Iron Wings

by Select Few

Big Damn Heroes

Time: 1:01 A.M., 06/30/4 PHA
Location: The Lair of the Nightmare Queen.

“Ich hoffe wirklich, das heißt, was ich denke, dass es bedeutet.”

Out of the flaming remains of the ship stepped six mares, all but one wearing a bright gold necklace that contained a gemstone replica of their cutie marks. The sixth mare had a crown on her head, with a massive gemstone replica of her mark at the top.

Franz didn’t recognize five of them, but he knew the one in the crown right off. “Kleine Prinzessin! So… nice of you to…d-drop by.” Hearing his voice, the six mares turned to look in his direction. When they saw the sorry state he was in, they visibly cringed. One of them, a yellow pegasus, looked ready to faint.

The Queen seemed to recognize them easily enough, however. She tightened her magical grip on the griffin’s neck and glared pure hatred at them. “How did you get here?!”

“Das wäre mein Tun sein.” Franz said, trying feebly to claw at the Queen, but she remained just out of range. “I programmed the ship to fly to Ponyville, wait thirty minutes, then return back to this schmutzige Grube.” The Queen turned back to face Franz, bringing her death glare with her. “You… You knew. How could you possibly have known? Did you plan for your own demise?”

“Nicht ganz.” Franz squirmed a little under her magical grasp, but was unable to escape the Queen’s powerful hold. The pain involved in trying made him decide to not do that again.

Twilight gathered the girls around her, forming a semi-circle around the Queen and Franz. “Let him go, Nightmare! You’ve lost!”

“Lost?! LOST?!” The Queen let out a laugh somehow far more insane than any of her previous ones. “You fools, I’ve got you right where I want you! As soon as I dispose of this little bird, I’ll destroy all of you as well!”

Franz coughed, but an intentional one designed to get the Queen’s attention.

“If you’re going to kill me, Albtraum Königin, could you at least execute me like a griffin?”

“And what idiotic way is that?” The Queen asked, Looking at Franz but keeping an eye on the ponies as well.

“A simple matter, r-really…” He said, really starting to feel his injuries. “Grab me b-by…the wings and…” He took a sharp inhale. The longer he was held vertically, the more his broken pieces tried to shift to his bottom. “…and take a l-long, sharp dagger. Use the d-dagger to stab me, right in the heart. That… is the t-traditional grif-griffin execution.”

The Queen thought it over. “Well, it is slower than the death I had in mind. Very well, I’ll grant your wish.” She released her grip on his neck and instead pinned his wings to the wall.

A sudden explosion behind them made everyone turn their heads. It was the armory collapsing, and all was soon quiet again.

“Well, on to business. Any last words, Franz?” The Queen said, looking directly at Twilight when she said that. “Just four.”

“And what would those be?” She turned to face him.

Only instead of being pinned to the wall, he was right in her face, holding the broken Hilfsmittel in his hands.

“Du bist ein Idiot.”

He slammed the Hilfsmittel over the Queens horn and, with a quick application of duct tape, fixed the problem of not having a working lock.

“What is this?! What have you done?! No!” Something was happening to the Queen. Very slowly, but speeding up quickly, the dark purple was receding into the device, leaving only a sickly green in its place. Within a few seconds, every trace of the purple was gone.

The green insectoid mare was struggling to remove the Hilfsmittel, but it wouldn’t come off. “No! Please! Come back! I need you!”

She tackled the wingless griffin and pinned him against the wall. “Bring her back! I need her, bring her back to me!”
Franz simply stared her in the face. “Do you really want to be with her again?”

“Yes! I would give anything, just please bring her back!”

“Anything, you say?”

The green mare was still trying to get the Hilfsmittel off of her horn. “Yes, anything!”

“Gut”

*BANG*

The green mare stopped struggling with the device on her horn, and instead felt the new hole in her stomach. It was still sizzling from the heat of the fire bolt, the last shot in the spellcaster. As the mare collapsed, so too did Franz. Right before she closed her eyes for the last time, she asked a simple question.

“Why?”

Franz looked at the ground, the weight of his wounds becoming too much to bear. “Because… if one of you… lived, then the other… might… return.”

The green mare hadn’t lived to hear the answer, though.

The assembled ponies were shocked at what they had just seen. They had thought that they were just coming to purge the Nightmare from another victim, not be witness to an execution.

“Kleine Prinzessin?” Franz asked weakly. Drawn from her stupor, Twilight approached the heavily injured griffin. “Yes,

Franz? What do you need? Just let me know, and I’ll get it.”

“I don’t suppose… you have a… Heilzauber… for this, ja?”

“I’m sorry, Franz, but I don’t think there is a Heilzauber strong enough for this.”

“Nein, Ich dachte nicht. Listen, Prinzessin… When they bury me, don’t…don’t let them put Oberst…Oberst Franz… on mein stein.”

“What would you rather have, Franz?”

Franz was quiet for a moment. “Put my t-true rank…on it. The one fr-from before this all… all started… Mark me as… Leutnant…Felix…Franz.”

“Alright, Leutnant. You have my word.”

“Danke… Prinzessin.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the other element bearers giving them some space.
After a while, Twilight asked the question they had all been wondering. “Franz, if you had a plan to beat the Queen by yourself, why did you want the Elements here?”

Franz just smiled for a little bit before answering. “Because… what would have… happened… if I failed?”

And with that last sentence, Leutnant Felix Franz, The top Infiltrator of the Draco-Griffin Alliance, the Mechanical Griffin, and a hero of the Alliance, passed away.

Author's Note:

Well, that's it. Show's over folks. I hope you had a fun time. Drive safe!

Oh. I keep forgetting that you can already see the Epilogue.