The Brightest Night: A DsOD AU

An AU where... well, you'll find out soon!
As the title suggests, this is a dragonets of destiny AU. There will be drastic changes from the original series in this.
I can't code so this may be a little confusing. Ahem, I don't mind any help or what you think of this, but yea. Enjoy!
(WIP)
PERMISSIONS: Any kind of constructive criticism, say whatever - I'll accept it gladly! | You are not allowed to edit this wiki unless it is to fix a spelling or grammar error, but even then you must still run it by me.
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== PROLOGUE ==
A dragon was hiding in the storm.
Lightning flickered across the dark clouds. Hvitur clutched his fragile cargo closer. If he could make it over the mountains, he'd be safe. He'd escaped the sky dragons' palace, and though he'd been seen, he had been quick in flying away. And the secret Talons of Peace camp was so close...
He spread his wings, powering up into the cloud covering up above. The ice dragon gripped the stolen egg tighter, tucking it into his chest. It would be dangerous to fly in a storm, where lightning might strike him down any moment, but it was better than being killed by Princess Burn or Queen Scarlet. It was worth the risk if he'd be able to escape and help fulfill the Dragonet Prophecy.
Hopefully his pale grey scales would blend in with the clouds, and none of the SkyWings' or Burn's soldiers would catch him and possibly destroy his treasure.
He soared through the clouds. It was hard to see and difficult to fly with his waterlogged wings, but he remembered the directions to the camp, and hoped that he'd be able to make it there. Hopefully he wouldn't fall out of the sky, or be struck by lightning, or get so shocked by the glare of thunder that he'd fall, or he wouldn't get caught by-
No.
He shook his head furiously. Don't think of the ways you could die. Think of getting the SkyWing egg back to the Talons' camp.
Hvitur managed to look up and saw the third full moon slowly rising. Quick! Quick! They'll hatch any minute now!
He flew some more and dove, the rain pelting down, the wind whipping him in the face and making the icicle-sharp spikes on his neck and tail clatter loudly.
He landed on soft beach sand.
The IceWing glanced around for a moment, then spotted the leaf covering. He ran over and, sure enough, half-buried in the sand, he saw multicoloured eggs.
He placed the dark SkyWing egg down with the rest of the eggs, inspecting it along with the other shells: one was the colour of blood - other dragons' blood, red, not dark blue IceWing blood - a bright blue SeaWing egg, the sandy yellow oval shape of the wings of sand, and one was silver.
Wait.
Silver?
Did the Talons of Peace accidentally get an IceWing egg instead of a NightWing? Hvitur shook his head in confusion. Where even were the elected guardians?
"Over here!"
The ice dragon turned to see the red of a SkyWing - Webs, the green-blue SeaWing guardian - Dune, the guardian of the wings of sand, who was missing an arm and had a brutally maimed leg. Hvitur had forgotten to ask the SandWing where he'd come from - maybe one of the dragonets would do it for him, once they'd hatched.
"Where's Asha?" Hvitur hissed, slipping into the guardians' hiding place. "And why have you got an IceWing egg? Where's the NightWing?"
"It is a NightWing," the bad-tempered Kestrel snapped grumpily, stereotypically an ill-tempered mountain dragon. "We suspected that all NightWing eggs go from ebony black to silver before they hatch."
"Oh, makes sense. I suppose," Hvitur replied, uncertainly. "But why are you leaving them out where everyone can see them?"
Dune glared at Webs. "It was this sea-snorter's idea," the SandWing grumbled.
Webs looked at him, offended. "Well, it just felt right."
"Wait," Hvitur hissed. "I think it's starting."
Crack.
Their gazes all turned to the MudWing egg. There was a shallow split at the top of the shell.
"Asha should be here," Kestrel muttered, rubbing her scarred palms together. "She'd have loved to watch this beast hatch."
Webs nodded ruefully while Dune said nothing, his tongue simply flicking in and out of his mouth. Hvitur simply watched the crimson egg crack, crack, crack some more.
A head appeared - a head which then wriggled out of the eggshell.
The teeny tiny hatchling - Hvitur couldn't believe how cute it was - looked around for a moment, then Hvitur felt that it didn't seem so cute anymore.
"What's it doing?" Kestrel roared, lunging toward the dragonet. The small MudWing was attacking the SeaWing egg, clawing at it until a small hole appeared and a bright blue snout stuck out.
The SkyWing guardian snatched up the MudWing dragonet in her talons, and snarled at it, a wisp of smoke flaring from her nostrils. The dragonet sneezed.
"This," Kestrel growled, a glint to her eyes. "This dragonet is just what we'll need to save the world."
A small yelp. The SeaWing tumbled out of her eggshell and wrestled with a shard. She dug her claws into Kestrel's scales, somewhat on accident, and the SkyWing kicked her away. Defiantly the hatchling wriggled over to Webs, who took her up in his talons.
"This one's feisty," he commented.
"You think?" Hvitur muttered under his breath, but Webs didn't seem to hear. The SeaWing continued: "Like a tsunami."
"So, you get to name her, then?" Dune snapped.
"I'm a SeaWing, she's a SeaWing. And her name is Tsunami."
Dune rolled his eyes - well, from what Hvitur could see, he did. The SandWing glanced over to the MudWing, who was staring at Kestrel in fear.
"Clay," Kestrel hissed, a spark of murder in her eyes.
"Clay? Oh, his name?" Hvitur caught himself and flinched away from the SkyWing's ferocious glare.
"The SkyWing is hatching," Hvitur pointed out. A burnt orange head with bright amber eyes was poking out of the side of the egg, and, gently, Hvitur helped the dragonet climb out, remembering his own eggs and helping Avalanche and North hatch.
"I'll call this one Ember," Hvitur said as the dragonet wriggled out. She clambered onto his large talon and the IceWing lifted her to his snout. She was perfect. In every way. She was also the biggest, except for Clay, but that made sense, given she was from the "largest egg in mountain high".
"This one's hatching," Webs called from over near the silver egg. Tsunami was pouncing on his tail, but he didn't seem to mind. With a few more cracks, the NightWing egg splintered down the middle and shattered into thousands of tiny pieces.
This dragonet was dark, dark, almost black, but in the bright moonlight of the three full moons, Hvitur saw that he had an undertone of midnight blue. He was almost completely dark except for the scattering of silver scales on his wings and in the corners of his eyes.
"Huh, that's weird," Webs said, talking about the silver scales, as the dragonet stretched his talons up and fluttered his wings, like he wanted to fly to the stars.
"What about Starflight?" Hvitur suggested. Webs nodded thoughtfully and looked down at the NightWing, and Hvitur felt proud for choosing that name. Starflight it is.
“This one’s a Sunny, I’m sure of it,” Dune said, holding up the pale SandWing egg, which held small speckles of odd black. Before Hvitur could ask how he was sure, the maimed desert dragon added, “I found her - yes, I’m fairly certain she’ll be a her - in the bright sun, and I feel like she’ll be cheerful. So, Sunny.”
There was something in his voice that made Hvitur think there was more to it than the sand dragon was saying, but he didn't push further and instead smiled quietly to himself. The dragonets will stop this war. That’s their purpose.
Then, in a matter of moments, Sunny hatched, and she, too, had the same silver teardrop-like scales by her eyes like Starflight did, only hers were a little smaller. But she had weird sun-like golden scales, like desert sand on a bright, warm day, and her eyes were a grey-green instead of the usual SandWing pitch black, like Dune’s. The strangest of all, however, was that she had no tail barb, which every SandWing had.
It was weird, but Hvitur didn’t care.
The dragonets of destiny have hatched at last.
----
== CHAPTER 1 - VISIONS ==
Starflight knew that he was the right dragon for a Big Heroic Destiny.
He was a NightWing, of course. He had Super Cool NightWing Powers like mind reading and seeing the future. Well, lots of dragons called it seeing the future, but to Starflight it was seeing the futures. So maybe he was more special than all those other lame NightWings.
Also, he could help his friends when they were down, and that was a bonus, right? If he could help cheer up Sunny? Well, the SandWing-maybe-NightWing dragonet was always cheerful, so it didn't really take much to make her better.
Sunny could read minds and see the futures - well, not as many as Starflight could, and also, other dragons could shield their thoughts from her, whereas with Starflight, that was impossible. Maybe Sunny was half NightWing, or at least had NightWing blood. That would explain why she had Super Cool NightWing Powers like Starflight, and also why she was so, well, stunted. She didn't have the usual SandWing tail barb or dark black eyes - hers were grey-green - and her scales were gold, like the sun on a cheerful day. Well, that was always what he heard Hvitur, their IceWing guardian, think whenever he saw them. SandWings were supposed to be sandy yellow, not Sunny's weird gold.
Anyways, he was probably the best of the dragonets, and didn't know why he was always so anxious still. He'd rather sit in a corner and read a scroll any day rather than face the wrath of Kestrel's or Hvitur's claws, or frostbreath or fire or whatever. Well, Starflight was sure that Hvitur wouldn't hurt him, because the IceWing guardian was his favourite one.
Speaking of Hvitur, Starflight was also walking up to him to ask a question.
Starflight? he heard a thought say. Laced in the thought was ice and cold, and in the rest of the mind dreams of the Ice Kingdom and some dragonets called Avalanche and North. Hvitur was spearing fish that were dumb enough to swim to the underground lake, though Starflight had no idea how they ever got there in the first place.
"Hi, Hvitur," Starflight replied.
"What do you need?"
"Oh, I was just wondering when, you know, Morrowseer's coming to visit."
Hvitur's eyes shot open in alarm. You heard about that? From where?
Starflight's voice dropped into a whisper as he replied, "Kestrel and the others were talking about it earlier."
I don't remember that. They must have had a conversation about Morrowseer without me, Hvitur thought, not so much to Starflight, but just in general. The ice dragon's mind was moving fast, like it always did when he was feeling a strong emotion. What was this, confusion? Anger? It seemed to be a mix of two.
"Probably," Starflight agreed, making Hvitur jump. "I didn't hear you there when they were talking."
"Hmm," Hvitur muttered. "I'll ask them about it. For now, you stay out of trouble." He wrapped his wings around Starflight, who winced a little as the thrum of his anxious thoughts grew stronger, like they always did whenever he was touching a dragon.
"I will," Starflight replied. Hvitur was more of a parent to the dragonets, though especially to him. Sometimes Starflight thought that that was to make up for all the angry and loud and irritated thoughts the ice dragon sometimes had.
Hvitur pulled away and spread his wings, then glided through the tunnels to where the other guardians were. Starflight heard their yells - or was it their thoughts? - clear as day, even from the main cave.
He sighed, turning away and walked over to the other caves - the sleeping caves, where the dragonets slept. Inside Sunny's, she was sorting out the bear-pelt blankets that Webs had brought them a few days earlier, because the stone hollows in which they slept were pretty uncomfortable without them. Starflight had also predicted that they'd get blankets about a day before Webs had brought them.
"Hey, Starflight!" Sunny called, perhaps hearing his thoughts as he entered the room.
Hey, Starflight thought with a smile, wrapping his wings around her. He never bothered to block his thoughts from the little SandWing. Why should he? They could communicate telepathically this way, and that was better than whispering secrets. Not like Sunny could refrain from saying any secrets anyway, but just in case.
How are you? I heard the guardians yelling. Starflight felt the thrum of her heartbeat against his shoulder as she asked him a question telepathically.
Morrowseer might be coming tomorrow.
Starflight heard Sunny gasp faintly. "He is?" she whispered. "Isn't he the NightWing that saw the prophecy?"
He shrugged. Yeah, I guess.
Whenever you have prophecies, I know that yours will be better than that big ol' NightWing's, Sunny pronounced.
Starflight laughed. Maybe, he thought. Who knows. Probably.
"Ha," Sunny muttered.
"All right, surely you've noticed me by now, Starflight."
Starflight had, in fact, distinctively heard the thoughts of Ember, the SkyWing dragonet, behind them, but hadn't said anything because he didn't want to ruin their moment.
"Yes, yes, whatever," Starflight replied, turning around. Ember was leaning against the cave entrance, her wings wrapped around her. She smiled at Sunny, who smiled back.
Both of them were warm rays of sunshine that shone at everything. Well, that was mostly Sunny, but sometimes Ember was, too. Most of the time, however, the mountain dragonet was very feisty and quick-witted, so maybe Starflight was wrong to think that she was anything like Sunny.
I'm not happy all the time, he heard Sunny think.
I know, he replied.
"Anyways, what were you do think-talking about? I could see your expressions. You know, the one you always do when talking in your minds," Ember said.
"Oh, we do? Well, all right," Sunny said, untangling her wings from Starflight's.
Starflight took a deep breath before replying, "Morrowseer will be coming tomorrow, if not today."
Ember blinked in surprise and took a pace back. "Wow, he is? Three moons, I- wow. I don't even-" I don't even know what to say, she thought, making Starflight grin.
"Well, maybe we should prepare?" Sunny suggested, her barbless tail flicking against Starflight's. "Because, you know, Morrowseer is probably huge, right?"
While she was speaking, Starflight felt a flash of pain - a headache so fierce that he stumbled. "Ow!"
He rubbed his temples and the headache subsided a little.
"Starflight? Are you all right?" Sunny asked, concern in her voice and thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm find," Starflight replied, standing up again. "Seriously, I'm fine. Now come on. Let's prepare to meet the prophet."
----
== CHAPTER 2 - PROPHET ==
It was the next day that the giant NightWing came to the dragonets' secret underground cave. Starflight, Sunny and the others had all tidied up their sleeping caves while Starflight checked the futures every now and then. Yes - yes - yes - sure enough, Morrowseer would come tomorrow. I'd better tell them what to say! In a future... He checked that one. Oh, oh no, the dragonets attacked Morrowseer? That would be bad. He'd better steer them onto the right path to make sure that that one wasn't inevitable.
Now, thundering steps echoed down the labyrinth of tunnels and caves. Everyone heard them. Starflight saw Sunny stand up from where he was helping her with Tales of the NightWings (which, by the way, when they described what it was like to read minds and see the future, it was nothing like what Starflight and Sunny experienced, though he suspected that this was to make the night dragons seem better and more powerful than they probably were).
All that was thrown out the window, however, when Starflight saw Morrowseer. He was even bigger than Kestrel, and five times more terrifying. As he stood before them, the giant NightWing spread his jagged, dotted, batlike wings and peered down at the dragonets lined up in front of him. Of course, he had silver scales on the undersides of his wings like Starflight did, but on Morrowseer they seemed to glitter from a great distance and cast a cold glow.
He looked like he could easily rip off each of their heads in one bite. He also looked like he already hated the five dragonets. From where he was stood, Starflight heard that Clay hadn't been expecting that. Were they such a disappointment already?
Also, all of those were partly Clay's thoughts, but sometimes Starflight got entangled in others' so much that they became his own. He also sometimes noticed that that happened to Sunny as well, but not as often.
Starflight reached into the NightWing's mind.
Disgusting dragonets. What is that? He glared at Sunny. Is that a SandWing or a lizard? That MudWing looks like he'd rather be eating than facing me right now. Coward. The SeaWing... Morrowseer's thoughts flicked to Tsunami. She looks dangerous, but no match for me, of course. That SkyWing seems healthy, but also cowardly. Now, that NightWing... peculiar scales by his eyes. I wonder what he thinks of me. Normally I can tell by their expression, which is how we pretend to read minds. Or see the future, I guess. Ha. Those dragonets - the Talons - the whole of Pyrrhia are depending on these children, when they aren't special at all. Hmm. The NightWing looks like he's listening to something.
Is he listening to my thoughts right now? He looks shocked.
No, that's impossible. NightWings don't really have powers, after all.
Starflight let out a breath he hadn't even realised he was holding.
What?
What did Morrowseer mean? NightWings didn't have powers? But - Starflight did. Sunny did. Was it a lie?
Were they just imagining it?
Starflight could feel Sunny trembling at his side. He felt the same way, petrified in place. It was his terrified-stalagmite pose, where he always froze when frightened. Like he hoped that by not moving, he'd disappear from view and the danger would pass right by. He felt stiller than he'd ever been before, staring up into the giant NightWing's eyes.
They're lying! he wanted to yell to the others in the cave. He would do that - if he was brave enough. He put a wing over Sunny, who had clearly heard Morrowseer's thoughts, too, but was also too scared to say anything.
"What. Is. THAT?" the NightWing boomed, glaring at Sunny in disgust. Sunny let out a squeak of fear and sank a little lower toward the ground. "There's meant to be five dragonets, not four and a half. Are you supposed to be the SandWing? Don't you eat? What's wrong with you?"
There was a long, horrible pause while Sunny tried to squeak out an answer.
"She does," Tsunami blurted. "She eats fine. As much as anyone."
Before he could stop himself, Starflight added, "It's not her fault she's small."
"She's a good fighter," Ember pointed out.
"Stop talking. Now." Silence dropped over them as Morrowseer's menacing gaze landed on Clay. Starflight could hear the MudWing's thoughts, clear as day.
THINK ABOUT COWS THINK ABOUT COWS THINK ABOUT COWS...
The huge NightWing turned to the three guardians. "Something has gone very wrong here."
Oh, no, don't say it, Tsunami, please don't say it Starflight begged silently, hearing the arrogant SeaWing's thoughts just before she burst out, "Yes! It has, and I can tell you what. We're treated like prisoners! We've never been outside these caves, just once, and that was just when we hatched. All we know about this world we're supposed to save is what we've learned in scrolls. We're supposed to be the most important dragonets in the world, but those four treat us like blind salamanders!"
Starflight, and Clay (of course Clay, of course I start to think what he's thinking), couldn't believe it. Wasn't she scared of Morrowseer, too?
"Tsunami, hold your tongue," Hvitur snapped.
"I will not," she cried. "Please get us out of here," she said to Morrowseer. "Take us away with you."
Starflight heard Clay think from the other side of Ember, Please DON'T- I mean, think about cows, think about cows... And Starflight agreed with the MudWing; now that he'd seen the NightWing, mind reading or future seeing or not, he'd rather stay trapped here.
"Ungrateful lizards!" Kestrel barked angrily.
Without warning, Morrowseer lunged at Tsunami. His teeth flashed like bright white lightning, darting toward her neck. Without thinking, Clay flung himself at the NightWing's huge, ridged back.
Starflight pressed himself against the back wall, trying to mould into the shadows. Sunny had disappeared somewhere. Ember shrank back with him, staying as far out of the way as they could.
OW, Starflight heard Clay think, along with a flash of bright white pain.
Morrowseer jumped away from Tsunami and shook his whole body violently. Clay went flying through the air and landed with a jarring thud, sliding halfway into the river.
Clay staggered to his feet, while Morrowseer and Tsunami faced each other in battle positions. Morrowseer made a grinding noise deep in his throat and Starflight saw the bright gold blob on the base of his tail before the tall dragon swung his tail around into view.
Clinging to Morrowseer's tail, her teeth firmly planted in the vulnerable spot near the end, was Sunny. Starflight heard, in the midst of his own fear and the sound of his thrumming, racing heart, Clay wish that he'd remembered about that spot, which every dragon had, no matter which tribe they were from.
"Ha," Morrowseer rumbled. "That's a surprise." He pried Sunny loose with his front talons, as if she were just a tiny bloodsucking insect.
"That one will do." Morrowseer pointed at Tsunami. None of the big dragons had moved at all as he attacked their charges.
Neither had Ember, who was hiding in the shadows with Starflight, who, he realised, hadn't either.
Clay staggered up beside him, who was doing an excellent imitation of a stalagmite, in Clay's opinion. Starflight flicked his head down and tried to avoid the MudWing's eyes.
"And that one will also do," Morrowseer added after a moment, nodding at Clay. Starflight heard Kestrel snort from over by the far wall.
Starflight also heard Clay's bewilderment at being approved of by the NightWing, but he was mostly paying attention to Morrowseer's thoughts. I'll bring the NightWing in and we'll have a talk in a moment.
"This one..." Morrowseer narrowed his eyes at Sunny, studying her from her harmless tail to her weirdly golden scales and moss-green eyes. "We'll have to see."
"We followed the prophecy," Dune insisted. "She wasn't in a clutch of eggs - I- I found her egg alone, buried out in the desert. Just like the prophecy said." Starflight noticed how Dune shied his thoughts away from more information about where he'd found Sunny's egg. Maybe he could ask him about it later.
Sunny stared at Dune hopefully, but must have realised that he wouldn't reveal anything in his mind, and he fell silent under Morrowseer's dark eyes.
"As for you," Morrowseer said to Starflight, "I assume you used your NightWing powers to figure out that I wasn't going to harm the SeaWing. Perhaps you even had a vision of my visit today. No doubt you already know that I'm going to take you into the next cavern for a private conversation."
Starflight bowed his head and followed the gigantic NightWing to the study room to have a most likely unpleasant "private conversation". Morrowseer paused in the archway and looked back at the guardians.
"I'll have a word with you about her later." Morrowseer's eyes flicked to Ember, who hadn't moved at all during the scuffle.
Morrowseer continued down the tunnel, towards the study cave, and Starflight had no choice but to follow. He wasn't sure he'd like this private conversation at all.
----
== CHAPTER 3 - TRUTH ==
It wasn't like Starflight would ever admit to Morrowseer that he was scared of him, though the NightWing could probably already tell that. It was just that, well, he may not be able to read minds or see the future, but the older dragon was absolutely terrifying. Just being in the same room as him made Starflight want to shy away and hide forever, but even then he felt he wouldn't be able to escape Morrowseer's awareness. It also didn't help that the giant dragon was suspiciously luring him away to the study cave, where no one else was permitted to follow.
Once they arrived in the cave, Morrowseer made Starflight sit down, and he did.
"So," the giant NightWing said. "It appears that you don't seem fit to lead the dragonets. NightWings are natural leaders, kid. Reading minds and seeing the future - that'll help you know what they're doing."
There was a pause in the conversation, like Morrowseer was expecting him to reply with something. Now or never, Starflight thought.
"I know the truth," he burst out before Morrowseer could continue.
The older dragon narrowed his eyes. "The truth? About what?"
"I know that NightWings can't read minds or see the future."
"What do you mean?"
Starflight flared his wings, surprised at his bravery. "The prophecy is fake."
Startled, Morrowseer took a step back, surprising Starflight himself. Starflight caught a glimpse of a SandWing with black diamond patterns on her scales - Burn? Blister? Blaze? He couldn't remember who looked like what at this moment - before Morrowseer snapped, "You can't prove that."
"Actually, I can," Starflight said, curling his claws in. "Because NightWings can't read minds or see the future, then the prophecy is fake. Well, most NightWings, at least. Perhaps all but one."
How does he know? What- who is he talking about? HOW DOES HE KNOW? Morrowseer's mind whirled.
"How I know?" Starflight replied to his thoughts, making the older NightWing's mind descend to cacophony. "Because I'm the only NightWing in the tribe who can read minds and see the future." He hoped.
Morrowseer snarled and backed Starflight against a wall, and Starflight was too shocked by this to check what he was going to do.
"You will tell no one about this, you hear me? And you will lead the dragonets." Starflight nodded, trembling, and Morrowseer sighed. "You are dismissed."
Starflight left the cave feeling nauseated. What was that? Why did Morrowseer have to do that? Starflight hadn't done anything wrong, had he? Well, if he had, he'd rather stay out of that trouble rather get into more.
With Morrowseer following close behind him, Starflight stepped into the main hall. Morrowseer made his way to the guardians' cave without a word to him, and fairly, Starflight was pretty grateful for that. He glanced over at Clay, Ember and Sunny, who were watching him anxiously, and turned to go to his sleeping cave. The click click of talons on the cool stone floor and the worried, hungry train of thoughts behind him told him that Clay was following him.
"What happened?" Clay asked. "What did he say to you?"
"I'm not supposed to talk about it," Starflight replied, his voice coming out a little harsher than he'd intended. He sat down with a thump in the middle of the cave, wings splayed out around him, and nosed through the scrolls that were spread out on the floor, looking for his favourite scroll that he always read when he was upset or fighting with one of the other dragonets.
"It's over here," Clay called, taking a fat scroll with silver letters that seemed to have rolled under his sleeping ledge. Starflight, feeling grateful, took the scroll with a talon and carried it up to his own ledge. He curled up on the bear-pelt blanket, covered himself with his wings, and stuck his nose inside the scroll, reading Tales of the NightWings.
He dropped it when he got to the bit on NightWing powers and discarded the scroll, which fluttered off his ledge like a large leaf. Instead, Starflight placed his chin on his two front talons, and when he did this, the concern coming from Clay's mind was even stronger.
He never does that, Clay thought anxiously. Why won't he tell me what Morrowseer said?
"I'm fine," Starflight said to him, lifting his head and swaying his tail around to rest on his talons.
"You kind of, um, aren't. I thought he liked you - surely he said something about what great and noble dragon you must, because your a super-cool NightWing with Super Cool NightWing Powers."
A long, tired breath whooshed out of Starflight's snout. "Yeah," he replied. "That's exactly what he told me, actually."
"Oh," Clay said. "Well, that's good, isn't it? What else did he say?"
Starflight thought for a moment, and then, before he could help it, he said, "The NightWings can't actually read minds and see the future. It was all a lie. The prophecy is fake. Me and Sunny are exceptions, I guess, for... some reason. I have a theory that, well, maybe it's because we hatched under the moonlight. And Sunny must be half NightWing, because why else would she have Super Cool NightWing Powers?"
Clay let out a long breath. "That's... wow."
Starflight sighed a long sigh, a few wisps of smoke curling out of his nostrils. He shifted a little so he was laid on his back, and stared up at the rock ceiling.
"So... there's no reason to keep us in here, then? Why didn't our minders say so?" Clay said, clambering onto the ledge beside Starflight. He sat down next to a hanging stalactite and Starflight heard his claws tapping against it, gently.
"I don't think they know," Starflight said, spreading his wings a little and accidentally knocking Tales of the NightWings off the ledge. He closed his eyes a little.
"Well, why don't we tell them? Or, maybe..." Escape? Clay's mind finished.
Starflight's eyes shot open. "Escape? You mean, like, escape the caves? Go save the world two years early? Oh, no, no, no, that can't be right, Clay. We need to-" He cut himself off, realising that they really could escape. Because no one was going to save the world. The destined dragonets were false, and the prophecy was fake. Morrowseer was a liar. In fact, every NightWing was a liar.
"I've already discussed it with Sunny and Ember," Clay said. "It was actually Tsunami's idea. So if you agree, we can all make an escape plan. Tonight."
Starflight checked the futures. "That sounds... decent. But-"
"Great!" Clay exclaimed, leaping up to his talons. "I'll go tell the others."
"Hey, wait!" Starflight yelped, scrambling to his talons. "Let me finish!"
Clay paused in the archway, blinking up at him.
"It's a good idea, but one of the most likely futures I see is that, well, we get caught by the SkyWings."
"Oh." Clay sat down with a thump. "Well, how does that go wrong?"
"Well," Starflight said, "so, you suggest sending up a smoke signal once you and Tsunami get out by going through the river so you can come back and move the boulder and get us, so we do, but the SkyWings see it and decide to check it out as you're in the entrance to the cave. So then we get captured and yeah."
Ooh, Clay thought, his face scrunched up. I didn't think about that. Guess what I don't want to happen!
Starflight sighed, shaking out his wings and head. "Well, we can try, but let me study some more futures where it does work and we don't get caught by SkyWings. All right?"
Clay nodded eagerly. "All right! Try make up your mind by tomorrow night, OK? I'll tell the others about this."
Starflight sighed and also nodded. "I will, don't worry. See you."
"See you!" Clay bounded out the tunnel and Starflight heard his talonsteps fade away long after he left.
Category:Fanfictions (Semi-Canon)
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Alternate Universes