"This will be a lot easier of you keep your cool, C-"
With a lion's roar, Cassius breaks the purple chains holding him and-
*Crunch*
-I find myself lying on my back few seconds later when my eyes focus again.
"Unnecessary..." I whisper and spit out blood.
I know he's a griffon, but damn is he strong!
Still dizzy, I push myself up onto all fours.
"I should have understood sooner why our history books called you a traitor!" Cassius growls, ending in a hiss, "and no matter what happens here I will make sure you will never find a safe place in my land. Every loyal griffon will hunt you to the ends of Equus, destroy everything you love, and in the end they will find you."
There's gonna be a long line ahead of them at this point. Perhaps we could rent an arena for the event, something with enough seats. Canterlot opera house sounds cool. It could give the slaughter a touch of class. Some good old murder accompanied by classical music.
"Save the empty threats, Emperor," Shadowstep walks over, running her hoof against defiant Cassius' cheek, "We're not done yet. Our goal is to get, as you say, two birds with one stone."
Cassius' eyes widen and he freezes. A lesser griffon would say something along the lines of 'Nicolai will never fall for your tricks!', but aside from the barely perceptible show of shock, he stays silent. Shadostep's horn shimmers, and tiny sparks circle around Cassius before disappearing. Then she taps the paralyzed griffon's broad chest in several places, stopping under his heart.
"I wonder how your brother's going to react when he sees this," she jabs her foreleg forward. Cassius groans, and I can smell burned hair and ozone.
The griffon emperor gasps for breath, but his beak curves into a satisfied grin.
"If that's the best you can do, changeling, then you have a lot to learn about torture. Once I get out of here, I will show you the cellars under the Holy City personally-"
Shadowstep gives him a completely unimpressed stare.
"I signalling device monitoring your vital signs. Blazing told us your brother is waiting in the darkness with his airship, and if there's anyone who would be ready to recieve the signal of your wavering health it would be him. I'm pretty certain that any moment now he and his agents are going to storm out of that wallside workshop there, guns ready. It's the only way out of the 'secret tunnel' since the one leading to the main facility was blocked off a long time ago."
I look at the unremarkable building Shadowstep's pointing at. Oh, and not only Shadowstep, because while she's just pointing her hoof, two squads of griffons are pointing a lot of firepower at the door.
"You..." Cassius growls.
I'm pretty sure Nicolai is even smarter than his brother gives him credit for, actually.
The metal door of the workshop slams open, letting out a singular small object which goes 'pop!'. Thick clouds of bright white smoke billow out of it. I hear the griffons scream as their night vision accessories burn their retinas. It doesn't do anything to me, and as long as I stay out of the choking clouds I should be fine.
Gunfire lights the night. Focusing my not entirely explored blocking power onto a small dome around myself, I jump towards paralyzed Cassius.
"Heavy, come h-unf!"
Didn't think it would dispel Shadowstep's immobilizing spell, did you?
I'm pretty sure I just did a flip in the air, but I have enough control to call out again:
"GRAB CASSIUS, HEAVY!"
I don't bother using my eyes in the chaos, and just focus on my tactical vision. White blur passes by as I hit the ground again, recovering much faster now and rubbing blood off of my muzzle. Standing up, I catch a glimpse of Cassius' fruitless struggle against Heavy sitting on him.
"Behind the crates!" Keeping my invisible barrier up, I gallop off to our original hiding place. We need to get Cassius somewhere safe-ish where he won't get hit by a stray bullet before Shadowstep and her guys sort Nicolai's attack out, and hopefully get the Black Ops boss alive.
Heavy lands next to me not even a second later, writhing Cassius held by his back tentacles. He tosses the emperor on the ground with little mercy, and puts his foreleg on the griffon's chest.
"Don't move!"
"Heavy, I know you won't like it, but I need you to run out there and get Cross or Antares here. I can block the bullets, but I can't focus on what's going on and keep this hothead pacified at the same time. Then you have to find Nicolai and capture him before he gets shot. I'm pretty sure he'll be wearing a normal suit like a common soldier."
"On it- oooooh crap!"
We look upwards...
...at the Blackbird hovering right above us. When did it get there? Was the secret tunnel attack just a distraction? It had to be.
Multiple orange spots start glowing on the bottom of the triangular black ship.
"Change of plans, Heavy. Hold Cassius down and PRAY!"
"Pray to what? You're the closest thing to a god we've got around."
"Pray to my freaking left asscheek if you must, but if I'm not hearing some religious mumbling in a second, I swear I'm shitting myself!"
Everything goes red.
When the insides of my eyelids stop burning, I look around. The crates are smoldering ash scattered around on the scorched ground. The courtyard is still a battleground, but one filled with charred griffon corpses. A purple barrier near the closest wall turret is hiding Shadowstep and Antares while a blue one by the main building is protecting Cross and Starlight. The normal soldiers caught in whatever energy inferno the Blackbird unleashed -at least according to the piles of melted lead, plastic, and bone fragments- had no chance.
However, if there's something I learned, it's that energy weapons need recharging, and the surprise attack was nowhere enough.
Timeshifting magic.
I look at from where I felt the surge, and see a griffon soldier blur after being hit-
-after nimbly ducking under a tentacle swing of one of the supersoldiers, familiar light grey glow visible only to me surrounding a short blade on his waist.
"Heavy!" I point at thim, "That's Nicolai. Take the sword on his belt away before you get him or it'll be messy."
Massive purple pillar of energy erupts from Shadowstep's position and strikes the Blackbird which starts losing height. Compared to the Grand Cross, the ship is small, but it crashing anywhere around would still be too risky. Thankfully, it looks like Shadowstep realized that as well when a faint glow envelops the hull and slowly drags it down next to Cassius' flagship.
"Alright, don't make it worse. The idiot almost killed you!" I whisper to Cassius who just lies on his back, glaring at me.
Well, behind me. I turn my head.
"Oh, that was quick, Heavy."
He lays now helmet-less, bleeding Nicolai next to his brother and hands me the magical shortsword. I shoot a quick glance at where Nicolai fought the supersoldier few moments ago. The monster ripped apart limb from limb isn't a comforting sight. I'm glad Nicolai didn't resist too much otherwise Heavy might have left him a bit... smooshed.
"Keep it. You won't be under as much scrutiny. Just have it at hoof, we might need it."
"You know how to use it?" he asks, stashing the shortsword into his backpack.
"No, but they do," I nod to our royal captives.
"I don't understand."
"Just hang around the two no matter what and have it ready."
Heavy shrugs. I don't know to what he prayed to during the energy strike, but I'm sure as hay sacrificing few chickens to Void for allowing Heavy to be here with me.
We keep an eye on the silent duo while 'our' soldiers scour both Nicolai's and Cassius' ships for crew members, disarm them, and round them up in one small mob. The action looked rather more hectic than it was, I assume from the fifty-ish surviving captured griffons. Thankfully, I can see clearly now because the lights of the main building are shining again, fully illuminating the courtyard. It seems the dim setting was the normal night one, and then the mostly dark one served only to hide the griffons lying in ambush.
When the main cleanup is done, Cross, Shadowstep, and some important-looking armed griffon arrive to our position. I'm still keeping my protection aura up. Strangely enough, it's not tiring like a shield spell, it just requires some focus. Divine power is weird.
"Great job, I've already called it in," Shadowstep nods towards the brothers, "Someone will be here shortly to take care of the two."
Alright, now comes the difficult part
"So, about your return to Manehattan..." I give her a meaningful look.
"We will be resigning as soon as someone with enough capacity to discharge us arrives. That shouldn't take long. It'll be a bit more difficult to explain your presence, but I can be persuasive. A week or two from today we'll be back offering basic training to Silver Sun newbies again. I think we could use the rest."
"Nice," I force a weak smile, "Say, how long before somepony comes for Cassius and Nicolai?"
She shrugs.
"Ten to fifteen minutes, I guess."
"Wait, WHAT?! Is there a Redtalon garrison nearby?"
She laughs. Damn, I expected to have at least an hour.
"No, of course not, that would make this place a lot more noticeable, although that's a question of the past now anyway. You'll see."
The leading griffon accompanying Shadowstep coughs.
"I'll take care of them," he says before muttering something to the microphone in his helmet. Several seconds later a squad of five griffons rushes over, forming a circle around Nicolai and Cassius. The griffons looks at me and Heavy, "And since Shadowstep here vouches for you, I won't be asking any questions about your presence in our top secret outpost. To be honest, I'm just glad that with this there's a huge chance of the war being over."
Poor guy, at least if he actually believes it. His leaders aren't exactly bothered by the death toll if it means they grow their power. The slaughter will continue as long as there is someone loyal to the royal family.
Anyway, this is perfect because I really can't come up with any believable answers, and pretending to be Shadowstep's relative bringing her cake for her birthday isn't going to fly. Mostly because we don't have the cake. Yeah, definitely. THAT is the main problem.
"Heavy, do you have anything to eat on you? No, wait, drink."
"You can come with us to the mess hall," offers the griffon.
"Nah, I like the fresh night air... minus the scorched ground and corpses."
And I don't trust you not to slip something in my drink.
"There's some water in the bag if you want," Heavy offers.
"Thanks," I look at Shadowstep and her company, "Mind leaving us alone? I need to calm my nerves after all this."
The griffon shakes his head.
"My soldiers will stay here with the Emperor and his brother. Moving them might prove an unacceptable risk."
Shrugging, I take Heavy's water bottle and take a long swig.
"Alright, we'll be by the wall if you need us. I'm not too fond of the spotlights all over the place. Come, Heavy."
"Mind if I talk with Tio for a while?" he pleads.
"Alright, just come back as soon as someone arrives to get Cassius."
"Sure," he tosses me a small package, "Snack bars."
"Cool."
Levitating food and drink, I trot off to the shadows by the fortress wall, using my tactical vision to keep tabs on the brothers without looking.
Ten minutes... how? Even our airship trip took hours, although that was across half of the Empire and avoiding corrupted territories. Does Legius have a cloaked emergency fleet somewhere nearby, possibly underground?
There's no way I can come to an answer on my own, so I guess it's time to improvise... again.
Alright, what I need now is rest.
Sitting down with my back against the wall, I close my eyes and chew the energy bars. They aren't bad due to chocolate covering, but underlying chemical taste is still there. Oh well, ball is in their court now. The good thing is that with now very clear courtyard I can see pretty much everything due to my vision.
I guess this is one thing I learned from real soldiers - rest when possible, every moment counts.
Said moment of respite ends when I see a unit of griffons rush towards the main gate and into a small outbuilding besides it followed by the entire double door sliding into the ground. Weird, I thought an airship was coming... or that the whole thing would be a normal gateway.
Standing up, I shuffle by the wall towards the empty entrance in the square of walls, and spot a trail of lights on its outer edge. Some... lamps set along it in regular intervals? What for, just lighting?
The "lamps" flash brighter, their light turning blue and filling the entryway which now looks like a vertical pool of water.
I sense only a little magic coming from the... portal. Yeah, it has to be one. I haven't seen that kind of technology in Manehattan or even heard about it, but they DO have invisible flying airships and guns firing the energy equivalent of unicorn magic. However, unlike pure magic, this clearly requires some pre-built device on both sides.
Heavily armed griffons pour out of the portal, ten- twenty- thirty- fifty, all wearing standard combat suits with red griffon talons on the front. However, unlike Nicolai or Cassius who rushed into the fray disguised as normal soldiers, the last smaller squad is centered around a griffon wearing a red and gold robe.
Grand Bastard Legius himself.
I KNEW he wouldn't resist coming to gloat!
No, you didn't.
I EXPECTED he wouldn't resist coming to gloat!
Still a bit off.
I WAS HOPING he would come here, if only to see whether Shadowstep wasn't pulling his leg. Happy now?
Much better.
The arriving soldiers spread out through the courtyard, many of them surrounding the two airships in its center and the captured soldiers, while Legius and his few bodyguards walk straight towards bound Cassius and Nicolai. Come to think of it, he has never seen me in my normal body. Heavy and I might easily go unrecognized.
Now, part of the enormous portal is magical, I can feel it. As I focus my divine power onto the blue gateway, it flickers.
"Don't move!"
Unfortunately, it draws the attention of four Legius' soldiers stationed in front of it who start looking around and spot me by the wall. I sit down and raise my forelegs. Good thing I'm not a zebra or it wouldn't be this easy.
"He's one of mine!" Shadowstep calls out, making the aimed barrels withdraw a little.
"Move!" orders one of the portal guarding griffons while pointing to Legius' group.
Well, at least I can't look threatening as I pick up my water bottle and protein bars, followed by walking to the big baddie himself.
Legius circles around me, but there's not way he would recognize anything about me. Now, all I need is Cassius or Nicolai not to turn vindictive and shout out who I really am to ruin this. I, on the other hoof, must stop a grin when I see his burned and scarred body. It seems that my explosion in the back desert didn't leave him untouched. Unfortunately, it is clear his experiments with corruption are what kept him alive, as his forelegs are clearly made of corrupted biomass rather than bones and flesh.
"Commander Shadowstep said that all this happened only thanks to you, that you saw the Emperor's airship flying above and caught his agent sabotaging our anti-air defenses."
I chuckle.
"She does have a talent for getting straight to the point. My name is Frostfire, mister...?"
"You're not from around here, are you?" Legius smiles and pats my shoulder.
"No, he isn't," Shadowstep steps in, "and with his unexpected arrival via Starlight's emergency portal, I'm afraid I have to cut our cooperation short, lord Legius."
"Oh? Wasn't our agreement a little different?"
"Yes, it was. However, I believe our parting gift to you will be... sufficient," she points towards the bound brothers.
"I see. Well, even I must admit you have done an admirable job. Gather your associates, Shadowstep."
Without any apparent signal, Cross accompanied by Heavy, Antares, Starlight, and Thirteen with a bunch of packed bags on her back arrive. Legius then continues:
"And for your excellent service during the war and a long time before, I believe a parting gift of my own is in order," he turns away and walks through a suddenly far thicker wall of soldiers, "They know far too much. Kill them."
Too many things happen at once within the next three seconds.
"I am soooooo... shocked," answers Shadowstep, completely unimpressed.
A glowing greatsword appears out of thin air next to Cross, immediately cleaving through the closest two griffons with barely any resistance.
Antares grabs a griffon in a full suit of combat armor by his head with his one foreleg and throws him into another three raising their weapons.
"Heavy, NOW!" I call out, and my friend's back tentacle darts into his backpack, pulls out Nicolai's sword, and cuts his restraints. Good thing that guy didn't forget for a moment what I told him to wait for.
Blue glow envelops Cassius and Nicolai, tossing them towards me. Great job, Starlight! The sword thrown by Heavy buries itself next to Nicolai who grabs it.
"I'll explain later. This was necessary... and yes, Cassius, this is EXACTLY why they call me a betrayer. I do what I must."
And then everyone starts shooting...
...or at least they try to.
The courtyard fills with clicking of triggers. Alright, they are confused for now.
"BLAZING LIGHT!" I hear a female scream from the portal.
Well, well, well, even Veronica came for the spectacle. And here was I thinking Legius shoved her somewhere as soon as he solidified his power.
Darting through the shocked soldiers still trying to ineffectively shoot me, I-
"Hi, and bye!"
-ram into Veronica as hard as I can while focusing my power on the portal, sending her flying back through the flickering gateway. She disappears a fraction of a second before I slam my hoof into the closest light projector or whatever it is.
The blue light fades completely. Good, no more reinforcements. Now to deal with the ten to one disadvantage we already have.
"SHADOWSTEP, DEAL WITH THE SOLDIERS! NICOLAI, CASSIUS, GET LEGIUS! HEAVY, CROSS, SUPERS! ANTY, CASSIUS' GUYS!"
"GET HIM!" I hear Legius' roar, and have to roll away to avoid a supersoldier charging straight at me.
Okay okay, if everyone listens to me instead of being pissed off, I think we might get out of this alive.
That's a big if after what you've just caused.
Yeeeeah...
Alright, how to harm a creature basically immune to anything I can do?
RUUUUUUUUUUUUN!
Is he following?
Yes. Good.
I stop for a moment before the stairs leading up the fortress walls, only to face a maniacally laughing supersoldier galloping at me.
They don't learn fast.
Rolling to the side, I feel the shockwave as he slams straight into the stone steps, staining them with his blood. I wait for nothing, and use him picking himself up as a boost to rush upwards again. I'm almost up-
"Ah?"
Something grabs my hind leg and jerks backwards. I roll on my back after failing to stop the irresistible pull, seeing the griffon's foreleg transformed into a tentacle wrapped around my fetlock.
"I will tear you in half, pony."
"You need a promotion, private Obvious!" I kick my other hind leg up right into his eye.
It's a reflex rather than pain, but he lets me go and clamps his forelegs on his face. The second is all I need to kick again with both legs, roll around, and drag myself to the top of the stairs. Damn half-immortal monsters, how am I supposed to fight that?
"You are dead..." I hear a growl. A roar cuts through the air, and the griffon rears on his hind legs, talons about to tear me apart.
All it takes is a little telekinetic nudge in his hind leg to disrupt his balance, and I kick myself off of the crenellations, lunging underneath him between the legs.
He flaps his wings to steady himself, and that is my moment to buck up as hard as I can. He takes several steps forward towards the crenellations.
"Just freaking DIE ALREADY!" I scream in frustration, jump back up on all fours, and charge at the turning griffon.
That impact is the last straw. Leaning backwards to avoid his desperate talon swipe which nonetheless cuts my neck, I watch the griffon topple over into the darkness. I can hear his desperate uncoordinated flapping of wings, but the corruption doesn't allow him in his raging state to gain any height.
I take everything back. It's very easy to understand how they can be absolutely terrifying on the battlefield.
Taking a deep breath, I look down into the courtyard where the fighting is already over. Legius' soldiers with their weapons disabled had clearly no chance against Shadowstep's and Starlight's magic, and my best guess is that Cassius' griffons didn't question their luck, grabbed any melee weapons they could, and joined the fray.
Off to the side, I see Cassius swinging a greatsword at unnaturally agile Legius slamming a tentacle at Nicolai who jumps to the side. Thanks to his brother's distraction, Cassius' blade decapitates his ex-grand vizier from behind, finally spelling the tipping point in the Griffon Empire civil war.
They're all gonna be really mad...
...but in my defense - it worked.
[Blazing's Entry]
Without Legius' intrigue and planning, the Redtalon side will crumble. Veronica is not a leader, and for once the griffon patriarchal society will eat itself and shit itself out. Small MALE nobles will revolt against Veronica, kiss Cassius' ass to save themselves, and the Redtalons will pay for their rebellion.
Anyway, I pissed off pretty much everyone besides Heavy and Cross who were glad to be off duty and to have time for each other. Shadowstep grudgingly admitted her defeat, and agreed to get imprisoned willingly by Cassius for a short time while she shared whatever info she could about Legius' facilities and experiments. No member of the Black Company had any personal loyalty for the Redtalon side, so when everything was sorted, Nicolai persuaded his brother not to be too harsh on them. As it turned out, they would only spend two weeks in prison for interrogation, and then return to Manehattan as per our agreement. Cassius was adamant about real punishemnt at first, but Nicolai even dug out the ancient documents about the majority of the Griffon Empire actually BELONGING to the Black Company by the right of conquest while they still fought for Chrysalis some seven hundred years ago, and Cassius shut up. Technically, they conquered pretty much the whole Empire at the time, but since they moved from city to city and really couldn't cause any damage when the griffons eventually started giving up, the Empire mostly ignored them... especially since they won against every army the griffons mustered.
But that's a story that has already been written down by historians.
So, negotiations were in order after the mess. Cassius was still fuming, but Nicolai once again saved my ass. He said that I, no matter the circumstances, fulfilled my part of the bargain, and by removing the Black Company from Legius' roster and the traitorous vizier himself did far more than I was supposed to. Eventually Cassius gave up, happy his forces wouldn't be so stretched anymore.
That's right.
Next stop - Drachenberg.
Again.
[End Entry]