Pre-reading by Nomad_Sigma and SageBrony07Rude Awakening
Nights were the best, a truth Luna not only lived by, but one she held dear to her heart. After all, she was the princess of the night, and a princess needed to love her "kingdom," at least that was what her mother always said. Besides the fact, nights were the time the castle went quiet, the time when she could be herself without anypony scolding her for not acting like a proper lady. The darkened stone halls were her oyster, and she would relish it.
As she trotted down the hall, she was careful to muffle her hoofbeats with a quick spell. Little tricks like that allowed her to enter parts of the castle she was not normally allowed in. Luna knew she ought to stay out of the kitchens, but like any growing filly, she needed her midnight snack. Tonight's raid had been highly successful as evidenced by the large loaf of bread in her mouth. Nothing said midnight snack like a loaf of bread.
Mechanically, she turned down the familiar, torch lit corridor. This entire wing of the castle was strictly off limits to her and Tia, but was the quickest way back to her room. It was where the guards and Discord lived with his father. Her friend was more than a little weird, but he was always nice to her, just like a big brother ought to be. But, he was asleep, and she would wait until the morning to play.
As she turned towards the stairs, a familiar booming voice echoed from the floor below. Havoc? The draconequus was almost always soft spoken, but he sounded angrier than ever before. Something important had to have happened. Allowing curiosity to get the better of her, she shuffled quietly down the stairs. Her head poked cautiously around the corner, staring into the empty chamber beyond.
The torches cast an eerie, flickering glow against the stones, illuminating Havoc's golden eyes, devoid of their usual warmth. The draconequus was standing in the center of the room on all fours beside the captain, examining a dirt encrusted griffon chained to the floor. Around the prisoner on either side were two stoic guards also staring intently at the prisoner.
It was not unusual to have prisoners in the castle with the most recent territory grab by the Empire, but it was unusual to interrogate them in the dead of night. Havoc was the only creature her father trusted to sentence a prisoner without his approval, though he almost never did. For him to skip the trial meant that whoever this griffon was, Havoc did not want her father to know about his presence here.
Havoc's cold laugh sent a shiver through Luna's spine. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" His tongue licked the edges of his mouth, as though tasting the air in the stale chamber. "Our troublesome spy shows himself at last." He leaned in close to the quivering griffon, teeth shining in the light as he smirked. "What a shame you will not live to tell your emperor what you have gathered."
He raised his head, moose antler nearly scraping the low ceiling. "Captain, how many civilians did he slay?"
The unicorn spat on the griffon's silver wing, shooting him a look of utter distain "Ten that we know of, sir. Many more if you consider those that have gone missing." Luna's heart skipped a beat, this prisoner, whoever he was, was bad news. Try as she may, she could not budge from the spot, staring fixedly on Havoc.
"It is a small wonder, Phalanx," he spat the name like a curse, "that you have managed to come so far without detection." The draconequus turned, rubbing his dragon claw against the nearest wall, and sending an earsplitting screech throughout the chamber. "Do you know who I am?"
Phalanx snorted, "Every hatchling after his first molt knows of you, Havoc the Reaper." His green eyes fell to the claws still scraping the stone, "They say you filled the valleys with blood during the Great Reckoning." He clicked his beak in what Luna could only assume was some kind of griffon curse. "Truly you have gone soft to serve such . . . livestock with blind allegiance." Luna felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She had heard tutors use the phrase to describe ponies before the era of intelligence, but never outside that context. It was the filthiest of curse words and her parents did not tolerate its use.
"Blind allegiance?" Havoc stopped sharpening his claws, turning to stare back at the griffon once more. A smile stretched across his face, a cold, unfeeling smile that set Luna's stomach churning. This was not the Havoc she knew. The Havoc she knew was kind, always smiling or joking, and the best father in the world according to Discord. This was just wrong.
Havoc took a deep breath and blew out a jet of golden flames. The heat from the fire was incredible, and Luna felt herself checking her own face for burns. Miraculously, nopony was harmed, not even the prisoner. However, a deep, black scorch mark was left on the stones, and a few were even smoldering. The draconequus continued in an earsplitting crescendo that caused Luna to cringe, "I am Havoc the Reaper, Havoc the guardian of Equestria's borders, Havoc the advisor to his majesty himself and his truest friend. Do not mistake my trust for blind allegiance!"
A predatory snarl revealed stretched across his ebony face. "Draconequus bow to no beast. I do not serve him, he serves me! I am here because it suits my needs, not his."
The words hit Luna like a bucket of ice water. Truly he jests! Havoc is loyal to Father, he told me himself. There was no way in Equestria that such a notion was true. Or was there? Her confidence wavered at the self-assured glint in Havoc's eyes. He was enjoying this, he was enjoying torturing the griffon. If he was capable of that, who was to say that he would not betray her father?
To her surprise, the guards did not look in the least way taken aback by Havoc's statement. In fact, two of them actually nodded in agreement. Havoc continued, "You seem to be under the mistaken assumption that I, like our ponies here, will show you unending mercy." Slowly, almost lovingly, his tiger paw raised the griffon's beak to stare him in the eye. "You see, Phalanx, we draconequus are not like ponies. You have heard the stories, surely you had some inclination."
His voice lowered to a near whisper that somehow carried to where she stood, "We were mere beasts once, as were your kind. Beasts that desired nothing more than the pleasure of tormenting our prey. For centuries we turned away from that, embracing intelligence as your kind did. But now," he licked his lips, a pool of drool issuing from his mouth, "now we have taken a step back. We are mere beasts again, Phalanx. And beasts do not care about mercy or forgiveness, only the thrill of the hunt. That thrill is over now."
Havoc removed his paw from Phalanx's beak. Without word or warning, he raised his dragon claw, sharpened talons digging right into the griffon's throat. Luna would never forget the sound that followed, it was not a scream, but a muffled screech before he went silent forever. She watched in horror as Havoc dug his claw deeper still until it broke through the other side. Blood spattered the guards, but they either did not care, or were too afraid to react.
With a sickening, crunching noise, Havoc drew his claw back out, still holding onto the remnants of the griffon's throat. Then, without a moment's hesitation, he swallowed it. Oh, gods, I have to get out, I have to move. But, it was pointless. She could only watch as the draconequus began to devour the prisoner piece by piece. They were monsters, the lot of them, and Discord would be the same. Nothing and nopony would convince her otherwise.