm my suspicions." Twilight said, turning her head towards Applejack. "Are you alright with going next?"

Applejack slowly nodded. "Sure thing, but I don't think y'all are going to like what ya hear."
"All things considered, Applejack, I don't think any of us have liked what we've heard so far." Rarity pointed out.

"Well alright, then. Here goes." Applejack took a breath and gradually let it back out. "My dream started with me standing outside the farmhouse, the place deserted. I searched one side of the farm to the other and still didn't find my family. Eventually I got back to the barn, it being the only place I hadn't checked. I opened the door and headed inside to see if anypony was in there."

"And…?" Rainbow pressed. "Was any of your family in there?"

Applejack stared straight ahead, the images flashing before her eyes. The alicorn, the monsters, Big Mac and Granny Smith's trussed up forms, the fear in Applebloom's eyes… Pinching her eyes shut, she drew a sharp breath.

"Yes, Dash. They were there. Tied up like hogs, beaten and bruised." Applejack replied through clenched teeth. Everyone in the room held their breath as Applejack retold her dream. "They were surrounded by three red-eyed monsters of some kind, maybe the kind in Twilight's dream, and that grey stallion that keeps popping up in everypony's dreams. I tried to jump in and save my family, but the red-eyed freaks stopped me before I could. They beat and scratched me up to the point that I couldn't get back up. That's when the alicorn took Applebloom and held her by the head, saying that if I told a lie, she would stop hurtin'."

Applejack's vision grew misty as a hoof rested on her shoulder. The farmpony turned her head to see Twilight giving her a reassuring look. "Are you sure you want to continue?"

"I don't want to." Applejack said with a quavering sigh, a lump starting to form in her throat. "But I will."

Twilight took her hoof off her friend's shoulder and nodded.

"He told me to tell Applebloom that everything would be okay. I knew it was a lie as much as Applebloom knew. To try to save my family… I told that lie. The alicorn that held my sister responded…" Applejack closed her eyes, that particular cracking sound sounding in her ears. "By breaking her neck."

Rarity held a hoof to her mouth to stifle a gasp as looks of somber incomprehensibility etching themselves across the faces of her friends.

A tear leaked from one of Applejack's pools of green. "He made me watch my sister die for a lie I told. Then one of the monsters finished me off."

Pinkie looked up from behind her partially deflated mane. "That's terrible, AJ. How can anypony be such a … meanie-pants?"

"Some ponies just are, Pinkie." Twilight said morosely. "And you're the last one, Pinkie. You sure you want to tell us your dream?"

Pinkie gave a quick nod, her usually poofy mane now swaying with her head. "Yeah I'm sure. It started simple enough. I woke up in this big white place where there was absolutely nothing to do. Hoping to find a friend in the dream, I went looking for one."

"Well that doesn't sound too bad." Spike spoke up optimistically.

A brief grin flashed across Pinkie's muzzle. "Well it didn't start off so bad. But after what felt like forever, I finally heard somepony behind me. I thought it was a friend to play with, but it turned out to be me."

"Wait, you could see another version of yourself?" Twilight asked.

"Yep. But my other me wasn't looking as happy as I was. She was all grumpy and her mane was completely flat." Pinkie responded, seeing the confused looks on everypony's faces. "She said that she was me, that she knew everything I knew. Pretty creepy if you ask me. Anyway she then started saying bad things about you girls, saying that you weren't really my friends. Then out of nowhere she pins me down on the ground! And I noticed something funny with her eyes before what happened next."

"Lemme guess." Rainbow Dash spoke up. "They turned yellow?"

Pinkie nodded in reply.

"Well that answers where all the dreams came from." Twilight figured, a contemplative looks crossing her face. "You can continue, Pinkie."

"Thanks. Anyway my other me's eyes turned yellow and she pulled a big scary knife out. She started to cut me with it and it really hurt! She kept at it for a while before cutting my neck. And that's when I woke up." Pinkie concluded.

"Psychotic." Rarity breathed in reaction to how Pinkie's dream ended.

"Too right." Applejack commented, putting a hoof to her head in disbelief.

"So after hearing what all our dreams were about, what can we gather from them?" Twilight asked.

"That yellow-eyed alicorn keeps showing up one way or another." Applejack pointed out.

"But why us, though?" Pinkie asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

Rarity rubbed her chin. "Why indeed. It can't be because we're Element-bearers. Spike had a nightmare just like the rest of us."

"But each of the dreams we had seemed to counter what Element we represented." Twilight said, the tone of realization creeping into her voice. "I couldn't use my magic, Applejack had to tell a lie, Fluttershy's kindness wasn't reciprocated by the animals, Rarity experienced the consequences of greed… whoever that yellow-eyed alicorn is, he knows what our strengths are and how to turn them against us."

"But what does that guy want to do by sending us bad dreams?" Rainbow asked.

"Maybe it was some kind of warning." Spike suggested.

"Warning against what?" Fluttershy asked, her eyes casting themselves towards the floor in thought.

"Or maybe it's not a warning at all." Spike spoke up, his green eyes turning towards Twilight. "Maybe it was a message. That whoever that stallion is, that he's gonna do something soon."

Beware, Twilight Sparkle, beware. The voice she'd heard in her vision rang in the purple alicorn's mind. The long night approaches.

"The long night." Twilight said barely above a whisper, the others' gazes turning their attention to her. "That's what the alicorn's planning."

"What in the hay's a 'long night'?" Applejack asked.

Twilight shook her head. "I wish I knew, but Spike and I might have an idea."

Spike's eyes lit up. "Oh yeah! The visions you and I had."

"That's right, Spike. The vision I got told me that something's coming, something that will have an impact from Equestria to the Crystal Empire to the Griffon Kingdom and to Saddle Arabia."

Rainbow cast a glance at the Elements in their display case. "Well, nothing the Elements can't fix."

"That's just it, Rainbow. Whatever this thing is, it'll be too strong for even the Elements."

At this six of the eight jaws in the room dropped.

"But how are we to stop such a creature from taking over the world if the Elements can't stop it?" Rarity asked in bewilderment.

"I think I have the answer to that." Spike declared, turning towards Rainbow Dash. "Hey Dash, you remember that weird riddle you said you heard a couple days ago?

"How could I not?" Rainbow huffed. "Okay, here it goes:

'From out of the frozen North,

An ancient evil shall come forth.

The sun will set on Canterlot,

A sacrifice that won't be for naught.

The Six will become Eight,

And this world's path they will dictate.

To herald a new dawn,

Or revive an evil once foregone.'"

Spike nodded in acknowledgement. "Okay. And the vision I had earlier today had a message too. It went:

'In the desert sand and the wizard's tomb,

Lies that answer to darkness's doom.

When the West is shaken to its core,

Shall come the beckoning call to war.

With a union of hoof, horn, fang, and beak,

On light and dark, havoc shall wreak.'"

Twilight rubbed her chin. "In the desert sand and the wizard's tomb lies. Could that be referring to Saddle Arabia and Starswirl the Bearded's tomb?"

"Well Spike's vision did say that they both hold the 'answer to darkness's doom' or whatever." Rainbow spoke up. "I say we go south and look for anything that could help us."

"We can't just rush this one, sugarcube." Applejack cautioned. "What'd that 'hoof, horn, fang, and beak' business mean?"

"Well we ponies do have hooves. It could be any number of creatures that have horns and fangs. But beaks are the most distinguishable features of griffons." Fluttershy remarked.

"Hmm. So ponies, griffons, and two other species team up for something. To fight the yellow-eyed alicorn, possibly?" Rarity said.

"Well the 'beckoning call to war' certainly makes sense there." Twilight concurred.

"But what does 'when the West is shaken to its core' mean?" Pinkie asked, tentatively raising a hoof.

"Well Rainbow's vision said something about the sun setting on Canterlot." Twilight said, her eyes widening as she put two and two together. "You don't think that means Canterlot will fall, will it?"

"Surely not!" Rarity exclaimed. "If that means Canterlot is threatened, we have to help protect it."

"I'm with Rarity." Rainbow said, narrowing her eyes in determination. "If anything is gonna mess with Canterlot, it's gonna have to mess with the Elements of Harmony too."

"Yeah! If that meanie alicorn want to get to Canterlot, then we'll be there for the princesses when he does." Pinkie exclaimed.

Resounding agreement was heard in the circle of seven.

Twilight nodded. "Okay then. Everypony go and get some rest. We leave for Canterlot tomorrow morning."