There were six of you gathered seemingly at random afterwards, but it was no accident. It had to be you, for it was literally impossible for anyone else to bear the Elements of Harmony at that time. Your very souls are marked – no, it’s true! Much the same way a pony’s cutie mark reveals their role, in fact, although souls remain the same long after bodies have withered and died. In the grand turning of time, one soul may take on many bodies, hundreds, thousands, without changing in the slightest. That’s all we can hope for.
But I’m wandering away from the point. Yes, there were six of you. There were six of us as well. There have always been six. That’s simply how it is.
And it always begins with the same faceless enemy, of course.
If the nighttime festivities had been noisy, the daytime festivities were nothing short of raucously chaotic. For once this failed to amuse Discord, an irony that most certainly was not lost on him as he sulked far from the bulk of the activity.
A quarter of a mile from where he was sulking, however, Celestia couldn’t help feeling a faint undercurrent of tension in spite of her comfortable lounging position on her cushion. She was certainly still satisfied from her success with the sparkling sun, yes, but the fact that she had had such problems with it seemed fairly ominous to her. She couldn’t remember having any similar troubles with her training, not counting the usual mishaps of early fillyhood. As far as she could tell, of all the ponies in the land only Luna was supposed to have power equal to hers. And she was quite certain that the blue alicorn hadn’t interfered in this; she had no reason to, and at any rate she had been too nervous to keep a stiff upper lip, much less cast such a powerful spell!
“So it’s you, then. That figures.”
Startled out of her reverie, she focused her attention on the stallion standing before her. He was quite tall, nearly as tall as she was, and from beneath his brown cloak she caught a glimpse of his hooves, which were scuffed up and a dull shade of grayish-purple. Aside from that, he was a perfectly mystery.
“How … how did you get past the guards?” she asked, glancing around to make sure the tough stallions surrounding the royal pavilion hadn’t suddenly keeled over and died. Granted, it wasn’t the most intelligent of conversation openers, but then again his sudden appearance didn’t warrant one of the usual greetings.
“Doesn’t matter,” he said gruffly. “Follow me.”
And with that he turned and walked briskly away.
Celestia’s jaw was by now practically touching the floor. Who did this odd pony think he was, ordering royalty around – and divine royalty, at that! She didn’t owe him anything. And she was still rather tired from her trial with the sun … her cushion suddenly felt even softer, as if compelling her to lay her head upon it and close her eyes. Well, she most certainly had deserved her rest.
“Get up.” He was back again, presumably glaring down at her.
She leered up at him, trying and failing to peek past the brown folds concealing his face. “Why should I?”
“Something dangerous is coming. I’ll explain on the way. For now, you just have to follow me.”
She nickered at that. “As if the princess of the Equestrian Empire has to follow a complete stranger who has done nothing at all to prove himself as a trustworthy pony. Somehow I doubt I’m going to follow you.”
The stranger was silent for a moment, as if he hadn’t considered that. “… Let me be honest, then,” he said after a moment. “Believe me when I say that it is literally impossible for me to lie to anypony, yourself included.”
“And how am I supposed to know that that isn’t a lie itself?”
“You’ll have to trust me. Trust is what makes honesty such a powerful thing.”
One of her ears twisted forward. Was that a note of pleading in his tone? “Well …” She put a hoof to her chin, considering this. If he really was telling the truth, then she had best accompany him to deal with this mysterious danger that he refused to talk about. If he wasn’t, then she could probably punish him sufficiently upon discovering the lie. She was an alicorn, after all. “I suppose I might as well trust you. For the moment. But believe me, stranger, that the second I discover any nefarious plots on your part, I will most certainly destroy you. It’s preferable to what my mother the Empress would put you through.”
“Fair enough,” he conceded with a nod. “I am glad it won’t come to such an extreme, then. Follow me.”
She stood, stretching the kinks out of her slender legs, and levitated her own cloak onto her body before she proceeded to trot after him. They slipped between a pair of the guards, who strangely didn’t seem to care that two mysterious ponies in disguise were sneaking out of the royal pavilion. Somepony did notice this, though.
“Now where are you off to, Celestia?” Luna mused mostly to herself, watching them disappear into the crowd outside with suspicious eyes. With a determined look, she seized her own cloak and fastened it on, speaking distractedly to her other older sister. “Galaxy, I believe some dreadful and exciting intrigue is ahoof. I shall deal with the matter directly. If we fail to return before night is supposed to fall, please tell Father and Mother of it – but only then. For now, it simply would not do to drive them into a perspiring panic.”
“Sure.” The unicorn sounded as if Luna had merely asked her to keep an eye on the crowd. She was staring down at the half-eaten rose in her hooves, eyes cast down.
“Marvelous!” Luna gushed, slipping the hood over her head. This would be quite an exciting venture! Perhaps there was a spy causing mischief, seeking to kidnap Celestia. Oh, that silly alicorn, always quick to put her trust anypony …
Convinced that she could employ an adequate amount of stealth, she proceeded to gallop past the guards, who were quite startled at the sudden movement. After a few moments of awkward silence, they decided that one of the princesses had had an argument with Their Majesties again, and simply let the matter be. She would come back when she felt ready to forgive them, the guards supposed, and proceeded to discuss the fabulous weather that Celestia’s sun had brought.
Luna grinned at their uncertain expressions, then frowned as she considered who she had just left behind. Maybe it wouldn’t be idea to confront a stranger all on her own …
Nearby, in the cool shade beside an elaborate flower bush, Diamond Strike waited for the mare whose name he didn’t know to show up. What with the entire empire being satisfied with the royalty’s reassertion over the sky, the absence of a few guards could easily go unnoticed. All the better to get some tail. Ah, what a day.
He tapped the ground with a polished hoof, scowling at the grass he was flattening down. Where was she? She’d said she would meet him here, didn’t she? Wherever she was, she was taking forever to get here. He wondered vaguely how many games his fellow gamblers had played by now …
“You! Soldier pony!”
Turning to see the source of the authoritative voice, Diamond Strike noted a tall dark blue mare standing over him, with a long horn poking at the top of her hooded black cloak and a pair of rustling protrusions at her back that hinted at partially unfurled wings. His eyes practically fell out of his head upon realizing that it was none other than Princess Luna herself. Why was she talking to him?
“You shall accompany me on an important mission,” she said, staring down pretty impressively for a pony who hadn’t even gotten her cutie mark yet. “With any luck we shall be back before I must usher in the night, so feel no worry at the possibility of vanishing for an extended period of time.”
The unicorn glanced about at the surrounding crowd. Princess or no Princess, his hot mare still hadn’t shown up, and he was getting antsy. “With all due respect, Your Highness, I have a situation of my own to resolve.”
“Soldier,” Luna said in a suddenly ominous tone, “that was not a request.”
She puffed out her chest dramatically, and though it didn’t do much for her physical form she suddenly seemed to blot out the entire sky with her black and blue form, casting him into a shadow that felt almost ravenously hungry.
He actually flinched. “I just … yes, your Highness.”
“Good.” She smiled winningly, and the world became perfectly normal again.
With a dark grumble, Diamond Strike proceeded to follow just behind the Princess as she trotted off in some direction through the masses of bodies. Sorry, my nameless mare, he thought, glancing back at the place of the would-be rendezvous. I guess the royalty comes first.
Over near a massive stone fountain, one that depicted an alicorn prancing upon an ocean surface, Short Notice practically swallowed a tangerine whole. “These … these are utterly wondrous and amazing!” he gushed after he had managed to choke up the pit. “I can’t believe I’ve never had the opportunity to sample such delights as these before. Oh, the wonders of the royal gardens …” He trailed off, frowning down at the unicorn pony sulking beneath him. “You’re still not cheering up, are you?”
“Of course I am,” Discord replied, perfectly deadpan. “I’m absolutely ecstatic. It’s a wonder I haven’t broken the sun from leaping about with joy.”
Grunting in disbelief, the green pegasus fluttered down to land on Discord’s muzzle. “Come on, Puppet Strings. This is a celebration we’re at! The entire point is to have fun, you know! A marvelous time!”
Discord rolled his eyes. The little pony couldn’t possibly know of the blow that had been dealt to his ego, but it was quite obvious that cheering up should be out of the question. Even though he had a point … festivals were typically for festivities, astonishingly enough. But he would have felt in a much more festive mood if he had managed to best that alicorn princess, as he was supposed to.
“Geez, you’re just ridiculous.” Short Notice shook his head, then froze as something caught his eye. “Say … those ponies over there sure look like they’re sneaking around, don’t they?”
Two tall cloaked ponies walked through the crowd almost as if it wasn’t there, slipping between the creatures with the utmost of ease. And one of them, from the way the strings bent around her, was clearly the sun princess! Discord couldn’t believe it; why did she have to practically swagger past them? If she’d realized their contest was just that, a contest, she probably would have gloated upon passing him. As it was, she was too busy sticking close behind her companion … who had quite a few interesting connections to the world himself. Emphasis on few; it was almost as though the strings were actively avoiding him.
“That’s interesting,” he said redundantly.
“I’ll say.” Short Notice hopped off of the unicorn’s muzzle and into the air, where he fluttered like a baby bird. “Especially considering the general openness of the rest of the ponies here. And griffons and whatever else, I suppose. It calls into question the security of the city, and of course it makes me wonder why they would go about wearing disguises out here, in broad daylight no less. Perhaps it’s an ADVENTURE … Hey, where are you going?”
For Discord had stood up and begun to walk away. “I’m following them, of course,” he called over his shoulder. “This is a mystery that would be quite satisfying to solve. Are you coming?”
A grin spread across the little pegasus’s face as he flapped over to join him. “You’d best believe it, my fearless friend.”
With that they began the task of navigating their way through the dense crowds, which was arduous even with Discord subtly nudging a few ponies out of the way.
Meanwhile, well outside the gardens and in view of the deserted streets, Willow Wisp slumped down against a faded brick wall from sheer exhaustion. At long last she had managed to find her students’ parents, reuniting them and sending them on her way. All she wanted now was to trot on home and fall fast asleep. She really was more of a morning pony, and that fact had most definitely taken its toll over the last several hours.
Just before her lids could droop shut, a brief movement caught her eye. Squinting down the street, she caught sight of a small green shape passing around a corner some distance away. Her expression shifted into a confused frown. What on earth was that little foal doing out here all on its own? Didn’t its parents need it to be back with them back at the festivities? Surely it should not be out in the middle of the sprawling streets of Everfree, where practically anything could happen to it. Falling into an open sewer … locking itself in an abandoned cellar … getting eaten by a horde of hungry griffons wandering about as if this was their city …
“Oh,” she said worriedly, urging her tired state of mind to give way to a concerned one. “Oh dear, he can hardly be out here by himself. I suppose I had better go help him, then.”
Stretching out her slightly wobbly legs, the blue earth pony began to walk in the direction that she had last seen the little pony vanish to, trying her hardest not to topple over or fall asleep on her feet. The wellbeing of the foal came before her own comfort, after all …
“You know,” Celestia remarked dryly, “the further we get from Everfree, the more your insistence on bringing me to whatever place this is seems … suspect.”
“I do not make my home in the city,” the stranger replied, not bothering to look around at her accusatory tone. “There is no reason to linger there.”
She raised an eyebrow. “So you’re bringing me to where you live, then.”
“'Live’ implies some measure of satisfaction,” he said, apparently missing her implication. “I am bringing you not to where I live, but where I linger. Simply existing for the present.”
Celestia found it hard to believe that he could “simply exist” in the mountains. For that was where they were headed as they trekked through broad seas of tall wheat dotted with fruit trees here and there: the vast range of the Dragonback Mountains, sprawling from east to west in the distance before them. As grand as Everfree was, the city simply couldn’t compare the vast green behemoths stretching towards the sky. It was a great and silent reminder that in spite of all the progress pony civilization had made, the forces of nature and chaos still held free reign in the endless wilderness. Even if the draconequui no longer lived there, it still housed a plethora of wild beasts, and even a few of the dragons themselves lurked in the stony caverns deep within. To say that danger thrived in those mountains was indeed an understatement.
“Maybe you should start explaining yourself right about now,” she suggested, thinking of the great scaly dragons still attending the celebration and considering how much wilder their cousins in Dragonback might be. “It’s not as if we’re going to lose any time getting wherever we’re going.”
“That is a fair point. But I would prefer to explain the situation only once, without repetition. So I will wait until you have all gathered before revealing anything.”
“We have all gathered …?” Celestia frowned. “Who else is coming?”
“I don’t know yet. I only know that they will come.”
“ … Then why did you decide to bring me specifically?”
“Because you are an alicorn,” the stranger stated simply. “While personally I doubt the fanciful claims of divinity surrounding the royalty, it is obvious that you have some of the most powerful magic, if not the most powerful magic, of all ponies in the Equestrian Empire. Such distinctions are what the Element of Magic requires for its bearer.”
She glanced off to the side as she puzzled over that information, casting her eyes on the stalks of wheat that swayed in a faint far-off breeze. A pony who didn’t hold faith in the divine creed? Well, her tutors had warned her about the skeptic minority, but that didn’t change its inherent strangeness. It was as if he’d said he didn’t believe she was an actual pony. And that other thing he’d mentioned … Magic, with a capital M that was almost audible. That would imply a particular sort of energy, most likely a very powerful one from the inclusion of the term Element. And that would explain why the stranger required her to accompany him.
But required for what …?
They trotted along the bank of the Butterfly River, with the sound of their hooves drowned out by its water rushing past them from its chilly mountain source. Celestia tried to look pensively down at it, only to hastily look away again from the glare of the sunlight reflecting off of it. It had to be close to noon by now, she thought, considering the squatness of their shadows. She hoped this wouldn’t take too long; she was going to have to get back to Everfree in time to lower the sun to make way for the moon. Luckily it could handle itself at the moment, thanks to the momentum she had given it; for the most part it seemed to be pushing it over the horizon that made it difficult to handle.
They had just gone past the place where the ground sloped upwards slightly and the rocks dotting the land grew larger and more numerous, when the stranger halted in place, holding up a hoof to stop the princess as well. “I believe we have moved off far enough,” he stated, turning to stare over her shoulder. “You may emerge from hiding, not that you ever needed to in the first place.”
Looking behind her, Celestia blinked upon seeing five ponies slink sheepishly out of the grass. While one remained concealed in a billowing black cloak, the other four – two unicorns, a pegasus and an earth pony – were as clear to read as her day, ranging a spectrum of expressions from anxious to almost bored. Strange how she hadn’t heard them striding through the fields behind them before. Who were these ponies? And why had they been following her, especially considering the Summer Sun Celebration being in full swing?
“Celestia!” the cloaked pony exclaimed, tossing off her hood to reveal a familiar blue alicorn with her mane slightly frazzled. “What in Cronos’ name do you think you are doing? You can’t just go wandering off with random strangers into the wilderness, it’s complete madness!”
Celestia shook her head in disbelief, sending her own hood falling to her shoulders. “Luna, why are you following me? I am pretty sure I can take care of myself. This pony is a stranger, admittedly, but he seems to be at least honest. I would have arrived back at the festival in time to help with the sunset, I promise.”
“But what if he had a band of thieves just waiting to pounce on you once you passed into those treacherous mountains?” Luna asked, her voice rising in volume and dramatic flair. “There could be unicorns even more experienced than we are! And none of us would ever see you again … I highly doubt I could run the Empire should the crown be passed onto me, after all. Not that I wouldn’t give it my best shot, but surely you understand that you would do a far more admirable job as an Empress!”
“Well, thank you for saying so,” Celestia said, trying to ignore the slight unease of the mental image Luna’s words had slipped into her brain. “I guess …”
Apparently the mortal newcomers hadn’t talked amongst each other much, considering the utterly astonished expressions on three of their faces as the princesses revealed their identities to the wilderness – the tiny pegasus actually snapped his bug-eyed gazes from one alicorn to the other, back and forth, with his jaw hanging open as he attempted to reconcile the sight before him with common sense.
The brown unicorn seemed completely unsurprised, however. He didn’t even seem to be paying much attention, keeping his eyes scanning the surrounding wilderness. As Celestia examined him curiously, she realized that it was the same one she had collided with earlier, the one who had giggled for apparently no reason. Odd how she could run into him twice in the same twenty-four hours. She only realized she had been looking at him for longer than was proper when his drifting gaze fell to meet hers; he seemed startled at this for a moment, then glanced off to the side again, scowling slightly.
This couldn’t really be the same unicorn as before, could it? Maybe he had a brother.
“As fascinating as your drama is,” the stranger said dryly, “we really do not have the time.”
Luna, who had been in the middle of a long-winded rant about politics and the importance of the Empire over the ruling family, froze for a moment at his words before closing her mouth, looking slightly abashed at his authoritative tone.
A sudden motion on the stranger’s back dislodged his cloak, sending it fluttering off into the grass. His wings refolded themselves onto his back as the six younger ponies took in his strange appearance: although there were plenty of dull-colored ponies as well as bright ones in Everfree, none of them could remember seeing anything resembling the stranger’s dusty grayish-purple fur, his wild blue-gray mane, or his oddly pointed ears. Beneath his set of tarnished armor and bulging pack, an impressive collection of scars crisscrossed his hide, ranging from tiny scratches that looked almost invisible from where they were standing to massive mound-like things that looked only the more grotesque for having become half-hidden beneath grown-in hair. Still, it couldn’t hide the spiky shape on his flank that was his cutie mark, resembling a menacing-looking mace.
“The six of you have gathered here for a reason of high importance,” the strange pegasus stated, and as he spoke they caught sight of an odd black mark on his tongue. “You are connected in ways that you cannot yet possibly fathom. To explain such bonds that already exist between you would take more time than we have, so let me simply say that you must utilize these bonds in your quest.”
His words were met with half a dozen blank stares.
“Our … quest?” Celestia repeated, unable to keep an inflection of incredulity out of her voice.
He turned to face her, and she couldn’t help but shiver a little at the unnatural chill in his pale silvery eyes. “Your quest, yes. You must find the Elements of Harmony and defeat the foe which you have so foalishly unleashed this morning.”
There was a long minute of silence. It seemed rather ominous as everypony noted that the birds had stopped singing a long while ago. Even the distant breeze had died down, leaving the scene in an eerie silence usually reserved for the dead of night.
“The Elements …?” one of them spoke up cautiously.
“What do you mean, the foe we unleashed?” another asked, trying and failing to sound as if he were in charge.
“Not all of you unleashed it,” the stranger corrected him. “Only two of you did so, in your stupid attempt to wrestle for control of the sun.”
Celestia felt a brief stab of surprise even as she cringed. So somepony had actively tried to prevent the sunrise. And he or she was standing beside her? She snuck a quick glance at the others; she couldn’t fathom who had done it, nor could she comprehend how or why.
Somepony else let out a quiet, dismayed “Ah,” but in spite of her quick scrutiny she failed to see who’d said it. At least they didn’t sound malicious, whoever they were.
“The conflict over the sun awakened the beast of the Blood in the Sky,” the stranger stated flatly. “The Bl—”
“Pardon me, sir,” the strange earth pony interrupted. “I do not mean to be rude, but … the Blood Knight is just a fairy tale. We only claim he exists to tell foals to go directly to sleep on Battleground Eve, or else he will ‘gobble them up in a big tasty stew.’” She shook her head in disbelief, twiddling at her fuchsia and pale pink mane with an idle hoof. “The Blood in the Sky is merely an aurora. Albeit very pretty one, to be sure.”
The stranger stared at her for a while. She gazed back mildly, not seeming to particularly care much for his intimidating appearance.
Then he laughed, a sharp barking sound that didn’t seem to be the sort of noise that should come from a pony’s throat. If they tried hard enough, they might have managed to believe it was a laugh of genuine mirth.
“You’re a teacher, aren’t you?” he stated, suddenly all humorless again. “You really believe what you’re saying.”
The earth pony’s ears flattened to the back of her head, but there was no need for fretting: he had turned to address the group as a whole again.
“The Blood Knight is real,” he said solemnly. “I should know. I fought him and sealed him in the sky with the Elements of Harmony – the only weapons that can really affect him when all is said and done. But on my own, their influence was still not as strong as they could have been, and Blood Knight’s prison has consequently managed to grow weak over time. He would have broken free eventually; your foalishness has simply hastened in a time of extreme trial.”
“But … that can hardly be right,” the little green pegasus spoke up, sounding as though he were struggling with some terrible truth. “Doesn’t legend say that … that he was defeated and sealed a thousand years ago? Because that would make you—”
“Much older than a thousand years, yes,” the stranger said dismissively, as though such an impressive lifespan were nothing to get excited over. “But enough of such trivial details. Blood Knight has descended again to the earth, and he is roaming about Equestria at this very moment in search of the weapons that stopped him before … and those who are destined to wield them.”
“Then why did you have us come out here in the first place?!” the pegasus bellowed, startling the other five with his sheer volume. “You just … you just lured us out here to get SLAUGHTERED by some ancient monster crawling with invulnerability, nay, even IMMORTALITY? What in the name of the darkest pit in Tartarus is wrong with you?”
“Look, kid, it’s all right,” the unicorn said tersely – not the strange brown one, but the scarlet royal guard lounging near Luna. “This idiot here is just spouting off random old mare’s tales. He’d probably do the same to anypony stupid enough to listen. Next thing you know there’ll be storm clouds brewing all over the place while he shouts psychotically at the sky or something.”
“No,” the little pegasus murmured, breathing hard as he glared at the stranger. “No, it’s not. It’s not an old mare’s tale. I don’t know how, but I can … I can feel that he’s telling the truth. That the Blood Knight actually exists, that only one weapon exists in the entire world that can defeat it, and that it wants to … it wants to slaughter us.” He swallowed, perhaps louder than necessary. “It shouldn’t be true. It would be an utter abomination if it were true. Yet somehow it is.”
The others stared at him a bit nervously. Celestia considered how she had decided the stranger was trustworthy before, giving him a chance in spite of his audacious demands … could it be that the little green pegasus felt the same thing?
To their astonishment, the stranger’s face broke out into a grin – a real, honest-to-the-gods genuine smile that positively lit up his face, making him look far younger than he had before. “From one to another, huh? Well, she did say we’d be able to tell,” he said, and chuckled softly. “Yes, you feel correctly. One of the greatest monsters of the age is unleashed, and you are all in very real danger.” He stepped forward, placing a scarred wing onto the smaller pegasus’s shoulder. “But … Short Notice, is it? You can also believe me when I say that the Elements of Harmony can stop them, and the six of you can wield them. All you need to do is work together to get that far.”
The green pegasus, Short Notice, furrowed his brow as he dropped his gaze thoughtfully.
“You’re still not making any sense,” the brown unicorn said, completely deadpan. “And considering how that’s coming from me, that’s a problem.”
The stranger opened his mouth to retort – but he was cut off before he could begin when a sudden wind picked up, howling across the wilderness as a mass of broiling clouds began to peek over from the north, looming ominously as they approached.
“I knew it!” the royal guard exclaimed over the din, even as everypony dug their hooves into the ground to prevent from getting tossed head over heels by the abruptly arriving gale. “I knew a ridiculous storm thing was going to show up! I just knew it!”
“He’s coming!” the stranger shouted, and even through the mane flapping against her face, Celestia was sure she could see a flicker of something almost like fear in his pale eyes. “You have to hurry! I shall stay to hold him off. You need time to reach the Elements of Harmony.”
“Well, telling us where they are would probably help!” Luna snapped, wincing as a few pebbles dislodged from the mountain far above smacked her in the face.
“There’s a cave behind the statue of the Skytorn Warmare,” the stranger called back, scowling at the quickly approaching clouds. “You’ll know it when you see it!”
“But what about you?” the earth pony asked, still looking oddly serene in spite of the sudden weather whipping her mane every which way. “Surely the Blood Knight will not hesitate to harm you?”
“Probably won’t be the worst beating I’ve ever had in my life,” the stranger replied dryly. One of his wings squirmed into the pack on his back, and emerged with an astonishingly long mace grasped in its curled feathers. With a jerking movement, the gauntlets on his hooves sprouted claw-like daggers of metal, gleaming defiantly in the brilliant light reflecting from the clouds swarming overhead. The visor on his helmet dropped down, concealing his upper face as the chain mail covering his neck slithered up to cover his muzzle. As spikes popped up across his armor, he glanced back at the six young ponies through glaring eye slits. “He won’t kill me outright, though. He doesn’t have a reason to. Probably.”
“But we—”
“I said go!”
Cringing at his sharp order, the ponies nodded almost in unison and galloped past the massive rocky formations that marked the beginning of the Dragonback Mountains.
The stranger waited until they had vanished from sight before facing northward again. As the clouds completely drew across the sky and began to grow darker, he transferred the mace into his forehooves, shifting his weight onto his hind legs as he caught them, fluttering his wings to keep his balance.
A horrible shriek sliced across the wilderness, bespeaking of violent urges and insatiable bloodlust. It put even the terror of the howling wind to shame, the way a hawk drowns out the noise of a distant stampede. The sound curdled the blood of all those who heard it, worming its way through their minds and neatly tapping into the shadowy pools of fear concealed there. Its owner clearly wanted nothing more than to destroy the living creatures it had once shared a kinship with, as brutally and painfully as possible. And it was coming on swift violently beating wings.
Behind his visor, the stranger’s eyes narrowed into an ironic smirk. “Long time no see, old friend.”
With that he took off into the broiling sky, ready to resume a long-dead clash.