The meeting was held in the temple chamber located just below the ground floor of of the capital building. Once a place where the elements of nature were revered, it had since become the impromptu home of all political gatherings for members of the Council. Closed to the public, the isolated soundproof cavern made for an ideal spot to discuss topics that were never meant for common ears. Tonight, just such a topic was being presented to more than a thousand concerned councilors; chimeras, griffons, sphinxes, all were in attendance. Even a few representatives from the draconic races were present, though their people had long since abandoned the city to its lesser inhabitants. All stood or sat around the large granite slab which once house the altar of the elements, before such worship had fallen to the wayside. Atop its smooth black form stood the earth pony messenger and the spent-headed chimera whom he had reported to, as well as a blind male sphinx who may very well have been old enough to have remembered the days when the temple had actually seen use for religious purposes.
The earth pony had just finished regaling the assembly with the story he had told his master earlier that night, and already the crowd was beginning to fall into disarray. Many were calling for war, other lamenting over the loss of their great leader, and still more brooding over the fact that their already overpopulated city was about to have another hundred thousand mouths stomping down their gates in hope of finding shelter. It fell to the chimera to silence their cacophony, cutting through the noise with a piercing hiss. "SSSSSSSILENCCCCCCE!!!" As the chaos subsided he reverted back to his normal voice; its calm, cool tone undercut by just the slightest hint of the venom his words could carry. "My friends... Fellow Councilors... Now is not the time for us to let this society which has stood for hundreds of years suddenly fall apart. Yes, Discord's death is a tragedy, a slap in the face of all who have served hi faithfully these many years. But it is not the end for us! He has stood as our king for generations, yet ever he ruled from afar, leaving us to our own means of government. And, in my humble opinion, we did a fine job of making the work."
As he spoke he circled around the parameter of the altar, making sure to address every side of the room equally. "Look at our beloved city and tell me what you see. A mindless, lawless rabble of abominations running unchecked through the streets? No! We took our respective races and from them forged a kingdom that could withstand the test of time. A civilization of order in the midst of the Planes of Chaos. So what makes any of you think that the fall of the god of chaos himself would mean the end of our fair city?" He turned to address half the crowd at once. "My friends. I assure you that we will not let this insult go unavenged! The alicorns sisters who now call themselves 'Princesses' will be made to pay for Discord's defeat... But the time for such action is not yet upon us. Tonight, we are here for one reason and one reason alone... To ensure that our civilization, our very way of life, survives the coming darkness."
The crowd murmured, some in agreement, some in disdain. Though his words had settled the majority of the assembly, many of the chimeras were unmoved. They had heard such speeches from him before and were immune to the hypnotizing aspects of his voice. They saw through his words to the clouded message behind what he was implying, contemplating its meaning until one finally spoke out. "Just what are you getting at, Selik? What do you know that you're not telling us?"
The outburst caused others to suddenly question their true purpose there that night, many quickly realizing that the only information they had had come from the mouth of some filthy earth pony; a member of the enemy's ilk. Soon the protests outweighed the cries of agreement and the whole assembly erupted into chaos once more. Tis time, it fell to the ancient sphinx to settle the crowd and bring their attention to the stage once more. "If you will not listen to him then listen to me... and know the full gravity of the situation here tonight." He turned to the chimera and nodded. "Thank you for trying, Lord Selik, but I think it would be best if you let me handle the rest. You are dismissed."
He bowed, not prepared to challenge the old one's authority. "Elder." He stepped back to the center of the slab, allowing the sphinx to prowl its edges slowly as he spoke.
"As our spymaster said, we are here tonight to speak of the future of our society... It is unfortunate that such things need be discussed at all, but I cannot stress enough just how urgent it is that we come to a decision before the sun rises." He began to circle the altar, his age barely showing in the graceful way he moved. "Earlier this night, as you all know, we received word of our glorious leader's defeat in the north. His army was smashed to pieces, pieces which are, even as we speak, tumbling back toward this very city. What's more is that every chimera, sphinx, griffon, and any others who bore any relation to the races who served His
Magnificence are rushing here from their northern homes in search of shelter and sanctuary... It is our fear, however, that they are not coming alone.
"These alicorns are no fools, they know that our city exists and that it will stand as a symbol of hope for any who stay true to our king... But they do not know its exact location, nor any way to safely strike at it. However, now that this mass migration has begun, there is nothing stopping them from simply following the refugees right to our doorstep. From there they may choose to lay siege to our city, strike from the sky with their pegasi forces, or attempt to starve us out... which will not take them long to accomplish due to our soon-to-be-bolstered numbers... Any way that they choose they will eventually break through and overtake the city. However, I fear they may be choosing a completely different path all together..."
He came to a stop in and looked out over a section of the crowd behind a pair of griffon councilors. "They mean to open our gates from within, ensuring that we are disarmed before they ever arrive and that there is no risk to their own forces... They mean to send in saboteurs with our own people who are fleeing from the north, disguised as more refugees... And through that treachery, they will end our resistance before we ever have a chance to mount it..."
Silence and hushed murmurs met this news. There was no sign of the previous disquiet amongst the politicians, priests, and seers. The other Elders in the back of the room, the chimera and sphinxes who had helped found the city hundreds, if not thousands of years before, all stood still and silent as statues in the corners of the room. Finally, one of the council members had found the audacity to voice what most of the room was thinking. "How do we know this? What makes you so certain they will resort to something like that?" The griffon did his best to remain respectful of the Elder, but the extent of his doubt was clear in his tone. "They have legions of pegasi at their disposal and last I checked there was no dome over this city to prevent an air strike."
A beastly chimera in a nearby row stood and answered him in an appropriately bearish voice. "What would we need a dome for? Last I checked, pegasi ain't got nothing but their puny little hoofs to hit us with, whereas we got soldiers with claws, spines, and fire all just waiting to be unleashed. And all of them are just as winged as those damned horses."
Murmurs of agreement echoed through the chamber, there was no doubt that they had little to fear from the sky. But the first speaker stood his ground, licking his beak nervously before once more addressing the assembly again. "That may be true. That may all be true, but we are all of us ignoring one glaring fact that no one in this room seems to want to acknowledge." The griffon turned back to the altar, staring at its occupants as he spoke to the Council. "We are all just assuming that we know what has actually occurred up north. Yet the only information that we have has come to us from the very mouth of our enemy." He pointed to the earth pony, his conviction clear in his eyes and voice. "What makes you all so quick to believe anything that that filthy horse says? Have you forgotten who we are fighting against? Who our enemy is? How can we trust anything that comes out of his mud-plowing mouth?!"
The uproar which ensued bordered on pandemonium. Their ploy had worked for a time, but the subject had clearly been sitting on everyone's mind for far too long. Several members of the crowd called for the pony to be questioned more forcefully, until there was no doubt that he was telling the truth. Others demanded to know who he where his allegiance truly lied. A few issued threats to the chimera standing next to him. It was only then that he stepped forward once more, meeting their disapproval with his own reptilian gaze. His glare was malicious, but his voice came out soft and calm, too quiet to be heard over the raucous at first. "Loyalty..." Some of the noise began to die down as others realized that he was speaking. "You question my servant's loyalty?" The inclined his head in acknowledgement to the chimera's question, not wanting to dignify him with an answer. "...Or is it my own that you are calling into question?" The crowd became silent, none of the councilors wanting to miss what they assumed would be a momentous argument between two of their council's chief debaters. "...Because if I were you, I would not be so quick to begin pointing my greasy talons at others in hopes of starting an inquisition into where their loyalties lie... Not until I had heard the last bit of new we received from the north."
He leapt down from the altar, his tail whipping behind him as he hit the floor. He padded through the crowd, "A bit of information that happened to come not only from my servant, but from the first of the refugees who arrived a few hours ago as well. Injured warriors who shambled back to our beloved city alongside the fleeing civilian population, all telling the same story. A story of how, in the midst of battle, when one final push could have ensured victory for the remnants of Discord's armies, a great treachery unfolded. A great treachery involving a certain eagle-headed race turning on their comrades and, as one, joining the slaughter that the alicorns unleashed upon our forces... Thousands died at the talons of those they had just been fighting beside as allies only moments before..."
He came to stop directly in front of the griffon, allowing the crowd to part around them. The surrounding councilors exchanged their reactions in hushed, uncertain voices. "So by all means... Tell us more about how my servant has something to answer for because of his race... Tell us all how he is the one we shouldn't be so quick to trust... Tell ussssss.... what the price these 'princesses' promised you in exchange for the lives of our brothers and sistersssss!" The whispered turned to shouts as the chimeras and sphinxes suddenly turned upon the griffon councilors. "How many of our sonsss and daughterssss had their lives torn away from them by your brethren?!"
"Traitors!"
"Murderers!"
"Kill the lot of them!"
"SILENCE!!!"
The Elder upon the altar strode forward, parting the murderous crowd that had encircled Selik and the unwitting griffon. "Enough of this madness. Our enemies are baring down upon our gates as we speak and yet you would start a war here within them. There is more that must be discussed tonight, and we will not speak of it over spilt blood. Not in this sacred place." He moved over to the two combatants, placing himself between them. "There is more you must hear, all of you. We Elders have let our minds dwell long on the possibility that this war would end poorly for our kind. We were charged with ensuring the survival of our great civilization, the civilization which WE founded so many years ago...
"To help us see the best way to protect it from what the future may hold, we have resorted to resuming our prayer to the elements. Over the past few months we worked endlessly to clear our minds, return our thoughts to nature, and see what the days ahead will bring. And finally, late last night, a vision overtook several of our order, laying siege to their minds with images of what will come to pass." He places a paw upon the shoulders of both councilors to either side of him and stood up on his hind legs, spreading his wings wide as he relied on the chimera and griffon to support his remaining weight. "Here me now members of the Council, for this is why we summoned you here this in such urgency tonight! We have one day to prepare ourselves for the massacre which will soon descend upon us. The alicorns and their armies WILL break our gates, tear down our walls, and dismantle our city. The pegasi will trample it into the dust. The earth ponies will change it to forest and field. And the unicorns will rewrite history as they see fit. In a hundred years... this city will have never existed. Yet our civilization must survive!"
Someone from the back of the room spoke out, "What exactly did you see, Elder?"
The ancient creature closed his eyes for a moment, gathering the images to see the painful vision clearly in his mind. "At dawn they will come over the horizon. From high above they will descend on feathered wings, yet they are but a small portion of the coming force. The battle against the pegasi will draw too many of our warriors. There will not be enough to hold them off AND protect the gate. The earth ponies will force our guardians back to through the main gate, but it will be the unicorns who bring it crashing down upon us. The city will burn, innocent lives will be lost, and millions will perish in flame and cinder as the Sun and the Moon themselves descend upon what remains of the sanctuary we have built ourselves here... This building will be the last to fall. Many of us will perish right here, in this very temple or in our own lavish chambers. All will burn. All will die. The races of sphinx and chimera will come to an end.... For only then will their attention turn from away from this city..."
As he finished speaking he slumped back to the ground, resting on all fours as the crowd looked on. "...For only then will their attention turn from this city.... And only then, can the cinders be rekindled..."
Another Elder began to speak from a different corner of the temple, picking up where his comrade left off. A portion of his voice bleated out from the massive jaws of his lion-like face while another part came booming forth from the goat's head protruding from back. "We have searched for an answer and received only shaded prophecy in return... until last night. Now the path is finally clear to us. In order to survive, our races must die. A great sacrifice needs to be made. The alicorns know that the entirety of the remnants of both of our races will be gathering on this sacred city to weather the attack. They will expect our numbers to be massive and will not end the slaughter until they believe us all to be dead... So we must spent them with enough bodies to convince them that that is the truth of it."
Another took up the explanation from there. "Yet a few will survive the massacre, hidden away within the depths of the Barricade, in rooms known only to we who helped shape it. There they will continue to exist, forming a new society from the ashes of our own. Our civilization will live on through them, even as our city and its people lay dying."
Once more an Elder on the opposite side of the temple began speaking. "... And they will continue to exist in those dark stone chambers, until the minds of our conquerors turn away from this land. Only then will it be safe for those few who live to emerge, facing the world that believes them to be extinct... Only not in our ancient and sacred forms... If they are to survive, they will need to change. Several of our own order will go into hiding with them and, during the decades that pass before we emerge, we will teach them how to take on the shapes of those who destroyed us. Earth pony, unicorn, pegasus.... even griffon. Those are what our enemies will see us as when we reenter the world... "
One last Elder spoke, a sphinx this time. "And, as those survivors enter the society of our enemies, they will begin paving the way for our ultimate vengeance. For the reckoning which the alicorns earned when they cast down our glorious king! Our kind will live again, once the usurpers have been made to suffer sufficiently. Our kingdom will rise once more, and a new savior will lead us into the future with the horses as our servants! His coming has been foretold to us for centuries, but now his true purpose is finally clear. His birth will mean the end of our time in hiding, and the beginning of our new reign..."
And then it was back to the first Elder once more, his voice slipping softly from his lips. "...But first, we must ensure that no word of our plan nor prophecy reaches the ears of the Princesses..." The strike was quick and deliberate, too fast and unexpected for anyone to have prevented. The head rolled several feet before the body even hit the floor, and as it rolled, several more heads joined it as onlookers took the hint. "Know that we hold your treachery to be forgiven. On this day, your kind has paid for your crime with blood... Die now knowing that your progeny may be spared from the fate we now shape for equestrian masters..."
The next hour was stained by the blood and screams of several hundred griffons as their lives were forfeited to the other races of the Council. When the culling was finally complete, the preparations for the coming attack began. And the light of the final full day of life for the city rose on the horizon.