Dawn of the Vanguard

by Mystic Song

A Kindly Warning

Sky Captain Blake was having a terrible night.

First the alarm above his headboard woke him up at a spirit cursed hour.

Then he woke up enough to realized exactly what that alarm meant, and soon after he was dressed and running through the base with hundreds of other men and women.

They quickly were divided into three different groups by a stony faced vice-admiral. Crowd control, protection and scouting.

Of course with because of his prestige and his value he was sent to the scout out the problem area in the Fare. Which of course just meant he wasn't the rich heir to some estate and was mostly expandable.

...Which wasn't entirely fair, some of the heirs who actually wanted to fight were actively grumbling about the groups they were sent to.

How could you do crowd control if there were no crowds to control?

By the Three, he had never thought Dissulmaur could be so quiet.

Even Pulse, the loudest, busiest, roughest floor, even in the middle of the night, hadn't a single soul in the streets.

Then again, Dissulmaur's reporters were notorious for fast high quality news. He wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it for himself. Human Legacy News took a kid who said he had gotten the best look at the creature. Then, with his and his parents permission, used a spell to copy that image from his head and placed it in the middle of a live broadcast.

A part of him was amazed at the feat, another part of him was absolutely terrified at the creature that was screeching at him through every available television.

And seeing how every citizen in Dissulmaur seem to be hiding away in their houses or in a secure place, his sentiments were mirrored.

However, not every citizen was hiding away.

"What the hells do ya mean that I can't get my brother." A short black haired man screamed up at him.

...Which brought him to another reason that he was having a terrible night.

"Mr. Nico, we can't put more civilians at risk, and our soldiers can't work to their fullest if they have to watch your backs. Having you with us would just put your brother at more of a risk." Blake said calmly.

"But," Nico said his voice cracking from tension, "My brother is up there with something that no one has seen before and youse wants me to stay 'ere and wait?"

"Listen, I am on the team that is going after the children that were left behind," Blake said roughly, "Once we finish gathering information we will leave, but doing things like this takes up our time. If you really want to help you will keep the rest of the families from interfering with our work. Understand?"

Nico held his gaze before slumping, "I understand, but, hurry up...please he's my only brother." With that chestnut skinned man walked back to the small family groups left behind and was immediately greeted with shouts.

Sky Captain Blake watched the group carefully as Nico explained the situation to them. He turned away as the oldest women started to cry into the shoulder of the Fire Starter that wasn’t currently being sat on.

'Poor woman,' Blake thought as he walked back to his team, 'to lose her daughter to the same place that took her husband...I can't let that happen.'

One of his lieutenants ran up to him, dark green eyes blazing, "Sir, we are ready to go."

"Well then," Blake snap, "What are you waiting for? We have children to save and a creature to stop."

"Okay let's try this again," Logan breathed in deeply before slowly saying his name, "Lo-gan."

Mr. Bird's face narrowed in concentration, "Li-gah."

"Damned it," Logan muttered low before pointing at James harshly, "Repeat after me, James."

"James." Mr. Bird repeat clearly.

"Emma." Logan said pointing to the dark haired girl.

"Emma."

"Cathy." He pointed at brown eyed, sun burnt girl.

"Cathy."

Logan roughly pointed to himself, "Logan."

"La-ghah."

"Damn it!" Logan growled grabbing at his black hair.

"Well it's not that surprising," James pointed out, "It's Mr. Bird's first time speaking Common Tongue."

"Will youse stop calling him Mr. Bird? He already said his name was Ashen." Logan said chirping out Ashen's name, before laying flat on his back, "King's Rule! Where is the search team. James youse said that somebody's was going to come and get us. Shouldn't they be 'ere by now?"

"Um," James started weakly, "Maybe they are waiting for something before they can leave?"

Emma snorted loudly, "Oh yeah what are they waiting for? A invitation?" Emma changed her voice now perfectly mimicking a women much older then herself, "Save the date. There are four young children in the Dividing Woods trying to teach an unknown being to speak Common Tongue, we will be honored if you come and get them as they are so very lost and confused." Her voice fell back to her normal speech, "What the hell! What time is it anyway?"

Cathy looked up at the pale moon, "If I had to guess, it's sometime around three."

"Cathy I did not need to know that." Emma said running her hands through her messy hair pulling out dried leaves, she then turned to Ashen, "I don't suppose you have a phone or something on you?"

Ashen chirp in way that they had learned meant something along the lines of, I have no idea what you're saying.

"Yeah I thought so..." Emma said before shouting angrily at the sky, "By the blood soaked, pus drinking, demon king's rule can't you soaked assholes hurry it up? Damn it, I want to go home!"

Captain Blake looked down at the four children and one creature sitting down in a circle, and had to winced at the small, black haired girls words.

'Whoever taught you to swear should be ashamed.' Blake thought absently as he stood a twelfth of his normal size on a branch overlooking the small clearing. 'Or would they be proud?'

"Captain," His thoughts were broken by one of his lieutenants, "How should we proceed?"

How indeed. They had taken to the sky fully prepared to take on a violent creature, and in the worse case scenario have their rescue mission turn into a recovery.

Finding the children trying to teach the creature their names and the creature trying to teach them his was the last thing they expected to find.

Thankfully he had told his team to hold their fire. It would have been difficult to explain the death of a peaceful creature, that was in no way a pony, and the traumatized children they would have to drag back.

So what does one do with a peaceful creature, and tired cranky children?

"Lieutenant, bring me the Mage, a Empathic, and a Strength Class soldier, we are going to initiate first contact. Let's see what this creature has to say." Blake said spreading greying wings as a dark blue haze surrounded him.

Due to the way that Ashen was sitting he was the first one to see the four newcomers.

'Grandfather was right, humans do come in many different sizes.'

He watched as the humans slowly inched closer to the them and with practiced movement, quick but not rough, the foremost human grabbed James' shoulder.

The near white haired human's head whipped up and his face changed from shock to barely contained excitement, gaining the attention of the rest of the group.

...And once again Ashen was lost in a torrent of strange words.

There was a whole lot of screeching and arm flailing from the smaller humans as they talked to the bigger ones who stood stoic and listen to the noise.

Then the largest human barked easily silencing James's group. The same human pointed angrily to him and barked out something that sounded absolutely hostile.

James's group flinch as if they had been struck, then wide eyed and with their backs turned to the bigger group they slowly backed away from him.

"Wait," Ashen chirped in confusion, "Where are you guys going?"

His advancement was stopped by the foremost human who held up a paw. The foremost human then spoke to the larger human beside him who had spoken earlier and had now taken out... Ancestors! Is that an battle axe in his paw?

The foremost human smiled kindly at him, and then spoke to James's group who was now fully hiding behind the larger humans.

Then the foremost human, the leader Ashen realized, spoke to him.

"Ashen."

Ashen nodded slowly acknowledging his name making the leader smile. The leader then spoke to the two other humans that came with him. They had a quick discussion before one of them walked toward him. This human's face was particularly covered with a large hood, and as she walked her jade green robes flowed around her. When she got close enough she knelt down and reached out with one determined paw.

Ashen flinched away.

And was instantly filled with calm.

It was as if a voice, not through words but with emotion, was gently speaking directly into his very being.

Be calm. Creature not of us. Being that means no harm. The Mage only wishes to bridge the gap of voice, and bring understanding to us all.

Ashen could only stared at the the human that had been standing beside the leader, the human that he didn't see move next to him and touch him.

When the robed human, the Mage, reached out to him again Ashen didn’t move.

Not when a grey haze covered his head.

Not when his world suddenly blacked out.

Not when it came back and familiar chirping came from unfamiliar mouths.

The Mage pulled away and spoke, "Can you understand me?"

Ashen stared, and rubbed at his ears, yes he just did hear Griffin tongue from the human Mage... in the middle of a forest... in the Forsaken Islands.

"How did you..." Ashen trailed off.

"Not every human speaks Common Tongue heedless of it's name. This spell helps bridge the language gap whenever it is present." The Mage explained, she then turned back to the leader, "Before anymore words are spoken I believe that Mr. Blake wishes to speak to you."

Mr. Blake walked up to him replacing the Mage, then smiled brightly, "Well hello there, you can call me Mr. Blake." Captain Blake stared down at Ashen, "Now what is a being such as you doing here? I never did get to checkout every part of this island, but I think I would have noticed a being such as yourself around here."

Ashen snapped to attention remembering his purpose.

"I need to speak to the leader of the humans," He spoke clearly and even as voice tried to crack, "You are in great danger!"

Blake no longer had a smile on his face, "If this is a threat..."

"It's not! I swear that it's not a threat, but you are in danger and you have to get away now while you still can." Ashen said slightly shaking in front of Mr. Blake's intense gaze.

"Let's say that this is true and we are in great danger, why should my friends and I listen to a word you say." Blake said coolly.

Ashen stood up straight his shoulders squared and head held high, "I am the descendant of Clear eye the Broken, and it is my families sworn duty to relay any pony led danger that may come to Standing Refuge. I came across the ocean to warn you that Equestria's greatest warriors and one of their newly ascended Alicorn princesses are coming to this archipelago in search of the human race."

He was grabbed.

This time the human's touch was not gentle. The human that had spoken through touch roughly grabbed his head with both hands. Ashen's world was now tinted green. A desperate green.

"Klein, report!" Blake snapped.

"Sir, he's not lying..." Klein choked out dryly.

Blake let out out a string of growls that translated to Ashen as a strange set of swears, who used the name of a thrice dead king to describe modern anger? Then Blake turned to the axe welding human beside him, "Carter, Alicorns are a myth."

'That's a statement,' Ashen looked at them in shock, 'They think Alicorns are myths!'

"Sir," Carter said uneasily, "My mother always said that even the most far fetched rumors and myths have a small amount of truth to them. No matter how small. If Klein is right..." Carter trailed off to worried that finishing his thought would make it real.

Klein let go of Ashen's head allowing him to speak again, "Please you have to hurry, it takes two weeks maximum to make the trip between Equestria and the Griffin Lands. It took me three days to get here that means there are eleven days left before they get here."

Silence.

"...that doesn't make sense, the Griffin King would never let any ponies go through his lands not with the relationship that those two groups have." Blake stated trying to process the impossible statement.

"Times have changed," Ashen said roughly trying to make them believe him, "The Griffin King's lineage has broken into different kingdoms. Griffins and ponies have been at peace with each other for hundreds of years."

"There are two Griffin King's?" The Mage said in shock.

"Actually there are seven Kings and five Queens, but that isn't important right now," Ashen said wings slightly spreading in agitation, "What is important is that three days ago the Kings and Queens agreed to let the Elements of Harmony which includes alicorn princess Twilight Sparkle to pass through their lands freely."

"Wait, Elements of Harmony what the hell are those." Carter said no longer trying to keep his language clean.

"They are powerful artifacts that allow the users to subdue any threat..." Ashen stilled then gulped past the sudden lump in his throat, "...or to set any past wrong right. Which could mean anything but..."

Blake stared at Ashen pinning him down with his gaze then spoke slowly, "Ashen, could these artifacts force us," Blake then gestured to himself and the terrified children behind him, "back to the pony lands and bring us back to slavery." Blake ignored the children that where tearing up behind him, even the one digging his nails into his calf, and continued to stare Ashen down.

"I don't know, but I do know that the Elements of Harmony where able to reset the mind of one of the Alicorn princesses after then sent her to the moon for one thousand years. Princess Luna the current co-ruler of Equestria, who is one of Conquering Wind's daughter's is not exactly weak." Ashen replied.

Blake quickly calculated the dates, "That's impossible! Conquering Wind died thousands of years ago. Even if he had daughters they would be dead and dust by now."

"Alicorns live for a very long time. Conquering Wind may have been just a unicorn but he was a very powerful unicorn. He enslaved many different beings for thousand's years, and search for the humans for two thousand years in vain. It is said that he sired his daughters when he was nearing his death bed." Ashen stared back at the with a unwavering gaze, "Celestia and Luna are still alive and, if nothing happens to them, will continue to out live all of us a hundred times over."

Blake turned to look at Klein who was trying to stop his trembling, "Klein, I'm I right to believe that by your actions you are confirming that he speaks the truth?"

"Sir! We have to alert the...others," Klein said catching himself, "this, this can destroy us. To be put back in chains...Sir we have all have heard the stories, about what the ponies did to those who didn't get away." Klein clenched his hands forcing himself calm.

The Captain surveyed the situation the stiffness of the ground team, the absolute stillness of the children they came to saved and the whisper of the rest of his team still in the trees terrified but waiting for orders.

He was having a terrible night, and just wanted to go home to his family but here and now he needed to act.

First he had to feel out the situation and get it back under control.

"Ashen, why did you warn us?" Blake said into the quietness of the night.

Ashen stood straight, "It is my family's sworn duty," he deflated a little, "and I wanted to know if my grandfather's stories were true."

"You say it's your family's swore duty. Well then if you don't mind I have a request to ask of you." Blake said forcing his voice to be calm, pushing past the panic try to black out his mind.

Ashen stood straighter and nodded at the captain, indicating he was ready to do anything.

"Tell us everything about modern Equestria," Blake said sternly, "by now you can guess that we do not have the information we need about the world outside Standing Refuge. If we get attacked by ponies, mind you they have to survive getting here, we need to know them and their systems to mount a strong counterattack if it comes to that."

"Of course, I planed for something like this," Ashen said reaching for his bag, "I brought a maps of Equestria, the Griffin Lands and other small pocket areas between here and Equestria. Do you know a good map maker, somefeather that can copy a map perfectly? I only have the original copies."

"Don't worry about that, Mage? I think we will need about three copies each." Blake said.

The Mage carefully took the maps from Ashen, and with a pulse of grey she held a small stack of four identical maps. She then repeated the process with the other maps.

"Good," Blake said once she was done taking the copies from the Mage and giving the originals back to Ashen, then he turned to a tree, "O' Conner get down here," A wiry man appeared in a flash of light blue magic and Blake spoke in Common Tongue to him, "Bring one copy to of each to Military Headquarters, one to the Parliament, and send one to Aria with a full report of want happened here. Make sure to suggest that they make more copies and to send those to each great city. They will know what to do from there. Do you understand?"

"Sir Yes Sir!" O' Conner said shifting uncomfortably in front of the Captain.

"Well then what are you waiting for!" Blake barked sharply.

Blake watched as the private flew away on a flash of brown feathers before turning back to Ashen, "How long do you have before somebody notices that your gone?"

"I'm a merchant, and I have been known to leave on a drop on a hat, I think I will have about a full day before I have to go." Ashen said then sobered, "I'm more worried about meeting the Elements on my way back. It wouldn't take much for them to retrace my steps if they see the direction I come from."

Blake scratched the light stubble on his face, "Damn, doesn't leave much time for sleep does it? And we have to bring these kids back to their parents, before the press gets a hold of what you just told us."

"The press?" Ashen said looking around, "I don't think they could know about this, wait you have a press?"

"Will its more of a gossip group, and you should not underestimate them. The idea of Standing Refuge being breached and children taken hostage is too good of a story to pass around." Blake said both eyebrows furrowed.

"I can see that, wait children what children?" Ashen said in confusion.

"The ones behind me." Blake said gesturing to James and his friends.

"You're kids, I thought you where a different type of human!" Ashen said try to get a hold of the situation.

"Well we're not," Emma said in annoyance, "and we're not kids!"

"How old are you?"

"Eleven and a half."

Ashen took in the sight of the human girl who glared defiantly at him even though she was absolutely tiny next to the behemoth with the axe. Then he shook his head and said, "As much as I would love to talk about this, I think we have more important things to deal with."

Emma released her glare and turned to the Sky Captain and spoke in Common Tongue, "Sir, I request that my friends and I be returned to civil hands."

Captain Blake raised an eyebrow the replied, "Where did you learn speak like that? Formal military training begins at fifteen."

"My brother taught me how to speak to code," Emma shrugged, "Zachary thought it wouldn't hurt for me to learn the speech before mandatory training starts, even if I don't want to be a soldier."

Captain Blake hummed deeply, "Zachary does seem like the type to do something like that. Well then you are to return to civil hands by the guide of Private York. Dismissed!"

Silence.

"Private York get down here now! Where is that idiot?" Captain Blake shouted.

"He didn't come." Klein interrupted sullenly.

"Are you telling me he ignored his captain's call to arms?" Blake grated out.

Klein winced, "I worded that wrong. What I meant to say is that he couldn’t come. Apparently his family doesn't what to risk losing heirs."

"Doesn't he have eight older brothers?" Carter asked.

"They wanted extra insurance."

Captain Blake grumbled darkly under his breath as he gripped the bridge of his nose before chipping in Griffin Tongue allowing Ashen back into their conversation, "Carter, will you bring the children back. Also if anybody tries to talk to you tell them that I will personally break my foot up their ass. Is that clear?"

"Crystal sir. Come on fledglings let's go." Carter said before walking away. Emma, Logan and Cathy followed after him.

James hesitated, then he ran up to Ashen and hugged him, before following after his friends.

Ashen stared at James watching him disappear into the forest then asked, "Is that normal?"

"For his class, yes it is. You should have seen Klein before he learned to control his impulses. I still don't know how his nose could be so cold." Captain Blake said ignoring Klein's sputtering and the Mage's smirk. But he did watch as Ashen's eyes widened in interest before he schooled his face back in to a disinterested mask.

'So you don't know that much about us do you? Even if you have a map of the archipelago.' Captain Blake thought remembering a very detailed very nameless map. 'Well then let's keep it that way.'

"Well then Ashen," Captain Blake said gesturing to a fallen log, "Let us talk about the might of Equestria's fighting force."

"...And that's all I know," Ashen said wary, "It's not a lot but I hope it's enough. Are you sure you don't need to write that down?"

"No need to worry, I have an impeccable memory." Blake said taking note of the many small, almost invisible, scraping noises coming from the trees around them.

"As long as your sure that you have everything you need," The Griffin then looked up to the brightening sky and frowned, "I should go now, if I stayed any longer my family would worry."

Captain Blake stretched and barely looking at the foliage behind Ashen, in response a small light flash rhythmically from within the trees.

"Well that would be for the best, we do have many villages to warn." Blake smiled kindly, "If it wasn't for you we wouldn't know about the dangers until it was too late. Let us return the favour by walking you back to where you entered this island."

Ashen smiled brightly back, "Thank you, really, I don't think I could find my way back to without some help," He laughed in embarrassment, "last night was kinda a blur."

Blake stood up beckoning to the Mage and Klein, "It would be our honor to bring you back. Shall we?"

Soon they were back to the clearing at the top of the salt washed cliffs. The ocean was tinged a lovely shade of orange by the the rising sun.

Ashen breathed in the salted air before turning back to Blake.

"Well I guess this is it, thank you, for hearing me out that is, you know after I went after your children." Ashen said sheepishly.

Blake laughed hard, "Don't worry about it, if they can forgive you so can we."

Ashen hesitated, gaped then said, "I don't know if you know how much this means to me. All my life I heard from family, friends, and just random Griffins that my grandfather was a crack. To see that he was right..."

Again Blake smiled kindly at him, "We know now hurry back, we both have things to attend to."

Nodding once Ashen turn his back to them a launched himself off the cliff, and flew off toward the horizon.

Captain Blake watched Ashen carefully until he became a black speck in the ever brightening sky.

"Mage," Captain Blake said still watching the empty sky, "When does the spell kick in?"

"It will activate the second he touches down on his boat. Then he will forget that he ever found this place or its inhabitants." The Mage said, her eyes alight with a grey haze as she tracked the spell.

"Excellent." Captain Blake then turned to the sullen looking Emphatic, "Klein I know that you are against doing this but it is for the best. They can't force from him information he doesn't know."

"I know that but..." He trailed off.

"Klein you have full permission to speak your mind, that last thing we need now is an unresponsive one way command chain." Captain Blake said as he began to walk back to the clearing prompting them to follow him.

Klein shifted uncomfortably then spoke up, "...it's just he was so happy to find out that we were real, taking that away from him seems...criminal."

"More criminal then letting him fall into the hooves of an alicorn princess?" The Mage interjected.

"I know that it's better but still did you have to take away his belief in us? I mean if he didn't believe that we weren't myths..." Klein trailed off unable to put horror into words.

"Then an alicorn princess, a unicorn, two earth ponies and two pegasi would have walked right into Dissulmaur's tourist season. By the Three it sounds like a bad joke. One of the ones that would get a decorated captain Court Martialled in front of a civilian audience," Captain Blake sighed heavily willing away the thought of Dyffrin Valley school children walking obliviously into that, "And Ashen spared us from that horror, which is why it's better for him to forget ever seeing us. Before you object what do you think would happen if Ashen was late and arrived with the ponies during the travel season?"

Klein paled.

"Exactly, Ashen is a hero type. If he wasn't he wouldn't have came to Standing Refuge in the first place. Now imagine untrained him, talons out and all, with the best intentions, trying to protect fleeing children younger the Miss eleven and a half. Either we would have deliberately killed him or he would have died uselessly in the cross fire." Captain Blake stopped before the now busy clearing where a stony faced woman glared at him, "A hero cannot give his life for a cause he doesn't know about. Now excuse me lieutenants I have to yell at, and be yelled at by a certain Commander."

"Why is Commander Atwood after you?" Klein wincing under the Commander's glare.

"I just gave her one hell of a situation to work with, seven terrified and confused divisions to report to and one absolutely massive report to make." Captain Blake said roughly sizing up the situation in front of him, "A fair bit of warning, you should send out any personal messages before noon today. Once word of what happened here really sinks in the whole archipelago will go dark."

With that said Captain Blake walked forward to the scowling Commander, thinking about a trusting creature that he somewhat betrayed, the soon to come demands from the civil council, and the increase of patrols, activate soldiers, and complaints that he would have to look after.

He sighed.

Truly, Sky Captain Blake was having a terrible night.

Comments

[nighters]

not a nice spell they going to do on him, but not terrible but national security and safety of there people is important to them and there reasonable fears of ponies and importance of staying a secret longer shall buy them some time side lest ashen shall always be a hero to them now for his deed sure he forget but it for the greater good and safety compared to the alternative of information getting learned by others who might do many things. man tough situations all around.

[gwojo]

kill the genocidal racist ponies no the nice one like fluttershy,pinkie pie and maybe rarity

[master109]

oh the ponies are so screwed now that the humans know they are coming I hope Twilight learns a very hard lesson about jumping to conclusions based on thousand year old facts that were written by racist slaver ponies

[Spiritus Arcane]

A theory just occurred to me as to why the ponies have gone stupid in this. They're in denial. Twilight found evidence that their ancestors enslaved the humans so hard that it made the hebrews in ancient Egypt feel pity for them and they don't want to believe it, so they've jumped on the first sign they got that the humans are just evil so they don't have to face up to past mistakes. This also explains why AJ has gone full racist hick. She's the most family oriented one, and thus REALLY doesn't want to believe that any Apple (or whatever they were called back then) could have been part of something so horrible that she pounced on the first thing that painted the humans in a poor light, and in her true stubborn fashion has kept a death grip on that twisted point of view.

Doesn't make the ponies less stupid, but it at least realistically explains it.

[Ancient Scholar]

I think it a dark spell that makes them follow conquering winds way of thinking. Probably why Celestia is being corrupted. Twilight, AJ, and Rainbow Dash are corrupted and are repeating what happened in the past.

[Gravity012]

6521920
I really hope its a spell making them act like jerks.