Aftermath Dawn

by Scotishbro

Chapter 2 - A Slight Detour

Iato had barely gotten any sleep the night before. Instead of sleeping, she waited until Lyron had fallen asleep so she could make sure that Luster Dawn didn't suddenly wake up and melt their brains out. As her father once said, "Unicorns are unforgiving, conniving creatures who just want to enslave our people". Although, to be fair, he had said similarly bad things about the Pegasi, and Lyron wasn't any of those things, in the acception that he was a bit of a brute. Maybe Lyron wasn't crazy in trusting Luster Dawn after all?

Having dozed off near daybreak, Iato awoke to see Lyron and Luster talking about what they knew of Gorgon. Iato didn't agree with giving the unicorn any more information, but she had to trust Lyron in his efforts. She and him were both outcasts, so neither of them could survive for very long without the other. Iato got up and groggily walked over to where the other two ponies were sitting. She decided to sit next to Lyron, not wanting to be to close to Luster Dawn.

Lyron smiled and welcomed Iato to the area around the now dead fire. "Iato! Welcome to the land of the living! Me and Luster were just talking about Gorgon and what we plan to do."

Iato spoke up angrily "And what exactly were we planning? Last I checked finding this unicorn was our plan."

"Oh, yeah, hehe" Lyron chuckled, embarrassed, his mane going white.

Luster tried to clear the air and get back to the situation at hoof. "Well, we need to find somepony, anypony really, who works at the castle in Canterlot"

"Canterlot?" Both Iato and Lyron said in unison.

"Oh, I guess Canterlot stopped existing after a while. Well, why don't we just go there ourselves instead?"

---

Luster Dawn was nervous to see the big city she once called home. She didn't know what she would find, but she knew it wasn't going to be pretty. She just needed to see if she could find any information on what has gone down in the past 20 years, and if Gorgon had made any moves since her self exile. From what Lyron had told her, Gorgons minions, twisted pitch-black caricatures of ponies, came to villages all across Equestria and razed them to the ground. Lyron and Iato were both survivors of these attacks, but Lyron had been ostracized from Gainston for suggesting that they reunite with nearby villages to help stave off the raids, while Iato had been the sole survivor of the attack on Yūjō. Luster felt sorry for the two lonesome ponies, as they were so young. They didn't deserve this kind of harsh world. But that was ultimately why she was here, walking through the forest she called home on her way to a very possibly abandoned city atop a steep mountain. She was here to make sure that this travesty would never happen again.

Her joints were going to kill her.

"So Lyron, tell me about Gainston." Luster asked to break up the monotony of walking through a forest.

"It is a small little earth pony town near a river. Most beautiful place in all Old Equestria." Lyron said with pride.

Luster stumbled a bit after hearing this and looking back to make sure Lyron was still a pegasus. "Wait, if your a pegasus, how were you living in an earth pony village?"

"Well, when I was a baby, my real mother put me in a basket and threw me into the river. I floated down to Gainston and by pure luck my adoptive mother was sitting by the riverbank reading a book when she heard little old me crying. She was baren, so she never got to take care of a foal herself, and she saw this as a sign that she was meant to take care of me. Thankfully, her father was also the village leader, so he allowed me stay." Turning to Iato he teased "After all, it's not like like I could 'zap their brains out' *spew spew*"

Iato just rolled her eyes at Lyron's comment.

Luster giggled a bit though. "What about you Iato?"

Iato stared daggers at Luster. "What about me?"

Luster was a bit flustered, but not deterred in her quest for knowledge of the two ponies she was likely to be traveling with for a couple of weeks. "What is Yūjō like?"

"It was a village" Iato said curtly. With a bit of nudging from Lyron, she added "It was very pretty.".

"I'm sure." Luster said with unease.

The trio of ponies kept on trekking through the thick vegetation. Progress was slow at first, mostly due to Lusters old joints, but eventually they got the hang of it. Soon they were near the edge of the forest.

"Oh look, I think we're nearly out!" Luster called out to the other two, who were busy moving the thick foliage out of her way.

Lyron and Iato, who had better ears, told Luster to pipe down. They heard ponies, and they weren't sounding so friendly.

"That rat bastard. What was his name again? Lyre or something?" Is what one of the ponies called out.

"No, I think it was Lyron. But it doesn't really matter. That elder wants his fuckin head, and were gonna take it." said another pony.

Luster Dawn felt her heart skip a beat. She had fought other ponies before, but never once did anypony involved ever want to kill the other. It just wasn't in their nature. Had Equestria really gotten this bad since she left?

Lyron slowly crept back to Luster as Iato drew her spear. Lyron whispered "We need you to knock them dudes out," Lyron glanced back at Iato, "preferably before we have to take drastic measures."

Luster was glad that Lyron wasn't as bloodthirsty as his hunters. She took some nearby rocks and levitated them behind the two earth ponies. They barely noticed the glow from Lusters horn before they felt a sharp pain running down their spines and fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Would you mind telling me what that was all about?! I didn't think many ponies were capable of such things!" Luster was furious, for she didn't think it would be this bad out here, and they hadn't even left the forest.

"Well, uh, I might have left out the part were I had to escape that village elder's village after I told him what I needed you for. I guess he didn't want me to find a unicorn, or..." Lyron noticeably shuddered.

Luster pushed the point "Or what?"

"...or maybe he just wants the raids to continue. I don't know, that sounds crazy."

Luster Dawn considered the grim possibility. "Probably not so crazy. Maybe he is using it as a scapegoat so the villagers continue to listen to him. I wouldn't put it past them. If they are willing to commit murder, I don't see why they wouldn't do something any less despicable."

Iato alerted them again to their situation, "Hey, numnuts, put a pin in it. Those bounty hunters aren't going to stay asleep forever!"

Both Lyron and Luster were jerked from thought and moved quickly to the edge of the forest. Luster, still contemplating what Lyron had said, needed to find out why those ponies were so uncouth. "We need to go to that village"

"What, why?", Lyron looked at Luster in disbelief at her crazy sounding words as he lifted another branch out of Lusters way.

"Because I didn't come out of a comfortable life so that I could see ponies suffering. It ain't natural for a pony to want to kill, there must be something wrong, I just have to find out what it is."

"I know what's wrong, it's your damn head! You think we are going back there?!" Iato couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Yes, I do. I can handle myself. Besides, I'll just scare off anypony who thinks they can take us on with my magic." Luster reassured.

"You have no idea if that will work." Iato retorted, stopping in her tracks to confront Luster. "Do you have any idea how hard he had to fight to get out of there?"

Lyron got between the two to calm down things, but Luster magically removed him and said "No, Lyron, you both need to hear this. Look, I need you to trust me. I have learned about this kind of manipulation before. You ever hear of Queen Chrysalis?" Lyron was about to open his mouth, but Luster shut it, "That was rhetorical. I think this village elder is using some kind of magic to change the people of the town, not to dissimilar to the magic Chrysalis used to take over The Crystal Empire."

Iato, a bit more calm, interjected with "But he is an earth pony, how could he use magic?"

"Magic isn't limited to just unicorns. He could just as easily be using an artifact, or alchemy. But whatever it is, we have to stop him."

Iato was a bit annoyed that she got upstaged, but she wouldn't let Luster get under her skin. "Well, how do you suppose we are going to get into a hostile village undetected, especially when they are looking for one of us?"

Luster smiled mischievously "I know a few tricks"

---

Iato scratched at her newly crafted headress and tunic. Luster had ramshackled 3 matching outfits out of their saddlebags and dried foliage. Even if she didn't want to say it to her face, Iato had to admit that Luster Dawn could do a lot with what little they had. Despite not having a horn or wings, she still had to wear the itchy disguise to complete the appearance they were going for: a royal escort from a faraway land. They had to all look like earth ponies. It also meant that she couldn't take her spear, which didn't please her a bit. She tried to convince Luster that the spear would make the getup more convincing, but she pointed out that Lyron didn't have a spear, something Iato hoped she wouldn't do. Regardless, Iato could still bring her sword, since it was small enough to be hid under the garments.

Lyron wasn't faring much better, but he had a problem with the outfit because he couldn't fly with it on. Luster reassured them both that this was the only way to safely get in and out. Luster then came to Iato as she was putting all of their non-essential belongings under a nearby log. "Look Iato, I need you to do all the talking. I can't have anypony getting to close to Lyron, and I am playing a snooty princess, so no talking for me until we get to the mayor. I understand you don't like me, but I need you to trust me on this."

Iato was still on-edge about the whole situation, but was soothed Luster's confident words. With her best faux Prench accent, she said, "What should I say, your Royal Highness?" Iato went into a bow with a smile on her face.

"Well, I need you to say to every commoner that we are looking for the elder. Tell the guards when they inevitably hear of our arrival that we heard from a passing merchant that 'The Elder could help us take care of a problem'. That, combined with the whole 'Princess from a faraway land' spiel should arouse the Elders curiosity." Luster grinned and added "I also have a suspicion that our elder is a man with an ego that could sink a boat."

Iato came up from her bow in a giggle. "Lets hope so, Missus Dawn."

"Missus Dawn!? You make me sound like I'm old!" Luster then looked at her fading pink coat "Okay, older than I am." Luster laughed at the awkwardness, and so did Iato.

Luster Dawn called Lyron over, who had been looking out for the pair of headhunters.

"Okay everypony, our goal is to get to the village Elder, and we don't know where that is, so we need to just parade down the streets while Iato spreads our message. Lyron, I need you to stay behind me, but not to close. I don't want anypony to focus on you, because they know your face. Here, take this." Luster dug some red clay from the ground. "Put that in your mane to hide you color thing. I got to ask you about that later, by the way."

"It's complicated" Lyron added.

"Okay, everypony ready?" Luster looked at the other two with a stern face, putting her hoof in the middle of the trio. The other two followed suit. "Alright, break!"