//------------------------------// // Angry Fever // Story: Left Behind // by The Psychopath //------------------------------// "You've cheated this city for the last time." "Pl-please! It was an honest mistake! We've all tried to hustle our way to fortune." A laugh accentuated the mood. "Yes, but I did it when I was just starting out, and I never hustled my boss or suppliers." A brown griffin with a black rear-half was sitting at the edge of one of the platforms of the city. His wings were tied up, and he was surrounded by several griffins, a minotaur, and a bipedal bird creature. Her chest feathers were pushed out and pink in colors, while the lower half changed to a dour black. The demarcation point was set by single, large feathers taking on the colors of both halves overlapping each other. Her beak was small and slender and missing a chunk on the upper area near the base of her mouth. She also possessed a stripe of white over her right eye that possessed three green iris surrounding their own pupils. They spun around on their own, generally taking the position reminiscent of a triangle. Her forehead sprouted long, giant feathers that rose high in the air. They were barely affected by gravity but still bent slightly in an arc over her head. "The way I see it, we've let you off the hook several times, and I don't feel very interested in doing that again." She smiled and pressed a scaled finger against the griffin's forehead, pushing him closer to the edge. "So, yes." She shrugged. "Guess we'll just be considering this a debt paid for your actions, eh?" A violent tremor shook the platform, making everyone lose their balance. The brown griffin lost his balance and fell off, screaming on his way down. "Boss," the minotaur called out. "Oh--!" She and the others walked towards the edge and leaned over, seeing the griffin falling to his doom. "Well, I only intended to terrify him." She grimaced and rubbed the back of her head with a rusty, dripping pipe she had knicked from the faulty pipeworks of the city. "Dang. Hard to come by griffins that stubborn and tenacious." There was a brief pause. "That's life," she stated nonchalantly. She shrugged and gestured the others to follow, keeping a slight grin on her face. "I wanna know what that explosion was. Let's go!" They rushed into the immense building, going past the pipes and giant furnaces supplying heat to the upper sections of the artificial mountains. Claws and hooves crashed into puddles of dirty, stagnant water on their way to the floors above. When finally they emerged from a pair of large doors, they crashed into a group of onlookers. The bird snapped her claws, and the immense minotaur cracked his knuckles. Everyone was shocked to see an immense, purple minotaur with a long tail of braided hair running down from the back of his head. He wore a brown leather jacket with several feathers of different colors glued seemingly randomly on it. It was no difficulty for him to grab the griffins standing in the way by their heads and launch them over his shoulder, clearing the way for the group. Eventually, they reached one of the immense windows displaying the many, many platforms interlinking every building and level. "What is going on?" the bird asked. "I only see smoke." When the debris cleared, it could be seen that several of the nearby buildings had been damaged, their surfaces charred black and stone chipped away, and a platform had collapsed, crashing into a few beneath it before stopping four levels below. "Looks like...a pony?" a griffin supposed. The bird groaned and rolled her eyes. She extended a hand down and gestured towards herself. One of her group reached into her bags and pulled out a telescope. The bird quickly stretched it out and looked down. "It's a pony fighting griffins." The crowd around her gasped and mumbled. "I've never seen this kind of pony before." Her amazement made way for great annoyance. The bird's shoulders fell in response. "Graaah...is it another tribe? How many more are going to pop up?" The minotaur grabbed his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Pretty sure that one i'n't normal. The tall one. Can't see very well." The griffins had been burnt to a crisp, and Moon's horn was glowing brightly, but the griffins weren't pulling back. They were stubborn and foolhardy, and Moon hated that. The ponies showed bravery, but quickly became reticent when she finally showed what she was capable of. Leaving their other comrades behind to sizzle. Two jumped at the alicorn from different directions. The first was squished between two walls of magic, and the other was slid under and struck in the belly with a hoof. Sunny was cowering in a ball in the middle of the platform tilting from all the debris it was sitting on. He was terrified that it was going to slide off and cause him to fall to his doom. He dared a peek between his legs to see Moon crushing the griffins ganging up on her in groups. Her coat was stained red with her own blood thanks to all the cuts the griffins had given her. Several more lay strewn about, knocked out or simply broken by the alicorn's magics and tremendous physical prowess. He watched her continue to fight as air balloons seemed to float about the distance, their wooden hulls rendered almost invisible by the deep orange of the setting sun. "What is that?" he wondered. "What is this?" a soldier shouted. He grabbed Sunny by the neck and raised him up. "A tiny, cowering pony?" He frowned and looked to the alicorn who had cast another spell that burst in the air, cutting down three more incoming griffins. He clicked his tongue. "Close combat clearly isn't going to work on these invaders." He looked towards the airships and nodded when a glint caught his eye. "I'll just get rid of you so we don't have any potential stragglers that escape. That big one is easy enough to spot as it is." Sunny tried to use his magic to knock the griffin out, but he had no training in using his magic offensively, like most unicorns. His magic balls did nothing to get through the padding of the griffin's helmet, so he did the next thing he could: Loosen the soldier's grip with his magic and scream. "Sunny?" Moon responded. She turned her head away and was met with the loud and heavy strike of a mace to her skull. "You missed her horn you idiot!" Several more soldiers moved in place to separate the two intruders of their home. Grunting, Moon focused her magic as best as she could, fighting through the ringing in her ears when a new pain went through her. She could sense the moons were doing something. The image of the most immense of the bodies pushed through the others and engulfed the mind's eye of Nightmare Moon. Her magic turned to a brief, golden caramel before reverting to its original night blue. A clawed hand grabbed onto the soldier's forearms, crunching them in its grip and freeing Sunny. From the shadows emerged a bipedal creature that looked like a mockery of griffinkind. It rose higher and higher, its three featureless eyes not breaking from the soldier's. Its beak was jagged and kept open in a smile while its tongue lolled out limply. "What is that?" the soldier whimpered. The strange shadow creature proceeded to fold him while more came out of the shadows, but they all had strange shapes as well. All were warped facsimiles of creatures found in Equestria. Horrors of illogical shapes and bodies. Multiple heads dangling from necks too long and lanky to hold in place; bodies too immense and bulky to be able to move; forms bent and twisted like they had emerged from a misshapen mirror. Pulled long and taut like they had been in a taffy puller. Squashed flat and wide as though someone pressed them with a rolling pin. Sunny hoped that the rolled up griffin was just an illusion, like the other world Nightmare Moon had concocted during the celebrations. Poking it, the pony went paler than he already was. He didn't have time to dwell on it and the smiling creature looking down at him with a widening grin and squinting eyes that another boom reached his ears. The airships had opened fire. "What? They can carry cannons?!" Sunny shouted in disbelief. The soldiers were cursing at the airships, but they were still quick to get out of the way of the incoming cannonballs. Moon did her best to defend against the warships, but in her state, it was straining. The strange shadow creatures moved in front of the cannons and fell to pieces when they had incurred too much damage. Cannons took a while to reload, so the three airships were taking several seconds to reload their weaponry. The unicorn hurried over to Moon who was having trouble standing up. She was stuck with her legs bent, trying to push herself up but failing. "I don't know how we're going to get out of here. I-I-I don't know any offensive magics!" "Tch. I thought you at least knew teleportation," Moon lamented. "But that's really hard to do! You need innate talent to teleport even a few hooves!" "What in the world are those things? I've never heard of ponies being able to create such creatures," the bipedal bird realized. The minotaur noticed that her face was pressed against the glass. She was having more fun watching everything unfold than the griffins were. "T'ain't no regular pony, tha'. Taken on the whole of the soldiers 'ere." He adjusted his bull horns. "Figure theirs more of them?" The bird shook her head. Her right eye was spinning madly. "There's nothing with that kind of power amongst the ponies. Not anymore." "Boss," one of the griffins called to her. "I think that might be an alicorn." The crew turned to look at her, but she didn't flinch. "I've read up some stories of there's while I was bored and had nothing to do. Lots of legends of 'alicorns' that existed long ago." "I've never seen anything about those things," another mocked. She was slapped across the face by the first's wing. "That's because they either never existed or were just forgotten. Don't know, but that thing fits the bill." They started counting on their talons. "Wings, a horn, really tall, has some strong magic, is very stubborn. No other tribes have those kinds of features." The bird stroked her chin, and a devious, toothy grin emerged. The others around her became perturbed. "Thinkin' you can use 'em ta get back at the thieves?" the minotaur asked her. The bird nodded in response. "Then it'd be good ta get'em outta there right quick." He leaned to the side, towering over the griffins. "Figured've'n gone crazy with the cannons. 'LL level this place real soon if they stay there, 'n the creatures're gettin' cantankerous." "Your accent is getting worse," one of the griffins whispered. She was met with a limp back-handed slap. "Signal the other groups to blind the airships," the bird ordered her griffins. "I'll get the ash bombs out." Sunny was rubbing his neck while he watched the airships shooting at the platform. The iron balls didn't seem to have any real power to them and were flying haphazardly in every direction. It was rare for any to hit Nightmare Moon's shield directly. However, the mare was at her limits. The dark creatures had dissolved, leaving them exposed to the warships. "We need to get outta here," Sunny pleaded. His words fell upon deaf ears. "Hey there, pony," a bipedal bird greeted. The pony jumped in fright. "Wait for it," she said after turning to face the cannon fire. A bright flash engulfed all three vessels, then the platform and the surrounding area were choked by a dense, black fog. "Grab the big one," she ordered the minotaur. He saluted her, lifted Moon underarm, then walked to the edge of the fragile platform. "H-hey, what are you doing?!" Sunny asked. The minotaur hopped off, plunging down below. He started to panic and struggled to get out of the grasp of the bird. "Let me go! Stop!" "Oh, don't be such a spoil-sport. You have to experience life sometimes!" Sunny's pupils shrunk when he realized where he was. He saw the bird give him a warm, comforting smile. It did everything except make him feel safe, and for good reason. "Down we go!" She hopped over the edge, laughing hysterically while Sunny screamed as loud as he ever had and covered his face. The group was eventually 'caught' in a pile of giant, blue-colored bubbles that fumbled all around them. When Sunny opened his eyes, he found himself at the end of a slide deep underground lit by oil lamps hanging on the walls. The small exit had been dug out by hand. Everything had been made with the intent of being cubical, but the best the architects could do were uneven lines and loose dirt held back a few wooden planks and sheets of metal fencing. Sunny stuck his tongue out in disgust when he realized he was covered in mud. A lot of mud. When he caught sight of Moon, he quickly hopped out, ran up the uneven slope leading out of the muddy pit and stood next to the mare. "Your highness, are you okay?" he asked. Nightmare Moon was panting heavily and looked delirious. She was sweating a lot and could barely keep her eyes open. It was no wonder the minotaur was still carrying her. "Your highness?" "Fancy language ya usin'," the bird noted. She bent over, a hand on her hip and another on her lower beak. "Lover o this pony?" she teased. "No!" Sunny shouted angrily. The bird raised her hands and backed away slowly. "So defensive." "She's suffering from poison of some kind," the minotaur interjected. He readjusted Moon so she wouldn't fall. "But she was cured of it. She healed!" "Then I guess the remnants got active again, but if she survived the first time then I suppose she might have antibodies to fight it off." "Let...go..." Moon wheezed. "I will...end you..." "Y'ain't going ta do nothin' in yer condition," the minotaur said. His face seemed twisted into a vaguely annoyed expression, but his calm voice betrayed it. "We have a proposition fer you." The bird wrung her hand together and looked at Sunny with delight. "Whadda ya say?" she asked eagerly. "Will you accept?" Her beak pursed and her eyes opened fully. "We could save her life." Sunny's eyes drifted to the bird's right. This rescuer noticed it, and her demeanor became much less kind the more the unicorn seemed to become scared. "Not for him to decide. He is my...royal servant..." The bird clicked her tongue and started walking over to the exhausted alicorn with exaggerated movements. "Oh, so we're in the presence of royalty. How quaint." She bowed. "Oh, but you're also in the presence of one." She smiled. "My name is--" "What do you want? Names after?" Moon's rescuer was taken aback. She took a moment to recuperate then stood straight and readjusted her feathers, obviously vexed that her introduction was cast aside so brazenly. "I want to know what you want first. No ponies ever come to griffin territory." "Looking for...Canterlot...Then I'll take back what is mine..." she said before passing out. The bird dropped her head in defeat and peered at the dirty unicorn from the corner of her eye. "Looks like you will be explaining things, or else we get rid of you both," she threatened.