Dead, But Not Gone

by Crimson Twilight

Prologue, Meat-ing The Crew

It was midday or would have been so if the sun still rose. But it didn't, it hadn't done so for months, not since Nightmare Moon took over Equestria and banished Celestia to the moon. The moonlight lit up the canopy of an overgrown forest or tried to do so at least. The only light for kilometers was a fire, a campfire to be specific. Around the fire were a few tents and a few figures. Most of the ones by the camp were griffins, each of them weary from travel, carrying some form of weapon, some had spears while others had swords, one even had a crossbow. One figure stood out from the others. It was a magenta pony, unicorn to be exact. She had a brazen mane and had a scar here and there. She was the only one without a weapon, but the griffons with her knew better.

At first, when they had found her, not long after the last day, she had been fragile, scared and almost broken. The only reason they hadn't left her to her end was the latest member of their crew, a gryphoness who had had to flee from Gryphonstone when some black alicorn called Nightmare Moon took over Equestria, had sympathized with the mare since she herself had had a pony as a friend a long time ago. Rumors spread soon that the protégé of princess Celestia, a magenta unicorn, had been banished from Equestria when the new monarch came to power. The similarities were to close for the mare they had found to not be one and the same, only further strengthened by the mere skill at casting she possessed.

The first problems that arose were that of the mare's eating habits since most of the food the griffins had was meat from animals they had hunted. But as time went on, she started to eat meat, too, giving up on her old ways, seeing that it was a doomed path. No sooner had she started joining in at hunting for food, proving to be better at it than any of the griffins had expected, she still needed training, but she seemed to know right where to hit. As time went on she only grew better and better, proving to be a valuable asset to the mercenaries/hunters.

The first 'job' the mercenaries got since the unicorn had joined at least, was to intercept a transport and to retrieve the good undamaged. The unicorn had protested at first but still joined in after some convincing and being able to only need to defend the others, not actively attack. She agreed to this, but after finding that they would be assaulting a caravan with soldiers loyal Nightmare Moon, she had lost most conviction of being mostly support for the others. She would still mostly support the others with her spells, as she didn't know too many combat spells, mostly due to have lived in more peaceful places were battles were mostly things of the past.

Right now Falling Star, the others named her that since she never told them her real name, was munching on a roasted chicken leg, no longer having any apprehension about meat, so long as it wasn't from a sentient being. Her ears would flicker to and fro, always on the lookout for threats, rarely was there any, but if she had learned anything the past months was that it's always better to be prepared for the worst.

"I have a bad feeling about this." It was a male griffin that spoke, Sharp Edge, or Edgy as most called him by now. The brownish griffin with a black beak and claws, was, like most times, on edge, hence the nickname. He was carrying short swords, one on each side of his side, strapped in dark brown leather, which Star had enchanted to be more durable, as were the swords. But he was also carrying throwing knives hidden under his wings for emergencies or situations where his swords wouldn't be very effective.

"You always worry too much, Edgy. Chill out, we haven't seen anything yet." This time it was a female griffin who spoke up, the one that came from Gryphonstone, Gilda. The brown and white gryphoness was getting annoyed with Edge pacing around. When she first joined she would have snapped, but she had cooled down a bit since she had joined. It had nothing to do with the fact that she had messed up a contract by snapping at the contractor and had to do extra work around camp. Actually, it probably did, since it was during that time she started thinking before she spoke more.

"I have to disagree. Normally I'd have nothing against some calm, but we should have ran into more wildlife than we have, something is definitely wrong here, and I don't like one bit of it." Star said in a hushed tone. "Something is telling me that we're not the only ones here, I'd recommend that we're all on alert, we don't know what's out there." Most got rather unnerved since she rarely spoke unless something needed to be done or something was amiss, she also talked in her sleep and when she thought nopony was listening. This was the second though. And she was seldom wrong.

"Uh, if you say so." Gilda sat herself next to Star, an uncomfortable silence was cast around them as none knew what to talk about. Gilda finally decided to try get the unicorn to talk, any previous attempt being less than successful. "So, uh, Star? You never really talk about yourself, why were you so far from Equestria anyway?"

"I was banished," Star replied with a deadpan, causing Gilda to flinch, not wanting to bring up any more bad questions, she kept quiet. After a little while Star spoke up. "Don't you have better things to do, Gilda?"

She sighed and rose up. "You know, Star, even I have a friend. She's a pegasus, moved to some town called Ponyville a year or so ago. Rainbow dash was her name, I had planned to visit her sometime, but then Nightmare Moon's guards came and drew us away."

Gilda was just about to go and get some sleep when Star stopped her. "Wait, blue pegasus with a prismatic mane, want to join the Wonderbolts?"

She turned to the unicorn, giving her a curious glance. "You know her? How is she? -" She was going to shower Star with questions, but she got cut-off before she could go full-on by Star.

"One question at the time, please. And I don't fully know her, we just meet in Ponyville when I first got there and she mentioned a few things, that's all. As for how she is, well, if things didn't change too much, she seemed to be okay, worked as a weatherpony, I think. I only stayed there for a day, until I got banished." Star hung her head in grief, choking on the last words.

Gilda picked up on this, her voice betraying her concern for her traveling companion. "You okay there? You know, you never did tell why you got banished, wanna talk about what happened?"

Star rose and turned away from Gilda, trying not to let her inner turmoil show in her voice. "I'm going to bed." She sighed. "Just make sure the others don't do anything they might regret later, ok?"

Gilda let out a sigh of her own, shaking her head. "Star, whatever happened, you can't keep it bottled up forever. Trust me, it won't do you any good. Just, if you ever want to talk to someone, you can talk with me."

Star didn't answer, and after a few moments, she continued for one of the tents. Unbeknownst to both pony and griffin, two slithered eyes had been watching them, the armored creature taking to the skies.

Comments

[RoboCom64 Zelos]

Did not read tho

[Crimson Twilight]

7115650 Well, I'm working so that reading both will give you ideas on some things, but they will be explained in this story nonetheless, just later on.

[The Villain in Glasses]

YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION.

[Tali_The_Lamia]

Wow so Twilight has Gilda and these Gryphons scared shitless? Nice