The Night Bard: The End of Dawn

by Iridescence T Wind

Bard (I): Cacophony

"Afterwards, David said, 'I can play something other than cacophony,' ... I'd been in a band in high school, and I'd been missing it."
~ Chris Frantz

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The sun beat down bright and hot on the rock pile that crowned the high pasture. Far below the cliff was a village cloaked in trees, that lay under a blue-green haze of mist-- magic mist. Some say it was conjured by elk of old, whose magic worked both good and ill. The ill things were spoken of more often, of course, for many folk in Equestria did not love elk. Sonata was not one such a pony. She hoped to meet an elk someday-- really meet, that is-- to touch rough fur and pointed antlers, to converse with them. These woods had once been theirs, and they knew the secret places where beasts laired and suchlike. She would love to know all that someday, when she was a professional bard and could walk anywhere she pleased.

Sona sighed, shifted into a more comfortable position against her favorite rock, and from habit glanced at the falling slopes of the meadow to be sure her violin was safe at her side, it was. Not for the first time, the bony, gangly, stallion nosed filly of dark purple peered south, squinting. Brushing unruly lavender hair aside with one slim hoof, she kept the tip of it raised to shade her overly curious green eyes, trying vainly to see the far off turrets of the still in construction yet still splendid Canterlot in the heart of Equestria. As always he could see the faint greenish haze that marked the nearest curve of the Everfree forest.

Father told her often that the castle was much too far off to be seen from here-- and, from time to time, added that the fair span of distance between it and their village was a good thing. Sonata longed to know what that meant, but this was one of the many things her father would not speak of. When asked, he settled his oft-smiling lips into a stony line, and his level gray eyes woul meet Sonata's own with a sharper look than usual... But no words emerged. Sona hated secrets-- at least those that she didn't know. She'd learn all the secrets someday, somehow. Someday, too, she'd see the castle the minstrels said was so splendid... Mayhap even sing to its crowds one day...

A breeze ghosted gently over the meadow, bending the weed heads briefly. It was five years after the defeat of Discord, on the first official fall month. A few days short of turning to the second fall month. Already the nights were turning very cold. After three years of music instruction under the watch of her father Noted Noise on the high meadow, Sona knew it'd not be long before leaves were blowing about, and the winter would truly begin.

The musical mare sighed and shrugged her worn patched dull brown cloak closer to herself. It had once belonged to a forester. Under a patch on its back it still bore a ragged, dark-stained hole where an spear-- an elk spear, some said-- had taken the stallion's life. She also wore an musicians case on her backside for storage of her treasured violin, a gift from her father when he had agreed to teach her the art of music. Of course accompanying the musical instruments case was a saddlebag with a few books of music transcribed in them for her to practice. Not that she needed anymore that day, she had done all the songs in the books at least a hundred times by now. She even earned her cutie-mark for playing music with all her dedication and talent over the few years.

A shadow fell over the meadow, and she looked up. From behind her came a sharp, deafening roar of wind she had never heard before. She spun around, putting her flank against a large boulder as she looked for a better view. Sona needn't have bothered. The sky above the meadow was filled with two huge bat like wings-- and between them a dark brown scaled bulk larger than a house! Long sharpened talons of claws hung beneath a belly that rose up into a long, long neck, that ended in a head that housed two twistedly cruel eyes and a wide gapping jaw that was to the brim with jagged teeth as long as Sonata herself! Trailing back far behind, a tail switched and swung...

A dragon! Sonata forgot to gulp and simply stared. Vast, and horrifying, it swept towards her, slowing ponderously with wings to catch the air, looming against the blue southern sky. And there was a stallion on its back! "D-Dragon..." Sonata whispered anti-climatically as the gigantic head tilted a little, and she found herself staring full into the old, wise, and cruel eyes of the great wyrm.

Deep they were, and unblinking; pools of dark evil into which she plunged, sinking and sinking... The dragons claws bit deeply into the meadow with a slight shriek as its gigantic claws reached the stone layer deep within and it reared up twice as high as the tallest tower in her village. Its great wings flapped once in a deafening thunderclap Sona was sent flying back and away helplessly head over hoof down the slope with her instruments and its case in tow. She landed hard, rolling onto her face before skidding to a stop. She should run to warn the village, but she doubted she could outrun a dragon. Even if she wanted to she suddenly was stopped as a magical aura had overlapped her body and dragged her out of the ground, it was a small miracle that her hood had stayed on to conceal her horn, but she knew not many spells besides the spell of holding in which she learned to play instruments and her books and the spell of magnification in which to make sound louder.

A trembling, quivering rage rose in her veins as the stallion carelessly lifted her into the air in front of his dragon of a mount. Magic, she knew, Sona had always hoped to see it at work up close for things other than what she knew,, but not like this! Sona found she didn't like the feel of this stallions magic at all. Anger and fear awoke in her as her head was forced up. No, she did not like him at all.

The dragon had folded its wings, and now looked like a vulture-- a vulture as tall as a keep, with a long spiked tail that curled up half around the western slope of the meadow. Sonata gulped, her mouth was suddenly dry. The stallion had dismounted and stood up on the sloping rock that marked the meadows peak beside the dragon, and imperious hoof raised to point at Sona.

Sonata felt her gaze dragged-- that horrible, helpless feeling in his body again, the cruel control of another's will moving her own limbs-- to meet the stallion's eyes. Looking into the eyes of a dragon had been terrible but somehow splendid. This was worse. These eyes were cold and promised pain and death... Perhaps more. Sonata felt the cold stark rising fear.

There was a cruel amusement to the Unicorn Stallion's almond eyes. Sona forced herself to look a little down an aside and saw the dusky pendant on the stallion's royal shirt. He wore rings too, golden bands assorted among his front hooves and around his neck, each rigged with strange glowing runes that she could imagine if spun in the dark would make him look like a party goer. His boots around his hooves were the finest Sona had ever seen, though her gaze was forced back upwards and instead met the coppery curls of hair that framed the stallion's face that was aided by the dark green cloak he wore over his tunic. She almost missed his question, "What is the name of that village below." The question was cold and quick.

"Hoofington." The name left Sonata's lips before she could think, she felt splittle flooding her mouth with a hint of blood.

"Is the lord there now?"

Sona struggled, but found herself saying, "Y-Yes..."

The Unicorns eyes narrowed. "Name him." His horn glowed a brighter light blue forcing her to do as he asked.

Sonata felt a sudden eagerness to tell this rude stranger everything--Everything. Cold fear coiled inside her, "Candlelight sir..." She felt her lips trembling.

"Describe him."

"He is short, sir, and slim. He smiles often and always gives the foals he runs into cooki-"

"What hue is his Coat?" the Unicorn snapped.

"B-brown, Sir, with a grey mane and hazel eyes. He's-"

The wizard made a sharp gesture, and Sonata felt her limbs moving by themselves. Se tried to fight against them, whimpering, but already she was wheeling about and galloping. She pounded hard through the grass helpless against the driving magic. It was a miracle that her instruments and books managed to stay in its case as she was helpless against the driving magic, stumbling in haste, charging down the grassy slope to where the meadow ended-- in a sheer drop into the ravine.

As she churned along through the weeds and tall grass, Sona clung to a small victory; at least she hadn't told the Unicorn that her father, the very musician who trained her, was also the lord of the small village. Small victory, indeed. The cliff edge seemed to leap at her; the wind of his breathless run roared past her ears. The rolling country-side of Equestria, below, looked beautiful in the mists.

Headlong, Sona rushed over the edge-- and felt that terrible trembling compulsion leave her. She reached out with her own magic and punched herself back onto the edge with her own telekinesis. The impact was great enough that she knocked herself out with the force of it as she hit a tree thirty meters away from the edge.

Her last words for the evening was a brilliant understatement, "Ow..." before she passed out twitching under the same tree for the rest of the day.