Warclaw
The next morning Aurora went for a walk. Despite the constant advice from her ‘doctors’ she had quite enough of being in a hospital bed. As such, when Night finally left her alone for five minutes, she left. Walking around the hospital Aurora took the cast off her wing. They told her she strained it, that it was not broken. The cast was only on there to prevent her from moving it, however, after her flight two days ago. She was itching to feel the wind through her feathers once more.
Walking around the hallway and heading outside she could not help but notice how full the hospital was. The dragon attack filled every room in the hospital. How she had a room to herself? The answer could only be Emperor Icarus.
“Speak of the devil.” Aurora spoke under her breath as she turned the corner. In the yard was the very griffin she had named. Icarus was out practicing his aerial maneuvers, despite the bandages wrapped around his wings and chest. She could not help but see the flaws in his technique. He had natural talent but lacked the skill to properly pull off some of the maneuvers he was trying. After one such failed attempt saw the griffin land face first in the dirt, Aurora walked up to him.
“Wow, you really suck.”
“What did you say to me?” Icarus pulled himself out of the dirt and glared at her.
“Sorry, you might not have heard me with your face in the dirt. I said: wow, you really suck.”
The red on his face made him appear all the cuter to the pegasus. “What do you know, you're just a pony, and a mare at that.” A huff accompanied his rather sexist remark.
“Well, I know that you pull out of your dives thirty degrees too sharply, your banked turns are at best, basic. Eight-year-old foals can perform Slip-turns better then you, and your overshoots are what cause you to be injured in the first place. But you're right, I guess I know nothing about flying.” She turned and walked away, unwilling to deal with the griffin’s insults any longer.
After pulling his lower beak out of the ground for the second time in so many minutes, Icarus shouted after the pegasus. “Wait, how do you know all that?” many of the maneuvers she listed were really advanced.
Aurora turned around. “Well, my mom IS Rainbow Dash. Who do you think we are anyway?”
Icarus never cared much for the other countries, much less the races that inhabited them. He would smile and wave when needed, doing his best to hide his contempt. However, even he knew the name Rainbow Dash, and not just from his father’s secret crush on her. He knew of this pony’s reputation. He had always written it off as a rumor. No one was that good... were they? If this pony was her Daughter?
“Is it true she was the one who split Equestria in half?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Believe what?”
“I don’t believe a pony actually cut Equestria in half.”
“I just told you…”
“You’re lying.”
“Wait, what?!”
“You heard me, I call you a liar.”
She stormed towards the griffin, her dark blue coat turning red around her face as anger radiated off her. “You want to say that to my face?”
“I. Call. You. A. L-”
Aurora slapped him.
“You can’t do that!”
“Really? 'Cause I think I just did. However, you cannot fly worth crap. See the difference between something someone can’t do and what someone can?”
Icarus rubbed his cheek with a claw. “I’m a better flyer than you.”
“I could fly circles around you.”
“The day I get beat by a pony is the day I…”
“Before you embarrass yourself by completing that sentence, here's my proposal, we do two laps around the outer edges of Warclaw and end back here. If you win, my friends and I will leave. I will even give you a twenty-second head start. However, if I win, you have to not be an ass for a whole day.”
“So you, a mare, are going to challenge me to a race? Moreover, you are even going to give me a twenty-second handicap? What do you take me for a fool? You will just blame your loss on your injury when I beat you.”
She turned around and slapped him in the face with her tail. “Well, if you're worried about a female beating you, you can always say no.”
“Fine, lets do this.”
She smiled a wicked grin. Turning around, Aurora looked at the clock; it read five minutes until nine am. “When the clock strikes nine, your twenty second head start begins.”
“Twenty seconds, like I'll even need that.”
“Hmm. Good point, I'll give you thirty.”
“You’re a cocky mare aren’t you?”
“What’s that? You need forty seconds? If you insist.”
He grunted at this mare and went back to stretching. ‘At least they will be gone after this.’
For her part, Aurora began her own stretching techniques Rainbow taught her when she was younger. They came back as natural as breathing. Going through several of the wing exercises, she stopped thirty second before nine. “It’s almost time.”
“I know.”
“Ten seconds.”
“I know.”
“Five seconds.”
“NOW!”
The griffin took off, bolting out of the yard at full speed. Aurora simply smiled. ‘Amateur.’ While she only promised him a forty second head start, Aurora waited a whole minute before blasting out of there, chasing after the griffin.
Emperor Siros turned to Shimmering Night; the two of them watched the whole conversation from an upstairs balcony. “He doesn’t stand a chance, does he?”
“Nope.”
“How long until she gets back.”
“Depends, what's the circumference of Warclaw?”
Siros stroked his beak with a claw, “I would have to say, about thirty one miles.”
“Well, Aurora is injured and out of practice, but given what I know… She should be back in about eleven minutes.”
“Eleven minutes? She truly is her mother’s daughter, isn’t she?”
“Did you ever doubt it?”
“Not since the first time I laid eyes on her.”
Siros began reminiscing about some of their earlier visits. Night could not help but think Siros was paying Aurora back for the earlier stories that Aurora told him about Night. She laughed and did her best to remember most of them. Her ammunition storage to use against her sister increased ten-fold from these. All too soon, her sister returned.
“Wow, she did better than expected.” Only ten minutes had passed in the time it took her to fly over sixty miles.
“How long until Icarus returns?”
“Lets see, he left eleven minutes ago, I would say we got another five before he gets back.”
Six minutes later, the Emperor of the Griffin Empire returned, winded, and out of breathe. Seeing Aurora already back and relaxing on the ground, his first instinct was that she cheated. However, his pride would not let him deny what he witnessed with his own eyes. This pony, Aurora Flash, she was just that good. He was an amateur compared to her. There was no denying it.
Icarus landed next to her. “So you are more than just a pretty face.”
‘Wait? Did I just call her pretty?’
“Saved your ass didn’t I.”
‘Hmm, so he can be polite when he wants to be.’
“Only because I was injured. Otherwise I never would have needed saving, and you never would have won.”
‘Am I falling for a pony?’
“You can’t help yourself can you, you are nothing but an egotistical jerk!”
“You're nothing but a pompous pony who thinks she is too good for everyone else!”
“Ass!”
“Bitch!”
“That’s princess to you!”
“That’s emperor to you!”
“Emperor Ass!”
“Princess Bitch!”
They were staring daggers into each other’s eyes, muzzle to beak.
“Would you two get a room already!”
Both set of eyes turned to Shimmering Night and Siros as they flew down from off high. Night thought their matching blushes was cute.
Icarus shouted. “Whatever!” Before turning and leaving, flying off towards a much needed shower.
Aurora looked at Night and let out an offended grunt before leaving to return to her room. “That’s so ridiculous it doesn’t even deserve a reply.”
Siros landed next to Night. “They really do make a cute couple, don’t they? Tell me, why did you interrupt?”
“Auntie Cadance taught me that such relationships take time, those two are so much alike it’s scary. While they might have gotten together after that, without another catalyst, it would not last. Besides, I had to wait nine years to marry Bright Dawn, I'm not going to let her have it that easy.”
He laughed at that. “You might be right, however, we have had enough distractions for the time being. The council will see you at ten.”
She looked up at the clock. “Oh, then we should get going.”
…………………………………
Ataxia paced around the outer courtyard for the hundredth time that day, much to the annoyance of the dragon watching over her. “ You keep that up and you are going to gouge a circle in the dirt.”
“Oh that’s, silly. No pony can do something like that.”
“Trust me, it’s possible.” Spike’s memories of a certain lavender unicorn worrying about a cryptic message from the future came to the forefront of his mind.
“If you say so.” To his surprise, she actually stopped. “This is just bogus.”
“What’s that?”
“This, this whole situation. They attacked us, and then stuck us in jail like we are some sort of prisoner. Now that they finally realized how stupid that was, they won’t let us go anywhere.”
“You did attack Emperor Icarus.”
“That jerk attacked us first!”
“We were never in any real danger. Trust me, your mother’s Dragon Steel Armor is nearly impenetrable.”
“Still.” She huffed.
“Well, you can go wherever you want, you know.”
“Yeah, a unicorn can go anywhere she wants, in Warclaw. A city designed and lived in by griffins. With no sort of bridges or roadways for anypony who can’t fly. Thanks dad, that’s really helpful.”
“You could teleport around.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I don’t trust these griffins, or the dragons they are at war with. Teleporting doesn’t come as natural to me as it does-did to Day… I wont be caught unprepared incase something happens. Besides, I hate teleporting, you know that.”
‘Wow, that’s really mature… When did that happen?’ Spike thought.
“Hey, Ataxia! We’re heading to the council chamber! You want to come?”
Ataxia and Spike turned their heads up. Shimmering Night and Siros were both flying above, on their way from the hospital.
“Yeah, just let me sprout wings and fly over there. Oh wait.”
Shimmering Night landed next to her. Siros stayed in the air, unsure if he should get near her after their ‘last’ attempt to talk.
“So, do you want to go or not?”
“It beats staying here, however, once again, I don’t have wings.”
“I’ll take care of that.”
“Night, no, Night, Nigh-”
Ataxia’s comment was cut off mid sentence as Shimmering Night teleported the two of them directly to the council chamber. Spike raised his head and looked at Siros. “You better get going. My daughter does not like teleporting.”
Surprisingly he landed next to the dragon. “Actually, I was hoping I would have a chance to talk to you about that, can you tell me more about those two?”
Spike turned his head towards Siros, staring him directly in the eyes. It was a credit to the former emperor’s resolve that he did not flinch from the dragons gaze. “What do you mean?”
“Shimmering Night and your daughter Ataxia. Can you tell me more about the circumstances of their birth? It is obvious they are not normal ponies.”
“Sure, I'll fill you in. first though, why do you ask?”
“Have you heard of the legend in the empire about the crowned ruler and the hybrid?”
“No. We don’t have anything like that in Equestrian”
“There will come two who will unite the empire with its greatest enemy. One who was born the child of a god, one born as a god; their ability in unification would do the impossible and bring peace to the empire.”
“Wait are you talking about Shimmering Night or Ataxia? ‘Cause neither of those two is the child of a god.”
“Maybe, possibly, I'll know more when you fill me in.”
“Well, it started when…”
………………………………….
Cloudsdale
To say Commander Firestar was swamped, would be to say that the oceans were wet. Sitting on her desk was a stack of paper three hoofs tall. She silently cursed last night’s distraction. ‘Even if it was worth it.’ True, Radiant Star’s advice was good; however, it would take some time to implement without causing more of a mess. Therefore, for now, she was it. This mess was hers and hers alone. Which would not be a problem, save they keep adding to it. Outside her office was a line of ten ponies, each with their own issue that required her ‘immediate’ attention.
A knock on the door brought her back from Paperwork Mountain.
“Commander Firestar.”
“Yes, what is it now, Miss. Deacon?”
“Mr. Fair Trade is waiting for you.”
“So what’s new? He’s been out there for an hour now.”
“He’s very insistent.”
She looked up and glared at Deacon, the expression on her face would send most ponies running for the hills. However, as Firestar’s personal assistant for ten years, Miss Deacon weathered a lot worse. She merely stood her ground and awaited Firestar's orders.
“Fine, send him in.”
Deacon whispered a silent ‘good luck’ under her breath as Fair Trade passed by. ‘This pony will be lucky to avoid being tossed out the window.’
Fair Trade walked confidently into the room and shut the door behind him. “Commander Firstar, thank you for giving me a minute of your…”
As the door shut, Miss Deacon took one look at the clock. “Ninety seconds.” She spoke to nopony in particular. She would have normally said sixty but the Commander was in a good mood today.
Exactly ninety seconds later, a loud crash came from the other room. Miss Deacon sent her messenger to inform supply they would need another window, the pegasus took the message with a sigh. “Well, if this is the first one today, I'd say she is doing good.”
“Indeed.”
Any further conversation with the pony was immediately cut off by a loud scream.
“That’s it, I’ve had it!”
Miss. Deacon could hear Firestar’s shouting from outside the room, an impressive feat, due to the special soundproof clouds that went into the construction of the office. Firestar bucked the door open and looked at the rest of the ponies in the line. “I don’t give a buck what BS you all want. It’s all a waste of my bucking time. None of you are getting jack. Now get out of here before you really piss me off! Miss. Deacon, no more visitors, no more interruptions!”
“As you say, ma’am.” Deacon sighed. ‘She should not have done that; she will pay for this later.’
Firestar turned around and slammed the door shut. She nearly broke it off the hinges. ‘Like I give a buck if his trade routes are suffering because of the constant relocation of Cloudsdale… Although, throwing him out the window was probably the bad way to handle that. Ah, buck him, he’s a pegasus, he can fly.” Commander Firestar returned to Paperwork Mountain, determined to make a dent in it by the end of the day.
An hour later, the last sound she ever expected to hear disturbed her work. Miss. Deacon let herself in and cleared her throat.
“Commander.”
“What did I say, Miss. Deacon?”
“I know ma’am, but there is somepony out here to see you.”
“No more visitors.”
“You might want to see this one, ma’am.”
“They better be ready to fly.” Firestar’s intent to toss this newcomer out the window was obvious to anypony who heard it.
“This one can’t, ma’am.”
Ok, that got her attention, it was a rare day that somepony visited Cloudsdale who could not fly. Firestar looked up, standing next to Miss. Deacon was the last pony she expected to see, but while she didn’t know it, it was the one pony she wanted to see the most.
Radiant Star looked at her and smiled, “I can always come back later if you’re too busy. Although, getting up here was kind of a pain.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Well you missed lunch, so I figured I would bring it to you.”
He could not help but notice how bright the room became with her smile.
………………………………………………………………………….
Appeloosa
Bright Dawn arrived in yet another town, yet another group of ponies he had to tell to evacuate without knowing when they could return. Appleloosa, another town he had to order to evacuate. Another group of ponies that would be forced to leave their homes, maybe never to return. He hated this; he hated kicking ponies out of their homes. All for what? Or was that the wrong question? Should the question be, all for whom?
He knew the answer to that question. The same pony that caused his suffering, the same pony that caused his wife so much grief, and caused the first war Equestria faced in over four decades. The pony that beheaded Celestia, yet, somehow, she was getting a pass on all of that. Dawn did not understand it; after all she did, she even tortured him. Why was everypony so quick to forgive her?
“Whatever. This is what Night wanted…” He shook the thought off and headed into the mayors house. The lingering doubt was a lot harder to dismiss; it never left his head. ‘Is it a good thing that Twilight is back?’
The wound from on his side from the shadowbeing's attention started itching again.
……………………………………………………….
Warclaw Council Chamber
Ataxia coughed up a lung when the teleport smoke faded. “Why did you do that to me?” She asked Night through deep inhales of breath.
“What? You didn’t want to come?”
“I didn't want you to teleport me! You know I hate that!”
Shimmering Night stuck her tongue out at Ataxia. “We made it here, didn’t we?”
“Yes, you mares made it here, however, if you would kindly get off the stage you are not expected to speak for another ten minutes.”
Night and Ataxia looked around, they teleported center stage in the council chamber, every set of eyes staring directly at them. “Oh, sorry.” Night managed to say as she led a very flustered Ataxia off the stage.
“And you wonder why I hate being teleported. I can barely stand it when I teleport myself!”
“Yeah, yeah, I know.”
Several loud SHHH soon interrupted the two from any further conversation. The crowd around them highly annoyed at the two ponies that could not keep quiet.
To pass the time Ataxia conjured a video game and started playing it, Night’s quick thinking by muting the damn thing, prevented them both from being thrown out.
Before Ataxia even cleared the first level, it was Night’s turn to speak. Ataxia loved watching Shimmering Night work over a crowd. If Twilight was an expert at winning over ponies, Shimmering Night was a master. She seemed to have a talent for knowing right when to deliver the next address, when she could push it, or even when she needed to reel them back in.
A griffin to Ataxia’s side leaned over and whispered to her. “Your friends a natural.”
“She can give one hell of a speech.”
“Is it true?”
“What?”
“What they say about the weeklong night, about Princess Celestia.”
“Oh, that… Yes, it’s true.”
“Who is raising the sun?”
“Princess Luna is doing both right now.”
“I still can-”
Any further conversation was immediately cut off; the chamber walls themselves began shaking. Explosions reverberated throughout the chamber. Every set of eyes started looking around in panic and fear. Huge sections of the ceiling started falling then stopped, caught in the air by Shimmering Night’s magic before any griffin died.
Ataxia transformed the rubble into leaves, allowing Night to relax as she let them fall safely to the ground. Despite her hatred of it, Ataxia teleported on stage with Night, there was no choice; the crowd would not allow any other form of travel to the stage. “Are you ok?”
“What’s going on?”
A look up answered that question. Seen through the hole in the roof, Ataxia and Night easily made out a mass of dragons flying above. “Looks like your peace talks will have to wait. They’re back.”
“On the contrary, this is perfect. But first we need to get our armor and then find Spike.”
Ataxia looked at her with a horrid expression on her face. “No. Please, not again!”
“Sorry.”
With a flash of magic Shimmering Night teleported the two of them out.
………………………………………...
Aurora nearly lost it when Night and Ataxia arrived unexpectedly in her room. “What the buck!”
“Good you're putting on your armor.”
“So you teleport right on my bed and…. What's wrong with Ataxia?”
Ataxia ran into the bathroom and started dry heaving into the toilet. “She’ll be fine, too many teleports in one day I think.”
“YOU THINK!!!” Came the yell from the other room.
Night just grinned sheepishly at her sister. “Anyway, the dragon horde is back, we need to get into our gear and find Spike.”
“Hopefully he will keep his head down. I know he’s tough, but it’s just a matter of numbers right now, lets just say, they have more.” One glance out the window told her as much.
Aurora’s statement wasn’t technically true. At that moment, several battalions of griffins took flight. Each would gladly give their lives to protect their home. Previous encounters left them all veterans. Skilled in how dragons fight, their weakest number culled to attrition. When they engaged the dragon horde, the dragons were in fact outnumbered three to one.
Not one of them would say the odds were in their favor. At best, against the younger dragons, it would take five of them to bring down one. None of the griffins had doubt as to what the outcome would be, however, not one had hesitation in their hearts. Victory was not an option, however, if they made their defeat cost enough, maybe, just maybe, the dragons would leave.
Shimmering Night used her magic and levitated the armor on the three of them. Much to the annoyance of Ataxia whose response was, “I am not cleaning that up!”
“Well c’mon, we need to get outside before it’s too late.” As the tell-tale signature of another teleportation spell started up, a horseshoe making a ringer around her horn interrupted it. “What the?”
Glancing over, it was obvious to see that Ataxia conjured the horseshoe. “I don’t bucking think so!”
“Then how do you suppose we get outside?”
Ataxia gave her best ‘are you serious’ look and tapped her front hooves together. “Huh… how do we, three ponies, get outside without teleporting? If only we had like legs or something…”
“Oh, right…”
Aurora felt like she deserved a medal for not laughing at this situation, her sister had yet to remove the horseshoe from her horn and forgot that ponies could walk. In so many ways, she reminded Aurora of their mom, Twilight.
The three of them made their way to the top of the roof. Outside was a massacre, the dragon horde was keeping busy burning every building they could to the ground. Several of them flew overhead, easily fighting off the griffin defenders.
“Well, what now, Night?” Ataxia asked.
“What, what are you planning sis?”
“I have to go talk to one.”
“Bucking hell you do, I thought you wanted to find Spike for that?”
“There's no time.”
Night went to take off, however, a hoof stepping on her tail prevented her from going anywhere. Looking down she saw the pony responsible for that. “ Aurora, let me go.”
“No. You know what mom would do to me if something happened to you.”
“I just need to get one of them to talk to me.”
“They won’t”
All three sets of eyes turned to the new speaker. Siros flew up to them with Spike providing cover. “They won't talk to you Night, not at first. Dragons have a very low opinion of other races. You might be able to convince them, but not without a catalyst to start the conversation.”
“But…”
“However, they will talk to her.” Siros gestured to Ataxia with a claw.
“Me? But, I’m nopony, she’s the alicorn.”
“Your right, you are no pony, what you are is a half dragon hybrid. Tell me, how many of those have you heard of before?”