Dusk Rises

by The-rogue-shadow

Chapter 1

Twilight was breathing heavily as she chased the Griffin Prince Alistair through the narrow back streets of the Griffin capitol city of New Grifburg. Her white and red hood and cloak flapped in the wind and Twilight could just see the barest glint of the knife embedded in Alistair's wing joint, preventing him from taking off and escaping her. She had been sent by Princess Celestia to assassinate the prince, and at first, she believed it was only to destabilise their society with the absence of the Griffin emperor Gregor, but after spending some time amongst the city's denizens, she came to the conclusion that her mission was in fact to save them all from the tyranny of the prince's regime. Alistair changed direction abruptly, heading up some stairs that were attached to the side of a building. Twilight followed, never letting him out of her sight for more than a second. He dived over the railing, landing on a gravel covered rooftop. Twilight didn't hesitate, leaping over the side. Her hooves slipped slightly on the gravel as she landed, but she recovered quickly, barely losing any ground on the Prince. The chase went from rooftop to rooftop, every passing minute brought Twilight closer to her prey. Alistair suddenly opened his wings, and Twilight could see that he had run out of roof. He tried to flap his wings, but the one that held the knife didn't even twitch. Alistair turned as Twilight collided with him, sending them both over the edge of the building. They hit the cobblestone road hard, Twilight feeling the impact through Alistair's body all the way to her hooves. Twilight extended the hidden blade that was attached to her wrist, the purple gem that Rarity had added glowed in the sunlight. Alistair's eyes opened wide as Twilight planted the blade firmly into his heart and turned. With his dying breaths, Twilight asked;

"Why?" Alistair's pained expression changed into one of rage and hatred.

"Because I am not my Father, because Gilda is not our Father. We are better than him, better than you.. Pony." He said, the last word being a curse. Alistair spat in Twilight's face and fell back, dead. Twilight pulled her blade back, now slick with blood, and closed her eyes.

'I want to go home.' She thought as she climbed off Alistair's lifeless frame. Taking a deep breath, she remembered the first time she killed; it had been a Minotaur, very young, his horns nothing more than stubs. Her sword had pierced his chest. Twilight had cried for hours afterward, as the feeling of his last breath stayed on her face. The guilt that she felt then was now non-existent. The war for Equestria had forced her to make the tough decisions that she had never expected to make.

"Is… Is that Prince Alistair?" Said a voice beside her, and Twilight opened her eyes to find a female griffin staring at the body. Twilight nodded, not taking her eyes on the girl.

"Why?" She asked, and Twilight stayed silent for a moment, considering the best answer.

"Because it had to be done." She said, using the same lie that she told herself every time she did something questionable. To her surprise, the Griffin nodded.

"You're right, it did." She said, giving the corpse a swift kick. Twilight turned away, her sense of honour preventing her from enjoying the sight of a cruel dictator having his crimes forced back on him, even after death. Sounds of shouting erupted from behind her and Twilight turned to see a group of royal guards running down the street, weapons drawn.

"You had better got out of here." Said the griffin, and Twilight nodded, staying silent. She took off down the street, the cobblestones feeling cold under her hooves. She could hear the guards giving chase behind her, even if they didn't exactly know what they were after. Running down an alleyway, she hid behind a group of bins. She hadn't yet caught her breath fully from chasing Alistair and knew that hiding was her best option at the moment. Taking a peek around the bins, she saw the group of guards run past the alley.

Twilight let out a sigh, sitting back against the wall of a building and closing her eyes. A sudden sound hit her ears, and peeked over the bins again to see that a guard had broken off from the group and made his way down the alley. Twilight pulled her hood a bit lower over his face and waited. As the guard walked past the bins, she moved into action, batting away his spear as he thrust it at her, and punching him in the face. The guard fell back; leaning against the wall as Twilight punched him again, making him fall to the ground. She extended her hidden blade, and brought her arm back, ready to strike, but paused as she saw the fear in his eyes. Retracting the hidden blade, Twilight dragged the griffin to his feet. He whimpered as she looked at him, her disfigured eye with its white iris making him close his eyes and look away from her.

"What's your name?" Asked Twilight, to which the griffin nervously replied;

"Max… My name's Max, please don't kill me." Twilight let him go and he slid down the wall, looking up at her with confusion.

"I'm not going to kill you Max. There has been enough killing done today. I just want to know who they will get to replace Alistair."

"Well… uh… if Princess Gilda refuses, then the members of the council will vote on which of them should lead."

"And will any of them be better than Alistair?" She asked, and to her displeasure, Max shook his head. Twilight sighed.

"Then my work isn't done here, not yet. Go home Max, it isn't your day to die." She said, starting to walk away.

"No, wait… Please. I want to help you." Said Max and Twilight raised her eyebrow at him.

"What do you mean, help me?" She asked, unsure of just how he was meant to do so.

"I know the ins and outs of the guard system, almost all of the secret paths that the city holds and I know how to defend myself, despite what you have seen. And the biggest reason, I want to save this city. I grew up here, and to see it perverted like this.. It honestly breaks my heart." He told her, making Twilight sigh once more.

"You realise of course, that you will probably have to kill other guards to get the job done." Said Twilight. Max nodded, standing up and looking into her eyes.

"I do, but it won't be a problem. Most of the guards are so corrupt that they deserve no less than to die for forgetting their oath to the Emperor." Twilight thought for a moment, knowing that he may be a liability in the future but also knowing that her mission was too great, even for her. She nodded, and with a large smile on his face, Max tore the armour off his body.

Together, they slowly made their way out of the alley and, with Max leading; to a place he considered a safe house, which turned out to be a closed cathedral in the centre of the city, not far from the palace. Upon inquiring as to the reasons for the closure, Max told Twilight that Alistair had shut the church in order to prevent the mass gathering of those that may rise against him and threaten the regime. They set up a ramshackle camp in the top of the tower that overlooked the town square, and settled down for the night.

"Max, what happens when they discover your desertion?" Asked Twilight, the question had been bugging her for some time. She heard Max sigh, he turned over in his bed and looked at Twilight, who still hadn't taken her hood down.

"Well… They will most likely not find out for a couple of days, but when they do realise it, they will go after my family. In this case my twin sister, Jean. They will either lock her up or torture her, depending on how bad of a betrayal they view it as." Max told her. Twilight was surprised to hear that he was willing to risk so much in order to free his city.

"Tomorrow we can go get her, Bring her back here where she will be safe. What do you think?" Asked Twilight and Max nodded, smiling.

"That would be great. Thank you. Hey, I never got around to asking. What am I supposed to call you?" Asked Max. Twilight hesitated, not sure how to respond. She knew that using her real name could potentially create major backlash for the ponies should it become known that an element of harmony and the student of Princess Celestia herself had murdered a prince.

"For now, you can just call me Dusk." Said Twilight, and Max nodded, turning back over and going to sleep. Twilight however stayed up for a while longer, looking out of the only clear window in the tower, the rest being stained glass, at the stars and the constellations she had only read about in books but never seen before, due to the fact that they only appear in the griffin skies. She thought of Celestia, and how she should have told her about the true purpose of her mission, although she understood why. If she had known that Celestia wanted her to save their society, she would have done it according to a more traditional approach, rather than what she was doing now, which Twilight could only see as preparation for something. But she was oblivious as to what. Finally settling down to rest, Twilight lowered her hood, and smiled as she felt the cool breeze on her face.

Twilight awoke as soon as the morning sun hit her face, and instantly felt somepony watching her. Opening her eyes, she saw a large pair of red coloured eyes staring at her. Instinctively, she used her magic to flip up her hood and jumped to her hooves. The pony that was staring at her smiled, and she took a moment to get a good look at him. He was a dark brown stallion, with a black mane and tail, both of which featured streaks of red running through them. Something twitched at his side and Twilight realised that the stallion was in fact a Pegasus.

"There's no need to hide your pretty face, I've already seen it anyway." Said the stallion, but Twilight ignored him, pulling the hood a bit lower.

"Who are you and how did you get here?" She asked, and the pony began to walk around the room, his eye searching for something.

"A better question would be; who are you and why did you kill Prince Alistair?" He asked, and Twilight extended her hidden blade. The stallion held up a hoof in protest.

"Hey, Hey, there is no need for that. I don't mind, in fact, I'm quite pleased. If somepony didn't do it soon I would have." He said.

"Just tell me who you are." Said Twilight, beginning to get frustrated. The stallions smile returned.

"Okay, my name is Archangel"

"What's your real name?"

"Oh clever girl, but too bad, Archangel is all you're getting. As for why I am here, to be honest I was looking to steal something. And before you say anything, I was asked to steal something from this church." He said, opening a chest near the entrance.

"So you're just a common thief then." Said Twilight, and Archangel looked at her in shock.

"I'm not just a common thief! I prefer to think of myself as the average pony liberator of collectable items." He told her, his smirk returning.

"Must be hard to get business cards." Said Twilight, keeping him distracted as she made her way toward Max in the hopes of waking him up.

"Oh, making jokes now. I like you. And don't bother with the griffin. I gave him a sedative, he'll be asleep for another half hour. You however, piqued my interest. Tell me, what stopped you from leaving the city on the first available ship?" He asked, and Twilight saw no choice but to tell him.

"I'm not done here. There are still those like Alistair that have a position of power and are belittling the lower classes. I want that to stop." She explained and Archangel narrowed his eyes at her.

"That's a noble crusade indeed, and I'm not being sarcastic. Might I ask just how you plan on liberating our fair city?"

"By killing those that would oppress others and putting fear into the ones that have plans for it." Said Twilight. Archangel stared at her for a moment, before opening another chest and pulling out a large silver cross.

"There we are, found it." Said Archangel, putting the cross into a bag that he had strapped to his back and heading for the clear window, which he opened. Just before he took off, Archangel turned back to Twilight, and sighed.

"I grew up in the city, living alone in the streets was always tough, but now. Now it's almost impossible. I support what you are doing, wholeheartedly, and believe me, that's a rare occurrence. Do you need any help in saving what's left of this place?" He asked, and Twilight nodded, retracting the hidden blade.

"Well then… You have another member of your revolution. I'll be back later. Oh, and one more thing, what are you calling yourself?"

"Dusk."

"And your real name?"

"You first."

"Clever girl." He said finally, before dropping out of the open window and disappearing.

'Revolution.' Thought Twilight, 'I like the sound of that.'

Comments

[Faust Fan Five]

Hello, De... Er... Rogue! This looks interesting. Will read!

[Triforce of the Gods]

Oh good, maybe this'll motivate me to catch up on the chapters... *checks* 5-9?! Yeesh, bad school, eating up my time.

[LittleBoyBlue]

So, Twilight's an assassin?
troll.me/images/cartmaniaaaz/kewl.jpg
Have some Ezio Auditore!
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101109221426/assassinscreed/images/7/7a/Char_ezio.png

[The-rogue-shadow]

1330437
I hope you enjoy it.

[The-rogue-shadow]

1331564
Yes! Damn that education!!

[The-rogue-shadow]

1332097
Eeyup, and thank you.

[Archmagejay]

Haha good work mate from the first chapter I already understand most of the important backstory.
Anyway I must forge onwards! To the second chapter!

[PINIPF]

This is my first comment on one of your stories Im getting up to date on the "Always Connected" universe ive been reading all the 3 spin off at the same time since that gives me the best experiece and I dont spoil myself any of the story, first of all I have to say that I love the universe you have created the main idea behind this collection is fantastic and the combination of characters is awesome with that said, I do have to say that this is your first truly good story dont get me wrong the other stories have awesome plot lines but the execution and storytelling were lacking, but this one this one is truly good it has what the other ones were missing, Im speculating here but I feel like this is a much later work than the others and it shows how your writting has evolved for the better thank you!