Iron Wings

by Select Few

Left Behind

Time: 4:03 P.M., 06/29/4 PHA
Location: The Lair of the Nightmare Queen (Formerly the AAFCHQ)

“Erinnere dich an mich zärtlich, Kleine Prinzessin.”

Franz’s plan was simple: Distract the Queen long enough for Twilight to get away, then survive long enough for her to return. That was what, eight hours? He was sure that he could do it, if he could avoid getting hit.

Unfortunately, while Franz was thinking this, The Queen zipped past him and went after the ship.

“Oh, no you don’t.” He thought, trying to think of a way to get her attention. Looking around, he didn’t seem much except for rubble and rocks. “Verdammt! Nothing useful! Nothing around except for…” If this were a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared above Franz’s head. “If this works, I’ll eat my dress hat.”

He flew as close as he could to the Queen and, with the grace and style of a rabid wombat, threw a pebble at her head.
*Poing*

Immediately, the Queen turned her attention from the ship and onto Franz. She slowly flew towards him and, hovering right in front of him, said “Do you have any idea of what you have just done?”

Not missing a beat, he looker her in the eyes and said “Es könnte nicht schlimmer sein als diese.” Rearing back, he slammed an electric talon-guard covered fist into the Queens face.

She barely flinched.

“My turn.” She hit him with a quick stunning spell and sped off. When he recovered and didn’t see her, he thought that maybe he had hurt her after all, and she had run off to hide.

That is, until he heard a high-pitched whine coming from above and getting closer. He looked up and saw the Queen heading right for him, the cone of air resistance bending before her to show that she had almost reached hypersonic speeds. He only had enough time to think one thing before she slammed into him: “Das wird zu saugen.”

*Boom*

The force of the impact, coupled with the fact that she reached went supersonic just before hitting him, caused Franz to break through four walls before stopping on the fifth. Slamming into it, he slid down the wall and onto a twisted pile of metal. Shaking his head, he got up and looked around for the Queen.

He crawled through the rubble, being careful to not dislodge any pieces that were keeping the structure up. “I’m already fighting a Dämon, I don’t need to have a gebäude fall on me as well.” He eventually made it out of the failing facility and into the crater left from his initial attack. Virtually nothing was left of the original building. In fact, all that remained were the chains that Twilight had worn earlier and everything that was underneath them. “If only these ketten had some locks, ja? We could use them on the Queen.” Taking the lull in the fighting as a chance to rest, Franz moved the chains and looked at what was underneath.

There was a common rumor among the Alliance that the Equestrians worshiped their princesses as goddesses. Franz didn’t know if that was true or not, but he felt that someone was smiling down on him right then. For buried under the chains, protected from the brunt of the explosion was the Hilfsmittel that Twilight had worn earlier. “If this works, I’ll take back every bad remark I’ve ever made about the Sonnengöttin.” He tested the activation sequence. “Come on… Come on… Ja! Sonnengöttin gelobt werden!” He deactivated the Hilfsmittel and put it on his arm for safe keeping.

And it promptly fell off. The locking mechanism had been damaged in the explosion.

Franz’s thought processes cannot be displayed in its entirety due to Equestrian Censorship Law, Section 5, Sub-section 38, but here is a small bit of what went through the poor griffin’s head:

“…stupid son of a Eidechsenliebhaber, Cow-kissing motherless Hund Gehirn…”

After calming down (and revoking his praise of Celestia), Franz rigged the Hilfsmittel to attach to his left wing for now. Franz then went scavenging for anything else that he could use in his next encounter with the Queen. Sadly, most items that might prove handy were destroyed in the explosion or the fighting, but he had been able to find a functioning mechanical spellcaster in the remains of the armory. It shot fire bolts, and had about six charges on the gem. “Besser als nichts, nehme ich an.”

Franz had also been able to find some armor, though every piece had been damaged in some way. He was able to mix and match the pieces into a semi-full set, and put it on. He ditched it five minutes later when he discovered that it slowed him down far more than he’d like. A single mistimed dodge, or a single misstep, and he’d be done for.

Finally, he headed to the remains of the supply room to see what he could find. He would be here for a while, so he might as well get comfortable.

• • • – – – • • •

Five hours later, and the two combatants had finally met up again.

The sun had already set, and the moon was about a quarter of the way through its nightly sojourn across the sky. They had met in a mostly untouched part of the compound. Here the buildings still stood, though the glass windows had been shattered by the sonic booms of the Nightmare Queen. Franz had been lighting fires atop the buildings here using flares he had found in the supply room, whether as a taunt or challenge, no one really knows. We do know that she accepted it, though, and met him in the middle of the undamaged section.

This was to be more than a battle of survival, this was to be a show of skill against power, of agility against strength. This was no mere battlefield; it was an arena. They squared up against each other, each trying to decide what angle of attack would work best against their opponent. When each side was sure they had a winning tactic, they slowly walked up to each other. Face to face with each other, the two combatants that would soon be locked in a battle to the death shared some pre-battle banter.

“You can still join me, Franz.” The Queen said, her voice taking on a silky tone not at all like the one she had while threatening to murder him and Twilight earlier. “Think about it: I made you Oberst. Imagine what else I could do?”

“I’ve been Oberst, what, three days now? And I have yet to see any benefit to it.” Franz replied, his voice a little strained from the events of the day. While he was tired, she seemed to have endless energy. “If the rest of your “gifts” are the same, I think I’m better off without.”

“Are you sure?” She slid up beside him. “Oberfähnrich Duerr seemed to enjoy his promotion to General. Oh, he acted tough on the outside, but inside he was still a child. He would never have made about Leutnant if we hadn’t made him an offer, one that he was glad to take up.”

“Duerr war ein Narr, Ihr Angebot anzunehmen.” Franz moved away from the Queen. “Tell me, where is he now, Falsche Königin?”

The Queen seemed to think about this for a moment. “Well, let’s see here… The last time I saw him, he was slipping out of those chains you tried to trap us with. After that was-“

“Save it, Falsche Königin.” Franz jumped away from her. “I know exactly where he is.”

The Nightmare Queen giggled lightly. That sound still unnerved Franz, but he didn’t let it show. “And where would that be, Kleiner Vogel?”

“We’re breathing him right now.”

The pair stood in silence for a few moments more. After just standing there looking at each other, the two entered into an awkward silence.

“What I don’t understand,” Franz was the first to break the silence, “is what you stand to gain from all of this. You manipulate das militär, send me on a schatzsuche for artifacts that you don’t even want, all for the sake of ein pony?”

“What do I stand to gain?” She laughed, laughed at the question. After a few moments, she composed herself and answered, “Why, I stand to gain the world.

“When both my halves were separate, their defeat was linked to the ‘Princess,’” she spat the word like it was poison, “directly in the case of Nightmare Moon, and by proxy in the case of Chrysalis. Had she not sought out the Elements, then every hour would be as beautiful as this one.” The Queen gestured towards the sky. “And even after that, that pony, that Princess, that INTERLOPER Sparkle managed to thwart yet another brilliant plan! Had she not been so overly protective of her brother, had she stayed in the caves where she BELONGS, or had she not freed that pathetic Cadence, then we wouldn’t be standing here today!” She slammed her hooves back down at the last word, making small craters where they landed and causing cracks to spiderweb across the ground.

“So this is all a revenge thing?” Franz said, crossing his arms. “You’re doing all of this, just because of a grudge?”

“IT IS MORE THAN A GRUDGE!” The Queen yelled, almost knocking over the griffin and shattering any glass that had dared to stay intact. She breathed heavily for a moment, before standing back upright and regaining an air of dignity. “How about that. You’ve managed to make me mad. Congratulations, you’ve managed your only victory this night.”

“Does that mean that you’re finally ready to fight?” Franz asked, slightly shifting his standing position.

“I guess it does. May the most deserving mare win.” The Queen primed a spell, but before she could fire it off Franz had bashed her horn with an electric talon-guard. She jumped backwards to fire off a different spell, but her horn only fizzled when she tried to channel it.

“So you managed to jam my magic for the time being.” She anchored her hooves into the ground. “Too bad that won’t save you.” She opened her mouth and shrieked. Her sonic assault caught Franz off guard and forced him to cover his ears. While he was stunned, the Queen charged at him. Only a last second roll spared him direct impalement, though her horn did manage to cut a shallow line along his flanks.

“Agh! Sie haben etwas Neues gelernt, wie es scheint! Have any more surprises?”

The Queen crouched down low. “You have no idea.” She suddenly flew high, high into the air. Once she was about 6km about the compound, she let out an unearthly howl.

That alone was enough to disturb Franz, but the fact that several howls responded cemented his decision to take the fight to the air. As he took off, he noticed several hundred of what looked like wooden dogs rushing into the ruins. Within moments, they filled the road beneath the Queen. “You wanted to see some of my new tricks? Here they are.”

“And just what are they?” Franz flew towards the Queen, intending make the fight close and personal. She flew up at the last moment, and only a quick dive to the left saved Franz from a devastating kick to the face.

“You like them? I call them puppets. They’re technically Timberwolves, who would hardly follow just anyone. That’s why I infected them with small pieces of me.” She flew down and started petting one on the head. “Aren’t they simply adorable?”

Franz was trying to figure out a viable strategy against them, so he decided to humor her. “Not really, they look like forest litter.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” She said. She lifted her hoof above the wolf she was petting and brought it down in a devastating smash, shattering the wolf into pieces. “Still, you can’t complain about complete devotion.”

Franz had come up with a plan that he was willing to try. “You know what I call them?”

The Queen was still sitting amongst the wolves, with as many crowding around her as possible. Not even the death of their brethren by her hand was enough to shake their loyalty to her. “Oh, do tell. I’m dying to know.” She said in a mocking tone.

“Timber.”

“You felt the need to tell me that you call the timberwolves ‘Timberwolf’?”

“Nein, just ‘Timber.’” And with that, Franz pulled out the mechanical spellcaster and fired a bolt at the wolf closest to the Queen. At it went up in flames, it ran around the mass of wolves setting even more alight. Soon the Queen was forced to fly back into the air, as every wolf that had answered her call burned to ashes. She snarled at Franz. “You’ll pay for that!”

“Ich werde für eine Menge Dinge zu bezahlen, wie es scheint.” He fired a bolt at the Queen, which she predictably dodged. Franz had anticipated this, and had flown in the direction she was mostly likely to dodge. His guess was correct, and he slammed a fist into her gut. She barely noticed, however, and he had to dodge back to avoid her counterattack. She fired a spell at him, her horn apparently working again, which he just barely managed to avoid.

And so they fought on through the night. Franz was agile enough to avoid most of the Queen’s attacks, but she as strong enough to barely notice when he got a strike in. Any strike that the Queen managed to land were devastating on Franz, who had to hide inside buildings and beneath walls to recover from them. After a few hours, they were both run ragged. The Queen had used a lot of her magical reserves, and Franz was pretty sure that he had internal bleeding.

Franz’s luck ran out, though, when the Queen parried one of his attacks and rammed him into the ground over and over again. The first time, he might would have been able to have brushed off the attack. The second time, he felt his beak crack. The third time, he was pretty sure he broke some ribs. And the final time, he wasn’t sure that spines were supposed to bend like that.

“Well, it seems that our little battle is almost over!” gloated the Queen, standing over the broken body of Franz. “Have anything to say, little bird?”

“Ich könnte ernsthaft verwenden ... ein Wunder, jetzt ...”

Suddenly, Franz saw something shiny above the Queen’s shoulder.

“Is that my miracle?”

It was. The object sped directly into the Queen’s head, briefly stunning her. It bounced off of her head, hit the ground, bounced again, and rolled to right in front of Franz.

It was a roll of duct tape.

“Danke basierte Gott”

Franz quickly grabbed the tape and hid it beneath his feathers. When the Queen regained her faculties, she was unsure of what had hit her.

“Your pathebabalala…” She shook her head to clear it. “Your pathetic tricks can’t save you now. You’ve lost, and I live.”

Franz began to make a coughing sound, and at first the Queen thought him to be choking on his own blood. Then she realized it was something far worse.

Franz was laughing. At her.

“What is the meaning of this?! Why are you laughing?! You lose!”

Franz struggled to stand. He wiped away the blood that had collected out of his mouth.

“Oh, oh, Verzeih mir. It’s just that-“ He was interrupted by a coughing fit. Yeah, definitely some internal bleeding. “..I was never trying… to kill you.”

“What?!” She grabbed the dying griffin and slammed him against a wall. “Then what was the point of all this?! Why expose yourself instead of hiding as long as you could?!”

“What was…the point?” Franz gasped out. He took a deep breath, looked the Queen in the eyes and said “Um Sie abzulenken.”

It was at that moment that Franz’s ship flew right past them and directly into a building.

Author's Note:

This was probably my favourite chapter to write. That might have been because I had been awake for about 30 hours by this point and just threw in whatever I wanted.