Equestria. The lush land where ponies were fluent. At least, after the Darkened Kingdom fell. The Darkened Kingdom had a very interesting history, or at least, according to the book Axel found in the library.
The Darkened Kingdom was once a kingdom for thieves, outlaws and murderers and it even had a sort of race of its own. Some rumors assumed that a few assassin clans held their meetings there. It was ruled by two rulers who had a horrid history of their own. One was a heartless pegasus that was rumored to cut out her own cutie marks and have dark magic infused into her left eye. The other was an pegaus that had cut off her wings herself that was rumored to have had her cutie mark forcefully changed to a butcher knife, her ideal choice of a weapon before becoming a Duel Queen.
One day, in another kingdom that has since faded into the obscurity of Modern Day Equestria, one of the Five Leaders was revealed to be a Darkened Fusion. The Leader of Magic. He was revealed to be a bat pony. After that, he fled from the kingdom and was believed to be dead for at least ten years. Then he was discovered to have overthrown the Darkened Queens and taken the role as King. Although he had no queen, he still had a son which was found when the Five Leaders led a siege on the Darkened Castle to take back the Corrupted Leader of Magic.
The Corrupted Leader of Magic put up a large fight that led to his castle suffering terrible damaged, as well as many casualties. Unlike the natural Darkened's craving to live and kill, the leader stalled until the kingdom was evacuated to the safety of the wilderness.
That's where the history of Ace Amethyst and his mystery son, ended. It was believed the Five Leaders took Ace Amethyst captive and charged him for his crimes while the son was taken in by the now scattered, Darkened Race.
Axel set down his book and looked up at the earth mare before him. She wore a blueish green lace fall and silver rimmed spectacles. Her graying mane was tied up in a bun and her beige coat showed faint hints of gray.
"You better get home before your mother worries." She warned and Axel looked down at his book. "Take it home. I won't tell any pony." She whispered and Axel grinned , picking up the book and sliding it into his saddle bag.
"Thanks Miss Mare!" he thanked the mare as he trotted out of the Knowledge Tree Library.
It was against the rules to take over two books out of the library, Due to thievery of Harmony Council Approved History books, and this was Axel's third book. He was an oddly curious unicorn, asking more questions than there were answers. As well as visiting the library whenever he had the space in his free time. Which was as often as he could get around his lectures and occasional dinner parties. He lived in the Sparkle Mansion, since his mother was the allicorn herself. Axel had the same purple coat and him being a unicorn was explained by Twilight's previous time as a unicorn. Although, Axel didn't share her dark purple mane. His mane was a faded, light navy blue, not purple.
Axel pulled his coat tighter around himself as a chilly breeze swept down the smooth street. The sun would set within the next hour and Axel always made it a point to return home on time for every meal, not wanting his food to get cold, and to keep his parents from worrying. He smiled when sight of the towering faded red mansion came into view. Yellow light pouring out of the windows and onto the neatly kept lawn were one of the gardeners happened to be working. The gardener stopped his merry whistling when Axel opened the rod iron gate and he waved at the sight of the thin legged colt.
"Good evenin' ,Axel! Have a good day at the library?" He asked, leaning against his shovel.
"It was a fine day. Of course there were barely any other ponies, as usual."
The gardener nodded and went back to his work while Axel closed the gate and trotted up the stone stairway and pushed open the dark mahogany door.
Axel shut the door behind him and hung up his cloak, levitating his book to the shelf. He took a quick look at himself in the mirror before trotting up the stairs to the washroom where he cleaned up, putting on a more formal vest and trotting towards the dining room, greeting the maids on his way there. At the Dining Room door stood a butler who politely opened the door and bowed as Axel walked past.
The dining room was elegant, the walls decorated with paintings of Star Swirl the Bearded and a large tapestry of a Harmony Council meeting at order. The table was spruce wood, although covered with a star decorated table runner that had the symbol of the Harmony Council printed on the center. Chairs lined the table, all having cushioned seats. The table was loaded with the perfect vegetarian banquet and two ponies currently sat at the table.
One was a violet allicorn with her dark violet and hot pink mane in a braided crown. She wore an elegant purple and white dress with gold seams and a pink and white star design printed on the chest. The other was an orange pegasus whom wore a faded blue general uniform with a blue shield with a lighting bolt on it, printed onto the chest as well. He alsohad his bright blue mane spiked up in its usual way.
Axel sat down across from his adoptive mother and father. The two smiled at him.
"Did you have a nice day?" Twilight asked and Axel nodded.
"Yup. I found this book on some kingdom called the Darkened Kingdom."
Axel took a spoonful of his serving of carrot soup, not seeing the slightly shocked looks printed on the faces of his parents.
Twilight quickly regained her composure, unlike her husband who nearly choked on his daisy and daffodil salad, coughing and taking a quick drink of his water. As Axel added another spoonful to his mouth, Flash shot Twilight a panicked look. Twilight responded with a calm look that meant that she got this.
"So, Axel. Where did you find this book?" She inquired and Axel swallowed his mouthful, taking a sip of his water before replying.
"At the Knowledge Tree Library. The one I always go to." Axel took another spoonful.
"Well, that must have been an interesting book." Axel nodded to Flash's comment.
After that, the conversation died out and the family finished up their meal of salads and carrot soup. They were served sugar cakes for dessert which Twilight liked to dab in honey. After dinner was finished, Axel was excused to his room. On his way up the elegant stairwell, he snatched up the book from the library, intending to read it once he reached his room.
Axel opened his door and trotted into his room. He had a pine wood bookshelf that was stacked with novels and different volumes of magic books as well as a few mini statuettes.
Axel's room consisted of mainly pine furniture. His bed was a swan feather stuffed mattress with blue covers that, like lots of other things in the mansion, had the symbol of the Harmony Council stitched into it. Across from his bed was a dresser and a mirror, beside the mirror was a door that led to Axel's personal bathroom with a porcelain sink and claw foot bathtub, along with a braided blue and white rug on the marble floor. On the wall beside Axel's bed was a large four pane window with white lace curtains tied to the side that gave him a view over the town and in the fading light, he could see the faint white and gold structure of the Canterlot Palace.
Axel picked up his book, trotting across the large rug that seemed to reflect the sky, although the one thing that differed it from the sky was the obvious symbol of the Harmony Council outlined by faint white lines between stars. Axel went into his bathroom and stripped himself of the formal vest and pulled on an over sized soft silk shirt that draped off his thin purple frame. He quickly washed his face and trotted over to his bed and crawled onto it, levitating his book over to him.
Axel turned and used his magic to turn up the light on his oil lamp. He then turned to his book and opened to the last page he left off on. The beginning of Chapter Three: The Lion Veers
The Darkened Kingdom had its own wild life. The most well known were the Lion Veers. The name coming from their thick golden fur and how you often had to veer out of their way. Lion Veers were often difficult to get away from once they locked their sights on you, killing them was a difficult matter as well.
Lion Veers had stronger and thickened bones that took several blows from a sledge hammer to crack. However, they also were immune to pain unless it was near their vitals. For example, the skin near the head, stomach and neck was where the pain sensitive nerves were located. The Lion Veer also can survive immense bleeding and had very tough insides. Along with its organs being able to grow back, except for its brain which is must be dislocated from the rest of the body or damaged. The brain of a Lion Veer is soft and easy to damage.
As for the different breeds of the Lion veers, the most definitive way to tell your looking at a common or rare breed is the eyes. The most common Lion Veer has red eyes, it also has dull yet long teeth and claws. It has a habit of salivating a lot, although no pony ever knew why. This breed is rarely apart from a pack and will attack anything that isn't one of its own. After all, its brain is just to control its body, not think like a conscious being.
The less common lion veer has yellow eyes and unlike the common breed, has a shred of intelligence and can, in fact, bear offspring. This breed does not salivate as much, however, avoid its saliva. This breed has a more snake-like feature of venomous saliva and forked tongue. Of course it doesn't have long range spitting and the venom isn't terribly lethal if spat unless you get it all over you.However, one bite and you have three hours to get it treated before suffering horrible burning pains in your spinal cord and brain. In most cases, bites that went untreated for four hours led to small amounts of brain damage and memory loss, five hours led to becoming paralyzed and six hours of non treatment led to a painful and slow death by burning through the spinal cord and disconnecting the brain to the point it could never be set back in place even if all the magic in the world tried to save it.
The second to rarest breed has green eyes. This one is much smarter and will not attack unless it feels like its necessary and its offspring are more likely to survive unlike the other breed. This breed hides more than it fights. However, that does not mean it is dangerous. This breed is fast and slick, its thin yet long claws dangerous and its sharp fangs pack a sharp bite. Some Ponies nickname it "Hunter Veers" due to their common hobby of hunting animals and not ponies. They have great sense of smell and are quick to learn of their prey's vital points, animal or pony. If you come across one of these animals, try and stay calm and walk slowly past or away from it. If it gets more aggressive when you go a general direction, it means that either that's where its kill is kept, or its where it has hidden its cubs.
The rarest breed of them all has blue eyes. This one is by far the most intelligent are a lot like ponies in a certain way. If it has offspring, both of the parents tend to them and teach them. It is one to remember and learn its mistakes, defeats and success. One lion veer of this breed learned to outsmart a hunter's trap by watching red lion veers bumble into it. This breed can also have personality, emotional attachments and the ability to memorize patterns and tricks. They may even grow to be kind and friendly to you.
The Lion Veers commonly grown the size of lions, maybe larger than a tall stallion. It was actually not out of place in the Darkened Kingdom for Lion Veers to be raised in Stable-like environments and then trained to become pets. Hunters would train green eyed Lion veers to hunt with them, as a replacement for hunting hounds whom were expensive and uncommon due to the Darkened Kingdom's seclusion from the other kingdoms. However, Red Eyed lion veers were revealed to only be violent to their trainers and often attempted to kill them, which led to a specific armor being fashioned to protect trainers from overly aggressive lion veers. Red Eyed lion veers have never been trained, except for one which had been captured and spoiled at a young age by the Darkened General whom named him Lokis and sent him into battle every chance. However, training Lion Veers to be savage killers was banned and the General was killed after the Fall of the Darkened Queens. Some records trace Lion veers back to when the Darkened Queens were in their mothers' wombs and the Darkened Race was just a few tribes of what was once the Western Wilderness.
Axel was interrupted from his reading by a knock on the door. Shoving his book beneath the pillow. His mother told him he shouldn't read when its late and when he should be resting, but Axel did it when he brought home a particularly good book.
The knock came again and Axel pulled the covers over him. "Come in." He called and the door opened, one of the maids peeking in.
This maid was an earth pony, like a majority of them, with a faint beige coat and short baby blue mane with a lighter blue streak running through it.
Axel vaguely remembered her when his mother had accidentally spilled a wine glass and the timid mare immeadietly set to cleaning it up before it stained the rug, saying: "I could never allow such a fine rub be ruined forever!"
"What is it?" Axel asked and the mare shuffled her hooves awkwardly before replying.
"Sorry to disturb you, Sir Axel, but your mother asked I check on you."
Axel shook his head and held up a hoof. "No need for apologies, it is all right."
The mare nodded. "Thank you sir, and have a lovely nights rest." With those final words, the mare quietly shut the door behind her.
Axel breathed a sigh of relief and pulled the book back out, flipping to the next chapter which described a weird, inconsistent sentient black being. The more fear that it was surrounded by, the more powerful and dangerous it grew. Only magic spells or enchanted objects dealt damage, anything else would just phase through it. This creature, known as Fearusi or Nightmarus, Obvious alternations of Fear and Nightmare, dissipated after the fall of the Darkened Queens.
As Axel read on about Lion Veer habits, common habitats and meals along with how to train them and what armor you should wear, he began to nod off. When he reached the Fearusi Attack and Defense spells, he was practically half asleep. Axel didn't know when he fell asleep or what he was reading when he did, but his dreams were filled with his imagination of what the Darkened Kingdom looked like. A tall gloomy kingdom with treacherously high walls and stone faced soldiers lining the walls, their armor stained in blood and their coats were covered in scars. It was a going to be a long night for Axel.