//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Visions // Story: Red Clouds: The Strangers of Fate // by Akatsuki God //------------------------------// Music Link The sounds of a terrible war rang throughout a large open field outside of a large castle on a cliff side where peace and harmony once existed. The sky was filled with dark clouds that had a red tint on them as terrible sights of armored ponies hopelessly defending their homes against countless enemies of two other envious nations, the griffins and the changelings. The sounds of swords and spears banging against each other were constant and nerve wracking along with battle cries and screams of pain. A purple alicorn princess was staring at the sight before her in shock and fear. Every where she looked there was the sight of something she would have never imagined; the fall of Equestria. No matter what direction she focused her gaze upon she could only see fierce fighting that had taken hold of the land, she looked to her left in panic and she saw a pony stab a griffin in the chest then proceed to decapitate a changeling followed by being shot several times with arrows from griffin archers. She then quickly glanced to her right and noticed a two pegasus ponies fall from the sky at high speeds then crashed to the ground before being finished by several changelings who trampled them. She even looked up to see that even the sky was filled with this carnage. Pegasus ponies littered the skies armed with crossbows and some with large arbalests while the griffins in the air had bows and there were even more of them, along with changelings covering the sky. Countless arrows and crossbow bolts flew aimlessly across the sky and every few seconds or so she could see one or two of the combatants fall out of the sky. End of Music Music Link What felt like hours have passed for the purple princess when she had gazed upon the aftermath of what she had just witnessed. The field was covered in blooded and lifeless bodies of ponies, changelings, and griffins. The site of the carnage was now silent, the sky was now even darker than before and it began to drizzle lightly and smock was rising vertically off the ground from several craters that had been made during the recent onslaught. Several vultures were circling and picking at the corpses that lay in the dirt. Many were the brave ponies who selflessly gave their lives to defend the land that they called their home, but none of the defenders were left alive after this atrocity committed by their foes and there were still a few griffins and changelings occupying the sky some checking for any ponies that may still be alive and ending them by stabbing them in the heart or slitting their throats. Some even cut off the horns of the dead unicorn ponies or the wings of the dead pegasus ponies for trophies. There was even the dead body of another pony who was a white unicorn with several cuts that almost made him unrecognizable. It was the brother of the purple princess and he was holding a flag that symbolized peace and harmony that had been torn several times and one of the tares had nearly went across the flag from top to bottom with the top still not separated and was now flowing with the wind as if it were two. He was also surrounded by the corpses of two pegasus ponies, one with a rainbow mane and another had a light pink mane, two earth ponies, one with a blond mane and a hat in her hoof and the other with a curly pink mane, and a unicorn with a purple mane. All of them were her dear friends which were very important to her and each one of them wearing a golden necklace with a gem stone in the middle of them and each were a different color and shape. She shed a tear as she came to speak to herself with strong emotions. "No.......No" she began to tear up even more, "How could something as bad as this happen?.....Why would anyone do something like this...??" After asking those questions she immediately began to sob uncontrollably for having seen such a fate befall upon her home. "Twilight......Twilight!" Her ear perked up at the sound of her name. (sniff)"Who's there?" she turned to see no one was there. "Twilight!" was heard again by that same voice. "S-Shining Armor?" Twilight said recognizing the voice, then immediately looking toward the dead white unicorn holding the flag who was surrounded by the other five ponies but were all still lying on the ground motionless. "Twilight! Wake up!" _________________________________________________________________________ A white unicorn stallion with a blue and teal mane stood at the side of the purple princess's bed holding her hoof in his as he begged her to awaken from whatever she was experiencing. Twilight's eyes burst open and she instantly started to hyperventilate from the shock she was in from the magnitude of her nightmare. "Twilight!" the stallion said clearly worried about his sister's well being, "Are you alright?" he asked. "Shining?" Twilight sighed out in relief, "It was nothing, just a terrible dream." Twilight answered giving Shining a light smile, but wasn't receiving the same smile from him. "Twilight ever since a month after you became a princess you have been having these nightmares. Please tell me what they are about because Zecora told me that if they are recurring, then they may be visions of fate." Shining said in a concerned tone. Twilight lowered her head and spoke, "My nightmares.....they....they keep coming.....and....I don't know what they mean but,...." "Yes?" Shining interrupted. "Every one of them.....are unbelievably unbearable...." She began to cry lightly as she remembered what happened. "Twilight, please tell me what happened in your dreams!" he pleaded, fearing for his sister. Twilight nodded and continued, "Each and every one of my dreams are of a long and dreadful war between Equestrians and an alliance between the changelings and the griffin kingdoms and...and the end result...... is always the same!" "What is the end, and what is the result of this war, who wins?!" Shining questioned. "The end result is.......the fall of our home...... Equestria, everything was destroyed, even the castle couldn't withstand the war and Princess Celestia and Luna were overpowered and unable to stave off the attacks." After hearing that story, Shining Armor stayed by his sister in stunned silence. End of Music _________________________________________________________________________ Music Link "What? Visions of war and disharmony in Equestria? But how?", questioned a large white alicorn, who was sitting on a large throne in a large room with several columns lining either side of the room, large colorful windows behind the throne and also on the wall in the side of the room, a large red carpet that lay on top of the marble floor from the entrance at one end of the room to the throne at the other end, and a large white chandelier over the middle of the room and was lighting the room along with torches on the columns. "I don't know but we must do something about it to insure the safety of Equestria, I have organized for ponies to be drafted into the Equestrian armed forces and with your permission, we could begin the draft right away. "Shining said to the princess in front of him. "No, that will not work!" exclaimed the voice of a pony entering the throne room. Both shining and the white princess quickly turned their heads towards the source of the voice then and noticed Twilight walking in. "What do you mean that won't work? It's our best hope of defending our home if your dreams become a reality!" Shining exclaimed. "But that's just it! This is exactly what happened in my dream!" Twilight explained in a somewhat worried tone. "Then what would you suggest that we do Twilight?" asked Princess Celestia in anticipation. Twilight motioned for both of them to follow her to the royal garden. _________________________________________________________________________ On their way to the garden they met up with Princess Luna, a dark blue alicorn almost as large as Celestia and had a sparkling blue flowing mane, who had been aware of the nightmares before she was awakened by Shining Armor. They continued to the garden with the dark blue princess. The garden was beautiful and was filled with countless plants and small animals and the day was flawless with the sun high in the sky beaming its light down upon them. When they reached the garden Twilight began, "I've been reading up on this new spell from olden times that is supposed to summon legendary warriors from another dimension." the birds and other small animals in the garden go about their business, not noticing the four ponies that had come. "And how, do you suppose, we summon these 'legendary warriors'?" Shining asked while emphasizing the last two words. Celestia looked at Twilight curious to what her answer would be. "My friends and I will use the elements for the summoning and we will just have to hope it works, cause if we really are going to be at war with the griffin kingdom and the changelings, then we are going to need all the help we can get." Twilight replied worried about what the future may hold. After the four ponies planned the summoning, Twilight Sparkle set out to Ponyville to gather her friends while Celestia, Luna, and Shining Armor headed back into the castle to carefully assess their situation and plan out the best possible strategy in case a war did break out. All of them knew that to ensure that they had a fighting chance to save Equestria, they would have to keep a close eye on the changelings and the griffins. They were going to need allies no matter who or what those allies may be.