//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: The Collapse // by Lightwavers //------------------------------// Seven griffons landed on the grass and began circling the purple dome of energy. Now that they weren’t moving from a distance, it was easier to make out specific details. Even though it was still night, Rainbow Dash could make out the more sharply-defined shoulders and—through gaps in their armor—the more gray scale feathers of male griffons. The griffon lands were an extremely strange place. They didn’t have princesses, or really any leaders that ruled for more than a few years at a time. How they fought was even stranger: for large-scale battles, groups of griffons would organize under a leader without much authority, like a mayor in a pony town, and do whatever that leader told them. And all those griffons would be male. It was probably because they wanted to showcase that even their weakest fighters could win battles, but Rainbow Dash still thought it was odd. For ponies, a stallion would never be seen in a position that would let them go through actual battles. At most, one of them would take a ceremonial position ‘guarding’ the princess, or very rarely take on a position as a mall cop at a big city. What all that meant, though, was that these griffons had come here not just to fight, but to kill, which meant Rainbow’s objective had just changed from winning a fight to protecting the civilians. Well, she had no magic, so a tornado or something similar was out of the question. That obviously meant the best way to protect the noncombatants was to engage the griffons in hoof-to-claw combat. It would also help the unicorns by being a distraction. Probably. One of the circling griffons near Rainbow Dash stumbled. It was just a tiny hitch in his stride, something that only two types of ponies would notice: negotiators, and skilled fighters. Rainbow Dash exploded out of hiding with a jump and a forceful flap of her wings, trailing mud behind her. It was time to stop moping and start doing something. She dove at the back of the griffon, time stretched around her, the almost-unnoticeable stumble slowing him down just enough that when she arrived, he hadn’t yet turned completely around. She leaped into the air, another flap of her wings generating almost no lift, but was still able to land on his back. Then everything happened very fast. A claw lashed out. Rainbow leaned away and brought a hoof up that collided with the back of the griffon’s head. It fell forward with a cry, bucking Rainbow into the air. She let herself get flung away and angled her body to provide the least wind resistance. The rest of the griffons were coming, so she needed to get away from the one she’d first attacked at soon as possible. She landed right beside the force field. A soft but intense humming filled the air. She looked left, right, up, and then rolled out of the path of a diving griffon. Seeing her move, he scrambled in the air and got himself into a respectable crash-landing position before reaching the ground and skidding across it before he could dig his talons in. But Rainbow Dash had already pounced. A precise bat of her wing and a coarse feather rubbed against his eye. A swift headbutt to the chin and he collapsed to the ground. Then it was only the work of two quick bucks to the head with her forehooves to ensure he wouldn’t be getting up again any time soon. The fight wasn’t over yet, though. She could see two more advancing toward her. These ones were guarding each other, not blundering at her like the last idiot. Their caution, along with their armor and the rifles that they were now training on her, having apparently decided that a lone pegasus actually was worthy of using up their precious ammo, was going to make this fight...interesting. Then a red-orange field surrounded her and she was dragged through the purple bubble with a plop. Then the professor who’d been levitating her let the field drop and she collapsed to the ground. The humming she’d only heard before had gone through her as she’d gone through the shield, making even her bones feel like they were vibrating. Rainbow Dash didn’t throw up—she never threw up—but it was a close call. “You idiot!” Great. It was that purple unicorn again. And she couldn’t even respond because some pony had dragged her through a shield that apparently tried to kill you even if the ponies that set it up took you through it. “That was awesome!” Well that was new. The little orange filly—Scootaloo, that was her name—that had followed her along with the rest of Ponyville’s now flightless pegasi had suddenly decided to speak up. And even though she’d only been able to fight two griffons, Rainbow Dash had to agree; she had been pretty awesome. And she hadn’t even fluffed up when she’d used her wing in her attack, which was definitely not part of any earth pony styles. “Thanks, kid,” she told the filly, who squealed and started jumping up and down, and then looked at the unicorn. “What? I could’ve taken the rest of them, easy. You guys should’ve been shooting laser beams and doing other unicorn stuff to help. Not that I needed it, but it would’ve been nice. Seven on one isn’t a sure thing when I don’t have my magic and they have armor and guns, even for me.” “You were going to die,” the unicorn said flatly. “Once you proved you were a threat, they all went for their weapons. I know what those things can do to an unarmored pony.” “Look purple guy, if you’re not going to help by blasting them or something, that’s fine, but you are not going to stop me from doing my job. I’m going back out there.” Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and galloped at the barrier. It thrummed, then grew brightly where she pushed against it and stretched a bit. She pushed as hard as she could, and then it flung her backward into the air. Normally a midair quick loop would’ve bled off all the kinetic energy, but she didn’t have her magic. She was going to kill the Everfree. So she streamlined her body and hit the ground at a shallow angle, then rolled to her feet. “It’s Twilight. And you’re welcome.” “For what?” “Oh, I don’t know, maybe saving your life. See all these unicorns?” Twilight said, waving a hoof around at the ponies around her. “They collectively wasted a lot of their energy to get your sorry flank in here. I was able to convince the professors to bring you in, but the shield can only last about half as long as before. Then it runs out of energy.” “What about you? You don’t look tired,” Rainbow pointed out. “That’s because I can’t use any spells until I can meditate. Neither can Rarity or Lyra. The Everfree came at one of the worst possible times...” “Well, that’s great and all,” Rainbow said, digging a hoof into the ground, “but what are we going to do? Wait here until the shield breaks and we all die?” she finished, then raised the hoof and drove it back down. It made a squish instead of the solid thump it should have. “No. We’re going to plan. And we have unicorn magic, while the griffons will have, at most, a few basic runes. We shouldn’t have to worry about posting a watch because if the griffons had any shield breakers with them they probably would’ve used them, but the professors will probably post one anyway just in case.” “Right. Well while you guys are working on that planning stuff, I’ll be...sleeping.” Then Rainbow Dash looked at the ground. While mud was unpleasant, at least it turned warm after lying on it for a while. With the night just going on and on, the mud had eventually congealed into a part-stone, part-mud substance that was all-cold. It was just about the worst thing Rainbow had ever had the misfortune to have to hide under. Sleeping on it would be so much worse. “But Fluttershy will be there. And your other friends from Ponyville. I think Rarity actually likes talking to you for some reason.” “On second thought, I’ll go help plan. I’m awesome at planning.” “Really?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “That’s so cool! Let me try,” Rainbow Dash said, bringing up a hoof to her forehead. “Uh, I mean, yeah. You’re looking at the captain of Ponyville’s weatherworking team. I plan the schedule every year!” Unfortunately, Thunderlane happened to overhear. “With a lot of help. And even then, we just recently had to schedule a storm could be called a monsoon with no loss in meaning because you missed three storms in a row.” “Yeah, I remember. That storm was some of my best work,” Rainbow Dash said with a smile. “I was trying to make a point about how—” “You can bicker all you want later. It’s meeting time. Let’s go!” Twilight said.