Utilizing all of his heightened senses, Spike swung his claws in multiple directions as he hovered mid-air, slashing any griffons that dared to approach him. The force of his flapping wings alone sent other attackers tumbling like ninepins.
“I didn’t think there would be so many on this side!” Celestia shouted at Spike from behind him. Wielding a long, golden staff in her aura, she spun herself in a horizontal circle and knocked out four griffons at once. “Luna must have it easy over there!”
“I wouldn’t assume that!” Spike cried back, still slashing as he slammed one griffon with his wing, which caused it to rocket a half-mile into the distance. “Like she said, it’s more difficult to maneuver through the city! It may be harder to catch them than she anticipated!”
Bucking another griffon down to the ground with her hind legs, Celestia spun her staff in front of her like a fan, blocking sword thrusts from three more before tilting the staff and smacking their faces repeatedly. “Good point!” As a fourth griffon dove at her holding a shield and a sword above his head, she caught the shield in her aura and lowered it before slamming the end of her staff right between his eyes. “How are you doing back there?! Are you certain you don’t regret not having a weapon of your own?!”
Spike smirked. “I think these claws are more than enough!” he shouted, slamming another griffon down to the ground with his open palm.
Ж
Cotton let out a breath as she continued kneading her dough. “Wow. I didn’t know Auntie Tia was such a good fighter.”
Nodding, Discord said, “Yes, quite. I experienced it first-hand over a millennium ago.”
Cotton lifted a brow. “What’s a hand?”
“Don’t worry about it,” Discord chuckled. Letting go of the remote, it hovered in mid-air, exactly the way bricks don’t. He floated around the room, peering through the glass of each oven and licking his lips repeatedly.
“Don’t even think about it, Unc.”
Discord pouted. “You’re like your father with those heightened senses.”
“No, just the one,” Cotton giggled. “Aunt Pinkie has her Pinkie Sense. I have Cookie Sense.”
“Given you know her trick with her mane, I could actually believe that,” Discord deadpanned at her.
Cotton laughed. “Nah, not that hard to figure out. You put down the remote and went silent.”
Chuckling, Discord simply responded, “Clever.”
“I try.” Looking back up at the screen, Cotton let out a relieved sigh. “Okay, looks like my dad and Auntie Tia are doing fine. Any chance you could show me Aunt Luna?”
Discord smiled as he crossed his arms. “I don’t think you need to worry about her…” He hit a few buttons on the remote, and there was another moment of static on the screen. “…but I believe she’s on NBC.”
Ж
“Have at thee!” Luna cried, jabbing an opponent in the chest with the tip of her lance before pulling it out and smacking another griffon in the head with its side; both plummeted to the ground. “None shall pass!” Guarding the front gate from above, she called down below her, “We thank ye for thine assistance, gentlecolts! Celestia was quite wise assigning ye to these posts!”
Stabbing multiple griffons with their spears to disarm them, Mortar and Howitzer shouted back in unison, “Thank you, Your Highness!” They then proceeded to take the dropped weapons in their auras and use them against their original owners.
Nearby the front gates, numerous noctii stood fighting off yet more raiders, wielding a variety of daggers and knives. As Luna predicted, they maneuvered around their opponents with swan-like grace, their worst injuries minor grazes from the griffons’ swords or bruises from thrusted shields.
Luna grinned as she witnessed her soldiers’ individual battles out of the corners of her eyes. “We indeed have the upper hoof here. We can only hope the same can be said for Spike and Tia.”
Ж
“Wow, you weren’t kidding, Unc. Aunt Luna’s ruthless.”
Discord shook his head. “Luna has far less of the restraint Celestia tries to adhere to. Yes, she’s kind, caring, and doesn’t use violence unless absolutely necessary—now—but if there is any risk of danger to those she cares about, she doesn’t hold back.”
Cotton nodded. “Yeah, I can see that. Good to see that Mortar and Howitzer are holding their own, too, but geez, look at all the noctii out there. I can barely see—wait! Tacca! He said he was guarding the front gate, but I don’t see him! Unc, can you show me him?”
“You want me to show you who?” Discord replied.
“Tacca. He was in here before. Did you see him out there before you came in?”
Discord put a claw to his chin. “Not that I remember. Just give me a moment.” In an instant, he shrank himself down to the size of an ant and strutted into Cotton’s ear.
Cotton quickly clapped a hoof on said ear. “Ah! Unc, what are you doing?”
“Ooooooooooone second…” Discord called back, his voice echoing in Cotton’s head. “Ah, there he is.” Moments later, Discord exited Cotton’s opposite ear and grew back to his normal size.
After shaking her head rapidly, Cotton pressed down on her ear with a hoof. “What the heck were you doing?”
Reclining back into the air, Discord replied, “Do you have any idea how many soldiers are in Luna’s Guard? I couldn’t possibly tell who you were talking about just by physical description alone. I had to see which one your brain was focused on.” Holding his eagle claw open in the direction of the hovering remote, the device flew back to him, and he hit a few buttons again. “And he happens to be on EBC.”
After another split second of static, the picture revealed Tacca standing in a city street, gently but firmly pushing a crying unicorn colt toward a nearby building where a pegasus mare was beckoning him to her. When the mare pulled the colt inside and locked the door, Tacca nodded, then his ears and head perked up, and in an instant of sickening vertigo, Cotton saw him on a completely different block standing behind three griffons, all holding swords and shields and skulking down the street. The griffons didn’t seem to notice his silent appearance before their swords suddenly fell to the ground, all of them dropping their shields so they could reach up to their shoulders, screaming in pain. Cotton then noticed a dagger in Tacca’s hoof. His ears and head perked up once again, and the screen showed static, as if the channel changed again. She saw him suddenly appear on another block beside a quivering earth pony mare surrounded by four griffons holding drawn swords. The griffons all flinched at his appearance, then a split second later they were all clutching their sides, shouting profanities as they dropped their swords. The stunned mare had no time to say anything before she found herself being pushed towards a nearby building.
“Damn,” Cotton said, having only watched Tacca for all of ten seconds. “I don’t think my eyes can handle much more of that.”
“Pssh,” Discord scoffed, “that bat is so oh-pee.”
Cotton let out a breath. “I dunno what you’re talking about, Unc, but I think he’ll be fine.”
“Could we see the whole thing?”
Discord and Cotton both turned and found Tasty Twist approaching them, having finished moving the cookies off the trays.
“Hm. Forgot you were there,” Discord chuckled. “What did you say?”
“Is it possible to see the whole battle at once?” Tasty Twist repeated. “Perhaps a birds-eye view?”
Cotton raised her eyebrows. “Hey, that’s a good idea. Can you do that, Unc?”
Scratching his chin, Discord answered, “Yes, I believe I can…” He opened the channel guide again, then scrolled all the way to the bottom of the listings. “Here we go, it’s one of the channels that’s actually a game: ‘Planet Equus Interactive.’” After hitting a button on the remote, the screen changed to a visual of the whole planet floating in the depths of space, slowly growing larger in order to display the ability to zoom in on specific locations.
Too slowly.
“Oh, enough.” Discord threw the remote up into the air, extending his jaw and swallowing it as it came back down. After putting his claw and paw together, he then spread them apart in midair, causing the planet on the screen to enlarge rapidly. After he swung his claw to the right, the planet spun at lightning speed, making at least twenty full rotations before it came to a screeching halt above an overhead view of Canterlot. He continued zooming in until the screen showed Canterlot Castle and its immediate surroundings with perfect accuracy. He crossed his arms and smiled. “See, this is why I splurged on the 4K.”
Cotton nodded. “Wow, that is a good view.”
“Absolutely,” Tasty Twisted added.
“Hey, I think that’s my dad over there.” Cotton pointed at a purple-and-green splotch on the upper right of the screen. “It has to be, considering the difference in size to everyone else.”
“Then given what we saw before, that must be Princess Celestia,” Twist said, pointing at a white dot beside the splotch making occasional gold flashes.
Turning to Discord, Cotton asked, “Could you zoom in again, Unc? On that spot over there?”
Pointing his arms in the direction Cotton motioned to, he pulled them apart again and caused the picture to focus in. Sure enough, they looked upon the tops of Spike’s and Celestia’s heads. With Spike’s claws lashing out in all directions and slamming his opponents away from him, and Celestia spinning her staff every which way to fend off her own foes, Cotton let out a sigh of relief. “Okay, good. They’re still doing fine.”
“Wait… That can’t be right…”
Cotton turned to Discord and asked, “What? What’s up?”
“Uh, nothing. Nothing,” he replied.
“Unc, come on.”
Shaking his head and waving his arms, Discord said, “No, no, it’s nothing interesting.”
“Uuuuunc.”
“Trust me, Cotton, you don’t want to know.”
Cotton let out a short grunt. “Well you have to tell me now.”
Discord sighed. “Alright, but I warned you.”
As Cotton cocked a brow, Discord pointed the palm of his paw at the screen and slid it to the right, causing the view of what was on the left side of the screen—where multiple individual battles were being fought between unicorns and grounded griffons—to become centered. After holding his arms up to the screen, he pulled them apart again. Zooming in on one clash in particular, they found a griffon wearing armor that covered his front and back, along with a helmet that covered his face, fighting with a unicorn. But in the process of swinging his sword, another trait stood out.
Charcoal gray plumage.
Cotton’s breath hitched in her throat as she stopped kneading, and her muzzle dropped. “No… It can’t be…” Discord crossed his arms and looked at her, nodding, but otherwise remained silent. “Why would he…?” Tears welled up in her eyes.
Discord burped out the remote to the television back into his claw. He gingerly laid it down on the counter to the side of Cotton’s work area, then vanished in a flash of light. Tasty Twist likewise backed away from her to give her space.
Cotton didn’t even notice.
“…Why?” She leaned in toward the screen, her hoof rising up to try and touch the griffon upon it. “Why would you do it, Steady? You told me you—”
She didn’t get to finish the sentence. Her train of thought was broken when the battle ended in a flash. After lifting his spear in his aura, the unicorn had managed to rip down the griffon’s breast plate with a hoof.
And then struck the griffon straight through the heart.
“NOOOOO!!”
Cotton jumped at the television with her hoof still up. It collided with the screen and cracked it, causing the visuals to turn into constant static.
She dropped down onto the counter, weeping into her forelegs as her chest lay on top of a ball of half-kneaded dough.