Eli didn't know what to do. He had been standing there, waiting for Chris. Everyone else was either finishing their tasks or recuperating. They hadn't exactly expected an attack, least of all from griffons. They had been stealthy getting here, but then they had exploded from the trees, screeching and diving for whoever was closest.
He watched for a second as Kelly grabbed her shotgun and fired at a griffon diving for her. He saw Jone get tackled and pinned to the ground. He heard the commander shouting as he wielded dual pistols.
He snapped out of his trance and fired his weapon at a griffon attacking Ashly. It was just instinct, to protect his sister. He fired twice, each round piercing the beast's neck. It tried to scream but instead blood spurted out of its mouth and neck. It collapsed to the ground, writhing in agony before Ashly finished it off with a knife to the brain.
He turned around to see if Chris was nearby, but instead saw a griffon who had, apparently, been trying to sneak up on him. He brought his gun up, but the beast smacked it away and tackled him. Eli flailed around as he crashed to ground, the griffon above him, eyes gleaming with blood lust.
Eli grabbed his knife and tried to bring his hand up, but the griffon pinned his hand down. He brought his arm up and pushed on its neck as it shoved its head down in an attempt to bite his head. Eli pushed with all his might, knowing he would die otherwise. But the griffon was too strong. It wasn't long before the griffon had its beak on his forehead, mouth open and teeth bared.
The griffon's head exploded as its body was flung to the side. Eli looked around and saw Kelly right there, pumping the empty shell out of her gun. She gave him a hand up then ran back into the fray.
But Eli stopped dead in his tracks before he could take three steps.
A light blue blob flew out of the trees and toward the nearest griffon. It stopped for a minute to ram a blade through the beasts head before continuing into the fight. Eli's mouth dropped.
“Wha-wh-wha... what? Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow Dash attacked the griffon that was still somehow on top of Jone, stabbing through its neck. The beast roared in pain as it clutched at it's throat. With a final scream, it collapsed on top of Jone as Rainbow withdrew her sword.
Eli charged into the fray, training and survival instincts kicking in. He dropped his gun by a tree and unsheathed his knife. He jumped onto the back of a griffon that was attempting to take flight. He stabbed the blade into its shoulder as it took off, eliciting a bellow as it tried to shake free its attacker. Eli held on for dear life, as he was now at least forty meters in the air, and a fall now would probably kill him.
The griffon dropped towards the trees. Eli took this moment of free falling to remove his knife so he could plant it in the griffon's neck. The griffon opened its mouth to scream but only sprayed blood. It tried to open its wings but its body wouldn't respond; the pain was just too much.
Eli held on tight and braced himself as they crashed into the trees. The first impact threw him from the dying enemies body and into another tree, which, fortunately, had bigger branches. He was able to stop his descent by grabbing a small branch, which snapped and dropped him onto a larger branch.
But he couldn't breathe! His chest tried to fill with air, but his lungs refused to cooperate. He grabbed a nearby branch as he swayed back and forth, trying to get in a single breath.
Just as he felt he was going to pass out, a tiny puff of air made it into his lungs, followed by more until he could take a full breath. He gasped and spit out some blood that came from somewhere in his body. He didn't think about that too much now, He just focused on getting his breathing under control.
He looked down at the ground to find he was still pretty high up. He saw the body of the enemy lying almost directly underneath him, its head, legs, and wings all bent at the wrong angles. No doubt it was dead.
He took a minute to regain his senses. What had just happened? He attacked a griffon, yes. It flew into the air with him on its back. He... stabbed it in the... neck? Yeah, the neck. They both fell and then crashed here... right? Of course, how else would he be here?
He knew he had to get back down, so he tried to climb down from branch to branch. Unfortunately, not all the branches could hold his weight. The third one he stepped on snapped under his weight, letting him fall the few meters he had left to the earth. He landed on top of the griffon with a thud, once again having the breath knocked out of him. Shit.
He rolled off the griffon and caught his breath. It wasn't as bad as normal, but he still took a minute. He looked back to his fallen foe and retrieved the knife from its throat, letting more blood fall to the earth. He wiped the blood off his blade before sheathing it. He checked to make sure he still had his pistol, which he did.
Now, where was he? They must have flown farther than he thought. He remained completely still, trying to hear any clue as to where he should head. He heard gunfire way off in the distance, so he decided that way was his best bet.
He had only taken one step when his nose was assaulted by an unsavory stench.
Shit.
Rainbow Dash pulled her blade out of the neck of a fallen enemy. She turned to see that the scouting party was larger than she had anticipated. Many griffons were still diving out of the sky to replace their fallen. They were determined to kill the... humans, that had arrived, for whatever reason. No matter, she knew what she had to do.
Glaze came out of the bushes with her sword drawn, attacking one of the beasts that was currently trying to surprise the human with a stick in his mouth. The human turned with a look of shock on his face before continuing on his little cussing spree.
She saw one of the humans jump onto the back of a griffon as it took off. She followed, knowing that no one could ride a griffon. She would probably have to catch him when he fell.
At least, he assumed it was a he.
To her surprise, he didn't fall through all of the crazy aerial maneuvers, and was even more surprised to see the griffon drop into the forest with the human still on its back.
She tried to follow, but was attacked by another griffon, who had followed her. She swung her sword and blocked the blows from his own. It was a deadly dance. This griffon was more deadly than the others. He knew his stuff.
She saw an opening in his defense and thrust her sword through the gap. It pierced his wing, nearly cutting it off, causing him to scream as he plummeted, no longer able to fly. She watched as he fell into the trees only to be caught by a thick branch.
Oh, right! The human!
She searched for him but couldn't see him through the trees. She flew below the canopy, searching again. Then she saw him. And she also saw the timberwolf, slowly creeping up behind him. She uttered a battle cry and dove for the timber wolf as it jumped out toward the human below.
Eli turned around, pistol drawn, knowing what was coming. He aimed at were he figured the beast would come from. Sure enough, it pounced out of the trees, and Eli popped off two rounds before having to dive out of the way.
The next three minutes were a blur. He hit the ground and came up rolling only to be knocked to the side by the timberwolf. His gun left his hand as he sprawled on the ground. He looked up to see the same blue blob, which he figured was Rainbow Dash, fly out of the sky and hit the wolf, causing them to tumble and roll down a hill. Eli grabbed his pistol but was tackled by another timberwolf as they both fell down the hill as well. He landed on top and pushed the pistol under the wolf's mouth. Five consecutive bangs echoed through the forest above the sounds of struggle. The beast fell limp, and he jumped off of it to help out Rainbow Dash, but found that she was more than capable of finishing off the timberwolf, demonstrating it with a swift stab to the head, through its brain.
Eli stood there, panting. What had just happened? He looked around once, then twice, to assure that there were no more monsters in the shadows. He popped out the clip from his gun to inspect it. Only one round left. He slid the round out of the mag and stuck it in his pocket before slamming another mag into the pistol.
“Excuse me? Human?”
Eli stood there, frozen stiff. Was Rainbow Dash actually... talking to him?
“Hey, you!”
He spun around to face the cyan pegasus, who was looking at him with curious eyes. Her magenta eyes moved up and down as they examined his body, leaving him immobile for some odd reason, like her stare was pinning him down. Kinda like Fluttershy.
“Who are you?” she asked, hoof on her sword's hilt.
Best not to get on her bad side. “I'm Eli, USA Marine, Lieutenant, second in command.”
Fortunately, it seemed like Rainbow knew what his rank meant. “Lieutenant, huh? Okay, so we share ranks.” She pointed a hoof at him. “Two questions. One, why the hell are you real?”
Eli was a bit taken aback by this. “Uh... what? We've always been real, just on a different world.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “A different world? Okay, you're crazy. You can't travel from one world to another.”
“Actually...”
“Two! Why should I trust you? For all I know, you could be just as bad as the griffons!”
“Wait...”
“So I'll just have to escort you back to Ponyville under close supervision. You guys are supposed to be crazy.”
Eli waited until he thought the mare was done. “Okay, first, I'm not crazy, I'm completely sane with no intentions of harming you.”
Rainbow Dash stuck her face right in front of Eli's “How do I know that?”
Eli backed up. For some reason, seeing Rainbow Dash with a sword was kinda scary. “Second, I have a question to ask you. What's going on here? I thought Equestria was peaceful!”
Now it was Rainbow's turn to step back, or fly back. “What? How do you know anything about Equestria if you're not from here?”
“Uh... it's a...”
She flew behind him and pushed him forward. “No time, follow me. You'll explain back at base. The Everfree is a deadly place.”
With that, they were off. Eli suddenly remembered. “Hey, uh... should we go back to my... base, to collect supplies? And my friends?”
Rainbow Dash stopped and Eli almost ran into her, but then she resumed her pace. “Nah, my friends can deal with whatever is going on over there. They'll be escorted back to base.”
Eli shook his head. The only other one on his team that even knew of Equestria was Ashly, and even then, she didn't know to much. The chances of the whole team going along with creatures they had never seen was highly unlikely. He didn’t voice his worry, instead uttering only a simple “Okay.”
Rainbow Dash stopped yet again and turned around. “Okay, look.”
Eli didn't like the sound of that.
“I don't know who your are, nor why you exist, but all that matters is you are here. I saw how you killed that timberwolf without moving much. You could be a valuable asset to our cause. So I'll try and trust you. There something about you, my gut tells me you're alright, and I always go with my gut.”
She pushed him a little bit with her hoof. “But don't expect to get treated special or nothing, got it?”
He nodded his head. “Good.” She turned and flew away. “Nice to meet you.... Eli USA Marine, was it?”
He followed her. “Uh, no, just Eli. The USA Marines are the army I'm a part of.”
Rainbow looked back to face him while still flying forward. “An army? Your from an Army? That is so cool! This is even better than I thought!”
Eli was left to wonder at what the hell was going on while they made their way through the forest. Then they stumbled across something that made Eli smile and Rainbow Dash gawk.