Rise of Akasutarion
Prologue
The clouds of smoke choked out the moon and stars that hung lazily in the sky. The only light was emitting from the raging fires that engulfed the the small earth pony village. Cries of terror and sheer pain filled the air with an atmosphere of pure horror. Many bodies littered the ground in pools of the precious crimson life force that was slowly draining out of them. Whoever was not dead yet would be very soon, for the attackers were given a strict order to not let anypony survive, despite their age, gender, or state of health.
Two beasts stood near the ruined gate that used to be the village's main entrance, and seemed to admire the mayhem. One of the beasts was a battle-scared Griffin who donned out-dated rusty battle armor and a wicked set of talons. A hideous scar ran down the left side of his face and over his eye which was milky white. To his left was a massive red stallion who wore no armor. He had black stripes, a black and yellow mane, two black curved horns, a long black tail, and two leathery bat like wings which he had folded at his sides. This was not an ordinary stallion, but something else. Something much worse than what these villagers encountered before.
The two watched as their minions- mostly other griffins and a few trolls- ran through the village, slaughtering anypony that they could find and setting fire to the huts. The red stallion could not remember the last time he had so much fun watching such destruction. He was glad to be free from his "eternal" prison in the dreaded Shadow Void where that bastard King Solaris had trapped him in. Was it King Solaris or some other pony? It did not matter; at least he was getting his revenge on those who worshiped the King. He had gathered an army of great size and laid siege to the ponies of the Soryuhazuke Clan, destroying any of their villages that he could find. This village that he was watching burn to the ground was the last of them.
Poor fools, he thought, smiling as the chorus of screams seemed to crescendo. The villagers never expected to come under attack from the very hills that shrouded their village. Plus the attack came on the night that they were celebrating his imprisonment ages ago. How ironic!
Minutes flew by as the screams began to subside. Soon, there were no more screams; the last of the clan had been wiped off of the face of the planet. The stallion smiled, his sinister yellow eyes gleaming in the eerie glow of the firestorm.
Vengeance was finally his!
"My lord," came the rough, airy voice of the griffin at the stallion's side, "one of my squads has come back with something."
The stallion followed the griffin's gaze and saw that he was right. Three griffins in few pieces of rusty armor and a large sickly green oni came marching out of the village. He strained his eyes to see what the large beast was holding and after finding out what it was he said, "I thought I told them to take no prisoners."
The young cyan colt struggled fiercely to break out of the oni's grasp as he was forcefully dragged out of his smoldering village. His face was stained with tears and dried blood matted his coat and once luscious black mane. Despite his struggling, the oni's grip never loosened and it continued to drag him out of the village where his clan used to live.
He stopped struggling once he made eye contact with two glowing yellow orbs that radiated evil. They belonged to something too big to be a normal pony or horse for that matter. Once the colt was closer, he could make out the owner: a huge crimson red stallion. Or was it? It could not have been a stallion because of the horns and the wings. Its hooves looked more like serrated blades than hooves.
The colt was suddenly thrown forwards onto his face. He dared to look up and was rewarded with the stallion staring at him, its slitted yellow eyes burning a hole through his soul and paralyzing him with fear. He begun to shiver uncontrollably.
The oni began to explain to the stallion in its incoherent native language. The stallion's eyes grew wide with surprise.
"He's the one?" he asked.
"Kurrrksguh," came the guttural reply.
The stallion looked back at the colt, who from absolute terror suddenly lost control of his bladder.
"Haha!" he laughed. "He sure doesn't seem like the one from my visions, but he does have the same color and the same mane." He paused and then added, "He's perfect."
He nodded to the oni, who forcefully held down the already terrified colt. He walked closer, smiling menacingly as he did. Once he was close enough, he used one of his serrated hooves to scratch three deep gashes in the colt's flank. The colt screamed and squirmed in pain as the stallion continued to mark him. This only delighted the red beast.
"Suck it up, you brat!" he yelled. "I'll do much worse to you later."
Once he finished he used his dark magic to grab a sheathed sword from the oni's belt. This was not an ordinary katana, but the same katana that was used to imprison him all those years ago.
He examined the beautifully crafted blade, taking it out of it's orange sheath.
"Do you not like what I did to you?" he asked the colt who was curled up in a ball on the wet ground, still shivering in fear.
The red stallion continued. "Do you like what I did to your home? Your friends? Your family?"
No answer.
The stallion forcefully grabbed the colt's head and turned it towards the burning village. "Well, do you, you little wretched, pathetic excuse for a colt?" he yelled.
The colt just whimpered.
"I'll just take that as a no," the red beast said as he forced the colt away from him. He then used his magic to sheath the katana and fling it at the colt's hooves as if he were angry with it.
"But why am I asking you this?" he asked sarcastically. "You'll just die here just like your clan did. You'll never be as strong as your ancestor, you'll never get stronger, and you'll never avenge your fallen clan. You're worthless. Which is why you could not save them."
The stallion turned his back on the colt, who was now crying uncontrollably, adding, "You'll forever live a life of shame and disgrace until you can avenge your fallen clan. Do yourself a favor and just die."
With that, the griffins took off through the smoke, the oni lumbered off in the same direction, and the red stallion spreaded his leathery wings. With a horrible, unearthly cry, he shot up into the sky and vanished into the smoke, leaving the traumatized colt at the entrance of his burning village.
As if on cue, the clouds had built up in the sky and released a downpour that snuffed out the conflagration.
End Prologue