//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Dusk Rises 
// by The-rogue-shadow 
//------------------------------//

 Twilight sighed as she stared out of the open window into the frigid night air. Two weeks had passed since Archangel's daughter had been hanged, and a week since he had gone missing. Twilight attributed that to his grief, and for a time, believed that he would return, but lately, her faith in that had wavered. Max had brought rumours of an assassin, killing griffin criminals in the slums, dressed completely in black. She turned to check on him, as he got ready to follow her in search of the killer, who Twilight assumed was Archangel. Quickly running her hoof through her mane, now cut very short, but long enough that it was still feminine, she thought of the rage that Archangel had shown when they found his daughter. Max had gone off on a major rant about Archangel once he was confirmed missing. He was furious that he had left the team without so much as a goodbye or a reason for leaving. Twilight tried to defend him, hoping to make Max understand what Archangel was feeling. Unfortunately, Max was determined to prove that Archangel was the scumbag that he thought him to be. Twilight gestured to him irritably, trying to make Max hurry up as he lazily walked around the room, collecting his gear.

"Hurry up Max! We haven't got all night." Yelled Twilight, in no mood for games . 
"I don't get why you think we need to find him. He abandoned us!" Exclaimed Max. Twilight jumped off the window sill, galloping straight up to him and shoving him into the wall. 
"Just stop it Max! Whether you like it or not he is one of us. He is the reason that we have all of the stuff you see around you. The beds, your hood and cloak. Everything. Why can't you get over your self righteousness and grow up enough to realise that we need him if we are ever going to take back this city for the griffins, for you and your sister." Yelled Twilight, pushing him harder into the wall. Max collapsed on the ground, looking up at Twilight with a look of absolute fear upon his face. He looked over at Jean, who was giving him a dirty look. 
"She's right Max. I just don't get why you are so antagonistic toward him." Said Jean, as Max looked at the ground ashamedly. 
"I… I just can't handle being abandoned by another stallion." Said Max sadly, a single tear rolling out of his left eye. Twilight raised an eyebrow at him, before turning to Jean, hoping that she would elaborate. Jean nodded in the direction of the door, a look of realisation on her face. Twilight followed her down the spiral staircase to the main hall. Jean took a deep breath, looking around the abandoned church awkwardly as Twilight stared at her.
"We probably shouldn't be too hard on him. He has been scorned like this before, and it tore him up inside." Jean told her, and Twilight was surprised to learn that Max, behind his tough exterior, was nought but a regular griffin, prone to the same heartbreaks that all beings have to go through. 

"The Stallion's name was Sooty; he worked in one of the factories in the industrial zone. Max and he were together for about five years, and then…. Sea Worthy rolled into town. He was a sailor from.. Uh, Baltimare I think, but anyway. Sooty just up and left Max. He got on a ship with Sea Worthy and sailed off into the sunset. We found out a little bit later that Sooty had been sleeping around behind Max's back for a long time. He was devastated, he started drinking very heavily and staying out all night. He quit his job at the local bank, and moved in with me. It was such a long time before he was even able to leave my house. From what I can figure, he has developed serious abandonment issues." Continued Jean, her voice becoming slowly softer.
"I see, I… I should apologise. I didn't know that he was so… pained." Said Twilight, feeling very ashamed that she had spoken so harshly to him. Jean shook her head.
"Don't. He needed to hear what you said, even if it was painful." 
"I still need his help to find Archangel. He knows this city much better than I do." Said Twilight rubbing her eyes, exhausted from a lack of sleep that had afflicted her since Celestia's death. 
"Perhaps not. I know the city just as well as Max, and not to mention that I actually want to find Archangel." Said Jean, looking at Twilight with anticipation.
"But I thought that you didn't want to go on missions." Said Twilight, raising an eyebrow at Jean.
"Hey, I said I didn't want to kill. Besides, I'm tired of being cooped up in here all the time, I need to get some fresh air." She said, pleading with Twilight. She hesitated, unsure if taking Jean on a potentially dangerous mission was such a good idea. Then she remembered that she needed a local to help her navigate, otherwise not only would she get lost easily, she would most likely find herself in the wrong situation, such as in the middle of a guards patrol. She nodded, and Jean let out an excited squeak. Together they made their way back up the staircase, where Jean happily donned Max's old white hooded jumper, much to Max's displeasure.
"Just what do you think you are doing?" He asked, getting off the floor and wiping tears from his eyes. He walked over to Jean and grabbed her by the shoulder angrily. Jean grabbed his wrist and tore it away, scowling at Max all the while.
"I'm going to help Dusk look for Archangel, since you are obviously too busy wallowing in self-pity to help your friend." Jean said poking Max in the chest with every word. She flipped her hood up, covering her eyes, and then she spread her wings, revealing a wingspan much larger than her brother's.

"If you want me, I'll be with Dusk, doing your job." She continued, before turning and making her way over to the window. Twilight followed her, not looking Max in the eye, lest she buckle and tell Jean to stay. She and Jean dived out of the window together, Twilight enjoying the freedom of freefalling for a few seconds before she was grabbed around the wrists by Jean and taken high into the air. They glided for some time, Jean finding thermal currants with expert skill, meaning that she was barely moving her wings at all, just allowing gravity and her wings to take them where they needed to go. As they headed over the slums, Twilight could see tiny points of light spread out all over the place in a seemingly random pattern. Upon realising that they were in fact small campfires, Twilight got a sense of just how big the slums actually were. They seemed to cover an area about one and a half times the size of Ponyville, if she were to include Applejack's and Carrot top's respective farms. Twilight whistled once and Jean closed her wings, putting them both into a steep, yet silent dive. She pulled up just before they hit the ground, coming to a sliding stop outside of what appeared to be the remains of a school. 
"I used to go there when I was a kid. It was great, up until the rich griffin that was funding the school died. Then when the money that there was dried up, they had no choice but to close down. Sad really." Jean told Twilight, a glint of nostalgia and innocence in her eyes. Twilight smiled, but inside she felt guilty that she had grown up in such a privileged way. She had come from a loving home, been the personal student of Princess Celestia, and was an element of harmony, while all around her there was suffering. In New Grifburg, as well as Canterlot, poverty and crime was everywhere, ponies died just because they had nowhere to sleep on cold winter's nights. Twilight swore to herself then and there, that once the war was over, she would see to it that every single citizen of this slum would be granted a new lease on life, a new house or something, anything to improve their lives.

They walked away from the school and started their search of the slums, with Jean taking the rooftops, while Twilight took to the street level, her eyes constantly searching for any signs of Archangel. The ponies and griffins that she came across gave her a wide berth, as though they were scared of her. She didn't blame them. She had lowered her hood to give herself a greater field of vision, but as a result, her eye was exposed, and the white iris glowed slightly in the moonlight. Twilight's breath was mist before her, as the cold night air clung to her face. Her ears twitched constantly, shivering as they tried to pick up the faintest of sounds. A sudden scream pulled Twilight out of her trance. She galloped toward the source of the scream, her horn becoming charged with magic as she ran. She soon found herself in a park, a single flickering fire lighting up the entire area. In the centre, near a set of rusted playground equipment, was a figure, clad completely in black, standing over the limp body of a griffin, a pool of blood forming under it.
"Archangel?" Said Twilight cautiously, keeping her horn charged. The wings on the back of the figure opened up fully, and Twilight had no doubt in the world that they belonged to Archangel. He turned, lowering his hood at the same time.
"Hello Twilight, or is it still Dusk?" He said softly. He slowly made his way toward Twilight, each one of his steps forward mirrored by Twilight going backward.
"Why are you doing this Archangel? None of this will bring back Fire Orchid." Said Twilight, hoping desperately that she could help him.
"I know that Dusk! I'm just trying to do something that will bring back my honour here." He snapped, and Twilight recoiled, too unsure of what he was going to do next.
"We only want to help you through this Archangel." Said Jean, who suddenly appeared behind him. He turned sharply, startled by her sudden appearance. 
"What is this? An intervention?" He exclaimed, before flapping his wings and trying to take to the air. Twilight fired off a spell that she had prepared. It locked his wings to his side, forcing him to stay on the ground. He struggled against the spell, but to no avail, only serving to tire himself out. Twilight walked over to him, her horn charged with another spell, this one designed to disable him.
"Please, just tell us why you ran away. We are your friends, we want to help." She said, putting her hoof on his shoulder. Archangel screamed, before collapsing on the ground in a heap, weeping. Jean and Twilight stood over him, watching as he howled in grief. He eventually stopped, sitting up straight and looking at the two girls sadly.
"I… I got a lead on the pony that sold out my daughter. It turns out that someone tipped the guards off as to where she was after she got away from them.  I found them, with much effort, and… I got back at him. I thought that if you found out, then you wouldn't want me back in the team. So my only choice was to go rogue and here I am, killing rapists and murderers. There, are you happy." He asked, looking down at the ground in shame. Twilight shook her head and sighed, while Jean just stood there with her mouth agape. Finally, Twilight bent down to look Archangel in the eye.
"While I don't condone what you did. I understand the need for vengeance. If you still want to, I will welcome you back with open hooves. But know this; if you ever do anything like this again, you're out. Do you understand?" She said monotonously, without a hint of how angry she was in her voice. Archangel nodded, and Twilight released his wings from the spell. 
"Jean, can you please escort him back to the church? I want to go for a walk." Twilight asked. Jean nodded, grabbing Archangel's wrist and taking to the sky. She watched them disappear into the thick cloud cover that was rolling over the city, obscuring Luna's moon and leaving a sense of closure to the night. She walked out of the park, lighting up her horn so she could see the road in front of her, all the while thinking of Archangel and his quest for revenge.

'Should I have done the same thing as Archangel? But how? Princess Celestia was killed by a dragon, one that she herself killed at the same time it killed her. For Rainbow and Aj then? Should I take all of my rage and guilt out on Gilda. But then what about Rarity? She was violated by that dirt bag Tinker. Should I go and kill him? I just don't know! I wish to death that I was a home right now. In the library, curled up next to the fire with Spike and a good book, not thinking of senseless revenge.' Thought Twilight, becoming more and more confused the more she thought about it. She knew that vengeance was not the right way to solve her conflicts, but couldn't shake the feeling that if she were to finish off the ones that had hurt her friends, then she might find some kind of satisfaction or peace. 
When she got back to the church, she found the others had already fallen asleep, even archangel, who had abandoned his black hood and cloak. She gently shook him awake, a single question burning in her mind.
"Was it worth it? The revenge?" She asked, and to her surprise, he shook his head.
"It only served to make the hole in my heart even larger, because now I have nothing to cling to. Not my daughter, not the thought of killing her betrayer, nothing." Archangel told her, before falling back to sleep. Twilight smiled, knowing that even though the hole in her heart was always going to be there, it wasn't going to get bigger.