Chapter Twenty
Siege on Canterlot
It all went straight to hell. Don't get me wrong, it was fine in the begining, but everything went south for us pretty soon. I've been separtated from the others, Shinig Armor, Sharla, Flex, the girls, Chief Thunderhoof, Swift, and Vana. Only Sharla knows where I am, and last time I saw her was when I was falling through the sky and she was covered in Lessers.
Earlier That Day
"Everyone ready?" I stare at the Canterlot castle high up on the mountain side. In a few minutes, that's where we'll be.
"They're ready." Shining Armor says confirming me.
"Alright, let's end this." I stare at the sky. "Why hasn't it changed yet?"
Shining Armor looks to the sky too. "I don't know. Maybe he wants this day to seem perfect because he expects to win." Night hasn't appeared yet. It's been day for four whole hours now, it hasn't changed.
The two of us make our way back to the army. Well what's left of it that it is. It's probably a bad idea to start without Corig and Krinox, but we need to do this now. Everyone is there, up and ready. Sharla's been fitted with green armour like the other griffins and Shining Armor's also been given new armour, basically that purple armour when we first met. Only better looking. The girls were offered armour but said they wouldn't need any, and Rarity said something about how tacky it seemed. They couldn't find armour that could properly fit me or Flora so we have to go without protection, that's fine, I move faster without it and Flora's wings are like steel, that's plenty protection.
We received word from our scouts a while back that the minotaurs and zebras were doing their job. We got them and some griffins to go ahead of us for distraction at the front entrance to Canterlot, apparently everything was going smoothly. And I didn't like that, it bothered me. This is Discord we're facing, he's unpredictable, we have no idea what he has planning. And if something is going smoothly for us, then that means he probably has a plan for himself.
What was left of the griffins were ready for us. They stood about 150-200 soldiers. This was a quick run opperastion, the less griffins the less we have to keep track of, but we do need guards for when we run into trouble. "General," Shining Armor says looking at the one eyed griffin. "It's time."
A smile creeps across his beak, I could tell that he's been itching for a fight. He addresses the other griffins. "Alright you pansy-ass chickens! We're playing escort for the moment, so guard these ponies with your lives!" A cry of cheers come from the other griffins. Shining Armour gets on Swift and they take off, it looked rather awkward for him. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack followed suite by climbing on three other griffins all wearing green armour. Flex, Flora, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy didn't need someone to get a lift from for obvious reasons. I hopped on Sharla's back, she agreed to let me ride her.
"Sis!" The sound of Sharla being called stopped us. We see Shantze, Light Flicker, and Spike running towards us. "Take us with you! We wanna help!"
"Shantze, you know how dangerous it is, I won't be able to live with myself if something were to happen to any of you. You need to stay here where it's safe." She says sternly.
"But Twilight needs me. I wasn't there when she was encased in stone, I might have been able to do something if I were there. I'm not going not to be there for her again!" Spike says determinedly.
"Sharla's right. It's going to be very dangerous and I can't guarantee that everyone will make it back, you kids don't even know how to fight."
"But-" Light begins.
"No!" I say before they could object any further. "If you kids come with us then someone will have to constantly be looking after you, and I'm afraid no one can play babysitter. Face it, you'll just slow us down and put yourselves at great risk." They couldn't argue with that, but that doesn't mean they had like it. They just looked down, averting eye contact.
Sharla gives Shantze a big meaningful hug before we left. "I'll come back, and then we'll find mom and dad. I swear." She whispers in his ear before letting go. We take off and catch up to the others, she wipes a tear from her eye before the others could see.
"What took you to so long?" Flora asked in her usual annoyed tone.
"Just saying good-bye." Sharla says quietly.
"Not good-bye," I say and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I'll be back."
"Yeah, 'I'll be back.'" She echoes it.
We fly over everything, making our way to Canterlot. "Okay, we need to find Princess Celestia and Princess Luna first. With them we may be able to figure out a way to free Twilight and defeat Discord." Shining Armor yell over the rushing wind. And under his breathe I think I heard something about Cadence. He must be really worried for her.
"So where might they be?" Flora asks.
"Um, not sure." Sharla, Dash, Applejack, and I all facepalm/hoof, I could tell that if Flex and Flora could have done it, they would have. "But I suppose the best place to start looking is the dungeon."
"And where's that?" Dash ask. He points to a large tower closest to the mountain. I look more closely and see that it has a chocolate roof. Nothing is safe from Discord's 'corruption'.
"Captain, that may take us some time." General Swift says and unsheathes a sword from his side, it was shaped like a wing, sharp edge on one side that bends sharply a third at th bottom and sharp feather looking daggers at the back. "Because we've got incoming." Jumping out from behind the walls of Canterlot were hundreds of winged Lessers. The sky darkened from their shear numbers.
"Oh boy." Sharla and I ready our weapons Flora looks eager and Flex looks like he's leaving a trail of smoke, Shining Armor readies his horn with magic for a spell.
"Alright you chickens, keep in tight formation and protect those five ponies with your lives! It's vital that they make it!" The genral says to his soldiers.
"Shining Armor, do you have a spell that could amplify someone else's attack?" I ask him thinking of a way to get though them.
"Depends, what do have in mind?" He calls back. I light Silver Fang and give him a confident smirk. He quickly catches on and his horn glows brightly as he puts a full force of concentration into his spell. A surge of magic hits Sliver Fang, I can feel a huge amount of magic build inside. I swing it as hard as I can, putting a lot of force into it, it felt like it weighed fifty times heavier. I send two gigantic waves of fire at the Lessers. If those things didn't disappear the moment they die then the term 'it's raining cats and dogs' would be changed to 'it's a deluge of burned corpses!' I took out a lot of them, too bad it wasn't enough to even the odds There's still so many. And it looks like that amplify spell was a one-shot, I could feel the magic leave as soon as it was spent, not going to get that back.
"So what now?" Applejack asks holding her hat firmly with one hoof and the other on the griffin giving her a ride.
"That's an easy one girl." Swift says with a gleeful smile." We punch a hole right through them! Captain, you have anymore magic left?"
"Yeah, you have a plan sir?" He asks rubbing his head.
"That I do. Spear formation! Keep in close or get left behind!" On his command the other griffins flew in closer to him and formed an arrow. The riders for the girls were at the front behind the general. Flora, Flex, Sharla and I formed in along. "Captain, on my mark through a shield around us, and make it like a spear, built to withstand and puncture."
"Ugh, yeah right." I notice that he's not looking to good. I think he put a lot of effort into that power boost for me.
"He's not planning what I think he is, is he?" Rarity asks no one in particular.
"This is gonna suck." I murmur under my breathe as I re-sheathe Silver Fang and hold on tighter to Sharla.
"Hold," the general calls as our two forces come closer.
"Hold," Closer.
"Hold!" this is getting too close. I can see the first batch of them, they look pretty ugly. And something about their gestures makes me think that they're ready to rip our eyes out and feast on them while dancing the macarena.
"Now!" On his command Shining Armor put up his shield. It was cone shaped, designed to puncture through any obstacle in our way. Which is just what it does. We fly through the lot of them, a thick wall of Lessers blocked our way, but like an arrow we soared through the air with no trouble getting through to the other side. Well almost. I glance back as we exited the wall and notice that a couple of griffins didn't make it into the shield, they were left behind to fend for themselves. Poor bastards.
The shield begins to waver like a light desperately trying to stay lit. "Captain, what's happening?" I call ahead to the white unicorn.
"I don't think I can hold it, amplify spells aren't my specialty and I put a lot of concentration into yours. I'm doing the best I can to keep it up."
"Well you'll have to keep trying, 'cause we're not out of the worst of it." General Swift points ahead, my heart sinks. There was a second wave of Lessers, and we didn't even defeat the first. We're surrounded, outnumbered, and the moment that shield goes down we're screwed. I grab my sword again, ready for the shield to fall at any moment. Shining Armor is struggling with all his might to keep it up, it looks like he's going to burst a vein if he keeps struggling. We begin piercing through the second, larger wall. Every time one of them hits the shield everything jostles around like a plane is experiencing turbulence. They're really trying to stop us.
"I don't think I can keep doing this!" Shining Armor yells as sweat rolls down his brow.
"Just a little more! We're almost there!" The general calls out. There's hundreds of them, too many for all of us of take.
"Jesse," Sharla says quietly, "We're going to make it out of here? Right?" I don't have an answer for her. I'm not one to give up so easily, but even I know when our chances of survival are slim.
"AAAH!" Shining Armor yells in pain and the shield around us bursts. The entire swarm of Lessers charge us from all directions.
"Divisions three and four, have your fun." On his command, two groups of griffins broke from formation and started wreaking havoc on the Lessers with axes, swords, spears, arrows, claws and beaks. I could tell that they were loving this. "Division two, give us an opening." A third group shot ahead of us taking care of as many Lessers in there way. "Divisions one and five, keep on track and protect these ponies." Despite the hundreds of shrieks and rushing wind we could hear the veteran griffin clearly as the sun is bright.
We fought with everything in our power, our ferocity, determination, and resolution kept us strong. We hacked and slashed and yelled and cut and fought. God how we fought. Sharla and I made a formidable team, nothing survived if it came into cutting distance of us, or burning distance, or even a distance of any measure. We just fought our way through. I was actually enjoying myself a little.
Something hits our blind spot and I get tackled off Sharla. "Jesse!" She calls as I and the Lesser that tackled me fall tangled together. Thanks to my added weight it was unable to sustain flight.The Lesser had a crocodile body, the hind legs of an webbed-footed bird and a grasshopper, his left arm was matched to his body but his right was a bear's, and had wings from two different birds. It had a chimp's head and shriek menacingly in my face.
Sharla abandons her post and dives for me, but she was blocked by seven other Lessers. Don't think help's coming for me soon enough. It swipes Silver Fang out of my hand and I watch as the blade falls, the light reflecting off its surface as it twists in the right angel catching the sun's rays. I hold on to his bear arm with both hands, he tries shaking me loose but to no avail. With one free hand I reach for my knife still strapped to my side and stab his arm. He lets out a cry of agony and flings me off of him, my knife still in my hand. I straighten myself out as I fall, letting my body face parallel to the ground creating as much drag as I possibly could. All around me griffins and Lesser fought with their lives and for their lives. I spot a Lesser with the body of a hippo flying under me and a crazy notion snakes its way into my mind. I fold my arms to my side and dive, losing all my drag and dive-bomb the targeted Lesser. I hit right on target, and thank God for that because he was one of the Lessers near the bottom of the sea of winged monsters. I stab where I believe the left supracoracoideus is, the muscle that lifts the wing up. I struck in the right spot, its left wing began to flap around uncontrollably and the two of us began to fall with me on top. I embed my knife in his body again to gain a grip. By the way, this all happened in the short timespan of about fifteen seconds since I was tackled off Sharla.
I see a forest getting ever closer to us, I just pray that this plan will work, otherwise I'm about to become a pancake. The Lesser keeps struggling to try and shake me off but he just doesn't have the strength. I brace myself before we crash though the trees, destroying every branch on the way down. I'm bucked off the Lesser from the shockwave of him hitting the ground and I land off him hard on the ground.
I pick my sore and almost-dead body off the gound, hurting everywhere. And that's a good sign, if I'm in pain then I have feeling, if I have feeling then I'm alive. I just fell an equivalent or greater amount of height to that of Mt. Everest and I survived it. Hot damn!
I pick up my knife from where the hippo Lesser was before it disappeared into chaos smoke and drifted away. A growl forces me to turn around, out of the shadows appeared four Lessers. I knew that this was going to be a long day, but I think this just made it seem a whole lot longer.
The first Lesser charges at me, a simple three piece creature, tail of a leopard, body and head of a great dane, and left front leg of an insect. Despite the off-leg it was able to charge at me just fine. It opens its mouth wide, ready to bite down. I swing my leg up and slam it down on its head, driving its face into the ground. I make quick work at finishing it off by driving the knife into his neck and twisting the blade. It disappears almost instantly. The second Lesser didn't waste any time at going for me.
Its front legs were actually octopui tentacles and the hind ones were a webbed bird and lizard's, the body was giraffe's while the head was a brown trout. It honestly didn't look that menacing. Until it wrapped one tentacle around my neck, strangling me and slithered behind me with its second tentacle wrapped firmly around my left arm. I stab at the tentacle around my neck, stupid idea I know, but it was either possibly stab yourself or get strangled to death by tentacles. Tough choice.
Unfortuneatly, my free arm stopped short and a fierce pain shot through it. A badger headed Lesser had its jaw clamped tightly around it. Must have been right behind the fish one, I never saw it come at me. The tentacle around my neck loosened a little, just enough for me to breath propperly. And up walked the most intimidating and fierce one of the small band. It stood erect and walked on one rhino leg and an ape leg, bipedal style. The body was a tiger with a massive lion paw and a possibly worse lobster claw. But the worst part about it was probably the king cobra head, long neck and all.
I suppose this means I'm royaly screwed. Least I can go out with a pun. So is this how I'm going to die? In Equestria? By draconequui? Unable to help save Equestria? Not able to say good-bye to the friends I made? What will happen to me? Will I actually die, or get sent back home? Will my body be found?
The cobra Lesser raises its massive lion paw, claws glinting off the edge. For once in my life, I actually feel fear. I close my eyes, waiting for the inevitable. But instead the cobra hisses in pain, I open one eye slowly and see an arrow imbedded in his paw. What? Suddenly three more arrows fly out from the shadows, each hitting the Lessers in their heads, right to the brain. Someone's got accuarcy. The Lessers disappears into smoke and I massage the tender part of my throat.
"Sharla? Shining Armor, is that you?" I ask with my voice raspy. I hear hoof beats, a steady four trot, whoever it was that just saved my life is probably a pony. If it's a pony then it's probably a unicorn, ponies can't opporate a bow because of obvious reasons unless they use magic.
"My, my." A woman's voice comes from the direction of the trotting, no one I know then. "I knew instantly from the chaos that it was Discord again, but I never expected him to bring a human home." Out from the shadows was a mare, no, a mare isn't what she was. A woman. A half-human half-horse. She was a centaur. She had red flowing hair, tanned skin, and a pure white coat, she wasn't muscluar, but she was well formed. Strong arms and abs, a figure most women would kill for, you know, minus the horse half. In one hand was a bow and a quiver full of arrows on her back. Her expression wasn't smug, but more more like it was noble and confident, always keeping her head held high. She wore a tight brow vest, revealing her mid section. I'm not ashamed to say it, but I couldn't help but keep staring at her figure. Hey, give me a break, she was hot. And what's more, she had a cutie mark! Two golden tipped arrows making an X with the yin-yang sign behind it.
"Well? Something wrong child? Never seen a centaur before?" She asks playfully.
I snap back to attention. "As a matter of fact. No, I haven't. But you don't seem to phased by me."
"And why should I be? I know of your species."
"That's the thing, you know of me. I know that you know what a human is, but you've never seen any other other than Mother. I'm just more surprised that you're not surprised as to what I am. Your siblings Balto and Nosferatu were." I mention Mother and her likely brothers.
"You know of Mother? And you have met my brothers, tell me, how are they doing?"
"Dead, I'm afraid."
"Oh? And how did they come by their demise?" She asked not looking too saddened by this bit of news.
"I'm afraid I killed the vampire myself. You can call it murder if you'd like, but I saw it justice. He killed an entire village and turned them into his familliars. As for Balto, he was killed by phoenix fire, and I'm sure you're aware that fire and tree bark don't mix well together." I lay the cards flat on the table, let's see how she reacts.
"Really? Well I'd be a liar if I say that it didn't bother me to know that my brother were killed. But Nosferatu was alwats a troubled one, but I rather liked spending time with Balto, he had such humor." Humor? The were-wolf? Well if what I experienced was his humor, then I'd hate to have seen his rage. "And I suppose you know of Mother from them too right, and what happened to her?" I nod my head. "Good, anyway, why's Discord back?"
"I'll explain on the way. But right now we have to get to Canterlot. Celestia and Luna are needed."
"Celestia? What happend to her? Is she okay?" The centaur asks frantically.
"I'm not sure, but it can't be too good. But there's a good chance that they're fine, we're off to save them, reform the Elements of Harmony, and defeat Discord. I trust that you're in?"
"If Celestia's in danger and Discord's on the loose, then you can count on me to be there."
"Good, name's Jesse by the way."
"Chex." She extends a hand out and I shake it. "You're not looking too good. Climb on, I'll give you a lift." I get on her back, the only place to keep a firm hold on her to not fall off was her waist. "Easy there hot shot. You'll have to buy me dinner first." He winks and gives a playful smile. I know it's just a joke, but I couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed.