Author's Note: This is an A.U. (Alternate Universe) Where Alicorns still walk the land. It won't be evident immediately but this story is going to go on for a very, very long time. So sit back read and enjoy!
P.S. This is my very first story I have ever written, so I appreciate constructive criticism where it's needed.
Around eleven hundred years before the mane 6…
A dark and gloomy summer night descended upon the Crystal Empire…
There were a few lights still on within the once magnificent city, now shrouded in misery and darkness. On the outer reaches of the city, in a dimly lit house, huddled some ponies around a bed. They discussed on how to proceed with the birthing of a new foal, as the Pegasus mother groaned in pain.
"We have to do something!" said a snow white Pegasus on the left. While the brown Earth pony on the right speaks up, "Well we can't take her to the hospital! You know what they would do to the foal once it's been born…" Everypony sighs and nodded their heads in agreement. "It looks like we have no choice, but to do it right here, right now." The green Unicorn calmly says.
As the unicorn started to prepare on the birthing, a dreadful sound starts emanating from the street. They all recognized the rhythmic beat of metal hooves on the pavement coming from below. Their faces start to fill with dread as they heard the noise come closer to the house.
The Pegasus quickly recovers from the shock and thinks furiously, "We need more time!" She points at the Earth pony and quickly orders, "You need to slow them down as much as possible at the door, fight them if you have to." He quickly rushes out the door and downstairs without any arguments or second thoughts for his own safety. As he left the room the Pegasus started to follow him, but the Unicorn stops her. She looks up to him with questioning eyes, he calmly explains, "Winter Storm, I need you up here to take the foal away if things work out."
Winter Storm looks at the door, wanting to go downstairs, then looks back at him. "As you wish, Night Dust." Winter Storm replies, as she walks towards the window taking a peek to see where the guards were. "I'm glad they are so noisy, they're still a couple blocks from us."
"Good, the more time, the better chances we have of doing this." His attention was now fully on the groaning mother, Night Dust says quietly to her. "Okay I need you to push as hard as possible, but remember to breathe." The mother nods silently.
Agonizing moments and groans passed on for what felt like an eternity. "Oh no… we might have a problem!" Winter Storm frantically says. As soon as she said that a large boom resounded through the house. "Just a couple more seconds!" Cried Night Dust.
Time seemed to slow down as they were hearing fighting noises, and a soft cry of a new born foal. Everyponies eyes went wide as they stared at him in awe. As Night Dust kept staring at the foal in his hooves, Winter Storm looked at the mother and sighs. He looks at the mother, somberly saying, "We knew this may happen, she is… rather was, a brave pony to do this for her son."
Winter Storm looks back at the foal, "… He's… An Alicorn?!" The Night Dust replies back, "That's what it looks like to me! But we don't have time for this, we need to go!" He uses his telekinetic abilities to wrap a blanket around the foal, and slips a small harness around the Pegasus' neck to hold him. At that moment they heard a horrible scream as their friend was being killed trying to slow the guards down.
"Where should I go?" Winter Storm asks. "You remember our old spot? Go there; I'll slow them down so you can lose them." Night Dust said, while grabbing the glass window with magic, ripping it out. "You can't stay here and die! I need you!" Winter Storm cries out. He looks back at her, "I'm sorry but there is no other way, besides I've been waiting to give these bastards a piece of my mind." Quickly giving Winter Storm a hug and nudges her toward the opening where the window was. "Go fly like the wind!"
A few tears falls onto the Pegasus' cheeks. They both look at the door to see soldiers start to flow upstairs. "Goodbye my old friend." Night Dust looks at the window-less opening, only to see the dark night sky. "Goodbye my… love…" Replying to the open air, He looks at the window and breaks it into several small yet long pieces.
Before Night Dust knew it there were guards at the door, he started to shoot the shards of glass towards the ponies in front of him. Most of the glass shards shattered when they hit the metal armor, but some found vulnerable spots and sunk deep within their victims. He counted at least a dozen guards, including the three dead ones, as they started to back him into a corner with their spears. Night Dust stared at the spear tips, feeling like these were his last moments.
"Stop, don't kill him yet." Hissed a voice as it continues, "Our king wants to speak with him before you kill the Unicorn." Night Dust looks over at the door to see a rather big stallion in a much more decorative armor than his comrades. He assumed that he was the captain of this group. "What does the King want with me?" The Unicorn asks feigning confusion.
"You know very well what he wants, now come peacefully or we will force you to go." The burly stallion commanded. Night Dust glares at him, sighs and nods his head. "Alright… you don't give me much of a choice… so let's get going."
The captain led the way out, while his men circled the Unicorn, some still keeping their weapons aimed at him. As they were on their way out, Night Dust looks over at his dead friend, whom was laying on the floor, throat slit, spear holes covered his body and blood pooling around him. Soon they were outside and started to head towards the center of the city, where King Sombra stayed in the castle.
As Winter Storm flew away from the house, she wanted to turn back to help her friend but keeps on flying. She looks down to see that the foal was asleep, thankfully, since any noise would attract unwanted attention.
Her goal was to reach the opposite side of the city. Not wanting to fly through or over the city, she takes the scenic way of flying around it. Looking around, as she flies, just over the buildings, noticed a Pegasus guard flying around. Even from at a distance, she could tell he was bored.
Diving quickly down into an alley, amazed that the guard never saw her. Winter Storm curses to herself quietly, "I should have brought my cloak." Quietly as one could be, she walked towards the street, trying to see where that guard went. What she didn't know is that the guard saw a white blur dive into the alley.
Poking her head out, she sees that the guard started to head back her way. Quickly jumping back, she started to fly to the other side of the alley. As soon as Winter Storm turned around the corner the guard shows up looking down the alley. "Hmm… I must be seeing things." The guard mumbles to himself, "Must be time to go home I guess."
Winter Storm resumes her escape, flying low around the city, avoiding what guards she saw. Luckily it was late and there were only a few guards roaming. 20 minutes of flying and hiding, Winter Storm saw her goal, a house just down the alley after flying into it. There was only one problem, that she could hear a guard patrolling around on the street somewhere close by.
Looking around the corner of the building… To see that he was only a few feet away, headed her way. Quickly jumping out from the alley, Winter Storm spins around and bucks the guard, as hard as she could at his head. She felt her hooves connect to its target, and a very loud clang was heard as the unconscious armored pony fell to the ground.
Galloping as fast as she could, down the alley that was beside the house she has been looking for, arriving at the side door in moments. Wasting no time, she quickly knocks, once slowly, then three times quickly, with a small pause then a last knock was heard on the door. When she did the last knock, a slit in the door opens, as quickly as it opened it closed again. Several locks could be heard as they were being undone, within moments the door swung inward and a voice could be heard from within. "Come in, quickly!" As soon as that door was open Winter Storm quickly walks into the house, not wanting to stay outside a second longer.
When she stepped inside, the door was shut behind her and relocked. The first thing Winter Storm noticed that it was very dark, so dark that she could barely even see herself. The pony, a black cloak covered his body, lights a lantern, dim enough to light a small area of the room. "Sorry it's so dark in here, I just don't want to attract attention." The pony says, motioning her to sit down in the living room. He leads her into the living room, taking the chair that sat across from the couch, at the same time he removes his hood to reveal his teal coloured face, and horn.
Winter Storm lies down on the couch removing the foal around her neck, and gently putting him on the pillow in front of her. "I understand perfectly, Dark Fortune, these are troublesome times…" She replies back to his earlier comment. "Indeed they are my friend, and if you don't mind me asking but who is the little one?" Dark Fortune questioned her. Winter Storm looks at the foal for a few moments, unwrapping him from the blanket. "Well… he doesn't have a name yet…" She softly replied after a few moments of silence.
Dark Fortune's eyes go wide as she finished unwrapping him. Getting out of his seat, he walks up closer to the foal to get a better look, what Dark Fortune first saw was that he was a unicorn. His mane, black streaked with dark red, which almost looked black in the dim light. It also slightly flowed like an alicorns', if one was looking hard enough they could see it move. Looking down at the foals' sides, there were wings, black as his body. Gently picking up the wings to inspect them to see white veins running up the length of the wings underside.
Dark Fortune fell on his rump, stunned, "He's an alicorn?! How is this even possible?" Almost shouting this out. "Shhh, Dark Fortune, He's trying to sleep, and I don't want any guards coming here. I had to knock one out just outside, across the street." She told Dark Fortune, he replies back in a quieter voice. "I'm sorry it won't happen again, I'm still amazed that he's an alicorn!" Winter Storm looks at him and says, "I just hope that Sombra doesn't find out about him." Dark Fortune looks from the foal to her, "Me too, I would hate to see Sombra to try and corrupt him.
They sat there for a while watching the foal sleep in quiet solitude, Dark Fortune breaks the silence, "Would you like some tea? I don't think the guards are coming anytime soon." Winter Storm nods her head, "That would be lovely; it's been such a long night."
Dark Fortune gets up, turns around and goes through the door leading into the kitchen. Leaving Winters Storm alone with the foal, and her thoughts. Questions started to pop into her mind, "How am I going to raise him? Am I going to be a good mother? I can't bring him home… Not yet at least… What am I going to do?"
Lost in her thoughts, she never noticed Dark fortune come back and put the cup of tea down. He notices that she looks very tired and lost in thought as Winter Storm stared at the foal. Speaking up after a moment of silence, "Your tea is right beside you if you want some." She looks at the cup, picks it up drinks it slowly. "Do you mind if I stay here for a while?" She asks the unicorn with pleading eyes. He scratches his chin with a hoof, thinking. "I don't see why not, I have a spare bedroom that you can use upstairs… As for the foal, He is going to have to stay inside till I figure something out; we can't have everypony seeing a new born alicorn..."
Winter Storm gets up and hugs him, "Thank you! I'm kind of worried what to do… I've never raised a foal before." Releasing her hug, she walks back to the foal and picks him up gently. Dark Fortune walks up to her and puts a hoof on her shoulder, "it's okay, I am here for you, but we should worry about this tomorrow. It has been a long night and we need to sleep." Closing her eyes, she sighs, "You're right, I feel like I'm about to… –yawn-… drop right now…"
Dark Fortune grabs the dim lantern with magic and proceeds towards the corner of the room, "This way to your room." He says to her. Winter Storm followed him up the stairs and through the door that was in front of the stairs, which was a bedroom. Carefully Winter Storm puts the foal down on the bed, trying not to wake him, softly saying to Dark Fortune. "Thank you again for all this, I owe you one." He replies back, "Don't worry about it, you would do the same for me if I was in your position." After she climbs into the bed he quietly leaves the room saying, "Good night."
Winter Storm tries to get comfy in the bed, shifting around for a few minutes. Looking over at the foal, which was practically invisible in the dark, picks him up gently and cuddles with him. She falls asleep almost instantly with him in her hooves, on top of her.
Twenty minutes of agonizing noises were all Night Dust could hear as the ponies around him, escorted him to the castle. The captain led them to the door that was beside where the crystal heart once proudly shining, now missing. Opening the door, they captain leads in first, up some spiral stairs, down a small hallway and up more stairs. Soon they arrived in a huge hallway filled with doors on the walls, walking all the way to the end.
Opening the doors, they arrived at their destination, the throne room, where King Sombra sat on the crystalline seat. Night Dust watched in horror as they got closer, and the King, dismounted himself from his throne, walks towards the group.
A snarling, evil voice emanated from the dark king, "Brighthooves! Where are the others? And where is the mother Pegasus?!" To Night Dust, it looked like the captain, Brighthooves, was shaking in fear but he stands his ground and calmly replies. "My lord, we found them exactly where your scouts would be. But when we tried to enter the brown pony gave us some resistance, he was dispatched within minutes. We arrived upstairs only to find the unicorn, killing three of our men, along with the mother…" Trailing off at the end.
The king nods his head with this bit of information, asking "What of her?" Brighthooves takes a deep breath and says, "She's dead, also there were no signs of the foal, however the window was ripped out, so I'm assuming that the Pegasus took off with the little one." Sombra stares at him with cold eyes, "This unicorn better know where they are." Replying with a very chilled voice, as he turns his attention to Night Dust.
At this point the guards spread out, blocking any escape points if Night Dust even tries to escape. "Tell me, where is your friend? I know she took the foal, so don't play any games on me." The king spoke quietly, which sounded way more evil than normal. Night Dust shivers with fear, but manages to reply back to him, "You will never find her or the foal!"
The king stares at him coldly, and then started to circle to the left of Night Dust, inspecting him for a few seconds. Sombra kicks out hard against Night Dust's right side; he gasps in pain and stumbles to the left. Night Dust manages to stay on his hooves; "I am not telling you anything Sombra! Even to my dying breath."
"How bold of you, to defy your new king." Replied King Sombra, "But you will eventually tell me everything you know." He started to walk closer to Night Dust and glares at him with cold, evil eyes.
Night Dust starts to worry about how long he's going to be able to take the beating, perhaps the beating of a lifetime if he needs to keep a secret. Shaking in fear, he manages to stay on his hooves; "Do your worst Sombra! I will never tell you anything!" Night Dust cried out in defiance, yet regretting for what he just said.
King Sombra raises a hoof and strikes Night Dust's face, then quickly bucking at his side again, grinning slightly as he enjoyed hurting others. "I could do this for years to come, if that's what it takes, all you have to do is just tell me where she went and it will all stop." Said King Sombra, as he walked up to his new prisoner, bucking Night Dust's side once more.
This time Night Dust hit the floor hard. Sombra watched as Night Dust struggled to get back on his hooves, after a few moments he gets up on shaky hooves. "You will… never get your… hooves on… your son, Sombra…" King Sombra walks up to him again and sticks his face into the injured pony's vision and says, "Now we are starting to get somewhere, nevertheless you are one stubborn pony." Quickly striking at Night Dust's face once more, whom falls down to the floor.
King Sombra then turns around and walks back towards the throne, "Guards take him to the dungeons, make sure he has something to nibble on, I don't want him to starve on me." Night Dust gets dragged from the floor and gets thrown onto one of the guards back. Who picked him up Night Dust was not sure, for things were spinning around like crazy, and soon passes out.
End of Chapter one