Red Clouds: The Strangers of Fate

by Akatsuki God


Chapter 9: The Koyoake

{Canterlot Castle}

"You wished to see me, Princess?" Shining armor said that while lowering his head in respect for her. He had been summoned to the throne room by princess Celestia for reasons he knew nothing of. He was almost never called up like this during his work and that being said, he would have been working on a strategy to use against the changeling and griffin invaders but instead, he was here. Twilight and Rainbow Dash stood next to him.

Princess Celestia's face had a grim expression, something bad had happened but what? Did the draft completely fail to produce any recruits? Did she have a mission that required his attention away from Canterlot? All he knew was that he wasn't going to like it. "Yes Shining armor, my most trusted friend. I am very sorry that I must bring upon this most unfortunate turn of events to you." She paused. She had something terrible to tell him but didn't know how to put it, however, to avoid waiting even more time, she went ahead and worded it as softly as she possibly could. "Last night...at the Crystal Empire...." She continued, Both Twilight and Shining's eyes widening at the mention of the Crystal Empire. "There was an attack lead by the changelings...and we haven't heard from Princess Cadence then...." The room grew silent. The guards around them also felt grief for the lost princess, although they were already aware of the tragic incident, they still felt a cringe of unease just from hearing it again.

After a few seconds of what seemed like an eternity of silence, Shining lowered his head. He grieved for the said princess. Who could blame him? She was his wife and friend for as far back as he could remember, babysitting his younger sister, Twilight, while he was working and courting with him on their free time. He felt not only disparity for his lost love one, but also, he felt a strong feeling that he had long forgotten, hatred. But how? He had not felt any hatred, even for the evil King Sombra, during his attempt to recapture the Crystal Empire. "How..." He muttered, barely audible to anyone else. "How would they have gotten there without me knowing?" He then asked. "My wife...and the Crystal Empire....they didn't have anything to do with the war!" He then yelled out. "Who lead the attack? I'll kill them!"

Celestia didn't approve of her most loyal guard captain's sudden change in personality but at the same time she knew this would happen and understood well why he felt this way. She felt nearly as bad when she was once forced to banish her to the moon. " According to what Captain Star Crystal of the Cystal Empire's imperial guard, the event lasted only an hour. And the last thing she remembered seeing after she had been given the order to inform us about the attack, was a large robed creature that stood on two legs."

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{Crystal Empire-yesterday morning}

It was morning in the place known as the Crystal Empire, the place was warm and prestigious with a vast amount of land, but only one major city in the region. A city which was, no doubt, the capital and had many homes and markets. The place shined as its residents seemed to glow as if made of crystals themselves. The most eye catching feature of the city, however was the gient castle in the center. It had many tall towers encircling the perimeter of the central tower which was almost tall enough to reach half way to the clouds themselves. Nearly the whole structure was a light blue color and sparkled like the citizens giving off an almost diamond appearance.

A few men along with an army of changelings stared at the city before them, among them was, Kisame, Tobi, Orochimaru, and Zetsu. Kisame grinned and spoke. "Well will ya look at that. For a bunch of horses they really do have a talent for building big castles. It's a shame we have to take them down like this." He said.

Tobi turned to face Kisame and spoke to him is a dark and cold voice. "Remember why we're hear. We are to kill the princess that dwells within that fortress and leave only one surviver to tell the tail of the Akatsuki's attack on them."

Kisame turned to Tobi and shot him a look of anticipation. "What are you planning?" He asked. "Why leave a surviver when they will just rat us out and make even more enemies? Wouldn't it be best for us to do the damage hear and let those repulsive creatures behind us to take the blame?"

Tobi stood still in silence for a moment as the wind picked up slightly, waving the robes that they wore. "The reason is quite simple." He suggested. "As you should recall, we have left the Akatsuki and are forming a new group, one dedicated to the end of the Akatsuki, or dawn, and their leader's petty dream of peace, the Koyoake, or anti dawn. Their are four steps in this process. Step one is already complete, it was to join the Akatsuki for just long enough to learn their abilities, habits, and weaknesses in battle, this would give us a slight advantage from there, given they are already aware of your abilities along with Orochimaru's and Zetsu's. The second step is to gain allies which we are already doing by going along with their plan to attack this place. This move will make us one enemy and two allies due to the pact between these creatures and the griffins, two at the price of one. Also we should focus on finding Itachi's brother, Sasuke, he should prove useful in getting rid of any Akatsuki member to stand in his way of revenge against Itachi. Step three is to give the Akatsuki as many enemies as possible thus making it difficult for any of them to move about or get supplies without conflict, making a three way war that will probably affect them the most and sparing one and only one rather than killing him would do just that for us since we are still wearing the Akatsuki uniform. And after all of that has come to pass we will start to overwhelm them, picking them off one by one until the Akatsuki has no living member left." He explained.

After hearing Tobi's plan in depth. His grin returned to him as he looked back to the city before them. "So that's what you're up to. Well that's easier said than done. The loyal Akatsui members aren't easy to play with in such a way." He suggested followed by a short moment of silence. "Still, that's quite the strategy, make sure you don't tell this to just anyone. They may be closer than you think."