25
Equus
Mount Aris
3:14 p.m.
To say things could have gone from bad to worse for the Hippogriffs was an understatement.
Shortly after they had killed the first Chitauri Leviathan and went to work on the second one, three more spawned from the underbelly of the Chitauri Command Center, a plethora of Chitauri chariots and starships joining the fight. The battle in the skies raged on for nearly an hour afterwards, Hippogriffs filling the skies and colliding with the Chitauri air dominance.
Consisting of the Hippogriff army were Sky Beak, Stratus Skyranger, the Hippogriff Royal Guard, and several other citizens who answered the call to arms and chose to defend their home and their families. Queen Novo’s navy left the seas and took to the skies to join the fight in the air. Their fifteen ships soared through the sky, firing off their cannons towards the Leviathans and any Chitauri that tried to swarm them. General Seaspray led the charge on the lead ship, sword in claw, directing the cannons where to fire.
The Hippogriffs were outnumbered five to one. The Chitauri filled the sky like locusts, completely overpowering the Hippogriffs that broke away from formation. Dead bodies, both Hippogriff and Chitauri, fell every second, down to the awaiting ocean beneath them. While the Hippogriffs may have had a disadvantage in the air, where they truly held the backbone of their defense was in the ocean. The Chitauri that flew too low, that tried to sneak through the fight to attack Mount Aris, were instantly taken down by the seaponies.
They leapt out of the water like dolphins, spears in their fins and launching the pointed ends right for the Chitauri piloting the chariots. The Chitauri couldn’t fight back against them. They appeared too fast for them to react, then disappeared within the waves before they could retaliate. Any Chitauri that flew too low was gone. The majority stayed in the skies.
Where the Hippogriffs were quickly losing the fight.
Several seaponies abandoned the ocean once they saw the disadvantage, transforming into their Hippogriff forms to aid in the air. Even then, it helped little against the overwhelming odds. Sky Beak in particular found the fight to become more and more pointless as time went on. He latched himself onto a chariot, driving his sword into the alien that piloted it. The chariot fell down to the ocean, Sky Beak flying off and watching as its occupants were swarmed and killed by seaponies.
Wiping his brow, Sky Beak struggled to catch his breath. He hadn’t stopped fighting for almost an hour, and yet the battle was no closer to being won. No matter how many aliens he killed in defense of his people, there would always be more awaiting him. More that kept exiting the large warship that kept getting closer to Mount Aris. The miles between the two were dwindling. Soon enough, there wouldn’t be any power great enough to stop the aliens from destroying their home.
Their options were running out, as was the distance between the warship and the mountain. And to make matters even worse, he heard a terrible sound. Sky Beak looked back to the skies, back to the fight, to see a Leviathan roar and shake the very fabric of reality itself. Sky Beak felt his bones quiver from the power of its bellow. It flew directly over him, the Chitauri that latched onto its hide firing off several bolts of energy to the naval ships.
A single Hippogriff naval ship fired away at the Leviathan, but it did little to nothing without aid from the other ships. The Leviathan roared, dipping its fins downwards and striking the ship, severing it completely in half. A gargantuan explosion resulted from the impact, a shock wave so great that it knocked Sky Beak back several feet in the air. The Leviathan flew off unharmed. The naval ship fell to the ocean below, covered in flames. Sky Beak shuddered as he saw several Hippogriffs just the same, their smoldering bodies impacting the water.
A distress horn resounded from a second ship, prompting Sky Beak’s attention to the far left of the sky. He could only watch in horror as another Hippogriff ship was completely and utterly swarmed from all angles by chariots and starships, their blaster bolts tearing apart the hull of the ship. An explosion followed shortly, a bright orange and yellow infecting the air as the ship fell from the sky. The Hippogriffs that flew towards the ship to help it instantly retreated as the Chitauri turned their attention onto them, abandoning the ship they had destroyed.
That wasn’t the end of it. Sky Beak could even see a third ship to his right swarmed just the same. The chariots flew over it, several Chitauri leaping off and landing on the deck of the ship, slaughtering the Hippogriffs on board with their laser rifles. The flames consumed the entirety of it, the naval ship slowly falling from the sky and landing in the ocean. A massive explosion followed once it hit the water, seaponies fleeing but several caught in the blast.
And just like that, in the span of less than a minute, they had lost three of their fifteen ships.
And Sky Beak was utterly frozen. His shell-shocked eyes stared at nothing, the carnage of the battle appearing as just a blur in his vision. He could see as General Seaspray screeched out into the air, the naval ships quickly retreating from the fight lest they lose anymore. The Leviathans chased after them, the responding cannon fire doing nothing to their tough exteriors. More and more bodies dropped like rocks from the sky, blue blaster bolts firing over his head, the final cries from dying Hippogriffs assaulting his eardrums until nothing but a piercing ring was all that was left.
“Sky Beak!”
He shook his head, the ringing slowly fading away once he turned his attention to his fellow Hippogriff. She tried to catch her breath, hovering mere feet in front of him. Several others trailed behind her, holding bloody swords and spears but looking absolutely lost. Like they came to Sky Beak for answers to the madness.
“The warship is getting closer to Mount Aris! We have to stop them here and now! What do you suggest we do?!”
They came to the wrong Hippogriff.
Although he tried his best to hide it, Sky Beak appeared just as broken, terrified, lost, and confused on the situation and how to handle it. Their best form of retaliation, the Queen’s naval power, was retreating back to Mount Aris. Without it, the Chitauri decimated what remained of the Hippogriff army. More bodies of Hippogriffs fell than Chitauri, the numbers quickly dwindling the longer they waited for Sky Beak to come up with a plan, any plan, to stop the warship from reaching Hippogriffia.
But he had none. Not one.
The screams of his fellow Hippogriffs assaulted his eardrums for so long.
... Until the sound of thunder ceased those screams.
The Hippogriffs ahead of him lifted their eyes, their attention brought to the darkening sky behind Sky Beak. He joined them, watching as the sun was slowly blotted by an oncoming wave of storm clouds. The battle, despite the storm coming, kept raging on. But when a powerful horn cried out into the air, it caught even the attention of the invading Chitauri forces.
Heads turned around. The fighting ceased for a moment. All eyes stared into the dark clouds moving with such an unnatural precision towards the battle. And within that darkness, two glowing blue slits appeared, and an airship tore through the storm clouds and entered the light under the sun. Sky Beak, as well as everygriff around him, gasped in shock. They knew the airship. From its ominous appearance, its entrance, and the blue symbol on the face of it.
The same airship that belonged to the late Storm King, now back in the Hippogriffs’ home.
And as with the thunder that came from the exhaust of the airship, the terrible lightning followed suit, this time from the bridge of the airship. In a powerful and resounding crack that caused nearly every Hippogriff to cover their ears just at the sound of it, a bolt of lightning shot from the bridge of the airship, tore through the air with unrealistic speeds, and struck the heart of the battle.
The Hippogriffs shielded themselves from the lightning.
They felt only the electricity tingle their feathers, but no pain. Sky Beak and the Hippogriffs that remained stared in awe as the lightning broke apart in several web-like strings and hit only one thing: the Chitauri. Not a single Hippogriff was harmed. The Chitauri were.
They so were.
The lightning continued on for several seconds, the bolts shooting outwards and striking chariots and starships alike. Explosions and eruptions appeared at every second, dead Chitauri and burning ships falling down to the ocean. The lightning strikes filled the entire battle, leaving nothing but the Hippogriffs flying when it finally ended. The Hippogriffs that remained screeched out into the air, raising their swords and spears to the airship that flew past them.
Sky Beak slowly began to smile. He, too, alongside his Hippogriff brothers and sister, screeched into the air and raised his weapon.
And as for Tempest Shadow, she stood her ground at the bow of her airship. Her shattered horn began to crackle with electrified energy, the glare in her eyes and the ferocity on her face showing the pain and power she unleashed upon the second lightning spell.
Captain Celaeno ordered the airship’s direction accordingly, pointing her sword to the Chitauri Leviathan directly ahead of them. “Charge it from below, where its armor is weakest!”
Boyle the parrot saluted with his hook, directing the airship accordingly. Tempest had already fired her spell, the bolts of lightning shooting out from her horn and creating the brightest lightshow the pirates had ever seen. It created quite the spectacular amount of damage as well, the Leviathan’s underbelly erupting into a fury of fire, armor, and its own burning skin. The beast cried out one final time, the electricity circulating across its entire body until it eventually dropped from the sky. The airship flew out from under it just in time, the body of the Leviathan crashing into the waves.
Tempest yelled in pain, falling back onto the deck of the airship and clutching the area around her broken horn. Mullet and Lix Spittle came to her side, helping her back to her armor-plated hooves. They turned to their captain, who nodded and held out her sword.
“Approaching the second serpent! Fire the harpoon on my command!”
The remaining two Leviathans were far too preoccupied trying to chase down Queen Novo’s naval ships to pay any attention to the small airship approaching them from the side. By the time they realized its presence, it was already too late.
“Fire!” Captain Celaeno screamed, swiping down with her sword.
The front of the airship opened, firing a single harpoon that tore through the air and impaled the nearest Leviathan by its neck. The chain tightened, the harpoon latching on and refusing to let go. The Leviathan cried out in pain, breaking away from the chase and centering its widening jaw on the airship.
“Full throttle on the engines!”
Then, in an instant, the airship barreled upwards at speeds beyond what it flew at earlier. The increasing speed and power from the ship’s engines, followed by the weakening strength of the Leviathan, allowed the airship to pull it by its harpoon. The Leviathan was yanked backwards, the airship pulling over its head, then taking a dive towards the ocean.
Just before it could touch the waves, the airship pulled up, dragging the Leviathan into the ocean and killing it upon impact on the sea floor. The harpoon retracted soon afterwards, the airship taking to the skies once more.
And they weren’t alone anymore.
Watching the two Leviathans crumble from the air, General Seaspray ordered the naval ships to turn back. The remaining twelve made a dangerous 180, charging ahead to the final Leviathan that remained airborne. They circled the beast, firing their cannons in unison and bringing the beast down in a flurry of flame and dying screams. The Leviathan hit the ocean with an astounding explosion, its armor and body parts flying outwards.
Together, the Hippogriffs joined back in the fight alongside Tempest Shadow’s airship. A fresh wave of Chitauri chariots and starships exited the warship, charging towards the Hippogriffs and resuming the battle, now the disadvantage being on the Chitauri’s side.
“Who’s piloting that ship?!” a Hippogriff screamed, bringing Sky Beak out of his awe-stricken daze. He couldn’t even formulate any words. Thankfully, he didn’t have to.
“Reinforcements,” Stratus Skyranger answered, flying to join the small group of Hippogriffs that had swarmed around Sky Beak. “We’ll need to act now on the warship while they’re buying us time! Anygriff have any ideas?!”
A moment of silence filled the thirteen Hippogriffs, each of them looking to one another for answers, some turning to Sky Beak who had remained quiet the entire time. Sky Beak, unbeknownst to them, already had a plan cooking the moment he turned his attention back to the alien warship. He stared at the Chitauri warship, saw how low to the ocean it was. Probably less than a hundred yards above the water. Sky Beak gently caressed the piece of the Pearl of Transformation around his neck.
“The shard of the magic pearl can transform any Hippogriff into anything they desire, correct?” Sky Beak asked. Several Hippogriffs were taken aback by his strange request, turning to the Royal Guard member for an answer.
“According to our queen, yes,” Skyranger replied with a nod.
“I know what to do!” Sky Beak declared, gripping onto the pearl piece, a shimmer of light appearing in his clenched claw. “Follow my lead!”
He instantly dove downwards, down to the ocean below them. Although somewhat hesitant, the remaining Hippogriffs, including Skyranger and the Royal Guard that followed him, all dove down to the ocean and slipped through the waves. Although they could see several hundred dead bodies filling the ocean, their eyes widened when they saw what Sky Beak had transformed into.
And they followed him, every Hippogriff gripping their pearl piece.
Three more Leviathans, the last ones the Command Center had, were unleashed into the battle. The Hippogriffs engaged with the Chitauri, blaster bolts tearing through their golden armor and dead Hippogriffs falling from the sky. Queen Novo’s naval ships engaged with the Leviathans, the Chitauri swarming them, the Chitauri doing the same with Tempest’s airship.
Several Chitauri ground forces leapt from their chariots and landed on the deck of Tempest’s airship. They were instantly met with the fury and strength of the Storm Creatures, their blaster bolts doing nothing to their superior shields and armor. Tempest Shadow growled at the sight of the aliens on her deck. She fired another spell, one not as powerful as her previous, but nearly as deadly. The lightning struck each Chitauri, their dead bodies falling flat on the airship’s deck.
“Alien scum,” Tempest sneered, turning her eyes away from their smoldering corpses and staring out into the open skies, where the battle for Hippogriffia continued to rage.
Until…
Tempest heard it. She and every Storm Creature, pirate, Hippogriff, and Chitauri heard it even through the madness of warfare that consumed the air. Tempest rushed over to the side of her airship, peeking over and gazing wondrously to the ocean below. She paid no heed to the alien warship directly beneath her ship, now only a mile away from Mount Aris and closing fast.
Until…
… it was stopped.
Tempest’s jaw fell.
General Seaspray lowered his sword, his beak falling in shock.
Every Hippogriff looked to the ocean below them, below the Chitauri Command Center, and stared in awe as the towering tentacles rose from the water.
There were so many, too many to count. The tentacles were gargantuan in size, colored a dark brown as torrents of ocean water fell from their rising height. They surrounded the entire alien warship, and, all coming down at once, wrapped themselves around it. The Chitauri responded instantly, shrieking in horror and fleeing back to the warship, firing away at the tentacles. Even the Leviathan retreated from the fight in order to save the Command Center. But they, alongside the Chitauri that tried to flee, were taken down by Tempest Shadow’s airship, Novo’s navy, and the combined forces of the Hippogriff and seapony army.
Then, miraculously enough, the tentacles continued to pull down further and further until the Command Center—even with its massive strength and exterior—eventually gave in. The engines died out trying to stay airborne. The Chitauri Command Center collapsed and fell from the sky, the tentacles pulling it into the ocean.
Once the warship exploded with enough light and power to rival the sun itself, the tentacles vanished. Just… vanished… in a flash of white.
The rest followed shortly.
With the Command Center destroyed, the Chitauri still in the air instantly died. So quick. So painless. Their bodies, their chariots, their ships all plummeted to the ocean, where they met a murky demise within the darkness. The remaining Leviathans all died. All dropped. All fell into the ocean. Their corpses remained over the waters, just barely over the waves.
And with that, the Hippogriffs and seaponies emerged victorious.
Sky Beak, Stratus Skyranger, and the remaining Hippogriffs flew out from the sea, the pearls around their necks dimming down. They joined in on the victory, staring in awe at the carnage that remained.
Novo’s naval ships, the twelve that survived, returned to rest on the ocean’s face. The Hippogriff’s upon them screeched in joy, weapons held to the sky. Hippogriffs flew back and forth, screeching and cheering. The seaponies below leapt out of the water, cheering over their victory. The massive carcasses from the alien serpents remained sticking out of the ocean, all remaining chariots and starships sinking below. The remains of the warship were consumed by the ocean, only fires remaining where its husk lied.
“Dad!”
Instantly, Sky Beak was met with his two children, Terramar and Silverstream, the two in their Hippogriff forms as they flew up and tackled their father in a hug. He chuckled at that, returning the hug with an equally-powerful one. Lifting his gaze, he was met with the smiling and appreciative face of his wife, Ocean Flow, flying alongside her fellow Hippogriffs.
As he broke the hug with his children and embraced his wife, the Hippogriffs surrounding him cheered his name, holding their weapons in their air, all of them cheering for Sky Beak. He and his family hovered in silence, each of them smiling wider and wider.
“That was some quick thinking there, Sky Beak!” Skyranger announced, smacking Sky Beak on the back. “Transforming into krakens and bringing down their mother ship? Absolutely brilliant! You saved our hides back there!”
But Sky Beak wasn’t staring at his fellow Hippogriffs. He was far too focused on the airship that flew towards Mount Aris.
Still holding onto his family, knowing for certain they were safe and sound, Sky Beak said, “I wasn’t the only one.”
Queen Novo, along with her personal guard, stepped out onto the balcony of Hippogriffia Castle. Her daughter, Princess Skystar, was allowed to join her when they received word that the aliens were defeated. But Queen Novo’s wing was still extended downwards in a protective manner, still shielding her daughter once the late Storm King’s airship hovered towards their castle.
The guards readied their weapons, just in case anything might arise from it. Strangely enough, the airship did not attack. Instead, it paused just in front of the balcony, descending until the ramp met the balcony and the airship’s occupants met the gazes of the Hippogriff royalty. Skystar peeked out from her mother’s wing, a small gasp escaping her.
Standing on the bridge was Tempest Shadow, the Storm King’s leading commander and now leader of his remaining forces. Her expression held no humor, just deathly seriousness and urgency. Joining her was Captain Celaeno and her parrot pirate crew. Behind Tempest, her Storm Guard stood at the ready, weapons and shields gripped tightly in their paws. The Hippogriff Royal Guard growled at that, tightening the grips on their weapons. The Storm Guards, however, didn’t look ready for a fight. They looked like they just got out of one, and considering the aftermath Novo and her guards could see from the castle, they probably did.
And they probably helped them win.
Queen Novo held out her claw to her guards, who lowered their weapons upon their queen’s orders. Novo stood in silence after that, studying the expressions from the pirates, to Tempest’s adrenaline-filled eyes, and finally to her little companion. By Tempest’s side, the obese hedgehog smirked at the queen and her daughter, stepping forward.
“Oh, yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!” Grubber shouted, waving his pudgy little paws in the air. “We came in, we took care of business, and we saved Hippogriffia like total bosses! Kind of ironic that we pretty much destroyed this place last time we came here, but we saved it now! Boom!”
Both Novo and Tempest seemed to ignore that outburst, their attention focused forward, on each other. Taking the next step closer, Queen Novo cleared her throat, her somewhat distrustful eyes centered on Tempest and her forces.
“Well, well, well… what have we here?” Novo began. Skystar appeared right by her side, her mother’s wing stopping her from proceeding any further. Her wing couldn’t hide the smile, though, no matter how hard she tried. “Tempest Shadow. I prayed I would never see your face in Hippogriffia again, considering your last visit.”
Then, to everyone’s surprise, Tempest instantly fell to her face, bowing in respect to the Queen of the Hippogriffs and her daughter. The Storm Creatures did the same, lowering their heads and falling to one knee. Even the pirates followed, which surprised Novo the most considering they were, well, pirates. Grubber’s eyes darted back and forth, and then he finally decided to bow alongside Tempest. He was too late, Tempest already rising back to full height.
“Apologies, Your Majesty, but we have far greater threats to deal with.”
Her voice was filled with urgency, every drip of her tone telling Novo that they came seeking help. That they came to lower themselves in order to save the Hippogriffs and seek their aid. Whatever grudge they had, Novo knew she had to put it aside for now. Because the attack earlier, and the terror that slipped through Tempest’s voice, they all told Novo that there were indeed far greater threats to deal with.
And so, she nodded, stepping aside and extending her wing to them. “Let’s discuss this inside.”