Prologue: A Battle in the Sky
The clashing of metal sounded through the streets of Manehatten, ringing through Aero’s ears. He looked up, griffons swooped through the sky above the city. Pegasi began lifting off to pursue the enemy. Guards engaged the invading army, fighting with whatever weapons they had. The few unicorns powerful enough for battle spells shot beams of magic into the night sky, lighting the entire city.
“Aero!” A shout came from above. “A little help would be nice!” Aero tracked the voice to see a guard being chased by two griffons. Aero grabbed a spear from the wall and launched himself into the air.
“Incoming on your seven!” he shouted, throwing the spear at the nearest griffon. The spear pierced the griffon’s wing, sending him crashing into the other. The two griffons screamed and clawed at the air, tearing each other apart as they fell. The two guards slowed, allowing themselves a chance to breathe.
“Thanks, Aero, “the pegasus said. “That was a clo-” he was interrupted as another griffon slammed into his side. Aero looked behind him and saw five more griffons diving towards him.
“Damn,” Aero swore, diving towards the ground. He tucked his wings to his side, focusing on a small opening in the side of a building. His mane and tail streaked behind him, the air tearing at every part of his body. He shot through the hole. spreading his wings as he passed the jagged edges.
Aero flared, bringing his speed down to maneuver the tight corridors of the building. Risking a glance over his shoulder, Aero noticed that the griffons had stopped in front of the hole. The four of them glared at him like a pack of wolves would glance at a rabbit in its burrow. 'Wait a second, weren’t there five of them?' Aero thought to himself. CRASH! Something slammed through a nearby window and into Aero’s side.
The griffon screeched a battle cry as he grabbed Aero. They flew through the hallway, exchanging blows to the face. They slammed into the ground, a tangle of feathers and fur. The griffon swiped at Aero’s face, bloody gashes appearing behind his claws. “It’s on beaky!” Aero pulled his legs under the griffon and bucked hard. The griffon let out a screech of pain accompanying the cracking of bone. Ha! That should keep him down!
The griffon glared at Aero with all the fury of Tartarus. “And I was considering killing you quickly,” he hissed. The griffon stood, clearly fighting through extreme pain. Flapping his wings, the griffon hurled himself forward.
Aero fled in shock, his adversary clearly had nothing to lose. Extending a hoof he flew through a nearby window. “You want a chase? You get a chase,” Aero muttered under his breath. Now in the open, he was once again a target for the flock of griffons that had been chasing him before. Several screeches confirmed his suspicions.
The city of Manehatten raged with the cries of war. Civilians screamed and ran through the streets, some carrying their children or the precious few belongings they could grab. Plumes of smoke rose from several buildings. War cries of ponies and griffons alike echoed through the streets accompanied by the screaming sirens of emergency crews and fire alarms. The signs of defeat were everywhere; the guard was outnumbered, many fought without weapons while others lay on the ground, bleeding or dead.
Aero flew through the streets of the city desperately trying to escape the griffon flock behind him. Blood dripped from the slashes in his face, running down his neck before flying away in the wind. He risked another glance back. The griffons had stopped following him and seemed focused on something else. Looking around, Aero noticed that most of the fighting had stopped; everyone was looking to the west. Wiping blood out of his eyes, Aero followed their gaze. An army of ponies could be seen marching through the outer city. A pink shield surrounded the army, vaporizing any weapons and armor that passed through.
A screech reminded Aero of his nemesis. He put on a burst of speed trying desperately to reach the shield before he was caught. Red began to fill his vision as blood continued to pour into his eyes. His mind swam with confusion as blood loss started taking its toll. Blinking his drowziness away, Aero put on one final burst of speed. The shield slowed his flight, acting like a jelly of sorts. The magic pulled on him, dissolving any metal he had. Now rid of his armor, Aero picked up more speed.
As he neared the center of the shield he saw its source, the captain of the guard himself, Shining Armor. Aero glanced behind him one final time; his pursuer had changed his target, now targeting the captain himself. “Captain Armor! Get down!” Aero shouted. Shining Armor looked up and quickly ducked, just as a killing blow from a talon swiped where his head had once been.
Aero landed weakly next to the Captain, confident that the fresh soldiers would chase the griffon off. “Thank Celestia you’re here, we’re down to the last pony.” Aero continued to blink blood out of his vision.
“What’s you name?” Shining Armor asked, a deep look of concern spreading across his face.
“Master Sergeant Aero Blade sir,” he responded.
“Sergeant, you’re relieved. I can’t let you risk going back out there again.” Shining Armor looked around before continuing. “You’ve done your part, go to the medics and get patched up.”
“But, sir. I can’t le-”
“You need to see a medic, that’s an order.” Shining trotted forwards. “I need a medic over here! Quickly!”
Aero let himself relax, his injuries catching up to him. A white pegasus stallion with a red and yellow mane over to him, followed shortly by a blue unicorn mare. Both had medical crosses as their cutie marks.
“Caring, I need some disinfectant,” the white pegasus said.
“Way ahead of you, Falling.” Caring floated a large medical kit over and pulled out a bottle. Aero collapsed, far too tired to continue standing. Sleep sounded like a nice idea.
“Stay with me, Aero. Come on, focus,” Falling said, his voice fading away as the world faded to black. “Aero, you need to stay awake.”
Aero gasped and bolted out of his cot, panting for breath. His head throbbed in pain, lights flashing in front of his eyes. He flopped back down and took in his surroundings; he was in a medical tent. The white curtains in front of him parted revealing Falling, the medic from earlier. “Good, you’re awake,” he said. “I had Caring Hoof do a healing spell on those cuts. I’d be careful for the next few weeks, you lost a lot of blood.”
‘How long was I out for? Did we win?’ Aero pondered to himself. ‘Is my family safe?’ Aero looked up at the medic, ready to ask him.
“You were only out for a couple of hours, the last few griffons are being chased out of the city as we speak, and yes those will scar. At least you’ll have a great story to tell about how you got them,” Falling said without hesitation.
“How did you..” Aero started, mouth wide open.
“I’m a medic, I get asked these things a lot,” he chuckled. “I take it those answered your questions.”
“Almost,” Aero said. “I was going to ask if my family was alright.”
“I’m not sure, but all your vitals are normal.” Falling walked over to the side of the cot. “You could go see for yourself.”
Aero smiled. “That sounds great,” he said, getting to his hooves. He felt a bit sluggish and light headed but otherwise fine. “One question before I go.”
“Of course.” Falling put a hoof on Aero’s shoulder.
“Falling what?”
Falling laughed. “That’s not what I was expecting. It’s Falling Star.” He continued chuckling for a moment. “Walk, don’t fly for a couple days and drink plenty of fluids, ok?”
“Falling Star, I like that. I hope to see you around a bit more.” Aero walked out of the tarped off area where he had been sleeping, eager to see his family again.
It had been a long and slow walk but Aero had finally reached his street. The signs of battle were still present, but his neighborhood had been left mostly untouched. This discovery allowed Aero to calm down and enjoy his walk a little more. Maybe he should have asked for a mirror so he could see his cuts. He had never been very self conscious about his looks but the mere thought of scars on his face made him wonder what they looked like.
Stopping by the window of a nearby shop, he managed to catch a look at his reflection. His steel-blue fur was parted to show three thin gashes that stretched from his forehead to below his ear. A fourth smaller cut had removed a small triangle of his ear. Aero gazed at his face before shifting his focus to his eyes. The same look of determination showed in their amber depths but something had changed, now a look of battle weariness hung at the edges of his eyes.
Aero nodded to himself before continuing home. A shadow passed overhead. “Above you!” a cry sounded. Before Aero could react a familiar force slammed him face first into the ground.
“You,” a voice hissed. Aero’s eyes went wide. This was the same voice that had threatened to kill him earlier. “One thing you must know is that I never back down from a promise to kill.”
Aero struggled to get up but was stopped by something sharp stabbing into the back of his neck. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The griffon slammed his weight down onto one of Aero’s wings. A loud snap was heard accompanied by Aero’s cry of pain. “It’s a pity, you would have been more fun to kill in battle. I guess this will have to do.”
The griffon dug his talons into Aero’s flesh eliciting another cry of pain. Grinning, the griffon took to the sky, hauling Aero with him. Lights began to flash in his vision again as his body screamed in pain, threatening to shut down from blood loss. After several seconds of climbing the griffon released the payload.
Aero tumbled from the sky, clinging onto the edges of consciousness. “No!” a cry of anguish sounded from below. Aero slammed headfirst into the ground; ‘I’ve failed you,’ Aero thought before the cracking of his neck silenced his thoughts forever.